EX LIBRIS

“Dorothy Parker – What Fresh Hell Is This?” a biography by Marion Meade. 451 pages with index and illustrations. The question is one that Parker often used to answer her telephone. The subject of this biography is often irascible, willful and not easy to like; she became a leading voice in The New Yorker at its inception, followed by several years working in Hollywood, friends with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and the entire world of New York writers who gathered at the round table in the Algonquin Hotel. Her response to meeting Will Rogers was, “I always liked a man I never met.” Meade manages to portray her subject in a sympathetic manner and gives us a portrait full of the life that Parker always exhibited across the years. Check it out.
“Tesla: A Portrait with Masks,” a novel by Vladimir Pistalo (translated from Serbian) 452 pages. Imagine a Homeric bard singing of heroes, gods and monsters; this is the tone the author wants to give in this imaginative tale of the strange and wonderful life of Nikolas Tesla, inventor of the alternating current, the radio and a hundred more useful devices on which modern life depends. Nobel laureate and friend to John Muir,  Thomas Edison, J.P. Morgan, and admired by Einstein, Tesla was also an eccentric scientist from a small village in Serbia, where he is venerated to this day. Pistalo has used the legends of the great man upon which to hang his modern novel that has its own peculiar twists of Middle European flavor, a sort of golem that stalks a literary gem. Simon says, “Check it out.”
“The Martian,” by Andy Weir. 369 pages, quickly turned. A fine book by a nerd, in nerd language, for nerds – and those of us who love them. In preparation for the forthcoming film directed by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) I have been senselessly forging through pages of apparently accurate descriptions of methods of keeping alive on a hostile planet whilst growing food in one’s own excrement inside a small controlled habitat. Meanwhile back at Mission Control, we are treated to the strange and bureaucratic problems of NASA and its procurement methods, public relations manipulations and funding – certainly a creative mix of ideas well-deserving of this director of its filmed adaption. Spoiler alert: this book contains no weighty literary merit; it is purely a suspense-filled, shameless and exhilarating ride with a resourceful guide and modern Robinson Crusoe. Perfect summertime reading.
“People of the Book,” by Geraldine Brooks. An account of one book’s travels from its creation to its position in a museum case. Chosen to be read by the Joe Mesics reading group.
Simon Jeremiah.