und on Facebook. Caring for his senile father is another of Matt's challenges and he can't afford to keep his sons in their over-priced private school, even though he knows they won't survive the predatory jungle of public education. His attempt to launch a website where financial advice is given in poetry is a failure: people don't seem to want economic updates delivered in iambic pentameter or haiku.What, then, do people want? The answer comes to him in a flash, when a chance encounter with some gang bangers at a convenience store results in him getting stoned for the first time in many years. Of course! Middle-aged folks are longing for marijuana! And selling pot is a recession-proof business. Not surprisingly, this doesn't turn to be the best idea for saving his bacon that Matt could have had, but it's by no means the last bad decision he'll make in this hilarious satire on The-way-we-live-now-but-really-wish-we-didn't. Multiple "What was he thinking?" moments will keep you turning pages.
Still on the subject of business reporters--nonfictional this time--I also plan to check in on Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer Prize-winning business reporter for the LA Times, and author of Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century. Hiltzik digs deep into the social, economic and political factors that surrounded the construction of this eternal symbol of the Southwest, and places them in an environmental and historical context that is as eye-opening as it is informative.
Hundreds of authors will be at the Tucson Festival of Books, March 12 and 13 on the UA Mall. And, it's all free, even the parking. You absolutely can't afford to miss it!
Helene
Follow the book title links to the Library's catalog for these and other great titles by authors appearing at the Book Festival.
