Agent Palmer

Before I picked up George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones, I had seen most of his movies and presumed to know much of his story building an empire, making movies and innovations. And well, I was wrong. I knew very little, but I know more now, because the book is a fantastic read.

As biographies go, specifically unauthorized ones, this one may be one of the best, because it is so well researched that citations at the back of my hardcover copy merit 51 pages to list them all. Here’s the other thing, I didn’t know it was an unauthorized biography until I read the “Acknowledgements” at the end of the book. That’s how in depth and well written and thoroughly researched it is.

Despite the fact that Console Wars by Blake J. Harris is about Sega rising to the top to dethrone Nintendo before slowly, painfully, and publicly falling out of consoles all together, this book is mainly about marketing, big ideas, and Tom Kalinske.

Now, I don’t mean that as a slight. Kalinske is a fascinating individual; the man came up with He-Man when he was at Mattel, after all. But the book does generally paint Nintendo as the bad guy despite the fact that Nintendo ultimately wins or at least won the 1990s.

Sir Michael Caine has had an illustrious career in Hollywood. He’s won two Academy Awards, been an actor in over 160 films and television shows, and he’s the bestselling author of What’s it All About?, his first autobiography. And now he’s written a second autobiography, The Elephant to Hollywood.

Having read both of Caine’s autobiographies, I can say with certainty that there is something both regal and down to earth about the way he describes the stories of his life.

D.B. Cooper continues to remain in the public consciousness. As the only unsolved case of commercial air piracy, the public is still enthralled enough with the mystery that any new news related to Cooper’s case or identity is quickly and widely circulated, almost fifty years later.

This says a lot about the case of D.B. Cooper, who hijacked that Boeing 727 back on November 24, 1971 taking with him the $200,000 in ransom he extorted before parachuting out of the plane.

“Len Deighton, the mastercraftsman of spy thrillers, here applies his eye for stunning detail and his story-telling skill to the novel of action. With documentary precision, he has created a powerful panoramic account of a bombing raid over the Ruhr during World War II. And in the process, he has written a devastating indictment of war and of the mechanical processes – in man and society – that perpetuate it.”

That’s the first paragraph on the inside dust cover of Bomber by Len Deighton and it is a perfect description of the book.