Been cruising along with my reading.
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters - The Battle for the Soul of American Business by Bob Lutz - I grew up in a car family (My dad's first job out of college was in the Design Department at Ford, before I could drive his cars I had to be able to change a tire, change the oil, describe how an internal combustion engine worked and identify the major operating systems on a car.) And my father's highest praise for someone was "He's a car guy". A car guy is someone who loves cars. Loves the design, the engineering, the performance of them.
Bob Lutz is a car guy. Having held high positions with all of America's Big Three automakers and having always placed the product, the car, ahead of everything else he is in someways the very definition of a car guy. So this book is a fascinating read.
Now Lutz also has a well deserved and self acknowledged reputation for shooting off his mouth and not playing well with others. You get that in this book as well. Think of it this way - the book reads like a long evening over several beverages of your choice with a fascinating, opinionated friend who has a limitless supply of great stories. Sit back, relax and enjoy.
At the center of the book is the story of General Motors. In my lifetime GM has gone from the worldwide leader in automobile design and manufacture to bankruptcy. Lutz takes a look at just how that happened. He would like to blame (in relatively equal parts) union membership, government interference (in the form of fuel efficiency requirements), the media and the corporate culture of GM. By the end of the book it is crystal clear that the blame lies almost entirely on that final group. The stories are just appalling. My favorite one is when the automaker introduced a new engine that broke camshafts (an important internal portion of the engine) every 15,000 miles or so. Camshafts should with reasonable care survive the life of the engine which is at least 100,000 miles or more. Did GM's management want to fix the problem? No. Why? Because it was fluffing up the profit margin for the Parts division. And that's only one of a long list of appalling decisions made over the course of 50 years or so.
If you love cars, read this book. If you want to see what's wrong with so much of American Big Business, read this book. If you just love a great story teller, read this book. It's guaranteed to have at least one item that will make you want to tear your hair out but the stories are worth Lutz being Lutz.
Rating - **** Recommended Read.
Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Betrayal - Eric van Lustbader - Robert Ludlum wroter thriller novels. And he wrote them very, very well. His books sales fall somewhere in the 300-500 million volumes. When he died in 2001 fans of his most popular character Jason Bourne were left with just the original three novels. Starting in 2004 Eric Van Lustbader took over the franchise. I've read all of the originals and this is the first of the sequels I've grabbed. It's the second one in the Van Lustbader series. And as Jason Bourne thriller novels go it's just fine. There are certain conventions you simply have to accept like the fact that hero seems capable of surviving virtually any catastrophe. You either roll with them or find something else to read. Van Lustbader does a nice job overall dealing with the canon requirements of Bourne. If I had to quibble with anything it's the premise that the number two man in our largest intelligence service can be taken hostage by a terrorist group for weeks and months but be cleared to return to work after a 24 hour debrief. It leads to exactly the kinds of problems the rest of the book outlines.
Like any thriller it's great if rather silly fun.
Rating - *** Good Read
eFiction (indie fiction magazine) November 2011 - Got a chance to try something brand new when someone sent a copy of eFiction across my Nook Color. Wish I could remember who did it because it was a great find. Here's how they describe themselves :
This isn't a literary journal. This is a brand new, indie fiction magazine. Some of the best indie authors collaborate each and every month to produce eFiction for your reading pleasure.
The magazine publishes short fiction with a still-beating heart, fresh from the minds of their authors. While the ink is still drying, stories are pitted against each other in gladiatorial combat for the chance to reach your adoring eyeballs. Only the best stories make it into the issue.
The magazine is edited via a collaborative, inclusive process which means that the stories are chosen by readers like you. The editors at eFiction know that readers know their own preferences better than they ever could.
This involves some first rate writing. "The Hypnotist" by Michael Burns is a wonderful "Twilight Zone" kind of story with a delightful is slightly predictable ending. "Outsourced" by Saul Tanpepper is a brilliant melding of today's news headlines with today's pop culture. I'll let you discover it yourself. Every story here offers a great idea that is nicely realized. Kudos to Stasey Norstrom, Helen Hanson, Keven Fraleigh, Erica Linquist & Aron Christensen and Aaron M. Wilson who wrote the rest. There are even book reviews at the end. On the whole a great addition to my reading.
Rating - **** Recommended Read
From the Ashes by Jeremy Burns - I started with a thriller that was nicely done and I'll end with one that simply isn't. This book was one of the Free Friday ebook selections. Given the high number of romance novels chosen for this slot I was happy to see a thriller. (The reality is that B&N can only offer those books that they are given permission to give away. So you take what you can get) By the time I was half way through the book I wasn't so sure. The basic concept is fine. Burns takes history at the time of the rise of the Nazi Party and gives it a twist. What if, as the Weimar Republic in Germany was tottering towards collapse, the U.S. Secretary of State and American billionaire John D. Rockefeller Jr worked together to insure that communism didn't take control in Germany? What if they pumped large amounts of dollars to support the only other possible party at the time? Then as time progressed they realized the horrible error they'd made and tried to cover it up? It's a great concept for a thriller. Unfortunately Burns just doesn't have the chops to pull it off. His writing is awkward and immature with incredibly clunky and self conscious phrasing. In true thriller fashion there's a secretive government agency charged with keeping the secret. Their rather strange approach is to kill literally ANYONE who even mentions the secret. This includes an 8 year boy chatting with his school friend. I'm serious. They send a professional ASSASSIN to take out an elementary school student. It goes downhill from there. What's really rather frightening is in the Author notes at the end we find out Burns has actually taught Creative Writing. Not someone I'd send an aspiring writer to study under.
The concept is good, the characters aren't bad, even the storytelling manages to go along pretty well despite the awkward writing and strange story choices. Overall, meh.
Rating - ** Not Impressed
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