Another one of my heroes wrote to me!

This time it was Jonathan Haidt. Close to my heart most for The Righteous Mind, which I loved well enough to actually give a little lecture about it at my local library several years ago. I was listening to a 2020 podcast where he was interviewed by Fellow Noodle-Hero Julia Galef. (Double-hero-whammy, I love when that happens.) They were talking about the “sacred” as one of morality’s foundations (an important concept!) when he reached around for non-obvious “everyday” things one might find “sacred”, and he said, “Oh, say like even the Rolling Stones” (noodle ears perk up) “…Tattoo You…” (wha!?!) “…side 2.”

This guy is a fan of Tattoo You, the 1981 collection of throwaways only remembered nowadays for “Start Me Up” (which I understand is widely disliked for being overplayed) and “Waiting on a Friend” (more critically acclaimed/tolerated)! And not only that. SIDE 2!

I guess this guy gets a hundred emails a day through his website “Contact” link, but not many with the subject line “Tattoo You.” I basically told him how happy I was to now have one more reason to love him, and he basically said he was happy to hear it.

Reading books is so much a one-way street. When a writer’s ideas really resonate with me, and I put him/her up on my Pantheon shelf, and then something prompts me to reach out, and he/she actually replies, it just feels a little like god himself coming down from on high. You don’t expect it. People writing the books are in some higher realm communicating with you through the magical object, The Book. They talk TO you. You don’t expect them to talk BACK to you. Maybe it feels like the book talking?

Or maybe I’m just a squealing giddy schoolgirl at heart. MEEEEEE! HE WROTE TO MEEEEEE!

by Jennifer Egan

Amazing story consisting of substories following various intertwined lives.

A group of west coast teens with a bad punk rock band grows up. Bennie the bass player becomes an extremely successful record executive. Scotty the guitarist gets the girl Bennie wants. Rhea, who wants Bennie, and Jocelyn are best friends; Jocelyn gets involved with a much older, rich guy in the music bizz, with kids her age. Said rich guy, Lou, goes on a safari with two of his kids. Sasha, a comupulsive shoplifter, becomes Bennie’s personal assistant; she is the figure who most weaves in and out, binding many stories together.

The one spoiler I’ll give is that the goon squad is time. And it’s not really a spoiler that everyone gets old.

I’m 52 and from NYC. This surely colored my love for these stories. (The action takes place on both coasts; but NYC has the much more vivid scenes.)

Merely the NYT review of this book called Joan is Okay by Weike Wang made me lose track of time and walk an extra minute on my treadmill. I predict the book is going to have me glued to the spot.

by Marie Kondo & Scott Sonenshein

OK, starting at the root, go through your hard drive, open every document, and ask, “Does this spark joy?”

No, no, no. This book isn’t like that, though it might have been better if it had been. It’s only PARTLY written by Marie Kondo; the other part is written by some guy who isn’t Marie Kondo, and contains trite advice about improving life in an office. This trite advice gets into a Marie Kondo book by being called a form of “tidying.”

Examples: Stop saying ‘yes’ to everything. This is ‘tidying your time.’ Unsubscribe from email lists you don’t read. This is ‘tidying your email.’ Categorize all the decisions you have to make and see if you can eliminate, automate, or delegate them. This is ‘tidying your decisions.’ etc.

It only becomes bearable when Kondo’s voice once again returns at the end, because she can carry any book on charm alone. But really, this one is not a keeper. You do not spark joy; good-bye.