'Goon Squad" is a great novel - and stretches traditional storytelling techniques

I read mostly non-fiction but try to get through at least one novel per quarter. My most recent conquest is  "A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan, a book that succeeds on many levels in stretching storytelling in new directions.

"Goon Squad" popped up on many "best of 2010" lists, and deservedly so. It's a book full of richly developed characters and oddly disparate but interwoven chapters presented in a variety of tenses and story forms (including PowerPoint and clipped speech, ala SMS shortcuts).

The “powerpoint” chapter is especially riveting. It’s hard work to wade through each slide and the presentation style gives the reader many different paths for interpretating four troubled lives, one of whom is a child fixated on pauses in rock songs. But like most of "Goon Squad," the extra effort makes for an  exhilirating ride.

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Where's the beef in business books?

I've been trying to fight through writer's block to post a review of the book "Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age" for weeks. (I even took a few stabs at a video review but have been unable to get the compression right when I post it to YouTube or Vimeo). So, back to analog, so to speak.

 "Hamlet's BlackBerry" (sample chapter below) aims to make sense of the 24-7 onslaught of communication brought on by technology. The title plays off the fact that throughout history, people have felt overwhelmed by changes in communication, be they technical or sociological, and sought any number of solutions to find a sense of peace.

In Shakespeare's day, circa 1590, the intelligentsia could buy almanac-like tables whose specially coated paper allowed a person to write notes using a metal stylus, and erase them with a sponge. Hence, an erasable notepad, presumably invented to help one counter the growing demands on brainpower.

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New bakersfield.com homepage

We launched a redesign of bakersfield.com's homepage today, laying the foundation for greater changes sitewide in the coming months.

I've posted a separate work blog post detailing the changes that is receiving generally good response. But here's a quick overview: 

• Goals were to clean up a cluttered design that had been patched way too many times, make more money and do more to promote other sites in The Bakersfield.com Network. 
• Add more "white space."
• The content mix is powered by a library of "drag and drop" widgets that can be adjusted on the fly or set to automated dayparts. I've been through a few redesigns in the past, and the second we launched, fixed code meant the design was obsolete within seconds. The beauty of drag and drop is we can quickly make changes, whether to match reader interests or to reflect a huge local story that demands a single-story focus.
• More ad positions. We were turning away money with our old design, so we added another leaderboard, a skyscraper and three smaller banners to meet demand. We're swimming in house and remnant ads as a result of the changes, but we expect to sell that inventory quickly.
• A "carousel" that highlights our growing Bakersfield.com Network of local sites. We still have to add widgets for key sites that include Bakotopia, Bakersfield Life and Northwest Voice, but what we have live now gives you a peek peak at our family of sites.

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