Do you sleep? If so, you must read this book. I learned so much - SO MUCH - from it. I sounded like a crazy person, exclaiming out loud throughout myDo you sleep? If so, you must read this book. I learned so much - SO MUCH - from it. I sounded like a crazy person, exclaiming out loud throughout my reading. "Ah! Oh! Hmmmm! Interesting!" I also bothered my family, cornering them in order to explain some fascinating tidbit I'd just come across while reading. "Did you know that fish don't have REM sleep? Let me tell you why...."
I've been struggling with my sleep for the past few years and I think that, thanks to the knowledge I've acquired from this reading, I will be able to improve it. I've been wearing a fitbit for years and so have the data to show that my sleep has been decreasing each year as I age. With my new fitbit charge that I got in the past year, I am now able to track my deep & REM sleep. Of course, it's not the same as a sleep study done in a sleep clinic but I do think this self-monitoring helps me be more cognizant of my sleep habits.Walker agrees, and thinks that personal trackers have the ability to help improve sleep habits.
It turns out that my sleep concerns are typical struggles for middle aged & elderly people. As we age,we face 3 main issues. First, there is a palpable reduction in the amount of deep sleep that we get as we age. That is worrisome, because deep sleep helps "clean" the brain. It is thought that one factor that contributes to getting Alzheimers is a lack of deep sleep. Without deep sleep, the brain doesn't get cleared of beta-amyloid, the sticky plaque that builds up between nerve cells and is thought to be a factor in getting the disease. ACK! I want a clean brain! I average between 45-60 minutes of deep sleep a night. That doesn't seem like enough.
The second sleep problem is sleep fragmentation - waking up more in the night. Hoo-boy, do I have that! It turns out that a good quality sleep is considered to be 90% sleep efficiency or better. That translates to, if you are sleeping the recommended 8 hours a night, only being awake a max of 40 minutes in the night. Wow. Ok, that is a big goal to work towards.
Finally, there is a change in our circadian rhythm as we age. The amount of melatonin we release lessens. We find ourselves waking earlier and sleeping earlier. Hence the whole early bird dinner specials at restaurants for old people. Hey, you gotta eat dinner at 4:30 if you are falling asleep by 8! I don't seem to have a circadian timing issue. Yet.
The million dollar question is - how do I improve my sleep? According to Walker and a bunch of other sleep specialists, CBT(cognitive behavioral therapy) for insomnia is the key. Study after study shows it is way more effective than sleeping pills. (An aside - run, run away from sleeping pills! They are terrible! Horrible! You will totally regret taking them!)
Here is the list of the dozen things you need to do to improve your sleep. Good luck!!!
1. have a consistent bedtime & wake up time. This is the NUMBER ONE thing you must do..... My fitbit really helps me track this. It is worth buying a fitbit just so you can monitor your sleep easily. 2. have a cool bedroom. No, cooler than what you are thinking. Seriously, a cold bedroom. He suggests 65!...... That seems expensive to maintain here in Texas but I do wake up hot in the night quite often. I don't think I'll try quite that low just yet 3. get rid of visible clocks in your bedroom...... I can't see anything without my glasses on, so it's not an issue for me. 4. don't nap.......I never have. Easy peasy! 5. reduce/eliminate alcohol & caffeine....... Hmmm. New goal is to finish my coffee by 9am! 6. no smartphone screens......This is a killer. That is going to be a problem but I'm going to try! I imagine this one would be hard for a lot of people. He doesn't say how long before bed you should have no glowing screens. 7. don't lie in bed awake for a long time. Wait until you are sleepy to get into bed..... No problemo! 8. stop exercising 2-3 hours before bedtime.....dang, gotta get my 10,000 steps done before 8pm! 9. don't go to bed too hungry or too full.....I will try to be in the middle, like Goldilocks. 10. don't drink a lot of liquids in the evening. The main culprit behind sleep fragmentation is needing to get up to go to the bathroom.....what is a lot???? This just makes me thirsty for a drink, telling me not to drink. 11. to go along with the cold bedroom idea, take a hot bath before bed to help you lower your core temp. Another way to lower your core temp is to warm up your hands and feet.....I can take bubble baths and wear socks. 12. learn to "mentally decelerate" before bed......HAHAHA, how is that even possible? I guess that means meditate or pray or do guided relaxation or something? Believe me, if I could turn off my worrying brain, I would.
This book is going to change my life. I can feel it.
Even though this memoir is really funny (Paula reminds me of the writer Caitlin Moran. Or Tina Fey at times) I felt sad the entire time I was readingEven though this memoir is really funny (Paula reminds me of the writer Caitlin Moran. Or Tina Fey at times) I felt sad the entire time I was reading this - knowing she would be dead of an accidental heroin overdose 5 years after the book was published. Also knowing that Michael Hutchence would be dead only about a year after the publication. Sad. Her poor kids. I read up online about the circumstances of her death and her 4 yr old daughter Tiger Lily found her. Super sad face! Imagine a four year old trying to "wake up" mommy. Just tragic.
Back to the memoir - it starts off well. Paula does a lovely job portraying her eccentric family and unique childhood. She does tend to mention celebrities known only to British people, like hosts of games shows or newspaper columnists. Luckily I had my iphone handy to look up various people she mentioned. She revealed more in terms of emotions and feelings in the early part of her memoir. It's much easier to write about they way you felt as a child over the way you felt a year ago. At one point she writes about loathing her father and again I felt sad, knowing (via google) that a year after her memoir was published, some journalists uncovered the fact that her father was not in fact her biological father but some dude her mother had had an affair with. Yikes, what a way to find that out! She had a DNA test and discovered it was true. The last few years of her life seemed pretty tough. Anyway, knowing what I know, it took me out of the story every time I read about her dad. How would she have written about her father once she knew the complete story?
Her relationship with Bob Geldolf is sporadically discussed. She does mention in the memoir that she does not want to write anything too negative or personal about the father of her children. That it would hurt the kids to read specific details about their parents break up. OK, I do get that but it does leave the reader a bit confused as to why exactly they divorced. She would bring up little details that portrayed him in a negative light. One odd example is when she hung up a photo of Michael Hutchence on their fridge(which is just weird, no matter how she explains it) and Bob wrote the word cunt on Michael's forehead. Considering Bob is raising Michael's child Tiger Lily, it just seems wrong. I mean, obviously, that is all in the future but wouldn't it be weird to read about your stepdad/adopted dad/whatever-he-is dad writing that on your bio dad's image?
The memoir falls apart at the end. It's like the book started getting too close to the present and Paula didn't want to write about that. There is a weird chapter about Take That and some other chapters that appear to have been compiled articles she's written on various subjects. Very strange. A hodge-podge assortment of vignettes that do little to further the story of her life.
I read this memoir to learn more about Paula Yates and I did. Honestly, the main reason I picked this book up was because in Richard Hell's memoir he writes about meeting her at a Sex Pistols concert & picking her up & teaching her about sex. Apparently he was so amazing she ran out and got a tattoo of a bird with the word Hell written underneath it. Richard used an image of her tattoo as the cover of one of his albums. Bob eventually made her get the tattoo removed by lasers. I wanted to get her side of the story. Also recently read John Taylor's memoir and he mentioned her as well. This memoir is an interesting addition to the many rock memoirs I've read.
When reading other books set in the late 19th century/early 20th century, I had frequently come across the names of both sisters, so when I happened tWhen reading other books set in the late 19th century/early 20th century, I had frequently come across the names of both sisters, so when I happened to see this biography on the shelf at The Strand, I snatched it up. I'm glad I did. The sisters lived during such an amazing time in history and knew many famous & important people of the era. Lady Duff was on the Titanic, designed clothes for the Zeigfeld Follies, created the concept of fashion shows, gave Elsie de Wolfe her start, etc. Elinor was a best selling novelist who hung out with all the royal families of Europe & Russia, was mistress to Lord Curzon (Viceroy of India & later Foreign Secretary), moved to Hollywood & worked with all the major stars of the era(Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks etc) and coined the term "It Girl" for Clara Bow. The sisters weren't perfect. I would not have wanted them as a mother or a sister or even a close friend, but their mistakes and foibles make for a good story! Well worth reading if at all interested in the Belle Epoque or WWI or the Jazz Age....more
The last five memoirs I have read have been stridently non-traditional. Stream of consciousness, reenactment of mental illnesses, spiritual quests andThe last five memoirs I have read have been stridently non-traditional. Stream of consciousness, reenactment of mental illnesses, spiritual quests and visions of God - basically anything but a straightforward, chronological "I was born etc" story. So it was a relief to pick up this memoir and read a traditional narrative. The book only goes up to the release of The Police's first album. Hopefully in another twenty years or so Sting will feel removed enough from his past to write more extensively about The Police and his solo career. I bet it would make for an interesting read. However, I understand that it is much more difficult to write about a recent past rather than to focus on one's childhood. In other memoirs I have read written by middle-aged people, once they get within ten years or so of the current date, the book falls to pieces. Just not enough clarity & distance yet to tell a cohesive story.
Even though the memoir does not focus on his fame & fortune, Sting still tells a compelling story. I am predisposed to like it because I am a big British history buff & his recollections of life in the UK after WWII are fascinating to me. Sting does a good job portraying how gray and repressed and hard-scrabble that time was. The issues of class in the UK come into play in this book. Sting wins a scholarship to go to the fancy public (our American private) school and that introduction to the middle & upper classes draws a wedge between him & his working class family & his childhood friends. Yet, of course, he finds he doesn't really fit into this new world either. Towards the end of the book, Sting recounts auditioning for the director of Quadrophenia. He hears the undercurrent of a working class accent in the director's voice & let's his own Geordie account come out a bit. The men both recognize their status as interloper's to the upper class life and bond without coming out and flatly commenting on their metamorphosis into new people. The way one's accent labels a person in Britain is not the same here in the USA. Sure, if you sound like The Situation or Honey Boo Boo Child, people judge you, but for the most part it is hard to tell a person's background from their accent.
The majority of the book deals with Sting's progression as a musician. Joining bands, practicing, traveling to dingy clubs, struggling to find dingy clubs to play in, writing songs, developing one's musical tastes etc. I liked that he is not a one-note Charlie and plays & enjoys all types of music. Why pigeon-hole yourself? If music is good than it's good no matter what the label.
All in all, I enjoyed this book. I don't get other reviews on Goodreads calling him arrogent. That perception cannot have come from reading this book. Maybe in other books he comes across like that? I found him to be introspective and rather brooding. He recounted his flaws and mistakes and quirks no problem. I felt he erred too much on the side of modesty. When he mentions at one point he was forced to model to earn some money to support his wife & baby it came out of left field. Huh?! He really downplays his looks.
The part of the book that bugged me the most was NO PHOTOS. WTF, Sting. Come on. When you write your memoir, you include photos. I thought that was a given. Apparently not. I would have enjoyed seeing photos of his family & friends and bandmates. He even describes in detail several photos but does not include them! It was so confusing. That cover photo is not enough. Hmmph.
I tried, I really did. I actually read about 3/4 of the book. Ok, I read half the book, skimmed the next fourth and then decided I didn't care enoughI tried, I really did. I actually read about 3/4 of the book. Ok, I read half the book, skimmed the next fourth and then decided I didn't care enough to even finish skimming the final fourth. It's such an interesting topic that I wanted to learn more about. I guess I will need to look for another author's take on the pandemic.
Barry writes in the introduction he spent 7 years researching the book and it shows - but not in a good way. Apparently he felt the need to include in the book every single fact he ever learned during the research period. The first 175 pages of the book have nothing to do with the 1918 flu. Seriously!!! He writes about the history of the medical profession in America and the beginning of John Hopkins. Ok, there were some interesting tidbits I picked up but it did not further the book's topic in the slightest. I am amazed that Barry's editor didn't say anything. Just what is the point to all this?
He also focuses far too much on the scientists looking for a flu vaccine and not enough on the social and political history surrounding the pandemic. He also puts all the focus on what happened in the USA even though it was a worldwide issue. Basically, the book was a hot mess. A boring hot mess....more
It was a fine book, not horrible and not amazing. It's sort of like a typical meal you eat when you are hungry. It's fine in that it tasted good whileIt was a fine book, not horrible and not amazing. It's sort of like a typical meal you eat when you are hungry. It's fine in that it tasted good while eating it and it satiates your hunger but it's not a meal you will recall later as being incredibly delicious and memorable. I must admit to be a bit disappointed in the book because I was expecting a lot more based on several gushing recommendations I read. Oh well.
The mystery itself is not difficult to solve but that doesn't seem to be the main point of the book; rather it is to showcase the main character and the mid-twentieth century English setting. I simply adored the setting. I'm a sucker for stories set in English villages. Added bonus for there being a gorgeous, run down country estate.
Flavia, the 11 year old lead character is more of an "eh" from me. I did like her voice and narration but the bit about her being 11 doesn't work, not even as a precocious 11 year old. She is what a 70 year old man thinks a precocious 11 yr old might be like. It's entertaining but rings false. I found it hard to willingly suspend my disbelief - each mention of her age jarred me out of the story and into silently critiquing the author in my head.
I imagine I will pick up the next book in the series at some point but I'm in no great rush....more
Eh, it was ok. I got this memoir from the library primarily because it is by Ben Watt, who is part of the duo called Everything But the Girl. Dang, IEh, it was ok. I got this memoir from the library primarily because it is by Ben Watt, who is part of the duo called Everything But the Girl. Dang, I love their songwriting. I'm currently on a memoir kick and this seemed like an interesting premise; sort of like a House episode on tv. Why is Ben having these symptoms? What could it be? etc.
Turns out that reading about a person's illness is pretty dang boring - not like a tv show at all. The part that held the most fascination for me was reading about the UK medical system. Wow, their hospitals sound like total dumps compared to American ones! This memoir takes place in 1992 but the hospital sounds like it is out of the 1930s. I guess American 1930s. Apparently normal for Britain.
None of the patients have private or even semi-private rooms. It's a big ward with lots of beds. The patients have to go down the hallway to use the bathroom - like you are at a youth hostel or second rate b&b. Also, no tvs but a tv common room. It seems to take forever to get tests done or to see specialists. And the nurses live in dorms nearby? Or something like that. It wasn't clear in the book. And the food is your typical old fashioned British food - very yucky & not particularly healthy.
The main thing I got out of this memoir was an appreciation for how clean & modern our American hospitals are. And I've had several hospital stays & in the early 80s I worked as a candy striper at the public hospital my dad worked at. Plus visiting friends & relatives at various hospitals over the years. Even the dumpiest hospital I've been in has had tvs & bathrooms in the patient rooms. I hope I never need to go to the hospital in the UK....more
I read a lot about old Hollywood and over the years I read bits and pieces about Mary in other books. But I'd never known her whole story. I'm not a bI read a lot about old Hollywood and over the years I read bits and pieces about Mary in other books. But I'd never known her whole story. I'm not a big fan of silent movies. Louise Brooks is the only silent film star I have ever enjoyed watching (because she acts so fresh and modern). Mary Pickford seemed to belong to that style of acting that drives me crazy. Over blown and histrionic. I was right, she does act that way. And Mary was aware of how dated her movies seemed, which is one of the reasons not many people have seen her movies or even know who she is. She destroyed a lot of her early movies - which I find so disturbing, on par with people burning their private letters. I mean, everyone still knows who Charlie Chaplin is but I have met very few people who have heard of PIckford. Yet she was even more famous than Chaplin. And she founded United Artists, along with Chaplin, DW Griffith (who people have still heard of, even if only as the director of that old racist movie Birth of a Nation), her husband Douglas Fairbanks (whose name is probably more familiar to people because of his famous actor son Douglas Fairbanks Jr) and some other guy. Sorry other guy whom I have already forgotten about! She was one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences(i.e. The Oscars). During WWI she raised more money in war bonds than anyone has ever done. Basically, she was a big fucking deal in the development of the film industry. Yet today people are clueless - "Mary who?"
The part I enjoyed most in the book is the part about her insane celebrity status in the 1910s-1930s. INSANE. Like The Beatles and Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson and Brad/Angelina all mashed up together. A fame that I can't really even comprehend. The first movie star. The ONLY movie star for a while. I mean, when she walked into a room people would stand up and applaud. Really! A standing ovation just walking into a restaurant or even a private party. When she cut her hair in was on the front page of The New York Times! Everyone wanted to meet her and she seemed to meet every single other famous person on the planet. (Back before there were a ton of famous people so all the famous people hung out together.) Her house was deemed second in importance in the country, only after The White House. (and that was debatable - a lot of people that her house more important). The accounts of her fame are so over the top they are hard to believe.
I found the many details about the silent films days rather dull and dry. Not my cup of tea. But I suppose necessary to include in the book. Parts were interesting but there was just too much detail for me and it bogged down the book. I also thought the author spent way too much time on her early years. He should have gotten to the movies a lot sooner. At points I was really slogging through the book - it took a long time to finish.
I also had a hard time finishing the book because it turned out that I don't like Mary Pickford the person. She seemed humorless and I didn't care for her conservative nature and politics. She should have gotten together with Hearst instead of Marion Davis. Her boring interests were right in line with Hearst. I bet Marion Davis and Fairbanks would have been a blast as a couple. Oh well. The fact that Mary didn't like Chaplin made me like Chaplin a lot more than I ever have. Hell, even Mary's cat liked Chaplin better. She would get angry at him because her cat preferred to wander down the road to Chaplin's house and hang out there. Jeez, who wouldn't! Her parties were so boring and her house so dry and cold. She was a TERRIBLE mother to her adopted kids. Yikes. Not quite as bad as Joan Crawford but up there. Basically, she just rubbed me the wrong way. Mary was an asshole. Maybe she had to be in order to hold her own in early Hollywood? I do respect her as a businesswoman and feel sorry for the way her celebrity status messed up her life. But on a personal level I find her unpleasant.
I'm glad I now know the full story of Mary Pickford. I wish I'd enjoyed learning about it more. At least I now want to read a biography of Chaplin and one of Gloria Swanson and one of Lillian Gish - three people who did seem cool. Mary was square all the way....more
I picked this memoir up because I had just read Gene Simmons memoir & wanted to get Ace's version of events. I'm not a KISS fan but do love readinI picked this memoir up because I had just read Gene Simmons memoir & wanted to get Ace's version of events. I'm not a KISS fan but do love reading memoirs & when I saw Gene Simmons memoir in the library I picked it up. I surprised myself by enjoying Gene's memoir. He wrote a lot about the nuts & bolts of a successful band. Also wrote about his childhood in Israel & later as an immigrant to the USA. All interesting topics. Gene really painted a negative portrait of Ace - about how irritating Ace was to work with & how irresponsible he was. Well, Ace proves Gene correct with this memoir.
Boy, talk about stereotypical 70's rock star behavior! Sure, it's entertaining to read about but I imagine not so pleasant to actually live with. What Gene failed to mention & what came across in Ace's book is that Ace seems like a fun guy to hang out with, an easy going guy who loves music. Reading Gene's book I was struck by how much Gene sounded like a person with Asperger's syndrome. Ace's book cinched it for me. Gene's behaviors are classic examples of someone on the autistic spectrum. Rigid organization, inability to make small talk or understand jokes, lack of friends, obscure obsessions. Then there is Ace. Ace mentions how he is diagnosed as an adult with severe ADHD (no shocker there) and it just suddenly seemed so obvious why Ace & Gene didn't get along. Here is Ace, unable to focus on anything for any length of time, his constant tardiness & disorganization, his scattered thought processes, his constant need for people & activity around him vs. anal Gene. I am actually shocked KISS was able to last for as long as they did.
Ace's book gives very little details about actually being in KISS. The best parts of his memoir are all his wacky anecdotes about getting loaded, hanging our with celebrities and shooting guns/blowing stuff up. It is telling that he was friends with John Belushi towards the end of John's life. Again, the stories are funny to read about; irritating to live with. Even though the book ends with Ace celebrating 5 years of sobriety, I bet you a million dollars it will not last. He doesn't seem to have much personal insight into himself & he still romanticizes using, going so far as to say he sees nothing wrong with drugs, he just can't do them anymore. Uh yeah, right. Good luck with that rationalization.
The opening of this book was written so poorly I thought I was reading a submission to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (a yearly contest that challeThe opening of this book was written so poorly I thought I was reading a submission to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (a yearly contest that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels). Is this a joke, or parody of a novel? I kept reading in order to figure out what the hell I was reading. Maybe my expectations were too high. I love Jane Austen and I liked I Capture the Castle and I enjoy Downton Abbey. So the blurbs and reviews made it seem like something I'd enjoy. However, this trifle of a book in no way should be considered to be on the same level as these other books and shows.
The characters and plot are astoundingly generic. It's like the author filled out an outline she found online. I almost immediately guessed all the plot twists -I use the word twists lightly - and only kept reading in the hopes of proving myself wrong. Also, I hate not finishing a book. Nope, everything wrapped up just as I predicted it. And I didn't even get to enjoy the main characters kissing at the end. They shook hands after the wedding proposal - WTF?
I think the woman who wrote the NPR article praising this book was drunk when she wrote it....more
I kept hearing this author was funny so I thought I'd check her out. I'm glad I did. There is always the chance that when you hear again & again hI kept hearing this author was funny so I thought I'd check her out. I'm glad I did. There is always the chance that when you hear again & again how funny a book (or movie or tv show) is, that you will be disappointed when you actually experience it yourself. Luckily, I found the hype true in this instance.
This is not a classic memoir but more a series of funny vignettes about her life. I enjoyed the stories about her childhood the most. I actually wept with laughter when reading about her pet raccoon Rambo. She even includes a few photos of Rambo wearing Jams.(look it up if you weren't around in the 80's). I read one especially funny Rambo bit out loud to my kids & they also found it hysterical. So much so that my 14 year old took the book from my nightstand & read it before I'd even gotten around to finishing the book. She also gives this book two thumbs up.
I won't try to tell or explain any of her stories because they wouldn't be funny if I tried to tell them. It reminds me of the Eddie Murphy skit in Delirious when he talks about how much he hates it when people see his show & then later try to explain his routine to their friends & totally fuck his jokes up. I don't want to ruin her jokes.
This is a good book to read if you are currently reading some serious or depressing books. It's a nice break from heavy, thought-provoking issues. It's also good if you just want to read a bit before bed - you can read 5 pages and get through a whole story of hers. Go buy this book. To me at least, her writings rank up there with John Waters and David Sedaris. Funny stuff....more
Ugh, I had such high hopes for this book. It's hard to make a boring book about the Borgia family but Dunant succeeded in doing so. It felt like it toUgh, I had such high hopes for this book. It's hard to make a boring book about the Borgia family but Dunant succeeded in doing so. It felt like it took me years to finish this book. I forced myself to finish only because I have a very hard time not finishing a book, not matter how dull or pointless it is. I never got a handle on any of the characters. It seemed like the author wasn't sure who to make her main character so she made nobody the main character. Also, the story was told in the third person which I feel is wrong, wrong, wrong for a piece of historical fiction. The beauty of historical fiction is that it allows you to really get into the mind of one figure from history and learn about their lives in a way you can't from reading non-fiction. To do that you need to read the novel from their point of view, not from an omnipotent narrator. During the book, I kept thinking about what character I would have chosen for my lead. If you want to be able to write about all the Borgia family members then having Sancia Sforza as the pov would be interesting. She had sex with all the three brothers, she was good friends with Lucretia, who married Sancia's brother. She lived in Rome for much of her marriage and thus spent time with the Pope as well. Anyway, that's how I would have written it, if I was a writer. ...more
This book was not what I expected. I read it for my book club so didn't know anything about the book except the title & the blurb on the back. I wThis book was not what I expected. I read it for my book club so didn't know anything about the book except the title & the blurb on the back. I was expecting it to be focused on economics,politics & sociology but instead found myself reading a book mainly about religion. Huh. Ok. I can see that - it's easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle rather than get into heaven etc. - but the book wasn't quite about the subject of poverty in religions either. It was a mishmash of biography, memoir about the author, the history of evangelical Christianity in the US and a summary of other various religions and towards the end a brief few pages about the political, economic & sociological issues surrounding the Freegan community and other related movements.
Honestly, I think the author did a lousy job outlining and organizing this book. I got the impression he was winging it, just writing whatever came to his mind. His editor did a TERRIBLE job not cleaning up the book. The author should have removed himself completely from the book - it took away from the story of his subject, Daniel. The author also should have provided footnotes for his many assertions. Quite often I found myself thinking, "Oh, really?" and stopping reading to go google something the author had written about.
The topic of this book was meant to be all about Daniel, "The man who quit money" - stress on "the man who quit money". Instead it was about Daniel's parents, and Daniel's religious upbringing, and Daniel's struggles with depression and Daniel's struggles with accepting himself as a gay man and the town of Moab, Utah and how groovy it is and various people that Daniel have known over the years. There was surprisingly little about living without money. There was so much build up in the book about how Daniel came to the decision to live without money and very little about Daniel actually living without money.
The most interesting parts of the book dealt with the supposed main topic - living without money. I wanted to hear more about Daniel's daily life - living in a cave in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to hear more about his plans for the future - living in a cave won't be so great when he is 70 or if he gets cancer or something. There was a brief mention at the beginning of the book about Daniel's rotting teeth which made me wonder how masochistic Daniel is. Not taking care of yourself by not going to the doctor and not bathing regularly and eating random food found in dumpsters and being outside in the elements all the time - I got the sense that Daniel hated his corporal self - that he was subconsciously punishing himself for being gay, for not being the kind of Christian he was raised to be. He wanted to be a soul, not a body. His celibacy, his virginity until his early thirties, the fact he only had 2 sexual relationships in his 50+ yrs alive struck me as part of this negation of the body. Living without money seemed to me to be Daniel's desire to not be part of this world.
I could not relate to this guy Daniel at all. I found his life to be incredibly depressing and lonely. I don't understand people who only see the negative, the ugliness of life. The whole "end-of-the-world-is-nigh" community simply boggles my mind. For thousands of years certain people have been convinced the world is going to end ANY MINUTE NOW! Um, we're still here! Daniel's community in Moab - and his evangelical family - believe the end days are almost here and are preparing accordingly. It's like they have given up on the world, on making the world a better place and are now just waiting to tell everyone "I told you so" when the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse show up. I do not get it.
Reading the book, I kept thinking of this scene from Monty Python. "We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week...Oh Dennis, there's some lovely filth over here..."
Well, that was disappointing. I need to realize that just because a novel has a bookish setting doesn't automatically mean it will be well-written andWell, that was disappointing. I need to realize that just because a novel has a bookish setting doesn't automatically mean it will be well-written and pleasurable to read. Coming on the heels of reading a marvelous Spanish novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafron (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books) that also has a bookish setting (a bookstore in Barcelona), reading The Awakening was quite a drop in satisfaction.
Where to even begin with the problems of the novel? I read other Goodreads reviews of this book and some positive reviews suggested the reason behind not liking it was that it didn't provide enough vulgar sexuality for the unhappy readers. Um, no. Anyone choosing to read this book is not going into it thinking it's going to be some like some raunchy Jackie Collins novel. I didn't see a single negative review bemoaning the lack of sex scenes or profanity. Other positive reviewers suggested it was because the unhappy readers were unable to appreciate books with "deep thoughts" and erudite subject matter. Again, just no. I was HOPING for a book like that. I'm sad because it was not an intelligent story.
The plot, what little there is of it, is full of holes and undeveloped storylines. The confusion sets in about the third page, when the reader is introduced to the main protagonist, Miss Prim. She has four - FOUR! - B.A.s, a Masters and a PhD. Plus "expertise" in library science and medieval Russian art. Expertise? What does that even mean? Why does she have so many degrees? Where did she find the money to pay for so many years of schooling? Is she in terrible debt? Could she afford it because she is from a wealthy family? Assuming she did double majors - which I'm not sure they have in Spain - she spent about 8 years on undergraduate degrees and then a minimum of 5 years on graduate degrees. Yet the author is continually telling the reader how young Miss Prim is. Was she a child prodigy? Did she enter college at age 12? After all these years of education, Miss Prim becomes a secretary in an unnamed company. Um, why? The only explanation the author provides the reader is this - "People who knew her looked curiously at this extraordinary resume, especially as the holder was a mere administrative assistant with no apparent ambitions. They didn't understand, she said to herself peevishly; they didn't understand the concept of excellence. How could they, in a world where things no longer meant what they were supposed to mean.".....And that is it, folks. The reason she lives the way she does. Hmmm. Miss Prim got the multiple degrees for the love of learning? She wanted to excel in the pursuit of education? Why not become a professor and pass on her love of learning to future generations? Why not get hired by a data analysis firm or work for a government department doing research methodology? (She has a PhD in Sociology) Why take an job unrelated to any of her degrees? WHY. She decides to apply for a job as a private librarian in a rural town to get away from her boss who sexually harasses her and to retreat from the world in general because it's a hideous cesspool. Exactly in what ways is not explained.
The author briefly mentions that Miss Prim returns to the city every 2 weeks and spends her day off there, watering her houseplants, visiting her mom, shopping, meeting friends for coffee and then returning to the village that night. Yet she spends her birthday and Christmas at the village? She doesn't return home for those occasions? Also, Miss Prim has friends??? There is a mention at one point of her being at a dinner party and getting into a heated disagreement with people because they preferred another composer over the one Miss Prim said was the best in the world. Setting aside the fact that she hangs out with people who have strong opinions on classical composers (but I thought the world was a cesspool and no one was left that appreciated the finer things in life? More confusion) this story only goes to show the reader what a rigid jerk Miss Prim is. What, people can't have differing opinions about music? Is this how the author wants the reader to view Miss Prim? As an unpleasant human being? If so, it's totally working.
I could go on and on about the lack of development of Miss Prim's character and background but let's move on to what consists of the bulk of the plot - Miss Prim's "romance" with her employer. For some strange reason, the author decides to not give Miss Prim's employer a name and instead - throughout the entire book! - refers to him as The Man in The Wing Chair. That's quite the visual, a man with a wing chair stuck permanently to his butt. For the sake of my sanity, I substituted the name Dwight every time I read the awkward phrase "the man in the wing chair". I thought Dwight was a good name because I imagined Miss Prim as being just like the character Angela from the TV sitcom The Office. It made the pedantic and ponderous conversations between the two more bearable to me if I imagined Dwight & Angela from The Office as having them.
Fenollera hopes to portray a Mr Darcy/Elizabeth Bennett type of relationship between Dwight & Miss Prim but fails miserably. The forced dialogue, the stilted mannerisms, the lack of any sort of connection between the characters - oh it was painful to experience. I only knew of the "romance" because she told me there was one. That was a big thing for the author - telling the reader instead of showing the reader. The journalistic background of Fenollera is very apparent when she does this. Parts of the conversations between the two read like screenplays - very "he said, she said". Not a natural flow at all.
The novel is supposed to be about education, religion, love, the fate of civilization etc but it reads so patronizingly, so obvious and so condescending. Fenollera has Dwight explain such things to Miss Prim (and so us, the readers) as what a jigsaw puzzle is, what book Mr Darcy is in, who Carrie Nation was and that John Donne was a poet. Sigh. Is Miss Prim supposed to be an idiot or is the reader supposed to be the idiot?
I don't even feel like going into all the weird chauvinistic parts of the book or the fact that Fenollera is such a proponent of the wealthy cultural elites. Only the wealthy and the well born should experience beauty and grace in their lives. The unwashed masses are exist only to support the nostalgic fantasies of the few. It reminded me of Marie Antoinette playing at being a shepherdess at Petit Trianon. The inhabitants of the village play at a simple life but there are unnamed servants and workers doing the actual heavy lifting while the 1% drink tea and eat pastries. The ladies maid of Dwight's mother, who was forever lurking in the background, drove me nuts. She, of course, never had a name, she was only"the maid". When the ladies of the village decide Miss Prim must get married, there rationale is that she already works for a man, gets paid a salary by a man, and lives with a man, so why not marry. Uh.....what? Does that mean Dwight's mother's maid should marry a woman? She works for a woman, gets paid by a woman, lives with a woman....the explanation makes no sense, just like this book makes no sense.
I am relieved this book is finally over and I can start reading a novel with developed characters and an actual plot.
I really loved the first part of this memoir but towards the end it all fizzled out. I got the impression that Sophia/Safya had absolutely no idea howI really loved the first part of this memoir but towards the end it all fizzled out. I got the impression that Sophia/Safya had absolutely no idea how to end the book. That's a problem with memoirs written by young people, especially as young as she is (born in 1983). You are still living your life and so once you get beyond writing about your childhood, you are confronted with writing about your adult life - which you are currently living and thus it is hard to get perspective. She probably should have ended the memoir with her graduation from high school.
I never understood her parents relationship, which made it difficult for me as the reader to sympathize with either of her parents situations. Just why did they get together? What did they talk about? What were their hopes and desires for their marriage? And her father's journey from a Bedouin childhood in the desert to living in rural Washington state was just nuts. How on earth did he get from A to Z? The author was so vague about so many details. Maybe because she doesn't know them? He was in the Qatar army but then wasn't anymore??? He got a scholarship to study in the USA but never did and there was no follow through??? Where did he get his money? How did he get a job when he returned to Qatar? Why did he really return to Qatar? Why did he marry again? What is going on?! And her mother - there is one vague comment about her being about 10 years older than Sophia's dad. What was her story? Why get with this guy? Why her obsession with kidnapping and child molestation? Why get a degree in computer science and then take a job in a dentist's office? I don't believe Sophia's explanation that her mom wanted to make sure they got braces. Uh, if she took the job at Boeing then she would have had insurance and more money and the kids could still get braces. Just one of the many weird details that made no sense.
Her story of her first year in college in Cairo was weird too. Where was she getting her money? Just one throwaway sentence about a mysterious benefactor. Huh? And why didn't she apply to more colleges? Cairo sounds like an absolute pit of hell. Why go there? Her brief mentions about the rampant misogyny she encountered was nuts. But why just brief mentions? I mean, if I were dragged out of a car and groped by a group of men, I'd write more than one sentence about it. And her affair with the American Si? Again, I had no idea what was going on or why she was acting the way she did. And the final chapter about going and living with the goat herder in the countryside - wtf is that all about?
This memoir is interesting but ultimately brings up more questions than it answers.
Meh. I went to the library & checked out the first two books in this series based on the Jo Nesbo blurb on the front of the books. I don't think IMeh. I went to the library & checked out the first two books in this series based on the Jo Nesbo blurb on the front of the books. I don't think I'll be reading any more of them. The main characters are ok, I guess. I don't get why Hanne is so freaked out over hiding the fact she is gay - the author never explains it. The book is set in the 1990's, not the 1950s. It seems like a mountain being made out of a molehill.
The mystery/crime starts off strong but then fizzles out. There are several unexplained elements. It's like the author got sick of writing the book and just quit. What was the killer's motivation? Why did he set up the blood rooms? What was the point? How did he actually do it? Who were the other 3 victims? Why would he rape the one Norwegian victim - it doesn't mesh with his overall plan? Why couldn't the Norwegian victim & her dad talk about anything? Why not plan revenge together? What does the title of the book refer to? Seriously, I could go on & on.
The one interesting bit of the book was learning about how rapes are investigated and prosecuted in Norway - at least how they were twenty years ago. Man, I sure hope it's improved since then. The cops were very lackadaisical about the whole thing - "Oh rapes, they are so hard to investigate." Really? With dna & fingerprints & hair & a living victim able to tell you details about the crime? It seems like murder is a much harder crime to investigate. And everyone kept saying rapists get like a year in jail, if that. Huh. Not that the USA does a bang up job of prosecuting rape but I'm pretty sure some sentences are longer than a year. What got to me the most was when one cop mentions how the rape at the beginning of the book was not a "self-inflicted" rape. Say what??? That means a rape where the woman "deserved" it because of where she was or how she was dressed or whether she was drunk. WOW. I mean, obviously that blaming the victim happens here too but the term "self-inflicted" really stood out to me.
On the whole, not a total waste of time but very *shrugs shoulders* eh....more
I read this for my book club and parts of it really reminded me of another book we had already discussed in our book club - Sheryl Sandberg's Lean in.I read this for my book club and parts of it really reminded me of another book we had already discussed in our book club - Sheryl Sandberg's Lean in. The bulk of Overwhelmed dealt with work issues that upper middle class, professional, successful white women who are mothers deal with - just like Sandberg did in her book. That's great for the small amount of women this applies to. However, I was hoping this book would have a broader scope and look at everyone's issues with feeling overwhelmed by life, not just a small segment. Oh, Schulte tries harder than Sandberg (that is, she tries at all) to include other types of women, but it's not very successful. Where was the section on blue-collar women who feel overwhelmed working 2 or 3 part-time minimum wage jobs? What about people without kids who feel overwhelmed? What about overwhelmed teenagers and kids who are overscheduled? I was bummed at the narrow focus of this book.
I was also hoping to learn about the reasons WHY people rush around like hamsters on a wheel. Schulte has a few throwaway lines about that maybe people don't want to stop and think about the big questions/concerns of life. Or that maybe overwhelmed people don't like themselves so they are constantly trying to better themselves. Or maybe it's the fault of the American government and businesses. No cohesive chapter about the emotional reason behind the behavior. She writes about the behaviors themselves and about outside forces that affect those behaviors, but does not spend much time on the inner forces driving these feelings of being overwhelmed.
The book was a bit of a hodgepodge of ideas. I did appreciate the final chapter where she summarizes so of the things she's discovered that help lessen the overwhelm. Do one thing a day. I can do that. Dump your thoughts into writing. Already do that. Have your daily to-do list small enough to fit on a post-it. I plan to start doing that. Stop multitasking. I already don't do that. I find it too overwhelming!
The book is worth reading in order to help one think more clearly about the life you are living and how you want it to change. As far as really explaining the driving forces behind this issue of overwhelm, the book falls short....more
Not one of my favorites in the series but still good. One of the main things I like about this series is how George does not rush the characters develNot one of my favorites in the series but still good. One of the main things I like about this series is how George does not rush the characters developments. The books are mainly about the mystery/crime at hand. She gradually develops the characters story lines in a way that doesn't force her to add too much. A lot of times in a series the author writes as if for a soap opera, piling on marriages & divorces & crimes & affairs & lions & tigers & bears. I'm thinking of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries which just became ridiculous by the tenth book, or the Elizabeth Peters/ Amelia Peabody mysteries that rushed through the characters lives at such breakneck speeds the author now has to go back in time and write books about parts of their lives she skipped over. I would imagine others might find George plodding in her character arcs, but I appreciate the slowness.
As for the mystery itself, I guessed two major plot points rather early on in the book which dismayed me. In other books of the series I was much more surprised by the twists at the end. This one - not so much. Also, usually George is good at creating characters that are part of the mystery - so much so that you wish she'd keep writing about them in subsequent books. Not so for the mystery characters in this one. Rather an unpleasant assortment of people. Some of the actions of certain characters were so unbelievable that I had a hard time understanding their motives. What was up with Kaven? And Mignon? And the boy Tim, whose story line I found really, really odd. Just not believable that he would set that up. Hmmph.
I hoping the next book in the series has a much more satisfying mystery....more
Really more 3 1/2 than 4. The novel started off strong. I loved the main character Axie and the author did a bang up job portraying NYC in the 19th ceReally more 3 1/2 than 4. The novel started off strong. I loved the main character Axie and the author did a bang up job portraying NYC in the 19th century, with it's crushing poverty next to mad wealth and luxury. I liked the inclusion of the Orphan Train organization. I'll always been fascinated by that social experiment, taking urban orphans and transporting them to the rural heartland. What a culture shock!
The section of the book where Axie lives with a midwife and learns her trade was also fascinating. Women's health has come a long way in 150 years! God bless epidurals! It's amazing how little women knew of their own bodies back then and I'm grateful to live in the society I live in today, able to control my own body and health. About 2/3's of the way into the book, I felt the storyline faltered. I realize that Axie's troubles with the law & with Comstock & his irritating attempts to snuff out "vice" is supposed to be the heart of the plot, but I just didn't enjoy reading it. I found it too frustrating and maddening. It was hard to make myself pick up the book and read about men(always men) trying to stamp out birth control and disparage midwives, saying only men were suitable to care for women's gynecological health. UGH. I can't even.
The book picks up again at the very end and I enjoyed the resolution of the plot but that section of the book dealing with Comstock brought down my enjoyment of the book as a whole....more
After reading memoirs from members of Van Halen, KISS and Motley Crue that all had "Ozzy is fucking crazy, man" stories I simply had to read this memoAfter reading memoirs from members of Van Halen, KISS and Motley Crue that all had "Ozzy is fucking crazy, man" stories I simply had to read this memoir. I'd seen episodes of The Osbournes about a dozen years ago when it aired and at the time wondered if Ozzy was brain damaged or just really high or perhaps both. Turns out the answer is both.
This book is about the 10th memoir I've read of a British musician born around the end of WW2. It is interesting how similar all their stories are at the beginning. The stress the war brought upon their families, the rationing of goods that continued until the mid-fifties that led to a sense of deprivation, the bombed out buildings, the bad weather and grey cities and grey people, the repressed nature of people in the 50s & early 60s, the revelation of American rock & roll and how music could provide an escape from their regimented,narrow futures. It is the same story with Ozzy, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Sting, Pete Townsend, George Harrison etc.
One fact I can't get over is how few working class families had indoor plumbing. Seriously - like no one did. And they all used old newspapers for toilet paper. Ozzy even brings the issue of bathrooms up towards the end of his memoir. He compares his childhood where they had an outhouse outside (And used a bucket in their bedroom for at night when it was cold out) to his current mansion in Beverly Hills where he has an enormous marble bathroom with a fancy Japanese toilet with a heated seat and warm air to dry one's bottom. It is an amazing change in his life that Ozzy well recognizes.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this memoir. I started off with a very cynical attitude, thinking Sharon had written the book and that Ozzy was just this sort of blank figurehead. I still think it was Sharon's idea to write the memoir but it does seem like Ozzy's voice (dictated to his co-author/the guy that actually wrote the book). Ozzy talks about his severe dyslexia and how he doesn't even write emails now - he dictates them to one of his staff. He says he finished school at 15 without really ever learning to read. He was not diagnosed with dyslexia & severe ADHD until he went to rehab & therapy in the 80s. He just always thought of himself as stupid and a failure. His defense mechanism from childhood on was to play the class clown, the fool. He says that came into play as an adult on tour. He was uncomfortable and knew that acting crazy was a true & tested method for fitting in. Also, he was totally wasted all the time which made him act nuts. Hence all the "Ozzy is a fucking lunatic" stories.
He talks some about the music. About how he felt less than the others because he didn't play an instrument. Again with the feeling stupider than everyone else. I found it sad and rather touching when he writes about being kicked out of Black Sabbath and thinking "Well, that's that. I guess I'll move back to Aston and get a job at a factory after all." It didn't occur to him that he could be a successful solo artist. Chalk that up to Sharon. Even though Ozzy talks about the bitter feud between Sharon & her record executive dad, she obviously got a lot of business acumen from him. Props to her for creating Ozzy's career. He credits her with saving him and he is right. What a smart cookie, her buying out all his contracts and creating his own company & publishing firm. Not to mention creating Ozzfest. Until Sharon, Ozzy kept get screwed over on the business side of things. Like a lot of musicians. His illiteracy and his poverty stricken background did not help him navigate the music business. The constant drinking and drugging only served to make him more clueless.
Ozzy is fairly honest in this memoir - it's very warts & all sort of writing. He discusses beating his first wife & Sharon, his cruelty to animals, his terrible failings as a father, his detachment from his family once he became successful. He feels shame & regret towards a lot of his actions. Towards the end of the book when discussing his son Jack's drug addiction Ozzy yells at him "Why did you do this? You've had an easy life, got everything you wanted. Did you ever want for anything?" and Jack answers "I wanted a father." Oooooh snap! Harsh! Because Ozzy was never that. He writes that Jack's comment really struck a nerve because it was so true.
I think anyone who has struggled with addiction, or loved someone who struggled with addiction, would enjoy reading this book. I'm not a big fan of Ozzy's music but the music really takes a back seat to his personal issues. It's a fast, easy read. Would be a good book to take on vacation.
I wish I could make every middle class and upper class American read this book. It was a difficult, depressing book to get through but also worthwhileI wish I could make every middle class and upper class American read this book. It was a difficult, depressing book to get through but also worthwhile and eye opening. It introduced me to factors I had not known about, when thinking about poverty and the housing crisis facing the impoverished lower class. I mean the truly destitute, struggling, troubled poor. Not the working class who struggle to make ends meet. I mean the people who have no ends to try and meet.
I learned a lot reading this book. I now understand why inner city landlords don't keep up on repairs of their buildings. There is no financial incentive to do so. Landlords buy these buildings using LLCs. They then rent to people who are unable to find any normal suitable housing - either because they have a criminal conviction or an eviction on their record or because - crazily enough - they have children. So, so, so many landlords refuse to rent to families with children. Anyway, these landlords still charge market rate for their units, even though they are incredibly decrepit. I mean no heat, no hot water, sometimes no water at all, no appliances, extreme pest infestations, broken windows, rotten flooring, holes in the ceiling etc. These women & children are backed into a corner and such locations are the only option left to them. It's either pay 80% of your monthly income or be on the street. Once the property falls into such disrepair that the city finally deigns to notice and fine the landlord, the landlord then chooses to stop paying property taxes on the building. Of course, they still keep collecting rent from the tenants even though the landlords are not paying for taxes, insurance or repairs. It's just 100% profit all the way. Eventually the city forecloses on the property, evicts the tenants & condemns the building. What happens to the landlord? Other than making a massive profit on the building? Nothing happens. There is absolutely no financial or legal or civil penalty. The landlord walks away free and clear because an LLC owns the building, not them.
Another horrible fact I learned is the existence of nuisance ordinances that many cities have passed. Supposedly they are to punish landlords who allow their building to be centers of crime activities, like drug dealers. However, only 4% of the 911 calls deemed nuisances are about drug related crimes. Most are regular calls about domestic violence or an injury. What makes them a "nuisance" is that the calls originated in black or Hispanic neighborhoods. That's it. In this book, 2 of the women being profiled by the author are evicted due to making a nuisance call. One call was because the woman's 6 year old son was having a bad asthma attack and had to go to the hospital. The other call was when the woman was being severely beaten by her ex-boyfriend. Yes, they got evicted for those reasons. Seriously. The police send a letter to the landlord threatening large fines and potential jail time if the landlord does not take care of the problem - i.e. evict the person who made the 911 call. You know from the previous paragraph that these landlords are not empathetic, caring individuals. So - boom - you have 5 days to leave the premises or I will have the sheriff evict you & all your possessions put into storage. Expensive storage that you have no way to pay off each month so you will lose everything you own. The hits- they keep on coming.
I could go on and on and on about all the devastating, horribly unfair, flat out evil things that happen to these people. The eviction is like throwing a boulder into water - there are so many ripples from that action that keep accumulating. Negative ripples. In the final chapter, the author makes an attempt to come up with some sort of solution to these troubling issues. Maybe he's right? All I feel now is crushed and numb from learning about the miserable lives of these deeply poor Americans....more
I should preface this review by mentioning I am not a Motley Crue fan, don't own any of their music & actually actively loathed them during the 80I should preface this review by mentioning I am not a Motley Crue fan, don't own any of their music & actually actively loathed them during the 80s. However, I do love rock memoirs/biographies and this book has a reputation as being a great one to read. Also, I read Vince Neil's memoir on a whim a few years ago & thought it would be interesting to get the other guys' takes on the history of the band. Similar to that brilliant movie Rashomon, where the audience gets to hear multiple versions of the same story and try to figure out the truth from the alternating realities revealed. The Dirt not only interviews the members of the band, but also various managers, producers, record execs etc. that dealt with the band. I really enjoyed reading those perspectives a lot. I only wish that the band had convinced some of their ex-wives & girlfriends to be interviewed. I would have LOVED to get their version of events. Oh well.
I have to admit that the first part of the book was so incredibly unflattering to the band I found it hard to read. What misogynists they were! The absolute loathing and hatred towards women was hard to take. Nikki talks about how he & Tommy raped an incapacitated woman. Tommy talks about humiliating a fan by forcing her to insert a wine bottle in herself and remain for hours squatting in the middle of a room. Vince talks about inserting broom handles into some groupies who visited them at the recording studio. The story that almost caused me to put the book down was the story of Tommy forcing his girlfriend to give him a blowjob in front of a room of other guys while he yelled at her and called her names. Then when it was over, telling her that her punishment for being so horrible was to go down on every guy in the room. UGH. What sort of sexual & physical abuse did this woman experience as a child to allow herself to be treated this way? It was just so gross and upsetting.
While Nikki does mention the horrific Dickensian childhood he suffered through, the other three band members didn't have such tragic childhoods that would explain their nasty hateful attitudes towards women. And I don't think booze & drugs are to blame. There are plenty of men who get drunk & high & don't find humiliating women funny. Who knows?
Besides the sexual proclivities of the band, the book spends a lot of time talking about their prodigious drug use. Impressively large amounts of coke & dope were ingested. They even had a fancy drug dealer who followed them from town to town during one tour. I found it interesting that their manager in the boom 80's turned out to be a huge drug smuggler himself. Genius! Authorities would be so busy checking out the guys in the band that Doc could smuggle 40,000 lbs of weed into the country. And that's just what he got caught doing. So we can only imagine how much he got through.
The third main theme of the book, after the women & the partying, was money. Money problems to be exact. Oh,My.God. What utter morons the band was when it came to money. At first it is funny, reading about all their bad business decisions and ridiculous purchases and the scams other people played on them. But after a while it just becomes really sad and depressing. They were all such suckers and idiots. It is frustrating to read about people who are given so much and then just piss the opportunity away. It gets old. That is one of the reasons I enjoyed Gene Simmons memoir so much. He's not a financial idiot! He reads contracts before he signs them! He doesn't buy a dozen cars or gold plated toilets! Consequently, Professor Google told me Gene Simmons is currently worth 300 million dollars. If Motley Crue had played their cards right, they too would have that much money.
Towards the end of the book I felt less loathing towards Nikki & Vince. The death of Vince's 4 yer old from cancer was so sad and gave Vince a more human face in the book. Also him dealing with the drunk driving crash that killed a friend and brain damaged two people in another car. Those events gave me a better perspective on Vince. As for Nikki, the parts about him getting sober & working through all his issues with his fucked up family made me like him better. Mick, Mick is hardly in the book. I don't feel like I learned anything about him. Tommy? Tommy seems like a tool. His retelling of the fight with Pamela Anderson that caused him to spend 5 months in jail was very revealing. He still doesn't think he really did anything wrong. Pamela made him kick her while she was holding their infant. UGH. I did feel bad for him about their sex tape. That judge was horrible allowing the tape to be released. It was flat out stolen from their house! I think the judge must have been a real puritanical jerk who felt Tommy & Pamela were bad people so they deserved to have their stolen private property published.
While I am glad I read The Dirt, I now feel a deep need to go read Jane Austen next to get this book out of my head.
The title of this book should be "Reckless: My life as a total fuck up with a death wish (With a bit at the end about me being in a band)." The finalThe title of this book should be "Reckless: My life as a total fuck up with a death wish (With a bit at the end about me being in a band)." The final 70 pages of the book are about The Pretenders - and those pages are only about the first few years of the band. The first 250 pages of the book are Chrissie recounting her many lame jobs and stupid drug-addled behaviors. It would have been a much, much better book if she had spent about 20 pages on her childhood, about 40 pages on her life as a wastrel in the USA, 50 pages detailing her time in Europe where she was a part of the beginning of the punk scene and then a good 200 pages about her life as a famous musician. That's a book I would have enjoyed reading. The book does pick up and become interesting once The Pretenders are formed, but by that point it is too little, too late. And to have it end so abruptly, with the deaths of Jimmy & Pete. Wha???? Is she hoping to get money to write a sequel?
I loathe this new trend in the entertainment industry, breaking up movies and books that should just be one entity unto itself and turning them into multiple movies & books. John Cleese did this with his recent memoir, ending just as Monty Python begins. Angelica Huston too - her first book ends just as she is moving to Los Angeles. STOP IT. Very very few lives warrant multiple memoirs. You're not recounting the fall of Rome, people, you're just writing a book about your career in the entertainment business. Emphasis on the part about the focus being on the career - NOT copious details about your primary school (Morrissey) or chapters about your extended family tree (Keith Richards) or a numbingly detailed rehash of your vacations (Grace Coddington). Is the publishing industry in such a downward spiral that editors aren't used anymore??? SMH.
I also don't understand the brouhaha over a interview that Chrissie gave to The Sunday Times. I searched online but could not find a free copy of the interview - only about a billion editorials commenting on how horrible Chrissie was & that she blamed rape victims for getting raped. The editorials have juicy short quotes from the interview, but I haven't read the actual thing. After reading her book it doesn't surprise me that Chrissie would stick her foot in her mouth and say shit without thinking.
As for the biker incident in the book, it's not as it is portrayed in the editorials. It wasn't even clear to me that she had been raped, the scene is written so poorly and the time frame is so disjointed. I'd gotten the impression from all the editorials that a naive young Chrissie had been hoodwinked by some biker dudes who told her about a party and instead took her to a house and gang raped her. In the book she is not naive but pretty experienced with the underbelly of life. She is loaded on ludes and visiting a friend at the local jail. She meets 2 bikers in the elevator who she thinks are hot & they ask her if she wants to go party - as in get high - not go to a party. She says sure because she says yes to every damn thing and has already put herself into dozens of sketchy situations previously (it's unclear if she has been raped before but it seems like it). The biker dudes steal her drugs, hit her on the back of the head (leaves no marks! Who knew?) and tell her to strip. Then the book jumps to her hanging out in the kitchen of one of the dudes, drawing. After art time, he takes her out to eat & then takes her home. Then they begin - dating isn't the right word - hanging out? She becomes his old lady I guess? He beats her up - more than once? She has oblique references to a bruised face. Then....she moves to another town. It's all so confusing. What is going on? Are we the readers meant to feel as disorientated and high as Chrissie felt? Or is it just bad writing?
Why is no one writing an editorial about Chrissie getting roofied and raped in Cleveland from the dude who picked her up hitchhiking? (Hitchhiking!!! Multiple times freaks pick her up but she keeps doing it? WHY? You'd think after the first time she jumped out of a moving car to get away from a - what, serial killer? Rapist? - that would be the last time she'd hitch hike. But nooooo. Not Chrissie!) That scene strikes me as far more disturbing than the biker one (which is horrible too) and Chrissie writes of it in detail - well for her at least - and she seemed pretty freaked out by it. The bit about her coming to, finding herself tripping her brains out & wandering naked in a strange room holding her shoes, looking for a door, and then realizing the rapist has blocked the door with the wardrobe so she is trapped. **Shiver** Then he threatens to kill her? And she is tripping on mescaline during this? OMG what a bad trip. It's so freaky. I would have PTSD after that incident.
The majority of the book is Chrissie doing insane, potentially deadly shit over and over and over again. Those death wish scenes are interspersed with examples of her being a terrible and irresponsible employee and a lazy & lackluster student. I am amazed that Chrissie became a rock star; based on her stories it seemed more likely she'd end up buried in a shallow grave somewhere. I practically gave myself a headache, I was shaking my head so often at the stupid, thoughtless crap she did. Like when she walked up to the total stranger in Mexico and asked if she could live with him - WTF. Or walking up to the dude in Toronto and asking if she could go home with him. He has a dog so it's ok. Uh.....I cannot relate at all.
I was so looking forward to this book. I've read many other memoirs set in the rock scene of that time in London & everyone writes of how great and cool and fun Chrissie is. I did not get that impression from her book. Not at all. Maybe if she had written about her life sober and as a single mom, I think the parts of her early stupid years wouldn't stand out so much. What a waste. Sigh. ...more
I give this 2 1/2 stars. Somewhere between ok & I liked it. The writing was sort of blah average. It seemed formulaic. Not poorly written but notI give this 2 1/2 stars. Somewhere between ok & I liked it. The writing was sort of blah average. It seemed formulaic. Not poorly written but not great writing either.
What I liked about this book was the topic. I love reading about British & French history so of course I am going to like a novel about 2 sisters who were married to the King of France and the King of England. It's pretty nutty, having the Queens of countries that are traditionally enemies being sisters only a year apart and very close. It's almost as crazy as the clusterfuck of family that the heads of Europe were at the start of WWI. It blew my mind years ago when I found out the Kaiser and the King of England were first cousins. Not to mention all their aunts/uncles & cousins in Spain & Greece & Romania & Russia & Norway & Denmark & Sweden. The Count of Provence back in the 13th century gives Queen Victoria a run for her money. He had 4 daughters and all four became queens (Sicily and The Roman Empire/Germany were the other two). They were all said to be beautiful - I would guess so considering their marriages. And had a pretty crafty, socially adept dad too.
Eleanor and Margaret - especially Margaret - have amazing stories. I mean, being on a Crusade for 6 years! Back when most people never traveled more than a few miles from where they were born Margaret was traveling all around the Middle East. And having 3 kids while there. That is one tough woman. I liked Eleanor's story less because not as much happens. I mean, stuff did happen in England then, what with the barons rebelling, but this novel doesn't really focus much on the politics of England.
Unless someone is a English/French history buff, this book is not something I'd recommend. There are other books of historical fiction much more well written than this one....more
Based on the title of this book, I thought I would be reading about how royal mistresses influenced politics, religion and society in general. InsteadBased on the title of this book, I thought I would be reading about how royal mistresses influenced politics, religion and society in general. Instead I found out that everyone - EVERY single person mentioned in this book - was negatively impacted by their parents and acted the way they did because of their parents. It was CRAZY. By the fourth or fifth mention of the absentee father and cold mother, I was actually laughing out loud. Ok, sure, your childhood influences you but to have it be the primary factor in all the behavior mentioned is this book was ridiculous. I imagine the author believes cold mothers cause autism too.
Granted, the author was good at summarizing king's love lives. The chapters were like well written wikepedia entries. Heavy on facts, light on depth. I didn't learn anything new about anyone. It was odd. Anyone picking up this book will probably already have a working knowledge of the facts of the mistresses and the kings who loved them. So the fact that this book just rehashes the general outline of these affairs was pointless.
I also wondered at the choices of the kings. Some were obvious - Henry VIII, Charles II and Edward VIII. But William IV? Why him? Why not write about Edward II and his male lover Piers Gaveston and how having a male mistress impacted his rule? Or write about Henry II and how his mistresses made his wife so angry she ended up leading a rebellion against him? There are several examples of how a king's private sexual choices impacted England that are more obvious choices than those of William IV or the current Prince Charles. Just....odd. Like so much of this book. Odd....more
I think this book is misnamed. I went into it thinking I was going to be reading a biography of Quanah, but really the book is a history of all the trI think this book is misnamed. I went into it thinking I was going to be reading a biography of Quanah, but really the book is a history of all the tribes of the southwest, the history of the Texas Rangers & the history of the state of Texas. Quanah and his mother are only secondary characters. The author spends an inordinate amount of time discussing battles and military strategies which is not my cup of tea. I prefer a more personal, private focus of history. The author provides a very detailed, thorough bibliography, as well as copious footnotes. I now plan to read several of the memoirs & biographies he used in his research. I think they will give me more the picture I am looking for. The actual day-to-day life of the Comanches was hardcore tough. I kept thinking of the famous quote from the philosopher Hobbes, describing what man's life would be like without the restraining hand of government. It describes the Comanche existence to a T. "There is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." All the Comanche men did was fight, raise horses & hunt Buffalo. The women cleaned the buffaloes & tanned their hides, packed & unpacked the camp, fed the animals, fed the men & children, raised the children, and sometimes fought if the tribe needed it. Yep, basically everything. Sucks to be a woman. Unlike a lot of the other tribes, the Comanche had no arts like pottery or weaving, no formalized religion with leaders, no central chief etc. They focused on war & did a really, really good job of it. I had no idea how much torture & gang rape there was back then. One of the reasons the Comanches fought to the death was because they assumed they would be horribly tortured if caught. There was no such thing as surrender, as the white settlers found out. Just very gruesome, over the top torture until death was the fate of any adult man caught by the Comanche. Adult women were gang raped & tortured but kept alive to be sex slaves to the men & work slaves to the women, doing the worst jobs around camp. Babies & toddlers were killed immediately, usually in front of their mother. Prepubescent children were kept alive & adopted into the tribe. The author was not sure how much, if any, torture & rape was done to these children who were adopted. They certainly saw it happen to their family members, even if it did not happen to them. One of the most interesting aspects of the book to me was how all of this was happening only 150 years ago. I was fascinated by the final chapters of the book which discussed Quanah's life in the white world. Traveling on trains, staying in fancy hotels, hanging out with the President, buying a car, installing a phone in his house etc. Quanah experienced an amazing life - living free on the plains as his ancestors had done for thousands of years before being captured & inserted into the white man's world. I wish the book had been more about him & less a general history....more
It was ok. I had to google was badger baiting was - it's like dog fighting, but with one of the dogs being a badger. What a depressing subject. PurserIt was ok. I had to google was badger baiting was - it's like dog fighting, but with one of the dogs being a badger. What a depressing subject. Purser has pets die in almost every book in this series. I find that sadder to read about in a mystery than a human victim. Reading about killing pets - it's like reading about killing babies. I don't care for it.
I was thrilled to see that the internet and computers have arrived in the village. Perhaps someone spoke to Purser about it after her ridiculous set up in the previous book with a mail order business. As in snail mail. However, while the characters - a few - have computers, their cell phones seem to have gone missing in this book. The whole big finale of the book would have been made totally irrelevant if the characters had had cell phones.
The mystery itself was eh. I never "got" the motives of the bad guy and a lot of subplots were never explained. In fact, the mystery seemed secondary to the characters lives. There is one more book in the series. Let's see if it redeems the series for me....more
This book is a perfect example of truth being stranger than fiction. I can see why so many novelists ended up using parts of this crazy experiment inThis book is a perfect example of truth being stranger than fiction. I can see why so many novelists ended up using parts of this crazy experiment in their books. I mean, it's a story that just begs to be told. Wendy Moore does a good job taking her exhaustive research and fashioning it into an entertaining, readable book. Sometimes she can be a bit too twenty-first century in her critique of Thomas Day's behavior. On the whole, however, Moore manages to set the behavior of the main characters into the period they lived in.
I am surprised that she managed to not mention autism/asperger syndrome a single time when describing Day. I mean, the poor guy simply screams autistic spectrum. The intellect obsessively focused on certain things, the inability to read social cues, the lack of empathy, the dislike of change/fondness for routine, his one-sided conversations/monologues told in an affectless voice while being unable to realize others are bored, his unusual posture, his aversion to crowds/noises - Thomas Day was a textbook example of aspergers. It certainly explains a lot why he thought his idea of adopting girls and training them to be the perfect wife was a fine idea.
I wish there had been more about Sabrina, the girl he ended up keeping after dismissing Lucretia, the other girl, for being "invincibly stupid". I understand that the resources weren't really there for Moore to find and use. It's a lot easier to track Day's life and his male friend's lives. I kept thinking what a good novel it would be, to tell the story from Sabrina's POV. Parts of it were very Jane Eyre. I was truly surprised at who she ended up marrying. Straight out of fiction but it was the truth. So interesting!
This is a worthwhile book to read if you enjoy reading about 18th century Europe, women's right's, the early scientific community, educational reform or if you just want to read a book that makes you exclaim "what the....!" out loud every chapter or so....more
I really want to give this memoir a high rating because it's subject is New Order, one of my favorite bands, but I just can't. Vague, uninformative, uI really want to give this memoir a high rating because it's subject is New Order, one of my favorite bands, but I just can't. Vague, uninformative, un-self-reflecting memoirs are a pet peeve of mine. I'm never quite sure if it's because the memoirist is writing the book under duress and really does not want to share about his/her life(but signed a contact because they need the money) or if the memoirist is devoid of reflective thought, incapable of deep introspection or serious contemplation. I think in Bernard's case it's about 50/50 - he's a private person who did not really want to write a memoir but after Hooky's memoir he felt he had to set the record straight. Unfortunately for us readers, Bernard is frustratingly obtuse when it comes to looking at himself. Also he is not a very good writer. This is the part of the review when I bemoan the lack of strong editors in the current publishing world. It seems the latest trend is to allow people who don't write very well to pen their own memoirs without the aid of a ghost writer. Sure, I'm all for getting the unvarnished truth straight from the horse's mouth, but sometimes the horse needs speech therapy in order to be understood. I kept telling myself throughout this book that "Hey, at least it's not as bad as Morrissey's memoir!" I mean, honestly, what was going on in Manchester public schools in the early 60s? They certainly weren't teaching the students how to write concisely and effectively. On the plus side, the schools were so horrible they helped develop Bernard and Morrissey's lovely, haunting songwriting abilities!
As for this memoir, the first bit about Bernard's childhood was the best, most open, most informative part of the book. It's amazing how different the lives of the baby boomer generation in Britain is from the childhoods of American ones. That generation in Britain had childhoods more like our American silent generation had during the thick of the depression. Just devastatingly poor, grey, hopeless, limited etc. I mean, Bernard didn't live in a home with an indoor bathroom until he was a teenager! That is nuts! He points out that rationing of food had just ended about 18 months prior to his birth. Wow. And of course the cities were still devastated from the German blitz, bombed out buildings, empty lots, etc. The stories of his youth reminded me a bit of the UK tv show Call The Midwife, set in the slums of London in the 1950s. The same sort of Victorian poverty straight out of a Dickens novel. That sort of childhood makes the transition to famous pop star so, so, so fascinating to me. It's just pretty much unimaginable - going from that bleak childhood to jetting all over the world,having all these amazing experiences, meeting talented, interesting, sometimes famous people and experiencing such a broad swath of the world. It's like going from the black & white beginning of Kansas in A Wizard of Oz to the full technicolor of the land of Oz. What a trippy sort of life.
Even though there are so many personal avenues to explore, so much change going on, Bernard rarely mentions his personal thoughts. It's all very surface. Oh, he delves a bit - a bit! - but not really. He mentions going on prozac in the late 80s when it first came out, but does not mention seeing a therapist, which needs to go hand-in-hand with taking SSRIs. If anyone needs to see a therapist, it's Bernard - if only to talk about his horrible mother and strange childhood and lack of a father(I was surprised he didn't mention the possibility that his mother had been raped and that is how he came about. It certainly makes the most sense in terms of her behavior and the situation he explained) I also think anyone who becomes famous should enter therapy for a bit in order to help them come to grips with the disorientating lifestyle that comes with fame.
Bernard says almost nothing about his personal life or that of the band. Just weird little one sentence asides without explanations. ("When I got married and changed my name legally to Sumner so my son could have the name Sumner my mom didn't speak to me for 6 months." - Whoa, slow down Bernard! Married? To whom? Why did you get married? Were the other band members there at the wedding? Wait, a kid? You have a kid? Was that planned? How do you feel about fatherhood after not having a father yourself? Do you wife & kid travel with you at all? Why isn't your mom speaking to you? And hold on, you still speak to your mom? You haven't mentioned her in a 100 pages. Are you helping support your blind grandma and crippled mother with your band earnings? Do you feel guilty or relieved not seeing them? I assume you don't see them because you never mention them. Did you get married in order to have a wife to help you manage the care of your mom and grandma? WHAT IS GOING ON.
The parts about the band are nearly as frustrating. He does not mention the album Power, Corruption and Lies at all. AT ALL. My favorite album of theirs. WTF. Yet I must suffer through reading a dozen pages about some soccer anthem the band wrote in the 90's to earn 100,000 pounds? I don't care about that soccer song. I cannot fathom that many of the fans do care. He spends more time talking about the band's support staff than he does the members of the band. OK, I'd like to hear a bit about the machinations keeping the band going but primarily I want to hear about the band itself and I don't.
The list of what I still don't know about New Order is much, much longer than what I gleamed from reading this memoir. Very sad. I think I am going to have to resort to reading a biography of Bernard and of the band in order to find out what actually went on. I prefer reading directly from the source but when that source is so opaque I must resort to other means. Sigh....more
I LOVED this memoir. LOVED IT. Much more than I thought I would before starting the book. However, once I read the opening - " Anyone who writes an auI LOVED this memoir. LOVED IT. Much more than I thought I would before starting the book. However, once I read the opening - " Anyone who writes an autobiography is either a twat or broke. I'm a bit of both." I figured this was going to be an entertaining memoir and I was not wrong. I knew very very little about either Viv or The Slits prior to this book. I had decided to read it because there aren't very many memoirs written by female musicians and I'm trying to read all of them that I come across. Also, I'm interested in the early punk scene in England and wanted to get a female perspective on it. (I wish Chrissie Hynde and Siouxsie Sioux would write their memoirs) I think Viv's memoir is as good or better than Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids.
Viv got everything just right with the structure of the book. She included loads of photos & interspersed them throughout the book, so the reader doesn't have to irritatingly flip to the center of the book to see whatever photo is relevant to the section currently being read. She separated the book into two parts or sides, like a record has. The first side in her childhood & days in the punk scene and the flip side are her years working in the film industry, taking time off to marry & have a kid, and then re-entering the music world once again. I had assumed that the first part of the book would be the side I most enjoyed but I was surprised to find myself loving the second part of the book better. Finally, I really liked the way Viv would break the fourth wall and use italics to speak directly to the reader in her present voice, adding onto whatever was currently going on in the story. Like writing about how lame she thought Marianne Faithfull was & then in italics telling the reader she no longer feels that way but respects her as a pioneer in the industry. Or writing about her friend meeting a guy & telling Viv later that is who she is going to marry ("Reader, she married him!") or telling the story of Sid Vicious getting arrested & being sure he did not do it (using italics to tell the reader that a year later Sid told her he did actually do it). It reminded me of the book Visit From The Goon Squad, when the author goes on to tell the reader what happens with a character in the future. I like that extra knowledge.
Viv doesn't hold back at all and shares so much in the book. I can't stand memoirs where the author is so concerned about their image that they are unable to go into details about their thoughts and feelings. (I'm looking at you Linda Rondstat!) Seriously, don't bother writing a memoir if you aren't willing to open up and show yourself warts and all. Viv's storytelling reminded me of Tracey Thorn's memoir or Cait Moran's memoir. It's like sitting down with a bottle of wine and a friend, listening to your friend with an amazing life tell you funny and entertaining and touching anecdotes about her life.
Viv is very open about what it's like for a woman to work in the male-dominated music industry, much more so than Kim Gordon's recent memoir. Kim just poo-pooed and downplayed it in an odd way - maybe being in a band with her husband insulated her from the realities of what a young, single woman has to go through when recording music and touring? The story of Viv buying her first guitar & the men at the guitar store laughing at her for thinking she could be a guitarist was so eye-opening. A lot has changed in 40 years. My son plays guitar and at his music school there are a lot of young girls playing guitar, bass, drums etc. and none of the teens find it out of the ordinary at all. But it certainly was when Viv started out. Bless Mick Jones (of The Clash) for being such an awesome friend and supporting her at that guitar store and helping her find the courage to continue on with her dream of making music. Seriously, he comes across as such a great guy in her book. But not in a weird pandering way a la Angelica Houston writing about Jack Nicholson in her memoir. Viv doesn't make Mick Jones a saint but presents their relationship in a real way, with both parties sometimes being a jerk and other times them really getting on well together. Viv in general manages to portray a lot of famous people in ways that show them to be real people other than cartoon celebrity figures. But she doesn't overshare about other people either. It's a fine line, writing about other famous people in a way that the reader learns things and feels connected to the story but without going too far and sharing details about the famous person that they don't want shared.
The section on becoming a mother and growing older turned out to be my favorite part of the book. It's the second part of this memoir that makes it so accessible to many readers. You don't have to be a fan of punk music to enjoy this book. You just have to be a person. Viv writes about subjects like careers, parents, children, aging, relationships etc in a way that anyone can relate. Two thumbs up, way up. Go read this book. ...more
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