Weekly Words about New Books in

Independent Bookstores


September 25, 2022

New From Pulitzer Winners - Hapless Author Embarks on Wild Road Trip, and Unique WW II Football Game Underscores War's Toll

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer. Readers first met gay novelist Arthur Less in Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Less. In that book, Arthur chooses to deal with the impending wedding of his former lover Freddy - and his upcoming 50th birthday - by not dealing at all and instead attending a series of half-baked literary events around the world. Arthur is something of a lovable loser, with his travels being a series of near and actual disasters that, in Greer’s hands, are at turns wildly funny and surprisingly poignant. And best of all, in the end, Arthur is reunited with Freddy. 


In Less Is Lost, things start off slightly better for our beleaguered protagonist. Arthur has achieved some success as a writer and he and Freddy are living contentedly together in San Francisco. But when the death of an old lover provokes both an emotional and financial crisis, Less again takes to the road in an attempt to raise money and, conveniently, avoid dealing with Freddy (again). Alas, road trips are not Arthur Less’s strong suit, and his cross-country travails and interactions are, well, let’s say eventful (hapless is another word that springs to mind). Let me also say that I haven’t laughed out loud this much reading a book in a long time. Greer is a genuinely funny writer who also uses language beautifully - there are short descriptive sentences that beg to be read twice throughout the book. My only complaint was that the book ended rather abruptly for me, leaving a few unanswered questions. The good news is that Less Is Lost is billed as The Arthur Less Books #2, making it seem likely that we may treated down the road to more of Less.

The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bissinger is perhaps best known for Friday Night Lights, his classic account of a high school football team in Odessa, Texas. With his new book, he combines history, war, and sports in the re-creation of a little-known event that occurred during World War II - a pickup football game among two Marine Corps regiments that included some of best college players of the day. 


When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, young men from across the spectrum signed up or were recruited to fight an expanded war, including players from one of the country's most popular sports - college football. As it turned out, the top choice for those athletes was the Marine Corps (perhaps a reflection on their coaching staffs?). Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war - the invasion of Okinawa - their ranks included an extraordinary pool of football talent. There were former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly 20 men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL. Boys being boys, Christmas carols were replaced by trash-talking, and the arguments between the 4th and 29th over who could assemble the better football team reached a fever pitch. The result was The Mosquito Bowl, a bruising football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal.


Not a football fan? Not to worry. The Mosquito Bowl is much more than a recounting of of this unique pick-up game. Bissinger uses it as a stepping off point to introduce these soldiers and how they got to that point in time, and then follows the lives of several of them moving forward. Unfortunately, some of those lives were quickly lost - within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players from that contest would be killed at Okinawa. Bissinger did extensive research for the book, talked to children and grandchildren of players and interviewed the one remaining (at the time) survivor of the game. The result is a narrative that, while focusing on a few, tells a larger tale of lives inalterably changed by the tragedy of war. 

Serious Answers to Absurd Science Questions Provoke Further Mass Hysteria

What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe. The entertaining and slightly off-kilter Munroe is a former NASA roboticist who left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the internet full time. Since then, he has created the science question-and-answer blog What If? and the popular web comic xkcd, as well as writing three bestselling books - What If?: Serious Scientific Answers To Absurd Hypothetical Questions; How To: Absurd Scientific Advice For Common Real-World Problems; and Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff In Simple Words. His new book is a sequel of sorts to his first What If? volume, written because people keep asking Munroe weird questions and he - luckily for us -  feels compelled to answer them. To wit:


Planning to ride a fire pole from the Moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone’s freezer door at the same time? Maybe it’s time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist. 


What - a science geek with both intelligence and a sense of humor? That's Randall Munroe for you. He takes the most impractical and just plain absurd questions and offers up diligently researched answers that are hilariously spot-on. In one example from the book, a questioner asked if one stood on the top of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park, at what speed would they be launched upward and what injuries might they incur. Munroe carefully describes the force generated by the spewing geyser, calculates the thrust created, and notes that the height you would fly depends on one's positioning:


"A glancing blow might just knock you off to one side. You could catch more of a lift if you were centered directly over the vent, blocking as much of the stream as possible." He adds helpfully that even if you survived the resulting severe burns, "the landing would almost certainly be fatal."


Good to know. 

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WHY THE COLUMN?

Hi, I'm Hut Landon, and I'm a bookseller in an independent bookstore in BerkeIey, CA.

My goal here is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what indie booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world. 

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