What is nerd nite you ask?

We all know that learning is more fun when you’re drinking with friends and colleagues. Thus, Nerd Nite is a monthly event held in more than 50 cities across the globe during which several folks give 18-21-minute fun-yet-informative presentations across all disciplines – while the audience drinks along.  And there are often bands, acrobats, trivia, and other shenanigans as well.  Imagine learning about everything from math feuds or the science of the Simpsons, to the genealogy of Godzilla or debunking beer myths.  Fun, right?  As nerds and non-nerds like to say, Nerd Nite Is Like the Discovery Channel™…with Beer!  (from http://nerdnite.com/)

Check out our local nerd nite page here http://lawrence.nerdnite.com

Here’s the recommended reads/watches of our Nerd Nite 17 presenters:

From Bedroom Performance to Performance Art: The Rise of Air Guitar and the Dream of World Peace Eric “Mean” Melin

To Air is Human *

“To Air Is Human is the riotous tale of one man’s journey through a world of wheelchair-bound Christian air rockers, spandex-jumpsuit fittings, Finnish stunt wolves, catatonic ’80s guitar heroes, air groupies, Aireoke, Air Supply, dry-ice injuries, and ultimately, good vs. evil (in the form of Björn’s rival pretender to the air guitar throne). But it is also a sincere and penetrating account of the pursuit of an elusive, intangible, and perhaps nonexistent goal: to achieve ‘airness’–that is, when air guitar transcends the ‘real’ art that it imitates and becomes an art form in and of itself’

Air Guitar Heroes **

Air Guitar Nation *

If punk helped democratize music by prizing energy over virtuosity–then air guitar takes it even further, removing musicianship and playing altogether. The world championships began in 1996, and the contest has been a part of the Oulu Music Video Festival in Oulu, Finland since. The U.S. Air Guitar Championship began in 2003, with two regional competitions, in New York and Los Angeles, with the finals in LA. The film follows the fierce competition between David “C-Diddy” Jung, (who rocks a Hello Kitty breastplate) and Dan “Björn Türoque” Crane, eternal challenger and perennial runner-up. After the US championship, they move on to Finland, where they are the first Americans ever to compete. The Europeans have several years head start, take air guitar very seriously, and really know how to thrash. Air guitar is performance art for those who never lost touch with their inner child. This documentary is a lovingly hilarious portrait of a bizarre pastime, bearing the message that people are people no matter where you find them.

Dan Crane’s (aka Bjorn Turoque) TED Talk

http://usairguitar.com/

http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com/

Very Naughty Boys: The Story of “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”  Abby Olcese

First 20 Years of Monty Python *

Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years

A raucous account of the author’s prime years as a member of Monty Python describes the group’s international travels, battles over censorship, and collaborations on celebrated films, in an intimate record that is complemented by descriptions of Palin’s present experiences as a family man.

Life of Brian

Holy Flying Circus *

Time Bandits

The Long Good Friday

Mona Lisa

Withnail and I

Youtube footage of Palin & Cleese vs. Muggeridge & Stockwood

The cover of Jai Nitz’s new comic The Dream Thief

Iconography: The Art of Judging a Book By Its Cover

Jai Nitz

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.

Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006 *

Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross

Celebrates the talents of DC Comics artist Alex Ross in a collection of his drawings, sketches, limited edition prints, and other artwork, all reproduced in full color, accompanied by a study of his creative process.

*We can score it through interlibrary loan.

** Unfortunately this title is only for sale through a third party on amazon.com.

Little’s books often revolve around supernatural forces at play in the familiar, everyday world of modern America. His novels are often set in the Southwest, usually Arizona, and have very short titles that reflect the world of the novel — The Association is about a sinister homeowner’s group, The Store is about a big box retailer with evil lurking in its aisles, The Policy is about a deadly life insurance contract. Although he employs seemingly mundane settings, Little’s plot twists and turns can be truly horrifying in a visceral, sometimes repulsive, way. Don’t be surprised to open up one of Little’s books and find yourself among re-animated murder victims bent on revenge, mutilated goats portending the Apocalypse, and murderous clowns who exist in another dimension.

If you’ve read all of Koontz and King and are looking for a fresh voice in the horror genre who employs both the supernatural and the satirical to get at what’s most horrifying in our modern world, give Bentley Little at try.

LPL owns the following:

• The Academy
  Evil stalks the halls and possesses the principle at a newly-formed charter school.
• The Association
  A gated community’s newest residents find that non-compliance with the rules and regulations of the Homeowner’s Association can be deadly.
• The Collection
  Thirty two short stories that showcase the author’s dark, demented visions.
• His Father’s Son
  A man hears his father’s deathbed murder confession and must grapple with the evils unleashed by this long-held secret.
• The Policy
  A salesman offers insurance policies that not only cover accidental death and dismemberment, but often lead to those ends as well.
• The Resort
  A dream vacation at an exclusive destination soon turns into a nightmare for one family.
• The Revelation
  The signs of the Apocalypse are upon a small town in Arizona and salvation may lie with a pregnant woman and fire-and-brimstone itinerant preacher.
• The Store
  A big box retailer comes to a small town and offers jobs and benefits to the area, but at a horrific price.

You can find Mr. Smallwood here at the library on July 19, putting pen-to-projector to co-present the program A Visual History of Comics with writer Jai Nitz.

UNION STATION by Ande Parks and Eduardo Baretto 

After petty criminal Floyd Nash is involved in a clash-turned-massacre at Kansas City’s Union Station in 1933, J. Edgar Hoover doesn’t particularly care who started it: he just wants Floyd Nash’s butt in an electric chair. And when an unwitting FBI agent, reporter, and criminal find themselves in the way, they can’t duck for cover fast enough.

WHITEOUT by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber

Carrie Stetko is a U.S. Marshal, and she’s made Antarctica, aka The Ice, her home. All is peaceful… until someone commits a murder in her jurisdiction and that peace is shattered. Is she prepared for the secrets and betrayals at the core of this mystery?

INVINCIBLE Vol 1 by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker

Mark Grayson’s problems–beyond those of a normal high school student–grow when he begins to inherit his father’s superpowers.

THE ROCKETEER: CLIFF’S NEW YORK ADVENTURE by Dave Stevens

Cliff, our hero, has traveled to New York to win back the woman he loves. Along the way he gets mixed up with spies, a monsterous killer, a bit of his past and an awfully familiar looking mysterious investigator.

ASTERIOS POLYP by David Mazzucchelli

The arrogant, prickly protagonist of this graphic novel is an award-winning architect who’s never built an actual building, and a pedant in the midst of a spiritual crisis. After the structure of his own life falls apart, he runs away to try to rebuild it into something new.

PARKER: THE HUNTER by Darwyn Cooke

Betrayed by the woman he loved and double-crossed by his partner in crime, Parker makes his way cross-country with only one thought burning in his mind – to coldly exact his revenge and reclaim what was taken from him!

COWARD: CRIMINAL by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

Leo is a professional pickpocket and legendary heist-planner. When he’s lured into an unusually risky heist, all his rules go out the window and he must come face-to-face with the violence he’s kept bottled up inside for 20 years.

THE WALKING DEAD vol 1 by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore

An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months, society has crumbled: There is no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. Rick Grimes finds himself one of the few survivors in this terrifying future.

PROOF vol 1 by Alexander Grecian and Riley Rossmo

If you believe in monsters… Proof doesn’t leave urban legends where it finds them. Bigfoot wears a suit to the office. Fairies devour anyone in sight. A lonely monster wears human skins for company. The hit series starts here!

HELLBOY: SEED OF DESTRUCTION by Mike Mignola and John Byrne

When strangeness threatens to engulf the world, a strange man will come to save it. Sent to investigate a mystery with supernatural overtones, Hellboy discovers the secrets of his own origins and his link to the Nazi occultists who promised Hitler a final solution in the form of a demonic avatar.

THE SPIRIT by Will Eisner

This series by comic’s grand master stars the Spirit, a down-to-Earth crime fighter revered among fans as a comics’ Golden Age classic. These post WWII tales are sometimes uplifting but often tragic tales of crime and urban life–with an occasional fantastic element.  Essential for anyone interested in comics history.

BONE by Jeff Smith

After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone, are separated and lost in a vast uncharted desert.  Anyone who has ever left home for the first time only to find that the world outside is strange and overwhelming will love Bone!

Y THE LAST MAN Vol 1 by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra

Suddenly – and without warning – a mysterious plague kills every living creature on the planet with a Y chromosone…in other words, no more men! Except one. Amateur escape artist Yorick Brown has somehow survived. It’s now a very different world, and if they can’t exploit Yorick, the new world powers may just decide his usefulness is at an end!

EX MACHINA Vol 1 by Brian K Vaughan and Tony Harris

Civil engineer and real-life superhero Mitchell Hundred retires from a life of masked crimefighting to become mayor of New York City. But Mayor Hundred has to worry about more than just budget problems and an antagonistic governor, especially when a mysterious hooded figure begins assassinating plow drivers during the worst snowstorm in the city’s history!

SEAGUY by Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart

Seaguy follows the strange adventure of would-be hero Seaguy and his faithful companion Chubby Da Choona as they try to decipher the mystery of Xoo, a ubiquitous new food that seems to have evolved into a brand-new conscious life form! Quirky and heart-wrenching at the same time, Seaguy is something utterly and completely new.

KINGDOM COME by Mark Waid and Alex Ross

Kingdom Come first burst onto the comics scene in 1996 and almost immediately galvanized fan appreciation with its tale of an emerging struggle between vaunted superheroes and a new breed of amoral, power-hungry vigilantes.

SCALPED Vol 1 by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera

Fifteen years ago, Dashiell “Dash” Bad Horse ran away from a life of abject poverty on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in hopes of finding something better. Now he’s returned with nothing but a set of nunchucks, a hell-bent-for-leather attitude, and one dark secret.  Is he here to set things right, or just get a piece of the action?

THE UNWRITTEN Vol 1 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Tom Taylor’s life is screwed. His dad is the author of the Tommy Taylor fantasy series, boy-wizard novels with popularity on par with Harry Potter. And when an enormous scandal reveals that Tom might really be a boy-wizard made flesh, Tom comes into contact with a very mysterious, very deadly group that’s secretly kept tabs on him all his life.

THE ULTIMATES Vol 1 by Mark Millar and Brian Hitch

Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. The X-Men and Magneto. Strange beings with incredible powers have risen up to challenge the old order, and ordinary citizens are scared witless. The government’s solution: a small but lethal army known as the Ultimates, created to protect humanity from the newly risen threats to mankind!

• Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel – In this unique re-creation of one of the most dramatic periods in modern American history, Studs Terkel recaptures the Great Depression of the 1930s in all its complexity. The book is a mosaic of memories from those who were richest to those who were most destitute.  (Bowker)
• My American Century by Studs Terkel – This book is a collection of Terkel’s encounters over his long career as the nation’s premier oral historian. Described by Terkel as a “jazz work,” it is made up of material taken from the author’s major books…   The packaging of Terkel’s work in one volume makes for a convenient and accessible title that recognizes the human side of history.  (Library Journal)
• We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live by Joan Didion -  Joan Didion’s incomparable and distinctive essays and journalism are admired for their acute, incisive observations and their spare, elegant style. Now the seven books of nonfiction that appeared between 1968 and 2003 have been brought together into one thrilling collection. (Bowker)
• Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion - The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains…the essential portrait of America– particularly California–in the sixties. (Bowker)
• Annals of the Former World by John McPhee– When John McPhee began his journeys back and forth across the United States, he planned to describe a cross section of North America at about the fortieth parallel and, in the process, come to an understanding not only of the science but of the style of the geologists he traveled with… this is our finest popular survey of geology and a masterpiece of modern nonfiction. (Bowker)
• Silk Parachute by John McPhee - The world’s complex mechanisms beguile us in this scintillating collection of essays, many from the New Yorker. McPhee is fascinated by all manner of intricate and subtle processes… The result is a narrative that is wryly humorous, raptly observant, luxuriating in idle curiosity.  (Publishers Weekly)
• Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth -  Goodbye, Columbus is the story of Neil Klugman and pretty, spirited Brenda Patimkin, he of poor Newark, she of suburban Short Hills, who meet one summer break and dive into an affair that is as much about social class and suspicion as it is about love. The novella is accompanied by five short stories that range in tone from the iconoclastic to the astonishingly tender and that illuminate the subterranean conflicts between parents and children and friends and neighbors in the American Jewish diaspora.  (Bowker)
• American Pastoral by Philip Roth- American Pastoral is the story of a fortunate American’s rise and fall – of a strong, confident master of social equilibrium overwhelmed by the forces of social disorder. Seymour “Swede” Levov – a legendary high school athlete, a devoted family man, a hard worker, the prosperous inheritor of his father’s Newark glove factory – comes of age in thriving, triumphant postwar America. But everything he loves is lost when the country begins to run amok in the turbulent 1960s.  (Bowker)

Mr. Grinnell has also been kind enough to put together a suggested reading list to help guide our exploration of urban aesthetics:

• Building the Nation: Americans Write About Their Architecture, Their Cities, and Their Landscape
  ed. by Steven Conn and Max Page
  via Inter Library Loan
  This anthology of some of the nation’s best-loved writers, including Mark Twain, W. E. B. Du Bois, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Lewis Mumford, E. B. White, and John McPhee, contemplates the American way of building, and demonstrates how central the built environment has been to our definition of what it is to be American.
• A Guide to Chicago’s Murals
  by Mary L. Gray
  751.7309
  Anyone who’s seen the gorgeous lunettes in the Auditorium Theater or the South Side’s Wall of Respect knows that Chicago has a rich tradition of mural painting.  From post offices to libraries, fieldhouses to banks, and private clubs to street corners, Mary Gray chronicles the amazing works of artists who have sought to make public declarations in this most social of art forms.
• Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture
  by Michael Kammen
  306.4709 KAMMEN M

  In this lively narrative, award-winning author Michael Kammen presents an analysis of cutting-edge art and artists and their ability to both delight and provoke us. From Thomas Eakins’s 1875 masterpiece The Gross Clinic (considered “too big, bold, and gory” when first exhibited) to the bitter disputes about Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial, this is an eye-opening account of American art and the battles and controversies that it has ignited.

• Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience
  by Jerold S. Kayden
  via Inter Library Loan
  This “juicy little time bomb of a book” examines New York City’s 39-year mixed experience with the production of more than 500 plazas, parks, and atriums located on private property yet by law accessible to and usable by the public.  Through words, photographs, scaled site plans and maps, Harvard University professor Jerold S. Kayden shows individuals where to discover New York City’s hidden public spaces.
• Outdoor Sculpture in Baltimore: A Historical Guide to Public Art in the Monumental City
  by Cindy Kelly
  via Inter Library Loan
  Before New York, Philadelphia, and even Washington D.C., the most impressive sculptural monuments in America were under construction in Baltimore.  As Cindy Kelly talks about how more than 250 sculptures were commissioned, constructed, and dedicated, the rich cultural, economic, and social history of the city unfolds, inviting us to see “the Monumental City” in a wholly fresh perspective.
• Creative Time: The Book
  by Anne Pasternak and Lucy Lippard
  on order
  For more than 30 years, Creative Time has been an avatar of public art in New York City, working to engage art and the environment, artists and the public.Creative Time: The Book shows how a single organization made it possible for thousands of artists to present awe-inspiring works that engage, taunt, seduce, enliven, and transform a city.
• The Painted Word
  by Tom Wolfe
  759.06 WOLFE T
  “America’s nerviest journalist” trains his satirical eye on Modern Art in this work.  Wolfe addresses the scope of Modern Art from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. This is Tom Wolfe “at his most clever, amusing, and irreverent.”

Max Grinnell is a writer, traveler, and explorer who has published extensively on urban environments, most often those in Chicago and Boston. As part of his professional experience, Max has worked with the Michael Sorkin Design Studio, the Newberry Library, Frommer’s Publications, AA Publishing, the Chicago Tribune, the city of Chicago’s Cultural Affairs Department, the Worldwide University Network, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Chicago. He has designed and taught courses on urban studies, community development, geography, planning and sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Boston University, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Chicago. For more information on Max Grinnell, search his site: www.theurbanologist.com.

• Beauty by Robin McKinley
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
• China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston
• Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
• 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• The Horse and His Boy by Clive Staples
• The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart
• Girls and Visions and Everything by Sarah Shulman
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
• Blood & Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
• Robinson Crusoe, or Nine Stories by JD Salinger
• It’s a Magical World by Bill Watterson

• All Flesh is Grass: The Pleasures and Promises of Pasture Farming by Gene Logsdon
  Amid consumer concerns about how farm animals are bred, “contrary farmer” Gene Logsdon explains historically effective grazing practices and new techniques that have blossomed during the past decade.
• Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness by Lisa Hamilton
  Hamilton looks for solutions to a problematic food system by looking to a few of the people who actually grow our food: an African-American dairyman in Texas, a tenth-generation rancher in New Mexico, and a modern pioneer family in North Dakota.
• Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice  for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin
  Acclaimed agrarian Joel Salatin discusses how far removed we are from the simple, sustainable joy that comes from living close to the land and the people we love.
• Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef by Julius Reuchel
  Cattle are wonderfully adept at converting grass into meat, fat and milk.  Here, Reuchel offers complete information on running a profitable, environmentally sustainable farm based on the efficiency of cattle and grass.
• Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind by Gene Logsdon
  Logsdon provides the inside story of manure — our greatest, yet most misunderstood, natural resource.  A fresh, fascinating and entertaining look at an earthy, but absolutely crucial, subject.
• The Last of the Husbandmen: A Novel of Farming Life by Gene Logsdon
  A personal depiction of the personal triumphs and tragedies, clashes and compromises, and abiding human character of American farming families.
• Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck
  Hailed as the “patron saint of famers’ markets,” here Planck suggests that ancient foods like beef and butter have been falsely accused, while industrial foods like corn syrup have created an epidemic of obesity and heart disease.
• The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability by Lierre Keith
  Part memoir, nutritional primer, and political manifesto, this controversial examination exposes the destructive history of agriculture and asserts that, in order to save the planet, food must come from within living communities.

As further evidence that Katy Perry is the pop starlet of the day (when you can’t get Lady GaGa) she was recently given a hosting gig at Saturday Night Live. She did a respectable job with her skits, but apparently wasn’t up for the double-duty of host/performer (Britney Spears managed it – twice). The musical guest that evening was instead, Robyn. Do you remember her? In the 90’s she had a big hit with “Show Me Love” but since then has kept mostly to the dance charts. I had sort of forgotten about her until I saw the SNL performance (it gets real funky at 2:35). I was floored by what a wonderful little weirdo she is. She was wearing what I think was a girdle over spandex pants and had her white hair trimmed into a fetching bowl cut. Her moves were like a fly girl doing interpretive charades. It sounds like a mess, but she’s fantastic – so fantastic she merited a send-up by some members of the cast.I’m probably late to the conversation about Robyn, since her official video for “Call Your Girlfriend” has nearly two million views and the track was nominated for a Grammy a couple weeks ago. But in case you haven’t seen it, I’ll post the video below (warning: some of her gyrations are suggestive). You can borrow the album Body Talk here at the library.  Now if only there was a cute animal name for Robyn’s fans.

Ransom – Reference

So it was with a healthy dose of skepticism that I picked up Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).  I might have passed it by had the title not been so adorably self-conscious and relatable.  The book is filled with accounts as cute as the title promises and Kaling manages to steer clear of the two main pitfalls endemic in other comedians’ written work: 1) she doesn’t get so wrapped up in telling her life story that she neglects being funny and 2) she doesn’t repurpose an old routine as a chapter for her book (which was probably easy since she doesn’t do much standup).  The only complaint I’d lodge is that Kaling is less vapid and conniving than her T.V. persona Kelly Kapoor, leaving the book without any saltiness to cut the sweet (entire chapters were devoted to her expressing how much she loves her friends and family).

Since Is Everyone Hanging Out… is receiving a major advertising push all over the internet, I’ll let those getting paid to laud it do so and instead take this opportunity to recommend an overlooked title in the same vein.   Earlier this year, Michael Showalter released Mr. Funny Pants, which touches on themes shared in Kaling’s book, such as: childhood embarrassment, Brooklyn living, and rising up the ranks in comedy – but what is so special about his book, is that he seems to bore quickly with the traditional patter of mildly funny anecdote and veers many of his chapters into the realm of nonsensical weirdness.  His refreshing absurdity challenges the convention that every standup comic should also be David Sedaris.  Showalter captures buffoonery in a very smart way.  Plus, it’s something fun to read while you are on the ballooning wait-list for Kaling’s book.  (There’s also no wait for Chuy’s.)

Ransom – Reference

• The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
  In his debut novel, Gary Shteyngart introduces the first in a series of protagonists that share more than a passing resemblance to the author. The man in this instance is Vladimir Girshkin, a 25 year-old son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, living in New York City and failing to meet his parent’s high expectations. While working in a low-paying job helping recent immigrants, Vladimir meets Francesca, a girl from a wealthy family, and becomes involved in some shady activities to maintain the funds for an upper-crust lifestyle – dealings that eventually lead him to a troubled trip to Prava, “the Eastern European Paris of the Nineties.”
• Absurdistan
  Misha “Snack Daddy” Vainberg is a food coveting, hip-hop loving, would-be American from a prominent Russian family. Due to some fallout from his father’s nefarious business practices, Misha is unable to maintain his U.S. visa or his other-side-of-the-tracks Bronx girlfriend. Desperate to leave St. Petersburg, Misha sets out to buy a Belgian passport in the oil-soaked Caspian nation Absurdistan – but soon finds himself embroiled in a nascent ethnic civil war.
• Super Sad True Love Story
  Set in a dystopian, not-too-distant future New York, America’s character flaws have grown outsized and the nation is crumbling underneath them. The “Bipartisan” government has devolved into a despotic police state and is losing a war of choice with Venezuela. The country is well-passed default on its debt and the Chinese creditors are ready to repossess. Most of the citizenry is resigned to focus on their äppäräti (devices that are a few rungs up the evolutionary ladder from iPhones) and ogle each other’s credit scores. In this world, we find the unlikely coupling of homely, middle-aged Lenny and a brooding young beauty named Eunice. Their affair is an implausibility set against the stark backdrop of an America in rapid decline.