Book Review: Wizard of Lies (audiobook edition)

Diana B. Henriques, The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Audio, 2011.

 

Genre: nonfiction

Subgenre: business, crime, economics, finance, con men

Format: streaming audiobook

Source: Hoopla Digital via Madison County (KY) Public Library  

Award note: The book was long listed for the 2011 Best Business Books from the Financial Times and McKinsey Book of the Year Awards. (Link to full list. I may need to look over this list for other reading ideas and books to add to the TBR list)

 

If memory serves me right, I picked up this book because it was mentioned in some documentary I watched about Bernie Madoff, probably an episode of the CNBC show American Greed.  Given that this can be a bit dense book at times because of all the details of Madoff's crimes and schemes, I think for me it was better to listen to it than reading it. By the way, the narrator for this book is a woman, which for me is the first time to listen to a female narrator in an audiobook. That is a small detail but it caught my attention this time. The pacing of the narration started out a bit fast but it soon settled into a good pace.

 

The book opens with a prison visit to Madoff, so the story begins at the end,  and we will work backwards. The book ends back with Madoff in prison. The author describes the journey to the prison. Madoff is in a medium-security prison, not horribly harsh but it is not "Club Fed" either. For me, reading the book confirmed a theory I have heard about Madoff, that Madoff's big crime was he swindled and stole from the wealthy and from seemingly smart people, in addition to all the "little people" he stole from as well. If it had just been "little people" he may have gotten lighter time. His interview with the author is the first interview he granted after arrest and imprisonment. He had remained silent before this time. 

 

In chapter 2, we start getting the history of Madoff, how he started and rose. Even early on Madoff took chances, did somewhat shady deals, and even screwed over members of his own family who worked for him. 

 

To be honest, as I stated, this may be a book that is better to listen to than to read in text. A lot of the book is basically outlining in some detail the various schemes and scams that Madoff and his firm ran. He certainly was creative in finding ways to scam people and make more money, fooling a lot of so-called experts and intelligent people along the way. He was also a good marketer, making himself seem as a secure place to invest in during risky times like the tech crash in 2000. By the way, there were articles that at some point highlighted how Madoff's successes could not really be duplicated by others, yet people kept on giving him money. Even when there were warning signs, they often went unheeded by those who could do something. So yes, Madoff was a dangerous crook, but he did not do it by himself. Madoff's schemes were enabled in large part by Wall Street and its greed. He also helped to shape the greedy market we know now, plus a lot of people were more than willing to follow him into what became a precipice. 

 

The book also describes the fall as well. For a while, Madoff, being Jewish, meant that people's prejudices about Jews were triggered when Madoff's scam was revealed. However, the crimes went way beyond any Jewishness as Madoff pretty much scammed people and institutions in the U.S. and around the world. He did start exploiting his good reputation in Jewish communities close to him, but he eventually exercised that initial goodwill and influence from anywhere he could. 

 

The real impact was among the small investors and other obscure victims who lost it all except for maybe the house they owned and any money left in their pockets. The rule of do not put your eggs in one basket was widely ignored here. Overall, Madoff's scam wiped out large and small investors, including small ones who did not see themselves as "investors," i.e. had their retirement through their jobs in hedge funds and such. The small destitute people left by Madoff were the ones mostly forgotten. To be honest, reason Madoff was so condemned was that he ripped off rich people, people who still had plenty left by the way while those who lost it all never got any help from the government (who failed to regulate folks like Madoff) or anyone else. 

 

Here are some other highlights from the book I found interesting: 

 

•  Ronald Reagan's appetite for deregulation would mess up the SEC in its ability to enforce regulations and police stock markets, financial institutions, etc. This also enabled Madoff to get his Ponzi going. 
• More amazing is Madoff and his business were about to sink then something new came along to prop him up for a while longer: hedge funds, which he milked for all he could. How he survived suspicions about his scam, audits, and even a complaint here or there is amazing. He had that "feel for the market" along with some serious charm to keep people calm long enough. Eventually, the house of cards would fall. 
• People who were victims griped when the trustees in charge of sorting out Madoff's scheme and returning any remaining money could not pay back fast enough, but a big issue that most of them were not aware, or did not care, is that Madoff and his company kept seriously antiquated records in paper and even microfilm. This meant processing the information would go extremely slow. A computer network had to be created to speed up the process. 
• Victim statements to court, some of which the author presents, are very moving and jarring at times. Compared to those, the statement Madoff made in court seems fairly useless, a token statement mostly given all the damage and lives he ruined, stealing ruthlessly and without remorse as one of the prosecutors stated in trial. 
• Madoff in the process also destroyed his family, who many believed was as guilty as he was (and they may have been to varying degrees but no evidence found). One of his sons took his own life unable to bear this burden. As for their assets, federal marshals liquidated at auction all they could from the fanciest boats and real estate to the most mundane personal belongings. This process further symbolizes the family fall. When the narrative gets to the point, and the author gives details of the remaining mundane belongings getting auctioned (by now the big fancy things had been auctioned off), it is just a sad and pathetic note with a touch of tragedy given that victims, if lucky, might get back pennies on a dollar.
  

 In the end, the book also reminds us of lessons people need to take from this that they often ignore. For one, never put your eggs in one basket nor put your faith in one man or firm to manage money or other important things. Two, if it seems too damn good to be true, it probably is. This is more so if it is way too good and never goes down despite other investments and economic items going down. The author interviews Madoff in prison and between that and her research we get this very good book that shows us how Madoff worked his scheme without regard of who got hurt, and a lot of people did get hurt, including his own family. This is one worth a read if you want to understand his crimes, his times including the 2008 economic downturn, and all the signs along the way that were either ignored or that people who should have known better were either too incompetent or chose not to see. In the end it is a story of greed, arrogance, hubris, and neglect in seeing the signs available. I really liked this one, and if you are interested in the topic, this is a book I'd recommend. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

Book qualifies for the following 2021 Reading Challenges: 

Booknote: The Lufthansa Heist (audiobook edition)

Henry Hill and Daniel Simone with Joe Barrett narrator, The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million Dollar Cash Haul that Shook The World. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Media, 2015.

 

Genre: nonfiction, true crime

Subgenre: mob, robberies, 1960s-1970s, pop culture, airlines, New York City

Format: Audiobook

Source: Hoopla Digital via Madison County (KY) Public Library

 

This is the story of the 1978 Lufthansa Heist that modern readers and movie viewers may remember from the film Goodfellas. The book is by Henry Hill, who had some role in helping to get the plan moving along. Hill was an associate of Jimmy Burke, who is believed to be the mastermind of the heist. This was the last book that Hill worked on before he passed away in 2012. The book, to be honest, has a lot of the facts and details that Hill told before in his 1985 book Wiseguy (link to my review of the book). So if you read Wiseguy, a lot of the material in this Lufthansa book will be very familiar. Some elements from this book are also present in the film. This book, in addition to looking at the heist, looks at Hill rising in the mob with Jimmy Burke and Tommy DeSimone, starting with Hill's heist of the Air France cargo hold (a prelude to Lufthansa), and it goes through the last days of the investigation winding down after everyone else involved other than Burke and Hill are dead. The Air France heist serves to establish Hill's reputation with the mob. On a positive note, you do get some more details on certain situations not in the book, and you certainly get more depth than in the movie. Still, if you have read Hill's previous book, this may give you deja vu.

A detail that caught my attention is that the robbers that Burke led were mostly illiterate or barely literate folks, and they were not the sharpest tools in the shed either. When you keep that in mind, it is kind of impressive they managed to pull off the heist in a relatively efficient way. Well, it was efficient until they started doing stupid shit after the robbery like buying flashy stuff when they got some of the money. We also need to note that some investigative techniques and technologies we have available today were not available back then.  

The book is a blend of Hill telling stories and his co-author adding details and filling gaps to complete the story. Henry adds and pays attention to small details here and there. He can also be very descriptive at times. He is a good storyteller, a trait I am sure served him well when the film makers came to pick his brains to make the film. In addition, Hill's use of slang can be amusing at times. 

Still, there are differences from the film. In the film, you get the impression that everyone was in agreement to rob Lufthansa. In the book, we see how they hesitated, had concerns, Burke really needed to think about it, Marty Krugman, the bookie who got Hill the information he passed on to Burke, really had to persuaded Burke to take it on. Another example of differences between book and film. In Chapter 32, we knew Stack Edwards was an idiot in not getting rid of the van (mentioned in the film) but just how big of an idiot we get the details here. The guy really was a moron who did go to one of his girlfriends way out of the way to get laid and get high. Getting rid of the van should have been easy since an arrangement was made to use a certain auto junkyard to crush the van and leave no evidence. All Stacks had to do was show up with the van, and he could not even do that one thing. The rest of the crew were idiots as well as noted previously, so it is a bit of a serious miracle they pulled the robbery. Additionally, we do get a bigger picture of the law enforcement agencies infighting to get the glory and credit of the case. We do get as well more detail in the process of how Hill becomes a federal informant. The feds are disappointed that Hill cannot connect Burke and others to Lufthansa (because Burke had everyone else killed who was involved by that time). The feds grow impatient until they begin to discover that Hill certainly knew many other things, and while initially they got Burke on a basketball points shaving scheme, eventually they would be able to use Hill's testimony to get a bunch of other big convictions. Part of the issue, besides Burke having killed everyone related to Lufthansa, is that Hill was an alcoholic and could not function as well without it. But once the feds got him a bit comfortable and they learned a bit of patience, they did get a lot out of Hill.  

I listened to this book in audio. On a semi-humorous note, if they got that guy from mobster documentaries that sounds like he smokes five packs or more a day, the narration could be improved.The narrator here can be a little dry at times, though he does perform voices for different characters, sometimes with amusing effects. For example, Tommy can sound a bit more whiny at times than he likely really was. 

Overall, I liked the book. I liked it in part because I find the story interesting, and I am a fan of the film. However, if you read Wiseguy, then a lot of what you read here will be a review/revisit of those events. If you only know the story from the film though, then the book is worth a read, though I think Wiseguy is a better read. Plus the book does look at events from a different angle at times, so that may be another reason to read this book. 

3 out of 5 stars. 

Book qualifies for this 2020 Reading Challenge: 

Book Review: Five Families

Selwyn Raab; read by Paul Constanzo, Five Families: the rise, decline, and resurgence of America's most powerful Mafia empires. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Media, 2015.

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: True crime, mobsters, Mafia, NYC
Format: Audiobook
Source: Via Hoopla from the Madison County (KY) Public Library

It took me a while but I got done reading this. Raab's book attempts to provide a comprehensive history of the five mob families of New York City: Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo, and Lucchese. I picked up this book mainly because Raab was interviewed in a couple of mob documentaries I watched. The book really packs a lot, maybe too much.

Let me go over some highlights. Raab starts right away the first chapter being fairly stern and direct about the role of the Mafia in NYC and how they dominated businesses and the impact they had. Much of the NYC officials pretty much tolerated the Mafia as long as the industries they controlled delivered their services. Author describes in first chapter how he compiled the information in pieces from various sources and from research. Chapter 2 goes over the ceremony for a made man, taking place in modern times. This chapter is dragging quite a bit, using an individual to illustrate. Chapter 3 goes over this young man's life and his start. The book is still quite slow. I keep waiting for the author to get to the history parts. Chapter 4 finally gets us to the history, going back to the roots in Sicily. Interesting that many Sicilian immigrants came to the US via New Orleans, and eventually some of  them established their own Mafia there. This Chapter also highlights Italian American detective Petrosino, who is the subject of the book The Black Hand (link to my review).

The main issue with the book is that it tries to cover everything. The result is that some stories are covered better than others. In addition, since much of this takes place in New York City, stories can and do overlap, so you can get a bit of repetition. Additionally, the text can be a bit dense. Even if you are listening to a reader, it is still pretty dense text. The topic overall is interesting, but the book itself not as much. To be honest, you may be better off finding smaller, better focused books on specific topics; you might retain what you learn better than trying to slog through this door stopper.

Overall, not bad but it just tries to do it all, and the result is just too long and dense. I'd consider this as optional for libraries. Hard fans of Mafia stories may want to read it, but casual readers may want to find shorter single topic books. In the end, it was OK.

2 out of 5 stars.

Book qualifies for the following 2020 Reading Challenges:

Booknote: Gaspipe

Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Media, 2008. ISBN: 9781400137114.  

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: true crime, memoir, biography, Mafia
Format: audiobook 
Source: Via Overdrive provided by Madison County (KY) Public Library

I picked this up mostly out of curiosity and because I had learned about Gaspipe Casso from other books about the Mob I had read or documentaries I had seen. It is not a terribly interesting book. Much of the book basically is Gaspipe Casso, as told to the author, romanticizing much of his deeds and time in the Mob. Casso presents the romanticizing of the Mafia as the community mediator. For Italian Americans in NYC, you went to the Mafia rather than the police. You also see this in fictional works like The Godfather. The poor oppressed immigrants often needed the Mafia to help them out to solve problems, and it may have started out that way, but it degenerated into the criminal enterprises that exploited said immigrants and pretty much anyone else.

The author's family lived in same neighborhood the Casso family did. In fact, the families knew each other. However, the author's family  had no mob affiliation. Later, this "going back" helped  him get access to Anthony Casso who chose him to tell the story.

The book has some descriptive moments, such as the torture scene of one of the men that tried to kill him. However, the book also features some pretty hokey lines like someone having a doctorate in torture and Beethoven's 5th Symphony of pain to describe a stage of the torture as Casso let wounds on his victim get some time to swell and fester. The subject matter may be serious, but it is often presented in what can only be described as a cheesy style.

The book also provides some look at the history of the Mob in the U.S. and also looks at the organization in general. For example, it looks at why the Mafia was successful. Large part of it was The Commission, which made sure everyone followed the rules, and for a while, everyone did follow the rules. It was business, and business was doing well. So much so that regular business people wanted to be involved with the Mafia in order to get more wealth and power, and those business people were fascinated by how the Mafia dealt in every business and endeavor from law enforcement to movie making to rackets, etc. Many were happy to give the Mafia information and intelligence to keep the business going. To be honest, I found the history digressions more interesting than Casso's life story.

At the end of the book, the appendix questions the whole process of the justice system using mob members turned informant or collaborator, rats as they are often labeled, to secure convictions. More often than not the government does not keep their word in agreements, even when the collaborator did everything that was asked. While these criminals are not to be pitied, the government in some ways using its power to break its word for the sake of appearance, expediency, and convenience (to them) does not exactly make the government look any better and if anything they come across as just as bad as the Mafia when using the philosophy both Mob and government often share: the ends justify the means.


Overall, this is a pretty forgettable book. If are really interested in Anthony Casso's life, this may be a book to pick up although there are other more interesting sources that go over  his life in the Mafia and the Lucchese Crime Family. Borrow this one if you must.

2 out of 5 stars.

Booknote: The Rise of the Fourth Reich

Jim Marrs, The Rise of the Fourth Reich: the Secret Societies That Threaten To Take Over America. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Media, 2008. 

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: history, politics, conspiracies, United States, national socialism (Nazis), globalism
Format: e-audiobook
Source: Overdrive via the Madison County (KY) Public Library

I picked this book up mainly out of curiosity. The title caught my eye initially, and then the description made me decide to take a chance on it. Though the book goes through many topics and digresses at times, the premise is this: you remember those guys the U.S. imported from Nazi Germany at the end of World War II? The Nazi scientists, engineers, so on the U.S. conveniently kept and put to work building the U.S. rockets and bombs among other things? Well, those guys did not stop being Nazis the moment they landed on U.S. soil. They not only brought their technical and scientific knowledge to the United States, but they also brought along their Nazi ideology and views, and their Nazi influence not only survived in the United States, but it has rooted in and made its way through U.S. society and culture to this day. Sure, we might not call it "Nazism" anymore but Nazi ideas like white supremacy, might makes right, the ends justify the means, racism, so on are very much alive and well. Not only that, but such ideas find support in the high elements of American society and politics. That much does make sense, and there are even books that show that Americans, a large segment of their population, have been supportive of Nazi ideas and even helped inspire Nazi idea. One example is the American eugenics movement of the early 20th century. So the basic premise the author presents makes sense, and you can even argue it with some evidence. However, the author then goes on to explore a variety of issues and events in the U.S. that, according to the book,  you can blame on the Nazis. Some of these make sense, and a few, well, let's say they are quite a bit out there.

In brief, here is a partial list of things in  the United States you can blame on the Nazis:

• The way businesses control more of society and government (OK, this is hard not to agree with the author given current events and the occupant of the White House as of this review). 
• Social Security and Medicare.
• The Department of Homeland Security.
• Flying saucers (well, some may be actual aliens from space, but others were likely Nazi technology the Americans were trying out with said Nazi scientists). 
• Fluoride in the water. Water fluoridation eventually goes back to the globalists and the Nazis. In addition, note that for drugs like Prozac, a key ingredient is a form of fluoride. Water fluoridation is not to help children; it is meant to be a long term mind control tool. And yes, this goes back to the Nazis.
• Osama Bin Laden. The Nazis helped out the Muslim Brotherhood, thus paving the way for Bin Laden (go figure).

That is just a partial list. For the rest of this review, I am going to look at some of the claims and observations the author makes and comment.

The book opens discussing some theories that Hitler may have survived World War II. Part of the argument goes back to the idea that Hitler often used body doubles. This theory has pretty much been debunked, but the point the author makes is that his legacy lived on. That idea that the legacy lived on is hard to argue against if we take a look at the modern United States with its white supremacy ideals and current events. People often complain that one should not make comparisons of the current federal government to Nazis, but when the U.S. government advocates fascist and Nazi ideas such as building walls and more recently separating children from parents in families seeking asylum well the comparisons just write themselves. The author argues that the United States today is basically an American Empire, one formed from Nazi ideas that got imported with Nazi scientists, engineers, so on at the end of World War II. The U.S. did not just  import the German war machine to come work for America, but the ideas of those men as well. The author then says he will offer evidence of this without partisan agenda or bias, so he urges the reader to read on and learn more.

Before he gets too far, the author does take the time to define some terms:

• The First Reich = The Holy Roman  Empire. 
• The Second Reich = Germany and Austria at World War I.
• The Third Reich = Nazi Germany as proclaimed by Adolf Hitler.
• "Reich" in German means "empire," but "reich" (lowercase letters) means "rich." This can then mean a rule of the rich. I think readers can guess then where the Fourth Reich will be coming from. 
• The author also reminds us that fascism as the right wing ideology means a merging of government and business. This was modeled historically by Italian Fascism. This definition emphasizes the combination of government and business. In Italy and Germany, the government took control of business. In the modern United States, businesses are making their way into controlling the government. This actually is due in part because, in some corporate cases, these companies had some form of Nazi influence that still permeates said corporations. On a side note, as I often point out as an example, we are not too far off from scenarios like OCP foreclosing on cities to take them private. In the film Robocop 2, OCP fails, but it is mainly due to rogue elements in the company that were less than competent and bad PR, not due to lack of fascist ideals and motivation. Still, as the Old Man asks in the film, "Anyone can buy OCP's stock and own a piece of our city. What could be more democratic than that?" They got close. And it could happen. Closer to reality? The unelected oversight board now running Puerto Rico. By the way, the author notes it is interesting that fascism was seen as acceptable in the 1920s and 1930s. Sure, individual despots were condemned but not the idea of government controlling corporations.

The book does have flaws, and at times a lot of what it presents is tenuous. For instance, at one point  it jumps from National Socialism (nazism) to Socialism (even though they are not the same thing) to argue that things like Social Security and Medicare are part of the National Socialist agenda for controlling the population and centralizing government. Add to this the creation of agencies like Homeland Security after 9/11, and you get more into the argument of the government tightening control. This part can be tenuous, but it provides just enough to make the conspiracy theorists wonder. On the other hand, his later point about how patriotism in the U.S. has been used to stir a strong nationalism where questioning things like foreign policy, overseas wars, so on can open you to be seen as not patriotic is spot on and not to be missed.

The author also looks at how prominent American men and families had connections to the Nazis and/or supported them or their ideals. J.P. Morgan made money helping to rearm the Germans prior to World War II. Families like the Kennedy family (by way of  Joseph Kennedy Sr.) and the Bush family (through their patriarch Prescott Bush) also had connections to the Nazis. In Chapter 5, the author discussed the financial dealings of American families like the Bush family, which are quite intricate. Add to this that many Americans of the time saw FDR as a secret communist, and they often saw fascism as a counter to communism (the big boogeyman to Americans even today), and also note that after FDR limits on presidential terms were put in place. As young folks may say today, just saying.

The business angle also considers how German businesses and companies moved out of Germany at end of war, under various guises and renamings/rebrandings so they could remain in business and operation. Different names, but led by the same Nazis, even if from afar. The author does spend a good amount of time mapping these business ventures. Furthermore, the Marshall Plan? It was business interests that wanted the German economy rebuilt despite other government opposition. And speaking of business, both Hitler and Rockefeller at different times had the sentiment that a thinking populace was not desired; they just wanted a nation of workers. And this by the way is not too different from today.

Chapter 3 is where we go over German "wonder weapons." These were weapons the Germans hoped would win them the war at the last minute, and they ranged from the V rockets to flying saucers. UFOs? Many of them probably go back to the Nazis according to the book, but a few could be real aliens.

Oh, and that Indiana Jones stuff about Nazis and the Ark of the Covenant? Don't worry. The author does not argue that Indiana Jones was real. However, the Nazi Germans did have quite an obsession with the occult, and they even had  special science and military units dedicated to seek out and find occult artifacts such as the Ark of the Covenant. Furthermore, the author provides a look at the role of the occult in Nazism. He gets to an eventual connection to psychics and "remote viewing." This may have inspired the United States Army to later create its own units of psychic spies.  This is what is referred to in the book The Men Who Stare at Goats. On another side note, the author often cites other books to support his claims as well as various articles and other sources. I am sure the text version has a list of references. I read this as an audiobook so I only got references when the author actually mentions them in them in the text. Another example of using other books as evidence comes in Chapter 8 where he cites Robert Jay Lifton's The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. I had this book in my TBR list at one point. This author weaves a lot of ideas back and forth, cites scholarly and relatively well known sources, like Lifton's book, as well as other sources that may or not be as well known or reputable perhaps.

Chapter 7 looks at Operation Paperclip and bringing Nazi scientists over, including Von Braun, designer of the Saturn V rocket that eventually put a man on the Moon. The operation was justified as "the Russians are doing it, so have we" and in the process, those Nazis mostly got away with their crimes. On an interesting note, those Nazis also proved cheap labor, as they were paid less than American scientists, keeping up the fine American tradition of paying foreigners less rather than hiring Americans (even as they proclaim U.S. pride and such). Conspiracies aside, some things in American history never change, including the lack of overall morality and the justification of the ends justifying the means, which was also a Nazi and fascist mantra.

Going back to Rockefeller, Chapter 14 looks at the U.S. educational system, which is more often than not guided by globalists. In the 1960s, Rockefeller established a foundation/board to funnel money into education ventures (and does that remind you of any rich folks who establish foundations and boards to funnel money to promote their educational ideas? Bill Gates might come to mind for example. Some things really never change). The chapter also presents a comparison of education prior to 1900s in U.S. to today. Technology aside, the education back then was rigorous, and as the author points out, a student back then was an educated person fluent in the language, in culture, math and science. This is unlike high school graduates today who in many cases are barely literate.

In the end, the Nazis had their myth of the superior race. Americans have their myth of American exceptionalism where their values are superior to anyone else's (and they are happy to invade anywhere needed to impose said values). America, the author argues, is a national socialist dream come true. The surveillance state is strong and well, and think tanks, corporations, and organizations study our every habit as well as find ways to justify said surveillance state. Meanwhile, American conservatism is basically just now infused with fascist ideas and authoritarianism while worshiping the military/industrial complex. The change then spread to the media, corporations, and even the (two major) political parties. The bottom line is, as the author says, the New World Order is just the Old World Order packaged with  advertising slickness.

I want to close the review with this very good quote from the book that is definitely relevant today:

"The biggest weapon in American politics is money because you can use money to influence people, to influence the media, to influence campaigns, to influence individuals, to bribe people. . . "

-R. Spencer Oliver

Overall, the book has some good points, but it mostly veers into serious conspiracy theory that may seem outlandish or even a serious stretch (and I am trying to be polite here). The author can get seriously verbose at some times, so the book is not necessarily an easy read. Some chapters are more interesting than others. As for the narrator, given I read this as an audiobook, he has an even sounding voice. The tone is serious but calm, but as I said, the text is verbose at times, so some things can sort of blur as you listen. You may have to back up the text a few times to make sure you got something. I ended up liking the book despite the flaws. If nothing else, it was also entertaining at times, and it did encourage me to go seek out some additional books to learn more about some of the ideas presented. For me, a book that gets me to want to read more cannot be all bad.

3 out of 5 stars.

Booknote: People I Want To Punch In The Throat

Jen Mann, People I Want to Punch in the Throat. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Audio, 2014. ISBN: 9781494557430.

Genre: humor (though that is questionable)
Subgenre: memoirs, suburbanites (I would add first world problems, white whines)
Format: Audiobook
Source: Overdrive system via the Madison County (KY) Public Library

This was another book I picked up from my public library's Overdrive system to meet the audiobooks reading challenge I am working on this year. Don't bother with  it; it was pretty much a waste of time. This was worse than Worick's Things I Want To Punch in the Face (link to my review of that). This book is basically the author whining and griping about her travails in married life in a suburb where  her husband goes from being the greatest guy to being the greatest asshole depending on her mood. How they remain together is truly puzzling. The book is not amusing at all.

The book description offers the following: "From noted blogger Jen Mann comes a collection of hilarious essays about suburban life and motherhood." That is probably one of the most highly inaccurate descriptions for a book I have read as a reviewer, and I have read some bad stuff in my time. I have no idea how or where she is a noted blogger, and this book is definitely not hilarious at all. It is more like cringeworthy and embarrassing. I had her other book, the holiday edition checked out too on Overdrive, and I returned it without bothering to read it because one dose of this is more than enough.

I am giving the book one of out of five stars, and I am doing it under protest. 

* * * * *

A few reading notes, which are mostly me responding some of the things I read as I was listening to the book:

Book written by Jen Mann. Renee Chambliss is narrator. Chambliss must have either  been paid very well or was desperate given the material she was stuck with reading. Still, for those audiobook readers out there who pay attention, she did a decent job narrating.

Author starts out with the amusing nature and yet boring and mundane traits of chat in the AOL days. There are not many pseudonymous chat places left online, which in a way is a pity really, but I digress. This AOL segment started amusing, but it pretty much gets annoying fast. She is describing a man she met via AOL chat in those early days. They both make all sorts of assumptions based on little to no real evidence, get mad at each other, and it amazes me they still kept on chatting. This is a segment that the author is stretching way too long, and she should have just moved on after a while.

She actually ended up marrying the guy?? Good grief, the woman must have been desperate or a masochist. This whole exchange is insane in an annoying hipster yuppie way.

She is right. I wonder how that man puts up with her brand of crazy. She either got lucky, or he has really low standards, was desperate too. He seems dorky, but not nuts to the scale she is. Sheesh, can we move on already?

This is related to the story of the pillow for the ring bearer at her wedding. Her mom does have a point:  you should have grabbed the damn pillow before you left. But yea, the guy is an asshole too. Again, how the hell they got married is beyond me, and hearing this is just getting painful at this point. I will be  blunt: the Better Half did not make that mistake. She made sure all the bases were covered, and no one lost their cool. What can I say? Some of us manage things better, but we do not need to write books about it.

I did not think this would be some crappy first world problems memoir. The subtitle of the book is seriously misleading as I have not heard anything about crafters, despots, or other suburban scourges. This is just the  author pretty much whining about every other little white whine first world problem imaginable. How anyone thinks this  is humor is beyond me. The more I read, the less I give a shit.

Her whole uptight thing about the swinger friend is even more ridiculous. Lady, can't handle it? Just leave. And "best part" is  everyone else knew but her. Not very attentive I guess. So the neighbor swings. It is not the end of the world nor a scandal.

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This book qualifies for the following 2017 Reading Challenges:

Booknote: BiblioTech

John G. Palfrey (narrated by Tom Zingarelli), BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google. Old Saybrook, CT: Tantor Audio, 2015. ISBN: 9781494584726. (Published in print by Basic Books).

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: audiobook, LIS, technology.
Format: audiobook
Source: Overdrive collection of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

For a brief time, this book got some hype among librarians. I read it, and to be honest it was seriously underwhelming. Written by what some in the library profession call a "feral librarian" (i.e. someone who is not a librarian nor has the degree who ends  up working  in  a library as "librarian" or often a library administrator), the author's main thrust is about the digital future when all sorts of things will be in the cloud, and we can't get there fast enough. Libraries need to change to embrace that future, but they face obstacles such as the will of their communities to support libraries (because people love to say  how much they love libraries until you ask them to help pay for them). These ideas and more are not really new. To be honest, a lot of what he writes in the book is stuff that has been talked about, written about, argued about, debated, so on for years now. I even double checked the book's release date to make sure I was not reading something from ten years ago or so. The book's copyright date is 2015, but it sounds like something written way back. If you are a librarian who has  kept up, then you pretty know everything in this book. If you are an informed public citizen with  some interest in libraries and the digital world, you probably know a lot of this too. However, if you are not aware of any of the issues the book presents, the book does serve as a basic primer. Thus I have mixed feelings in reviewing it. On the one hand, it  tells me nothing new or that I did not know already. On the other hand, for the less informed who need a crash course, this is a decent start if you can get over a bit of the condescending tone the author adopts at times. By the way, I read this as an audiobook, and the narrator they chose manages to embrace that condescending tone quite well, and no, that is not praise.

Book starts with the often usual "sad note" of libraries with old buildings, and how people now have more choices (i.e. the Internet) but nothing so far on  how many people, for various reasons, often cannot access the  Internet, unless they do so in their public library of all places. This will come later in the book. Book is arranged into ten chapters that cover various topics ranging from how libraries are changing in light  of digitization and Google to issues privacy and copyright. Book eventually ends with  the note I mentioned of hoping we move to that cloud future as soon as possible. It was a note I found  ironic since that was the week that some Amazon techie did a typo and pretty much knocked down their virtual cloud and a huge chunk of the Internet. That note and that event made me feel very reassured. Now do not think I am opposed to progress or technology, far from it. Libraries are still going to be about books, including books in print as well as e-books and other resources, and they will also be about services like teaching children how to read, information literacy, providing access to the Internet to those who need it, job search assistance, and I can go on  and on. Not everything is online, and no matter how many wet dreams technotopians have, not everything will be online, or if it is it is not going to be free and easy to access, and it certainly will not be for everyone given issues of privilege and digital divide. While the author does discuss some of those issues, in the end it's the overly enthusiastic pitch for the cloud and everything online that wins the day.

In the end, for all the hype this book got at one  point, I was not impressed. If you do not know about these issues, then the book is a pretty good primer. It is a probably a book that should be given to a few not so informed voters before they go vote on a library levy for instance. The author does admit the book is more for non-librarians, but it is mostly for people who do not have a clue. Librarians definitely have talked about this, and are often in the forefront of changes even if they do not always get the credit.

I am rating it 2 out of 5 stars, but barely, and mostly because of its value as a  basic primer. Having listened to it  in audio, I think it may work better than having to read the text. It is pretty dry as a text, but  at least the narrator keeps it moving, even if he comes across as a bit smug, which  I  think reflects more the book's author than the narrator.

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Additional reading notes. This particular set of notes may seem a bit informal; I was jotting down responses and comments I had about the text as I was reading it. I may have added a small comment here or there, but this is mostly what I jotted down as I was reading. You can either read on, or stop reading since I already gave you my assessment of the book:

From the book's introduction:

Nice line. Libraries are being forgotten/in danger because society  has forgotten how essential they are. And here we go with the option of "easier" access online. We will see  if  he goes into other things libraries and librarians do, especially in educating patrons who need help in navigating that "easier" access. (He does go into some of it later in the book).

Still, the thing about the easy access on your mobile, as we often say, not everything is on the Internet. Question then of how much does the easy access encourage just good enough mentality of information, even when better information may mean a bit more work searching for it, or lo and  behold, going to a library because they pay for the expensive information sources that are not on Google. As I listen, these and other questions arise. At this point, I am not sure if the author will address them or not, but as librarian, I do hope he does for a more complete picture. I hope this book is more than  just some eulogy or jeremiad about libraries and their "imminent passing" (which keeps failing to materialize).

Another good line: "Democracies can work only if all citizens have equal access to information and culture that can help them make good choices whether at the voting booth or other aspects of public life." Libraries are the ones who do this.

So far, just the usual libraries have more tech, and more people use computers than they look for reading materials. I have heard this line of argument before, nothing new here. I even made a note to myself check when this book came out because it is appearing to be a bit dated.

Author was a "feral" librarian (i.e. a non-librarian who ends up in libraries. In his case, library director at time he wrote the book. He was a law professor before). Claims he got his knowledge, well, like many  of us do: read the library literature and talked to stakeholders and people concerned with libraries, and of course, his job as a library director.  Take that with whatever grain of salt you feel is needed.

Librarians DO chafe with good reason. Very often they DO lead change, and others take the credit or the glory after the less glamorous work was done.

He does sound a  bit hysterical at times. Yet I wonder how much  the appeal to democracy and nobility  of citizenry really work to appeal to the  audience which, as he claims, is outside libraries. The book is not really for us. It is for those outside libraries who need to be supporting libraries with  more than warm fuzzy feelings and goodwill. Then again, he is just starting the book. BTW, that intro took him almost a half an hour of reading time. Quite depressing at times.

From Chapter 1:

Libraries are screwed,  and  they are because they depend on the codex, which  he sees as dead or obsolete. I think a few other  authors may have an issue with  that notion, not to mention all the books in print that are still sold and circulate.

Nostalgia can be dangerous the author states. To an extent, I have to agree.

Yes dude, we get it already. Shift to digital, blah blah, preferences in format changing, blah blah, libraries in difficult spot of making choices. This honestly reads like the most basic of primers for someone who just has no idea of what is going on in the world today overall. I remember when this book got a bit of hype when it came out, but even then, much of this would be known to us. I just wonder how many non-library people actually read this and understood it.

Actually we STILL have to make decisions of purchasing  proprietary  data, often cannibalizing other funds and accounts to do so. He runs a library. Does he not know this?

From Chapter 2:

Again, not  much new here, and some of it pretty depressing. While surveys  show that students who get librarian assistance will use better resources more often (databases versus just googling), fact is most students ask the librarian  as the last option. Thus their research may not be as good. It is the reality we face.

Digital divide. Discussion of problems being able to afford fast speed Internet despite it being so necessary. So, guess where a few of those people go to get  it? Their local public library. On  a side note, ultimate irony in a library  I worked at is a few distance students had to drive  to campus anyhow because they could not run their CMS on their computers at home  to do the class assignments.

Actually, the McDonald's or Starbucks thing of not having to buy to use the wifi varies by place. Yes, he actually went there and used the line of kids just going to the fast food place because they can get better wifi and better hours the building is open. He almost made it sound like it was some panacea.  Many  of these places now do have signs against loitering (our local McDonald's here certainly do), often meant to deter those teens the author refers to trying to get on the free wifi be it for homework or just for fun.

From Chapter 3:

The author honestly has a combination of doomsday hysteria with condescension that does get a little grating after a while. The reader, who is not the author, seems to reinforce this. Narrator has a somewhat authoritarian voice, almost like some school principal, that is not exactly comforting.

Second Life, which he notes libraries there mostly shut down, was nothing more than a brief novelty  for what  was known then as Twopointopian Librarians. As for Virtual Reference, same, a very rarely used service overall, so not surprised places have given it up. I was at a workplace that had it, and it was rarely used. If  nothing else, this book just reminds of a lot of the big deals big shot, and some not so big, librarians made over things that proved to be ephemeral and often without much substance. Libraries, for all that fussing, have often been pretty resilient in maintaining their core values of service to their communities and doing so in basic ways.

A not so good line: I don't think a library as an information gas station is the best image. Yes, he actually used that line. Today, gas stations are highly impersonal, and outside of the convenience stores they have (where they make their real money), you cannot expect any type of motorist assistance if you were to need it. Some of the analogies this author presents are not exactly accurate. 

I honestly wonder what kind of illiterate person living under a rock needs to hear about gaming in libraries or makerspaces by now. As he mentioned at the start, this book is not for librarians. But it does seem to be setting the bar pretty low in terms of who should be reading the book. Then again, given things like the results of the 2016 election, you probably DO have to set the bar pretty low. However, for me, this is getting a bit tedious.

From Chapter 8:

Nice line: digital savvy should not be limited to only those who can pay for it. He does get a  nice line or quote here or there, but  overall, the book becomes quite boring after a while. And  I am a librarian. I am honestly not sure how that general reader he is aiming at is going to handle this.

Holy shit. Young people learn in new ways. They learn in new flashy techie ways. Librarians need to adapt. Blah blah. Heard it before. More I hear, less I see the hype of this book.

From Chapter 10:

Book was released in 2015, but it sounds like it is talking about a decade ago. So much of what it has is either already dated, or at least (most) librarians should know it by now. Aside from low information people, most of what is here has been known for a good while. But this may well be a decent primer for those low information people who, for whatever reason, do not know of these issues, and they should know, especially when they need to vote on things like their local library funding. At the most basic level, this book could be considered a primer, so for those who need it the book may be good. But for the rest of us, this is just terrain we have been over and over.

So basically, in his vision we all go digital, just keep print as back up or for those "weirdos" who may still prefer print, which by the way, most surveys, like this one, still show majority preference for print. And in the process, of course, libraries yield ownership in favor of licensing things they may or not lose at a publisher's whim. To be honest, this is not exactly revolutionary but rather a statement of the obvious status quo we have now and wishful thinking from a technotopian.

The idea that the business world will somehow innovate for the good of the public is laughable at best since experience has proven again and again they mostly do not. But that is the libertarian wet dream. As for the cloud based future, again, questions of access and privilege come to mind, not to mention when the Internet goes down, as it often does in rural areas like where I live or when some Amazon coder does a typo (see link to that story above), no access to your precious cloud. The issue that I find no one mentions is that reliance on all that tech for the sake of convenience, cool factor, so on, does leave us seriously vulnerable. Formats change, and suddenly some materials can be inaccessible. As I mentioned, net goes down, access is gone as well. Not everyone can afford the broadband while new techs require increases in speed of the net. Yes, it is the future, but it is not all as optimistic as this author or others make it sound. The book in the end is a bit of a jeremiad 

At least he concedes for things like preservation and fair distribution of information and knowledge that the public sector should lead.

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This book qualifies for the following 2017 Reading Challenges: