Derek Thompson’s Hit Makers: A Book Review

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I first heard about Derek Thompson’s Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction while watching an episode of Vice News when the book was released. The quick news piece concentrated on movies and the elements that created success versus that which resulted in failure. Intrigued by the information and teaching a Film Theory class myself, I decided to dig deeper. The book itself offers so much more than a guide to making a successful horror flick. Starting with the spread of a simple lullaby, Thompson details the stories behind the rise and fall of fads within society. While some of these circumstances are pure luck, the story of Carly Rae Jepsen and her breakout hit Call Me Maybe through an Instagram post by Justin Bieber springs to mind, many hits are in fact crafted. What may scare the reader more is how such crafting has become easier, a fact that the 2016 US Presidential Elections put to show.

Ranging from the idea of Most Acceptable but Advanced to modern polling on new music in order to determine whether the song warrants radio play, Thompson tells the stories of pop culture, and doing so captivates at the combination of detail, planning, and luck comes into creating a breakout hit. He details the exhaustive work that went into George Lucas’ writing process, how the man tried to buy both Flash Gordon and The Hidden Fortress (which I teach in my film class) only to be denied and then create Star Wars in their image. To think what movies he would have made and what would have come out of it. Thompson explores ascetics, the music industry, publishing, and even social media. While some of his insights only needed aggregation, they still stand out, inspire, and push the reader on. If you’re interested in any of these areas, give the text a read.  

Simone Kelly’s Like a Fly on a Wall: A Book Review

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Simone Kelly’s Like a Fly on a Wall inspires a mixed set of thoughts. On one hand: this book is fun, the pages turn quickly, and while pumped full of adult themes and some steamy scenes, it has merit. Jacques, the central figure, is an attractive psychic of mixed race (French and Moroccan descent). His point of view is often series, and despite for some elongated sexual escapades that were given more page time than needed, his plotline tends to stay grounded. The reader learns about his family, his visions, his rough relationship with his mother and the untimely death of his father. These revelations build the character and send him between New York and Miami to investigate the circumstances behind the death of his father as well as his abilities. And in a way, this plotline is the only one resolved in the text.

Yet outside of Jacques, the author presents the reader with a litany of flat characters that serve more as plot devices than anything else. Kylie, who is by far the most developed of this group, ends up as a trail of loose ends. One man drops into her life and devastates it, yet Kelly never fully resolves the story or gives the reader a final direction. In another angle, Kylie dates an online love, but the final direction of the relationship is left open despite a multiple chapter focus earlier in the text. Kylie’s mother, True, suffers the same fate as do her bosses, men she stumbled on to in a mysterious Miami blackout.

While some of these plot need no resolution, the text itself suffers when a central figure like Jacques’ girlfriend Vicki vanishes without much more than passing glance for chapters on end only to play a pivotal plot role later on. Yes, Kelly entertains the reader with an interesting premise, but she fails to go far enough to fully captivate and entertain the reader on a full level.

Naomi Novik’s Crucible of Gold: A Book Review

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The seventh installment of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, Crucible of Gold, once again puts Laurence and his dragon in the move. This time they embark on a trip to South America in order to forestall an attack by the French ally Tswana on the Portuguese colonies. As Napoleon seemingly spreads his fingers deep into the world, Laurence and his dragon band seem to find ways to meet him at every stop. Restored to his rank, Laurence witnesses the destruction of his dragon transport, the Allegiance, and thus they are thus lost at sea without a hope of survival. After days of flying all hope is lost. Yet, in a well-crafted section, Novik places Temeraire, Kulingile, and Iskierka upon a French transport under a flag of surrender.  After brief travels and being marooned on an island, the band finds their way to the main continent and hell-bent on making their way to Rio to stop the Tswana.

In typical Novik fashion, a series of errors and miscalculations by the dragons places them instead in the heart of the Incan empire with Iskierka as their emissary nonetheless. Incan politics, the power of dragons over men, and the mysterious empire beneath the jungle, are all put on display. With the nuptial fate of Granby in the balance, they seek to stop the potential alliance between the Inca, their strange feathered dragons, and the French.

As always, the road can be bumpy, the journey thrilling, and Novik keeps the pages and fun turning as the series rockets towards its terminus.