Examined Lives by James Miller

In Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche, James Miller plucks twelve revered philosophers from the Ivory Tower and places them under the biographer’s unsparing microscope. The findings? There is a blowhard (Socrates), a disgraced politico (Aristotle), a robotic goody two-shoes (Kant), a humorless hypocrite (Rousseau), a humble vagabond (Emerson), and a delicate dandy turned grunting madman (Nietzsche).

Miller skillfully places these men (sorry, no Hannah Arendts here) within their respective ideological and historical contexts, then supplies enough fizzy tidbits to keep it popping. The result is an uncommonly efficient educational experience that somehow has both depth and levity.

-Megan

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Volume 1 by Jacques Tardi

Comic book artist Jacques Tardi is a legend in his native France, but in the U.S. he has never been anything more than an intriguing cult figure. However, in 2009 Fantagraphics, a well-respected comics publisher based in Seattle, announced that they would begin putting out new translations of Tardi’s work. A slew of releases have come out since then, and a couple of months ago Fantagraphics put out the first volume of a proposed 10) featuring Tardi’s most famous creation – Adele Blanc-Sec.

This book collects Adele’s first two adventures, Pterror Over Paris and The Eiffel Tower Demon. These are thrilling, absurd, convoluted stories, with dinosaurs hatched from prehistoric eggs, crazy cults featuring famous actors, hilariously inept policemen and endless double-crosses. This book surely has it all; in fact, some might argue that it has too much stuff packed into too few pages, and that the plot twists and switched identities are so numerous and byzantine as to befuddle all but the most astute readers. But really, one shouldn’t take this book too seriously – it’s really just a couple of rollicking adventure stories that move at a breakneck speed, backed up with gorgeous art and the breathtaking setting of Paris circa 1911.

-Eric

Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain by Portia de Rossi

This is a brave and disquieting account of actress Portia de Rossi's nearly lethal struggles with self-acceptance. Amanda Rogers was an intensely driven girl who changed her name, had a successful modeling career, attended Australia's most prestigious law school, and landed on a hit television series (Ally McBeal) by age twenty-four. She also suffered from an eating disorder and severely shaky self-esteem, and both went into overdrive when she faced the image-fixated scrutiny that comes with being a Hollywood ingénue.To further complicate matters, she was also a closeted lesbian who felt her career would instantly implode if her secret were revealed.

“Unflinching” has become such a hackneyed word in reviews, but it is the perfect way to describe de Rossi's book. She boldly and lucidly sifts through her psyche as it unravels, then as she painstakingly rebuilds her life. Her writing is insightful, very candid, and slyly humorous.

I would recommend this book to anyone seeking a better understanding of eating disorders or the particular challenges of being different.

-Megan

Perhaps the biggest surprise at last night’s Grammy Awards was the Arcade Fire’s triumph in the Album of the Year category. The Montreal band beat out superstars like Eminem and Lady Gaga to win for their third album, The Suburbs. Perhaps this turn of events should not have been so astonishing, since the band’s high-energy, anthemic rock is, in many ways, old fashioned enough to appeal to Grammy voters who grew up on Bruce Springsteen and U2. Pop music is a young person’s game, but the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences seems to be largely populated by people at least quadruple the age of Justin Beiber.

Fans, new and old, of The Arcade Fire should check out a recent book on the band’s record label: Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small. The book focuses on the story of the label and of Superchunk (the band whose members started Merge in Chapel Hill, NC in 1989), but alternating chapters also focus on various important label bands such as Spoon, The Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel and, of course, The Arcade Fire. Our Noise is especially of interest to fans of music of this ilk, but it’s a fun read for anyone who likes to see an underdog win big (and still maintain the values it started with).

-Eric

Movie Review: Cairo Time

Cairo Time is a beautiful film long on scenery but short on story and--sorry, news buffs--politics. Juliette (played by Patricia Clarkson of Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Good Night, and Good Luck) is a pampered American who travels to Cairo to meet up with her husband, a UN official who has been delayed by unrest in Gaza. In the meantime, she is entertained by the winning Tareq (Alexander Siddig of Syriana and Miral), her husband’s friend.

They tour about the teeming, majestic city, which is exquisitely captured here. She fawns at the Pyramids of Giza, drinks a great deal of coffee, attracts much male attention, and smokes copious amounts of hookah. Unfortunately, Juliette is a bit of bore, and much of the dialogue and character interactions are stilted and odd. Some kind of a thing heats up with Tareq, but Juliette turns him down, then gives him longing looks.

The film is practically apolitical, except for the mysterious and disregarded hijacking of a tour bus by the Egyptian military. I'm not sure if the director (Ruba Nadda) was trying to capture Juliette’s myopic mentality, or if she just wanted to create a fantasy for the Ann Taylor crowd; but the result is that Cairo Time is nothing but a pretty, messy trifle.

-Megan

A Game of Thrones on HBO

A Song of Ice & Fire is a massive fantasy saga by George R.R. Martin. It's fantasy for people who don’t like fantasy – there are no elves here, and only the smallest bit of magic. What these books do have, however, are complex, fleshed-out characters and intricate, vicious political machinations that would make Washington insiders run away screaming.

Also, Martin is not shy about either brutal violence or steamy sex. And perhaps this is why HBO, home of the Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire, is about to premier a mini-series based on the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones. This show is already highly anticipated, so start reading the books before it debuts on April 17th! (though note that only the first four books in the series, out of an expected seven, have been finished so far).

Here’s a trailer for the TV show:

-Eric

There is a 'Me' in Memoir

Neil Genzlinger humorously outlined his rules for memoirists in this recent piece in The New York Times. Basically, if you are ordinary, more than ordinarily self-absorbed, or a bandwagon-jumper of any sort, Genzlinger would like you to step far, far away from the keyboard.

While I appreciate the remembrances of rock stars and politicians as much as the next person (possibly quite a bit more), mere mortals are able to offer what the lionized often cannot: honesty. And I think candid reflection and a genuine connection to the writer are the very things that keep readers interested in the genre. What do you think?

-Megan