Finally, the 3rd Chapter in summer reading….and an intriguing, smart, amusing and quirky list it is. We’ve got Controller Laura Chick, DA Steve Cooley, Attorney General Jerry Brown, City Council Member Ed Reyes, gang advisor Dr. Jorja Leap, and Tell Zell’s the honorable Mr. Inkstained Retch.
There is the public school contingent, LAUSD board prez, Monica Garcia, and teachers union prez A.J Duffy.
And just to make sure the literary LA folks are represented, we have LA Times Opinion Editor Nick Goldberg (who makes a case for reading Anthony Trollop on the beach). And novelist/author Rachel Resnick—who has a wild and wonderfully-written memoir coming out this fall called Love Junkie (and a good recommendation or 2 for you now).
Both Jerry Brown and Joe Domanick thought that pre and post WWII-era Historian and theorist, Louis Mumford, was just the ticket for poolside. (What’re the odds?) And there were a couple of Graham Greene lovers in this batch.
Interestingly, it was both Steve Cooley and Jerry Brown who couldn’t stop with only one book. (In fact, Cooley was cheerily enthusiastic about four books [I only included 3] and, I suspect, would have easily gone further. Jerry too.)
As a reporter, I don’t think I’ve ever asked a question of public officials that so many people seemed, not only willing, but eager to answer.
And that’s a very good thing.
LAURA CHICK, Los Angeles City Controller
I know that Lisa See has a new novel out, Peony In Love, but I actually just finished her earlier book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I loved it for many reasons. This book opened up a whole new world , taking me on a great adventure in ancient China. It also has terrific character development and I feel like I really got to know them.
Above all this is a phenomenal story of the tremendous strength of women.
STEVE COOLEY: District Attorney, City of Los Angeles
Well one book I read recently that I thought was extremely well done and insightful was called The Criminal Justice Club. It’s written by a retired deputy named Walt Louis. He recounts is time in the criminal justice system in LA county. He spends a lot of time documenting what he asserts are the failings of the media in reporting on the criminal justice system, especially the Los Angeles Times.. I read it and couldn’t put it down.
And Hollywood Station and Hollywood Crows by Wambaugh. They’re sort of a one two punch, one is a continuation. Hollywood Station is very funny. Hollywood Crows is a little darker. They’re right up to the minute.
EDMUND G. BROWN, JR., California Attorney General
You could read Bad Money, by Kevin Phillips. It’s about the confluence of oil dependency, financial debt and leverage and the takeover of the financial sector from manufacturing.
Also, The Condition of Man by Louis Mumford. I’m just reading it. It’s from 1944, and it’s hard to get but it’s very interesting. It’s a classic. It’s about how we plan. How we live together.
NICK GOLDBERG: Opinion Editor, The Los Angeles Times
There is no author whose books are better for lazy, fun, utterly engaging summer reading than Anthony Trollope. He wrote so many nearly perfect books that it’s hard to choose among them, but if I had to recommend just one it would be the first one I ever read: “The Last Chronicle of Barset,” the story of the Reverend Josiah Crawley and the (very minor) crime he is alleged to have committed.
A.J. DUFFY, President, United Teachers of Los Angeles
I don’t get much time to read. But I haven’t read Catch 22 in ten years. I’d like to read it again. It’s such a great book. It shows the whole hypocrisy of war. How we’re one world, but we take money out of one pocket and put it into another pocket to fight ourselves. It’s a great, great book.
DR. JORJA LEAP: adjunct professor of social welfare at UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, advisor on gangs and youth violence for the National Institute of Justice
For a fun summer read, Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller. This is the ultimate summer book. Part great rock gossip, part social history and enough feminist psychology to lend some insight into everything from what women want to why Hillary failed. A great read and some hidden learning!
ED P. REYES, City Councilmember First Council District
I recommend “The Power and the Glory,” Graham Greene, which I read while a student at UCLA. No matter how bad things are, or how badly you may find yourself, there’s always something good about you. There’s a lot to an individual if you do the right thing.
MONICA GARCIA: Board President, Los Angeles Unified School District.
I’m reading, The Search for a Civic Voice, by Kenneth C. Burt. It’s about how Latino communities have worked with the political system. It’s such an amazing time, but the challenges are so great that we have to have a historical perspective of what the struggles have been, to encourage us and inspire us to continue.
RACHEL RESNICK: novelist/author (Go West Young F*cked-Up Chick and Love Junkie: A Memoir, to be released in November)
Books that resonate, that one would suggest for summer, or any time…? Giacometti: A Biography by James Lord. The Palace at 4 a.m., to the spookily attenuated figures that made him a preeminent profiler of existential unease. Lord astutely chronicles this transformation, and the evaluation of Giacometti’s formidable personality is notable for its sensitive delineation of his ambivalent feelings toward women. Without scanting the sculptor’s tragic view of life, the author also inspires exhilaration with his portrait of a man who was always true to his art.
Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison is another—but somehow I’m not able to quickly sum up why…
THE INK STAINED RETCH: LA Times reporter, creator/blogger, TellZell.com
Here I will surely disappoint. I don’t do much book reading. I’m a news guy, through and through. However, I did recently reread Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, about a CIA agent trying to foment democracy in Vietnam. Man, the parallels to Iraq were outstandingly weird.
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TO READ ALL 22 RECOMMENDATIONS: For Part 1 click here, Part 2 , here.
How do these government and non-profit folks have time to do all of their reading for pleasure, when people like me have our hands full performing our jobs correctly and having more reading to stay current on business issues than we can handle?
Oh, wait. I think I know. If we ran our companies like the government, labor unions, and many non-profits, we would be fired or out of business. I guess there’s an advantage of being able to raise prices on taxpayers, association members, skimming from retirement plans, and in getting more grants than in working hard to be efficient and effective.
No wonder that I rarely care what’s in the book reviews but others do.
But, if I want to join in the fun, I guess I’ll need to come up with a book, too. Let me recommend “Red Badge of Courage.” It’s only eighty-nine pages long and allows you more time to do what’s responsible and necessary.
At first, I thought that Celeste didn’t know many people in private enterprise. But, it’s apparent that she couldn’t find any significant number who can recommend anything other than books on how to interpret financial statements.
Well, have fun, Celeste. I’m just giving you a hard time, but the others deserve it.
P.S. What about your books with Fabio on the covers?
How do these government and non-profit folks have time to do all of their reading for pleasure, when people like me have our hands full performing our jobs correctly and having more reading to stay current on business issues than we can handle?
Public transportation is the key. I go through about 3/4 of a book per week on the subway. I have been working steadily in the private sector with the exception of two weeks since 1980.
Monica Garcia needs to go on a crash diet literally and figuratively
I would highly recommend that Monica Garcia and the others read “Pigs at the Trough” by Arianna Huffington.
Monica Garcia (LAUSD) needs to go on a crash diet, literally and figuratively
LAUSD – Seven Billion Dollars but What’s the Plan?
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/ww/ww080804seven_billion_dollar
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LR. I’ll listen to the KCRW thing. Thanks. I’ve been meaning to do something on the rather startling way the board has done a breakdown of what the 7 billion would get us. If KCRW does’t cover it, I’ll do it tonight. If you’re irritated now, wait until you see the line item thingy that the board was passing around.
LR. I see it was Which Way LA?. I just listened. Arrrghhh. It’s definitely even worse than I thought.
I’m more of the short-read type, as time allows. I could stay on the Library of Congress site for ages if I didn’t have to work. For instance, I was looking at baseball rules and stats from the 1890’s.
I also ran across some first-hand accounts of people who had been slaves, which makes all the whining about social justice today look pretty bad. Here’s a sample:
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938
Good recommendation on Trollope. Read the whole “Chronicals of Barsetshire” series starting with “the Warden” and “Barchester Towers”. Also read the “Pallisier” novels on the english political system – you might compare with C.P. Snow’s series – particularly “Corridors of Power”
What, no recommndations of Austen after Dows’s “Revelation” on Sunday!
Since Woody likes to revel in his ignorance and philistinism (fuuny Louis Auchincloss found time to be a very succesful lawyar and write over eighty books as well as read French lit (in French) and the English canon) I’ll suggest he sart with something simple like “My Pet Goat.”
Hey, I’m not a lawyer, refuse to gouge clients, don’t chase ambulances, don’t engage in class action lawsuits, and don’t pass professional work down to junior staff. Otherwise, I would have time to read and write books. However, rlc, if you’re reading a lot rather than looking for work, that might help to explain why you’re still looking for employment.
Hey Celeste, I finally finished reading The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea. You assigned it to us at UCI (just Part I, I think)…and I never got a chance to read any further at the time. Well, almost three years later and I finally picked it back up. I started from the beginning again and finished it this morning.
Shocking, heartbreaking, and extremely informative all at once. Every American concerned with immigration and border control should read it. I think Woody would learn a lot from it, assuming he hasn’t already read it.
On a personal note, it makes any struggle or challenge I’ve had to face seem completely frivolous. Thanks for assigning it.
-Zach
I came out of a tax seminar yesterday. Parked next to my friend was one of those run down liberal cars with bumper stickers all over it. One of them said, “No Person is Illegal.” We laughed at their ignorance and drove off.
Zach, if it took you three years to read the book, it would take me thirty. I don’t want book reviews, I want one page summaries of books.
Auchincloss was a trust and estates partner whose best known client was Walter Lippman. His father was Hugh Auchincloss – called “the First Gentleman of America” by Cholly Knickerbocker (look him up) and a member of the Social Register (look that up too). Considers the Bush Family (from Prescott on) to be “Monumental Shits” but spent his professional life conserving the great WASP fortunes.
Woody don’t bother reading – its too for you. Too bad “Classics Illustrated” isn’t still around – you could look at the pictures.
Since when is helping people hid income a “REAL” job?
Tax quotes to remember:
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. — Frederic Bastiat
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. — G. Gordon Liddy
Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands. — Judge Learned Hand (1872-1961), Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals
Helping people preserve their wealth is more of “real” job than figuring out ways to take it from them. –Woody
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.  G. Gordon Liddy
I’m supposed to care what an unrepentant convicted felon thinks?
BOOK RECOMMENDATION: