In my quest to improve my photography skills, I’ve been reading books on the topic. I still feel like a beginner, so most of the books I’m reading are inspirational and instructional manuals designed to help you in composing compelling photographs. This book is really terrific. I found myself understanding and relating to all of his ideas and opinions. The…
I breezed through this very enjoyable, very readable book. Chris Frantz takes you back to the art school origins of Talking Heads, the heady, exciting early days of New York punk (lots of cool stories about CBGBs), the exhilarating early European tours where they toured with bands like the Ramones and XTC. He describes the creative process that gave rise…
This author won the National Book Award in 2011 for her novel Salvage the Bones (which I have, but haven’t read yet). Last year, I read her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing, and it was fabulous. Men We Reaped is a memoir. In this book she tells the stories, and tries to come to terms with, the deaths of five men…
I received this graphic novel as a belated birthday gift from a college friend of mine, Mike Rosen, who happens to be the editor of the book. It tells the story of a group of Oregonians (Mike included) who embarked on a 10-day trip to the Gulf Coast, to assess the environmental and sociological impact of the BP oil spill…
This book first came out in 1988. A revised second edition was published in 2003, and this third edition was updated in 2015. Peterson’s photography books are very popular, and after reading this one, I understand why. He has a very down-to-earth style, and he supports his lessons and recommendations with many excellent photographic examples. I still consider myself a…
I read a lot of these rock and roll books, the ones that focus on one particular year or era. I tend to like the ones that evaluate the music within the context of the culture at the time. This book doesn’t do that as well as others that I’ve read, and when it does, I couldn’t relate as much…
Alan Hollinghurst likes to come out with novels every 7 or 8 years. His previous one, The Stranger’s Child, was excellent, so I was excited about this new one. (It’s not very new, actually. It came out in 2017. I’m just getting around to it now.) The story is broken into five parts, in chronological order, all several years apart,…
I’ve been a fan of Woody Allen’s films, books, plays, and stand-up comedy for years. He’s led an interesting life, and I was looking forward to reading his book. Then it was announced that his publisher was pulling out of publishing it, bowing to pressure from the #MeToo movement and others, like Ronan Farrow. I’m a rebellious person by nature,…
Three years ago, I made the decision to retire from clinical veterinary practice. I slowly let most of my regular clients know that I was retiring, and a few of them gave me little gifts, which was very kind of them. One client, Amy Cohen, gave me a book: Robert Frank’s “The Americans”, a book of black-and-white photographs. She knew…
Manson’s first book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, was a huge seller that everyone was talking about, so I jumped on the bandwagon and read it. The sentences in the book made great sense when I read them, and I do remember enjoying reading it, but I retained absolutely nothing afterward. Earlier this year, I saw a…
I’m a big fan of Banana Yoshimoto. Her first book, Kitchen, is on my top ten all-time favorite books. This book, from 2002, has been out of print and is difficult to find, but I managed to find a copy on eBay, a special edition in both Japanese and English, with photographs and drawings by an artist, Yoshitomo Nara. …
I’m a huge music fan, but I’ve never thought much about the music industry and how it actually works: who makes the money, how they make it, and how much they actually make. This book was loaded with interesting facts about the music business and how it has radically changed over the past few years. Rock musicians used to make…
Two years ago, I read “Waiting for The Man”, Jerry Reed’s biography of Lou Reed. The book covered Lou’s life pretty well, with the focus mainly on his albums. Last year, I read Anthony DeCurtis’s biography, “Lou Reed: A Life”, which some people think is the definitive biography. It was an excellent balance of music analysis as well as interesting…
A really wonderful coming of age memoir. Despite having a loving family and many good friends, the author John was plagued by a loneliness and self-doubt that he couldn’t quite get a grip on. In 2013, he seized the opportunity to acquire a half-share in a house in Montauk, having never done anything like this before. Nicknamed The Hive, the…
I was a Mets fan in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and David Cone was always an interesting character. He’s won 20 games a few times, pitched for World Series Champion teams, has won a Cy Young award, and pitched a perfect game. He’s seen a lot in his career, so there’s a lot of source material for a good book. …