Word: gist
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gist: When freelance writer Mac Montandon was growing up, he explains at the outset of Jetpack Dreams, he saw the turn of the millennium as a distant future full of awesome toys. "In that glorious future," he writes, "we would have long ago traded in our dirt-streaked Hyundais...at the very least, we'd have hovercrafts and flying cars. But really, the future meant jetpacks." Now that the future has arrived, he asks a simple question: "Where's my 'f-----g jetpack?' The device captured imaginations in movies like Thunderball and The Rocketeer, but attempts to harness its potential...
...Gist: Since he swaggered into America's living rooms nearly a decade ago, Eminem has been a fixture not only of the hip-hop world but of popular culture: the tortured white rapper of prodigious talent who can't quite come to grips with his fame. His dizzying rise made him the subject and star of the movie 8 Mile and the target of critics, who assailed him for spouting bigoted, misogynistic lyrics. All along, Eminem has griped that neither fans nor foes really understood him. In The Way I Am, a recently released "self-portrait" unmediated by movie avatars...
...Gist: In Marley & Me, John Grogan's hit bestseller about the titular golden Lab who taught him lessons about patience, loyalty, and commitment, the author essentially rewrote Old Yeller. Not so much in its plot or content, but rather in effect-it was a dog book that brought many a grown man to sad, secret tears. (Guys, better get those kleenex out again for this winter's film adaptation.) With The Longest Trip Home, Grogan offers another memoir, this one of his non-dog life: he recalls his childhood in suburban Detroit, growing up in a devout Catholic family...
...Gist:Who knew beef was so powerful? According to this new pair of bovine books, the cow has greatly influenced the history of America (says Fussell) and the history of, oh, all of human history (claim Rimas and Fraser). Fussell, a vigorous and delightful writer, focuses her laser-sharp observations on the American West, while Rimas and Fraser are a little rangier, spanning from prehistory to the present and from Argentina to Africa...
...Gist: In his latest book, the Stanford professor and Wired columnist rails against the nation's copyright laws - regulations he believes are futile, costly and culturally stifling. Citing "hybrid" economies like YouTube and Wikipedia (both of which rely on user-generated "remixes" of information, images and sound), Lessig argues in favor of what he calls a "Read/Write (RW)" culture - as opposed to "Read/Only (RO)" - that allows consumers to "create art as readily as they consume...