The Lizard King: the True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers by Bryan Christy

I subscribe to a several e-newsletters from major publishers, including Random House, Penguin Group, Hachette Book Group, and many more.

I just read the latest Nonfiction e-newsletter from Hachette where I read about Bryan Christy's The Lizard King: the True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers.

Reading Janet Maslin's review of this book -- "Coldblooded Commerce in Coldblooded Contraband" published August 6, 2008 in the New York Times -- and Terri Jentz review of this book -- "Cold-Blooded" published August 15, 2008 in the New York Times -- makes me think this book will be quite a page-turner. And Bryan Christy's website is worth a look for more information.


Here's what the publisher has to say about this book:

Imagine The Sopranos, with snakes! The Lizard King is a fascinating account of a father and son family business suspected of smuggling reptiles, and the federal agent who tried to take them down.

When Bryan Christy began to investigate the world of reptile smuggling, he had no idea what he would be in for. In the course of his research, he was bitten between the eyes by a blood python, chased by a mother alligator, and sprayed by a bird-eating tarantula. But perhaps more dangerous was coming face to face with Michael J. Van Nostrand, owner of Strictly Reptiles, a thriving family business in Hollywood, Florida. Van Nostrand imports as many as 300,000 iguanas each year (over half the total of America's most popular imported reptile), as well as hundreds of thousands of snakes, lizards, frogs, spiders, and scorpions.

Van Nostrand was suspected of being a reptile smuggler by Special Agent Chip Bepler of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who devoted years of his life in an obsessive quest to expose The Lizard King's cold-blooded crimes. How this cat-and-mouse game ended is engrossing and surprising.

Sounds like a book on an obscure topic that will be hard to put down -- just the kind of stuff I love!

The latest Hachette Nonfiction e-newsletter also included:

• Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor
• The Last Undercover: The True Story of an FBI Agent's Dangerous Dance with Evil by Bob Hamer (click here to read an excerpt)
• Mike's Election Guide 2008 by Michael Moore (click here to read the table of contents; click here to read an excerpt)
• The Lizard King: the True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers by Bryan Christy (click here to read an excerpt)
• Measure of the Heart: A Father's Alzheimer's, A Daughter's Return by Mary Ellen Geist (click here to read an excerpt)
• Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extroardinary People Who Made Them by John McCain (click here to view the table of contents; click here to read an excerpt)
• The Other Woman: Twenty-one Wives, Lovers, and Others Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal edited by Victoria Zackheim (click here to read an excerpt)

The Last Undercover: The True Story of an FBI Agent's Dangerous Dance with Evil by Bob Hamer, a 26-year veteran of the FBI's undercover operations, also sounds interesting.

Thankfully I have my hands full with lots of library books so I won't be tempted to go find copies of any of these books -- at least not for another month.

Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

-Howard Aiken

This was quoted by Jessica Livingston in the introduction of Founders at Work: Stories of Startup’s Early Days, which I recently read (click here to read all my posts on this book).

I found this quote both humorous and fascinating and it makes me wonder how much truth there is to it.

I would guess that with early-stage technology, which the companies featured in Founders at Work were known for, terrific life-changing ideas would easily be dismissed by critics.

But in other situations, I would guess that the inventors' and founders' fear that someone might steal their idea isn't that far off.

Another quote that got me thinking in this book was the idea that "Companies take shape based on the personality characteristics and human interaction characteristics of the founders" -- Ray Ozzie said this in Chapter Seven but the idea was echoed throughout the book. Just one chapter back, in Chapter Six, Mitchell Kapor said, "These types of companies tend to reflect the personalities and interests of their founders. Microsoft is very much cast in Bill Gates's images; and Apple, Steve Jobs; Borland, Phillippe Kahn."

I wonder how accurate this observation is.

Anyway, lots to think about after having read this book. No interest in starting a tech company, even after reading the success stories from this book.

In case you're curious, here's the Table of Contents:

Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii

1 Max Levchin: Cofounder, PayPal 1
2 Sabeer Bhatia: Cofounder, Hotmail 17
3 Steve Wozniak: Cofounder, Apple Computer 31
4 Joe Kraus: Cofounder, Excite 61
5 Dan Bricklin: Cofounder, Software Arts 73
6 Mitchell Kapor: Cofounder, Lotus Development 89
7 Ray Ozzie: Cofounder, Iris Associates, Groove Networks 103
8 Evan Williams: Cofounder, Pyra Labs (Blogger.com) 111
9 Tim Brady: First Non-Founding Employee, Yahoo 127
10 Mike Lazaridis: Cofounder, Research In Motion 141
11 Arthur Van Hoff: Cofounder, Marimba 153
12 Paul Buchheit: Creator, Gmail 161
13 Steve Perlman: Cofounder, WebTV 173
14 Mike Ramsay: Cofounder, TiVo 191
15 Paul Graham: Cofounder, Viaweb 205
16 Joshua Schachter: Founder, del.icio.us 223
17 Mark Fletcher: Founder, ONElist, Bloglines 233
18 Craig Newmark: Founder, Craigslist 247
19 Caterina Fake: Cofounder, Flickr 257
20 Brewster Kahle: Founder, WAIS, Internet Archive, Alexa Internet 265
21 Charles Geschke: Cofounder, Adobe Systems 281
22 Ann Winblad: Cofounder, Open Systems, Hummer Winblad 297
23 David Heinmeier: Hansson Partner, 37 signals 309
24 Philip Greenspun: Cofounder, ArsDigita 317
25 Joel Spolsky: Cofounder, Fog Creek Software 345
26 Stephen Kaufer: Cofounder, TripAdvisor 361
27 James Hong: Cofounder, Hot or Not 377
28 James Currier: Founder, Tickle 387
29 Blake Ross: Creator, Firefox 395
30 Mena Trott: Cofounder, Six Apart 405
31 Bob Davis: Founder, Lycos 419
32 Ron Gruner: Cofounder Alliant Computer Systems; Founder, Shareholder.com 427

Index 447

Don't be surprised if I post about this book again. I might even buy myself a copy.

Fast Company - More People Are Listening to Books

Just came across this interview with Audible founder and CEO Donald Katz on Fast Company's website.

I'm surprised that audio book sales grew by 20 percent last year -- just seems like a lot.

I also hadn't heard that Amazon Kindle plays Audible audio books, but I suppose I should have known since I had heard that Amazon acquired Audible.

And the idea that one day you'll be able to use the Kindle to read a book from the same point that you left off listening to to the audio book excites me!

How do y'all feel about audio books?

Listening to Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance sold me on audio books.

September Songs: The Good News about Marriage in the Later Years by Maggie Scarf

Still trying to catch up on back issues of The Economist, but I couldn't resist reading part of the current issue dated August 30, 2008.

In "It gets better, or so they say" from the Books & Arts section, I read about Maggie Scarf's new book September Songs: The Good News about Marriage in the Later Years.

Maggie Scarf is a journalist, author, a visiting fellow at Yale University's  Whitney Humanities Center and a writer in residence at Yale University's Jonathan Edwards College.

I haven't read any of her other books (Unfinished Business: Pressure Points in the Lives of Women, Intimate Partners: Patterns in Love and Marriage, Intimate Worlds: How Families Thrive and Why They Fail, and Secrets, Lies, Betrayals: How the Body Holds the Secrets of a Life, and How to Unlock Them) but reading about her latest book makes me think that I would be interested in reading several of her works.

I am surprised by the book's conclusion that marriage in later year improves and I would like to learn more about the studies that Scarf describes.

Click here to read a synopsis from the author's website.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I'm still reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and thought I'd publish a few discussion questions to think about:

1. What are some of the ways in which Dickens parallels the personal and the political in A Tale of Two Cities.
2. One of the novel's most important motifs is the figure of the double. What is the effect of Dickens's doubling technique? Does he use doubles to draw contrasts, comparisons, or both?
3. What are some examples of Dickens's use of foreshadowing in A Tale of Two Cities.
4. How sympathetic is Dickens towards the French Revolution?
5. The first paragraph of this book is widely quoted -- "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." -- why is this?
6. Some critics charge that Dickens, in much of his work, failed to create meaningful characters because he exaggerated them to parodic extremes. Is this a fair assessment of his characterization in A Tale of Two Cities? Does the author's use of caricature detract from his novel's ability to speak to human nature?
7. Dickens relies heavily on coincidence to fuel the plot of A Tale of Two Cities: letters are found bearing crucial information, for example, and long-lost brothers are discovered in crowded public places. Do such incidents strengthen or weaken the plot and overall themes of the novel?
8. Based on Dickens's portrayals of the villainous characters in his novel (particularly Madame Defarge), what conclusions might the reader draw about the author's notions of human evil? Does he seem to think that people are born evil? If so, do they lack the ability to change? Or does he suggest that circumstances drive human beings to their acts of cruelty?

And since I plan on re-reading Dickens's Great Expectations soon, I'm including some discussion questions for that classic as well:

1. In this novel, Great Expectations, things are often not what they seem. Discuss how the theme of "expectations" is illustrated by and through the various major characters in this book. How are Pip's expectations different and similar from those of his surrogate father, Joe (the blacksmith), Miss Havisham (the eccentric recluse), Estella (the daughter of a convict and murderess) and Pip's benefactor, (the convict) Magwitch?
2. Why do you think it is one of Magwitch's principal conditions that Pip (his nickname) "always bear the name of Pip" in order to receive his financial support?
3. If Pip had not received his "Great Expectations" and never left Joe's forge, how do you think his life would have been different? Are the lessons he learns during his physical and emotional journey necessary for him to arrive at the wisdom he evinces as the middle-aged narrator of this tale? In what ways?
4. Why do you think Miss Havisham manipulates and misleads Pip into thinking she is his secret benefactor? What, if anything, does she derive from this action?
5. Given Dickens's portrayal of Estella, what do you think attracts Pip to her in the first place and what, when he learns of her cold-blooded manipulation of men such as her husband, keeps Pip devoted to her until the end, loving her, as he says, "against reason, against promise, against peace?"
6. In the final chapter Estella says to Pip: "Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching." Discuss the theme of suffering in this book—specifically how it instructs Pip, Miss Havisham and Estella.
7. In Chapter 49 Miss Havisham confesses to Pip that in adopting Estella, she "meant to save her (Estella) from misery like my own." Do you believe this, given Dickens's harsh characterization of Miss Havisham throughout the novel?
8. And in the same Chapter (49) when Miss Havisham is set afire, do you believe that, given her state of mind, Dickens intends us to read this as an accident or a kind of penance/attempted suicide on her part for her cruelty to Pip and Estella?
9. What do you think makes Pip change his opinion of his benefactor Magwitch from one of initial repugnance to one of deep and abiding respect and love?
10. In Chapter 59, when Pip places Joe and Biddy's son (also named Pip) on the same tombstone that opens the novel, what do you think Dickens intends to tell us with this image? Given the novel's theme of how the sins of others are visited upon us, do you view this image as a foreboding one in any way?

And in case you're a teacher looking for materials to help you lead your class through A Tale of Two Cities, click here to view a Teachers' Guide (provided by Penguin Group).

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

I've just started reading The Moviegoer by Walker Percy for a book club.

I've been so busy this summer I found myself with just a few days to read this book club selection, which won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962.

The Moviegoer concerns the life of the searching and rootless Binx Bolling, a young stockbroker in post-war New Orleans.

It is said to be a classic piece of Southern Literature, like Carson McCullers's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter -- which I also read for a book club and did not particularly enjoy (click here to read all my posts related to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter).

So I am keeping my expectations for The Moviegoer low.

I'll write more once I finish and again after my book club's discussion.

If you are also reading this for a book club, you may be looking for discussion questions:

Discuss why John feels that everyone around him is dead, although they are obviously still living. What makes him feel this way?

How does the title of "The Moviegoer" relates to the theme of the book?

What is the root of Kate's depression? What terrifies her the most in life?

Explain the significance of Aunt Emily's home, Elysian Fields?

Got to finish this book quick!