Little Missy's Reading Roundup
Your Autumn Armchair Entertainment
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Knopf, 2018
This is Elizabeth Holmes. She dropped out of Stanford after one year because she thought she was Steve Jobs and was going to change the world with a blood testing devise (that would change the world). She spoke in a fake baritone, wore black turtlenecks and slept with a corporate bully who she made vice president of the company she called Theranos. She looks like a psycho to Little Missy but apparently old white male fogeys like Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Mattis and Rupert Murdoch (good Lord, what a line up!) gave her $$$$ and support and she got Safeway and Walgreen's to buy into her scheme WHICH NEVER NEVER WORKED, NOT EVEN ONCE! Somehow, by getting these old goats to support her, her net worth climbed to 4.5 billion dollars despite the fact that she did not have a product which functioned, in fact she had a faulty product that likely put thousands of patients at risk. Wall Street reporter John Carreyrou courageously risked flak from his own paper which seemingly was buying into the Holmes mystique. He smelled a rat and came out to Silicon Valley. The result is a meticulously reported page turner, Bad Blood. Interestingly enough, one of the main whistle blowers inside the company was George Shultz's grandson, Tyler Shultz, who tried in vain to alert his grandfather that Holmes was a liar and a fraud. Many of Little Missy's friends are in this book as victims of this creep, (because they live or work at Stanford, where Holmes syphoned off talent with her creepy fraudster charm, which initially passed for nerdiness). I remember seeing her interviewed on television before the bloom was off this rose and thinking, She sounds crazy to me, like a blond vampire on a mission to self destruct after hurting many people. This criminal will probably go to jail, where she belongs. Silicon Valley at its least appealing!
Fear Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
Simon and Schuster, 2018
And then we have Washington DC at its least appealing, but the book by Bob Woodward is a mesmerising trip through the Trump swamp. Of course it's meticulously reported. There are so many jaw dropping moments, all backed up with source notes, and while I am no fan of Lindsey Graham, (in fact I despise him), I do think his crack about Trump having read one book is worth the price of admission. Bob Woodward is a gentleman, and while that does not make him any less relevant, he has rigorously left out the more salacious stuff, which will make this book a classic on a par with All the President's Men, his 1974 book about Nixon and Watergate, which he co-wrote with Carl Bernstein. Good work, Mr. Woodward. Who would have guessed you'd be doing another book like this in our lifetimes?
Eileen
Homesick for Another World
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
by Ottessa Moshffegh, Penguin Press
Ottessa is a Stanford grad, about the same age as Little Missy's daughter Lexi. I wonder if they ever met? I'm going to ask Lexi after I finish writing this. You see, I think Ottessa is probably one of the best writers of her generation. She is the antidote to Jane Austen-- it's not a romantic place, not Ottessa's world view. These books will shock and stun you. Ottessa's writing is so seemingly simple and guileless that you will sometimes feel you are being had when she gets down and dirty. It's gritty reading, no doubt about that! I'm not going to say much more, except that Eileen was my favourite. What a piece of genius! But you be the judge readers! I've just given you the five best books I read in September. Do like Warren Buffet (Little Missy's idol, remind me to tell you how I met him !!!!) and READ EVERY DAY!
Love
Little Missy
