Book Club Book 'Steve Jobs' by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson (4)

When polled for a rating of this book, the group agreed on a ‘4’. When asked if there was anything to like about Steve Jobs (based on the book), all agreed it was ‘no’. That pretty much sums up this very well researched and written book about an admired, but extremely unlikable fellow.  We all agreed it was admirable (and totally out off his control-freak nature) that Mr. Jobs allowed this book to be written without reading or interfering in it. Given the lens through which he viewed himself, I think he may not have comprehended how negative he would come across.  All this being said, one doesn’t have to like the subject to find the book interesting.  The book is very well written and was able to engage both the technophile and the technophobe.  Our group has a good spread of people from those who never owned an Apple product nor knew the lore and stories (of Apple-NeXt-Pixar-Apple), to those who owned the first Macs and knew the specific Palo Alto restaurants frequented in the book.  Everyone found something interesting and discussion worthy.  You learned how someone could violate almost every rule in the manager’s handbook, yet inspire people to join him in the Reality Distortion Field and do magical things. (Note the bad side of that is the scads of CEOs who will think they can treat people poorly but do not have a brilliance elsewhere that makes up for it).  I will mention that when Mel asked ‘what surprised you the most’, I first thought of the possible eating disorder, but I had to finally agree with her that it was the wide spread crying mentioned in the book! By many men…. In the 80’s…. in Business! Given how men tend to treat women when the cry (like it’s a weakness), it was appalling to hear that, behind closed doors they were crying like babies!  As you can see, like all good books this one provoked emotions. Overall we all agreed that Mr. Jobs had an unquenchable desire for perfect things and that his obsession brought wonderful products to consumers. Unfortunately, that same obsessive personality also likely took him away sooner than necessary.

'11/22/63' by Stephen King....Excellent book!

11/22/63, Stephen King (4)

About 25% of the way into this book I commented to S that I liked the book, but I had slowed down my reading pace and wasn’t quite sure why. I definitely had an apprehensive feeling and trepidation about continuing.  The thing is, Stephen King is such an amazing writer that I had to continue! I am so glad I did and I was rewarded with an excellent story. As you may know, this much-lauded book (top 10 NYT of 2011) is about a schoolteacher who finds a way to travel back in time and realizes he can potentially prevent the assassination of JFK (hence the title date), and presumably averts major disasters such as the Vietnam War.  This is not a Sci-Fi book at all; it is less about the how of time travel and is much more about the ‘why’ and ‘what happens’. I think my trepidation at the beginning did stem from my previous Sci-Fi time travel reading experiences.  Any good time travel book illustrates the danger of changing the past.  Mr. King points out that the past is obdurate to change and puts many obstacles in the way of change.  While I cringed waiting for the next shoe to drop, I was drawn into the story by the interesting characters and the clearly drawn aspects of the timeframe.  The beauty of this novel is the skill of which he makes the characters and their stories so full and interesting that much of it would be a great story even without the unique time travel plot. 

'Church of Lies' by Flora Jessop and Paul T. Brown

Church of Lies, Flora Jessop and Paul T. Brown (3.5)

Even after reading John Krakauer’s book, ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’, I was still shocked by the extent of abuse chronicled here by Flora Jessop.  This is a non-fiction account of her childhood in, escape from, and battle against the fundamentalist group of Mormons (FLDS), specifically the group living near the border of Utah and Arizona.  While the horrors she experienced herself and witnessed all around her was bad enough, the secondary lack of assistance and support from the government system and people feels like a second round of abuse.  Once finding the courage to escape from the ‘compound’ and then be returned to it or informed on by the very people who were to protest you was heartbreaking.  It felt like something out of a movie script, and not something that could occur in the present day!  I did find that Ms. Jessop was able to explain clearly the cause of the enablers, the wives and mothers who allowed the abuse to occur, which I’ve always found unbelievable.  She also talked at length about the Post Traumatic Stress type behavior of the children who do escape.  They only know what they’ve been spoon-fed by the ‘wise’ men of the cult.  Once out, they have no idea what to believe.  I found this book sad and scary and it left me with a feeling of disappointment.  We fear and condemn fundamentalists in other countries and have mostly ignored one group under our noses.  If her story is to be believed, and I have seen no reason to doubt it, they are breaking many laws, take welfare money while paying virtually no taxes, and have managed to keep law enforcement at arm’s length. Very disappointing.