What books are you reading right now?

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Room Full Of Mirrors A Biography of Jimi Hendrix by Charles R. Cross.

A very worthwhile read.

I've been familiar with Hendrix's music, mostly from what I heard/hear on the radio, going back to the mid '70s, but I never read much about his life. Cross does a good job, in particular the details about JH's impoverished childhood, and he takes a 'warts and all' approach. But there are parts where Cross sounds like a fanboy, namely when he writes about the reactions of other "guitar gods" when they first heard JH, and to a lesser degree JH's sexual exploits (an argument could be made that they are important to understanding JH).

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Mentioning rock & roll.........

Electric Guitars The Illustrated Encyclopedia, (written? edited? compiled?) by Tony Bacon.

This book isn't exactly suited for cover-to-cover reading, but it is nice for basic research and serious drooling. It doesn't come close to mentioning every brand of electric guitar ever marketed, and the histories of the brands mentioned are somewhat brief. Where it shines are the many color photos (it's nice to see some of the oddball & rare guitars), and the inclusion of related printed advertisements. And I got it for $2.80.

 

Finally finished Wizard's First Rule, have moved on to Stone of Tears. I've been enjoying the series very much so far, even with some minor irritations. Also had my enthusiasm dampened a bit by people telling me it gets decidedly political after the fifth book or so.

Still, it's good so far, and I have a couple of cosplay ideas already.

 

Body Double by Tess Gerritsen.

Yet again TG wrote a very entertaining murder mystery. I really need to organize her novels that I have, and use the library for the ones I haven't read.

 

I'm currently reading Cass Timberlane by Sinclair Lewis.

Added to the should-be-worth-reading stack courtesy of a Salvation Army store selling books for fifty cents each on Tue & Thu:

The Drop by Dennis Lehane.
The Tao of Willie by Willie Nelson (yes, that Willie Nelson).
Behind Barbed Wire The Imprisonment of Japanese Americans During World War II by Daniel S. Davis.

One for my wife:
Fireside Book of Folk Songs, selected and edited by Margaret Bradford Boni, arranged for piano by Norman Lloyd.

 

Cass Timberlane by Sinclair Lewis.

I still don't why I read this all the way through. Perhaps in 1942 this novel was relevant. In 2016 it's boring, and the obliviousness of the main character is nearly unbelievable.


The Drop by Dennis Lehane.

This is a very good read--I now want to see the movie--but it could be called Dennis Lehane Light at 204 pages. It started as a short story titled Animal Rescue, was re-written as screenplay for the movie The Drop, and was then re-written as a novel(la). Lehane, as usual, introduces several interesting characters, but doesn't provide the usual background and development. This' clearly a compromise between a long short story and a full novel. It works, but leaves me wanting more.

 

Freedom Song by Amit Chaudhuri, a compilation of three related novellas.

I'm on page 174 of this 434 page novel. Chaudhuri's writing is eloquent and pleasurable to read, but I'm still waiting for him to write about something interesting. To a certain degree it's (somewhat, sort of) refreshing to read about LMC/MMC families in India, rather than "India sucks and here's why" themes, but it's not particularly interesting.

 

The Sinner, by Tess Gerritsen.

Another good, but flawed, read in the Dr. Isles & Detective Rizolli series. This is the third book, published in 2003 (count at 11 in 2015), and TG is clearly still developing the main characters, namely Dr. Isles.

TG leaves some loose ends, in a sense, that are forgivable. And some situations that are too far-fetched.

The very real possibility that the cover-up of the chemical release disaster by Octagon Chemicals would be revealed, and an investigation of OC by the SEC, are

mentioned, but no conclusions are offerded. A question of ethics is raised--Are the donations (hush money) made by OC to the charity healthcare organization, and the Archdiocese, adequate compensation for what OC did?

There two serious stretches. That OC could keep a lid on a such a disaster, when so many employees at the plant knew what happened, and that a company doctor could turn out to be such an efficient and cold-blooded assassin.

Why in the hell do I keep getting a double Show Spoiler, and why can't I see the problem when I try to edit my post? Why doesn't edit allow me to use Enter to start a new paragraph?

 

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs

The man was the rock music critic to end all rock music critics.
He wrote with ferocity and joy, that can wander off into dark corners sometimes getting stuck with no hope of getting out but then surprising you.
Lester Bangs is what most music aspire to be but know deep down they will never accomplish.

 

The Tao of Willie, by Willie Nelson. This was an interesting read. Nothing heavy, just Willie explaining how he has learned to view life and deal with it. Did you know that at 81 YOA Willie earned a fifth-degree black belt in GongKwon Yusul?

........for some f*ck*ng reason I can't use enter for paragraph breaks......edit--oh now I can.....WTF?.....................

I'm re-reading The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, then I'm going to read I Beat The Odds by Michael Oher with Don Yaeger.

 

Tess Gerritsen, In Their Footsteps and Thief of Hearts. I'm 58 pages into ITF, and because so far it isn't very good I was thinking this has to be one of her very early novels. It's her sixth published novel; TOH is her eighth.

 

I'm very glad that Gerritsen moved on to write the Rizzoli & Isles series of novels.
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The Celestial Bed by Irving Wallace, one of his somewhat erotic/mildly pornographic novels. Many years ago I was quite stimulated by the The Fan Club; I don't recall reading any of his other books.

 

I've been skipping around between I Must Say: My Life as a Comedy Legend (Martin Short), The Hypothetical Girl (Elizabeth Cohen) and The Buddah Walks Into a Bar (Lodro Rinzler.) I've been distracted lately, and haven't been able to stay focused on any one thing for very long. I also read samples/previews of The Door (Mary Roberts Rinehart) and Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. Vance), and plan on buying those soon.

 

The Dogs of Babel, a novel by Carolyn Parkhurst. At about the halfway point I'm still waiting for something interesting to happen. So far I can't shake the impression that I'm reading a book written by a woman attempting to present a man's perspective, which is what the book is. Some writers can pull it off, I'm not sure that Parkhurst can.

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I re-read the Beauty trilogy--The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, & Beauty's Release--by Anne Rice, originally published under the pen name A.N. Roguelaure. Some of it is quite hot, and some of it is totally ridiculous. I wasn't aware that Rice wrote a follow-up, Beauty's Kingdom, published in 2014.

 

Picked up Storm Front, the first in the Dresden Files series. Not bad so far, though Harry seems a bit too "m'lady" for my taste. But Eden assures me he gets better.