Omnivoracious

Omni Daily Crush: "Young Men and Fire"

"When it comes to racing with death, all men are not created equal."

On August 5, 1949, a team of young, tough, and apparently (if not actually) fearless firefighters called the Smokejumpers parachuted into what seemed a minor lightning-struck wildfire in Mann Gulch, an arid ravine on the Missouri River, just north of Missoula, Montana. Sixteen men leapt from the plane, but within an hour all but three were dead or dying, overrun by a "blowup," a nearly instantaneous fireball that scorched the valley to its head.

Young Men and Fire is Norman Maclean's meticulously researched recreation of the tragic events--and a gracious homage to the men who perished and those who helped--told in language as pragmatic and awe-inspiring as the Big Sky country it represents. The story deserves as much, and Maclean's direct approach delivers.

Ok, so I know I'm late to this party; as a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, it's not exactly a secret. I've been meaning to pick up Maclean's book for about 15 years, and decided that it was the perfect time to give it whirl (while I wait for a copy of Timothy Egan's The Big Burn). Why did I wait so long?* This is simply one of the best pieces of nonfiction that I've read--a essential American book--and my book of the year, if the year happens to be 1992. Better late than never.

--Jon

Recommended for fans of The Worst Hard Time and A River Runs Through It.

* Apart from the obvious answer: I am an idiot.

Best Books of April: "Vanished Smile"

Now that my glory hound colleague Dave Callanan has stolen all of the glory from April's Best Books of the Month by leading off with his pick, The Day We Lost the H-Bomb, I'll throw in with my own selection: R.A.Scotti's Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of the Mona Lisa.

Who knew? In 1911, someone plucked the inscrutable donna from the Louvre, sending France into spasms of grief and into the venerable museum to mourn before an empty space on the wall. The prime suspects? Naturally, a pair of art geeks: notorious hellion (and cross-century rival to the Italian master) Pablo Picasso and his contemporary, avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Whoever gave Mona Lisa the highway blues remains a mystery--the case was never solved, though she was recovered on a tip signed "Leonardo"--but on top of an engaging account of the investigation, Scotti treats readers to a tour of turn-of-the-century Paris, the birth of modern forensics, and a biography of the enigmatic painting itself.

Vanished Smile will appeal to fans of other brisk histories of oddball topics such as The Lost City of Z, Stealing Lincoln's Body, and the lamentably out-of-print Drawn to Trouble: The Confessions of a Master Forger. And while we're at it (in a blatant stunt for page views), maybe even The Da Vinci Code.

--Jon

Best 2008 Debut from a 53-Year-Old Author

December's closing in, and in that pre-Thanksgiving welling of Auld Lang Syne spirit, I wanted to take another look at what was probably my favorite book of the year, Knockemstiff. In the cloud of Amazon's top 100 picks of 2008, Donald Ray Pollock's debut collection dropped in at #21, which is probably reasonable placement for a book that compelled me to write:

Donald Ray Pollock ... populates his own Knockemstiff with living revenants: huffers, murderers, sex fiends, and their hapless (though not innocent) victims, all tethered to the woebegone "holler" by their own self-inflicted shortcomings and depravities. Pollock pulls no punches--his prose is blunt and visceral, as well as stylish and skilled--and reading these mini grand guignols can be like crunching on a mouthful of your own broken teeth.

Goodness gracious. But I stand by that--I actually really like it--even if it did draw some puckered expressions from my coworkers. In any case, Pollock's is a brilliant debut; it just might not be for everybody. The real gobsmacker was learning that Pollock hails from a real place called Knockemstiff, Ohio, and while his characterizations are clearly embellished, it's a fascinating crossroads. Information about the real burg is hard to come by, but here's a picture from the spare and weird-yet-somewhat-compelling Ghost Towns of Ohio web site:

 

And for a better sense of its origins:

How did Knockemstiff get its awesome name? There are a few stories. The most common is that there was a big brawl in the town tavern. Another tells of a woman who asked a preacher how she could get her cheating husband to stay home. "Knockemstiff," the preacher replied.

A few of us at Amazon had the opportunity to talk with Pollock over lunch, and thankfully, he was not nearly as depraved as his cast of reprobates. Before he quit his life in the factories in the towns near Knockemstiff, he hadn't held any obsessive pretensions about writing a novel or spent a lifetime spinning marginal prose--he just decided that it was something he might be able to do, and at the age of 45, he decided he had better act fast. Can't wait for the next one.

For more in this vein, you may want to go back to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, another collection of private shame and despair, and Knockemstiff's obvious literary ancestor. What's going on in Ohio?

--Jon

Best Outdoors & Nature Books of 2008

Choosing the Outdoors & Nature list is one of my favorite tasks of the year (see autobiographical note about liking books about bears)--and it's especially good for me that no other editor here likes sleeping in the woods, so no one else wants to do it. As the category goes, this list is an unruly hodgepodge of natural history and outdoor adventure, and my top pick follows form: Steven Rinella's American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon will please Krakauer addicts (Krak-heads?) as well as readers of singular species-bios such as Cod (to further abuse an obvious analogy). With a spare style appropriate to the rigors of the Alaskan wilderness (where much of the action occurs), Rinella wraps the narrative of his own buffalo hunt around the story of bison bison in North America, from its journey across the Bering land bridge and encounters with Native Americans to its near extinction and unlikely recovery. Engrossing, informative, and funny, American Buffalo may be coming late in the year (it's available December 2), but it was worth the wait, and certainly deserving of the top slot.

A couple of honorable mentions. As usual--especially since I am strictly limited to 10 titles by the unforgiving laws of list-making--a couple of titles missed the list, either through the arduous process of elimination or simple memory lapse. Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mt. Everest is Lincoln Hall's account of his near-fatal attempt at the world's tallest mountain--he summited successfully, but was left for dead overnight on the North Ridge when he succumbed to altitude sickness and became unresponsive, even to jabs in the eye. The book veers into metaphysical aspects of his crisis more than I cared for, but Hall's description of the minutiae of the route is pure dexamethasone to the armchair alpinist. And of The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature, our own Lauren Nemroff says, "At first glance, a book of essays on this enormously popular pastime might appear to be as boring as a pigeon loitering on a sidewalk. But rest assured, Rosen's account of birdwatching today and throughout U.S. history is as exciting and moving as a soaring bald eagle."

Without further ado, the full list:

1. American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon, Steven Rinella
2. Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska, Seth Kantner
3. Forget Me Not: A Memoir, Jennifer Lowe-Anker
4. Fool's Paradise, John Gierach
5. Egg & Nest, Rosamond Purcell
6. The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird, Bruce Barcott
7. Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, Maurice Isserman
8. Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl, Stacey O'Brien
9. Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures, Bill Schutt
10. The American West at Risk: Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and Recovery, Howard Wilshire

And the bestsellers:            

1. Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming, Fred Krupp
2. Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl, Stacey O'Brien
3. The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About--Because They Helped Cause Them, Iain Murray
4. The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern and Central North America, Donald Kroodsma
5. The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, Brian Fagan
6. The Life of the Skies, Jonathan Rosen
7. High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed, Michael Kodas
8. Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, Mark Lynas
9. Fool's Paradise, John Gierach
10. Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Ted Floyd

See more in the Best of 2008 Store.

--Jon

Best Business & Investing Titles of 2008

We continue our rundown of our Best Books of 2008 with a look at the top titles in Business & Investing.

In a year marked by markets in free-fall, record home foreclosures, and epic bank failures (surely the subjects of some of 2009's list), the publishing event of the year was The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Buffett allowed author Alice Schroeder unprecedented access to his family, associates, records, and himself, and at 900+ pages, this surely qualifies as the definitive tome of the "Oracle of Omaha's" life and times. Get to know him--the man who was the richest in the world in 2008 may be casting a long and distinguished shadow over the financial policies of the incoming administration.

And sure, this list is called "Business & Investing," but you might notice a dearth of investing titles on either our list or our customers'. So have recent events have resulted in fewer potential investors withholding their money from the markets, or are investing books published prior to the credit crisis rendered instantly outdated? Let's hope 2009 sees a resurgence in the personal investing titles.

There is also an emerging category that somewhat tangential to Business & Investing but obviously critical to those who want to understand their business, and specifically their customers. Grandfathered by Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (first published in 1841), resuscitated by Paco Underhill's Why We Buy, and exploded by Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point, these books adopt scientific, statistical, and sociological methods in investigating human (i.e. consumer) behavior. 2008 saw several interesting additions to this collection (including our customers' #1 selection): Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, and Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Below I've added a list including similar titles that didn't make either Top Ten.

More in the Best Books of 2008 Store.

--Jon

Editors' Top Ten Picks in Business & Investing

1. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
2. A Sense of Urgency
3. The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It
4. The Momentum Effect: How to Ignite Exceptional Growth
5. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
6. The Gone Fishin' Portfolio: Get Wise, Get Wealthy...and Get on With Your Life (Agora Series)
7. The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By
8. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies  
9. The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite
10. Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

Customers' Top Ten Picks in Business & Investing

1. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
2. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
3. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)
4. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
5. The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means
6. Economic Facts and Fallacies
7. Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
8. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
9. The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
10. Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier

Nine Books About Why We Act This Way, in No Certain Order   

• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
• Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
• The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
• The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
• Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do
• Outliers: The Story of Success
• Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy
• Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

 

Gather Near, Children, and I Will Tell You a Story

It is the story of dragons and demon-lovers, of werewolves  and Walpurgisnacht, of unlikely umlauts and the power of power chords. It is the story of Metal. 

For All Known Metal Bands (the latest triumph in design from McSweeney's), Dan Nelson has descended into the Metal underworld to single-handedly collect the names of nearly 51,000 bands, presenting his research in silver ink on black paper--a treatment sometimes difficult to read in natural light, but one that will glow evilly in the black light of a sunless, suburban bedroom. Cloaked in its Necronomicoid binding, AKMB seethes with ancient magic: a volume which may have been “unearthed from a tomb … or from a metal box submerged in desiccated mud.”

Open it at your peril, gentle reader.

All Known Metal Bands lists these groups of “Ur-men” in alphabetical order, without comment, and repeats the names in the case more than one band shared the name.  From the heroes of Viking Metal (Thor, Thor’s Hammer, Thorr’s Hammer) to Gothic Metal (Black Wytche, Black Witchcraft Savagery, Black Wolf Sacrifice) and beyond, Nelson has assured “those whose ears are never touched by songs of love and weakness” permanent placement in the record of their cülture, and perhaps more importantly, oürs. More of the immortals: 

• Ultra Vomit (2 entries)
• Dark Morbid Death
• Guardians of Profane Secrets
• Lord Goatwarr
• Lucifer in Love
• Ulan Bator (?)
• Violent Marv
• Leatherwolf
• Lazarus Sin
  
• Necrolust (6 entries, included in nearly two pages of Necro/Nekro variants) 

AKMB  serves as an impressive and indispensable tribute to the “quarter of a million humans have undertaken this quest—to unearth, embody, aim, and deliver power itself.” Amen and T.G.I.F., my Metal brothers and sisters. --Jon

Win a Weekend with J.K. Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard"

Calling all Harry Potter fans!
Want to get your (gloved) hands on J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard? Amazon.com wants to send you and a friend to London, England to spend a weekend with the rare and delightful book of fairy tales (security guards included, of course), handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling herself. Open to muggles ages 13 and older in 24 countries, the Beedle the Bard Ballad Writing Contest challenges you to creatively answer one of the following three questions in 100 words or less:

• What songs do wizards use to celebrate birthdays?
• What sports do wizards play besides Quidditch?
• What have you learned from the Harry Potter series that you use in everyday life?

An Amazon.com committee will select 10 semi-finalist submissions (based on creativity and writing style) from each of two age categories: 13-17 and 18-and-over. Amazon.com customers will determine the two finalists and Grand Prize winner by voting for their favorites. But hurry--submissions will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. PDT April 22, 2008. 

If you haven’t already, take a look at The Tales of Beedle the Bard:

(BRIS-ing-gr)

Dragon-lovin' Christopher Paolini fans rejoice today with the announcement of the title and jacket art for the next book his bestselling Inheritance series. Brisingr (an Old Norse word for fire) was originally meant to be the final book of a trilogy, before Paolini's vision outgrew the limitations of three volumes; Inheritance is now a "cycle," with the promise of (at least) a fourth book at a future date (see Paolini describing the evolution of the series here). According to the author:

Brisingr is one of the first words I thought of for this title, and it’s always felt right to me ... As the first ancient-language word that Eragon learns, it has held particular significance for his legacy as a Dragon Rider. In this new book, it will be revealed to be even more meaningful than even Eragon could have known.

Random House also announced a change in publication date--originally scheduled for September 23, 2008, the book will be moved up to 12:01 a.m. on September 20. Brisingr follows Eragon and Eldest, which have combined for sales of over 12.5 million copies worldwide. --Jon

Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919-2008

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to stand atop Mt. Everest (along with climbing partner Tenzing Norgay), died January 10 at the age of 88. Hillary, a  tall, gangly New Zealander, made his pioneering ascent on May 29, 1953 as part of a British expedition to the world's tallest peak--four days before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Despite his instant fame and empire-wide hero status, Hillary steadfastly maintained a humble attitude toward his achievement; until Tenzing's death in 1986, Hillary refused to acknowledge that it was he--and not Tenzing--who first reached the top, a sign of ultimate respect for his friend. As he later wrote in View from the Summit:

We drew closer together as Tenzing brought in the slack on the rope. I continued cutting a line of steps upwards. Next moment I had moved onto a flattish exposed area of snow with nothing by space in every direction ... Tenzing quickly joined me and we looked round in wonder. To our immense satisfaction we realized with had reached the top of the world.

In the decades since, Hillary had devoted himself to founding schools and hospitals in Tenzing's native Nepal, a pursuit that given him more pride than climbing the mountain itself.  Today the world lost a man whose stature rivaled that of the world's tallest--and before Hillary, indomitable--peak. --Jon