Elephants Books

Give this time to grow on you. Yes, it's a little raunchy at first glance--I was surprised this book had very plain, frank pictures. We stuck with it and by the time we read it the fifth time or more, we loved it. The kids absolutely love it. My first son memorized the entire book at age 2. Some words are simple, some are complicated. This is one of the top 10 children's books I've ever seen.

I thought this book was very cute and creative until I got to about the 12th set of comparisons, where it shows boy and girl elephants peeing from their respective private parts! It goes on to show elephants with corks in their rear ends and liquid pouring out to show "plugged" and "unplugged". I also didn't like seeing one of the elephants on fire to show "lit", and a smoking elephant to show "extinguished". I know the authors are French, so maybe they have different ideas on what is appropriate for children. But this type of material is definitely not ok in our house. Buyer beware!

This book is so creative, it is great for kids and adults. We've had it since my kids were 3 & 4 and they love it. I'm always tempted to leave it in our office waiting room, for easy entertainment. The pictures and ideas are so surprisingly fun, while for kids, truly expanding their vocabulary.

My 2 year old received this book when he was born and we have been reading it to him since. He loves it so much, we had to buy a copy for a friend who just had a baby. He is learning all about opposites and also expanding his vocabulary. We had to buy a second copy for ourselved because the first one is wearing out already!

Lighten up, people! You are taking this book WAY too serious! These are elephants that we're talking about, not naked humans. This book is supposed to be funny and a take-off on traditional abc books. My kids own this book and no, they have not been emotionally damaged by viewing peeing elephants.

The honesty with which he recounts his time in Thailand is why we should care about this book. That he reveals to the reader his experience as self-serving yet non-transcendent demonstrates his commitment to seeing life as a slow, deliberate journey towards discovering peace, and his very clear understanding of Buddhist themes. It is a humble snippet of a life, delivered in a time when we expect stories of self-discovery to be accompanied continuously by soundtracks, tears, and explosions of light.

First, let me just say that I recommend this book heartily to anyone interested in Buddhism, Thailand, coming-of-age stories, or inter-cultural understanding in general.

This book is gentle, unlike many memoirs these days, and Coffin takes the time to make you understand why he becomes a monk, and why he later decides to disrobe (which is entirely acceptable in Thai culture). But what is truly different about this book is that it gives the reader an intimate view of "village Buddhism," which can be quite different from the actual instructions to monks by the Buddha. Nobody does anything bad, but the attitudes are really different from other accounts of dedicated monks one might have read. It's all fascinating and not in the least disheartening, so hopeful Buddhists need not fear it.

I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to whatever Mr. Coffin has planned next.

This blend of memoir, cultural observation and travelogue follows the journey of a half-Thai American man who left his privileged New England college to become an ordained Buddhist monk in his mother's native Thai village. His spiritual and social journey comes to life in this account of a young man caught between two cultures and very different worlds. To call it a 'memoir' is too simple: to limit it to travel sections of libraries is too confined. It's an involving gem of a read.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

That's a harsh heading, but this really is an incredible story... of one college undergrad's brief summer visit to Thailand. A philosophy major unsure of what (if anything) he wants to do, Coffin applies on a whim for a grant to live as a monk in his mom's hometown in Thailand. This certainly has the potential to be interesting... but since he isn't actually a Buddhist or very interested in Buddhism, nor is he spiritual or very interested in spirituality, nor does he speak Thai or is interested in trying to learn it, essentially he hangs around, ogling the local girls and feeling angst-ridden and bored. He makes friends with one of the few English-speaking monks and marvels at the man's seemingly cryptic utterances ("I go ten thousand years in cave!")-- I couldn't help wondering if the man might have been less cryptic and more interesting in his native language-- and at the end of the summer goes back to Middlebury. This certainly isn't a book about monastary life, Buddhism or even much about Thailand, which remains impenetrable to the author; instead it's all about him, but his lack of engagement or interest in anything but himself makes him just one more undergrad philosophy major. I couldn't figure out why I should care.

Jaed Coffin grew up in Maine, the son of a Thai mother and a white American soldier. His parents divorced when he was an infant and until her father died, his mother brought him and his sister on several visits to her ancestral home town. Growing up with roots in two cultures, he felt--as young people often do--rooted in neither.

While at Middlebury College Coffin studied philosophy and, he writes, "had become obsessed with Buddhist thought and secretly imagined that my cultural background entitled me to privileged insight into ancient sutras." The reader might have preferred more on his spiritual path as a prelude to Coffin's decision to go to Thailand and be ordained as a monk. It may have been a question of family or cultural responsibility, like compulsory military service, but that is not conveyed in Coffin's writing.

A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants: A Memoir is Coffin's story of life in the temple as a chanting monk. He writes in an observational fashion and the details of this culture shock are vivid. He spoke very little Thai when he immersed himself in temple life, nor was his understanding of Buddhism extensive. And, it must be said, his commitment to the celibate life was not deep.

The writing is crisp and descriptive but the main character of this memoir remains something of an unknown. Coffin writes of his "not sure heart" and after ten weeks, decides to go back to the U.S. and finish college; or maybe that was always his intention? There's a further decision to be made, about a Thai girl named Lek, and again the decision process is not explored for us.

I give this book four stars for the lucid language and the wonderful story of Thai village and temple life. The fifth star will be added when Jaed Coffin digs more deeply into the motivations behind his characters. I hope he does that in a future work, so I can enjoy more from him.

Linda Bulger, 2008

You may think that here is yet another business book designed to sell the authors tapes, lectures, consulting services, etc. You may be right.

You may also find that reflection on a life lived for decades can provide insight and inspiration that you cannot find in your mile a minute world.

I first encountered Handy in a Fast Company article. He was discussing his fathers life and his fathers death.

I won't spoil the lesson he learned (it is worth reading for yourself) but at the end of the day it poses a question...., "How many lives can one person affect at a truly deep and meaningful level, while never straying more than a few miles from home?"

The answer may surprise you and cause you to reflect on your own lifes purposes and meaning.

A worthwhile read.

Cheers!

Handy continues to be a business writer who's candor and direct writing style makes his books a delight to read. Much like Drucker, his subject matters address common, shared lessons that apply both at a macro and micro level. In this read, Handy delivers personal lessons from his youth onto the present day. For those who appreciate he's previous books (especially empty raincoat and the hungry spirit), this is well worth the read.

I recently re-read this book as well as Charles Handy's later work, Myself and Other More Important Matters, and thoroughly enjoyed both even more this second time around than I did when they were first published. Each is part memoir, part autobiography, and part social commentary. Immediately, Handy establishes and then sustains a direct and personal rapport with his reader. The tone is conversational. With regard to the title, Handy observes: "Elephants and fleas is an odd metaphor, equally unflattering to both groups. I hit upon it by chance when looking for a way, in a public lecture, to explain why large organizations needed irritant individuals or groups to introduce the innovations and ideas essential to their survival. After the lecture I was struck by the number of people who came up to me, either proclaiming themselves to be a flea or lamenting the ponderous gait of the elephant where they worked. The analogy, it seemed, had caught their imagination, so I persevered with it. Like all analogies, however, it should not be pushed too far. Useful for attracting attention, it is not in itself a recipe for solutions, but as a broad description of one divide in modern society it serves its purpose. It is, for instance, the elephants who get all of the attention while most people actually work as fleas or for a flea organization."

These comments are especially relevant to Handy at one point in his career (in 1981) when he embarked on a transition from being an "elephant inhabitant to independent flea," hoping that there would be greater value in the freedom of independence "over the dubious security of employment." He did not then and has not since viewed himself as a role model for others. He asks his reader to "regard this book as an encouragement to wrote your own script for a part in the very different world that lies ahead of us." Some readers may find it difficult to follow Handy's line of thought as he moves from one subject to the next, indeed from one period in his life to another, without regard for chronological or even logical sequence. To repeat, he offers an immensely personal narrative that combines spontaneity with rigor. He is a very clear thinker but his thoughts are seldom developed in a linear pattern. Over the course of the ten chapters, the reader shares Handy's reflections about his childhood and youth in an Irish vicarage, his education at Oxford, his executive assignments to the Far East within the Royal Dutch/Shell organization, and his chairmanship of the Royal Society of Arts. Only later in his life did he gain increasing attention and renown as a social commentator and business thinker.

Of special interest to me is what Handy discusses in Part II, "Capitalism Past, Present, and Future" (Chapters 4-6). For example, after suggesting how the "new elephants" will differ from their predecessors, he identifies four challenges they will face and each suggests a paradox of direct relevance to both elephant inhabitants and independent fleas: (1) How to grow bigger, but remain small and personal, (2) How to combine creativity with efficiency, (3) How to be prosperous but socially acceptable, and (4) How to reward both the owners of the ideas as well as the owners of the company. Handy discusses each of these four challenges in Chapter 4, then in the next chapter shifts his attention to a so-called "new economy" that really isn't, citing a survey of e-business conducted by The Economist magazine that identified ten skills needed to manage the new businesses of the e-world. "I was underwhelmed by the list. [Please see Page 93.] The order might have varied a little, but it was the same list that I had been urging on organizations and managers for thirty years." Handy notes that the "elephantine" organizations are still around but have become much slimmer "and are surrounded by a multitude of fleas" both within and beyond their areas of operation. "In what seems, at first glance, to be the world of elephants, the fleas, surprisingly, may be the winners." As I shared Handy's thoughts about "The Varieties of Capitalism" in Chapter 6, I was reminded of several opinions that Warren Buffett shares in essays he wrote for Berkshire Hathaway's annual reports. Yes, Handy views himself as a "reluctant" capitalist, an adjective that Buffett would summarily reject if applied to him. However, both men agree (or so it seems to me) that capitalism is the best of all possible economic systems and offers more and better opportunities now than ever before as "elephantine" organizations become more accommodating to "fleas" and as fleas gain greater power through their independence.

When concluding this book, Charles Handy reaffirms his determination to live what remains of his life the way he thinks it ought to be lived. He urges others to do the same. As the years pass, "ambition fades and life acquires new and gentler tones. Meanwhile, there is an old Chinese saying that `Happiness is having something to do, something to hope for and someone to love.' I plan to be happy." As his more recent activities suggest, he is.

Charles Handy has been an oil company executive, a university lecturer, and a much sought after convention speaker.

A 48 year old advertising executive was complaining to Handy that there were no longer any jobs in the ageist advertising world for people like him. While he was talking, the electrician repairing the wiring in Handy's home put his head round the door to say he would be back in a week. "I'm sorry," he said, " but I've got too many jobs on at the moment."

"That was the future," Handy told this his account executive; lots of clients for the independent worker, but fewer and fewer jobs for full-time executives of large organizations.

The employee-oriented society of the twentieth century had delivered so much that was good. It had replaced the world of the individual farmer/craftsman/merchant. The new flea-oriented world that Charles Handy sees is "fraught with insecurity, uncertainty, and fear."

`We don't want that sort of world' people say.

Handy is sympathetic. "I, too, didn't much like the worst of world that I saw emerging, but wishing it away was not going to help."

In 1996, 67% of British businesses have only one employee, the owner. In 1994, employees with less than five people represented 89% of all British businesses.

This is a book about how to survive as a flea and in world of few elephants and many fleas.

It is written in typical Charles Handy humor and insight. It is also his most personal book to date.

ELEPHANT AND THE FLEA is easy to read and too important to ignore.

BOARD OPTIONS
www.boardoptions.com
Tel. 617-371-2995

Most business books are statement of the obvious; this takes the cake. This is my first Charles Handy book, so I wonder if his other books are also so touchy-feely, and if speaking from the guts (in other words, full of personal anecdotes but short of coherent abstraction) is the future of business books.

I took pleasure in Handy's celebration of his 'flea life', but did not understand his point at the end when he stated that that kind of living is the undoing of communities. It was a wishful thinking on his part that more affluence and more leisure would benefit the communities, but that clearly did not materialize. My expectation was that he would give an outline of a workable life that can be happily lived in sync with capitalism; not just state the obvious that the current severe individualism is not working.

I felt that there is more to an author like Charles Handy than apparent in this book, so I will read another of his book (most likely 'The Age of Unreason'). I hope that that one would have more to offer.

This book is about as dark and horrible as a future can get. It's written as a children's book, but this is no book for kids. There's some pretty scary stuff and rather harsh language as well (he dropped a few f-bombs and the 11 year old main character was molested). Young adults, maybe. Kids, definitely not.

The language of the kids reminded me a lot of the kids in the movie "Mad Max : Beyond Thunderdome". And there's the run-on sentence of all time - it's 3 pages long.

The world is well done and detailed, the characters are interesting, but forgive me Mr. Rapp I couldn't find much point or plot to the book! Perhaps a wiser reader could, or perhaps there will be a sequel that'll get more done. I'd certainly buy a sequel.

Well, there wasn't really much of a problem I had with this book, I just...couldn't stay interested. Maybe its because I'm a fan of realisticness, but I doubt it. This book was just...boring. Adam Rapp is a great author, which he proved in "The Buffalo Tree," but this one just couldn't do it for me.

If there was on good thing though, it HAD to be Oakley Brownhouse. He was hilarious, imagining him as a little nine year old in the stuff he goes through. Its really quite funny.

I just wish the whole book was as interesting.

Story takes place in some undefined post-cataclysmic era,presumably on earth, in which the author paints the bleakest possiblepicture of existence where children are enslaved workers in pits, poisonous rain falls unrelentingly, few living things exist other than humans, and general unimaginable misery prevails on every page.

The author is fond of literary gimmicks such as NOT using quotation marks to identify dialogue but rather using the conventions; I go, or, I went, or, I'm like; followed by the dialogue. It is filled with his own version of word meanings such as quickdust, life hole, digit kids, creature clouds, blackfrost and so forth. No prologue or epilogue sheds any light whatsoever on the causes of the situation.

The subject of the title 'The Copper Elephant' is a large improperly made figure of an elephant as talisman. The maker is an idiot boy who cobbles together bits of aluminum foil and other metals into his version of an elephant which he believes will help him find his missing younger brother...

The characters all speak insufferably bad versions of what we think of as English, deliberately contrived by the writer. Without doubt one of the worst novels I have read in fifty years...END

On a post appocolyptic Earth of the future, ruled by a dictator, eleven-year-old Whensday fights a daily battle for survival. She escapes slave labor in a mine after being rescued by a merchant. Impoverished, he decides to sell her to a childless woman. Whensday things she is being sold back into slavery, so she escapes into the devestated landscape, where acid rain falls daily. She joins up with two other children, but things grow steadily worse, and Whensday ends up being raped, while the friend who tried to save her is put to death. This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you do read it, it gives you a look at a decimated future, and a young girl so determined to survive that she never gives up, in spite of all the horrors she goes through.

This is a wonderful book, I read it and now I bought it for a teenager that loves to read. Isabel Allende is one of the best Latin american writers

I really enjoyed this book. It is written for adolescents but I am 24 and reading it for grad school for a literature for adolescents class. There are two that come before that I am going to read also.

Isabel Allende CAN WRITE. This series of three tales in the lives of two young heroes who travel to three exotic lands. Should keep most teenagers reading for the pure enjoyment of watching the young American boy and the young South American girl come of age through challenges that test their hearts and minds. Always there
is one foot in the physical world, and the other in the metaphysical world. Allende presents these two states
of being as one in the same in the world of these three stories. Not hokey, not Magic-on-demand, but a widening of awareness for the reader.

Hace poco terminé de leer este libro el cual a diferencia de La ciudad de las bestias y El reino del dragón de oro me tardé en leer más de dos semanas, y no porque lea muy poco o muy lento, sino porque jamás logró pescar mi interés y atención como lo hicieron los otros dos libros, de verdad que quedé terriblemente decepcionado en la forma que la señora Isabel escribió y dio fin a la que yo pensé sería una muy buena trilogía, había momentos en que me parecía estar leyendo el libro de un neófito escritor, de plano me dio tanta pereza leerlo que ni ganas me dieror de volver a leer El zorro y otros dos o tres libros que todavía no he leído de ella.

Espero que su creatividad y lo que me hizo interesarme por sus libros no haya muerto todavía y que pronto nos sorprenda con un nuevo libro como La hija de la fortuna, Retrato en sepia o el mismo La casa de los espíritus que tanto amé.

En serio que si la trilogía estaba dirigida hacia un público lector adolescente o infantil yo no se lo daría a leer a ninguno de mis sobrinos.

The finale of the acclaimed trilogy, that began with Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, has had a lot to live up to. Alex, now 18, along with his grandmother and friend, Nadia, travel to Kenya on an elephant safari. Like the previous two books, things do not exactly happen simply, and the trio encounter a whole host of problems such as after a plane crash, they end up trying to help save primitive Pygmies from slavery. A mixture of magic, adventure, and a sensous surrounding gives this book an edge that many children's books do not have.

Having read a few of Isabel Allende's books I was certainly looking forward to this one, as I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first two. However, by the time I got around to reading this one, I realized something was missing; it may have been that I was older and a more experienced reader, for it has been a while since I have read the first two. The character's still amused me, and the magic they possesed created something far more interesting than the trilogy would have been had they not had it. However, I found myself bored with a long drawn out plotline that, although had twists, followed the same basic outline as the first two. Despite my problems with it, and my need for a change, I feel that many people will enjoy it, and I am certainly going to reread the first two books. The blend of magic and fantasy with realism, and an amazing setting, certainly gives this book a head start to many children's books.

Reviewed by a student reviewer for Flamingnet Book Reviews
www.flamingnet.com
Preteen, teen, and young adult book reviews and recommendations

Cute book for older kids, but I don't recommend it for young children that still have a black and white view of the world. My four year old son now keeps saying that he doesn't like policemen. He thinks they're going to send him to jail for things like making a mistake on his homework. I've tried explaining to him how jail works and reassuring him that he's not going to jail, but his little mind doesn't seem to see beyond Mr. Lunch going to jail for no good reason. What kind of message is this book sending? You could be thrown in jail at the whim of somebody who doesn't like you. Don't bother to tell your story to the judge because he won't listen to you anyway - And when the system fails, just get your friends to help you break out of jail!

I love the illustration style - however, the story of this book is overly long and really not so interesting. My son won't stay by my side to listen to me read all the text in the book; I have to edit the book myself for him to be interested at all. I think the Seibolds' have produced better books (like the Olive stories, or the first Mr. Lunck book) and would reccommend those before FREE LUNCH.

Just in case you're new to this whacked-out series, the San Francisco-based team of Seibold and Walsh open with a few relevant facts in a opening page right out of Disney's Toon Town, or Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." (The page, like much of the book features about a dozen flat colors, optical effects, and a font called "arbitrary bold." Here's the opener:

MR. LUNCH WAS VERY GOOD AT CHASING BIRDS* IN FACT HE WAS A PROFESSIONAL* our story begins..."

And it never lets up. It's very much like a theme park ride, if the designer let go of most conventions, indulged in a sort of minimalist cubism/punk aesthetic (mixed with a little Dr. Seuss and some genetically-altered styrofoam), and had the free-wheeling command of a Jack Kerouac.

This artistic garbage (and I say that with affection) isn't easy, it only looks like it. It mixes so many artistic styles that it's like taking a computer-speeded one-minute tour of an entire modern art museum. The trick is that the pictorial and narrative elements are just familiar enough that kids and adults can follow it. I think it's humorous, unconventional, and energizing, but others will hate it. Know your kid.

Here's the plot, which is really kinda secondary. When he's not playfully chasing his bird friends, our hero, Mr. Lunch, sells birdseed. The seed supplier, however, is under new management; namely, an elephant who looks like the product of twisted evolution: He dresses like a poorly dressed cowboy, stands on two feet, and his trunk looks like one of those long Roman horns announcing that Spartacus has entered the building. When Mr. Lunch discovers that the new seed packets actually contain rocks, he and bird friends Ambrose and Gunhild investigate. However, the evil elephant manages to get Mr. Lunch arrested on a hastily constructed leash law, knowing that he'll languish in jail because the judge--a nocturnal owl-- will never be awake to hear his plea!

The story has a spellbinding cadence, mixing long and short sentences, and delivering offbeat lines a la Daniel Pinkwater: with a totally straight face. For example, when Ambrose asks a chef to hide a little something inside a cake to help Mr. Lunch escape, the squid-ish looking chef replies "no-no, that would be breaking the baker's code." Waiting for his rescue, Lunch gazes out of a single window and sees all sorts of cloudy shapes, including a bear holding a camcorder.

WARNING, SPOILER AHEAD: The birds sneak in an escape map, however, leading Mr. Lunch to a cave containing rubies and the FORMER elephant owner of the birdseed company. Our friends escape, the real elephant owner makes a hat out of a broken umbrella, the bad elephant is arrested (though he's pictured calling out "I'M SORRY!"), MR. Lunch returns to chasing his bird friends, and...

I found a fold-up piece of paper in the middle of the book, obviously written by a kid, that says the following:

"A Bookmark to know where you are in the book." (flip it over):
"I LOVE Reading!!!"

Now I could tell you that this book is goofy and smart, iconoclastic and clever--a twisty, pop art, five-flavored ice cream of a book--but I don't think anything I said could be a stronger endorsement than what that kid wrote and left for some other Mr. Lunch reader.

My nephew loves Mr. Lunch, and so do I. We were very distressed to see our hero victimized by the machinations of a very, very bad elephant in this installment. However, we know that Lunch will always prevail -- with a little help from Ambrose, of course.

OK, so it may have great pictures and cute characters, but it is also a good story! Your kids will definitely love it...i did, and i am not even that young!

She loved it

I have collected photographic books over the past 30 years. This ranks among the top 3 books in my collection. It is simply stunning in its construction and in the uniqueness. The photographs are not only visually impressive but they simply speak to your soul. It has become quickly one of my favorite items to view. Strongly recommended.

This is one of the most moving books I have ever been blessed to put my eyeballs on. The images are haunting, poignant, irresistable, and inexpressibly beautiful. Their presentation in handmade italian paper, with the cover made from Nepalese paper, is breathtaking. I saw the exhibit in New York City, and would travel the six and a half hours (each way) by bus just to see this exhibit again. Absent my ability to do that, this beautiful little book will feed my heart and soul for years to come. Sure it is expensive. How often can you nourish your soul with beauty as compelling, as spiritual, as moving, as transcendant as this? It is worth every penny.

I cannot highly enough recommend either the exhibit or any of the accompanying materials: books, poster, etc. We waited to see this for 2 years, until it went to CA.
I bought the full exhibition catalogue, the DVD of the 60 minute film and two posters and are extremely happy with everything. Everyone we show them to is excited and fascinated by the pictures and the artist.
I can't imagine being disappointed at all.

The Nomadic Museum, a facility constructed onsite in various locales (now in Santa Monica, CA) out of boxcars, cartons, and pipes is in itself an artwork and the peripatetic museum houses some wispy photographs by Gregory Colbert of moments of world observation that in context are strangely moving. The object is to bring the spirit of mankind into a space outside the usual exhibition venues and in doing so it becomes an experience for the people.

The catalogue that accompanies this show is equally impressive in its conception. No two books are alike in that they are created from handmade Italian paper and bound in a cover made from unique paper from Nepal. The photographs reproduced well in the catalogue languish from being reductions of the oversized images form the exhibition, but the flavor is there. Images of robed children and adults, animals both alone and in tandem with humans, bits and pieces of atmosphere form a journeyman's eye take on a significance that surpasses the original works.

The catalogue for the exhibition is pricey due tot he one of a kind quality of presentation. But for those who want to forgo the expense, there is also a version of the images (paperback with 48 pages as opposed to the 232 pages of this volume) available through this site. If you are unable to experience the exhibition (for that is truly what the exhibition is about) then this art book form of the catalogue is a substantive memento of a unique artistic experience. Grady Harp, January 06

I am not really much of a reader, but couldn't put this one down. Each experiment differed from the last and kept your attention the whole time. Recommend this to anyone interested in the weird and extreme, or just with a geek side in them.

This is an interesting read to say the least. If you've ever wondered how far some fringe scientists have gone in the past this is the book to start with. Let me just say, you really won't believe some of the stuff you read here, but according to the author, Alex Boese, a graduate of Amherst College with a Master's Degree in the History of Science from the University of California, San Diego, it's all true. Considering his field of study, he should know.

One of the bits I found most amazing was the experiment with a cat which actually succeeded in capturing visual information (real moving images!) from the cat's visual processing center of the brain. Another is The Isolated Head of a Dog. Completely inhumane, but an incredible tale nonetheless. The author's writing style is such that we read the information, acknowledge disgust, but are still entertained and happily move on to the next potential atrocity of scientific experimentation.

Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments, is a remarkably entertaining and educational book. Some subject matter may not be suitable for all audiences. You have been warned!

a collection of experiments people actually performed. why, is anyone's guess. but all of the stories presented here are real, and the author includes at least one reference. fascinating. a quick read, but a fun one.

I have to wonder at people who think the torture of animals is entertaining, or funny. This book is disgusting. If you like photos of helpless beheaded animals with electrodes stuck in their heads then this book is for you and you are probably a psychopath.

Historian Alex Boese was enamored with bizarre experiments in college. During his graduate studies, Boese spent his free time tracking down the more obscure mad scientist experiments that were mentioned in his texts. He amassed a library of notes on bizarre experiments, went on to found the Museum of Hoaxes and publish two books on hoaxes, and now returns with a title about all those bizarre experiments which once intrigued and delighted him. Boese includes only research which was undertaken with genuine scientific curiosity and methodology--that which was published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Elephants on Acid contains overview and author commentary on experiments from the 1800's through the 2000's, in ten different categories - surgery, senses, memory, sleep, animal behavior, mating behavior, babies, bathroom research, human nature, and death. For each experiment, the author sets up the broader social and scientific context, describes the experimental design and results, and includes any follow-on work. Bibliographic details for each scientific publication are included. (But good luck tracking down European journals circa 1803!)

The opening chapter on Dr. Frankenstein-like research is a bit unsettling (Can a head live without its body? Can asphyxiated dogs be brought back to life?). Not surprisingly, few of the Frankenstein experiments took place in modern times. The remaining chapters are enchanting glimpses at scientific fact and fiction over the ages. Boese demonstrates that waitresses who touch customers statistically receive higher tips ("Touching Strangers"), repeats the real Pepsi Challenge ("Coke vs. Pepsi"), exposes the myth of the `Mozart effect' on IQ ("Mozart Effect"), and provides scientific proof of the synchronous menstrual cycles of cohabitating women ("Scent of a Woman"). Studies of human behavior discuss the power of suggestion in creating false childhood memories ("Lost in the Mall"), the effect of a crowd of roaches on an athlete roach navigating a course ("Racing Roaches"), and the role of fear in sexual arousal in humans ("Arousal on a Creaky Bridge").

Two of the most famous studies of good vs. evil are presented in this text. In the infamous 1970's Stanford Prison Experiment, college students playing the role of guards became drunk on their power and humiliated and dehumanized their mock prisoners. In another experiment, researcher Stanley Milgram proved that otherwise "good" individuals could be coerced into delivering painful or deadly electric shocks to other volunteers under pressure from a scientific researcher.

Ranging from the trivial to the socially far-reaching, Boese's compendium has something for everyone.

Couldn't put Going To See The Elephant down. What an excellent diversion from the trials of broken pipes in winter! I was laughing aloud every few pages while empathizing with the poignancy of desire - wanting something to the point of mild obsession. Slater Brown (love that name) wants two things. Each is the object of his affection and obsession, but he's totally willing to compromise one (writing "for eternity"), or even give it up completely, in order to attain the other (love/Callio). What Slater doesn't realize (though the reader presumably understands from the outset) is that his "chance" meeting with the beautiful singing Calliope happens directly after receiving a "gift" from A.M. (another sweet bit of wordplay) and that, at least in his case, writing and love are inextricably intertwined.
By the end of the novel, he has begun to really understand. GTSTE makes an excellent and entertaining case for the journey being at least as, if not more, important than the destination. As a writer, I've found the learning curve to be frequently meandering and roundabout. Passion may not be required, but without that, and a generous helping of humor, what's the point? The obvious point this author makes is that the concept applies not only to writing (or any creative endeavor) but to life.
While Going to See the Elephant does have a little ring of Tom Wolfe, who I think is okay, and a lot of Mark Helprin (ala Winter's Tale, one of my top three books ever), Fishburne is clearly, and very sincerely, a writer with a strong sense of his own voice and a bohemian humor to match. I highly recommend his new take on a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - a young man who lives in a slightly fantastic reality, and a funky town (San Francisco) during Interesting Times (now-ish), makes good, loses everything, and finally finds himself. Look forward to the movie!

Fishburne, Rodes. "Going to See the Elephant", Delacorte Press, 2008.

Finding Fame and Having Fun

Amos Lassen

Slater Brown at 25 came to San Francisco to "see the elephant". He wants to be the greatest writer but the city by the bay has a different plan for him. He faces reality when he realizes that he is out of money and job prospects. He finally gets a job at a dying newspaper and at the same time receives a gift from a mystic. He discovers that he has the exclusives on every story and he manages to bring the paper, "Morning Trumpet" back to life. He falls in love with the woman who is to become his muse; he infuriates the corrupt mayor and tangles with Milo Magnet, an inventor and a man with an obsession for harnessing the weather. Because he searches for the truth, Slater becomes a pawn and a savior as well as the hope for the city in which he lives and that needs him so badly.
This is a book that is pure fun and a wonderful achievement for a first novel. You sense the innocence of the author and his ambition and you may even see yourself here. I smiled as I read and I wished that Fishburne had been nearby so I could let him see me enjoying his book. It is comedy, love story and a fable for the modern world. There is great silliness and I loved that. It is an accomplishment for a young writer and he has every reason to e proud.

While it is by no means the work of genius some of the blurbs claim it to be, Going to See the Elephant is a thoroughly enjoyable novel steeped in joyful silliness, which--as it turns out--is a good thing. Slater Brown arrives in San Francisco to establish himself as the great writer that he knows he is. With very little money and down on his luck, Slater takes a job at The Morning Trumpet, a newspaper that is equally down on its luck. Soon, Slater and the Morning Trumpet become the toast of the town as he--with a little help--uncovers one high profile story after another.

Throw in a beautiful chess champion and the smartest man in the world intent on controlling weather and you have the elements for a delightfully zany novel. While there is much lacking here (in particular character and story development) and many of the elements are quite formulaic (the romance plot and stories of corruption exposed by Slater feel all too familiar and borrowed from the many books the author, like Slater, has read), this is nonetheless an enjoyable novel. In fact, the innocence of both Slater and the author contribute to the overall feeling of freewheeling zaniness that make this such a delightful read.

Slater Brown, the protagonist of Rodes Fishburne's debut novel, Going to See the Elephant, probably would have brought Tom Wolfe to my mind even if there wasn't a blurb from Wolfe on the book's front cover. Brown is desperate for success. He has included that the authors regarded as great had published something important by the age of 29.

Brown had published one poem -- in a special issue of the Bartelby Review devoted to dyslexic writers. He arrives in San Francisco with enough money to devote days to writing the Great American Novel. He jots down reflections on how to start a novel, but doesn't start one. Like many, he aspires to be a writer (indeed a great writer) without actually writing.

He finds lodging with Mrs. Cagliostra, a empowering maternal landlady who believes in her tenant and who seems cut from the same cloth as Armistead Maupin's Mrs. Madrigal. And Slater Brown is hired as a reporter on what has become a weekly newspaper. The Daily Trumpet has survived from the 19th century primarily because it owns a building. With typical sloppiness, the address of the office building would place is inside the venerable Palace Hotel (now the Sheraton Palace).

Brown finds that in riding electric busses around the city, his transistor radio picks up phone conversations. This is a sort of interesting idea, though it seems to me that as with government surveillance, the signal-to-noise ratio would be impossibly low. That is, any scandalous revelations would be difficult to pick out of the cacophony of banalities of hundreds of thousands of phone conversations.

Also, there is something very old-fashioned about (1) the conversations going through overhead phone lines rather than cellphones, (2) getting the news scoops out in a newspaper, and (3) the bloated mayor-for-life. Mayor Oswell seems positively 19th-century a figure of fun, though in "Sunny Jim" Rolph, San Francisco had a mayor for nineteen years (Rolph resigned to take office as governor).

The Daily Trumpet has too little revenue before Brown's scoops boost circulation to have a website. That and a move toward solar-powered busses suggest that the novel is supposed to be set in the present day. This makes it very odd that there are no cell phones. And even decades ago, Maupin put Mary Ann on tv (even as his tales were serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle, as 19th-century novels often were...)

This is particularly remarkable when Slater is locked out on a roof by the father of his inamorata, chess whiz named Calliope (Callio for short--not Cali?).

Yes, there is a romance along with the sudden success story that allows Slater Brown to dress like Tom Wolfe and be invited into Social Register parties as Truman Capote once was on the other coast. And there is Milo, a possibly mad inventor who wants to become literally a weather maker.

The romance is formulaic, the superinventor a caricature of a caricature. The plots interlock. Alas, none of them is plausible to me. And the "local color" is so often off that I wonder if Fishburne is familiar with San Francisco.

I picked out the book in part because it is set in my hometown, but the implausibility of Fishburne's San Francisco details was far from my only disappointment. There were some bits that amused me (more promoting snickers than belly laughs), but the ending is particularly flat, especially for an attempt at screwball comedy mixed with political satire à la Preston Sturges's "The Great McGinty."

BTW, the title is an expression originally applied to the Gold Rush of 1849. The elephant was fame and fortune there for the picking for those going west.

It is hard to believe that this is Rodes Fishburne's first novel; Going to See the Elephant possesses the wit, wisdom and exceptional prose of a veteran writer.

What I Loved
- This novel is set in modern times, yet often takes on a feel of something set more in the 20s or 30s. This can be attributed to many things, including The Trumpet's (the newspaper the main character Slater works at) resistance of technology, Slater's attire, the cast of old-fashioned characters, and lack of pop-culture references.
- The magical realism aspect of inventor and genius Milo Magnet's character. Some would argue that it's not magical realism, it's just an acute understanding of science. Whatever it may be, Milo's inventions and scientific visions are fascinating and fantastic.
- The love story between Slater and Callio is endearing. It's not a love story saturated with sappy sweetness or unnecessary graphic sex scenes, it's a love story about two people that truly are meant to be together.
- The mayor, and his staff, are hilarious. The man is determined to bring down Slater and The Trumpet, in the process becoming morbidly obese and paranoid.
- The writing is superb. There really is no other way to describe it; Fishburne draws you in with his smooth, descriptive (but not overly so) style.
- Fishburne doesn't fall into the trap of making a coming-of-age story cliche, as so many first time writers do. Slater is undoubtedly on a journey of self-discovery, he is trying to find his place as a writer and in relationships. He tastes success and failure, he feels confused and he learns. Yet there is no sense of complete closure at the end; he is still discovering what he's meant to do with his life.

Problems
- It ends
- There are no other Fishburne novels to currently read

Amusing, smart and entertaining- definitely worth it.

In spite of the off-putting title, this book is a delectable collection of Taibbi's habit-forming Rolling Stone essays on politics in the Bush era. His topics range from Michael Jackson to Lynndie England to (my favorite) Tom DeLay.
He fearlessly travels to New Orleans (with Sean Penn, as it happens) to see the Katrina disaster firsthand; he gets embedded with the troops in Iraq, then dis-embeds to go inside Abu Ghraib in the company of a mercenary. He is suitably appreciative and humble in the company of the soldiers (but not the contractors) with whom he is traveling. But the most horrifying story may be the one about Taibbi's time in the company of Bernie Sanders, the independent Congressman from Vermont, as bills he works on in the Republican Congress get snuffed out one by one. Whatever rules used to exist are either ignored or rewritten, all without regard for fairness or decency or even, quite possibly, for legality. It's the most stunning up-close look at a dysfunctional government a reader could stand.
Taibbi has been referred to as a "gonzo" journalist, and indeed there is a bit--just enough--of his "self" in the reporting; but he is mainly a deeply insightful observer and chronicler of things unseemly and egregious. While I regretted the very occasional occurrence of a superfluous four-letter word (usually, they appear in just the right places, one of his stylistic gifts), he seldom makes these gaffes, and his writing is almost always pure art. He does not write like an angel: he writes like a sharp-eyed, been-there done-that, hard-nosed, soft-hearted reporter with a mission to write the truth and a clear sense of the poignant. While his view is deeply and appropriately cynical, he has a superb sense of humor and command of language, and underneath it all, an unmistakable sweet soul.

I purchased the book because I enjoyed his writing in Spanking the Donkey. I enjoyed the book because I the liberaism was minimal. This book is truly partisan. I quit reading before I was 1/4 of the way as I was so bored.

Taibbi's "Smells Like Dead Elephants" is mostly too funny to describe - especially describing Michael Jackson's trial, Bernie Sanders' efforts to pass legislation and amendments, and attending (no-longer) Senator Burns' birthday party pretending to be a lobbyist for drilling in the Grand Canyon. Then the more serious moments of Lnnydie England and her trial for Abu Gharaib abuses, and later having the guts to stay there for three days.

Definitely a "Must Read."

allright, i read this whole thing in 2 days. mainly, i couldnt put it down because i didnt want to wait for his next hilarious observation. the new orleans story made me feel like i was there. not a lot of humor there, but probably the best story. it took balls for a hotshot from RS and a millionare actor to drive a boat around the most neglected areas of flooded NO. i hope he got an award for that piece. anyway, here are some things i remember. he travels to the sheehan protest/counter-protest in tx and describes the scene as a "Crossfire" themed amusement park where both sides seem to pathologically "miss the point". his analysis of the lyndie england trial had me on the floor. he described the judge(army colonel) as a blockhead who seemed like the kind of guy who takes his wife on a date to the "elks club" and "yells at his kids at barbeques". the prototype liberal sociologist verbal exchange with this judge was insanely hilarious(when explained by taibbi). the real kicker came when england had her baby(fathered by fellow sadist, graner) and wrapped it up in a flag for a picture. Then, her lawyer presented it to the court as evidence of her patriotism. if i hadnt just served in the army for 5 years, i would have thought he was making this up. the tom delay analysis was alarming, painful(to remember) and funny. thanks matt, for making sense of all this s*** for me. the foreword was dead-on, it said it all. his goal(identical to mine) is trying to understand this facist little AMCON(american conservatism), fox news, W, "famed neocon" movement. like him, i thought there had to be more to it than what i see on television. but no, these folks really believe in bombing the hell out of a place and then rolling in with some tanks and machine guns looking for the victory parade. they really are that dumb. but does anyone say this? no! they are portrayed to us by the news channels as "intellectuals". on top of it all, what these guys all have in common(besides an utter lack of principals) is the inability to admit when they are wrong. you will see this time and time again throughout the book. everything we have heard for almost 8 years now has been wrong and stupid, but no one seems to calling anybody on any of it. WTF!!!!???? thanks again, matt. i wish i could get this guys email address so that i could write him a thank you letter myself.

This book is a masterful creation of reality, snark, wit and intellect. Matt shines the light of truth on just how far gone our government is. You can find him on the show Real Time With Bill Maher often. That is how I found out about him and his book. It's so refreshing and disheartening to read this book. You never get the real story from TV news on just how incredibly broken every part of Washington DC is. This is probably one of the best books I have read in a while.