SHULA :: Mark Ribowsky

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

When Don Shula was in junior high school, his hardworking Hungarian-immigrant parents refused to let him play football after he tore his nose open in a game. Undeterred, Shula forged his parents' signatures on the permission slip, and kept playing. The determined 11-year-old didn't become the priest his family hoped he would, but not even he imagined playing and achieving Hall of Fame status as a coach in the National Football League.

Mark Ribowsky, biographer of sports and music personalities (Dreams to Remember), details the "lantern-jawed" stalwart's five decades of football in Shula: The Coach of the NFL's Greatest Generation. Shula's career had more than adequate peaks to overshadow the valleys, but Ribowsky does not gloss over the "failures" that provided grist for the success mill and forged Shula's process of gritty, old-school discipline and grinding. An undefeated season coaching the Baltimore Colts went famously sideways in Super Bowl III, when the heavily favored Colts fell prey to Broadway Joe Namath's outlandish guarantee that his Jets team would win.

After losing another championship coaching the Miami Dolphins in 1972, Shula finally got a Super Bowl ring, and an as-yet-unmatched perfect season, in 1973. Ribowsky provides superb particulars about that game (and many others), including Shula's wife cold-cocking a rude fan and his watch being stolen off his wrist as his players hoisted him in victory. Comprehensive and straight-shooting about Shula's persona and career, touching on cultural influences of race, drugs and politics, Shula is a treasure trove of insight on one of the game's greats.

STREET SENSE: I love a biography that doesn't universally glow about the subject. We all have our shittiness. Ribowsky does a great job of that here. Shula was a big part of the football I watched as a kid and back in my day we rarely saw or knew much about the "off-the-field" persona (at least vastly diminished from today). I came away from this book with mixed feelings about Don Shula. His was a different age in so many ways, making it hard to "judge" by today's standards. No one can doubt he was driven and to many a great coach. I balked at some of the religion and (of course) resultant hypocrisy. But complex human beings are fascinating and Ribowsky kept me fairly riveted.

COVER NERD SAYS:  Simple, but I like it. When you have a face as recognizable as Shula's you don't have to get very fancy to hit/find your audience. A good, old-timey photo and font in Dolphin colors. Done. If there's any doubt, the well-placed yet still unobtrusive subtitle does the trick (even though I take issue with the subtitle's text, which doesn't really compute when you sit and think about it - so don't).

ANTHONY BOURDAIN REMEMBERED

IF I’M AN ADVOCATE FOR ANYTHING, IT’S TO MOVE. AS FAR AS YOU CAN, AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. ACROSS THE OCEAN, OR SIMPLY ACROSS THE RIVER. WALK IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES OR AT LEAST EAT THEIR FOOD. IT’S A PLUS FOR EVERYBODY. ~ ANTHONY BOURDAIN

Anthony Bourdain's death hit me hard. I'm not even sure I can explain why. I'm as far from a foodie as you can get. I was not a religious viewer of his shows. But there was just SOMETHING about Tony that you knew, if you listened to the man for any length of time, was infinitely more than food and television. When I saw a galley of Remembering Anthony Bourdain I didn't even hesitate, just whispered an internal "Hell yes."

Had I looked more closely, I might have thought twice, so I'm glad I didn't. Bourdain worked for CNN and following his suicide the network established a social media portal that allowed fans to send in their thoughts, memories and thanks. The book is full of quotes from fans and famous collaborators, including Barack Obama, Eric Ripert, Ken Burns, and Iggy Pop to name just a few of the varied well-knowns.

At first it seemed a bit cheesy. The e-format did it no favors and it looked as though it had been hastily thrown together. Text didn't line up, photos were offset, you get the picture. Then two things happened. First, I read the book was originally created as a keepsake for Bourdain's daughter Ariane and his estate agreed to share it publicly. That made it seem less like a profit venture for CNN. Second, I saw a physical copy in my local indie. That's when I knew how much the e-galley really did it no favors. Because on nice stock, formatted correctly, it's really beautiful. I leafed through it all over again standing in the store and will definitely be buying a finished copy for my table.

STREET SENSE:  Anyone who was either touched by Anthony Bourdain or wants to feel what it's like for one man to touch so many people should open this book and start perusing.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE: This book is nothing but lovely sentiments, which makes it a bit more difficult to pick a favorite. Here are a few that highlight how Bourdain inspired people to travel, inspired people who couldn't travel, and opened the world to tolerance:

 "My mother had passed away, and one night I was watching him. Feeling lost and alone, I decided I was buying a plane ticket to Asia, one-way, packing a backpack, and going off the grid. I was going to eat with locals, and see the parts of Asia that I thought would only be a dream. I was going to find peace in losing my best friend and mother through travel and food. I would like to think if he would have ever known my story, he would have been proud of a fifty-year old single woman leaving the East Coast (US) and finding my way to new friends and an open mind to try anything even if I did not know what I was eating or even where I was going on a seven-week trip."

"I discovered Anthony Bourdain by accident and since then I have never missed an episode. My husband and I have a disabled son, so we will never get to travel the world, but with his show we got to see all these beautiful countries through his eyes. He has inspired us to be more open-minded."

"Anthony Bourdain traveled to Colombia (more than once) when people were still afraid to go there. He told our stories with respect, honesty, and kindness. He made me feel like Colombians mattered. I had fought the stereotypes of who we are in the US for so long. He showed the beauty and the pain we had gone through. Gracefully. He was my living room friend. An advocate. I am devastated by the loss of his voice."

"I regularly showed the Iran and Nigeria episodes of Parts Unknown in my high school comparative politics course. In Iran, he celebrated the beauty of ancient traditions that exists alongside religious fundamentalism and the oppression of journalists. In Nigeria, he painted a complicated portrait of cosmopolitanism and emerging economic power with extreme poverty and government corruption. Yes, he loved to sample the world’s food and drinks, but he used food and cooking and eating to explain some of the most basic sources of joy and meaning and pride that people can get out of life. Through these shows, he challenged Westerners (especially Americans) to question our perceptions and judgments of other cultures, to acknowledge history, and to embrace our common humanity."

I could go on. Just go get the book.

COVER NERD SAYS: The soul in those eyes.

TWO-CENT TUESDAY :: SUPREME COURT EDITION

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a badass.

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the fascinating story of a badass.

Go read it.

Or listen, the audio is great.

The End.

ELON MUSK :: Ashlee Vance

Until I started reading about Tesla Motors, Elon Musk was just another local tech guru to me. I didn't know much about him and wasn't particularly moved to find out. Then I saw my first Tesla, the Model S. I'm no gearhead, but I've always been a car nerd to the extent that I love a beautiful form.

Cars these days don't often float my aesthetic boat, but I just about tripped over my own feet when I saw that Model S. What a gorgeous piece of machinery. A piece of art, really (seriously, if you ever go by a showroom/store, sit in one - the attention to detail and artistic form are thrilling, down to the flow of the dashboard).

Now my ears were open when Musk or Tesla was the topic of news or conversation. The more I learned, the more my interest was piqued. What kind of businessman shares his patents with the world? Could Musk actually care more about the advancement of the electronic car, green energy, and the human race than the almighty dollar and market share (or at least care at all)?

One night I saw Musk on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the genius man-nerd blew my socks off. Here was a guy talking in all seriousness about colonizing Mars, striving to be environmentally sound, and making the world a better place. What parallel universe had I encountered?

I noticed the relatively new (May 2015) Musk biography by Ashlee Vance was available through my local library in audiobook form and jumped in line to get a copy. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future is a meticulously detailed, riveting look at a complex, brilliant, maddening, and compelling man and one of the best books I read this year.

I adored Musk as a total book nerd of a kid growing up in South Africa. His upbringing was often rough and difficult to read about, but also illuminating. A real boy genius, Musk was working with computers at a young age and developing his own code and games by ten or twelve.

It was wonderful to see Musk's current ideals about the environment and progress bubble forth at such a young age. Even in his twenties Musk bucked the norm and spoke out about green energy and space exploration.

As an adult businessman, Musk seems to have the qualities that breed both success and adversity. Ever an optimist, he tends to set unrealistic deadlines and insist they be met. Driven and demanding, sometimes perceived as callous, he sometimes seems genuinely unaware of how he can come across and quite often evidences a very generous spirit. It has been speculated he is somewhere on the spectrum for Asperger's. True or not, he is a compelling mix of characteristics.

I found myself really falling in like with this man, his optimism, and drive for better things for humanity. How can you not admire the fortitude required to become the first person to build a private rocket? His vision for the electric car was not just to build a car, but to build the best car. And build it he did. In November 2012, the Tesla Model S was the first unanimous winner of Motor Trend's Car of the Year award. It beat out eleven other vehicles, including Porsche, Lexus, BMW, and Subaru. Motor Trend believed the Tesla is:

Proof positive that America can still make great things...the vehicle handled like a sports car, drove as smoothly as a Rolls Royce, held as much as a Chevy Equinox, and was more efficient than a Toyota Prius.

Consumer Reports gave the Model S the highest car rating in history, 99/100, while proclaiming it "likely the best car ever built." Pretty high praise. I was all in.

Then Musk got married and made a remark to his wife on their wedding day that screamed "misogynistic dick." I was unsure how to fit that remark in with the rest of the Musk profile, that of a man who regularly hires women as his top executives, including the President and CEO of SpaceX, and his right-hand person on all matters. Maybe it was a one-off. Maybe it didn't come across in the context of the book. Maybe he really is a dick. The book does not shy away from a full portrayal of Musk, good and bad, but I couldn't help but like him in the end.

It should be noted that after first refusing, Musk gave Vance full access to his life and those around him, for better or worse. Vance did a fabulous job portraying this multi-faceted man as fairly and fully as can be expected in a work such as this. I was truly riveted, and that is no small testament to Vance's ability to winnow a vast amount of dense and complex information into something workable and interesting.

I ended up with some clear perceptions about Musk:

• While I wouldn't want to work for him now, I would clamor for the opportunity if I were young and had the talents necessary to work in one of his industries
• I wouldn't want to marry him, but I would love to spend time with him
• I sure as hell would want him working on my project

The book is somewhat heavy on business deals and specifics of the industry, but (1) that's likely a requirement for much of audience interested in Musk and his work, and (2) it was necessary to show how Musk deals with business setbacks (and there have been many) and achievements. Don't let this dissuade you. I'm not the audience for those facts, but I still enjoyed every minute of this biography.

STREET SENSE: Readers interested in the future of industry and how one of our greatest technological leaders got his start and continues to make his mark will want to read Elon Musk. Heck, even if you're not interested in those things I highly recommend it. I'm generally not interested in those things and I found it to be a fascinating character study that got me interested in them.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE: GM pulled together a team to study Model S, Tesla and the methods of Elon Musk. "It's worth pausing for a moment to meditate on what Tesla had accomplished. Musk had set out to make an electric car that did not suffer from any compromises. He did that. Then, using a form of entrepreneurial judo, he up-ended the decades of criticisms against electric cars. The Model S was not just the best electric car, it was best car, period, and the car people desired. America had not seen a successful car company since Chrysler emerged in 1925. Silicon Valley had done little of note in the automotive industry. Musk had never run a car factory before, and was considered arrogant and amateurish by Detroit. Yet one year after the Model S went on sale, Tesla had posted a profit, hit $562 million quarterly revenue, raised its sales forecast, and became as valuable as Mazda Motor. Elon Musk had built the automotive equivalent of the iPhone, and car executives in Detroit, Japan, and Germany had only their crappy ads to watch as they pondered how such a thing had occurred.

COVER NERD SAYS:  I really like this cover. I find everything about Musk interesting and unique, from his personality to the way he speaks to the way he looks. This picture evokes some of the mystery of Musk to me, and I love the mechanics in the background. It also has sneaky-good mirroring of the red, "white" and blue machinery highlights in the title and author text. Well done.

THE BIG BAD BOOK OF BILL MURRAY

"It just doesn't matter! It just doesn't matter!" ~ Trip Harrison

Such has been the rallying cry of my nerdy family and friends since the dawn of Meatballs in 1977. A friend and I still do a Todd DiLaMuca/Lisa Loopner routine and laugh like idiots every time one of us says the name Todd. Bill Murray has been a large and welcome part of my pop culture life for, well, the majority of my life. So it should come as no surprise that I ran around handing out noogies when I saw that Robert Schnakenberg had put together The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World's Finest Actor.


I'm going to delve into a few issues raised by that title and subtitle a bit later, but for now I am going to do the written version of standing on my feet and clapping with everything I've got. I loved this book. It was everything I was wanting and expecting and more. So let's dig into the kind of goodies you're going to get with the BBBBM, inside and out.

On the outside, the BBBBM is an off-sized (~7" x 9") paperback, but it's not your usual paperback. The cover is thick card stock with flaps on the inside, just like a hardback dust cover. I consider this a coffee table book, and mine will be sitting just so whenever you want to come over and look at it.


The insides are beautiful, even setting content aside. Printed on thick, glossy paper, with tons of colorful graphics and photographs, it reminds me a bit of Amy Poehler's Yes Please in style and format.

The Big Bad Book is an encyclopedia of Bill; an alphabetical trip through the wacky and wonderful world of Bill Murray. Each letter section is filled with items on a variety of subjects - movies, co-stars, personal facts (i.e., "B" includes an entry about Bill's dog named Bark), likes, and obscure movie/role tidbits, to name just a few.

The letter sections are also peppered with photos and quotes, from Bill and others who know and/or have worked with him. Some are funny, others are serious, all shed a little light on the inside of Bill.

Just like Bill, the entries are not all a laugh riot. There are some tough, direct thoughts on subjects such as (to take "A" as an example) awards, agents, assassination, and Murray's infamous 800 telephone number.

Between each section is a page called  Tales From Murrayland, containing a wild story from Bill's life. These bits have titles such as "The Night He Tried To Choke Martin Mull," or "The Texas Tequila Bar Takeover."

Tales of Murray out and about are legend. Locally, I recall a story about a year ago when Murray was in Oakland and got in a taxi to head to Sausalito. The driver mentioned he played the saxophone and also drove 14 hours a day.

Figuring the driver could use the extra practice time, Murray switched places with him, driving the cab all the way to Sausalito while the driver played the sax in the back seat. They also stopped for barbecue along the way. All of this at about 2 in the morning.

Stories such as this seem to come to light quite often. Bill Murray presents to the world as a fun-loving man who enjoys being around and interacting with the public. But there's really very little known about the private Murray. This book is no different. Author Schnakenberg notes that Murray's "true nature remains shrouded in mystery."

What Schnakenberg has tried to do is create as detailed a record as possible of the life, career, and philosophies of Bill Murray, using "insights from published accounts as well as Murray's own on-the-record utterances dating back to the mid-1970s."

The book is subtitled "a Critical Appreciation," yet it's probably not the right resource if you're looking for critical or in-depth analysis of Murray's film roles. While the book does provide a rating and short discussion of each of Murray's performances, they're just that - short.

To that end, I thought the subtitle was a tad misleading. The book is an appreciation, no doubt, and I loved every appreciative minute of it. I'm just not sure it's properly characterized as a "critical analysis." But if you're a  Murray fan and simply want to know about all there currently is to know about the man, this book truly is the Big Badass Book of Bill Murray (I took a little liberty there).

STREET SENSE: This book is a must-get for fans of Bill Murray and his work. I've parsed it out a letter at a time and am still enjoying it in bits and spurts in order to stave off that last page. It's jam-packed with great stuff, some bringing back great memories and others providing me with information I was clueless about and have greedily absorbed. All in all, it's been a blast to work through.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  It's hard to be an artist. It's hard to be anything. It's hard to be.

COVER NERD SAYS:  Definitely a hole-in-one.

TOO FAST TO LIVE, TOO YOUNG TO DIE

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."  ~  James Dean

Until I picked up Keith Elliott Greenberg's Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die: James Dean's Final Hours, I had never read a book about James Dean, despite admiring his work and hanging one of his posters on my wall as a kid. So why this one? Why now? And why are there still books being written about James Dean, is there really more to tell?

Even sixty years after his death, Dean evokes feelings of mystery and iconic Hollywood status. I've always been curious about his ability to remain such a beloved, almost cult-like, figure even though (or maybe because?) he died so long ago at such a young age (24). Greenberg's biography takes a look at the life of this enigmatic and tragic figure and does an admirable job of dissecting the issue of Dean's longevity.

Too Fast alternates between the story of Dean's life (from the time of his childhood in Fairmount, Indiana, through his movie career and death) and current accounts of how his life and death continue to touch and impact people around the world. The latter is the portion of the book I found most fascinating.

Dean's film career totaled just three movies (East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant) over a two-year period. Indeed, as Greenberg notes, "the fascination with Dean seems disproportionate to his body of work." Yet to this day, every day, tourists visit businesses neighboring the site of Dean's fatal accident to ask questions of the people working there. And every year on the anniversary of his death, over 20,000 people pilgrimage to Fairmount from all over the world in order to walk where Dean walked and visit his remaining family and friends.

How does a young man who was in the public eye for such a short time engender dedication that feels almost religious in nature? By all accounts, Dean was magnetic, sensitive, caring, charming, badass yet uncertain, brilliant, glamorous yet human. He seemed to have qualities everyone could relate to, no matter how different they were from the next person he met. He was chameleon-like in his ability to be different things with different people and relate to them all (perhaps one reason he was so good at his craft). Says one fan:

But there's something much deeper. Through Facebook, the internet, coming here [Fairmount]...talking to people, realizing that all of us find something in Jimmy that resonates and makes our lives worth living. Because we aspire to live in the moment and be mindful and make every day as good as it can possibly be. Because you have someone who died at twenty-four and...he's still inspiring people now. And I just find that stunning...And I love the fact that people from all over the world, regardless of their backgrounds...their religion, their color, their age, their gender find something in Jimmy that inspires them, and it brings us all together...We all have this commonality.

Too Fast is the intriguing tale of what made James Dean the fascinating person he was, from his birth in a small town to the death of his mother in a large one, from the many talents he dabbled in to his never-waning desire to act, from his verve for life to his need for speed. It addresses issues of angst, sexuality, religion, pedophilia, family, friendship, daring, and Dean's love for the book The Little Prince (seriously, who knew?). At times it felt a bit salacious, but in the end I thought Greenberg did a decent job discussing the more private areas of Dean's life without making too much of them.

As promised in the subtitle, Greenberg spends a fair amount of time on the accident, the days leading up to it, and its aftermath. My understanding is that this account does add previously unknown, or at least unwritten, details of those events (Greenberg admirably gives credit to other Dean biographers for their writing on the actor). Stories of premonitions (about death generally and the car Dean died in specifically) and curses (super interesting history on the Porsche Dean was driving that day, both before and after the crash, as well as the tragedies befalling so many of his co-stars) also abound, and always have where Dean is concerned.

While it's easy to ascribe meaning to words in hindsight, there's little doubt Dean's family and friends were concerned about his racing and intent to live life to the fullest, particularly when combined with the Porsche Spyder. I wasn't sure what to make of the way things shook out for Dean's co-stars and the other individuals involved in the crash (including the car). I can't say I've ever been one for curses, but it was engrossing reading, to be sure.

STREET SENSE:  If you are at all curious about James Dean, his beginnings and legacy, Greenberg's biography is a great resource. The author has obviously done his homework, and parts of the book have a journalistic feel (particularly those surrounding the facts of the accident, which is a good thing), but it never loses its story-telling quality. I'm not a huge fan of airing details of private lives and felt a tad uncomfortable during parts of Dean's story, but Greenberg didn't take those details to levels that put me off the book. That's a very personal line, so I can't say how other readers might react, but you should know they're in there. All in all, I recommend Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die if you're a fan or want to know James Dean a little better than you do now.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  From the moment that Rebel Without a Cause opened on October 6, 1955 -- less than one month after Dean's accident -- Jimmy became the hero of the cynical, the unconventional, the disenfranchised.

COVER NERD SAYS:  I have mixed feelings about this cover. I like the image, but let's face it, just about any gritty, black and white photograph of James Dean is going to be attractive. I was a bit put off by the highway sign icon, along with the title and subtitle. To me they were playing on the accident and Dean's death too heavily, and the subtitle seemed to promise some kind of 48 Hours/Dateline drama. I don't think that really served the book well and is a bit misleading. The book is more than a story of Dean's final hours and, frankly, more interesting as a whole than as some eleventh hour "New details!" drama. I don't think the cover made that very clear. Not a fatal flaw, but for me that was enough to keep this from being a stellar cover.