Book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz: a great little book, a quick read full of wisdom that seems like it should just be common sense.  To find happiness, be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best.

Book, Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor: moving reflections on a life devoted to ministry and service, and the unexpected twists and turns in how that was manifested.  As someone who has vacillated widely in my relationship with organized religion over time, much of it rang true for me.

Books in progress or coming up soon: The River Why by David James Duncan (thanks Derric), The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (thanks Artie), The Chaos Scenario by Bob Garfield (thanks Bob).

Magazine, Men's Health: I was somehow subscribed to this magazine through some purchase or survey I took, and when I track down who it was, I'll let them know that they'll never get another dollar or opinion from me (so far I've traced the path through three agencies, waiting on a call back from the third).  As you might guess, the magazine presents ridiculous ideals of what an actual healthy man is like, objectifies women into puzzles to be solved so that they'll be more available for servicing men, and encourages rampant consumerism as the true path to personal happiness.  Umm, no thanks.

Live Performance, Second City in Chicago.  I've seen this Saturday Night Live feeder troupe do their thing in the past and it's been really, really funny.  When I went again recently, the material was not funny, the actors were not in to it, and the show dragged on.  Lest you think it was just me, one of the longest jokes in the performance centered around a man describing for several minutes in graphic detail the brutal rape of a woman his character met at a bar; apparently it was supposed to be funny because it was edgy, but it was actually just wrong.

Live Performance, Cats: What the hell was Andrew Lloyd-Webber smoking when he created that?  And oh, there was some good singing and dancing and stuff.

Television, Glee: I shook my head in disbelief when my co-workers described the premise to me, but I ended up watching it anyway.  It's part high school drama a la "Friday Night Lights," part Auto-Tuned musical production, part ridiculously contrived sitcom.  I'm worried that, like the dreadful mess that was Prison Break, the show's creators never really expected it to take off, and therefore have no idea where they're taking the story or character development, and so they inject artificial plot twists to delay the season finale so they have the off-season to make something better up.  I can't say I recommend it on the whole, but the interesting renditions and mash-ups of the musical numbers are pretty impressive nonetheless.

Television, V: I love a good "the aliens have come to destroy us" sci-fi drama, and it's harder to resist when the story is couched in the hopes, fears, technologies and personalities of the present day.  V (for Visitors) has done a reasonable job of creating just that, but it seems like they've unleashed their entire bag of tricks in the first few episodes, so (like Glee) it's hard to imagine a sustaining storyline and character development.  The hardcore fans of the original show must be really ticked off, and having been a fan of her work in Lost, it's too bad to see Elizabeth Mitchell compelled to say such campy lines.  I will give maybe one or two more episodes of my time, and then I will go back to watching old Star Trek: TNG episodes, because it was never campy.

Movie, 51 Birch Street: a really neat documentary that anyone who's ever thought about life, love, family, relationships or marriage would probably enjoy at some level.  It was a helpful reminder for me that even the marriages of my parents and grandparents and their peers, which may seem to me frozen as unquestionably pure during unquestionably better times, were probably actually more complicated than that.  It's also a great story about never quite knowing what your moment in the spotlight will look like.

Anything you'd like to suggest?

The Reader is one of those films that haunts my thoughts and dreams for some time after I've seen it - in part because of the subject matter, and in part because of how beautifully and authentically it was rendered.  Director Stephen Daldry rightly relied heavily on the amazing ability of his cast to communicate so much through the slightest changes in expression or well-timed pauses, and the cinematography only complemented this by just getting out of their way.

The weight of the story revolves around a very specific plot twist that ripples out into the parts of the movie you've already seen and every scene after, but the emotional components of the movie as a whole span no less than every challenge a human being and its culture might face in a lifetime: love, war, genocide, justice, family, aging, integrity, honest, class, fear and more.  The film also reminds present day viewers that the Holocaust is not just a part of history - the things that happened then are very much still playing out today in ways someone of my generation can probably not imagine.  There are no sweeping conclusions or black and white moments of morality here - it very much shows the complexity of being human, and that we are all under construction until the very end.

If you appreciate gray areas in what it means to be human, you will probably also enjoy Then She Found Me, which Helen Hunt directs and stars in.  Despite the other big name cast members - Colin Firth, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick - this is no nicely wrapped romantic comedy.  It cuts to the bone of what it means to be in love, in partnership, in a family and shows no mercy in trying to genuinely portray the gut-wrenching ups and downs that comes with it.  It's not all painful and there are moments of joy, hilarity and redemption that are only possible when a filmmaker helps you fall in love with the characters at some level, but this is not brain candy by any stretch.

A favorite exchange in the movie's recurring theme of what it means to love, and then hurt the ones we love:

I know what I did to you. To you in particular.

Like a worst nightmare kind of thing, right?

I knew that.

Even at the time, I knew that.

- What else? - I'll do it again.

I will. I'll hurt you again and again.

Not like that.

You'd have to leave me if I hurt you like that.

If we were together, you'd leave me if I hurt you like that again, wouldn't you?

Yes. Yes, I would.

Good.

But I'll hurt you in other ways. Little ways. I won't mean to, but I will.

And sometimes, I will mean to.

This is quite an offer you've worked up.

You'll hurt me, too, you know? You'll hurt me and change on me.

You might leave me after you promise you won't. How about that?

- I wouldn't. - You might.

- But I wouldn't! - But...

you might.

Yeah, I guess I might.

Well done.

And lastly, you know what the exact opposite of well done is?  Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End, that's what.  Hopefully most people know by now that seeing a "3" of any film franchise is a big risk to start with, but for some reason we tried it out, and we quit halfway through (which, for a 3 hour movie, was still quite a bit of time wasted).  I'm here to warn you off of this movie, so I won't offer any analysis other than to say that it's clear the script for this movie was essentially vomited out of of someone's brain while they were under the influence of some sort of illegal narcotic, and then hurriedly made into a film before anyone could say out loud what they must have all been thinking: "we are doing this to make enough money on opening weekend to cover our costs and a little more, and we don't care if it makes absolutely no sense at all and totally wastes the talent of our cast."  Mission accomplished.

Seen any good films lately?

1) The Fireplace Shop at 1000 North F Street in Richmond is an amazing little brick complex that showcases all that can be done with wood and other heat sources. From traditional fireplaces to wood burning stoves to corn pellet stoves to crazy other conflagrant configurations, it was quite a wonderland of temperature control. With the added bits of atmosphere like lazy cats sprawled across warm surfaces, fireplace and chimney sweep nostalgia everywhere, and the hustle-bustle of workers in workshops catering to the demands of the cold season, it was a nice place just to be and observe. The store also adjoins a ceramic tile store (which sells the locally made Terra Green Ceramics line) and a brick/stone store, so you can knock out quite a bit of home improvement planning in one place. I can't imagine there's one of these in every community these days, and I'm certainly grateful to have one here.

2) Rohan India is a new-ish Indian Food restaurant in Oxford, Ohio that offers slightly faster access to this cuisine from Richmond than similar options in Dayton, Cincinnati or Indianapolis. The Chicken Shahi Korma with Mushrooms dish I had was probably the best Indian dish I've had at any location in the region, and when I got a spice level of 6 (out of 10), they really came through with that. The proximity of this dining option may be just enough to balance out the problems with the atmosphere and service - several large screen televisions blaring music videos, sports games, etc. dominated the visual landscape, and we had to play the "forced eye contact and hand waving" game at times just to get a server to pay attention. But overall, it was a fine experience, and quickly becoming a destination for Richmondites - I've heard at least three other distinct mentions of it this weekend alone.

3) At Home Kitchen and Gourmet at 414 North 10th (in "The Loft" where Ghyslain is) is a new location brought to us by the folks at Warm Glow Candles. Right now the shop features a variety of kitchen and bath items with Warm Glow candles sprinkled amongst them. Many of the items seemed "pricey" for Richmond, but they were generally quite unique and beautiful, and compared to a Williams-Sonoma visit in Chicago, probably a good value. The clerk who checked us out indicated that the inventory was largely just overstock from the main Warm Glow store in Centerville, and that after the first of the year, they'd be reworking it to focus much more on being a comprehensive kitchen and bath supplier. Even though I'm not one to go shopping for such things regularly, it was just great to see a locally owned place like this pop up here.

On top of that, I got to attend the Alternative Holiday Bazaar at the Clear Creek Food Cooperative, which showcased locally-made crafts and gifts on Saturday against the backdrop of live music and smiling faces - the items will be on sale all this week too.

Seeing these places, these events, these people reminds me that there are people investing anew in this community and in the surrounding ones, people making a living here and doing it in such fun and interesting ways - I'm thankful for that.

"If you read my previous post about 10 Reasons to Work at Summersault, you may have noted Reason #5: In-depth performance reviews provide you with concrete professional goals and feedback on your successes. As we wrap up our Fall review cycle for staff here, I thought I’d say a little more about just what that process involves."

Continue reading Staff evaluations: giving feedback, building strong teams.

For my recent road trip, however, I got over these hesitations (for better or worse) enough to want to give the use of GPS a real spin, and I did in the form of the Garmin Nuvi 360. Here's my review.

Overview

In short, traveling with the Nuvi was like having Google Maps at my fingertips, all the time. I could always quickly try out different scenarios for directions and distances to different spots from wherever I was, and see what kinds of attractions and services were available along the way. Pre-GPS, I would have sat down at home and done the same thing on Google Maps and on an atlas, and then printed out/written down my desired routes. But, once I was on the road, I would have had to stick to that plan unless I was ready to get out the map and recalculate by hand, or find Internet access to research alternatives. With the Nuvi in hand, I literally left all of that behind, got on the road, and left the rest up to realtime navigation.

As a result, I often changed plans, destinations, or routes on a whimsy. Want to drive down that road without knowing where it goes? No problem! The Nuvi will know how to eventually get you to your final destination without a lot of backtracking. Want to find a local bookstore or restaurant somewhere between here and there? No problem, the Nuvi will provide an array of options, how far they are away from your current location, and in what direction. (At some points, I was literally navigating by looking at this little screen in front of me, instead of out my windshield - not good driving practice, I know.) Whereas on past trips I might have mapped out where I would camp or rent a room for a night well in advance, with the Nuvi in hand I would just drive until I was about ready to stop, and then find a suitable option up ahead.

Interface

The user interface to the Nuvi was probably my biggest potential concern because, well, user interfaces are rarely done right in the world of consumer electronics. But Garmin did get it right, with intuitive buttons, clear and useful displays, and a quite reasonable set of default settings. I appreciated that they went out of their way to not just make it functional, but to make it a pleasure to use.

Phone Features

A favorite feature (which completely blows us out of simplicity-land, I know) was the Bluetooth interface to my mobile phone and the built-in handsfree system on the Nuvi. I could not only look up a possible destination, but tell the Nuvi to call it on my phone, and then talk to the person on the other end without ever fumbling with a headset or the phone itself. The Nuvi had full access to my phone's addressbook and call history, so I could easily navigate other calls as well. Sometimes the sound quality wasn't great, but I think this was a Bluetooth issue, not a product issue.

Other Features

Another favorite feature is that the Nuvi's own internal data set can be expanded with custom data sets, injected via the use of an SD memory card. The data format is open and easily created, so I quickly found online resources that let me download all sorts of interesting waypoints - wacky tourist attractions, wifi hotspots, rest areas with certain amenities, etc. Kudos to Garmin for not forcing customers to purchase or download this data from them.

The Nuvi came out of the box with a versatile windshield mount, which I just assumed I was going to have to pay some ridiculous amount extra for as an accessory. It also came with a nice carrying case, and a number of power options.

I haven't yet used the Nuvi for navigating significant routes on a bike, or for other extra-curiccular activities like Geocaching, but I'm told by my fellow users posting reviews online that the Nuvi has great modes/features for these things, so I'm looking forward to that too.

Areas for Improvement

Now, for some of my gripes, which may not be particular to this model of GPS, but are worth mentioning anyway:

• Even with the "2009 map data" uploaded prior to my departure, the Nuvi still had significantly out of date information. In one instance, it tried to guide me to a bookstore that had apparently been gone for 2 years or more. In another, an interstate exit system had clearly been completely reworked since the Garmin folks visited, and if I'd followed the Nuvi's directions I would have ended up going the wrong way on an exit ramp. I can't complain too much - it is a huge data set to maintain and this is the kind of complexity that I wish didn't exist at all - but it's still worth noting.
• For some busy and complex highway systems, the Nuvi didn't do a good enough job giving me the notice I needed to navigate successfully, and in a few cases where poor highway signage was also a factor, I missed various ramps or turns. In most cases, it actually tends to overcommunicate about upcoming turns, so I guess it's just a testament to how insane some highways are.
• The Nuvi doesn't provide any way to let you access the route you've travelled after you're done with your trip. Many GPS units will let you download your route for display on a computer or even posting online, and the Nuvi was known to be able to do this at one point, so this seems to be an intentional limitation placed by Garmin, probably to avoid hurting sales of other units that do provide this feature. This was probably one of the most disappointing flaws for me.
• The suite of software that is available to interface with the Garmin, at least on Mac OS X, is a little too confusing for my tastes. It includes "Garmin Bobcat," "Garmin Map Update," "Garmin MapInstall," "Garmin MapManager," "Garmin POI Loader," and "Garmin Web Updater." Now, just looking at the list, how are you supposed to know what application does what? It turns out there's really only 1 or 2 you need to use, but and fortunately in addition to the somewhat clunky mapping software package that comes standard, you can also use a web browser plugin to just send information straight from Google Maps to the GPS unit, bypassing the clunking software. Yes!

Conclusion

All in all, the Nuvi became an essential and much-appreciated part of the trip. Despite my initial hesitations, I really did just give myself over to its advice, and I think that turned out fine. Whereas in the past I might have been stressing out over missing a turn, finding the best route, or searching for interesting attractions along the way, I was instead enjoying the scenery and thinking happy thoughts.

It's still a luxury and a ridiculous privilege, I know. I don't use the Nuvi for navigating around town or on short trips in the region, but for now I know that if I'm going into territory that is at all unfamiliar, I'll probably have it along (at least until the satellites stop working).

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is part documentary, part tribute, and part lamentation on the state of the world. As a documentary, it put Thompson's life in the context of his times and honestly contrasts the larger-than-life myth of the man with the reality of his personal life. As a tribute, it uses a broad spectrum of interviews with friends, family members, business associates, and even foes to honor a life that was lived so fully, if not in line with what was expected of him. And as a lamentation on the state of the world, it puts the corruption and power struggles of early 1970s presidential politics next to the way things are done today, and notes that we've mostly gotten worse instead of better. (It certainly made me want to learn more about George McGovern's campaign and platform.)

I came away with a portrait of a man who was radically self-absorbed and self-indulgent, leaving a trail of broken relationships and lives in his wake. At the same time, he was clearly one of those rare people who can speak truth to power, actually have a positive impact, and have a great deal of fun while doing it. Of course, "fun" often meant consuming much drugs and alcohol, and while I can't endorse this lifestyle (nor does the film), it seemed to work as well for Dr. Thompson as it could for anyone.

Overall, the film was very well done and quite compelling, with only a few unnecessary ventures into the storytelling tactics of cheesy "true hollywood"-style shows. The narrative, peppered with voiceovers by Johnny Depp who played Thompson in the 1998 movie adapted from his book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", was a good mix of driving as fast as possible between all of the unbelievable things that its subject did in his life and stepping back to look at some of the recurring themes that fueled the legend.

It's clear that the more material that's created around Hunter S. Thompson's life now that he's dead, the more he will be absorbed into the mainstream of our cultural mythology. At the end of this film, the scenes from his funeral show the big names of entertainment and politics coming out to celebrate his life, but I suspect many of these people wouldn't have touched his approach to life with a 10 foot pole while he was alive, if it even remotely implied their endorsement. Thompson always seemed gearing up to declare that the whole ball of wax is screwed up beyond repair, ready to name names and make a scene until something got better, or at least until he got the attention he wanted. Now that he's gone, he's a little more safe, a little more endearing, a little more like a friend that's been taken from us than the violent, rowdy, instigator of a counter-cultural icon that took his own life just when he darn well felt like it.

But this is the way of history, and one can only hope that by watching "Gonzo," once we've gotten past the parts of Thompson's life that are troubling or even repulsive to us, a part of us can find some kind of inspiration in his refusal to do anything except pursue the work and the life that he believed in, no matter the cost.

"Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" is in theaters now.

(By the way, if I've ever encountered anyone remotely like Hunter S. Thompson from my generation, his name is Sander Hicks, and he's a playwright/journalist/song-writer/activist/instigator/entrepreneur living in New York City. I also think he's probably a little bit less crazy than Thompson, and probably owns fewer guns.)

• Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda by Wallace, Melton and Schleshinger
  Fascinating, scary, and geeky. With great diagrams and photographs explaining how spy devices were constructed and worked, and with interesting stories about various successes and failures, all told from the perspective of the "techs" working behind the scenes to support operations. For someone interested in geopolitical history, technology, security issues and government secrecy, it was a must read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Warning: the book minimizes any discussion of the ethical/moral/legal implications of the spycraft, and the human toll takes a backseat to the geekery.

• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
  Important, thorough, and ineffective. Dawkins tries to cover every possible angle of every possible argument that there is no God, declaring that "we are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further." But while his rambling logic may be sound and his stance bold, it eventually comes off as obnoxious and overly hostile to be useful to anyone except another militant atheist. He also doesn't address versions of God that still may appear supernatural, but that don't ascribe otherness, intelligent designer status to God, e.g. animism, pantheism (though in other interviews, he says he has no problem with those versions). The question "can science give meaning to existence?" is core. I did find I tend to agree with Dawkins that the Universe doesn't owe us meaning, and that we can give our own lives meaning through what we create, or we can let the meaning of life come from how we understand/study/interpret/live out our existence.
• Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil by Michael C. Ruppert
  Rambling, depressing, and comprehensive. Still not done with all 617 pages, but I'm pretty sure what I'll find in the rest - more of Ruppert's dramatic and exhaustively researched connecting of peak oil and energy issues, climate change, the CIA, the Presidency, the planning and execution of 9/11, PNAC, the drug trade, PROMIS, the Saudi Royal Family, economic policy, international politics, surveillance and civil liberties issues, government corruption, and personal failures. The book is not well organized and at times is flat out incoherent, but still has a lot of good original research in it. More important are the correlations that Ruppert makes between all of the above topics over the last few decades, and the horrifying conclusions that can be drawn if even some of them are accurate. It's a tour de force in assessing the sad state of our civilization, but nothing will keep it from being characterized by most as a total wackjob's self-indulgent conspiracy theories. Those seeking truth AND clarity must look elsewhere.

If you've read any of these and have additional thoughts, please share. Or, if you are also a consumer of the written word, let me know what's in your reading list these days.

It's certainly too little too late for someone who was often the public face of a government that we now know was actively misleading its own citizens about Iraq, wielding its power to practice malicious (not to mention illegal) personal attacks and then covering them up. If you believe in the power of the press and public opinion to help shape U.S. policies (or to at least hold the government accountable for its actions), and if you know how much the press regurgitated White House statements without critical evaluation or follow up in the last seven years, then you might say that Mr. McClellan is fairly directly responsible for a lot of unnecessary death in the world.

Even with the disgust and distaste in my mouth, I still appreciated reading his account of his years with George W. Bush, and his take on the problematic culture of "permanent campaigning" in Washington, and it reminded me of an important point: the federal government is just made up of individual people who are flawed, stubborn, vulnerable, scared, and fragile in the same kinds of ways all the rest of us are. (Unfortunately, as McClellan makes all too real in his account, when those personal flaws translate into the flawed foreign policy of a world superpower, or into the poor representation of a citizenry's actual needs and desires, the impact is at a whole new level of tragedy.)

McClellan writes more in the style of a college expository essay than a personal narrative, using "As I have shown in this book..." or "As I explained in Chapter such and such..." throughout. I was worried when I saw a few of the glossy pages in the center of the book with photos containing images from his childhood that he would (as some other tell-all writers have done) spend the first third of the 323 pages taking us on a tour of his upbringing, trying to connect statements he made as Press Secretary to the time when his uncle wouldn't let him have a candy bar he wanted, etc. But mercifully, he minimizes that kind of narrative and gets straight to the point of the book as it's been pitched: an insider's take on how the Bush White House does business.

There are few moments of stunning insight or reflection, but the book still manages to be shocking and noteworthy in the sense that it confirms what Bush administration critics have felt for many years: this is a Presidential administration that sets its own goals based on ideological self-confidence, and then make the facts and intelligence and talking points and various departments of the Executive Branch all fall in line behind those goals. It ignores public outcry, mass demonstrations, and personal appeals, and punishes those who are anything but 100% loyal and on message. It "stays the course" even when all other conventional wisdom and practical advice says otherwise. And it does all of this through the manipulative and agenda-driven personalities of a few individuals at the heart of the administration.

I suppose that the one area where I was surprised was in McClellan's own seemingly authentic contrition about his actions. He clearly knows the tradecraft of spin well enough that he could have manipulated the story into a narrative where he had no blame to share, or even where every actor involved was trying to do the right thing but the pressures and constraints of governing just didn't go as well as it could. But instead McClellan doesn't hesitate to say that he should have been paying better attention, he should have been more assertive, he shouldn't have believed some assurances he was given, he shouldn't have said the things he did. He also isn't afraid to point his finger at individuals within the administration and say "this person clearly didn't live up to the standards of their office" He stops short of personal attacks, but only because he seems conflicted about his relationships. For example, he vacillates back and forth between admiration of George W. Bush's personality and ideals, and sharing a candid disapproval of Bush's approach to being President and the significant personal flaws that this represents.

McClellan makes a few suggestions for how the Presidency could be repaired, and how George W. Bush should make amends with the American people. He even writes out a statement that the President could make about what happened in Iraq in the name of healing the country's deep divides:

An honest statement of the facts would have served Bush better -- something like, "We now know that Saddam was a less serious threat than we believed...What is important now is that we continue to work together on a consensus way forward to a successful outcome - one we can all agree on. That is how we, here at home, will best serve our troops fighting abroad and honor the sacrifices that so many of them have made and are making."

Of course this is a tad idealistic, since if the President and his advisers really valued a consensus process, political unity and solutions that serve all of us, many other things would be different too.

McClellan goes on to say that in order to move away from the permanent campaign mentality - where tactics used in trying to get elected are wrongly employed as a part of governance - new staff positions need to be created that separate politics from policy. In the context of the administrative structure we already have these ideas might be worth a try, but in the context of creating a governmental structure that serves the American people as best as possible, it's hard to imagine that a "Deputy Chief of Staff for Governing" and a few new support staff are going to fix the severely broken system in place now.

In the end, McClellan is clearly just another player in a bureaucratic and political nightmare that still continues to this day, and unless his book helps us to wake up from it, I'm not sure it has much to offer now beyond satisfying some morbid curiosity about the internal workings of the Bush Administration. But as someone who was tasked with the unique role of translating the White House's untenable positions into statements that the press could try to take back to the American people, to have McClellan admit several times that he was passing along lies and disinformation is still a big deal. In that sense, What Happened is at least one small act of penance in a Presidency that has so much to be sorry for.

Quinn, who I've mentioned here a few times, is an author who has spent much of his life writing books that try to show readers a different way of looking at the world and the story we tell ourselves about how the world works. In Write Sideways, Quinn essentially tries to answer the question, "once you have seen the world from a different perspective, how do you help other people see that same new perspective in a way that's meaningful and lasting for them?"

As a man who often puts himself in the role of a teacher, Quinn also seems to be ever in pursuit of ways to explain his methods and process, perhaps in the name of passing on the practice of opening eyes and changing minds (his approach to world changing). But as he tells in Write Sideways, he seems to have some difficulty doing so effectively, at least based on the wild and strange questions he gets from his readers. This is not the first time he's told his own story in an attempt to provide some context and background to his approach; in Providence: The Story of a Fifty Year Vision Quest, he recounts his life leading up to the publication of Ishmael, his most famous and impacting work. I was worried that Write Sideways would be a recycling of that information or of other parts of his writings, but despite some re-hashing of parts of the Ishmael novels, I would say it's a self-contained and fresh take. (It's not necessary to have read his other books, but you'll get more out of it if you have.)

The book is structured as a conversation between Quinn and one of his readers, Elaine, who visits him for a few days in his home. It's essentially a slightly edited transcript of the conversation, and so it reads quickly, as though we are sitting in on the conversation, turning our heads back and forth between Quinn and his guest. I thought one of the key points in the book came early on, when Quinn admitted that while he's always avoided looking at himself as anyone special, he's come to accept that he has a unique frame of reference on the world, and that getting to that frame of reference is a kind of skill and wisdom in itself. From there, Quinn guides Elaine through challenges and exchanges that attempt to help her do the same, often with questions from readers as exercises.

Each time I have encountered Daniel Quinn, he has always inspired me. At first it was Ishmael and his other earlier books that inspired me to look at the world in a different way, and to find other people who were doing the same. Since then, when I've met him, talked to him on the phone or heard him speak to groups, it's been his process and approach so some of the world's most vexing problems that have inspired me, as someone who seeks to do some eye-opening and mind-changing in my own life and work.

I'm not sure anyone will ever be able to truly replicate what Quinn does, but as I'm sure he would say, it's not really about him, it's about finding new ways for humanity to live that are sustainable. To that end, Write Sideways is a helpful contribution from someone who's been pioneering those efforts in his own special way for quite some time.

I'll just say right now that this book is really going to tick off a lot of people, especially those who might trend toward an unquestioning loyalty to a certain current U.S. President and his policies. Heck, the book cover is going to tick those people off. It says some stuff that will seem pretty outrageous to many, treasonous to some, and perhaps worthy of retaliation to a few. For his sake, I hope Mr. Alten has thought that part through well enough, but I commend him for staking a successful writing career on it.

As engaging of real world issues as the book was, I fear that the weak and much too nicely wrapped up ending of The Shell Game is a sign of the extreme difficulty in actually achieving the lofty state of affairs that the world reaches in Alten's telling. By 2012, corrupt government officials are being held accountable, the media is willing to report on meaningful issues that affect the future of our culture, Presidential campaigns are fairly funded by federal election funds, lobbyists and 527s are outlawed, rigged touch-screen voting machines are exposed, the Saudi Royal Family is exiled, Ethanol is on its way to replacing gasoline at the pump, and wind turbines are powering 50 percent of American homes. And unfortunately, quotes from John Lennon ("imagine...") and Gandhi ("be the change...") top it all off. It's a great vision, it really is, but come on.

The Shell Game isn't for everyone, and again, it's going to tick a lot of people off. But if you like to be challenged a bit and if you're curious about what a novel cut from the cloth of real events, real questions about 9/11, and real oil-related troubles that lie ahead might look like, it's worth trying on.