Wow, what a story!

The author skillfully narrated the story of Louie Zamperini, an Olympian runner: his entire life story from birth, to becoming a fast runner, to being drafted a B-24 Bombardier When his aircraft, Green Hornet, crashed into the Pacific Ocean. He and 2 other guys survived the crash and drifted on a raft and fought off sharks’ attacks for 47 days and ended up in an island controlled by Japanese and became an underground POW to be used as a propaganda vehicle. He later survived the sadistic abuses of the prison guard and the ultimate tormentor – Corp. Mutsuhiro Watanabe. Up until the end of the war for over two years, he was under the abuse and random acts of violence from the psychopathic “Bird.” The unbelievable amount of indignant injuries both physically and psychologically inflicted on Louie and many other POW’s in the camp left a deep scar on Louie and others even years after the wars ended. Louie was able to overcome his alcoholism and the nightly “Bird” demon through religion thanks to Bill Graham.

I must say Louie came across as the iron man, training for Olympics, winning the collegiate 1-mile championship after being sabotaged on the track, surviving the dog fight which killed several others in their “Superman” B-24, and then the crash of the Hornet, then overcame the thirst, hunger and the attack of sharks during his 47-day drift in the ocean, then surviving the POW camp, then fought off the demons and alcoholism upon his return. He’s now over 93 years old and still going on strong. Amazing. How true the saying goes, “What don’t kill you make you strong.”

This is probably the best autobiography book I’ve ever read – very inspirational. The facts were well researched and the author kept the readers going and wanting for more. The twists and turns of the stories trumps most fiction stories.

The atrocity of Japan military will go down as one of the most vicious and inhumane in human history. Let the story be the reminder of human cruelty of an extremist government and the people serving that government to advance its objective. It would be a major accomplishment of Louie Zamperini if his story prevents the history from repeating itself.

Paul Facella, an ex-McDonald executive, who started working as a crew in McDonald’s since 16 years of age, outlined the 7 leadership principles that drive break out success like McDonald’s. After reading this book, I got to understand the business model of McDonald’s a little better. By buying up the property and lease it to the operator, McDonald’s practically becomes the landlord that aligns its profit with that of the tenants. McDonald’s simple strategy of QSC also makes the execution easier. I was surprised by how much of a culture is needed to drive a successful company like McDonald’s. It’s an incredible “system.” More the 7 principles below:

1. Honesty and integrity: all the stakeholders stand to gain, making everyone feel like a true partner. Use of ombusdsman to audit the process.
2. Relationships: “To get to the heart of the person’s value system. It’s the very foundation of trust.” “Got relationships will allow others not only to approach with insights but also to challenge your thinking.” “I was tolerant of someone’s buckets of weakness as long as I could maximize on their strengths.” “Seek out and develop a network of individuals who you can rely on for good feedback and advice. Don’t react, don’t be defensive… Listen. Be in the present.”
3. Standards: never be satisfied. “Measurements always improves performance.” “Always insist that goals have key metrics. Define them. Measure them. Celebrate their achievement.” “Plan to Win” strategy boils down to five P’s: people, products, place, price and performance. (one more P to Marketing’s 4 P’s).
4. Lead by example. “You could never more out of people than you were willing to give of yourself to them.” “As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” “Where there is no risk, there is no achievement and where there is no achievement, there is no real achievement.”
5. Courage: “People will respect you for having the courage to admit when you’re wrong.” “Have the courage to speak up calmly and in an organized fashion to present your perspective, even if it seems to go against the grain of your higher-ups.” “Welcome new ideas from your associates but challenge them to think through every step of their plan.”
6. Communications: “It’s OK to disagree, but don’t be disagreeable.” “A person who is genuinely and legitimately surprised by his or her annual performance appraisal provides grounds for dismissal of person’s boss.”
7. Recognition: “A little praise, some recognition, and I was ready to give my all to the company.” “Increasing employee recognition lowers turnover, raises customer loyalty, and increases productivity.” “Don’t just recognize the employee. Recognize his or her significant other.” “The system has always pushed for continuous learning and innovation.”

This is probably one of the books that I came away feeling not getting much out of it. The author, Mary Roach, started out looking for the soul and weighing a soul. Nothing concrete (unless you count the 20gm loss when a person died) from the findings – mostly unproductive pursuit of something that doesn’t exist – in my opinion. Then it was the research into how the medium works to connect with the dead. Not much there either. I do like the possible explanations that people may be affected by the EMF (electromagnetic field) when seeing or feeling the ghosts. This is very likely and the author did experiment herself and he heard sirens when there was none.

The book ended with a story about proving that perhaps it was a scheme when a man saw dead father came back to inform him of a second will that re-divide the inheritance equally among the brothers and sisters instead of his holding the short end of the stick. The author had the signature expert analyze the second will and contested that it’s probably not very likely.

Mary Roach usually tells a good scientific story but this book doesn’t quite cut it – probably because of my bias against the possibility of ghosts. Lack of imagination. May be.

This is a huge book. I listened to the audiobook (23-CD worth) for almost 30 hours and hardback book has very small fonts and 737-page thick. It was long and tedious consists of his original autobiography manuscripts, “random extracts” and other miscellaneous notes including her daughter’s (Suzy Clemens) version of Mark Twain’s (Samuel Clemens) autobiography – too complete for my taste. While it’s important for literature historian to read through all chapters of this book, it may be overwhelming for most readers. It’s no wonder that Mark Twain hesitated to publish it. But there were stories that stood out for me:

President’s Grant’s Autobiography: It’s interesting for Mark Twain to detail his respect for and relationship with President Grant, the civil war general who later became the US President. Mark Twain’s business savvy helped General Grant to secure a mutually profitable autobiography deal with his own publishing firm. It also sheds lights on the business dealing between an author and the publisher: 10% straight cut or 50/50 profit sharing. I also got to know a little about this great modest man, President Grant.

Dueling: The use of dueling to settle scores was rather intriguing. How any mature person would resort to such a childish way to exonerate one’s honor is beyond me. Mark Twain talked about how he almost died from dueling with another man. Thanks to the bluffing effect of his friend’s marksmanship, the other party decided not to proceed with it. He probably wouldn’t have lived that long without any negative health impact from the dueling incident.

Mark Twain was a risk taker. His investment in the typesetting machine, though a failure, tells what an entrepreneur he was in his era. He even started his own publishing company and devised a method to extend his copyright for the benefits of his children. He probably learned about business from his father who bought a large Tennessee land passed on to all his children but the children eventually squandered away.

Mark Twain’s little daughter, Suzy, was as gifted in writing as Mark Twain. Unfortunately, she passed away in her 20’s. This was a big blow for Mark Twain and his wife Olivia, who adored this girl more than the other girls. It’s a family tragedy in addition to his son Langdon’s early demise. Mark Twain’s early life before 7 years old was a constant anxiety for his mother. What struck me was his mother’s answer to him about his question whether the anxiety came from if he was going to die, “No, it was if you were going to live.” Wow, I can imagine the precarious state of Mark Twain’s health in his childhood.

Mark Twain’s ingenious “scheme” of getting a job is as relevant in today’s job market. His method: Do it for “refreshment” without any wage . Produce the results without any complaints. When the competitors come to recruit you with a wage offer, give the current employer the first shot at retaining you at an equal or better wage before accepting the competitor’s offer. What a smart scheme! The unemployed should learn from him.

There were the usual observation essays about the places where he traveled: Vienna, Germany, and etc. The cabs, German language from one of his servants, and many others.

It’s no doubt that Mark Twain was in the high society associated with Presidents (Grant, Cleveland), Babe Ruth, Helen Keller and other dignitaries.

At the end, the letter from Helen Keller for his speech was most moving. This is an appropriate end to this autobiography. Keller’s complement to Mark Twain: “You once told me you were a pessimist. Mr. Clemens; but great men are usually mistaken about themselves. You are an optimist.”

This book is almost like a memoir of Nora Ephron. She first poked fun at her age and her frequent Senior Moments. For most of the baby boomers, we can begin to relate to her on this subject. She also talked about her Aruba, the crown of her head, an embarrassing exhibition that no one ever told her. It’s like no one would tell you when your fly is open.

She brought the readers back to her early life of studying journalism, and started her entry level work at Newsweek as the mail girl, to fact checker (researcher), worked in New York Post for 5 years, worked as a writer in a Esquire and New York magazines. All she believed in was journalism.

There was intimate details about her parents and her relationship with her alcoholic mother, who was first her ideal mother she worshiped then a loved one she despised because her alcoholism. She talked about the legend of Lillian Ross being kicked out by her mother.

On the relationship fronts, she talked about her relationship with Lillian Hellman and her big ego. She also talked about her 3 marriages: the first “clear” one without children, the second one with an unfaithful husband and two children and finally the 3rd one that lasted over 20 years. I guess third time is a charm. She believed in the religion of “Get Over It” and turned it into a story and novel.

There was this story about her almost inheriting a fortune from his uncle Hal and his father’s short phone conversation (probably well trained from those days when long distance calls were expensive). It turned out to be a small sum of $40K. The blessing in disguise was that she had to finish writing When Harry Met Sally, which changed her life. But then there were flops that hurt. It takes a brave, successful person to talk about her own failures.

Nora Ephron was fascinated with technologies: pre-paid movie tickets, internet, on-line Scrabble game, emails (6 stages of email) . She’s particular about foods, dining, and cooking: the story of egg-white omelet, Teflon pan, a Meat Loaf that’s named after her at Monkey Bar, and Christmas Dinner tradition.

The last thing she talked about that concluded the book was getting old. She listed the things she’ll miss that things she won’t miss.

Overall, half of the stories were interesting and the other half not so much. But you can tell she’s writing all these with her heart and honesty. Getting old gracefully is hard. She did a reasonable good job in this book.

Always wanted to read this book since I missed it in my high-school reading and I finally did it on my Kindle. The online dictionary came in handy with all the colloquial words used throughout the novel. The title “Catcher in the Rye” interested me. According to some interpretation, it’s about someone who prevents kids from running from the rye field off the cliff, a symbolism of the transition to adulthood from childhood of innocence, kindness, spontaneity, and generosity.

In the three days after Holden Caulfield was expelled from his Pencey school, he got in a fight with his room mate (Stradlater), visited one of his teachers, had a clumsy encounter with a young prostitute – Sunny, met up with his old friend – Sally Hayes, went back to his house to see his young sister Phoebe, met with his ex-teacher – Mr. Antolini – who may have made “flitty” advance on him and remarked “it is the mark of the mature man who wants to live humbly for a cause, rather than die nobly for it.” Afterward, he hung around the city, dropped by museum, and looked for Phoebe. When he found Phoebe, he was surprised to know that Phoebe already packed up to go with him. At this point, he became the responsible adult and squashed her idea and promised to go back home. Phoebe became the catcher and caught Holden from falling off the cliff of adulthood.

Throughout the book, Holden smoked and drank continuously as if this showed how tough and adult he was and yet within him he hated all the phonies of the adult world and clenched to his child-like view of the world or the world it should be. Salinger’s writing style in this book fully reflected the mental state and maturity level of Holden at his age – meaning there was a lot of wining and cussing throughout he book – and who doesn’t at this age.

I find the ending a bit disappointing. Did he turn good and become a model citizen – probably too corny? Did he sink deeper and eventually move himself to a cabin? Probably. It’s left to readers’ imagination.

This book is both a memoir of Stephen King and a how-to on writing fiction. King’s early life growing up with a constantly-moving mother and a genius elder brother was very interesting. I wonder if the shifty environment he grew up made him who he was/is – striving to horrify people with his talents in hunting for the fears and dark side of the readers/viewers. He also went into great details of his fight against alcoholism and drugs. But when it comes to the question of doing it for the money, he replied, “I never set a single word down on paper with the thought of being paid for it… I’ve written because it fulfilled me.. I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.” You can tell his passion for the art in his last chapter “On Living” where he described how he fought to survive from a freak accident and how writing got him back to life.

Stephen King taught us the merely mortal how to write fictions. Key advises:
1. Write often and read often. He himself wrote continuously while growing up and had a hook where he spiked all the rejection letters on his wall. Now that’s encouragement. Even for him, he reads constantly up to 70+ books a year. “Good writing, on the other hand, teaches the learning writer about style, graceful narration, plot development, the creation of believable characters, and truth-telling.”

2. From stories to theme than from themes to stories. This one surprised me. Most of the time, he just let the stories develop into themes instead of constructing the stores based on a certain theme. I guess that’s why most fictional writers don’t know how the stories would end when they started writing. Very interesting. “When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.”

3. On editing: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Always try to reduce the first draft and target 10% reduction. “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.” “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right—as right as you can, anyway— it belongs to anyone who wants to read it.”

4. Put your desk in the corner… Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.

5. Writing is Telepathy. Build your toolbox: vocabulary (put on the top shelf but don’t make any conscious effort to improve it), grammar (read The Elements of Style), use active tense and reduce use of adverbs.

6. Writing takes discipline. King writes roughly 10 pages (2000 words) a day and finishes a novel in three months. He writes in the mornings. The secrets: stay healthy and stay married. Write what you know and what you love to read.

7. Stories and novels consists of three parts: narration (A to B), description (creates sensory reality) and dialogue (bring characters to life through their speech). “Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.” King went to a few examples for each of the 3 parts.”Practice is invaluable (and should feel good, really not like practice at all) and that honesty is indispensable. Skills in description, dialogue, and character development all boil down to seeing or hearing clearly and then transcribing what you see or hear with equal clarity (and without using a lot of tiresome, unnecessary adverbs).”

8. Have an Ideal First Reader to review your work. Like King’s wife and Alfred Hitchcock’s wife.

9. “As a reader, I’m a lot more interested in what’s going to happen than what already did.” Be judicious in the use of “back stories.”