Agent Palmer

Amazon’s description is the shortest and perhaps most simplistic summary of The Old Religion by David Mamet that I could find: “A historical narrative tells the story of Jewish factory owner Leo Frank, who in 1914 was wrongfully accused and convicted of raping a white Southern girl and eventually lynched by an angry mob.”

This book was one that I wasn’t prepared for, but I don’t know if one could prepare for this book. In the beginning, during the setup of the character based upon real-life accused Leo Frank, the book contains fragments of life and conversation that feel familiar.

Magician, comedian, actor, writer, producer, musician, and author. Steve Martin is many things more than just a “wild and crazy guy,” and how that all came to be is found in his autobiography Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life.

This may be one of the more realistic show business books I have read in recent memory. This isn’t a book about name-dropping or what happens after success. This is a book about how Steve Martin reached the top. While you can take some of the lessons to heart on your own, this is not a how-to; this is just a how it happened.

Sexy Little Numbers is a book designed to sell books and the services of marketing agencies. For me, this book was about as exciting as a bad TED Talk. The speaker, or in this case author, thinks it is interesting and the members of the audience who are just discovering this topic find it interesting.

However, for anyone who has a small understanding of the complexities of data as a concept, it’s just analytics 101. It’s hardly as exciting as author Dimitri Maex of marketing goliath Ogilvy & Mather attempts to make it.

If you enjoy films, Spike, Mike, Slackers, & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, is a must-read. It’s also something I would highly recommend that aspiring filmmakers crack open.

Me? I’m not sure I fall into either camp, though I do dabble in film.