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September 2004

Hi Folks! 

Enjoy the books.  I am having a fantastic year, as my baby is adorable (check her out at www.katebrassell.com), and I just found out that she is going to have a baby brother or sister in May. Hopefully, I am breeding avid readers. Meanwhile, I continue reading a variety of titles to Kate, and I am enjoying Roger Kahn’s The Boys of Summer, about the Brooklyn Dodgers of the late 40s and early 50s (I am hoping this year’s Dodgers manage to stretch September into October for a change). Thanks to Jordan Henry for lending me his copy.

Anyhow, enjoy this month’s book selections below. I hope you are all reading some wonderful books. Make sure to tell me all about them. If you're an author or a publisher and would like to send me review copies of your book(s), please send them to the address listed for authors and publishers.

I hope you are reading some wonderful books. Make sure to tell me about them by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Have a wonderful September, and enjoy your books!

Danny ;-)

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's

By Truman Capote 160 pages Adult

Danny Says

This is a perfect book for light and entertaining reading.  Actually, the book that is in bookstores now has a collection of Capote’s short stories, including this classic about Holly Golightly.  I love Truman Capote for a number of reasons:  (a) he was best friends as a child with To Kill a Mockingbird scribe Harper Lee; (b) his stories are very different and all well-written; and (c) I read a story that a six-year-old boy sent Capote a story he wrote, and Capote mailed the boy this response:  “good writing…poor spelling…send more.”  That boy turned out to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.  Moral:  be nice to everybody because you never have any idea who they may or will be.
Buy on Amazon
Blue Suburbia

Blue Suburbia

By Laurie Albanese 224 pages Adult

Danny Says

Sunee Foley recommended this “almost” memoir to me, and it appealed to me because it is written in verse.  The book reads a lot like Larry McMurtry’s excellent (but longer) Terms of Endearment.
Buy on Amazon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

By Mark Haddon 226 pages Adult

Danny Says

So what if it’s a tad bit longer than I’d like.  Patricia and Jay Edie, as well as Jill Aguilar, recommended this book to me, and I am so glad I read this hilarious and touching mystery of sorts.  I do not know quite how to categorize this book:  think Rain Man meets As Good As It Gets, with touches of Memento and What the Deaf Man Heard thrown in.  Do I sound like a guy who can pitch a movie to Hollywood or what?
Buy on Amazon
Leading with Soul

Leading with Soul

By Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal 304 pages Adult

Danny Says

Since I have started conducting motivational leadership seminars, I have read an endless array of books on leadership.  This is one I recommend because of its length, lessons and readability (many thanks to Beverly Franco for telling me about it).  Written more as a parable (a la Ken Blanchard) than a business text. 
Buy on Amazon
The Boy Who Looked Like Lincoln

The Boy Who Looked Like Lincoln

By Mike Reiss 32 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

This could probably be categorized as a children’s book because it is illustrated and super-short, but I have found that the 6th graders I read this book to find it hilarious.  And why not, as the author is a writer from the greatest show on television (no, not The Bachelor), The Simpsons.  Thanks to Bob Matulich for another great recommendation.
Buy on Amazon
Year of Impossible Goodbyes

Year of Impossible Goodbyes

By Sook Nyul Choi 169 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

And now for a more somber but uplifting book.  I often read young adult books to learn about times in history that I never studied in school.  About a girl’s suffering in North Korea in the 1950s under Japanese and Russian rule, this book truly moved me.  I promise it has a happy ending.



Buy on Amazon
Giraffes? Giraffes!

Giraffes? Giraffes!

By Doris Haggis-on-Whey,Mr. Haggis-on-Whey 64 pages Young Adult

Danny Says

Bless you, Florence Hochman, for turning me on to this book.  This is now one of my favorite ideas.  Dave Eggers writes under a pen name and creates the most horrific idea man could have ever dreamed of:  the first in a series of reference books written by people who want to mess with future generations by providing erroneous information (e.g. giraffes did not evolve but rather came here from Neptune via the largest escalator in the galaxy).  I think this concept has been adopted by major political parties.  Kids of all ages (from 3 to 83) get a kick out of this book.



Buy on Amazon
The Greedy Triangle

The Greedy Triangle

By Marilyn Burns 32 pages Children

Danny Says

Too often kids who are good at math are turned off from reading, so here is a funny way to entice mathematicians to read.  A great introduction to geometry.
Buy on Amazon
You Have to Write

You Have to Write

By Janet S. Wong 40 pages Children

Danny Says

Teacher Sophie Donnelly referred me to this book that all teachers and parents should use in prompting their children to find their creative voices through writing.  Many college English professors could probably use this, too (unfortunately).
Buy on Amazon
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

By Mordicai Gerstein 40 pages Children

Danny Says

On August 7, 1974, French daredevil Philippe Petit, then 24, performed an astonishing high-wire act on a cable that he and his accomplices had rigged between the north and south towers of the World Trade Center.  He talks about the feat in his 240-page autobiographical account, To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers.  Gerstein’s shorter 2004 Caldecott Medal-winning story memorializes the twin towers and inspires children with one man’s crazy yet romantic stunt.  A positive and triumphant story to read this 9/11.
Buy on Amazon

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