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307. Undermajordomo Minor

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Kathy Hewitt

Author:   Patrick deWitt

Genre:  Fiction, Fantasy, Humor

224 pages, published September 8, 2015

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

Lucy (aka Lucien) Minor has been hired to work under the Major Domo in the dilapidated Castle Van Aux which is inhabited by a mysterious Baron who spends his time pining for his Baroness who abandoned him long ago.  While trying to figure out life in the castle and life in general, Lucy meets the beautiful Klara, a poor local girl with whom he falls deeply in love.  Things turn problematic when Adolphus, a brutish soldier, returns to the village and tries to claim Klara.

Quotes 

“I find the constant upkeep of the body woefully fatiguing, don’t you?”

 

“She wasn’t precisely sure what she was walking toward but she wouldn’t have turned around for the world.”

 

“As it happens, I’m chasing after a girl, Father. For it has come to pass that I’ve fallen in love.” Father Raymond leaned in. “In love, you say?” “Just so.” “And what is that like? I’ve often wondered about it.” Lucy said, “It is a glory and a torment.” “Really? Would you not recommend it, then?” “I would recommend it highly. Just to say it’s not for the faint of heart.”

 

“Easier asked than answered,” said Mr. Olderglough. “For our days here are varied, and so our needs are also varied. On the whole, I think you’ll find the workload to be light in that you will surely have ample free time. But then there comes the question of what one does with his free time. I have occasionally felt that this was the most difficult part of the job; indeed, the most difficult part of being alive, wouldn’t you say, boy?”

 

“Let us look within ourselves and search out the dormant warrior.” “Mine is dormant to the point of non-existence, sir.”

 

“We must try again,” said Lucy. “Must we?” Tomas asked. “Of course we must. Otherwise we’ll die here.” Here Tomas spoke gently, and with tranquil understanding. “That’s not how we see it, Lucy.” “How do you see it?” “We’ll live here.”

 

“You always bring God into arguments you know you’re losing, for the liar is lonely, and welcomes all manner of company.”

 

“A man accepts an inferior cup of tea, telling himself it is only a small thing. But what comes next? Do you see?”

 

“Walking away on the springy legs of a foal he thought, How remarkable a thing a lie is. He wondered if it wasn’t man’s finest achievement, and after some consideration, he decided it was.”

 

“And yet he held his tongue, wanting his farewell with Marina to be peaceable, not out of any magnanimity, but so that after Tor ruined her—he felt confident Tor would ruin her—and she was once more alone, she would think of Lucy’s graciousness and feel the long-lingering sting of bitter regret.”

 

“He wandered here and there over rolling hills.

He never saw the ocean but

dreamed of it often enough.” 

My Take

Much like his previous book The Sisters Brothers, Undermajordomo Minor is a peculiar, but fascinating book.  In his twisting of the fable format, Patrick deWitt explores such universal themes as the agony and ecstasy of love, man’s search for meaning, the futility of war, standing up for what you believe, and even sexual perversion (from an extremely bizarre section that came out of nowhere).  While it’s a strange brew of a book that mixes all of this together amidst the backdrop of a small village in 19th Century Europe, I found it to be a quick and compelling read.

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301. Today Will Be Different

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   Beth Roach

Author:   Maria Semple

Genre:  Fiction, Humor

259 pages, published October 4, 2016

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Today Will Be Different is a day in the life of Eleanor Flood, an accomplished graphic novelist, mother of preschooler Timby (who has faked an illness to spend the day with his mother), wife of acclaimed hand surgeon Joe (who may be leading a double life), and sister to Ivy who has married into a Southern Gothic family .  As Eleanor navigates her topsy-turvy life, she learns about what is important in life.

Quotes 

“Today will be different. Today I will be present. Today, anyone I speak to, I will look them in the eye and listen deeply. Today I’ll play a board game with Timby. I’ll initiate sex with Joe. Today I will take pride in my appearance. I’ll shower, get dressed in proper clothes, and change into yoga clothes only for yoga, which today I will actually attend. Today I won’t swear. I won’t talk about money. Today there will be an ease about me. My face will be relaxed, its resting place a smile. Today I will radiate calm. Kindness and self-control will abound. Today I will buy local. Today I will be my best self, the person I’m capable of being. Today will be different.”

 

“I don’t mean to ruin the ending for you, sweet child, but life is one long headwind. To make any kind of impact requires self-will bordering on madness. The world will be hostile, it will be suspicious of your intent, it will misinterpret you, it will inject you with doubt, it will flatter you into self-sabotage. My God, I’m making it sound so glamorous and personal! What the world is, more than anything? It’s indifferent.”  “Say amen to that,” Spencer said.

“But you have a vision. You put a frame around it. You sign your name anyway. That’s the risk. That’s the leap. That’s the madness: thinking anyone’s going to care.”

 

“That was happiness. Not the framed greatest hits, but the moments in between. At the time, I hadn’t pegged them as being particularly happy. But now, looking back at those phantom snapshots, I’m struck by my calm, my ease, the evident comfort with my life. I’m happy in retrospect.”

 

“There’s a phenomenon I call the Helpless Traveler. If you’re traveling with someone who’s confident, organized, and decisive you become the Helpless Traveler: “Are we there yet?” “My bags are too heavy.” “My feet are getting blisters.” “This isn’t what I ordered.” We’ve all been that person. But if the person you’re traveling with is helpless, then you become the one able to decipher train schedules, spend five hours walking on marble museum floors without complaint, order fearlessly from foreign menus, and haggle with crooked cabdrivers. Every person has it in him to be either the Competent Traveler or the Helpless Traveler. Because Joe is so clearheaded and sharp, I’ve been able to go through life as the Helpless Traveler. Which, now that I think about it, might not be such a good thing.”

 

“You try your best, or you don’t try your best. The mountains don’t care.”

 

“You know how your brain turns to mush? How it starts when you’re pregnant? You laugh, full of wonder and conspiracy, and you chide yourself, Me and my pregnancy brain! Then you give birth and your brain doesn’t return? But you’re breast-feeding, so you laugh, as if you’re a member of an exclusive club? Me and my nursing brain! But then you stop nursing and the terrible truth descends: Your good brain is never coming back. You’ve traded vocabulary, lucidity, and memory for motherhood. You know how you’re in the middle of a sentence and you realize at the end you’re going to need to call up a certain word and you’re worried you won’t be able to, but you’re already committed so you hurtle along and then pause because you’ve arrived at the end but the word hasn’t? And it’s not even a ten-dollar word you’re after, like polemic or shibboleth, but a two-dollar word, like distinctive, so you just end up saying amazing?  Which is how you join the gang of nitwits who describe everything as amazing.”

 

“There was no relief deeper than being loved by the person who’d known you the longest.”

 

“In the middle of one of her self-help phases, Ivy had once proclaimed that underneath all anger was fear. I’d long since wondered what, if anything, was underneath all fear.

I knew then: If underneath anger was fear, then underneath fear was love. Everything came down to the terror of losing what you love.”

 

“How’s your day so far?”

“Oh, can’t complain,” he said. “You?”

“Can complain, but won’t.”

 

“A live concert needs to be listened to live. Otherwise, it’s like eating day-old salad.”

 

“Because the other way wasn’t working. The waking up just to get the day over with until it was time for bed. The grinding it out was a disgrace, an affront to the honor and long shot of being alive at all.”

 

“One thing that happens when you have an alcoholic for a parent is you grow up the child of an alcoholic. … For a quick trip around the bases, it means you blame yourself for everything, you avoid reality, you can’t trust people, you’re hungry to please. Which isn’t all bad: perfectionism makes the straight-A student; lack of trust begets self-sufficiency; low self-esteem can be a terrific motivator; if everyone were so gung-ho on reality, there’d be no art.”

 

“Pain I’m good with. It’s discomfort I can’t handle.”

 

“Smell the soup, cool the soup,” Timby said. “Huh?” “It’s what they teach us in school when we’re upset. Smell the soup.” He took a deep breath in. “Cool the soup.” He blew out.”

My Take

Having enjoyed Semple’s previous book Where’d You Go, Bernadette, I had high hopes for Today Will Be Different.  I was not disappointed.  The plot isn’t important.  Which is a good thing because there isn’t much of one.  Instead, the reason to read this book is the richly drawn characters and the very clever and enlightening insights about life that Semple regularly delivers.

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274. Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Allie Brosh

Genre:  Humor, Memoir, Cartoon, Graphic Novel

371 pages, published October 29, 2013

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

Hyperbole and a Half is a graphic novel by Allie Brosh who has a blog by the same name.  In it she provides insightful takes on her nontraditional childhood and challenting adulthood.  She also spends a lot of time analyzing the behavior of her dogs.

Quotes 

“Most people can motivate themselves to do things simply by knowing that those things need to be done. But not me. For me, motivation is this horrible, scary game where I try to make myself do something while I actively avoid doing it. If I win, I have to do something I don’t want to do. And if I lose, I’m one step closer to ruining my entire life. And I never know whether I’m going to win or lose until the last second.”

 

“The absurdity of working so hard to continue doing something you don’t like can be overwhelming.”

 

“Dear 25 year old [note: not “Dear 25-year-old me” or “Dear 25-year-old self,” just “Dear 25 year old”],”

 

“The shelter worker said, “This one hates everything and she doesn’t know anything, and I hope you aren’t planning on taking her outside ever because she’s more like a bear than a dog, really, and unfortunately, she can scale a seven-foot-tall fence like the fucking Spider-Man.” And we were like, “Sure, why not.”

 

“We’re going to play a different game now. It’s called “who can yell ‘help’ the loudest and the most.”

 

“Procrastination has become its own solution – a tool I can use to push myself so close to disaster that I become terrified and flee toward success. A more troubling matter is the day-to-day activities that don’t have massive consequences when I neglect to do them.”

 

“Fortunately, it turns out that being scared of yourself is a somewhat effective motivational technique.”

 

“Being a good person is a very important part of my identity, but being a genuinely good person is time-consuming and complicated.”

 

“You don’t have to be a good person to feel like a good person, though. There’s a loophole I found where I don’t do good, helpful things, but I keep myself in a perpetual state of thinking I might.”

 

“I don’t just want to do the right thing. I want to WANT to do the right thing.”

 

“And that’s the most frustrating thing about depression. It isn’t always something you can fight back against with hope. It isn’t even something – it’s nothing. And you can’t combat nothing.”

 

“At first, I’d try to explain that it’s not really negativity or sadness anymore, it’s more just this detached, meaningless fog where you can’t feel anything about anything—even the things you love, even fun things—and you’re horribly bored and lonely, but since you’ve lost your ability to connect with any of the things that would normally make you feel less bored and lonely, you’re stuck in the boring, lonely, meaningless void without anything to distract you from how boring, lonely, and meaningless it is.”

 

“Nobody can guarantee that it’s going to be okay, but – and I don’t know if this will be comforting to anyone else – the possibility exists that there’s a piece of corn on a floor somewhere that will make you just as confused about why you were laughing as you have ever been about why you are depressed.”

 

“The longer I procrastinate on returning phone calls and emails, the more guilty I feel about it. The guilt I feel causes me to avoid the issue further, which only leads to more guilt and more procrastination. It gets to the point where I don’t email someone for fear of reminding them that they emailed me and thus giving them a reason to be disappointed in me.”

 

“Reality should follow through on what I think it is going to do.”

 

“I cope with it the best way I know – by being completely unreasonable and trying to force everything else in the world to obey me and do all the nonsensical things I want.”

 

“Fear and shame are the backbone of my self-control. They are my source of inspiration, my insurance against becoming entirely unacceptable. They help me do the right thing. And I am terrified of what I would be without them. Because I suspect that, left to my own devices, I would completely lose control of my life. I’m still hoping that perhaps someday I’ll learn how to use willpower like a real person, but until that very unlikely day, I will confidently battle toward adequacy, wielding my crude skill set of fear and shame.”

 

“I had tasted cake and there was no going back. My tiny body had morphed into a writhing mass of pure tenacity encased in a layer of desperation. I would eat all of the cake or I would evaporate from the sheer power of my desire to eat it.” 

My Take

I picked up Hyperbole and a Half from the “Librarian Recommendations” shelf at the wonderful Boulder Library.  While I haven’t read many graphic novels, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.  Allie Brosh has a unique and insightful sense of humor that had me laughing out loud at times (to get an idea of it you can check out her blog at http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/.  I especially enjoyed her story about burying a time capsule letter as a child which she addressed to “Dear 25 year old” rather than “Dear 25 year old self” or “Dear 25 year old me,” asked numerous questions about which kinds of dogs she liked and then implored the recipient to “Please write back.”  Her recounting of getting lost in the woods with her mother and her advice to her untrainable dogs also makes for interesting and entertaining reading.

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271. Slam

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Nick Hornby

Genre:  Fiction, Humor

309 pages, published October 16, 2007

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

Slam is narrated by Sam, a 16-year-old living in the UK whose life is getting very complicated.  His parents are divorced, he is struggling in school, his best advice comes from a Tony Hawk poster and he has just found out that his ex-girlfriend Alicia is pregnant.

Quotes 

“I hate time. It never does what you want it to.”

 

“When I went back into the kitchen, I wanted to sit on my mum’s lap. I know that sounds stupid and babyish , but I couldn’t help it. On my sixteenth birthday, I didn’t want to be sixteen, or fifteen or anyteen. I wanted to be three or four, and too young to make any kind of mess.”

 

“I’d never really had arguments like this before, arguments I couldn’t understand properly, arguments where both sides were right and wrong all at the same time.”

 

“There are many differences between a baby and an I-Pod. And one of the biggest is, no one going to mug you for your baby.”

 

“Definitely avoid going out with ugly girls who say they want to be models. Not because they’re ugly, but because they’re mad.”

 

“It seems to make a difference to some girls. If you say something that isn’t sexist to the right sort ofgirl, she likes you more. Say one of your mates is going on about how all girls are stupid, and you say ‘not all girls are stupid,’ then it can make you look good. There have to be girls listening, though, obviously. Otherwise it’s a waste of time.”

 

“Seeing as he wasn’t very bright, I was pretty sure that he was going to be good at fighting.”

 

“There was a lot of work to do, and arguments to have, and kids to take care of, and money to find from somewhere, and sleep to lose.

I could do it, though. I could see that.

I wouldn’t be sitting here now if I couldn’t do it, would I?

I think that’s what Tony Hawk was trying to tell me all along.” 

My Take

Having recently read Funny Girl (also by Nick Hornby), I was looking forward to another delightful and fun book.  I was not disappointed.  Hornby is a witty and poignant writer who creates great dialogue and has a keen understanding of human nature and relationships.   I look forward to reading more good books by this very talented writer.

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263. Drunken Fireworks

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Stephen King

Genre:  Fiction, Humor, Novella

Only on audio, published June 30, 2015

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

Drunken Fireworks is a short novella by Stephen King that was only released as an Audio Book; there is no print version.  It tells the story of Alden McCausland and his mother who, as the result of an unexpected life-insurance policy payout and a winning lottery ticket, come into some money.  They spend their days drinking in their small house by Lake Abenaki in Maine.  Across the lake, is the Massimo family’s Twelve Pines Camp which consists of a big white mansion, guest house and tennis court that Alden’s Ma says is paid for by the “ill-gotten gains” from Massimo Construction.  Fueled by envy, the McCauslands start a Fourth of July arms race with the Massimos which escalates until Alden ends up in jail.

 

Quotes 

 

 

My Take

I’m a big fan of Stephen King.  He always writes a compelling tale with real life, relatable characters.  While much briefer than his other works, Drunken Fireworks lives up to that standard.  It also succeeds as a cautionary tale against trying to keep up with the Joneses.

 

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261. Funny Girl

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Nick Hornby

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor

452 pages, published February 3, 2015

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

Funny Girl is the story of Sophie Straw, a blonde bombshell from a small English town who, in addition to her beauty, has a talent for making people laugh.  Sophie moves to London to pursue her dream of being the British version of Lucille Ball.  Set in 1960’s, we follow Sophie as her she lands a leading role on a BBC Comedy Playhouse series and makes her dream a reality.

 

Quotes 

“I’ve never been happy in the way that I’ve been happy in this room, and in the studios,” said Sophie. “I’ve never laughed so much, or learned so much, and everything I know about my job is because of the people here. Even you, Clive. And I’m worried that I’ll spend the rest of my working life looking for an experience like this one, where everything clicks and everyone pushes you to do the best you can, better than anything you think you’re capable of.”

 

“Love meant being brave, otherwise you had already lost your own argument: the man who couldn’t tell a woman he loved her was, by definition, not worthy of her.”

 

“What was he doing with her? How on earth could he love her? But he did. Or, at least, she made him feel sick, sad, and distracted. Perhaps there was another way of describing that unique and useless combination of feelings, but “love” would have to do for now.”

 

“She began to fear that she would always be greedy, all the time. Nothing ever seemed to fill her up. Nothing ever seemed to touch the sides.”

 

“She wasn’t the sort of catch one could take home and show off to people; she was the sort of catch that drags the angler off the end of the pier and pulls him out to sea before tearing him to pieces as he’s drowning. He shouldn’t have been fishing at all, not when he was so ill-equipped.”

 

“Years later, Tony would discover that writers never felt they belonged anywhere. That was one of the reasons they became writers. It was strange, however, failing to belong even at a party full of outsiders.”

 

“They already knew that they would be telling people about the morning for a long time to come, maybe for the rest of their lives, and the taxi ride was the first attempt at a first draft of a story that would have to satisfy parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren.”

 

“Clive was rapidly coming to the conclusion that being engaged to somebody meant that he spent an awful lot of time not doing things he wanted to do.”

 

“He was kind, he was single, he was vulnerable, he made her laugh (not always intentionally, true, but often enough). Every time she saw him, he seemed to have become a little more handsome.”

 

“The anger was clearly real, though. It was in there, sloshing around, looking for the nearest hole to escape through.”

 

“And also, what kind of job was comic magician? She didn’t think she could bear to be married to a comic magician, even if his breath were sweeter than Parma violets and his kisses were like atom bombs. Comic magicians belonged on seaside piers. Comic magicians were what she had come to London to escape, not to find, and certainly not to marry.”

 

“There aren’t any buts,” said Bill. “That’s the whole point of being a writer, isn’t it? If I wanted buts, I’d go and work in a fucking but factory.”

 

My Take

Listening to the audio book version of Funny Girl was a delight.  This was the second book that I have read by Nick Hornby (the first being A Long Way Down), but it won’t be the last.  I was charmed by the characters (especially Sophie), the stories and the writing.  I so enjoyed living in the 1960’s London world of Sophie Straw that I was disappointed when the book ended.

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234. Travelers’ Tales Thailand: True Stories

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:  James O’Reilley (Editor)

Genre:  Non Fiction, Travel, Humor, Anthology, Short Stories

488 pages, published January 30, 2002

Reading Format:  e-Book on Hoopla

 

Summary

 

 

Quotes 

 

My Take

I read Travelers’ Tales Thailand while visiting Bangkok and Phuket and the book really enhanced my experience.  The stories are generally short and, for the most part, are very well written.  I absolutely recommend this book if you are contemplating a trip to the Land of Smiles.

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233. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  Lisanne and Frank

Author:  Tom Robbins

Genre:  Fiction, Humor

386 pages, published January 5, 2002

Reading Format:  Book

 

Summary

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, by irreverent author Tom Robbins, takes place in the 1980’s and follows the journey of the beautiful, young stockbroker Gwen Mati as she responds to a market crash that threatens to wipe her out financially.  Along the way, we encounter her finance who owns a missing ape and Larry Diamond, a guru to and love interest of Gwen with a unique take on the world.

 

Quotes 

“Passion isn’t a path through the woods. Passion is the woods. It’s the deepest, wildest part of the forest; the grove where the fairies still dance and obscene old vipers snooze in the boughs. Everybody but the most dried up and dysfunctional is drawn to the grove and enchanted by its mysteries, but then they just can’t wait to call in the chain saws and bulldozers and replace it with a family-style restaurant or a new S and L. That’s the payoff, I guess. Safety. Security. Certainty. Yes, indeed. Well, remember this, pussy latte: we’re not involved in a ‘relationship,’ you and I, we’re involved in a collision. Collisions don’t much lend themselves to secure futures…”

 

“Would you complain because a beautiful sunset doesn’t have a future or a shooting star a payoff? And why should romance ‘lead anywhere’? Passion isn’t a path through the woods. Passion is the woods.”

 

“Faith is believing in something you know isn’t true.”

 

“We modern human beings are looking at life, trying to make some sense of it; observing a ‘reality’ that often seems to be unfolding in a foreign tongue–only we’ve all been issued the wrong librettos. For a text, we’re given the Bible. Or the Talmud or the Koran. We’re given Time magazine, and Reader’s Digest, daily papers, and the six o’clock news; we’re given schoolbooks, sitcoms, and revisionist histories; we’re given psychological counseling, cults, workshops, advertisements, sales pitches, and authoritative pronouncements by pundits, sold-out scientists, political activists, and heads of state. Unfortunately, none of these translations bears more than a faint resemblance to what is transpiring in the true theater of existence, and most of them are dangerously misleading. We’re attempting to comprehend the spiraling intricacies of a magnificently complex tragicomedy with librettos that describe the barrom melodramas or kindergarten skits. And when’s the last time you heard anybody bitch about it to the management?”

 

“If every time we choose a turd, society, at a great expense, simply allows us to redeem it for a pepperoni, then not only will we never learn to make smart choices, we will also surrender the freedom to choose, because a choice without consequences is no choice at all.”

 

“…the extent to which a society focuses on the needs of its lowest common denominator is the extent to which that society’ll be mired in mediocrity. Whereas, if we would aim the bulk of our support at the brightest, most talented, most virtuous instead, then they would have the wherewithal to solve a lot of our problems, to uplift the whole culture, enlighten it or something, so that eventually there wouldn’t be so many losers and weaklings impeding evolution and dragging the whole species down…. Martyrs…just perpetuate human misery by catering to it…. Individuals have to take responsibility for their own lives and accept the consequences of their choices.”

 

“There’s no such thing as security in this life sweetheart, and the sooner you accept that fact, the better off you’ll be. The person who strives for security will never be free. The person who believes she’s found security will never reach paradise. What she mistakes for security is purgatory. You know what purgatory is, Gwendolyn? It’s the waiting room, it’s the lobby. Not only does she have the wrong libretto, she’s stuck in the lobby where she can’t see the show.”

 

My Take

While my book group really enjoyed Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.  There were some interesting thoughts and ideas in the book, but it was still a bit of a slog to get through it.  I had a hard time relating to any of the characters and Robbins’ humor didn’t appeal to me.

 

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205. Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Author:   Scott Adams

Recommended by:   Scot Reader

Genre:  Non-Fiction, Psychology, Humor

304 pages, published November 16, 2017

Reading Format:  Book

 

Summary

From author Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, Win Bigly is an analysis of the strategies Donald Trump used to persuade voters to elect the most unconventional candidate in the history of the presidency.  Scott Adams, a trained hypnotist and a lifelong student of persuasion, was one of the earliest public figures to predict Trump’s win, doing so a week after Nate Silver put Trump’s odds at 2 percent in his FiveThirtyEight.com blog. The mainstream media regarded Trump as a novelty and a sideshow. But Adams recognized that Trump was a master persuader.  The book isn’t about whether Trump is good or bad.  Rather, Win Bigly explores the “how” of persuasion.

 

Quotes 

“We humans like to think we are creatures of reason. We aren’t. The reality is that we make our decisions first and rationalize them later….Your illusion of being a rational person is supported by the fact that sometimes you do act rationally.”

 

“On August 13, 2015, I predicted in my blog that Donald Trump had a 98 percent chance of winning the presidency based on his persuasion skills. A week earlier, the most respected political forecaster in the United States—Nate Silver—had put Trump’s odds of winning the Republican nomination at 2 percent in his FiveThirtyEight.com blog.”

 

“Trump’s unexpected win created a persuasion bomb that no one knew how to defuse. The anti-Trumpers were locked into their Hitler movie, and confirmation bias would keep them there. It was a terrible situation for a country. And it was an enormous challenge for Trump, the Master Persuader.”

 

“A good general rule is that people are more influenced by visual persuasion, emotion, repetition, and simplicity than they are by details and facts.”

 

“When you identify as part of a group, your opinions tend to be biased toward the group consensus.”

 

“People are more influenced by the direction of things than the current state.”

 

“Humans are hardwired to reciprocate favors. If you want someone’s cooperation in the future, do something for that person today.”

 

“The things that you think about the most will irrationally rise in importance in your mind.”

 

“Persuasion is effective even when the subject recognizes the technique. Everyone knows that stores list prices at $9.99 because $10.00 sounds like too much. It still works.”

 

“Unfortunately, most people believe that analogies are one of the best ways to persuade. That fact goes far in explaining why it seems that every debate on the Internet ends with a Hitler analogy. The phenomenon is so common it has its own name: Godwin’s law. But I doubt many people have changed an opinion just because a stranger on the Internet compared them to Hitler. A direct attack usually just hardens people into their current opinions.”

 

“I have no reason to believe humans evolved with the capability to understand their reality. That capability was not important to survival. When it comes to evolution, any illusion that keeps us alive long enough to procreate is good enough.”

 

“The grand illusion of life is that our minds have the capacity to understand reality. But human minds didn’t evolve to understand reality. We didn’t need that capability. A clear view of reality wasn’t necessary for our survival. Evolution cares only that you survive long enough to procreate. And that’s a low bar. The result is that each of us is, in effect, living in our own little movie that our brain has cooked up for us to explain our experiences”

 

“The common worldview, shared by most humans, is that there is one objective reality, and we humans can understand that reality through a rigorous application of facts and reason. This view of the world imagines that some people have already achieved a fact-based type of enlightenment that is compatible with science and logic, and they are trying to help the rest of us see the world the “right” way. As far as I can tell, most people share that interpretation of the world. The only wrinkle with that worldview is that we all think we are the enlightened ones. And we assume the people who disagree with us just need better facts, and perhaps better brains, in order to agree with us. That filter on life makes most of us happy—”

 

“The worst thing your brain could do is reinterpret your reality into a whole new movie with each new bit of information. That would be exhausting and without benefit. Instead, your brain takes the path of least resistance and instantly interprets your observations to fit your existing worldview. It’s just easier.”

 

“PERSUASION TIP 9 Display confidence (either real or faked) to improve your persuasiveness. You have to believe yourself, or at least appear as if you do, in order to get anyone else to believe.”

 

My Take

If you want to understand how Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, I suggest that you read Win, Bigly.  Scott Adams presciently predicted Trump’s win and does a masterful job explaining in this book how it happened.  He does so in an easy to read, informative, witty and humorous style.  You also learn a lot about the subject of persuasion.  A very quick, easy and fun read.

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203. Spoonbenders

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Author:   Daryl Gregory

Genre:  Fiction, Humor

416 pages, published June 27, 2017

Reading Format:  Audiobook

Summary

Spoonbenders tells the story of the Telemachus family.  Teddy Telemachus is a charming con man with a gift for sleight of hand and some shady underground associates. In need of money, Teddy tricks his way into a classified government study about telekinesis and its possible role in intelligence gathering. There he meets the lovely Maureen McKinnon, a genuine psychic with enormous power.  The two marry, have three gifted children, and become the Amazing Telemachus Family, performing astounding feats across the country. Irene is a human lie detector. Frankie can move objects with his mind. And Buddy, the youngest, can see the future.  Decades later, the Telemachuses are not so amazing. Irene is a single mom ability always discern whether someone is telling the truth makes it hard to hold down a job, let alone have a relationship. Frankie’s in serious debt to his dad’s old mob associates.  Buddy has completely withdrawn into himself and inexplicably begun digging a hole in the backyard.  Irene’s son Matty has just had his first out-of-body experience.  The problems are resolved with some twists, turns, affection and humor.

 

Quotes 

“The problem with getting old was that each day had to compete with the thousands of others gone by.  How wonderful would a day have to be to win such a beauty contest? To even make it into the finals? Never mind that memory rigged the game, airbrushed the flaws from its contestants, while the present had to shuffle into the spotlight unaided, all pockmarked with mundanities and baggy with annoyances.”

 

“Then they were off again, across the unbroken sprawl of Chicagoland, a single city made up of interlocking strip malls, decorated at random intervals by WELCOME TO signs with defiantly rural names—River Forest, Forest Glen, Glenview—and enough dales and groves and elms and oaks to populate Middle Earth. The flatlanders had been especially determined to tag every bump of land with a “Heights” or “Ridge.” Pity the poor hobbit trying to find anything to climb in the town of Mount Prospect.”

 

“They piled into Irene’s Festiva, a car that won the award for most ironic distance between name and driving experience.”

 

“Smocks were the official uniform of those hanging on to the bottom rungs of the economic ladder; a parachute that would never open.”

 

“Belief that one was hard to fool was the one quality shared by all suckers.”

 

“Broke up. With Led, her almost husband and with other boyfriends, the phrase felt right; she broke them off from her, let them fall away like the spent stage of an Apollo rocket. She was stronger without them and never looked back.”

 

“Duty eats free will for breakfast.”

 

“Everything he knows about the whirlpool of past and future tells him that the universe does not owe you anything, and even if it did, it would never pay up.”

 

“I can’t believe this is allowed by state law. You can’t just put a pile of shaved beef—” “Italian beef,” she said. “Italian beef on top of a sausage—” “Italian sausage.” “Right, and then they just let you eat it?” “In Chicago,” she said, “meat is a condiment.”

 

“You know why I’m raising you kids to be Cubs fans?” Buddy shakes his head. “Any mook can be a fan of a winning team,” Dad says. “It takes character to root for the doomed. You show up, you watch your boys take their swings, and you watch ’em go down in flames—every damn day. You think Jack Brickhouse is an optimist? No-siree. He may sound happy, but he’s dying inside. There’s no seat in Wrigley Field for a God damn Pollyanna. You root-root-root for the home team, and they lose anyway. It teaches you how the world works, kid. Sure, start every spring with your hopes and dreams, but in the universe in which we live, you will be mathematically eliminated by Labor Day. Count on it.”

 

“The thing about skeletons was, you never knew how much space they were taking up in the closet until you got rid of them.”

 

“She’d discovered a fact of modern life by standing at a cash register for hours: mindless work could nevertheless fill up your mind, like radio static. If she stayed busy—pushing canned goods down the chute with her left hand while busily ten-keying the prices with her right, making small talk, sorting cash—then she didn’t have to think about what day it was, what time certain flights landed, or how she was going to die alone.”

 

“He lit the cigarette and inhaled gratefully.

“You want one?”

“No thanks. Had a touch of the cancer a few years ago.”

“What kind?”

“Prostate.”

“I’m not asking you to smoke it in your ass.”

 

My Take

I found Spoonbenders to be a very enjoyable audiobook.  Author Daryl Gregory has a great writing style and has created a rag tag family, some with psychic powers and some without, of eccentrics.  Their ups and downs and quests for love and acceptance hold your attention in this pleasant and humorous diversion.

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