Each week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.
1) Turn Every Page: a Documentary
This one is for the writers and readers. Robert Caro is one of the greatest biographers to grace the world with his words and research, Robert Gottlieb is one of New York’s (and likely the world’s) greatest book editors. This documentary explores the remarkable fifty-year relationship between the two literary legends. At the time of filming, Caro was (and still is) working to complete the final volume of his masterwork, The Years of Lyndon Johnson; Gottlieb, waited to edit it. With humor and insight, this unique double portrait reveals the work habits, peculiarities and professional joys of these two ferocious intellects. Caro’s biographical work, despite encompassing only 5 titles (four volumes on Lyndon B Johnson, and his initial genius work, The Power Broker), has influenced American leadership for decades. Gottlieb’s work is even more wide spread and has infiltrated every one of our homes in one title or another. This documentary is delightful–two genius making each other better in friendship and rivalry. (Their discussion of semicolons was of particular nerdy, literary delight to me.) It is funny, heartfelt, and a window into a literay wrodl that scarecly exists any more but that America was better for.
2) Working by Robert Caro
Speaking of Robert Caro, this is a wonderful memoir that gives a glimpse into his own life and work in these evocatively written, personal pieces. He describes what it was like to interview the mighty Robert Moses and to begin discovering the extent of the political power Moses wielded. His stories of interviewing those displaced and affected by Moses’s work are jarring and heartbreaking. Caro’s account of researching, and even moving to hill country of Texas to better understand LBJ, are astounding, especially reading them in his own sparse, clear prose. And his account of finding a writers’ community at the New York Public Library after years of working in solitude is heart warming. As a writer, I especially loved how Caro details the ways he goes about planning and composing his books and how he tries to infuse it with a sense of place and mood to bring characters and situations to life on the page. Caro’s primary works are daunting–behemoth books about political power. But his genius as a writer and historian is unignorable. If you are unfamiliar with his work, this little memoir is a great starting place, and I commend it to anyone who loves writing or history.
3) Mike Alstott highlights
After highlighting two things that are intellectual, literary, and a bit nerdy it’s only fair to celebrate the most meat head thing ever: a fullback. Mike Alstott was an NFL films favorite when I was young, and he was one of a kind in his era of football. The neck roll, the force, the dominance–so awesome. Watch the video HERE or click the photo.
