Jethro Tull were my favorite band in high school. I was kinda obsessed with them. Around 1980, either their music turned bad, or I outgrew it (both, I think), and I stopped closely following them. But during those early years, they produced some amazing music, much of which I still listen to frequently. There aren’t many books written about the…
Last year I finally got around to reading Bukowski. I read Post Office, and then Ham on Rye. I liked the straightforward, gritty no-nonsense style of both books. Factotum has that same style, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as those others. I’m sure some of that has to do with my getting used to some of the content, which…
This book arose from an e-mail conversation that Anderson Cooper started with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, after she recovered from pneumonia at the age of 91. Despite his mother’s fame and public life, he never really knew the details of her life, and this e-mail conversation was his attempt to find out her true story. I’ve always liked and admired…
This lovely hard cover book features 100 full-page photos on the right side of the page, and page of text about it on the left side of the page. I recognized 20 names on the list. I’m still a novice when it comes to my photography education, so being introduced to 80 new (to me) photographers was a real pleasure. …
Jerry Seinfeld writes his own material. He has saved, for decades, everything that he has felt was worth saving, in a big accordion folder. He went through it all, picked what he thought was the funniest stuff, and put it in this book. It’s absolutely hilarious. Page after page after page of his wry, observational humor that I’ve always liked.…
I’ve been reading one Lou Reed biography a year since I retired. This one has its good points, and definitely has its bad points. The book addresses Lou’s college years really well, with a lot of detail and interesting facts that I haven’t seen covered in other bios. He doesn’t portray Lou as the mean, nasty guy that he was…
Amsterdam is my favorite city. When I sold my veterinary practice and retired four years ago, I bought an apartment there, so I would have a place of my own to stay during my frequent visits. I had an especially great time there in August of 2019, first with my friend Robb who visited the first week of August during…
I’ve always been a little curious about the Amish, and I was hoping to find out some interesting details about their way of life. Also, the way the book is marketed, I was sort of hoping it was going to be like the book “Unorthodox”, where you’re drawn to and sympathize with the protagonist as he breaks away from a…
A really excellent memoir and coming of age story by a kid who immigrated to America in 1975 during the fall of Saigon, ending up in the small town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. As he struggles to fit in, he finds comfort and identity in music (particularly punk rock) and in literature, allowing him to navigate the feelings of isolation, the…
This is another book in Aperture’s Photography Workshop Series. The photographer featured in this book is Larry Fink. His black and white photos are definitely pretty interesting, but it’s his commentary that made the bigger impression on me, particularly his comments on perception and perspective. He quotes Lisette Model, a photographer whom he studied with, who once said to him,…
After being amazed by Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room” a few weeks back, I was anxious to explore additional novels by him. This semi-autobiographical book was his first major work, published in 1953. It’s a coming-of-age story that deals primarily with religion, although there’s a lot about race, classism, sex, and violence. The themes are heavy and the book, though not too…