Review: From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War

From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War by Jerry Della Femina
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have enjoyed reading books on advertising in the past, and this one was another good one. What struck me was the playfulness that the author put into the writing. Also, I found his descriptions of selling advertising campaigns to be so very similar to my work selling enterprise software. In Della Femina’s case, he was pitching a concept, but what sold the concept was the team behind the work. It was really the team that was being bought. In my case, we were also selling a concept, one that would require massive time and energy commitments from management to make the benefits come to fruition. And often the project would get reduced along the way. So the customer was buying the idea, as well as the team to implement that idea, the team that could drag a project over the bumps in the road. Idea sales for business has some similarities.

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Review: The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D.

The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meyer's Holmes romp across Europe to handle a righteous cause that ends up not quite as earthshattering as Holmes expects. At least according to Mycroft. Enjoyable in the action, but too many details tying this into actual history.

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Review: Postcards from Route 66: The Ultimate Collection from America's Main Street

Postcards from Route 66: The Ultimate Collection from America's Main Street by Joe Sonderman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Postcard photos from vintage tourist traps, motels, restaurants, and more along the Route. Cards and summaries are divided by state, running East to West. It's an interesting reminder of the pre-chain days, where each place you visited was in some way unique. Most interesting to me was in how each establishment chose to market itself to travelers through their postcards -- do you show the hotel building, the rooms, the pool, or everything. A lot of places did kind of look the same, even though they weren't chains. I was surprised by some of the cards included, and also surprised by some not included. There's only limited space...

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Review: More Gross

More Gross by Sam Gross
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I remember being in junior high and discovering National Lampoon, and trying to keep my issues hidden from my folks. I had convinced my Mom it was like Cracked or Mad, but it was quite a bit more adult than that. And hilarious. Little did they know. So when you have to secretly read your adult (or at least college) humor magazines, you need to be quick with your reading. And what is quicker than a one drawing cartoon? That's how I found Gross, and why his cartoons were so memorable to me. Reading this book, now more than 45 years after I found National Lampoon, was a trip down memory lane. They don't all hit, but those that do make me recall those feelings of humor, of confusion, and of naughtiness that I felt back then. Nice trip down memory lane, but still not safe to share with the parents, or with the humorlessly woke. Or, in the words of Sam Gross, "That's not funny, that's sick."

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Review: Normal

Normal by Warren Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As others have said, this is a set up for some big discussions, but in the end it was unfulfilling. Perhaps a bit more focus, and a bit more storytelling instead of backgrounding.

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Review: The Year of Magical Thinking

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I got some feels but not as much as I expected. It did make me appreciate Isabel Allende's "Paula" more for the dealing with a slow moving death.

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Review: Rough Sleepers

Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Kidder’s first book, “Soul of a New Machine”. I read it in college and switched majors because of it. I’ve enjoyed all of his books since. This one, though, seemed less complete than his other books. Kidder’s previous books mostly were told in a story arc. Here, it feels more like straight reporting. Perhaps this was mostly covering a shorter timeline than his other books. Perhaps it’s because this didn’t really have an ending, or at least the ending it had didn’t tie into the beginning. Kidder did make his topic, homelessness and the services supporting the homeless, interesting. The most interesting aspect of this book, like a number of his recent books, is the description of an individual’s self-sacrifice for the greater good.

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