Review: Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys

Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys by Billy Crystal
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Interesting book, one that I found in terms fascinating and redundant. I listened to this on audio, with Crystal doing the narrating. In the case of this book, I should call it performing, though. The book begins with Crystal recorded performing in front of a live audience, and he’s not telling stories of his life, he’s doing standup about being old. And to my taste, not very good standup – I didn’t get any chuckles out of his live performances. But the book takes a turn toward the more interesting as Crystal changes to telling the story of his life and his career. That part was good, interesting anecdotes and funny bits. He ends the book with more kvetching about aging which I could have done without. The anecdote I find most memorable (and I find this very strange on reflection) is his story about coming up with a one-liner while hosting the Oscars and cutting off Hollywood old-timer Hal Roach who was speaking from his seat so no one heard him clearly “Well, it’s only fitting. He got his start in silent films.” Crystal does his impersonations along the way, and you hear his Ali and Mickey Mantle a lot. The Mickey stories are truly poignant. The saving grace is that Crystal seems shocked that he was as lucky in life as he’s been, and he sounds so appreciative throughout. I found this one hard to rank -- one star for the bad standup combined with four stars for the life story, but I’ll round up to 3 because his stories are so memorable.

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Review: Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old STATS That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think about Baseball

Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old STATS That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think about Baseball by Keith Law
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I seemed to have latched on to many of the raft of books about modern baseball statistics. In this, like many of the others out there, the author drills into the details of why old-school baseball stats are not good now, and in some cases were never good measurements or predictors. And, like most other books of its kind, it’s written in a snarky manner, which I forthwith dub “Snarklish”. This book goes in depth on the historic stats, like a pitcher’s won-loss record, defensive ratios, batting average, and the like. He dissects the backs of baseball cards and suggests better stats. As baseball statistical study is really hitting a golden age, with additional computing power, additional measurements being made and published, and new focus by the teams, this is a reasonable book to explain the state of affairs for those that aren’t well read on the sabermetric state of statistics. For those that religiously read Bill James, this will mostly seem very familiar, even the level of snark.

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Review: The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America

The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America by Don Lattin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The seminal figures in early popularization of acid are all here. Author Lattin describes the social network, as it existed, that connected all of these people together. Plenty of interesting stories, but on reflection not many heartwarming or even, strangely, enlightening ones. The players struck me, in the end, as mostly sad, which is not what I expected. I figured they would be represented as learning and growing, but they seem to be regressing throughout the book. The worst of the bunch seemed to be Andrew Weil, but most all were “conniving” in some way. Nice book to see the connections of trippers and their start in the ivy halls of Harvard.

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Review: How Smart Machines Think

How Smart Machines Think by Sean Gerrish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found “How Smart Machines Think” to cover the same ground as many articles in magazines such as Wired and Fast Business, but with more in-depth examples. In fact, after I finished the book I started reading an article by Clive Thompson in Wired (12/18) who also used some of the same examples to make some of the same points. I liked “How Smart Machines Think” for its overview of the state of affairs of AI and machine learning, and its readable style. You don’t need to be a scientist or developer to enjoy this.

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Review: ChiWalking: A Fitness Walking Program for Lifelong Health and Energy

ChiWalking: A Fitness Walking Program for Lifelong Health and Energy by Danny Dreyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having recently become a more active walker, I thought I would see if I could improve on the mechanics, with the hope of staying away from knee and ankle issues. This book purports to do that by teaching a slightly different method of walking. The motion changes to a more rapid but supposedly more efficient gait. I listened to the audio of this book, which is captured as the audio of a lecture that doesn’t follow the text of the book very closely, from what I could discern. In fact, the third CD of the set contains sections of just a metronome pulsing, intended to give the listener an idea of proper pacing. The author comes across as a friendly teacher. I found the descriptions interesting and I tried to follow along, but there are key steps regarding placement of pelvis and bend points that would be better represented by a photo or video or a live instructor. I got the idea of what the author wanted to promote, but I don’t think I replicated the motions. Or maybe I did. I may try this again in the DVD or book format to see the pictures, as based on this “introduction” using the audiobook, I believe this thought behind walking mechanics may be beneficial.

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Review: Show and Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations

Show and Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations by Dan Roam
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you've read Roam's early books on presentation drawing skills, you'll see in this one that he is becoming less strict in his advice on only using drawings. He repeats a lot of the earlier work here, although in a greatly shortened format - everything on drawing is covered on a few pages. And he also is becoming more open to using words and numbers, and even mentions using photos in presentations here, saying photos are worse than graphics or drawings, but they do have a place. He even provides some basic rules in using all these graphical presentation types. I really didn't learn anything major new here, although I have read Roam's earlier books so I know what he's offering. There were a few suggestions that I liked that I hadn't noticed him mentioning before. One involves drawing illustrations for your presentation and taking pictures to use in your software. Another is to use hand drawings that are around 75% completed and finishing them live during your presentation. He notes that the audience usually remembers that you've done the whole drawing live. Overall, a very simple book on the basics of presentation tied to presentation software and/or flip charts, specifically focused on the types of stories all presentations follow and how to construct these stories.

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Review: City of Illusions

City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've read the first in the Hainish Cycle, "Rocannon's World", and I figured this would be a step up being written by a more experienced Le Guin. However, this one didn't catch my fancy as much as the first. This starts off more of a DnD type quest story, ending up more a sci-fi Traveller type story. The early part of the story seemed very familiar, the ending was different and, although repetitive, promising.

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