The author is a British screenwriter. He’s also a music fanatic, and has attended hundreds (possibly thousands) of concerts. In this unique memoir, he takes us through his life using concerts (15 in particular) that he’s attended. These concerts serve as touchstones in his life. He starts with a Cliff Richard concert that he attended at age 10, and stops…
I’m a Beatles fan and have read a number of books about them. At first glance this book looked pretty cheesy, and I thought to myself, does the world really need yet another Beatles book? Yes, it does. This book was a gold mine of fascinating stories, in little chapters that you can easily skip if you’ve heard the story…
As someone who has been meditating (almost) every day for the past few years and has also gotten into photography since my retirement a few years ago, I’ve been interested in exploring the possible connection between the two. Both require you to be in the present moment, both require total focus and awareness, and both are most attainable when the…
An excellent book about animal behavior. This isn’t simple stuff like cats not using their litterbox or dogs jumping up on counters. The book addresses true mental disturbances in a variety of animals, and it’s pretty fascinating. The author sucks you into the book with the tale of her rescue dog, a Bernese Mountain Dog that had such severe separation…
A really great debut novel by Ling Ma. It’s a post-apocalyptic zombie novel about a millennial workaholic, Candace Chen, who works for a book publisher in Manhattan. When Shen Fever (a fatal plague that causes people to become non-violent zombie versions of themselves) begins spreading throughout the world, Candace, one of the fortunate few who manages to not become infected,…
I’ve been a Sex Pistols and a Public Image LTD fan from day one. I read Lydon’s first two books. This book is a limited edition (only 10,000 copies printed), autographed, individually numbered, in a clamshell box. The paper quality and graphic design are great. The content… that’s another story. The book is a random collection of Lydon’s thoughts and…
A simple, emotional tale, both heartbreaking and hopeful, about finding love late in life. Addie Moore and Louis Waters are neighbors in the small town of Holt, Colorado. She’s a widow; he’s a widower, both in their 70s. They live alone, in their respective houses. One day, Addie knocks on Louis’s door and asks him if he might consider coming…
In this (very) unique book, we follow Patti’s year of wandering in the year of the monkey, according to the Chinese zodiac. It’s part memoir (as she talks of concerts, museum visits, politics, the hospitalization and subsequent death of her friend Sandy Pearlman), part fiction (conversations with hotel signs), and I dunno… part fever dream? If you’re looking for any…
Recently I acquired The Criterion Collection version of Robert Altman’s film, Short Cuts. The film is inspired by a collection of nine short stories and a poem by Raymond Carver, and the boxed set includes the book. I’ve wanted to read Carver for a while, and I’m glad I finally did. These stories, of ordinary people, were dark and quirky.…
A Very Punchable Face, by Colin Jost. This is a really funny memoir by Saturday Night Live comedy writer and Weekend Update host Colin Jost. It’s filled with hilarious, self-deprecating stories from his childhood as well as his life as a stand-up comic and SNL cast member. The stories in the book are really, really funny. Laugh-out-loud funny. There’s a…
I’ve read all of Malcolm Gladwell’s previous books – Blink, The Tipping Point, Outliers, What the Dog Saw – and like millions of readers, I enjoyed them. He’s an excellent writer who really knows how to tell a story and capture your attention. Of all of his books, however, I liked this one the least. The enjoyment from some parts…
After my recent safari to the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania where I saw many elephants, my fascination with them was rekindled, and I thought I’d read a book about them. Unfortunately, I found this book a little disappointing. I was hoping for a more scientific book, with a lot of detail about their biology and their social structure. This book…
A long, very well-researched book that covers the band, from the early days in their respective former groups (Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, the Hollies) the group’s initial formation, the countless breakups and reformations, and their solo careers. The book gives great insight into the personal dynamics between the band members: the constant ego clashes (mostly due to Stills’s enormous ego),…
I picked this book up in a thrift store for $3, which is surprising since the book was published relatively recently (2019). I still feel like a novice, so the first few chapters – about aperture, shutter speed, focal length, exposure, focusing, and composition – were a helpful review, although the presentation was a little dull. The last few chapters,…
The 33 1/3 series of books are a collection of pocket-sized books that mostly provide a highly detailed analysis of one particular album by a group. Most of the books are short, around 150 pages or so. This book was quite a bit thicker than most, around 225 pages. I wish it was 500 pages, because I couldn’t get enough…