Agent Palmer

Chuck Klosterman is a master of the absurd in the simplest way. He’s truly outdone himself in “Raised in Captivity,” a book full of short stories that read like longer versions of his HYPERtheticals, which are questions intended to start insane conversations.

The front cover boasts this book as “Fictional Nonfiction,” but you could easily argue about what order that should be in or even about what each of these short stories are about. That’s what this book does. And it will get you thinking.

Wired: The Short Life & Fast Times of John Belushi is a very intriguing and thought provoking detailed trip of Belushi’s life by renowned journalist Bob Woodward.

The book wants to be a straight-forward, facts forward retelling of Belushi’s life with the words and experiences of those who were around him at the time. On the surface, that might be exactly what it is, but it is so much more than that.

Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon is the most complete story of Apollo 11 I have ever read. And that’s saying a lot considering how much I have read on the subject and how still engaged I am in learning as much as I can about NASA during its height of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

This book also covers the post-mortem of the program but let’s first see how this compares to the rest.

Why did I read Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography? Why should you? The second question may very well be answered by the first.

Why did I read it? Because I like to know where things come from. I like to know the process and the inspiration, whether it is inspired or just happenstance. In both instances, I am just here to know more.