ARC Review: Five Came Back

by Mark Harris
5/5 stars
The Penguin Press, 2014
444 pages
Adult Non-Fiction Cinema History
Scheduled to release February 27

Source: Received an ARC through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

Some years ago I spotted an interesting sounding book in Entertainment Weekly and promptly put it on hold. When it came in at the library, I devoured it and got my parents to read it as well with them both loving it as well. What book was this? Well as you might have guessed, it was by Mr Mark Harris called Pictures at a Revolution about the five Best Picture nominees of 1967 and it inspired me to attempt to watch all five (still haven't managed as some are boring *ahemdoctordoolittle*) as well as sparking an interest in classic Hollywood. Thus it was a no-brainer to request his next book about cinematic history. While I recognized the five director's names (John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra) that are the focus of this book, I didn't know that much about any of them and certainly next to nothing about their experiences during World War II.

The book opens in 1938 following the five men in their Hollywood careers, some at the height of their popularity while others were just beginning their career until the United States entered the war and all five joined up, bringing their knowledge of film making to aid in the production of films about the war for both a military and civilian audience. Harris skillfully weaves in a discussion of propaganda and the impact of war while tracing the activities of the men.

As I shared, I didn't know much about the personal lives of these men so everything in this book was revelatory. My personal favorite sections did relate to actual movies I knew (such as a look at the excellent postwar film The Best Years of Our Lives) bringing back my enjoyment of Harris' previous book but I liked all of the other sections too. The five men had such experiences journeying to the Pacific and the European theaters and serving in different branches. But they also knew each other and were united by a Hollywood background and similar challenges while in the military that help keep the thread of the story moving.

Overall: I just click with his writing-now I want him to explore the anti-Communist movement in Hollywood during the fifties as we get hints of that in this book!

Smarter Than You Think

by Clive Thompson
4/5 stars
The Penguin Press, 2013
288 pages
Non-Fiction, Technology

Source: Library

Though my heart lies in YA fiction, I am interested in a wide variety of other topics including this book I've seen buzz about that examines how technology is impacting us. I have certainly read articles warning about dire outcomes from technology and I've witnessed what I consider sad consequences (for example at a restaurant I've seen parents thoroughly engrossed in their phones while their children beg for attention). This book however takes a more optimistic view about how we can and do use technology in extremely beneficial ways.

For example using newer platforms online like change.org has allowed people to find similar-minded people and organize at a scale not seen before.  Twitter allows for quick spreading of news. If I hear about an earthquake for example, I always turn to Twitter to find out more quickly and turn to traditional news once there has been time for more thorough information to be gathered. These technologies work best when they have a single clear purpose and desired outcome. Broadening it too much tends to muddy its effect. He also takes about utilizing a computer's strengths (memory and brute-force processing of data) to complement a human's mind and discretion.

Two of the most striking points for me involved historical examples. He shared about Ernest Duchesne who performed research on penicillin but was unable to get his work published and died without his findings shared with the world. Thirty-two years later Alexander Fleming shared penicillin. Think of how many lives could have been saved if Duchesne had had a platform to share his work outside of the formalized channels that rejected him or if he had found colleagues to disseminate his information.

The other point that struck me relates to our tendency to romanticize the past. For example Thompson writes about how we idealize the great letter-writing culture of the past. He says that the average was still only 5.15 letters per year at that time. So not a lot. In comparison, online has greatly sparked our writing including especially us bloggers :) And it has allowed us to connect with so many more people than we would have in the past. I really enjoyed reading about how much more writing we're producing and was struck by two examples he shared of bloggers whose years of posts added up to 2+ books. It made me wonder how long my blog would be in book format...

Overall: A very interesting and accessible work of non-fiction with some great endnotes and index.