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Author: Bill Geist
ASIN : 0767922727
Sales Rank : 3265
Studio : Broadway
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780767922722
ISBN : 0767922727
Number Of Pages : 240
Publication Date : December 15, 2007
Release Date : December 15, 2007
Publisher : Broadway
Manufacturer : Broadway
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Broadway
| “To say it very simply, freezer burn may very well have set in.” —neighbor on the frozen dead guy kept on ice in a backyard shed in Nederland, Colorado.
“Everybody loves a parade; we were just geographically challenged.” —David Harrenstein, organizer of a parade in tiny Whalan, Minnesota, where viewers are in motion and the “marchers” stand still.
“We haven’t lost anyone off these switchbacks in at least ten days” —Mailman Charlie Chamberlain, leading us on horseback 2,500 feet down the sheer walls of the Grand Canyon.
“Ours are the finest cow chips in the world today,” —Kirk Fisher, enthusiast, in Beaver, Oklahoma, world cow-chip capital and cow- chip exporter.
“We live out in the middle of the corn and bean fields, and there’s not a whole lot to get excited about, you know?” —Dan Moretz, on celebrating the day the sun sets in the middle of the railroad tracks in Hanlontown, Iowa.
“It’s like drilling for oil; sometimes you come up dry.” —Gay Balfour, who sucks problematic prairie dogs out of the ground with a sewer vacuum in Cortez, Colorado.
“All you have to do is beat the flies to it,” —Michael “Roadkill” Coffman on the secrets of cooking with roadkill outside Lawrence, Kansas.
“I ain’t gonna brake ´til I see God!” —driver named “Red Dog,” taking the track at a figure-eight school bus race in Bithlo, Florida.
“It’s a gift; you either got it or you don’t.” —Lee Wheelis, world watermelon-seed-spitting champion, Luling, Texas.
“I am the mayor, the board, the secretary-treasurer, the librarian, the bartender —that’s my most important title —the cook, the floor sweeper, the police chief, and I have the books for the cemetery, if someone wants to buy a plot.” —Elsie Eiler, the sole citizen of Monowi, Nebraska. Celebrated roving correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning and bestselling author Bill Geist serves up a rollicking look at some small-town Americans and their offbeat ways of life.
“In rural Kansas, I asked our motel desk clerk for the name of the best restaurant in the area. After mulling it over, he answered: ‘I'd have to say the Texaco, 'cuz the Shell don't have no microwave.’”
Throughout his career, Bill Geist’s most popular stories have been about slightly odd but loveable individuals. Coming on the heels of his 5,600-mile RV trip across our fair land is Way Off the Road, a hilarious and compelling mix of stories about the folks featured in Geist’s segments, along with observations on his twenty years of life on the road. Written in the deadpan style that has endeared him to millions, Geist shares tales of eccentric individuals, such as the ninety-three-year-old pilot-paperboy who delivers to his far-flung subscribers by plane; the Arizona mailman who delivers mail via horseback down the walls of the Grand Canyon; the Muleshoe, Texas, anchorwoman who delivers the news from her bedroom (occasionally wearing her bathrobe); and the struggling Colorado entrepreneur who finds success employing a sewer vacuum to rid Western ranchers of problematic prairie dogs. Geist also takes us to events such as the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival (celebrating an inspiring bird that survived decapitation, hired an agent, and went on the road for eighteen months) and Sundown Days in Hanlontown, Iowa, where the town marks the one day a year when the sun sets directly between the railroad tracks
Along the wacky and wonderful way, Geist shows us firsthand how life in fly-over America can be odd, strangely fascinating, hysterical, and anything but boring.
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December 15, 2007.
MBA Mom.
Rating: 5
I am full time Mom and just recently visited Beijing with my 2 young children and husband. As a result of our travels, all the news in the media regarding China, and my own personal experience with respect to my shopping purchase power and selection in the last many year, I was very interested in the "China story." This book is an easy read, and provides a good big picture. It reminds me of the center column in the Wall Street Journal... Too boot, well written, and excellent use of vocabulary.
Mom
December 01, 2007.
Well written, informative book.
Rating: 5
This book is money and time well spent if you're interested in a contemporary survey of China.
Kynge really does an outstanding job with a complex topic. He has a journalist's nose for a story, is well connected in China, and the length of time he lived in the country allows him to really portray his observations in a sophisticated cultural and historical context. He nicely weaves in statistics and facts throughout the book without distracting from the narrative.
December 24, 2007.
A Journalist's Eye.
Rating: 5
I've loved the lyrical quality of this book. It looks at the many problems facing China from the ground up and individual journalist's eyes. For a big picture view that is based more on economic analysis, see my own book: The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won
December 12, 2007.
All Shook Up.
Rating: 4
The incredible economic momentum in China necessitated by the rush of the population to the cities is creating economic tidal waves throughout the world. However, their economic surge is not without problems, such as widespread pollution. An excellent and informative read.
December 28, 2007.
China Shakes the World.
Rating: 4
China Shakes the World is a brief anecdotal survey of China's rise as a great economic power. I took three major themes from the book:
- Many of the Chinese government's current policies are forced upon it. China's people have come to expect sustained high growth rates, and a failure to meet this expectation would have severe consequences for China's rulers. To encourage high growth rates, and because they are not democratically accountable, China's leaders simply ignore the adverse consequences of rapid growth, such as environmental damage. Yet the long-term consequences are inescapable. In the realm of foreign policy, China's most urgent need is access to natural resources. This need forces China to engage with some unsavory regimes and use its influence in the United Nations to protect them from international pressure.
- Much of China's current economic strength is the result of starting from a low base: while China has been at least a regional power for millennia, it has not done a good job of providing for its people. As a result, its rural population in particular is willing to undergo almost any hardship to escape grinding poverty. China's rapid economic growth can also be explained, in part, as a reaction to the loosening of artificial restraints on growth: e.g., totalitarian controls that prohibited any type of private enterprise until 1978 and China's isolation from the rest of the world during much of its history.
- China is pursuing the development strategy pioneered by Japan and the Asian tigers of climbing the technology ladder from relatively undemanding manufactures that rely on cheap labor (e.g., textiles) to more capital-intensive manufactures, specifically targeting machine tool manufacturing as a strategic industry. Because of China's extremely inexpensive, disciplined, and well-educated work force, and because its manufacturers emphasize market share over profit, there is little that the West can do to compete with China in many manufacturing sectors.
On these points, I found author James Krynge, a Financial Times reporter, to be convincing and reasonably entertaining. I found him to be less so when he indulges in some Lou Dobbs-style populism in decrying the effect of China's manufacturing prowess on U.S. manufacturers.
December 02, 2007.
Hilarious.
Rating: 4
I'm a big fan of Chuck Klosterman's writing, and he did not disappoint with this book! It wasn't quite "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" but I like it better than "Fargo Rock City". The last section of the book was my favorite.
December 14, 2007.
Little disappointing.
Rating: 3
Had just finished killing myself to live and was really looking forward to reading this book. Was disappointed to see it was essentially a collection of articles he wrote for esquire etc, most of which I had read already.
December 10, 2007.
Not his best, but definitely worth the money.
Rating: 5
I bought this one based mostly on the strength of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. While this one wasn't quite as strong as the last one, there were still plenty of thought provoking and laugh out loud passages. You definitely need to have a good understanding of pop culture to understand most of the references or even to know why he's asking Britney Spears questions about her iconic status. For those of us who don't have subscriptions to all of the magazines where these pieces originally ran, this is a good collection and well worth your time.
December 09, 2007.
the best.
Rating: 5
Although I have not read Fargo Rock City i have read the other two Books Chuck Klosterman wrote: Sex Drugs, and Cocoapuffs and Killing Yourself to Live, this one is by far the best. i enjoyed every page of Klostermans latest book. i would recomend it to anyone who enjoys reading about pop culture.
December 21, 2007.
Klassik Klosterman.
Rating: 4
My take on Klosterman is this: if you absolutely must get a pop culture fix by reading about inane movie stars or overrated bands, you might as well read someone who is smart and funny about them, and that person is Klosterman. Although not a metal fan, I loved Fargo Rock City, and found his essays in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs exceedingly funny. Killing Yourself To Live didn't work as well for me, and I was glad to get another dose of his shorter works here ( all of which were previous published). The book (whose title is a reference/homage to albums by both Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath) is divided into three parts.
"Things That Are True" contains about twenty profiles and pieces of reportage. Included are the best Britney Spears profile ever ("Britney Spears is the most famous person I've ever interviewed. She is also the weirdest. I assume this is not a coincidence."), a very good U2 piece ("U2 is the most self-aware rock band in history. This generally works to their advantage."), and solid profiles of musicians The White Stripes, Radiohead, The Streets, Billy Joel, Jeff Tweedy, and metal tribute bands. There are also profiles of actor Val Kilmer, basketball superstar Steve Nash, a Q&A with Robert Plant, experiential pieces on Latino Morissey fanatics, the unofficial "Goth Day" at Disneyland, Akron-area clairvoyants, and a "Rock Cruise" (featuring Styx, REO Speedwagon, and Journey), and contrarian review essays on the documentaries "Super Size Me" and "Some Kind of Monster."
The somewhat briefer "Things That Might Be True" section contains about fifteen more personal opinion pieces written in recent years for Esquire (these are available at Esquire.com) and Spin magazines. Topics include how to recognize your personal nemesis and archenemy, the Olympics, guilty pleasures, monogamy, the ten most accurately rated artists in rock history, pirate vogue, robots, genetics, watching VH1 for 24 hours, etc. The final section, "Something That Isn't True At All," is a 35-page "not-so-loosely autobiographical" short story written back in 1999.
The style throughout is pure Klosterman, although there is a certain sympathy or quasi-compassion in some of the pieces that plays a nice counterbalance to his natural snarkiness. One rather refreshing element is the newly written introductions to each item in the first section. These provide an interesting context and are a peek into how a magazine writer might come to regret elements of their work. The pieces in the second section are introduced by the kind of pithy hypotheticals he unveiled in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. Ultimately, the best way to read the book is leave it lying around the house and anytime you're tempted to pick up Entertainment Weekly or US or flip on MTV, pick it up and read something far funnier, smarter, and more insightful. Sure, it's just pop culture, but that doesn't mean it has to be idiotic.
December 18, 2007.
Witty, Wistful Account of Today's Lincoln .
Rating: 4
This is a journalistic report on Lincoln's current status in the popular culture. He examines old and new Lincoln statuary, Lincoln's haters and tepid defenders (e.g. Mr. Holzer, the author of the huffy review above), and Lincoln museums and private collections.
This is a generally, but not uniformily, interesting book. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Herndon, the Ferguson family's vacation on the Lincoln Heritage Trail (backwards from Illinois to Indiana to Kentucky), and the touching postscript about the dying Czech visitor to Springfield. Less interesting were the chapters on Lincoln impersonators and workshops.
Ferguson is a fine writer and perceptive observer of the passing scene. This book is less about Lincoln himself, than today's society--political correctness, historical illiteracy and neglect, and the general dumbing down of our heritage.
December 14, 2007.
great quick read.
Rating: 4
With wry humor and tongue firmly in cheek, Andrew Ferguson takes us on a sentimental journey as he struggles to find the Lincoln he thought he knew. As a child in the 60s, I made a Lincoln journey similar to the one Ferguson made around the same time. Recently in Richmond, I made a special point to find the statue he writes about in Chapter 1. (can you believe it - a statue of Lincoln in Richmond???) Now a frequent visitor to Springfield, Illinois, I find that he captures the quirky personality of the community - and the changes to the Lincoln sites - in an eerily familiar fashion.
December 09, 2007.
A unique homage to Mr. Lincoln.
Rating: 5
Andrew Ferguson was fascinated with Lincoln forty years ago in his youth. He remembers well the family pilgramages to Springield and New Salem, Illinois to follow - if not wallow - in the footsteps of one of the most celebrated Americans of all time. Ferguson is older now and still fascinated with Lincoln. He wonders how other people see Lincoln and thus begins his quest: discovering Lincoln among the people.
This is a beautiful book, with much in common with the self-revelatory work of Bill Bryson. Don't look for a story here: there really isn't one. It's a meandering as Ferguson tries to find Lincoln amongst the people today. He begins with a visit to a convention of Lincoln "haters" and "debunkers". People who claim that Lincoln violated the Constitution and pursued an illegal war. Ironically the convention is in Richmond VA, the capital of the Confederacy, which Lincoln briefly visited. Ferguson's narrative is always light, even as he deals with weighty issues. He's really got a nice style. The weighty issues here is the portrayal of Lincoln by what amount to anti-Lincoln writers and scholars.
Ferguson uses this a way to move the discussion to the portrayal of Lincoln in print. More than 14,000 Books have so far been written about Lincoln, trying to paint Lincoln as "their" man. None of these Books capture the real Lincoln says Ferguson because the real Lincoln is unknowable. And with that we're into a discussion of the penultimate biographer of Lincoln, his friend and partner of many years, Billy Herndon. The transition is slick.
And so it goes, chapter after entertaining chapter. Ferguson spends a good deal of time recounting Lincoln's destiny in Springfield, where he lived and practiced law, raised children and plotted his political future. It is, of course, ludicrous today to think of a small town lawyer aiming for the White House. But in Lincoln's time, it was doable - and Lincoln did it. But what of Lincoln since the evening he was shot? Well, for a long time, Lincoln didn't fare well in Springfield and Ferguson tells us the story. His fortunes turned up when a woman decided that Springfield needed a Lincoln center and museum. $150 million and years later, the museum is up and running, but Ferguson wonders if Lincoln wasn't lost along the way. Ferguson's critique of many academics and professional Lincoln scholars here and elsewhere throughout the book is wonderfully scathing.
Ferguson dips and dives: a convention of Lincoln presenters, people who dress up more or less like Lincoln; interviews with Lincoln collectors. But the real thrust is Ferguson planning a family vacation just like the one he went on more than 40 years ago. With wife and 13 and 11 year old son and daughter, Ferguson embarks on a Lincoln tour starting in Springfield and working his way back to his birthplace. His comments are trenchant. The National Park Service is taken to task. Academics and professors are particular (and worthy) targets. The children are a sarcastic duo as they move along. But Ferguson takes us along a tour that all of us might enjoy. (Some parts of it, though, are already inaccessible.)
Overall this is a wonderfully endearing book. I suspect that the reader should have at least some past or present interest in Lincoln, but maybe not. There's more than a modicum of charm at work here. Ferguson is a humorous writer; not laugh out loud funny, buy sly, wry. Ferguson is also a sentimentalist. He misses, as do I, the time when children were actually taught about Lincoln, when people appreciated Lincoln. Hopefully his book will help people not only remember that time, but perhaps lead more people to appreciate the incredibly unique man that Mr. Lincoln was and truly remains.
Jerry
December 05, 2007.
wait for paperback....
Rating: 2
I was hoping this book would be in the same neo-gonzo vein as "Confederates in the Attic", but it's not nearly as well-written or interesting. I felt the writing was carelessness trying to pass itself off as humor. He gets himself into some interesting situations, but seems to disdain the hard work of extracting equally interesting observations.
December 15, 2007.
Brilliant, funny and absorbing.
Rating: 5
With this book, Andy Ferguson nails his reputation as one of the wittiest, smartest writers in the country today. And if you don't want to take my word for it, just read the first line of his book.
December 12, 2007.
You'll read this book through a blur of tears....
Rating: 5
I have never laughed so hard in my life - Bill Geist is a genius. I used half a box of tissue because I was laughing so hard all afternoon as I read this book that tears were pouring down my face and the print was blurry. As wonderful as the entire book was, my very favorite chapter was the first, "Standstill Parade" - I wanted to share the humor and realized that I would be incapable of reading that chapter to anyone without bursting into gales of laughter which would have spoiled for them. It occurred to me that married couples would drive each other crazy first by cackling and roaring with laughter during the entire time they read the book and then by wanting to share the humor with each other and trying to read while being unable to control their laughter.
I've been going through a very grim period lately and friends recommended this book. I'm now going to read Bill's other Books - sure worked better than antidepressants. Wait until you read about the "road kill stew" - the watermelon champion, the ride in a vintage plane with a man who had had five heart attacks to deliver papers to outlying ranches.
You'll read about "Mike, the Headless Chicken" - reminded me of when my father decapitated a chicken destined for the stew pot and it flew over the roof of the house before expiring - well Mike took a lot longer to expire - long enough to become famous. I won't give any more away - you have to read it yourself.
I promise you "Way Off the Road" is good for whatever ails you.
December 08, 2007.
Way off and way out!.
Rating: 5
Just when millions of Americans are hitting the road in droves this summer, along comes Bill Geist's funky and funny new book, "Way Off the Road". After twenty years of travel, the ubiquitous author has uncovered some of the nation's real oddities and has captured them in this perfect light read. Witty to the core, Geist's contributions leave the reader thinking, "does this really exist in America?"
Yes it does, and while all of these vignettes are worthy entries, some stand out more than others. I particularly loved his trip down to the floor of the Grand Canyon to help deliver mail and supplies to the Havasupai Indian tribe... and the story of the woman who IS the population of Monowi, Nebraska.....just one resident, Elsie Eiler. Elsie is the mayor, police chief, the secretary-treasurer, the librarian and the bartender, just to name some of the hats she wears. When the town's water meter needs to be read, Elsie (aged seventy-three) climbs a ladder, reads the meter, then bills herself and then PAYS herself. Heartwarming stories like Elsie's just don't get much coverage these days!
Geist also relates some of his own history about getting to many of these places (by plane, by car) and what it's like to stay in some of the more remote hamlets. Like a Letterman "Top Ten List", Geist offers advice to the wary traveler. He says, for instance, one of the signs you're in a bad restaurant is if the menu has sections like 'From the Sea'; 'From the Land"; From the Asphalt". But it's many of the quirky characters that come attached geographically that make the book shine. They're not all nuts, but some of them are. Speaking of nuts, his favorite museum curator was the late Elizabeth Tashjian, who ran the nut museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Having seen her once on "The Tonight Show" I would have agreed with his assessment.
Bill Geist's "Way Off the Road" is a perfect beach book, even if you live on the plains of Kansas and don't have a beach near you. I hope it does encourage those readers who are traveling around the United States this summer to stop in and see a few of the places he describes and perhaps meet the people associated with the book's anecdotes. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
December 27, 2007.
Gentle humor.
Rating: 5
Bill Geist travels the US and writes about small town America with gentle humor and fascinating facts. Some of his chapters are hilarious, some more gentle but all present a facet of the US most of us never see and might want to after reading this wonderful book.
December 27, 2007.
Something To Relate To.
Rating: 5
Excellent book. Hard to put down once you get started. Small town folks can really relate to the stories.
December 14, 2007.
Outstanding summer reading!.
Rating: 5
This book may someday be the only record of a vanishing and unique part of small town America. A wonderful adventure written with Bill Geist's best tongue in cheek news style. Perfect for summer reading (you can read one story and put it down if you MUST...but believe me you will pick it up again at the first opportunity!) Even though I have never been to many of these towns, I recognized the personalities of neighbors and friends - laughed out loud at descriptions of food and accomodations, and in general just thoroughly enjoyed this on my own small town front porch. Highly recommended *****+++++
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