Probably the worst year of reading than I can remember. The quality is there, but the quantity is missing. Could not even read a book a week in 2012. For me, that is ridiculously low. Plus, I included a number of shorter poetry books. They seem to merely pad my count, but you should all check out Jack Gilbert's work. Yes, I can do better.
There were a few books I started, then got about 25-50 pages in and gave up. Those do not get listed here. If I finished it, the book is here. Three stars is a cut above average, four stars is a very good book.
1) Haruki Murakami - 1Q84. 925 p. ***
2) John Doyle - The World is a Ball. 330 p.
3) Frederica Sager Maas - The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. 264 p.
4) Gil Scott-Heron - The Last Holiday: A Memoir. 321 p.
5) Jim Walsh - The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting. 304 p.
6) Annie Liebovitz - Pilgrimage. 246 p.
7) Stephen Fry - The Fry Chronicles. 438 p. ***
8) Kent Hartman - The Wrecking Crew. 292 p.
9) Susan Senator - Dirt: a story about gardening, mothering, and other messy business. 270 p.
10) David M. Wilson - The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott. 191 p. ***
11) Kate Winslet - The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism. 284 p. (mostly pictures)
12) Jack Gilbert - The Dance Most of All. 60 p. ***
13) Guy Delisle - Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea. 176 p.
14) Johnny Ramone - Commando. 174 p.
15) Francesca Woodman. 224 p. (mostly pictures)
16) Carole King. A Natural Woman. 489 p.
17) Mike Doughty. The Book of Drugs. 252 p. ***
18) Will Hermes. Love Goes to Buildings on Fire. 368 p. ***
19) Jack Gilbert. Refusing Heaven. 92 p. ****
20) John Irving. In One Person. 425 p. ***
21) Buzz Bissinger. Father's Day. 242 p. ****
22) Jack Gilbert. The Great Fires. 90 p. ***
23) Ken Calliat & Steven Stiefel. Making Rumours. 362 p. ***
24) Frank Langella. Dropped Names. 356 p.
25) Mark Haddon. The Red House. 264 p.
26) Gillian Flynn. Gone Girl. 419 p. **** (best fiction)
27) Christopher Coake - You Came Back. 416 p. ***
28) Ian Rankin - Black and Blue 397 p. ****
29) Dori Hadar - Mingering Mike. 192 p.
30 Joe Oestreich - Hitless Wonder. 293 p. **** (best non-fiction)
31) Natasha Trethewey - Native Guard. 64 p.
32) R.A. Dickey with Wayne Coffey - Wherever I Wind Up. 340 p. ***
33) Jay Stringer - Old Gold. 236 p. ***
34) David Davis - Showdown at Shepherd's Bush. 308 p.
35) Alexandra Scott - If I Could Be Louder. 20 p.
36) Jamaal May - God Engine 2.0. 30 p.
37) Paula J. Lambert - The Sudden Seduction of Gravity. 57 p. ***
38) Pete Townshend - Who I Am . 538 p.
39) Tadashi Ago, Shu Okimoto. The Drops of God. 423 p.
40) Christopher Hitchens. Morality. 104 p. ***
41) Susan McAllister (et al). A Bigger Boat: the Unlikely Success of the Albuquerque Poetry Slam. 327 p.
42) Jack Gilbert. Tougher than Heaven. 24 p.
43) Richard Russo. Elsewhere. 243 p. ***
44) Michael G. Ankerich. The Sound of Silence. 260 p. ***
45) Kurt Vonnegut Jr. We are what we Pretend to be. 161 p. ***
46) Soccer and Disaster: International Perspectives. 193 p.
Showing posts with label books 2012. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books 2012. Show all posts
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Finally, rest
This is the first morning in quite some time that I have been able to sleep in past nine o'clock.
Been quite the busy time since my return from Fayetteville. In addition to work there was an Arts Fest meeting, open mic, movie night and other assorted doctor's appointments for my son.
The new one (fourth this year) has recommended in-patient therapy, possibly in Indiana. Six years ago he was approved for in-patient therapy, but at the last minute the insurance company reneged in the claim, saying that food was not considered medically necessary.
It's taken six years to get back to this point, where would he be if the claim had originally been approved?
If he needed lap band surgery or had a substance abuse problem, zoom, right in and covered, but this eating disorder thing, I guess that's hard to justify to a bean counter.
As for FMLA and Indiana, we'll see what this place's track record is first before investing 4-6 weeks of time and lost income.
In other news we bought a new TV on Friday night. After all the research and people who said we MUST have a 42" (or larger!) we got a 32" and that is quite sufficient for what we need and the size of the living room.. Had to call the cable company for them to set up the cable box, but that was the only problem. It looks fine, watched the baseball game Friday night and was impressed. I can see the numbers on the screen and The Who at the London Coliseum looked great.
Also read Pete Townshend's new book in which he is sexually confused, drinks, is sexually confused, writes great songs, has sex with groupies, drinks, has sex with his wife, is sexually confused, drinks, does cocaine, has sex with groupies, drinks, stops doing drugs, drinks, has sex with groupies...
Yeah, could have been better, you bet.
Been quite the busy time since my return from Fayetteville. In addition to work there was an Arts Fest meeting, open mic, movie night and other assorted doctor's appointments for my son.
The new one (fourth this year) has recommended in-patient therapy, possibly in Indiana. Six years ago he was approved for in-patient therapy, but at the last minute the insurance company reneged in the claim, saying that food was not considered medically necessary.
It's taken six years to get back to this point, where would he be if the claim had originally been approved?
If he needed lap band surgery or had a substance abuse problem, zoom, right in and covered, but this eating disorder thing, I guess that's hard to justify to a bean counter.
As for FMLA and Indiana, we'll see what this place's track record is first before investing 4-6 weeks of time and lost income.
In other news we bought a new TV on Friday night. After all the research and people who said we MUST have a 42" (or larger!) we got a 32" and that is quite sufficient for what we need and the size of the living room.. Had to call the cable company for them to set up the cable box, but that was the only problem. It looks fine, watched the baseball game Friday night and was impressed. I can see the numbers on the screen and The Who at the London Coliseum looked great.
Also read Pete Townshend's new book in which he is sexually confused, drinks, is sexually confused, writes great songs, has sex with groupies, drinks, has sex with his wife, is sexually confused, drinks, does cocaine, has sex with groupies, drinks, stops doing drugs, drinks, has sex with groupies...
Yeah, could have been better, you bet.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
An artful weekend
On Friday night it all started at Betty's. One of the hosts is part of an art group that participated in the Arts Festival last year. He happened to be working; as an aside I asked if he and his group would again be interested in putting together an hour of storytelling for the festival. He readily agreed. I always have programming the Arts Festival in my head these days it seems.
Then it was off to the Wexner Center for the member's preview of the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. This is a remarkable array of her work over the past 40 years. It's a portrait of artistic, political and cultural history that has many iconic images. Not to miss. I can't wait to go again, when it's less crowded.
Watched Everton beat the crap out of Swansea on Saturday morning. It was such a lovely day my wife suggested we go out and take a walk. We ended up at Big Darby Metro Park and saw the bison again. Six of them moving around by their barn.
Hit one friend's party and had some dinner before going home to watch Doctor Who. Immediately after the credits rolled we went east to another party. Ate some more, ended up leaving around midnight. Very tired after a day of fun all over the city.
This morning after grocery shopping I moved the air conditioners into the basement for winter storage then stressed out watching the Bills beat Cleveland. Did not like the Spiller injury as the offense totally fizzled once he left. Not sure if they can function well with him being out two weeks or more with a shoulder injury.
While the Bills were playing my wife was power sanding part of the back porch for future painting and cleaned the sides of the gutters. She's awesome that way.
To close I went to a book release party for my friend Paula's new book, The Sudden Seduction of Gravity. Lots of fellow poets, good food and friends celebrated the new book! I even got another juror for the Arts Festival auditions.
What a whirlwind of friends and art in Columbus. From a major art exhibit to a gatherings of friends and fellow artists. How the hell did I get involved in all these amazing happenings?
Then it was off to the Wexner Center for the member's preview of the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. This is a remarkable array of her work over the past 40 years. It's a portrait of artistic, political and cultural history that has many iconic images. Not to miss. I can't wait to go again, when it's less crowded.
Watched Everton beat the crap out of Swansea on Saturday morning. It was such a lovely day my wife suggested we go out and take a walk. We ended up at Big Darby Metro Park and saw the bison again. Six of them moving around by their barn.
Hit one friend's party and had some dinner before going home to watch Doctor Who. Immediately after the credits rolled we went east to another party. Ate some more, ended up leaving around midnight. Very tired after a day of fun all over the city.
This morning after grocery shopping I moved the air conditioners into the basement for winter storage then stressed out watching the Bills beat Cleveland. Did not like the Spiller injury as the offense totally fizzled once he left. Not sure if they can function well with him being out two weeks or more with a shoulder injury.
While the Bills were playing my wife was power sanding part of the back porch for future painting and cleaned the sides of the gutters. She's awesome that way.
To close I went to a book release party for my friend Paula's new book, The Sudden Seduction of Gravity. Lots of fellow poets, good food and friends celebrated the new book! I even got another juror for the Arts Festival auditions.
What a whirlwind of friends and art in Columbus. From a major art exhibit to a gatherings of friends and fellow artists. How the hell did I get involved in all these amazing happenings?
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Your mother calls us misfits it doesn't bother you one bit
Memoirs by rock musicians are usually very hit or miss. Read a few recently and I've found that while the books can be well written, the authors rarely seem to be enjoying what they're doing or they're a whining jerk or so indifferent and passive you wonder why they even picked up an instrument in the first place, let alone become a musician.
A few years back, Jacob Slichter did a fine job depicting what it was like to get rock success then lose it quickly.
This year Joe Oestreich has captured the magic of never acquiring fame in Hitless Wonder.
Oestreich is the bassist and co-vocalist of the Columbus band Watershed. The band has been together for over 25 years, had a signing to a major record label in the 1990's but never quite caught the level of success far lesser bands with far lesser talent did achieve.
They're still together, still working hard and rocking, even when the rewards are diminishing and backs are losing their strength to carry sound equipment.
In the midst of a failing marriage and torn between music and teaching as a career, Oestreich and the band play on, to five people in a club, to several hundred in their hometown. It's a bittersweet and well told story. You feel the horrors of royalty distribution by the major label and the joy of hearing a song of yours played to over a hundred thousand at your college football stadium before a game.
Hitless Wonder is one of the better rock books out there and it's great to see Oestreich finally get some success out of his band, even if he has to revisit a lot of 'what ifs' in the process. It's a compelling story that has you cheering for the friendship of the band members, which in the end is all that matters. I loved this book.
A few years back, Jacob Slichter did a fine job depicting what it was like to get rock success then lose it quickly.
This year Joe Oestreich has captured the magic of never acquiring fame in Hitless Wonder.
Oestreich is the bassist and co-vocalist of the Columbus band Watershed. The band has been together for over 25 years, had a signing to a major record label in the 1990's but never quite caught the level of success far lesser bands with far lesser talent did achieve.
They're still together, still working hard and rocking, even when the rewards are diminishing and backs are losing their strength to carry sound equipment.
In the midst of a failing marriage and torn between music and teaching as a career, Oestreich and the band play on, to five people in a club, to several hundred in their hometown. It's a bittersweet and well told story. You feel the horrors of royalty distribution by the major label and the joy of hearing a song of yours played to over a hundred thousand at your college football stadium before a game.
Hitless Wonder is one of the better rock books out there and it's great to see Oestreich finally get some success out of his band, even if he has to revisit a lot of 'what ifs' in the process. It's a compelling story that has you cheering for the friendship of the band members, which in the end is all that matters. I loved this book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)