HCIC 2010 Book Suggestions

HCIC 2010 Book Club

Dinner at Devil’s Thumb Ranch Restaurant

Every year we get together and swap tales about our favorite reads during the year. This event was held at the Devil's Thumb Ranch House restaurant. The scallops were brilliant, but the people and the stories were even better.

The participants this year were: Gary Olson and Judy Olson (UC Irvine), Paul Dourish (UC Irvine), Mark Newman (U. Michigan), Gina Venolia (Microsoft), Mike Atwood (Drexel), Robin Jeffries (Google), Jay Jeffries (Stanford), Bonnie John (CMU / IBM), Dan Russell (Google)

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Book recommendations:

Gary Olsen: Ken Auletta Googled: The end of the world as we know it.

“The book recounts the entire history of Google, back to when Larry and Sergey were kids. The author had more access to execs than anyone else.. worth reading if you want to understand what’s going on with Google.” Amazon review: Two Googles emerge in this savvy profile of the Internet search octopus. The first is the actual company, with its mixture of business acumen and naïve idealism (Don't Be Evil is the corporate slogan); its brilliant engineering feats and grad-students-at-play company culture; its geek founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, two billionaires who imbibe their antiestablishment style straight from Burning Man; its altruistic quest to offer all the world's information for free while selling all the world's advertising at a hefty profit. The second Google is a monstrous metaphor for all the creative destruction that the Internet has wrought on the crumbling titans of old media, who find themselves desperately wondering how they will make money off of news, music, video and books now that people can Google up all these things without paying a dime.

Bonnie John: Henry Lodge Younger Next Year

“This is the book that’s changed my life… and the life of several people I know. (I heard about it from Wendy Kellogg.) It’s about how to transform your life (eating, activity, etc.) for the better.” You too can be younger next year.

Judy Olson: Anita Diamant Red Tent

Paul Dourish: Fatal Shore.

“There’s an interesting backstory here… about how/why prisoners came to Australia… and were not sent to America.”

Mark Newman: Malcolm McCullough Abstracting Craft.

The motivations of craft—crafty, cheap -- “You feel inspired, but unsure what to do next with the ideas in this book.”

Gina Venolia: Craig Childs House of Rain.

Although less well known than the Mayans, the Anasazi, who flourished in the region now known as New Mexico, also vanished without a trace. Now, eight centuries after their thriving, 2,000-year-old civilization disappeared as though it had never existed, naturalist and adventurer Childs undertakes to find out where the Anasazi went and why. But discovering the fate of an entire race of people, 800 years after the fact, is not like tracking down a missing person. Childs' investigation relies heavily on scholarly literature, oral tradition, and lots of reading between the lines of history.

Mike Atwood: Ken Follett. Pillars of the Earth

“You’ll learn more about building cathedrals and learn about where the knowledge for building a cathedral come from.” Tom Builder's dream is to build a cathedral, but in the meantime, he must scrounge about to find a lord that will hire him. His search pulls him and his family into the politics of 12th-century England, as different lords vie to gain control of the throne in the wake of the recently deceased king.

Bonnie John: Whirling Dervishes. We saw them in Pittsburgh… they were surprisingly calming and amazing.

Gary Olson: Minneapolis Symphony, hearing Aaron Copland conducting Appalachian Spring

Judy Olson: Apollo Theatre. Attended a Double Dutch jumproping competition (with compulsories and freestyle).

Paul Dourish: Edinburgh Festival. Full of remarkable things, but the event that caught his eye was a jazz bagpiper… a thing he didn’t think was possible.

Mark Newman: Speedboat Gallery (St. Paul, MN) Where he heard a group called “Savage Aural Hotband” who wrapped themselves in Saran Wrap for their performance. Craaazy.

Gina Venolia: Jessica Williams in performance. She’s a remarkable jazz pianist (who is now a friend of Gina!)

Mike Atwood: Colur – a place on the Spanish coast where they conduct completely insane bullfights. For instance, they will release bulls with strings tied between the horns. Girls & women then try to cut the string with scissors. Or, the guys will play soccer on the field… with the bulls. Different? Yeah.

Jay Jeffries: Colorado University Shakespeare Festival—the performance of Henry V, Part 2 with Kevin Kline at Thanksgiving many years ago. “The performance has never left my mind.”

Robin Jeffries: Berserker Gun…an experimental play that her son Sean was in. Think San Diego many years ago… but it was a whacky, very experimental piece that has also never left her mind.

Dan Russell: Survival Research Labs In a performance held in an abandoned metal shed in an industrial section of San Francisco, the team built a whole bunch of new grandstands to accommodate the unexpected 500 people who showed up. I left the performance smelling of jet A fuel (from the flamethrowers) and with my hair standing on end (from the giant Van de Graff generators making lightning)