New to the Stacks
Feb 20
Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist by Cay Lang
Book Name: All You Need is Ears: The Inside Personal Story of the Genius Who Created The Beatles
Author: George Martin with Jeremy Hornsby
ISBN: 9780312114824
Publisher: Saint Martin’s Press Inc.
If you’re looking for a gossip book about Sir George Martin and The Beatles, this isn’t your book. But if you’re looking for a book that explains what Sir George has done in the studio and the inner workings of EMI in the 1950s and 1960s, this is for you. A couple of chapters are geared toward the more technically inclined as Martin gives detailed explanations of the mathematics of musical HZ and how early tape recording worked. Written in 1979, Martin’s last chapter is prophetic about the changes digital would bring to the recording industry.
New to the Stacks
Feb 10
At last, the final book for the semester.
Review – All You Need is Ears: The Inside Personal Story of the Genius Who Created The Beatles by George Martin with Jeremy Hornsby
Dead Witch Walking
Feb 6
Book Name: Dead Witch Walking
Author: Kim Harrison
ISBN: 9780060572969
Publisher: EOS
Oh my gosh was this fun! I felt the same way about Kim Harrison and her creations as I did with the first Laurell K. Hamilton books. I pray Ms. Harrison doesn’t go down the same path Ms. Hamilton did, ’cause that would be such a shame.
There’s witches, pixys, vampires, weres, and all manner of bad guys. The “non-humans” just want to live their life in the Interland and the “humans” view them with suspicion. And it all started with a genetically engineered strain of tomato … but that’s a subplot to the main plot. Which is about Rachel, who quits her job and strikes out on her own to bring the bad folk in for justice. Only her old job puts a contract out on her life, so while she’s trying to bring in the Big Bad Guy she has to fight for her life against the assassins sent to fulfill the contract. Her home is an old church which she shares with Ivy, a very tense “non-practicing” vampire. Rachel’s other partner is a pixy named Jenks whose family moves into the garden outside.
I couldn’t put this one down, the need to find out what happened next was too strong, which is a sign of really great storytelling. Thanks Randee for loaning this to me and getting me addicted. How’s that saying go? “The first one’s free.”
New to the Stacks
Feb 2
Thank goodness, I finally have all the required texts for my Beatles class and, bonus!, the advanced reader’s copy I was promised last summer.
Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America by Jonathan Gould
The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz
My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist by Sadanand Dhume
New to the Stacks
Feb 1
Review – Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison (on loan from a friend)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (a gift from a friend who had the nerves to actually try to find something I didn’t already own or hadn’t already read)
after the quake
Jan 30
Book Name: after the quake
Author: Haruki Murakami (translated by Jay Rubin)
ISBN: 9780375413902
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Recommended by a good friend, Murakami’s Japanese magical realism collection of short stories is a really good read. As with all good magical realism, things skim below the surface that would make everything make concrete sense, if only we could get our minds to accept it. What’s above the surface is beautiful and quirky and interesting, and somehow always makes sense even when you know it shouldn’t. Who ever heard of a large frog enlisting a small man to help save the world by going underground and having the fight of their lives against an angry worm? But Murakami’s language and storytelling ability make it seem utterly sensible. As with Kerouac, I fell in love at the first sentence and was sad when this small volume was completed. I fell in love so hard I was moved to visit a bricks and mortar store to buy something else by Murakami so the spell wouldn’t be broken too long.
New to the Stacks
Jan 29
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (no, I’ve not read this yet)
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (I’m enjoying after the quake so much I thought I’d try another one by Murakami)
New to the Stacks
Jan 23
The Beatles: Image and the Media by Michael R. Frontani
Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties, 3d edition by Ian MacDonald
Review – after the quake by Haruki Murakami
Rodin
Jan 18
Book Name: Rodin
Author: Bernard Champigneulle
ISBN: 9780500200612
Publisher: Thames and Hudson