The Guttenberg Bible by Steve Guttenberg

I have always been fascinated by the movie DINER, Barry Levinson’s 1982 directorial debut.  Over the past 30 years, I’ve watched it perhaps a hundred times.  No exaggeration.  The first time I heard the term ‘sleeper’ used, it was to describe this film.  In high school, I tried to emulate the characters by spending long nights in a Perkins Pancake House (there were no actual diners in my tiny western Pennsylvania town) smoking cigs, eating french fries with gravy and drinking coffee while wrestling with what my friends and I considered issues big and small.  On prom night, I couldn’t wait to get rid of my date so I could meet the guys at the DINER, as we had come to refer to Perkins.  I know the script almost from memory.  I even bought the screenplay and used to have college roomies prompt me with a line so I could recite the next, a practice I look back on and see just how annoying that must have been.  

I was hooked on the great ensemble cast (Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, when he was beautiful, Paul Reiser, Daniel Stern, Tim Daly, before he got his teeth fixed, Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin) who were all at the beginnings of their careers.  I never would have guessed Bacon would become the biggest star of them all.  I loved the dialogue that seemed authentic because it was so idiosyncratic ("Y'know what word I'm not comfortable with? Gesture”), the way they talked over each other, how they talked about everything while talking about nothing.  I enjoyed the story (the football quiz, the whole left side of the menu, the sandwich scene) for being funny and honest.  It was what I hoped my relationships with my friends would be like; that there would be in these relationships camaraderie, fellowship, banter, and guys who had your back.  
Perhaps my senses have been dulled a bit by reading Tommy James’ memoir last month but when I saw that Steve Guttenberg had written a memoir, I had to read it in hopes there would be some killer new info on DINER.  Did I get my DINER scoop?  Not as much as I had hoped but I kept reading anyway.   

 
Overall, The Guttenberg Bible is a pretty standard celeb book (and give the title a break.  What else are you going to call it when your last name is Guttenberg?).  He talks about how he really didn't have any idea what he was doing in Hollywood or even how to become an actor.  He had a bad last name, bad hair, and no experience so he hustled like hell and for a while he became a guy who could play the likable characters that many movies during the 80's seemed to need.  

What I had forgotten about Guttenberg was the string of mainstream hits he had:  Something for Joey (a required weeper for all 6th grade boys in my day), all those Police Academy movies (mostly bad and of their time but big commercial hits), Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby.  Hell, this guy started off in The Boys From Brazil acting alongside Gregory Peck, James Mason and Olivier! Now, could he pull off Chekhov or even be a supervillain in the next Spiderman movie?  Probably not but that's okay with me.  Ultimately, he seems like the nice guy he tended to play; a kid from Massapequa, Long Island who made it big for a while. 

Doomed With Joy

It's been over a month since Lewis Nordan passed away.  In that time, I've reread Wolf Whistle, his most acclaimed novel, and some of the shorter works, and I've thought a great deal about what his work has meant to me.  

When I was a boy bookseller, Nordan's work hit me like a train, with its outlandish heroes and villains, the decidedly oddball humor, the deep love his characters seemed to have for one another, and his descriptions of the Mississippi swamps, a symbol of both fecundity and decay, near the mythical town of Arrow Catcher, Mississippi.  My introduction to his work was an advance copy of The Sharpshooter Blues.  After devouring it and all the other titles the store had on hand, I was on the Nordan bus (likely, a short bus) for life.

Handselling it to anyone and everyone was a pleasure.  Because of the outright wackiness of the characters, I could tell customers, "If you're only going to read one book this year about a one-armed llama farmer, make it Lightning Song.  You must meet Swami Don" or "Tired of all those other books with hydrocephalic lead characters?  You gotta read Sharpshooter Blues" or even "Ever go chicken fishing?  Sugar Mecklin can teach you how".  It was as though I was introducing them to people they simply had to meet and I knew once they'd met Swami Don or Hydro or Sugar, they'd be hooked. Eventually, doing so caught the eye of Nordan's publisher, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.  

One afternoon, I found a message asking me to call the head of marketing, Ina Stern.  "Uh oh." I thought.  "Have I done something wrong?"  When I got through to her, I was surprised to find she just wanted to thank me for handselling so many copies in the store and then we proceeded to talk about Lewis Nordan, whom she called Buddy, as did everyone who actually knew him, for almost an hour.  I thought, "This is so great!  The publisher wanted to THANK me.  And I'm on the clock!"  That conversation began a long friendship with Ina, Craig Popelars (who wrote a lovely memorial for the author here: http://goo.gl/pOBYo) and others at Algonquin, a house that has managed to publish more hits over the last 15 years than any other house its size and whose list rivals any of the Big Six.  When I read of Nordan's death, the first thing I did was fire off condolences to Ina and Craig.  

Nordan's novels, short stories and his memoir aren't for everyone.  Some find it just a bit too much and if that's what you come away with, fine, but for me there is something more.  Amidst all the strange and wonderful characters, there is a decided humanity and great depth of feeling.  For all their considerable peccadilloes, the citizens of Arrow Catcher really are just plain folks.  They live and love and feel and fret.  They make bad decisions and have regrets but they seem to want what we all want: to be part of a community, to have friendships, to love and to be loved.  It doesn't matter if you're a hydrocephalic man-child, a member of the all-girl football team, or the Prince of Darkness (he's the local mortician), there is love to be had and therefore, there is reason to live.  Somehow, his characters always manage to find a way to tell the people they love just how much they love them; we should all be so lucky.  As the narrator says in one story, "...I was my father's child and the child of this strange southern geography.  I was beautiful, and also wise and sad and somehow doomed with joy".   To me, this single sentence might encapsulate and epitomize Nordan's entire body of work. 

I never got to meet Mr. Nordan.  He never toured near my store.  He never made the trip to BookExpo.  He lived and taught in my beloved Pittsburgh.  He published only one more book, his memoir, Boy With Loaded Gun.  He got sick and stayed sick for an awfully long time, before he passed in April.  I never got to call him Buddy but I feel as though I have lost someone sort of close to me and, with him, all those folks in Arrow Catcher.  Still, I'll take the liberty.  Thanks for everything, Buddy.

Of Bookmarks, Brothers, and BAD (with an Office Girl and a Swamp thrown in for giggles)

I got my Albatros bookmarks the other day and I'm digging using them.  It really may be a better bookmark, simple, elegant, and clever.  I would prefer they were re-usable.  We live in the golden age of adhesives so I can only guess this is a simple adjustment to make.  

Karen Russell won the New York Public Library Young Lions award for Swamplandia!  The award is for American authors under the age of 35 who show promise.  She was a finalist for her previous collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.  As if I haven't pimped her enough on this blog, I strongly encourage you to read her work.  

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt is out in paperback and continues to rack up awards, especially in his native Canada.  The new cover isn't nearly as enthralling as the original and whoever decided there was need to change it should be taken out and horsewhipped.  However it's what's between the covers that counts. 

Joe Meno's upcoming Office Girl is a winner.  I'll post more about it closer to its July pub date but be on the lookout for this one from those cool cats at Akashic Books.

Paul Fussell passed away yesterday at the age of 88.  A cultural critic with a sharp eye and an acid tongue, his book BAD or the Dumbing of America had a strong grip on me when I read it 20 years ago. I'm re-reading it now and find he is still dead on the money.  I can only imagine what he must have thought about the ubiquity of the Internet and cell phones, reality TV and the demise of empathy, honor and shame in American culture today.  Was he ahead of his time or have we as a society just gotten worse? 

Me, The Mob, And The Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells

Admit it.  You can name three or four Tommy James tunes off the top of your head.  How about these: Crimson and Clover, Crystal Blue Persuasion and I Think We're Alone Now.  All great pop songs. All number one records.  All memorable.  All embedded in our ears.  And that's without mentioning Mony, Mony, Hanky Panky, Draggin' the Line or a mess of other singles that charted high.

 

Let me say, right off the bat, I'm not some secret Tommy James freak who has been waiting all my life for this memoir.  In fact, I doubt only the true Tommy James freak, of which there must be some somewhere, have been waiting all their lives for this memoir.  Still, when I saw this was being published, it made me think about Tommy James and the Shondells and their place in the scheme of rock 'n' roll.  What was it like for a lightweight hitmaker like Tommy James to hit it big while the Beatles, the Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and other more influential musicians were at the height of their popularity and creative output?  Hoping for an answer to that question made me want to read this memoir. 

So there's the "Me" and the "Music" of the title.  What of "the Mob"?  Ah, yes, the story of Roulette Records, the baby of Morris Levy, a notorious label chief who was so mobbed-up, he gave his bodyguards their own labels.  A guy so cutthroat, he actually cut throats.  Thing is, he knew a hit when he heard it.  Tommy James came along after a long dry spell for Roulette so Levy made him a star.  Along the way, Levy invented the cut-out and the K-Tel label as a way to double dip from his own publishing empire.  Shrewd, mean and loyal.  That was Morris Levy. 

No great revelations here, of course: kid comes from nothing, makes it big, mobster screws him out of millions, too much booze, too many pills, James finds Jesus (I do wish Jesus would talk to James about his hair!  He sports a rather frightening coif these days), record label folds like a house of cards, prison, cancer, oldies circuit.  Sounding like every cliche imaginable, Me, The Mob, and The Music is a highly readable story that I couldn't put down.  Honest.

Getting Graphic

Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Here we have two examples of successful storytelling within the same medium, one that is usually derided as being "kid stuff" or low-brow.  Both pack a punch but in very different ways.

Alex Ross creates comic art like you've never seen. While you've seen images of Batman and Superman a million times during your life, often not even seeking them out, when you come across Ross' work and give it just a moment or two to seep in, it will stop you in your tracks.

Mythology provides the reader a look inside the gorgeous artwork and gives us a sense of Ross' process which ultimately gives a greater sense of the man.  Owing a debt to the great comic artists that came before him, especially Neal Adams, Ross has elevated the art form.  His process uses live models and, most surprising to me, after drawing in pencil, he paints everything.  Surprising in that most comic artists start with pencil, then hand off to an inker and then hand off to another person, a colorist, to finish things up. His use of light is one of the especially effective and distinguishing characteristics of his work.  The realism is so intense, it's almost as if Norman Rockwell was hired to draw Superman or Captain Marvel. 

Here's a video showing Ross at work:

 

Satrapi's Persepolis is a very different book though every bit as wonderful.  Unlike Ross, Satrapi uses black and white art to tell her story of growing up in Iran before and during the Islamic Revolution that ousted the Shah and installed the theocratic government of the Ayatollah Khomeini.  It is young girl's story of feeling powerless in a world that turned the world upside down. 

The honesty with which Satrapi writes is remarkable.  To show us how she could be a bratty, know-it-all adolescent, to share with us her parents real tears and fears, to shed light on the sizable population that were not Islamic radicals gives us real insight into the human issues.  All these years later, I think we assume everyone in Iran was in favor of the regime change and that now everyone is a fundamentalist and has been since the late '70's.  In Persepolis, Satrapi shows us otherwise and I am most grateful for her moving, funny, sad story.

It's World Book Night!

Today is a very special day in the world of books and reading.  It is the inaugural World Book Night here in the U.S. and I am so very proud to be a part of it.

The idea is to get books into the hands of people who don’t read much but would like to read more. Thirty different, acclaimed books were carefully chosen and tens of thousands of people across the country are giving these books away today, myself included. I was lucky enough to give away a favorite of mine, Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.  I read the book prior to starting this blog so there's no review handy but I will say it's an absolutely marvelous story, beautifully written, about faith, family, and personal conviction.  Leif Enger's prose is gorgeous and breathtaking and if you trust me at all, do yourself a giant favor and pick up a copy of this book.

World Book Night began last year in the UK and this is the first year the U.S. has been involved. Other countries will follow suit and the aim is to give away one million books in a single day across the world.

Publishers, printers, and wholesalers made these special paperback editions available for free and authors and agents waived their royalties.  Indie bookstores, chains, wholesalers, and libraries nationwide are on-board as are organizations like the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association. Even UPS helped out by shipping these thousands of books for free.

As a World Book Night giver, I received twenty copies and gave them away today at work and in my neighborhood.  As I handed them out, I congratulated the recipients for being part of something much bigger and hoped they will love Peace Like A River as much as I do.  Now it's out of my hands and in theirs.

If you'd like to learn more, please go to www.worldbooknight.org and mark your calendars for next April 23.  

Many thanks to Leif Enger and to Carl Lennertz, el queso grande of WBN, for allowing me to play my tiny part.   Well done, Carlo.  You did it!

Everybody Says Hello by Michael Kun

Occasionally, there are characters in books that I like so much or find so compelling, I wish the author would revisit them.  However, even for the authors who created the character from their own minds, hearts and experience, that is often too tall an order, the result unsatisfying or forced.  Updike was successful with Rabbit Angstrom as was Roddy Doyle with Paula Spencer.  I'm happy to say Michael Kun succeeds in catching us up with Sid Straw in his latest novel, Everybody Says Hello.  

We were first introduced to him almost ten years ago in The Locklear Letters and now we are afforded the opportunity to see how he has fared since.  This time, we meet up with Sid as he's heading from his beloved Baltimore and a broken relationship to start over on the West Coast in a new position at a computer company.  

Like its predecessor, Everybody Says Hello is an epistolary novel and Sid is a letter-writing dynamo.  (I especially loved the postcards he sends his young nephew that draw his sisters' ire.)  Unlike most epistolary novels, there is no correspondence; every letter is 'From the Desk of Sid Straw' and with every letter, nothing goes as planned. In his well-meaning zeal, each letter he writes makes a little mess turn into a bigger one and from there, well, the police are called, disputes arise with questionable hotel managers and his new life suddenly begins to unravel before it starts. 
 

Despite the fact that his biggest problem is that he just can't get out of his own way, Sid is a likable, kindhearted guy.  He is a pleaser, a romantic, and something of a nebbish.  If Leo Durocher's maxim was correct, Sid Straw, the epitome of 'nice guys', not only finishes last but he's also been guilted into sweeping up the joint, doing the dishes and cleaning the ashtrays.   Among his writing talents, Kun makes you feel like you know Sid.  He's your nutty uncle or your old roommate and he drives you a little crazy but he means well and he's always been SO good to you and in a pinch, he'd do anything for you.  Other writers might have foregone that sense of humanity for laughs but Kun succeeds in telling all sides of Sid's exploits in a clean, concise way without sacrificing anything.  Best of all, Michael Kun is damned funny; in my mind, he's one of the funniest novelists writing today.  


Though letter-writing has gone the way of the dodo,sadly, I would be curious to see how Sid is doing ten years from now.  Michael Kun, are you listening?

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Before Passover passes me by, here's the perfect title to accompany all that matzah you might be eating.  


People of the Book is a remarkable novel whose main character is a book, the celebrated Sarajevo Haggadah.  The haggadah is read during the Passover seder that commemorates the exodus of the enslaved Jews in Egypt.  Think Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments. You know, "Let My People Go!", parting of the Red Sea, killing of the firstborn, Yul Brynner as Pharoah, the whole bit.  Throw in some songs, some wine and a reminder what a tremendous disappointment I was to my parents and it's like you're at the table with us. 

A magnificently and uncharacteristically illustrated version, the Sarajevo Haggadah is believed to have been created in Spain in the 1400's.  At some point in the 16th century, it turned up in Italy and then at the very end of the 1800s, it was sold to the National Museum of Sarajevo.  During World War II and the long, ugly Bosnian wars, the Haggadah was hidden and kept safe, in one instance by the museum director, himself a Muslim.  You can read Brooks' fascinating New Yorker piece about the Haggadah and the museum director here: http://goo.gl/74ykP

In broad strokes, those are the facts.  What Brooks does then is piece together a dazzling work of fiction by imagining who wrote it, who commissioned it, who illustrated it, and who kept it safe in a longer narrative broken up by period pieces and some contemporary conspiracy.  

Having never read her before, I can say Brooks is a gifted writer, given to clean prose, believable dialogue and a tremendous nose for research.  There are some contrivances along the way but they don't take away from this ambitious and satisfying book.  

Happy Passover.

Build A Better Bookmark...

...and the world will beat a path to your bookshelves?  

We shall see if this happens but I'm so intrigued by the Albatros bookmark.  Let's be honest.  I've nothing against the bookmark as it exists. It is a perfectly functional piece of equipment that has served me well with thousands of books.  I think what I like about the Albatros is the thought that went into the design, making the bookmark practically sexy (Yes, I used 'sexy' and 'bookmark' in the same sentence.  Who woulda thought?).  As well, the idea of innovation as regards the bookmark is something I would have never pondered.  Big ups to its creator, Oscar Lhermitte. 

After watching this video, see if you're not as excited about this as I am:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Albatros-bookmarks-1

The Albatros bookmark will hit the market in a month or so and I am anxious to try mine out. 

Townie by Andre Dubus III

Dubus' memoir of growing up poor and angry in Massachusetts is a puzzle.  At page 65, I was ready to put it down but I pressed on.  Now having finished Townie, I'm not certain why I did so.  I found it repetitive to the point of pain and the author only somewhat redeemed.  

Dubus III, the son of author Andre Dubus, grew up in depressed former mill towns outside Boston in the 70's.  His parents divorced and he and his sibs mostly fended for themselves while his mother worked, barely making ends meet.  Dubus Pere, was only a few miles away, teaching at a small college, writing, running, and alternately chasing co-eds and marrying them.  He had a rather vaunted presence in the life of his family but was mostly absent, emotionally and financially.  Only later in life do they become better acquainted though as Dubus III recalls, more like drinking buddies than father and son.

For the first third of the book, Dubus spends his time alternating between getting his ass kicked by legions of neighborhood toughs and hating himself for being a coward.  After his sister is raped at knifepoint, he vows never to be a weakling again.  He starts weight training and boxing and attends college and then spends the next third of the book getting into fights with legions of neighborhood toughs but it does little to assuage his rage that has grown out of poverty, daddy issues and a naivete bordering on idiocy (at one point in his early 20s, he describes never having heard of nearby Harvard.  What?)

Finally, he finds--TA DA!--writing! This leads him to growing up some (not enough for me, at least as he portrays himself) and finding ways to put his rage where it belongs.  There are some touching moments with his father but mostly, his family, friends and fellow bar fighters come across as two-dimensional.  As much as I read about his kid brother, Jeb, I never felt like he was a real person and the same can be said of his mother, his best friend, and even his wife.  

There is also a sense of repetition that was maddening.  How many times do we need to hear the nearby rivers smell bad, the local bars are full of smokers exhalations, and of Clay Whelan, the neighbor kid who beat his ass early in the book?  Per Dubus, all too many.  

Finally, here is a recent interview with Dubus and the great Richard Russo about memoir writing (or 'memwah' according to Dubus) from the Daily Beast:


http://goo.gl/JwSaL

Howard Jones asked the musical question...

...What Is Love? and since it's Valentine's Day, I thought I'd offer a few suggestions for some great love stories.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Rob loves Laura, no doubt, but unless he grows up, he'll never really know the depths of love.  Hornby hits a homer here. 

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I've said it a million times but I think this is the most romantic book, perhaps ever, and it made me want to hug Mrs. Next.  Ignore the movie (even though I find it most difficult to ignore actress Rachel McAdams--yowza!) and read this stunning debut novel. 

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

One of my absolute favorites of the last twenty years, I can't say enough about Krauss or this challenging read but the payoff is gigantic.  There is great love, loss, and pain in these characters.  Be patient and you will be amply rewarded. 

Now go love a book.

Of Office Girls, Honey Badgers and How To Be Black

There are several new books about which you should be aware.  Most have just published and one is forthcoming but they are all likely to be of interest to 'reeders' of this blog.  And so:

Out now

How To Be Black by Baratunde Thurston

http://www.baratunde.com/

Several years ago, while I was promoting a book entitled Your Negro Tour Guide, I had the good fortune to meet Baratunde, at the time a self-published author, stand-up comic and political blogger.  He continues to blog and perform stand-up but he has gotten bigger, especially since becoming digital director of The Onion and making himself a presence on Twitter, on campuses, on TV and all over the Web.  Imagine how thrilled I was to hear him interviewed on Fresh Air this week to discuss How To Be Black from bigfamouspublisher, Harper Collins.   

(Listen here: http://goo.gl/ILnMu)

His history is an amazing amalgam of culture clashes--raised in DC during the heyday of crack by a crunchy, pan-Afrikan mother, his father killed in a drug deal, Baratunde attended the tony Sidwell Friends school and later Harvard.  Needless to say, he is smart and insightful and, best of all, funny.  I so look forward to reading the book in its entirety.  The author photo alone is worth the price of the book.  

Honey Badger Don't Care: Randall's Guide to Crazy, Nastyass Animals

YouTube phenom Randall has had millions of hits since last spring with the hilarious Honey Badger video.  Now comes the inevitable, cross-platform book. Dangerous waters here since how is a video with narration going to succeed as a book? 

Voice, baby.  That distinctive Randall voice.  You can almost hear the lisping, dramatic Randall describing the assemblage of strange creatures through words and color photos.  It's funny and informative and a great gift for the legion of Honey Badger devotees.  (Thanks to the good folks at NetGalley and publisher Andrews McMeel for online access to the book)

The Coincidence Agent by Sam Leith

From the sound of the summary, this could be a Jasper Fforde-like romp and I am all for Jasper Fforde-like romps.  We need all the Jasper Fforde-like romps we can get these days.  So let's romp, Fforde-like or otherwise.  

http://www.akashicbooks.com/officegirl.htm

Coming Soon: 

I love Joe Meno and you should, too.  He writes with an honesty and a sadness I find remarkable.  Office Girl won't be out until this summer but check out his other work in the meantime, especially The Boy Detective Fails.  The good folks at Akashic Books will be glad to help you out.

What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes

I have never had to serve my country nor was it something I ever considered.  When I was of age, the Cold War was winding down and the pain of Vietnam was still divisive and hurtful.  Unlike veterans of previous generations, these men were disparaged and misunderstood and left to the fringes by a society that was embarrassed and lacked the appropriate compassion and understanding to help them heal.  

Fast forward to the current era when we have recently fought two wars on two fronts.  Suddenly, young men were going off to war again with some returning home whole, others maimed, still others not at all.  It is a rare person who hasn't been touched by this recent round of national service.  Perhaps it is my age that allows me to consider matters differently but these young soldiers were fighting a very different war than my father did in the 1940's.  

In his book, Marlantes examines the warrior as both an ideal and an all-too-real figure.  Through his own experience and insight, he explains who the warrior is, how the warrior must prepare and how he or she must be brought back into the fold of non-military life after their service.  This book has great power and important lessons.  It should be required reading for soldiers, their superiors, politicians, and the American people.  

In the parlance of rap duo Eric B. & Rakim, Karl Marlantes "ain't no joke".  He went to Yale, was a Rhodes scholar and a highly decorated combat veteran of Vietnam.  Those decorations include the Navy Cross and the Bronze Star among others.  His first novel, Matterhorn, was championed by both the critics and the bookstores when it was published in 2010.  His non-fiction follow-up is remarkable.  

It has been at least six weeks since I finished the book but hardly a day has gone by that I have not found myself still ruminating on it.  Marlantes is so unflinching in his honesty, so straightforward about his own mistakes, including his participation in what he describes as a "massacre", it has left me haunted.  After reading What It Is Like To Go To War, I have gained an even greater respect for those who choose to serve primarily because Marlantes makes me understand not only how awful it can be but also how glorious it is for a soldier who can finally put into practice all they have been trained for.  

At the beginning of the first Gulf War, when Tom Brokaw announced on the nightly news that AWACS were in the air, my friend, who had spent years in the naval reserve, wanted to re-enlist because he had been trained to be a warrior but never got to use what he learned.  It boggled my mind.  "You want to go to war?  Why in hell?"  After reading What It Is Like To Go To War, I think I can begin to understand.  

3 Books, A Tune and Michael Kun

Happy 2012.  I'm deep in the throes of several books but to start the year off, I'm alternating my attention on three music books: Horace Panter's Ska'd For Life (which I posted about right before Xmas), I Want My MTV: the uncensored story of the music video revolution and Everything Is An Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson.  

Panter's Ska'd For Life is a look back on his time with The Specials and I'm at the part that is familiar to all the viewers of VH1's Behind the Music--the constant touring is starting to create rifts within the band.  Obviously, I know how the story ends but I've learned a ton about a band whose work I've always admired and look forward to reading Panter's take on it

I Want My MTV is an oral history from everyone involved in the creation of MTV and the whole video explosion--execs, musicians, directors, VJs, the whole bit; lots of behind-the-scenes stuff, sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll (of course).  Not only am I going to YouTube to watch videos I'd forgotten about but authors Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum make clear the huge cultural effect music videos had not only on TV but commercials, movies and the music industry.  What I didn't know was how MTV and videos as an art form gave a lot of women music biz opportunities they never had before.   

As for Paul Nelson, I never knew I knew his work until Everything Is An Afterthought arrived as a gift from my dear friend Rocky.  Thirty years ago, I read a piece in Rolling Stone about Warren Zevon that I thought was among the finest pieces of journalism I'd ever read (and I still do).  Turns out it was written by Paul Nelson.  Another one on Neil Young has stayed with me all these years.  Yup.  Penned by Paul Nelson. I'm absolutely fascinated by The New York Dolls.  Who signed them to Mercury?  Paul Nelson.  Naturally, I'm eager to read on.

Another book I'm about to begin (because I need to be reading even more books simultaneously!) is Everybody Says Hello by the delightful and insightful Michael Kun.  It is a follow-up to The Locklear Letters, a hilarious epistolary novel starring Sid Straw who is as schleppy as he is endearing.  I can't wait to see where we find Sid these many years later.  The book doesn't pub until April so it will be a while until I post my thoughts but please put this on your Spring reading list.  Better still, get a copy of The Locklear Letters now so you're up to speed. 

Ska'd For Life: A Personal Journey with The Specials

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  On my trip to the record store to purchase a little Xmas something for Mrs. Next (shhh.  Don't tell), this little black and white gem caught my eye: a memoir by the bass player from one of my 80's faves, The Specials. 

While I know their music quite well, I must confess to knowing little about the inner workings of the band aside from the basics--originally called the Coventry Automatics, they helped launch the English ska revival and created the upstart 2 Tone label. The problem with most musical memoirs is that musicians simply aren't writers so they are teamed up with a rock journalist who does the heavy lifting but mixed results are usually the end product.  In this instance, Sir Horace is listed as the only author so I'm being cautious with my expectations and hopeful he passed his A levels. 

Still, The Specials were an influential outfit whose mix of pop and politics (thank you, Billy Bragg) not only topped British charts but have remained somewhat intact through the years with several different names (Special AKA, the Special Beat, and others) and line-ups.  I'm sure their youthful angst has gone the way of the Thatcher administration but I'm eager to learn what it was like to be Special during such a tumultuous political and inspired musical era.  

Fingers crossed as I turn to chapter one.  

My Top Ten of 2011

Below are my favorite books from the past year.  A good mix I'm happy to have read and pleased to recommend--seven fiction, three non-fiction, a mix of male and female authors, contemporary and historical settings, debut and established authors.  



Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
 
Great House by Nicole Krauss
 
The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
 
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
 
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
 
Bullfighting by Roddy Doyle


Life by Keith Richards 

Just Kids by Patti Smith

What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

This was such a wonderful surprise of a book and will make my top ten for 2011.  

Harrison Opoku is a most memorable character just on the edge of puberty and his naivete is captured perfectly and without affectation.  He struggles with the murder of an older classmate from his London neighborhood (the novel's centerpiece) and seeks to find the killer in a young-boy-who-watches-too-much-CSI manner.  

Harri is a young man with a foot in two worlds: that of an immigrant in a new land, a wide-eyed schoolboy turning into a teenager (his budding romance is one of the best accounts I've read in ages), and from childhood to manhood.  

Initially, the pigeon motif confused me but once I caught on, it added a layer to the story and to Harri's character that I found quite beautiful.  Harri's use of slang terms (his own pigeon English) was also a little tough to follow at first but it was a realistic depiction of a boy of that age.  It was a pleasure to read and has stayed with me since.

The Best Books I Didn't Blog About

Here are some of the books I read that I never got around to writing about over the course of this year.  There are some real gems here.

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

A novel centered around the music biz?  I'm in and was more than impressed.  Good Squad won the National Critics Book Circle award last year and the Pulitzer Prize this year and I believe was deserving of both.  The multiple perspectives stood well by themselves but woven together made for an absorbing novel.  And yes, the Powerpoint chapter was absolutely fucking brilliant.  Don't miss this one.

Room by Emma Donoghue

This book got a LOT of press and while it's very compelling, it's unceasing creepiness and the fact that the main characters are so unlikeable led me to write this one off.  Others will disagree but I'm sticking to my guns.

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus

The epistolary format is a fave of mine and Fergus pulls it off pretty well. However, the characters--the strong, beautiful heroine, the by-the-book Army officer, the racist Southerner, the plucky German hausfrau, the cheeky Irish sisters--grew more cliche as the story went on.  It's a very cinematic book that even with an ensemble cast of good actresses would make a bad movie for the theaters.  Now a Lifetime Movie channel movie, I could see.  Still, a good vacation read.

Tabloid City by Pete Hamill

The best thing about Tabloid City was re-discovering what a terrific writer Hamill remains.  Especially good was his ability to weave into the story the memories of what it was really like in the newsroom of a large, metropolitan newspaper, back when such things existed.  However, this thriller told from the viewpoints of the many inter-related characters was just a bit too neat for it to succeed fully.

As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto

Absolutely charming.  The rise and rise and rise of Julia Child told through her letters to one woman who started out as a stranger and became her best friend.  Published collections of a person's letters used to be quite common and provided depth and background as well as a glimpse behind the public persona.  (Sadly, this type of book is a dying breed since we no longer write letters and a collection of emails just isn't the same.)  For the foodie in us all.  

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

This inventive, rambunctious collection of stories is filled with love and loss and Vikings. Comparisons to George Saunders always crop up when stories by Tower appear but I think it's apt and should be taken as high praise.  Both write from the heart and often find beauty in the most absurd circumstances.  Among the many accolades he was already received, Tower was awarded the NYPL Young Lions fiction award and two Pushcart prizes.  In a time when the short story is getting short shrift, it gives me great pleasure to see writers continue to utilize this 
format and succeed so well. 

The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs

Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All, in which he read the 32-volume Encyclopedia Brittanica in its entirety, and is Esquire's Answer Fella, decided to take on religion by trying to live the Bible literally for one year. It was an eye-opener for the author and is for the reader.  Modern times make this difficult but not entirely impossible though very inconvenient.  I had some small hope it would enlighten me spiritually (who couldn't use that?) but on finishing the book I found that likely wasn't the point.  Despite the author's immersion in the subject matter, he somehow remains a skeptic though one who has a far better understanding than before he began.  Very entertaining.

I'd also like to mention a few titles that I didn't read but which Mrs. Next liked immensely: 

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Reed Next, tastemaker?

Not bloody likely but it was kind of cool that the day after I post about author Karen Russell, her latest book, Swamplandia!, is lauded as one of The NYT's Top Ten books of 2011.

Her publisher posted a link to an interview with her where she discusses the HBO adaptation of the book.  It might make a bit more sense to me now (and I love her idea of casting Bill Murray as The Chief) but for now, I remain a skeptic.  You can read it here: http://goo.gl/Au2sp