Election

Election is a book about an election for high school president. There are a host of characters running as candidates. Paul is the jock. His sister is the anarchy type wildcard. Tracy is a hard worker with little to no friends. The funny thing is that the adults are the best characters in the story.

There is one teacher who is having an affair with Tracy. He gets found out and is gone immediately. Then there is Mister M, who I think is the main character. He teaches history. He also has an affair, but with a friend of the family whose husband left her. Mister M is one of the teachers who helps run the election.

There is some drama as Tracy goes into school one weekend and defaces Paul's election posters. Paul's sister takes the blame to aid in her making a case to transfer to a private Catholic school. Paul is also dating a girl that used to date his sister. Paul's girlfriend becomes his campaign manager.

The highlight of the book is the counting of the votes for the election. Paul voted for Tracy. And that put her ahead by 2 votes. Mister M did not like Tracy or her campaign manager. So he cheats and secretly tosses out 2 votes for Tracy into the trash. The next day, he is found out.

Warren Buffet - In His Own Words

This book is a compilation of sayings from Warren Buffet. He has a certain theory on stock investing. In general, he wants to buy stock in a company and keep it forever. The companies he is interested in are ones that can be profitable now and 100 years from now. He tries to compute the value of a company, and buy as much stock in the company when the price is a lot less than the value.

Buffet says that his investments are at a huge scale. It is hard for him to make huge gains based on how much stock he is purchasing. However for a regular investor, he thinks there is ample opportunity at a small scale to really clean up financially.

Buffet plans to give away the majority of his riches when he dies. He has partnered with Bill Gates to distribute the funds to worthy causes. Buffet's kids won't get rich from their dad's money.

Rise Up

The full title of this book is Rise Up - The #Merky Story So Far. It documents the life of Stormzy, who is a British singer. I originally know him from his collaboration with Little Mix on the single Power. The book mentions this collaboration.

Stormzy comes from a poor neighborhood in Britain. He was raised by a single mother from Ghana. Although he admits he was a naughty kid in school, he was obviously smart and went to college. He is known as an early and popular singer in the grime style of music.

In the beginning, Stormzy and his crew had little to no money. He sung at local events. His early songs were released on YouTube. His first album ended up at #1 on the week when it was released. He knew Ed Sheeran before Ed became huge. He won a couple awards related to being the best grime artist of the year for a couple years.

Essentially Charli

This is the first book by Charli D'Amelio. She says that she has been dancing from a very young age. She lived in Connecticut I think. One of her grandmothers was there. The other was in New Orleans. Her older sister is Dixie, who is more outgoing than her. Charli says she herself is rather shy.

Charli recounts how she was the first Tiktok star to get over 50M followers. It happened while she was asleep. Her fame has allowed her to go to some fashion shows. She also is a fan of Jennifer Lopez. Charli said it was unreal when she met J Lo. Apparently J Lo's kids love follow and love Charli.

While Charli does not mention her friends by name except her sister, she met her best friend when she was 10. They both attended a dance studio or class together. Charli says there are downsides to her fame. She get a lot of negative comments online. But she is trying to take everything in a positive note.

Something Happened

This book is about fictional character Bob Slocum. Bob works as a low level executive in a company in Connecticut. He does not like his boss, and the boss does not allow Bob to speak during the annual company meeting. Bob is a shoe-in for a promotion with a man he seems friendly with.

At home, Bob is married to an attractive stay at home mom. Bob dreams of divorcing her. Bob has a daughter who wants to drive. His middle child is a son who has troubles in gym, making friends, and understanding money. Bob's youngest is a disabled and retarded kid who needs a constant nurse.

When Bob started working, he thought he was in love with a secretary he flirted with. He was never able to bed this secretary because he did not know how to arrange it. He did save her once from being raped by two other employees. Later when Bob looked her up, he found she had committed suicide.

Bob's middle son stops talking to him, which disturbs Bob. His wife seems to keep getting drunk in the middle of the day. He worried about the success of his daughter. For some reason, Bob also dreams of killing himself.

Bob eventually gets the promotion. Bob's wife is mad that he had to replace an executive that Bob actually liked. Bob puts his wife in charge of finding them a bigger and more expensive house to move into. He buys his daughter a car to drive. Bob finds his power increasing at work, and threatens other powerful executives including his old boss.

The book culminates with Bob stepping in when a crazy secretary has a melt down. He directs the situation calmly, resulting in a round of applause when the secretary is led away by medical. Bob's troubles seem to fade away.

Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institute

 

I heard about this book in discussions of Netflix's show Orange is the New Black. This book is a collection of writings from women prisoners at a Connecticut prison. The title character is the name of a male writer who held sessions at the prison, helping inmates write their story.

One of the stories is about Diane. She started dating a coworker when she was young. He raped her and eventually became pregnant. Both of their parents agreed the two should get married. On day two of their marriage, Diane's husband was very late to work. When questioned, he said he had to spend time explaining to his second girlfriend that he got married to someone else.

Diane had plenty of other stories to tell. Her father had run away to live with the woman next door. Initially the children and grandma did not believe it. But Diane's mother was adamant. Her mother had the kids wake up early one morning, and spy on the neighbor's house. Diane was put in charge of taking a flashlight and investigating. Lo and behold, her dad was actually hiding in the neighbor's car.

The World According to Karl

This book is a collection of saying by Karl Lagerfeld. He was the a contractor for Chanel. But he was not any old contractor. He served as the fashion director. Karl was known to wear dark glasses, as well as super high collars on his shirts. He wore gloves frequently.

Karl wished for 48 hours days, so he could get everything done. He thought trendy and tacky were very close to each other. He hated rumpled clothing. He spoke English, German, and French. He had a cat he named Choupette.

Karl believed that money should be spent. He spent a lot of money on clothes. He figured he made a lot of money with clothes, so that was okay. He said his best ideas came to him in his sleep. He kept a pad and pen next to his bed to document those ideas.

When Karl was young, a fortune teller told his mom that he would become a priest. His mom was aghast at this. She prohibited Karl from ever entering any churches. He never went to any weddings or funerals when he was young.