Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History
Ben Mezrich
I’m tempted to add a new category for books called “what the hell were you thinking?” Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires (later made into the movie The Social Network) never seems to come close to answering this question. Sex on the Moon chronicles the brief rise and spectacular fall of Thad Roberts. Within a few short years of being thrown out of his crushing Mormon family, Roberts finds himself working at NASA. Driven by an immense desire to be an astronaut, Roberts flies through a triple major, extra-curricular groups and anything else he can do to increase his changes of someday walking on Mars. He is rewarded with an internship-type position at NASA. Then, mysteriously and so very close to a full-time...
Malled
Caitlin Kelly
Caitlin Kelly’s tell-all working retail behind the cash register is both shocking and unsurprising. Everyone knows that retail is a dead-end and most would work almost anywhere else. However, the total blind-eye that management and the average shopper turns to those working sales is both a sad, sickening and clearly why companies still continue to make massive profits. Despite often being the only contact a shopper may have with a company, these poorly paid peons have to know products (often with no training), clean the store, stock, ring up sales and returns and a myriad of other exhausting tasks, all with a required smile. Kelly does her research well and, in addition to her own battle stories, talks about retail work and workers in...
Halfway to Hollywood: Diaries 1980 – 1988
Michael Palin
The second installment of the diaries of actor and writer Michael Palin is an excellent continuation of Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years. Palin continues to chronicle both the successes and failures of himself and his Python cohort, but also his own family’s growth, his wonderful spunky mother and the sad decline of his sister into depression. Like diarist Sir Samuel Pepys (1633 –1703) his own personal comments show Palin to be a warm, caring, colorful and brilliant man. In addition, those of us who enjoy nosing around the backstage of life will enjoy descriptions of the humdrum and everyday workings of the rich and famous. The end product of a movie, play or book may seem effortless but the energy and work going on behind the...
Catch Me If You Can
Frank W. Abagnale
The movie version of Catch Me If You Can is exciting and fast-paced, with plenty of Hollywood glitz that adds a glossy veneer, making many of Frank Abagnale’s exploits seem fake and overblown. While enjoyable, the movie doesn’t begin to compare to Abagnale’s descriptions of his short but highly lucrative life of crime. With a wickedly quick mind, Abagnale kept one step ahead of the FBI by continually changing his strategy and learning new cons. While almost all were based on cashing phony checks, the complexity schemes grew by leaps and bounds. Many of his earlier attempts at passing bad checks would, and should have been, caught. However, like “Clark Rockefeller” Abagnale also understood the importance of...
Moab is my Washpot
Stephen Fry
A true Renaissance man, actor and comedian Stephen Fry has written a wonderful biography of his childhood. Mostly set in his childhood of boarding schools, Fry tells about the loneliness of being gay and British, his love of music, family problems and eventual life of crime. Brilliant and witty.
“Music takes me to places of illimitable sensual and insensate joy, accessing points of ecstasy that no angelic lover could ever locate, or plunging me into gibbering weeping hells of pain that no torturer could ever devise. Music makes me write this sort of maundering adolescent nonsense without embarrassment. Music is in fact the dog’s bollocks.”
Money for Nothing
Edward Ugel
It is a bit sad how many Americans use the phrase “when I win the lottery…” before expressing a dream or desire. What is surprising is how many people do win the lottery – and what a lousy deal it often is. Many states don’t allow lump-sum payments. They instead give winners a pay-out over years and even decades – with no interest. While many people will think “Hell, I’ll take a steady $70,000 a year for the next 20 years” it doesn’t usually work this way. Winners blow through their money, and much more, in record time. And then they call someone like Ugel.
A gambler, failed film-student and bartender, Ugel landed a job working for a company he ominously calls “The...