All Consuming : Dervala

A story about "The Key to My Neighbor's House: Seeking Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:10 GMT

The Key to My Neighbor's House: Seeking Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda

by Elizabeth Neuffer

At the back of , Brooklyn Superhero Supplies, there was a book sale to raise money for an after-school writing program. I bought this to help them out, and got my karma reward when it turned out to be a detailed account of the work my best friend’s tiny non-profit organization did in Srebrenica. Physicians for Human Rights spent several years collecting forensic evidence from the mass graves so that each case could be prosecuted as a murder—and so that families could reclaim their dead kin.

Neuffer, a Boston Globe journalist, does a great job of explaining why justice matters after a genocide, why people shouldn’t just “move on”. She also explains how recent attempts to deliver that justice have been so ham-fisted.

A great follow-up to Samantha Power’s “A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide”.

UPDATE: Caitriona tells me that Neuffer was killed in a car accident in Iraq in April 2003. She and her husband Dan remember Neuffer from their Bosnia days as a kind, warm person, unusual for a war reporter. I’d like to have met her.

A story about "How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:09 GMT

How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel

by Alain De Botton

De Botton is such a girly swot. His books have a lazy appeal, but as soon as I finish one I need to turn to some virile woodsman who lives a life outside books—Ed Abbey, say, or even David Quammen.

A story about "Division Street: America"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:09 GMT

Division Street: America

by Studs Terkel

Terkel is one of the reasons I’ve gone off novels recently. It’s hard for someone whose job it is to sit alone with his thoughts in a room to make characters as vibrant as real people—and most of the contemporary novels I’ve picked up in the last few years seem too self-absorbed to even try. So I’ll turn to Studs to paint a picture of a city through its people. What a fine occupation. Go Studs!

A story about "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:04 GMT

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

by Azar Nafisi

Great subject matter, and it centers around two of my all-time favorite novels-Lolita and The Great Gatsby. But Nafisi’s own prose put me off. She’s addicted to adverbs, and her students never came to life through her romance-novel descriptions. I’m sure she’s a wonderful teacher, though-she made me want to re-read all the books she taught.

A story about "Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:03 GMT

Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow

by Judith Viorst

I found this on the street in Brooklyn a few years ago and thought it was about bereavement. It’s not. It’s about losses of all kinds, from Oedipal triangles to death.

I enjoyed it, though parts seem dated (it was written in the Reagan era.) Viorst’s women are long-suffering, passive creatures, who put up with disregard and infidelity from their men. I wonder what she makes of my generation, where the women keep demanding more than the baffled, gentle sons of feminism can give?

A story about "Ulysses (Vintage International)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:03 GMT

Ulysses (Vintage International)

by James Joyce

I was far too lazy and easily-intimidated to read this when it was assigned to me in college-~~Joyce’s own UCD~~-ten years ago. I wouldn’t have liked it then anyway. But it’s fabulous stuff, and much easier than I’d thought. The Nora biography helped.

A story about "Dispatches"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:02 GMT

Dispatches

by Michael Herr

V.g., if you can stand the late Sixties New Journalism style.

A story about "The Perfect Store: Inside eBay"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:01 GMT

The Perfect Store: Inside eBay

by Adam Cohen

Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder, is on the board of my company, and turns out to be just the kind of thoughtful, modest billionaire you’d want next-door. Pierre, I think, would shovel snow from his sidewalk, and later go door-to-door to get the block association to sponsor stem-cell research. This book shows how the philosophy behind his early decisions shaped the company so strongly. Some fundamental Omidyar assumptions, which were not obvious to all at the time he started out:
People are basically good.
People are generally capable of working out disputes without god-like intervention.
Reputation is worth something in itself.
Transparency helps a system regulate itself.
People value what they pay for more than stuff that comes for free.

Come to think of it, these notions share something with the constitution-hashing I’m reading about in Alistair Cooke’s book.

A story about "The Perfect Store: Inside eBay"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:01 GMT

The Perfect Store: Inside eBay

by Adam Cohen

Is this stuff as fascinating to someone who hasn’t been through the startup world? I’m a sucker for little company stories, whether they make it or not. This one I read it over a couple of evenings. Part of the fun was a villain of the piece was Jerry Kaplan, himself author of the classic baby company story Startup. And another part was reading it the week after I sat in a board meeting with the eBay founder, a director of my company. I was glad this hadn’t shaped my opinion in advance, and more glad to find that the self-effacing good guy of this book is real.

A story about "Classic Conran: Plain, Simple and Satisfying Food"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:00 GMT

Classic Conran: Plain, Simple and Satisfying Food

by Terence Conran

Autumn makes me feel domestic, and I’m glad to find that living alone hasn’t dampened my appetite for baking bread or braising oxtail (though I did manage to leave the latter in the oven for 12 hours—oops.)

So I’ve taken to reading my cookbooks over breakfast. This one I picked up at a stoop sale over the summer. For some reason, I can only get into British cookery writers—the American classics just don’t do it for me.

A story about "Dynamics of Software Development"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:31:00 GMT

Dynamics of Software Development

by Jim McCarthy

More business trip reading from the ENTJs over at Microsoft.

A story about "A Mighty Heart"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:59 GMT

A Mighty Heart

by Mariane Pearl

Marianne Pearl is the widow of Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded in Pakistan in 2002. She’s an extraordinary woman, and their’s was a great love story.

A story about "Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd Ed."

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:59 GMT

Peopleware : Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd Ed.

by Tom Demarco

I dug this one out after a project that left me feeling burned out and grumpy after just six months back in the workforce. Soothing proof that there is a better way, and we can build it. The best book on helping people do their jobs that I’ve found, with the bonus that the authors are Christopher Alexander fans.

A story about "Granta 77: What We Think of America"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:58 GMT

Granta 77: What We Think of America

A good question to ask this week. This Granta came out after September 11th. We’re still asking ourselves, three years on.

A story about "What Should I Do with My Life? : The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:58 GMT

What Should I Do with My Life? : The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question

by Po Bronson

I avoided this one for ages, even though I bought it as a gift for someone a year ago. Po Bronson seemed cocky to me, and I’m jealous of his dynamism.

I finally gave in when I found a half-price copy in the Strand. And I read it in a weekend. Went down to DC to visit my best pal, and found both her and her husband engrossed in it, fighting over their single copy.

Bronson inserts himself into the stories a little more than I’d like—he thinks he’s become a great therapist, but comes across as a bit of a steamroller. But age and hard knocks have mellowed him and he’s always an appealing storyteller. The book is inspiring. In tribute, Cait, Dan and I visited CakeLove, the DC bakery heavily featured in one chapter. It had all the signs of a lived-out dream.

A story about "A Bend in the River (Vintage International)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:57 GMT

A Bend in the River (Vintage International)

by V.S. Naipaul

It’s about a Arab-African living through the turbulent post-independence period in an unnamed republic. I’d never read any Naipaul before, but wow. If a sentence doesn’t dazzle, you get the strong sense it’s because he’s chosen to restrain himself. In fact, my only niggle is, would the man who is telling the story in the first person be capable of such a gorgeous, masterly rendition?

A story about "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:56 GMT

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

by Philip Gourevitch

A present from Caitriona, for what she ruefully calls our genocide shelf. Gourevitch is a marvellous writer.

A story about "On Broken Glass: Loving and Losing John Gardner"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:54 GMT

On Broken Glass: Loving and Losing John Gardner

by Susan Thornton

I got a present of John Gardner’s On Becoming a Novelist, and though I’m not becoming a novelist any time soon it’s the best book of writing instruction I’ve read.
Gardner was a gifted teacher and novelist, and also a womanizing alcoholic. (“The number one occupational hazard for writers,” he said.) In the early eighties he left his poet wife for Susan Thornton-~~another writer~~-and they planned to get married. Four days before the wedding, after months of drinking and playing the two women off against one another, he died in a motorcycle accident.
The book is an interesting look at the bizarre and sweaty world of writers’ conferences (in this case, Bread Loaf) and writing programs. What a fabulous teacher he must have been—and rather Susan Thornton than me.

A story about "Waxwings : A novel"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:51 GMT

Waxwings : A novel

by JONATHAN RABAN

Raban is an expat Englishman, pushing 60, but he’s the living writer I most identify with. This is the first novel of his I’ve read. His travel books (and I hate that genre ghetto: the best novels are travel books) are superb. His observations on America, in particular, are deep, sharp, and loving. Unlike many of his compatriots, when it comes to the USA he’s neither patronizing nor overawed by glitz, and he takes the trouble to learn.

A story about "Appetite"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:50 GMT

Appetite

by Nigel Slater

I’ve never managed to love an American cook book. My next-door neighbor, who photographs and styles cookbooks, agrees with me that the Brits and Australians have a more fun, stylish approach to the field (which is hard to understand.)
I’ve been following Nigel Slater since he did Marie Claire’s food writing in the early 1990s. He’s come into his own voice, and if he’s getting a little flouncy on the proclamations (along the lines of “Only sad people make their own grissini…it’s sad and pretentious to serve pretty restaurant food instead of gloppy stews at home…”), he’s still entertaining and down-to-earth. Good breakfast table reading.

A story about "Fifteen Things Charles & Ray Teach Us"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Dervala) — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 14:30:49 GMT

Fifteen Things Charles & Ray Teach Us

“An essay about the DESIGNING DUO [the Eameses] that changed how we look at the world.” My kind of self-help.