Inside the Olympic Industry

The opening ceremonies for the Vancouver Olympics are Friday night, and Olympic fever is spreading quickly. Vancouver's online source, Straight, is featuring four of the best books on the Olympics—and one of them is Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism, by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj. Here's their take on the book:

There are other solid critiques of the Olympics, such as Andrew Jennings’s two Lords of the Rings books and Helen Lenskyj’s more recent Olympic Industry Resistance: Challenging Olympic Power and Propaganda, which was published in 2008. 

But this penetrating analysis by Lenskyj, released in 2000, remains a classic for how thoroughly it exposes the secrecy, elitism, hypocrisy, corruption, and lack of accountability of what she calls the “Olympic industry”. Lenskyj, a Toronto sociologist and activist, wrote the book at the height of a scandal over the Salt Lake City bid committee’s unethical gift-giving to International Olympic Committee delegates. 

It’s worth noting that the Vancouver bid committee never released an itemized list of its expenditures to suppliers of goods and services, so there’s no way of telling if our city won the Games through similar means. Lenskyj’s book points out that bid and organizing committees have never been covered by freedom-of-information legislation, furthering the lack of transparency—though that will change for the London Games in 2012. 

Lenskyj also shows how the Olympic Charter’s ban on “political, religious or racial propaganda” near venues is designed to stifle dissent in host cities. In addition, Inside the Olympic Industry shines a light on how the media and universities have been complicit in suppressing public debate. “A beautified, gentrified city with state-of-the-art professional sport facilities has no value to men, women, and children whose basic needs are not being met,” Lenskyj writes.

If you want to know why there will be so many protesters on the streets of Vancouver on Friday (February 12), this book provides the answer.

Read the rest of the list here, and check out Helen's other books on the Olympics.

The Examiner reviews Blows to the Head

Our boxing week continues. Today we have a review of Binnie Klein's book to share, courtesy of Joseph Roche at The Examiner. Here's an excerpt:

The most interesting parts of Klein’s book are the little things about the Jewish experience that are shared across generations. The stories of Jewish fighters changing their names so that their mother’s wouldn’t find out that they were boxing (to Jewish mother’s boxing was a shanda), or stories of Klein’s family and her upbringing – the father who for much of the story she seems in a mixture of fear and reverence of winds up at the end being somewhat redeemed with the simple acknowledgement that he always kept driving to the “motel with the pool.”

Read the full review and visit Binnie's website for more on Blows to the Head.

Critics' Pick for 2009: Knife Song Korea

Congratulations are in order for Richard Selzer, whose novel Knife Song Korea was named one of the California Literary Review's Critics' Picks for Best Books of 2009. Here's a snippet of the glowing review:

“...a number of novella’s are among the classics of U.S. literature: Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice and Men, and Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus to name just three. Knife Song Korea may come to join that distinguished collection. It is a lapidary work of exceptional artistry as well as a valuable addition to the body of notable works by physician-writers.” — California Literary Review

Check out the Review's full list of top books for 2009 (you'll find Knife Song Korea on the fiction list, just below Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice), then read the entire book review.

Two More Woodstock Reviews

Woodstock: The Oral History, 40th Anniversary Edition was recently reviewed in both the Miami Herald and at the Nippertown blog. Here's the Herald review:

This is ... an excellent, often spellbinding account in the words of those involved, from doctors and cops to shopkeepers and neighbors to festival organizers and musicians. Makower, a veteran writer, spent a year interviewing 75 participants, and since the year was 1988, the recollections are fresher than those collected four decades after the fact.

And here's part of Greg Haymes' review at Nippertown:

...Makower criss-crossed the country to conduct face-to-face interviews with more than 70 festival participants—musicians, the producers, local residents, tech and backstage personnel and, of course, the fans. When the original edition was published, Rolling Stone magazine called it “the definitive story of the mega-concert.”

The new edition includes new forewords by co-producers Michael Lang and Joel Rosenman, but it’s Makower’s original interviews that are the real reason to celebrate the fact that this book is back in print again.

Woodstock review in School Library Journal

School Library Journal recently reviewed a selection of new Woodstock books, including our very own Woodstock: The Oral History. Here's what they had to say about the book:

Joe Makower’s Woodstock: The Oral History: 40th Anniversary Edition, published by Excelsior Editions at State University of New York Press, provides a thorough, even scholarly treatment of the festival. This incredibly in-depth recounting has been “culled from face-to-face interviews conducted during 1988 with the people who made Woodstock happen: producers, performers, doctors, cops, neighbors, shopkeepers, carpenters, electricians, lawyers, journalists, filmmakers, and an assemblage of just plain folks who, by design or circumstances, became part of the event.” The separate segments, identified by speaker, are pieced together into a conversational text that takes into consideration everything from Port-O-Sans to peacekeepers to performances and ultimately tells a fascinating story. Small black-and-white historical photos and newspaper headlines are scattered throughout the pages.

Vera and the Ambassador reviewed

American Foreign Policy Interests recently reviewed Vera and the Ambassador. We've pasted in the entire, glowing review below.

This is an exceptional book by two exceptional people, Vera and Donald Blinken, who set a high standard of achievement in a difficult ambassadorial assignment.

Donald served as U.S. ambassador to Hungary from March of 1994 until November of 1997. An investment banker and patron of the arts with a solid understanding of foreign policy issues, he was ideally suited to serve in the strategically important country of Hungary as it underwent a difficult transition from communism to democracy.

Vera Blinken, a former special assistant for the arts and cultural affairs to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and member of the Board of the International Rescue Committee, was proof that an ambassador’s wife can make a real difference. Hungarian born and fluent in the language, she was able to help Donald interpret the not always easy to comprehend Hungarian patterns of behavior.

Donald had two great achievements during his years in Budapest. He played a critical role in persuading the Hungarian government to accept the U.S. military base in Taszar, essential for U.S. participation in the NATO peacekeeping operation in Bosnia, which also paved the way for Hungary’s eventual entry into NATO. Equally important, his persistent yet diplomatic advice at the highest levels of the government was essential in moving Hungary to free market reforms after years of stultifying state controls.

Vera transformed what had been a somewhat dreary embassy resident, making it an exciting intellectual and cultural center for Hungarian leaders and visiting Americans. She also founded PRIMAVERA, the first breast cancer screening program in Central and Eastern Europe. She was, in every sense, a perfect coambassador.

It was a fitting tribute to Donald and Vera that each of them was awarded Hungary’s highest honor, the Middle Cross of the Order of Merit, something unprecedented for a husband-wife team.

Donald and Vera alternate in recounting the details of their Hungarian experience. They do it in a very frank and personal way, telling of both frustrations and triumphs, so that the reader gets to understand what running an embassy is like and why ambassadors are important.

At a time when President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are seeking to revitalize American diplomacy, this book by the Blinkens provides timely and inspiring testimony of how a dedicated and capable ambassadorial team can advance the interests of the United States.

- Richard N. Gardner, Professor of Law and International
Organization, Columbia University

Author's perseverance pays off with Frances Folsom Cleveland bio

The Courier-Tribune (North Carolina) has published an early review of Frank, our upcoming biography of Frances Folsom Cleveland. The book is the first full-length bio of America’s youngest, and perhaps most underrated, First Lady. In the article, author Annette Dunlap describes what went into writing the book and how her perseverance paid off in this meticulously detailed account of the First Lady's life.

You can preorder Frank now; it will be published in October.

Head Butler reviews We Used to Own the Bronx

"Eve Pell makes me want to lace up my running shoes—real and metaphorical—and get going."

That's a snippet from another terrific review of Eve Pell's memoir We Used to Own the Bronx. Read the review over at Head Butler.

And yes, for those who didn't know, after befriending the Black Panthers and making documentary films on the dark side of American politics, Eve also became a world-class runner. This fascinating memoir has a little bit of everything.

Memories of a golden era in the Bronx

We Used to Own the Bronx is still going strong: check out this recent piece by Michael Thomas of New York Social Diary. Turns out Michael escorted author Eve "Topsy" Pell to the Spring Dance at Exeter in 1953! He even says, of Eve, that "No young woman of that time was prettier or brighter or carried off long white gloves with greater aplomb."

Michael goes on to list a few other high society connections between them, and then discusses what makes Eve's memoir such a success, writing "how totally right it gets its subject matter, both as to fact and as to tone." Michael's rave review is also full of great photos from the book, so check it out today!

Poets on the Edge

Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry was recenty reviewed in the Jerusalem Post. The review is full of praise for the collection, as well as for editor and translator Tsipi Keller. Here's a snippet:

This new anthology of Hebrew poetry in translation has two special strengths - tremendous depth and a personal touch. In terms of depth, it moves far past the familiar big names of Hebrew poetry, or at least those names familiar to English-language readers. Sure, there's Yehuda Amichai, the most famous of recent Israeli poets, who has been widely translated by everyone from Ted Hughes to Leon Wieseltier to the team of Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld; there's Dahlia Ravikovitch, who is also fairly well-known, but there's also a slew of rarely translated or never-before-translated names that have a good chance of redefining the world's image of what Hebrew poetry is.

Read the entire review here.

Vera and the Ambassador in Quest Magazine

Vera and the Ambassador has received a nice write-up in Quest Magazine. The magazine does not have a website, so we've included the two-page piece above. Just click on the pages to expand them into a more reader-friendly size.

Artvoice review of Living Waters

Living Waters: Reading the Rivers of the Lower Great Lakes has been reviewed again, this time in the Buffalo newsweekly Artvoice. Here's an enthusiastic excerpt:

By almost any measure Margaret Wooster should be celebrated as a hero of our planet. For a couple of decades, she has been one of the most outspoken and out front environmental advocates in our region. Her professional and personal brilliance shines very brightly in her newest book, Living Waters: Reading the Rivers of the Lower Great Lakes...

Read the full review here.

Pic of the day

Margaret Wooster, author of Living Waters: Reading the Rivers of the Lower Great Lakes, sent us this great photo of herself with some St. Lawrence pilgrims described in the book.

Margaret has a full schedule of readings coming up, which you can find on our calendar.

And in case you missed it, the book was reviewed in the Buffalo News last week.

Living Waters book review

In Living Waters: Reading the Rivers of the Lower Great Lakes, Margaret Wooster tells a series of intriguing stories based on her exploration of eight rivers in New York and Québec. The book was recently reviewed in the Buffalo News. Here's a tease:

"Margaret Wooster’s Living Waters: Reading the Rivers of the Lower Great Lakes (SUNY Press) is simply wonderful ... [her] near poetic essays make evil deeds at least palatable and the splendid example of her own commitment clearly indicates a brighter future for our living waters."

Review for Vera and the Ambassador

High praise for Vera and the Ambassador from Harriet Klausner at the Full Review.

"Vera and the Ambassador is one of the best autobiographies in recent years, as readers will appreciate the couples' take on the 1990s in East Europe..."

Read the entire review.

Interview with Eve Pell

We Used to Own the Bronx was reviewed again, this time on the blog Ghost Word. Author Eve Pell was also interviewed for the piece, and you can read it all here.

Eve will be reading from the book tomorrow, March 11, from 7–9 pm at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA. She'll also be at Books Inc. in San Francisco on Friday, March 20, from 7–9 pm.

Remembering the Revolution

Eve Pell's We Used to Own the Bronx has been reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. Here's an excerpt:

"... a literary treat. ... Pell gives us a kind of cultural anthropology of the closest thing in America to a landed gentry." — Sol Stern

Read the full review here.

The Reason for Crows

In The Reason for Crows: A Story of Kateri Tekakwitha, Diane Glancy tells the story of a seventeenth-century Mohawk woman’s interaction with her land, the Jesuits, and their religion. The book was recently reviewed by Christianity Today—listen to the podcast of the review today.

Today's sign of the apocalypse

We stumbled upon this review this morning and we had to share it with you. Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher has cowritten a new book called, naturally, Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream. One leaky pipe at a time.

Now, if it's possible that you didn't get enough of Joe back in the fall when he (and the media's and both campaign's manipulations of him) hijacked the U.S. presidential election, then this is the book for you. For the rest of us, I think this PopMatters review sums it up neatly:

Back to the seemingly ordinary tale of Joe the Plumber, who, according to the book’s insert, has become “an American folk hero and the ultimate icon of the working class.” Woody Guthrie is probably rolling in his grave. Tabback and Wurzelbacher paint Joe as a Panglossian figure – always willing to lend a helping hand and open his door to his neighbors. Well, perhaps if his neighbors are also pro-Israel, pro-Christian, neo-conservatives. And such is the damning irony of this book. The authors have the audacity to go to great lengths to show how “American” Joe is and how he’s like everyone else, but he’s not: he has a very specific, very narrow point of view of American politics that can only be shared by one demographic at the intersections of race
(Caucasian), gender (male) and location (Midwest).

We also love the review's headline: “Freedom Isn’t Free! It Costs At Least $24.95.”

Thanks to Bookforum for alerting us to this.