This book is by a poet, Anne Boyer, who was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer at the age of 41. The book is composed of several short chapters, each chapter consisting of brief paragraphs, some connected to each other, some not. I found it a difficult book to read. The author gets into the brutal nitty-gritty…
The New York music scene in the late 70s and early 80s is a favorite topic of mine. CBGBs and Max’s were the primary music venues, but a number of smaller clubs that catered to the art scene as well as the music scene made their mark on New York, such as Club 57 and The Mudd Club. This book…
Although I was unfamiliar with the work of playwright David Adjmi, I grabbed this book because I found the uniformly good reviews enticing, especially since the author grew up in the same obscure Brooklyn neighborhood that I did. Adjmi paints a very colorful portrait of Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community. Always feeling like an outsider in his own community, family, and…
Although I’m far enough along in my street photography journey that this book should feel a little simplistic, it’s so well-written and filled with wisdom that I found it refreshing and inspiring. Broken into 20 small chapters, this book offers helpful tips and insightful philosophy regarding street photography. The premise of each chapter is supported with a few of the…
This book is a psychological thriller that didn’t leave me very thrilled at all. Jake and his girlfriend are driving to his parents’ farm, where Jake will introduce his girlfriend to his parents. His girlfriend has mixed feelings about Jake and spends much of her time ruminating on whether to break up with him. After the odd visit with the…
Dorothea Lange was an amazing photographer. She created many iconic images, such as White Angel Bread Line, One Nation Indivisible, and her most famous, Migrant Mother. Her Depression-era photographs were pioneering, and are especially incredible considering so few women were active in photography at that time. Her writing, however, has received much less attention, as have the textual descriptions and…
I’ve wanted to read this Baldwin classic for years, ever since visiting a popular gay bookstore in Philadelphia that named itself after the novel. A few months ago, I read a novel called Swimming in the Dark. In that book, the main characters bond over a shared love of the book. I finally hit The Strand and purchased the book. …
In this book, the author recounts a decades long journey through the gay bars that have played important roles in his life in the many cities that he’s lived in, both in England and the U.S. The book, however, is much more than just a (often sordid) memoir of parties, sex, and drugs (prudes beware). Every chapter asks, in some…
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…
I woke up early today to watch the sunrise again. The sky was pretty overcast and the sunrise wasn’t as dramatic as yesterday. Plus, the hotel dogs were nowhere to be seen, which was a bummer. Today, the colors in the sky were magnificent, and they changed by the minute. Today, Mike and I toured the island with a guide,…
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…
I fell asleep last night around 10:30 and woke up at 4:45 a.m. Fell back asleep and woke up at 5:30. Mike was still asleep. It was still dark out, but I decided to go out and see what the beach was like this early. I walked over to where the beach chairs were located. The cushions had been stored…