New: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
by Moshin Hamid

[Hardcover] 228 pages
ISBN: 978-1-59448-729-3
Lantana Call No. F Ham

What a strange, funny, jaw-dropping read this book was.  It’s a story of a young South Asian man in twelve acts doubling satirically as a self-help book.

The twelve acts or parts sum it all up far better than anything I could write here in this review.  Some of these should sound familiar:

One: Move to the City
Two: Get an Education
Three: Don’t Fall in Love
Four: Avoid Idealists
Five: Learn from a Master
…etc.

By the story’s end, simple beginnings have become complex lives (only perhaps to end suddenly).

Moreover, use of 2nd person narration (where the man/narrator addresses readers as “you,”) renders the views of events ironic and somewhat impersonal, and yet other times unexpectedly peculiarly funny or touching.  At times it seems as if the “you” the narrator refers to is really himself.

Certainly, the man’s story allows readers a view of individuals who are swept along by modernity in a part of the world many of us may know less about.

If you are curious how Hamid’s work was viewed by critics from the U.S. and from India, see a recent review NPR’s Steve Inskeep of March 6, 2013 and from IANS/The Times of India of Oct. 10, 2013.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Bossypants  by Tina Fey
Hardcover: 277 pages
Publisher: Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown and Company
(April 2011)
ISBN:978-0-316-05686-1
Lantana Library Call No.: B Fey

Here’s what Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live (SNL) writer, stand up comic, and 30 Rock executive producer, says about being a boss, which she doesn’t find hard.

In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people
and then getting out of their way.  In other cases, to get the best work out of people you may have to pretend you are not their boss and let them treat someone else like the boss, and then that person whispers to you behind a fake wall and you tell them what to tell the first person.

Fey also narrates parts of her childhood and teenage years growing up on the edge of Philadelphia as the daughter of Irish/German and Greek parents, going to college, taking improv comedy at the  famous Second City Theatre in Chicago and touring, working with Lorne Michaels at SNL and her famous role as Sarah Palin, and being a  wife (married to Second City Director Jeff Richmond) and mother.

Fey’s memoir is selective, and she chooses not to disclose setbacks or some deeply personal parts of her life.  Instead, she writes at hyper-speed, haphazardly and humorously, through a variety of topics including

*the rules of improv (these are curiously and possibly insightful, you may find, when working with people),
*being the first female head writer at SNL,
*travel and beauty tips,
*insights on Photoshop and breastfeeding,
*and down-time/me-time.

I would have liked to have heard more about Fey’s experiences as screen play writer of  Mean Girls and acting in it.  However, this bio was still enjoyable to read.  Check it out!