Image: Mashable, Will Fenstermaker Our next selection for the MashableReads social book club is Molly Antopol‘s The UnAmericans. Molly Antopol, recently named one of The National Book Foundation’s top “5 Under 35” authors, makes her short story debut with her collection The UnAmericans. The collection follows a multiplicity of voices ranging from a teenager coming of age during the Red Scare to a former dissident writer from Prague reflecting on his negligence as a father. As Antopol navigates from story to story, she explores a global and multi-generational Jewish identity with so much heart, wisdom and tenacity that this story collection is bound to resonate with readers of all ages. Be sure to follow @mashlifestyle to discuss The UnAmericans, using the hashtag #MashReads throughout the month. You can also join our Goodreads group to stay updated on MashableReads, and let us know what you think of the book. Want to hang out with the author in person? Join our MashableReads San Francisco Meet Up for our event on March 26, at 6:00pm. If you’re in New York and want to get together with people to discuss the book, join our MashableReads New York Meet Up. Also, we’ve created some discussion questions and a suggested reading guide to keep you on track throughout the month. We encourage you to grab some friends and get together to discuss The UnAmericans some time in the month of March. And as always, tweet at us or post in our Goodreads group to let us know what you think of the book! Below, we spoke with Antopol about being a “5 Under 35” recipient, her advice for young writers and the influence of social media on storytelling. Q&A with Molly Antopol Mashable: You were named one of The National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35 Authors,” but the stories in The UnAmericans span generations. How did being such a young writer influence your story collection? Antopol: It’s an extraordinary honor to get this kind of recognition — I was thrilled to get the news, and to be in such incredible company. Writing is often such a solitary pursuit; it was very nice to be acknowledged by people who aren’t related to me! When I began writing these stories, I was blissfully ignorant of all things publishing-related. Reading was, at that point in my life, an entirely personal and haphazard experience. I’d stumble upon a book, fall in love with it and obsessively read everything by that writer, then read interviews with them to discover which writers they admired and go search for those books, and so on. The book took me ten years to write. It was really important for me to keep my blinders on the whole time. Because I teach in a writing program, a lot of my friends were publishing books. For some reason, the excitement of seeing close friends publish never pushed me to write faster — instead, it just made me want to tune out any noise so I could focus […]
Our next non-fiction selection for the MashableReads social book club is Douglas Rushkoff‘s Present Shock. We’ll be hosting a Twitter chat with Rushkoff on Dec. 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. You can discuss the book with the author personally, along with other participants from all over the world. In Present Shock, Douglas Rushkoff details our culture’s recent shift from our concentration on thinking toward the future to our obsession with the present through pop culture, social media and work habits. Rushkoff notes how we use smartphone alerts and multi-tasking in an attempt to emulate the productivity rates of machines, but highlights the risk we run of ignoring natural biological cycles in doing so. Far from rejecting new technology, Rushkoff suggests a balanced approach to navigating a connected life that allows us to experience the moment without missing it altogether. Be sure to follow @mashlifestyle to discuss Present Shock, using the hashtag #MashReads during the chat. You can also join our Facebook group to stay updated on MashableReads, and let us know what you think of the book throughout the month. Want to hang out with the author in person? Share your thoughts on the book using the hashtag #MashReads via Vine video, Instagram or Twitter prior to the chat, and we will select 10 people to visit Mashable‘s New York headquarters to meet Douglas Rushkoff and participate in our book club. If you want to get started on Present Shock, you can listen to the first chapter from Audible below. Below, we spoke with Rushkoff about chronobiology, the importance of personal connection and resistance to mobile technology. Q&A with Douglas Rushkoff Mashable: Given your discussion of the active nature of modern entertainment with DVR and channel surfing, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on fantasy sports. Do you think they enhance sports fandom by making participants more likely to watch games because they feel like they’re participating in them, or do you think they cause us to miss out on the moment because we’re checking a box score instead of watching the game? Rushkoff: It always depends who you are and how you’re engaging. Fantasy sports went a long way toward developing the sabermetrics formulas used not only by oddsmakers but general managers in hiring players. So the amateur fantasists ended up creating some of the algorithms that Oakland GM Billy Bean’s statisticians used to win games with less salary money available for star players. As far as downsides, I’m not very concerned with people being distracted from the TV (I mean, who really cares if they’re looking at a different screen, or texting with fellow fans instead of paying attention to the corporate-sponsored game?). What I am more concerned about is the way that “money ball” changes the game itself, as well as the bigger culture of fandom. Everything is done with stats now. Players’ bonuses are based in numbers of wins or strike outs. So in order to save money, managers now pull pitchers from […]
President Barack Obama walks to the pitcher’s mound before throwing a baseball during an unannounced stop to surprise members of the Northwest little league baseball teams at Friendship park in Washington, Monday, May 19, 2014.Image: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press President Obama will visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on Thursday to discuss the connection between tourism and jobs. Obama is the first sitting president to visit the Hall of Fame, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. “The fact that a sitting president has not visited here in our first 74-plus years, it was surprising to get the call, but exciting to realize that the chief executive would be delivering a speech on tourism from a place that thrives on it,” Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said Tuesday. Each year, the baseball museum attracts about 300,000 visitors to upstate New York. In 2012, Obama launched a national travel and tourism strategy, aiming to attract 100 million international tourists each year by 2021. The White House says they are on track to meet that goal; international tourists increased from 55 million in 2009 to 70 million in 2013. That increase comes hand in hand with an economic boost — those 70 million tourists spent $180.7 billion, according to the White House. “When most people think of travel and tourism, they think of national parks,” said Jeff Zients, the director of the National Economic Council Jeff Zients. “They don’t think about jobs and growth, but that’s what tourism represents.” The White House has released a report, Increasing Tourism to Spur Economic Growth, that details the administration’s efforts to increase tourism, and highlights the economic benefits of doing so: Increasing Tourism to Spur Economic Growth “Tourism is America’s most important, and largest, services export: growth in international visitors has created roughly 175,000 American jobs over the past five years,” according to the White House. “Each overseas visitor spends on average $4,500 per visit, at American hotels, shops, restaurants, and other domestic businesses.” Obama will sign a presidential memorandum Thursday to expedite entry times for international travelers, beginning with the 15 largest airports in the U.S. The White House pointed to gains at the Dallas Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports where streamlined processes have reduced wait times. The White House also boasted significant improvements in processing visas for international travelers. “The State Department issued 9.2 million visas in 2013, up 42% since 2010,” according to the White House. “Waiting periods for visas in important markets like Brazil and China have dropped from as high as several months to less than five days on average.” In addition to working on improving the travel experience in the U.S., the administration is working with BrandUSA to encourage travelers from abroad. The president is scheduled to tour the Hall of Fame at 3:25 pm Thursday, and to speak at 3:55 p.m. EST. Check the White House website for the live stream. Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/05/22/obama-baseball-hall-of-fame/
Traveling to North Korea? There’s an app for that. The number of travel apps on the market increases every day, making it difficult for digital travel companies to stand out. But Uniquely.Travel may have hit a nerve with its focus on guides to controversial destinations. The company’s first app, North Korea Travel, costs 99 cents and is available for iOS and Android. It claims to be “the most comprehensive guide to North Korea ever written,” according to the website — and wants to show you “just how much of North Korea is open to foreigners.” The information in the app was provided in large part by Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours. Koryo is one of the few companies authorized by the North Korean government to provide tours to foreigners. Although the app includes detailed descriptions about sites and attractions, tourists are limited in what they can do with the information. Although it is possible to enter the country at any time of year, the government decides which destinations are and are not allowed at any given time. The app’s primary purpose appears to be to motivate more tourism to the country: Tour prices and comparisons are available within the app. Uniquely.Travel project manager Chad O’Carroll told the Washington Post the app was developed both for tourists traveling to North Korea and for “armchair travelers.” “We tried to be as transparent as possible about the ethical dilemma involved in travel to North Korea,” O’Carroll told the Post. In April, the Pyongyang marathon allowed amateur foreign runners to participate for the first time, leading to increased interest. North Korea is only the first controversial destination app for the British company, which has plans to launch digital guides for Iran, Burma and Libya by fall 2014. Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/05/07/north-korea-travel-app/
