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What are you reading Chapter 4

#2,701
The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz

I wanted to read something escapist that was a little more hopeful, and since Becky Chambers and Martha Wells books are perpetually checked out of the library, I figured I'd give this one a try while I wait for my hold on A Psalm for the Wild-Built. It spans centuries, tens of thousands of years in the future on an exo-planet being terraformed by a real estate corporation. And it doesn't shy away from the weird. Like, a sentient flying moose who communicates via telepathic text messages weird (and based on the reviews, it only gets weirder). The reviews are pretty divided between love and hate, so the overall rating of this one is lower than what I'd typically consider, but it has endorsements from N.K. Jemisin and Martha Wells, and has been compared to books by Wells and Chambers. So it can't be that bad, right?
 
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#2,702
I've been reading a great deal and last year read the most non-work-related material since college. I also signed up to be a volunteer first round reader for an American literature award, which has been interesting. My favorite novels read in the last year are:
  • Percival Everett's James, a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim/James' perspective.
  • Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!, about an Iranian-American author/poet, recovering alcoholic/addict fascinated with the meaning/meaninglessness of death and life. I especially like the line, "An alphabet, like a life, has a finite set of shapes. With it, one can produce almost anything."
  • Han Kang's Human Acts. It opens during the Gwagju Uprising/Massacre, centering on a boy who is murdered and those around him who deal with the loss and their experiences.
 
#2,703
My guilty pleasure is reading memoirs by rock musicians and songwriters. I think I've read most of them. Big names like Keith Richards, Sting, Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend, etc. Less well known names like Bob Mould, Guy Pratt, Harvey Brooks, Mary Gauthier, Jorma Kaukonen, Chris Frantz, Steve Gorman, etc. Some are surprisingly great--intelligent, insightful, engaging and even inspiring. Many are tedious litanies of drunkenness, debauchery and divorce against a backdrop of endless tour dates and bitter disputes. Some are self-indulgent gobbledygook.

Last night I finished reading Mike Campbell's newly published memoir 'Heartbreaker.' It is the best rock & roll memoir I've ever read. Extremely well-written (perhaps due in part to the experienced co-author Ari Surdoval) and completely engaging. Campbell is transparent about the joys and challenges of being the loyal right-hand-man to Tom Petty, and about his personal and financial and creative struggles along the way. But throughout there is a tone of bewildered gratitude: "How did I get here?" There were sections where I laughed out loud, and a few that were poignant to the point of bringing tears to my eyes.

Campbell is circumspect and gracious about dishing on other people's troubles--such as addictions and departures from the band. There is no axe grinding or cattiness here.

Speaking of axes, I liked that Campbell's nerdiness is allowed to shine through as he effuses about beloved guitars he obtained along the way.

At 55 chapters and 700+ pages, the book is comprehensive, but not a slog in the least. By the end, the reader feels like they know Mike Campbell (and a lot more about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and can relate to him. An exceptional book by an exceptional musician who has had an exceptional life (that he mostly attributes to luck and the helping hands of others) and who happens to be a genuinely likeable guy.
 
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#2,704
Danny O Danny said:
My guilty pleasure is reading memoirs by rock musicians and songwriters. I think I've read most of them. Big names like Keith Richards, Sting, Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend, etc. Less well known names like Bob Mould, Guy Pratt, Harvey Brooks, Mary Gauthier, Jorma Kaukonen, etc. Some are surprisingly great--intelligent, insightful and engaging. Many are tedious litanies of drunkenness, debauchery and divorce against a backdrop of endless tour dates and bitter disputes.

Last night I finished reading Mike Campbell's newly published memoir 'Heartbreaker.' It is the best rock & roll memoir I've ever read. Extremely well-written (perhaps due in part to the experienced co-author Ari Surdoval) and completely engaging. Campbell is transparent about the joys and challenges of being the loyal right-hand-man to Tom Petty, and about his personal and financial and creative struggles along the way. But throughout there is a tone of bewildered gratitude: "How did I get here?" There were sections where I laughed out loud, and a few that were poignant to the point of bringing tears to my eyes.

Campbell is circumspect and gracious about dishing on other people's troubles--such as addictions and departures from the band. There is no axe grinding or cattiness here.

Speaking of axes, I liked that Campbell's nerdiness is allowed to shine through as he effuses about beloved guitars he obtained along the way.

At 55 chapters and 700+ pages, the book is comprehensive, but not a slog in the least. By the end, the reader feels like they know Mike Campbell (and a lot more about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and can relate to him. An exceptional book by an exceptional musician who has had an exceptional life (that he mostly attributes to luck and the helping hands of others) and who happens to be a genuinely likeable guy.
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I really liked Geddy Lee's memoir, and Campbell's intrigued me when I saw it. I'll definitely give it a chance after this recommendation.
 
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#2,706
I've got Geezer's book on my list.

Currently, I'm working through the Spellsinger series, and am nearly done. Been able to read most of a book a day lately, mostly because these are quick reads. Overall, I've enjoyed them, though they're certainly not amazing. Just campy fantasy type stuff that doesn't take itself too seriously. I can forgive the single basic plot that each book has so far (I'm currently on book 7 of 8), and I actually find myself comparing it to my take on "The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer" in high school. My main issue with Tom Sawyer was that I felt it was a lazy narrative device. When something happened that got too dramatic, they just went back on the river and escaped to the next incident in the book. This is quite similar. The characters they met along the way often reappear at the end in some sort of dramatic fashion, but it seems more like luck or lazy writing than an actual thought-out story. But that's just me! I'm a crazy Tolkien fan that wants EVERYTHING in intricate detail. Still, an enjoyable read, since I've been wanting something simpler lately. Too much going on mentally to handle something in depth!
 
#2,707
"Everything's cool" - a bioghraphy of Sergii Kuzminsky, a bandleader of the famous Ukrainian band "Braty Gadyukiny".
1743166981263.png
 
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#2,708
MonetBass said:
My wife got me "Century of Song" for Christmas and I just started it. It talks about the song and artist for every year beginning in 1924. I'm learning about some songs I've never heard before and their impact, so that's cool.
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I've just hit 1985 in this book, and my opinion thus far:
  • This guy's writing style is awful. You can tell he's had no formal training. If he turned one of these chapters in to my high school senior year English teacher, it would have been full of red ink with a big C- at the top. He gets very repetitive; in fact, in one chapter he uses the word 'exacerbated' THREE TIMES. :rolleyes: You'd think the editor would have caught some of this, but apparently, she's as bad as he is.
  • While it has some good information in it, slogging through the book makes me question some of the facts. I did verify a couple of the stories, which helped.
  • In the 1984 chapter, he said Springsteen's Born To Run came out that year. As we all know, it was Born In The USA. Again, at least two people (probably three) missed this.
I'll finish it, but am sorely disappointed in the book overall.
 
#2,709
My library holds came in, so I set aside Neuromancer for a bit (my brain was just not in the right mood for it) and started The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson. It's the second book in an urban fantasy trilogy and I really enjoyed reading the first one recently. I'll circle back to the broody sci-fi when I'm less stressed out lol
 
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#2,710
Kacey Y said:
My library holds came in, so I set aside Neuromancer for a bit (my brain was just not in the right mood for it) and started The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson. It's the second book in an urban fantasy trilogy and I really enjoyed reading the first one recently. I'll circle back to the broody sci-fi when I'm less stressed out lol
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That's been me lately. Most of the past year and a half or so I've been reading dense mythology and medieval history type stuff. The past two weeks, I've needed a palette cleanser and have been reading light fantasy. It's been a good change of pace.
 
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#2,712
Gimme Refuge: The Education of a Caretaker - Matt Love

Oregon City native and teacher gives up teaching in the PDX school system, and along with his artist girlfriend, move to the South Tillamook coast area to teach in a private Neskowin Valley school.
Is also offered a job as caretaker of the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge for free rent plus work credit and pay. Rehabs from a derelict dairy farm.
Good writer. Fun read. Beautiful area. ☮️ 💚
 
#2,714
Just finished listening to "We All Shine On" Elliot Mintz's book on John and Yoko. Mintz was and still is the spokesman for the Lennon Estate and my understanding was encouraged to write this book by Yoko and Sean. needless to say, this is not a tell all or a place to go for looking for dirt. I wouldn't go so far as to call it obsequious but it is.

I listened to the book because it is narrated by the author who also hosted The Lost Lennon Tapes weekly show on Westwood One Radio for about four years starting in 1989. His is a very familiar voice to me as I have bootlegged almost every episode of that series :)
 
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#2,715
Finished up the "Spellsinger" series the other day, with no surprises. Kept its light, readable tone. Pretty mundane, if a capable writer. Then I quickly read Spider Robinson's "Night Of Power" which is about a race war in New York in the "future" of 1996. Some interesting thoughts, but I certainly prefer his other works so far. A bit strange and awkward at times to read. And today I finished another translation of "Gilgamesh" and some other accompanying Mesopotamian mythology. That was interesting, and certainly getting me back in the mood for mythology again. It also helped to read this quickly as this translation focused on single tablets for the most part, meaning that large portions were occasionally missing. Thankfully, I'm familiar with the stories for the most part, so I know the basics. Still, it was interesting to see how many gaps are present in even the most "complete" texts from that time, and the educated leaps that must be made to create a "full" text. Next, I'll be continuing mythology, but with a culture whose mythology(ies) are fairly new to me - Native Americans. Should be fun!
 
#2,716
In addition to some more mythology, I'll also be starting a new literary adventure - reading "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" to my son! As a resident of Missouri, my family went and visited Mark Twain's residences in Missouri last weekend, and my 8 year old son very much wanted to hear the stories. He loved all of the history, too. So I bought a few of Twain's books, they arrived this afternoon, and we read the first chapter of Tom Sawyer today. Looking forward to reading it to him a little bit at a time. He loved chapter one!
 
#2,719
The City of Brass - S.A. (Shannon) Chakraborty

Still have about a month wait on my library hold, and I'm already halfway through my reading goal for the year, so I have some time to read some long books. However, I should have checked with the libraries online before going out to them because my first, second, third, AND fourth choices were all checked out. But this one was on the shelf. I read one of Chakraborty's books earlier this year and liked it enough, and the synopsis of this one seems more interesting. And it's over 500 pages so it meets the most important criteria I was looking for.

citybrass.jpg
 
#2,720
Coyote Nowhere: In Search of America's Last Frontier
-John Holt; photos Ginny Dires ©2000

"Begins late spring in Livingston, MT, and describes a loop that courses down through WYO, back into MT, crosses the border up into Alberta, and heads north to the NW Territories before winding up back in Livingston as winter closes in. Along the way Holt and Diers camp, fish, hang out in cowboy bars, dodge careening oil rig semis, meet their fair share of LEO, and sink even further into the country that has such a firm hold on them."
Easy good read. Good writer - writes a lot of fishing books and articles. Good way to get lost in the high prairie outdoors without leaving the ol' recliner.

Historic Sites along THE OREGON TRAIL - Aubrey L. Haines

Self explanatory. Mile by mile and current landmark/monument guide to the Oregon trial.
Was mostly interested in the Oregon State stuff. Used to look for sections of the trail on off days when I used to play Baker, LaGrande, Pendleton, Hermiston back in the early '80s. And my Grandparents [RIP] owned a ranch across the Columbia River from The Dalles '60s-2000 ( fam sold a few years ago), so would go east from town through the hills looking for ruts and monuments. Fun stuff! Some ruts are still visible, not like 40 years ago, but still... ☮️
 

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