BookOpinion

Long before Orange County, Calif. became “The OC”, a young Steve Martin used Disneyland and other county landmarks as backdrops for honing his stage and comic skills.
Martin’s book, “Born Standing Up“, is his memoir of the first half of his life…including an Orange County from a different era.

Martin and excerpts from “Born Standing Up” were recently featured in an article in the OC Register:

Take a tour of comedian Steve Martin’s Orange County
The comedian and writer grew up in Garden Grove, worked at Disneyland as a kid and cut his teeth as a performer at Knott’s.

By Peter Larsen

If we are shaped by the places we go and people we know in our childhoods, then Steve Martin is an absolute product of Orange County in the ’50s and ’60s.

Young Steve Martin worked at the magic shop at Disneyland. (courtesy Steve Martin)

From the well-known outlines of the actor-comedian-writer’s life we already knew that Martin grew up in Garden Grove, worked at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm as a teen, and launched his career as a comic in the long-gone folk clubs here some 40 years ago.

But with the recent arrival of “Born Standing Up” (Scribner, $25), Martin’s memoir of the first half of his life, the details of his years here – the significant places on the map of his life – are revealed in the star’s own words and memories…

Full story/OC Register

Janet Maslin of The New York Times writes that “Born Standing Up” is a “lean, incisive new book about the trajectory of [Martin’s] life in comedy…”Born Standing Up” does a sharp-witted job of breaking down the step-by-step process that brought Steve Martin from Disneyland, where he spent his version of a Dickensian childhood as a schoolboy employee, to both the pinnacle of stardom and the brink of disaster…tightly focused…”Born Standing Up” is a surprising book: smart, serious, heartfelt and confessional without being maudlin.”

This from Jerry Seinfeld in GQ: “Absolutely magnificent. One of the best books about comedy and being a comedian ever written.”

Time Magazine’s Richard Corliss reviews: “The writing is evocative, unflinching and cool. When Martin takes a scalpel to his life, what you feel is the precision of the surgeon more than the primal scream of the unanaesthetized patient…”Born Standing Up” is neither fanfare nor confession. It gives off a vibe of rigorous honesty. With lots of laughs.”

Having lived “behind the Orange Curtain”, Steve Martin’s “Born Standing Up“ is an inspiring break-out story, also reminding me of the sweet smell of orange blossoms that once permeated the air.

- Alexander

Sue Grafton, my most favorite mystery author ever, has released the 20th book in her wonderful Kinsey Millhone/alphabet series (T is for Trespass). I love Kinsey Millhone. I love her because she’s smart, she’s funny, down-to-earth, and loves food almost as much as I do. I love Sue Grafton because everytime she offers readers a new book, we know it will build upon the last one. Kinsey keeps maturing as a character, not just a rehash of the same old stuff everytime.

I could mention some mystery authors who need to kick it up a notch, but out of politeness I will refrain. Instead, I offer to you my top 10 Kinsey Millhone books, in alphabetical order.

• A is for Alibi - The first one. A great introduction. It’s a quick, fast-paced story with terrific characters.
• C is for Corpse - This was actually the first Kinsey book I ever read. My mother (Thank You, Mommy) handed over her copy when I was about 19. I have re-read it probably three dozen times. I can practically read the entire book in my head from start to finish. This book opened up the world of mysteries for me. I remember thinking that Kinsey was pretty old (she was 32!) when I read it. Now that I am a wee past 32, I have a slightly different perspective.
• E is for Evidence - The characters in this one have me hooked. Grafton is great at creating some twisted dysfunctional families.
• F is for Fugitive - I love the stories where Kinsey has to reconstruct a crime from years ago. (S is for Silence and Q is for Quarry have similar plots.)
• G is for Gumshoe - The coolest story. This one is more about Kinsey than the actual mystery she solves, hence the gumshoe in the title. This one is my favorite in the series.
• I is for Innocent - Is David Barney innocent or guilty of killing his wife? Well, you don’t find out until the end, but you won’t like him either way. In fact, I didn’t really like the victim, but I love this book.
• K is for Killer - Again great story and characters combine to make a terrific read.
• M is for Malice - Another great story. I love the character of Guy Malek.
• O is for Outlaw - I like this one for the glimpse the reader gets into Kinsey’s past.
• Q is for Quarry - This one has an interesting spin. The mystery is a cold case brought to her by two local cops. Kinsey has to reconstruct a crime. This fictional book is inspired by an actual cold case from the late 1960s.

This was a tough list to create, I really wanted to add B is for Burglar and H is for Homicide, too. And L is for Lawless is good, too. Oh, just go out and read all of them, you won’t be disappointed.

I plan to hit the bookstore bright and early on December 4 to pick up my copy of T is for Trespass. Maybe it will replace one of my Top 10 picks.

– Jane Leisteiner

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: I have read many Dean Koontz books, and none have left me feeling as tormented as the author’s latest novel, “The Darkest Evening of the Year“. Koontz offers up an array of hideous antagonists, the worst of which made me literally sick to my stomach. Part of the torment comes from his graphic descriptions of dog abuse and child abuse. Koontz’s beloved dog, Trixie, passed away recently, and that sorrow is obvious throughout the book. Having lost my own beloved dog recently, I thoroughly empathize.

Dogs, specifically Golden Retrievers, are some of the most vivid characters of the novel, which centers mainly on the life of Amy Redwing, whose life revolves around rescuing dogs. The novel opens as Amy and her boyfriend, Brian, are in rescue mode, attempting to save a dog from a wife/child beater who doubles as the killer of the family pets. After saving both the family and the dog, Amy takes the dog in to live with her other beloved Goldens, but Nickie, this new dog, is special, forming unusual bonds and connections with both people and other dogs.

The novel flips back and forth between the protaganists’ (Amy and Brian) story and the villains, an unsavory cast of lowlife private detectivies, hitmen, and two others who will make your skin crawl. I enjoyed getting to know Amy, but I never felt like Brian became a full character. I didn’t feel the sympathy for him that Amy and several others garnered. Some of the book felt a little rushed, unusual for a Koontz book, which can sometimes be a bit overburdened with detail.

This is a dark book, darker still if you are a true dog lover. Anyone who can read this book and not want to rush down to the nearest animal shelter and bring home a couple dogs (or a cat) to love, has a heart of stone. The thing to love about Dean Koontz is that he has no illusion that the world is not a dark and evil place, yet he always offers to the reader protagonists that defy the darkness and manage to find hope and peace. “The Darkest Evening of the Year” is no exception.

I still say “Life Expectancy” (which I just reread for the fourth time) is his greatest work, but any true Koontz fan should enjoy this latest book. Now that I have devoured this latest, I will try to patiently await the release of the next Odd Thomas book, which is scheduled for April, 2008. In the meantime, I will try to convince my husband that we need to make a trip to the local animal shelter in the near future.

– Jane Leisteiner

Ready for consumption like a mocha frappuccino, “Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture” by Taylor Clark hit bookstores this past week. BookOpinion has compiled reviews from several media outlets.

Clark, a Portland-based journalist, has felt this topic brewing (last pun from us, we promise) since the Starbucks chain opened three branches in his small Oregon hometown. Hundreds of interviews and countless hours later, “Starbucked” was crafted into a “witty and often biting book,” according to the New York Post.

Publishers Weekly summarizes the book: “His coverage begins with a Seattle trio who set out to emulate the high-quality coffee of the California-based Peet’s chain, before Howard Schultz took over the company and laid plans for its massive expansion. While Clark grudgingly admires Starbucks’ ability to repackage coffee as beverage entertainment for a hyperprosperous society in search of emotional soothing, there’s a lot he doesn’t like about the company. He’s convinced that Starbucks diminishes the world’s diversity by ruthlessly outmaneuvering local competition on a global scale, and dubs the baristas’ work as a textbook McJob. Even the quality of the coffee, he says, has gone downhill.”

The San Francisco Chronicle gave the book a good review, “Entertaining, illuminating and reflective are not qualities usually associated with corporate histories. But Taylor Clark, former Willamette Week alt-weekly journalist, Dartmouth College graduate and Portland resident, has written a story about one business that’s all of these… Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture‘ is the eminently readable result. Clark explains that his purpose in writing the book was ‘to tell the story of how a major corporation, peddling a simple, age-old commodity, influences the daily life and culture of the world.’”

The New York Post digs into the topic further:

October 28, 2007 — In 2004, residents in Portland, Oregon, tried to firebomb a new Starbucks store that had opened in the face of intense community opposition. The Molotov cocktail bounced off the reinforced glass, burning harmlessly. Starbucks, a corporation with a worldwide reach of 13,000 stores from Seattle to Paris, Beijing to Saudi Arabia (where there are separate seats for men and women), has long fortified itself against local enemies. Despite the disgruntled neighbors in Portland, the new Starbucks stayed open.

Starting in 1971 as a storefront selling fresh-roasted gourmet coffee beans to coffee fanatics in Seattle, Starbucks has evolved into a ubiquitous player in the American cultural landscape, making us into caffeine addicts and connoisseurs of expensive coffee. In “Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce and Culture,“ journalist Taylor Clark has written a rollicking account of the social phenomenon, which has become our national meeting place, filling the void left by the churches and marketplaces of the past…

…Clark has many funny asides. Using Internet map searches, he found that the farthest place from a Starbucks in America is the hamlet of Saco, Montana, which is almost 200 miles away from any of the pervasive green coffee shops. The derogatory nickname of “Charbucks” comes from the burned nature of the beans of the Starbucks dark roast. Clark briefly muses over the possibility that burned beans may encourage people to buy expensive milk-based drinks like venti lattes.

The Starbucks’ juggernaut continues unabated worldwide, with the company opening as many as six stores a day and serving 40 million customers. Starbucks penetrated the horrified British, French and Japanese markets and made new coffee drinkers in droves. Like McDonald’s, Starbucks is reaching its saturation point. The coffee giant’s prestige is evaporating. “Starbucks is just going to lose appeal as it grows,” pop-culture analyst Robert Thompson told Clark. “Anyone can get Starbucks now. There’s no exclusivity anymore. They’ve moved into volume, volume, volume.”

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The Wall Street Journal writes about how the book delves into the success of Starbucks:

A major part of the Starbucks story has to do with real estate, since the company obviously favors a kind of neighborhood saturation. “Through a combination of cunning store-placement strategy and ruthlessness with competitors,” Mr. Clark writes, “the company attempted to make it so customers couldn’t help but go to Starbucks.” One Starbucks real-estate dealmaker, who was turned down for an attractive commercial space, discovered that the refusing landlord was a doctor. She made an appointment to see him, pretending to be a patient, and repeated her pitch at his office. He caved in, and Starbucks got the space. As for what space is best, Starbucks prefers to be near dry cleaners and video stores, because they require two visits — for dropping off and picking up.

The company has been no less relentless about its image. The high prices signal not just quality but luxury, and the specialized vocabulary (”venti,” “doppio” and the like) elevates a mundane form of consumption into the realm of cosmopolitan taste. In the same vein, Mr. Schultz strives to make each Starbucks a “third place” between work and home. “We’re not in the coffee business serving people,” he likes to say, “we’re in the people business serving coffee.”
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An excerpt Stephen Colbert’s hotly anticipated debut of “I Am America (And So Can You!)” can be heard on a podcast at Amazon. Colbert, of course, is known as the host of The Colbert Report, which follows The Daily Show nightly.

The book is already atop bestseller charts based on pre-orders (and the nightly stumping that Colbert does on his show).

Publishers Weekly writes: “Realizing that it takes more than thirty minutes a night to fix everything that’s destroying America, Colbert bravely takes on the forces aligned to destroy our country—whether they be terrorists, environmentalists, or Kashi brand breakfast cereals. His various targets include nature (I’ve never trusted the sea. What’s it hiding under there?), the Hollywood Blacklist (I would have named enough names to fill the Moscow phone book), and atheists (Imagine going through life completely duped into thinking that there’s no invisible, omniscient higher power guiding every action on Earth. It’s just so arbitrary!). Colbert also provides helpful illustrations and charts (Things That Are Trying to Turn Me Gay), a complete transcript of his infamous speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and a special Holiday DVD, all of which add up to a book that is sure to be a bestseller and match the success of Colbert’s former Daily Show boss Jon Stewart’s America (The Book).”

Click here to listen to the free podcast on Amazon.

Known, of course, for his legal thrillers, John Grisham has taken a turn at a fish-out-of-the-water story with his new book, “Playing for Pizza.” Despite receiving luke-warm reviews, the book is currently No. 10 on Amazon’s bestseller list. BookOpinion has compiled reviews, an excerpt and a video interview about the novel.

Pblishers Weekly summarizes the plot: “Third-string Cleveland Browns quarterback Rick Dockery becomes the greatest goat ever by throwing three interceptions in the closing minutes of the AFC championship game. Fleeing vengeful fans, he finds refuge in the grungiest corner of professional football, the Italian National Football League as quarterback of the inept but full-of-heart Parma Panthers. What ensues is a winsome football fable, replete with team bonding and character-building as the underdog Panthers challenge the powerhouse Bergamo Lions for a shot at the Italian Superbowl.”

Grisham said the inspiration for “Playing for Pizza” came when he was researching “The Broker” and discovered American football being played in Italy.

“One of my guides in the area played football for the Bologna Warriors for 10 years,” Grisham said in an Amazon interview. “I couldn’t believe that American football actually existed there, but the more I heard about it the more intrigued I became.”

The Associated Press writes, “Surely, he has an affection for football, Italy and Italian food, but not much of that love shows through. He tackles the well-worn expatriate story from a unique angle and it would have been nice to have seen this sports point of view with more depth; it would have been nice to see Grisham take Rick and his story to a place where he’s more than ‘an extra in a foreign film.’”

The L.A. Times are among the reviewers who wished the novel dug a little deeper. “In ‘Playing for Pizza,’ Grisham is content to keep it light,” The L.A. Times writes. “The fish-out-of-water premise often devolves into stereotypes — Italians like to eat amazing food and drink amazing wines — while Rick’s transformations and the outcome of the Panthers season are predictable. And Grisham avoids tackling perhaps the ultimate challenge for a sports novelist or screenwriter: writing an original halftime tongue-lashing by a coach. Instead, he merely describes the coach’s speech… Football may be at the center of ‘Playing for Pizza,’ but this isn’t a football novel. It reads like part Frances Mayes’ ‘Under the Tuscan Sun,’ part Mario Batali culinary diary and part Fodor guidebook.”

The Washington Post reviews the novel:

…It’s easy to see the enticement for Grisham, who has probably spent enough days in law libraries, police stations and morgues to last the rest of his life. By inventing a washed-up former NFL quarterback and limning this obscure subculture, he can dash off the story of an innocent abroad, accustomed to fame and fortune but now forced to ply his trade in virtual anonymity surrounded by oddities such as opera, small cars and teammates who smoke before games. Even better, Grisham can set it against the dolce vita of long meals, good wines, soaring cathedrals and beautiful women.

And that’s exactly what Grisham has done. Unfortunately, he neglected the primary duty of the storyteller, which is to tell a story. The suspense builds as the veteran Grisham reader waits for the surprising plot turn, or the overlooked character detail on which the story will pivot, or the unveiling of a mystery begging to be solved. He waits in vain. The book rumbles straight ahead, as simple and direct and unadorned as a fullback pushing up the middle for a three-yard gain.

The most surprising thing about it, in fact, is that it’s actually about football: the contrived, game-by-game (and even play-by-play) adventures of a real team in a real league that even the Italians don’t care about. Its dramatic arc roughly resembles that of Coach Clair Bee’s adolescent Chip Hilton stories — the early defeat that teaches a lesson, the loss of an injured star, the coming together against adversity, the improbable upset victory — while its lead character, Rick Dockery, is the sort of implausible American boor usually seen in dopey television commercials. That he finds true happiness after he picks up a Georgia cheerleader at a sidewalk cafe is only fitting, I suppose. But it doesn’t exactly make for thrill-a-minute reading…

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The Boston Globe felt differently, writing: “Grisham has connected with a deeply satisfying story of an athlete finding redemption. What could have been a painful exile for a disgraced American quarterback becomes a delightfully unexpected homecoming.”

Grisham discusses the book with Matt Lauer on the Today Show here:

And, finally, here is an excerpt from Playing for Pizza:

Chapter 1

It was a hospital bed,that much appeared certain, though certainty was coming and going. It was narrow and hard and there were shiny metal railings standing sentry-like along the sides, preventing escape. The sheets were plain and very white. Sanitary. The room was dark, but sunlight was trying to creep around the blinds covering the window.

He closed his eyes again; even that was painful. Then he opened them, and for a long silent minute or so he managed to keep the lids apart and focus on his cloudy little world. He was lying on his back and pinned down by firmly tucked sheets. He noticed a tube dangling to his left, running down to his hand, then disappearing up somewhere behind him. There was a voice in the distance, out in the hallway. Then he made the mistake of trying to move, just a slight adjustment of the head, and it didn’t work. Hot bolts of pain hit his skull and neck and he groaned loudly.

“Rick. Are you awake?”

The voice was familiar, and quickly a face followed it. Arnie was breathing on him.

“Arnie?” he said with a weak, scratchy voice, then he swallowed.

“It’s me, Rick, thank God you’re awake.”

Arnie, the agent, always there at the important moments.

“Where am I, Arnie?”
“You’re in the hospital, Rick.”

“Got that. But why?”

“When did you wake up?” Arnie found a switch, and a light came on beside the bed.

“I don’t know. A few minutes ago.”

“How do you feel?”

“Like someone crushed my skull.”

“Close. You’re gonna be fine, trust me.”

Trust me, trust me. How many times had he heard Arnie ask for trust? Truth was, he’d never completely trusted Arnie and there was no plausible reason to start now. What did Arnie know about traumatic head injuries or whatever mortal wound someone had inflicted?

Rick closed his eyes again and breathed deeply. “What happened?” he asked softly.
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Beginning Sept. 25 Audible will offer the exclusive download of “The Chopin Manuscript.”

Created by Jeffrey Deaver (The Bone Collector), Lee Child (Bad Luck and Trouble), Joseph Finder (Power Play), Lisa Scottoline (Daddy’s Girl) and various other Thriller specialists, “The Chopin Manuscript” is the first major work of fiction released directly as an audiobook and Audible is the only place to purchase it.

“Narrated by actor Alfred Molina,” says Audible, ”The Chopin Manuscript promises to be as riveting as it is ground breaking. To amplify the suspense it will be released piece-by-piece starting with the first three chapters on September 25th, and two chapters each week thereafter for the seven consecutive weeks.”

What’s the story behind the story? Listen here: