Holler If You Hear Me (Connor's Book Review)

Holler If You Hear Me - Book Review

Connor Courter

Michael Eric Dyson’s “Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur”, explores the life and death of the widely loved rapper, Tupac. Faced with such a difficult childhood and very little parental guidance, Dyson walks you through the challenges Tupac went up against in his unfortunately short life. Starting with his crack addicted mother all the way through his tragic death. Dyson paints a vivid picture of Tupac through interviews with some of Tupac’s acquaintances and also by referencing old tapes of Tupac speaking himself. These interviews show how Tupac had a reputation as one of the most authentic artists around in his day and how deeply respected he was by many people. While Tupac’s life could certainly be portrayed as a ‘thug life’, as opposed to speaking out against it, Dyson shows how Tupac redefined it. Dyson explains how thug life isn’t all about guns, breaking laws and fighting, he uses Tupac’s interviews to explain thug life is about respect and loyalty, regardless of how you apply those in your life. Even as a highschool dropout, Tupac was certainly not against learning, he merely swapped school smarts for street smarts and took his love for reading and writing with him to the streets. Obviously Tupac quickly put those writing and reading skills to use by becoming a world renowned rapper and musician. This book dives deep into the legendary rappers reputation and morals and really exposes many things about Tupac that might be swept under the rug. Even people who consider themselves avid Tupac fans could read this book and learn more about the artist that they might not know and thrill them with more information about one of their favorites. Those who know very little about the artist will be enlightened by the ghetto sainthood of Tupac and be blasted with interesting information about a very interesting individual. A good read that helps you understand the life and thought process of a rap icon.

Freakonomics

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s book, “Freakonomics,” explores the hidden side of everything. Bizarre and unique chapter titles both confuse and compel the reader to push forward. “Freakonomics” is one of the first books to push economics and data science into popular consciousness, if you recently passed over it pushing it aside or even off your reading list, it is definitely worth taking a second look.

Steven Levitt’s ability to ask questions about unrelated topics and draw a reasonable conclusion connecting the two topics, charms the reader throughout each chapter. “Freakonomics” is composed of a series of chapters, all of which propose questions as to evoke discomfort, confusion, and drive to keep reading. For example…

1. What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? While this relationship is perplexing at first, as the chapter progresses the key link to sumo wrestlers and school teachers are incentives. The chapter shows how incentives are the cornerstone to modern life.

2. How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real estate agents? This one looks at the power of information in markets and how experts, wether a criminologist or a real-estate agent, use their informational advantage to serve their own agenda. 

3. Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? This section draws a relationship between crack dealers and fortune five hundred companies, specifically the struggle to reach the top. 

4. Where have all the criminals gone? This chapter explores the facts and fiction of crime. 

5. What makes a perfect parent? This poses the question “do parents matter?”.

Levitt's answers to the questions proposed in the chapters are tightly reasoned, interesting, and provocative. They're what make the book worth reading. Each chapter title proposes an interesting situation, they are bound to interest any reader. “Freakonomics” reaches far and wide, the material can be easily enjoyed by people of all ages, interests, and occupations. 

Levitt does not think it is necessary to identify a true “theme” from the topics he analyzes. He says that “since the science of economics is primarily a set of tools, as opposed to a subject matter, then no subject, however offbeat, need be beyond its reach.” While Levitt immediately denies any sort of theme in the introduction of the book, the book isn't a choppy mess. Levitt’s voice is prominent throughout each passage, its written in a very casual tone that draws the reader closer and personalizes the text. 

While the text has a very inviting voice, chances are you will take some offense to parts of “Freakonomics”. The book is said to have managed to offend nearly everyone. If you are a conservative you will most likely be outraged that abortion is promoted as a solution to crime. If you are a liberal, you might be upset by the racism, in the name section. Levitt’s ability to piss everyone off and still retain nearly four million readers is impeccable. Even though some of the topics offend, the bigger picture of each subject matter can be easily sympathized with. “Freakonomics” is an excellent quick read that sucks you into its vortex of unconventional reasoning of past and modern day occurrences. Once you dive in, you may never stop until you start drawing relationships between any and every unrelated subject matter such as commercial airline companies and Yellowstone National Park’s entrance fee. 

A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou -Carson

A Song Flung Up to Heaven

 A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou is an account of her life after she returns to the United States from Africa to be a civil rights activist. Miss Angelou is a poet, teacher, singer, performer, director and has written 7 autobiographies about her life as a black women during the civil rights movement. The book opens with a letter from Malcolm X asking Angelou to come work with him in New York. Of course she accepts his offer but first she must travel to California to reunite with her mother and brother. While visiting with her beloved brother, the only person she would talk to after being raped by her mother's boyfriend, she received news that Malcolm X had been assassinated. Angelou, devastated, slowly puts her life back together with odd singing jobs in local bars, and multiple on-stage theatre production. While conducting a door-to-door survey in Watts, the town explodes in riots, an account she describes first-hand. The energy from the riot excites her and so she returns to New York in hopes of finding an editorial job. While at a party, a close friends of hers, Martin Luther King Jr. approaches her and nearly begs her to be his coordinator in the north and visit all the black churches to spread the word about his Poor People's March. A dream come true for Miss Angelou. However, tragedy strikes again when Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. Angelou falls deep into a depression in which she will not speak or leave her apartment. The depression only lasts about four pages when one of her best friends, James Baldwin, forces her to attend a dinner party. At the dinner party she laughs and cries and tells stories of her life in Ghana. Because of the detail and authenticity of Miss Angelou's stories, she is offered a job as the host and writer of a talk show comparing the African culture to the African-American culture. It is while writing this show that she decides to try writing her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing. Maya Angelou not only shares her passion for music but she describes the heartbreak of leaving her 18 year old trouble-making son behind in Ghana. She describes her husband and his seductive yet overbearing ways. She even describes the hardships of writing as a black women. Miss Angelou fights through the civil rights movement all while keeping the reader entertained with silly pieces of advice from her mother, playful sibling arguments and phone calls from her son asking for more money for another crazy adventure he has planned. Chapter by chapter Angelou weaves a beautifully written story out of many stories from her life. With dialogue in every scene, A Song Flung Up to Heaven reads much like a fiction novel. Maya Angelou records her difficult destiny with style and grace in a moving story of her intelligence and wit. An easy read for anyone who wants to walk alongside a great woman during the civil rights movement.

Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs paints perhaps the most accurate and revealing picture of his life. As the book covers essentially his whole life in considerable detail, it is not light reading. The 656 pages cover everything from his abandonment as a child, subsequent adoption, work at Apple, Pixar, and NeXT, family life, to his death. Steve Jobs is well known for twisting reality to fit his purposes, making him a tough subject to accurately represent. Isaacson skillfully sifts through Job’s account of events and confirms them against interviews from friends, family, and previous coworkers to find the truth. Isaacson found that “It was in Jobs’s nature to mislead or be secretive when he felt it was warranted… [He had a] Nietzschean attitude that ordinary rules didn’t apply to him.” Among Job’s qualities that are revealed through Isaacson’s expert retelling of his life are his ability to distort reality (termed the Reality Distortion Field by his coworkers), his binary view of things, and his attention to detail and simplicity. On these qualities, it is noted that ”The finish on a piece of metal, the curve of the head of a screw, the shade of blue on a box, the intuitiveness of a navigation screen - [Jobs] would declare them to ‘completely suck’ until the moment when he suddenly pronounced them ‘absolutely perfect’.” Also, it is revealed that these qualities are perhaps what made Jobs most successful. In managing the building of computers at Apple he insisted that the circuit boards inside their computers be as beautiful as the case. He said that “real artists ship,” and would demand that work be done by a certain time even if it seemed impossible to his employees. Many times, they would achieve the goal, affirming that Steve could essentially will things to happen and they would. He demanded perfection from those working for him or with him, insisting on building a company of only “A players”, but also people who he could successfully bend to his will. Walter Isaacson successfully captures not only the beneficial effects of Steve Job’s intense personality, but also the detrimental effects, including the abandonment of his own daughter and his rough treatment of employees. Job’s undeniably massive effect on the development of the personal computer, computer animation, digital publishing, and distribution of music makes Isaacson’s biography a must read for everyone who desires a better picture of Job’s life.

The Journey Home by Edward Abbey

The Journey Home was written by the acclaimed environmentalist author Edward Abbey. This is one of his many pieces discussing the topic of the wilderness and its incredible perfection. The Journey Home is centered around a few main themes including the preservation of the wild and the effects time has on the world around us. This non-fiction book is an culmination of assorted life stories of Edward Abbey that take place across contrasting environments within the United States, varying from Hoboken, New Jersey; Yosemite National Park, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico and Telluride, Colorado. Edward Abbey is known as a “environmental philosopher,” and this is clearly demonstrated in The Journey Home in which Abbey comtemplates nature around him and the effect that humans have on its health and well-being. I believe this book is a form of a memoir for Abbey, in which he attempts to encompass the adventures throughout his life. The most interesting aspect of The Journey Home in my perspective was Edward Abbey's view on the ever-present change occurring in the United States. This was seen when Abbey returned to both Yosemite and Telluride. In Telluride, he described the transformation the town took with the arrival the ski resort driven by Joe Zoline. This man “tainted” the eccentric, isolated beauty of Telluride and represented the capitalist dominance within the US. Edward Abbey told of the entrance of American middle-class hippies into Telluride and how they permanently changed the atmosphere that the town earlier held. Before it was a refuge for naturalistic hermits, but was then commercialized as a “groovy ski town.” The same cultural demise occurred in Yosemite National Park. Abbey described how he visited the park in it's earliest days as a National Park, and has always planned to return. He was only apprehensive because of numerous accounts he had heard of the drastic decline the park has taken because of a recent influx of hippies and bums. He eventually revisited the park and stayed with a close friend who was, coincidentally, a Park Ranger in Yosemite. While in the park, Abbey shared stories with his long-separated friend and came to realization of the speed at which the United States is moving. Towns are becoming cities, and cities are becoming bigger cities. Abbey claimed that the acceleration of urbanization was one of the reasons he enjoyed the pure and simple life in the wilderness. For seven years, Abbey spent the summer in a isolated cabin on fire patrol. He would watch out for forest fires in the Pacific Northwest, and then report these fires to local firefighters. These summers he claimed were his time of growth, where identified himself personally. I enjoyed The Journey Home and believe that Edward Abbey is an incredible writer in general. The style of his work is very personal and depicts his obvious love for the outdoors. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an interesting read about the wilderness and its entirety. I plan on reading Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey for my next non-fiction book because he is even more acclaimed for his description and explanation of the desert and it's magnificence. I am eager to be convinced that the hostile and brutal environment of the desert is truly enjoyable and divine.

Into the Wild

Morgan Fansler

Book Review: Into the Wild

            “If you want something in life, you have to reach out and grab it.” If I had to pick a quote to describe Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild, this would be it. Christopher McCandless was a normal guy who was seeking adventure as opposed to his normal, conformed life. He didn’t care for the luxurious lifestyle and tried to avoid it. McCandless eventually was fed up with the life he was living a completely turned it upside down. He set fire to his money and cut up all forms of identification and set out on an adventure. I personally believe that the most amazing principle of this book is that he purely did this on his own. Nobody told him to go live in the wilderness and travel to Alaska for two years... he had the option to live a healthy, put together life.  He simply woke up one morning, deciding that it was time for change. People like Chris McCandless are the type of people I appreciate and seek to find in this word because they were born with a different outlook on the world. They take advantage of all the materials and beauties the earth presents them and embrace it all, every day. During his journey, Chris McCandless reached out and found safety in other people. He took note of the people that had the largest effect on him in the journal that he kept during his two-year traveling period. He wrote about the effects emotionally and physically from leaving society. He was hungry, he was lost, and most of all, he was lonely. Coping with these emotions must have been the hardest for him because they were so foreign and he could only blame himself. However, the sheer feeling of absolute freedom is what pulled him through. McCandless was one with the wilderness. He could start to relate to the wildlife around him as well as the nature that consumed him. Though he died on hunger in 1992, I can honestly say he died a free man with more knowledge of the earth’s offerings then most people in this world. It takes a real man to want to suffer for what he thinks is beautiful and fulfilling.

In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood        Jared B

            In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, is a non-fiction book about the murder of a family, and the escape, capture, and death sentence of the killers. It is an edgy and very entertaining read that you will enjoy if you like murder and mystery.

            Truman Capote started his career off in Europe. He wrote two books prior to coming to America. When he arrived, he wanted to write an astounding non-fiction book. He then came upon a story in Holcomb, Kansas about a murder. He researched the story, became close with the killers, and wrote In Cold Blood, which has become popular and made into a movie.

            In Cold Blood begins at the Clutter ranch in Holcomb, Kansas. It starts off as a normal day for the Clutters, a wealthy family of four. While on the other side of the spectrum, two men, Perry Smith and Dick Hitchcock, are on their way to the ranch at the same time. The book begins with a back and forth between the Clutters family and the two men. The Clutters are completely ignorant about what is about to happen, while the two men are coming fast. It jumps from the men to the family and back quickly to try and imitate a movie scene. It keeps you on your toes, on the edge, waiting to see what happens next. Once the men arrive at the ranch, Capote never actually writes about the murders. He gives details for you to imagine what happens, but waits until later to give away the full diagnosis to keep the reader hooked. Half of the fun is actually finding out how the murder took place.

            Once the murder happens, Dick and Perry head out to across the country. We see how they come to think of each other. For example, Perry got hurt in a motorcycle accident and his legs cause him pain. Occasionally, when Perry is feeling pain in his legs, Dick looks at it as Perry having second thoughts about everything. Nonetheless, the two men make it across the country by writing hot checks. Back in Holocomb, the investigation about who the murderers are, is taking place. That is the first order of business. Eventually, Dick and Perry run out of money, and are forced to head back West to look for work. About the same time, the KBI (Kansas Bureau of Investigation) learns that Dick and Perry where the ones who killed the Clutters by identifying a car license plate that the two men were in. Dick and Perry are caught. Then the questioning begins.

            They go through a series of questionings, asking each man about a certain event. Finally everything is learned about, the details of the murder, the motive, and the escape. Dick and Perry each are put on Death Row. As it comes close to their death, they each react differently. Perry seems to be remorseful while Dick is awkward. The story of In Cold Blood concludes there.

            I would most definitely recommend this book. I really enjoyed it. It was a fun read for people who like murder mysteries. But I read it somewhat quickly, because it kept me on my toes waiting to know more. The way Capote made the scenes jump from person to person let you see the event from both sides. Capote was able to incorporate irony into this book, which gave it an extra edge. This book was well written and very serious. The story line was interesting. This would be on my must read list.