Category: Books

Genre: Book

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Dawnie Walton

Title: The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

Review: Dawnie Walton’s very ambitious debut novel, is a sweeping and thought-provoking look at the meteoric rise and fall of a 1970s-era music duo told from the first person perspective of the first African -American woman editor of a major rock magazine. She also happens to be the daughter of a black drummer murdered at the 1972 Opal and Nev inaugural show by a racist-redneck mob. Confused? This challenging book is tricky to keep up with- the story is told through 30 plus years of interviews (fictitious) with all the key players, but mostly focused on Nev Charles, a prototype British soft rock star, and Opal Jewel, a performance artist/singer/fashion queen form Detroit. The book tackles both gender and race inequality head on- and hits you over the head with it at times. Pretty powerful stuff, though I thought the story drifted at times in the telling through the years of interviews. Another in a long line of books my daughter has gotten me to expand my cultural horizons, which I think is working.

Genre: Book   

Grade: A/B

Notable People: Chris Hillman

Title: Time Between

Review: So you want to be a rock and roll star?????? Hillman’s autobiography is a stunning history of the last 50 years of rock, country, bluegrass and all forms of Americana music. Hillman is the Forrest Gump of the music biz, having been around for many of the breakthrough explorations of late 20^th century popular music, as second fiddle to Roger McGuinn (Byrds), Gram Parsons (Burritos) and Stephen Stills (Manassas)…and then going on to be a star in his own right with the Desert Rose Band in the 80s-90s, and as a still active solo act. A consummate pro telling wonderful stories about the times they are a changin’. If you are a lover of these genres of American music, this is must read “A”. If not, well, Hillman is a fair to middling writer (kudos that he actually wrote it himself) and an Evangelical, which is a bit much for me…..and makes it a “B” read……. Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship. My senses have been stripped. My hands can’t feel to grip. My toes too numb to step. Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin’.

Genre: Book 

Grade: A-

Notable People: Alice Hoffman

Title: The World That We Knew

Review: Hoffman’s 28^th standalone novel is a wonderfully written story of three separate woman escaping from Nazi occupied Berlin to France in 1939. Full of terror, heroism and mysticism, the book details their amazing quest to survive during those times of unspeakable atrocities, with the aid of many true underground heroes, amazing fortitude and faith and shared courage…..along with the assistance of the mythical protective Golem. Riveting book, as well it should be. Not always pleasant, but hard to ignore.

Genre: Book 

Grade: A-

Notable People: Archer Mayor

Title: Marked Man

Review: The extraordinary 33^rd consecutive annual installment in Archer’s long running series finds our hero, Joe Gunther, and his crew alternating between a hard to describe, eccentric and dangerous family in Brattleboro, Vermont, and, a host of low level mobster types in Providence Rhode Island (Little Rhody to the initiated). The long running cast of character is back (not aging, though Joe must be close to 110 by now given that he fought in the Korean War….…guess that is literary license), and Archer does his usual bang up job of exposing and initiating us all to the obscure nooks and crannies of Vermont life. The alternating between two seemingly disembodied storylines was a bit distracting for me in this one, but it all comes tighter eventually. Well written, great dialog, amazing sense of place. I hear number 34 is already written and getting ready for Fall release. You go, Archer!!!!

Genre: Book 

Grade: A-

Notable People: David Baldacci

Title: Walk the Wire’

Review: the sixth and most recent in the prolific Baldacci’s’ wonderful Amos Decker series will not disappoint. Weaving a bewildering and intense murder mystery with national security issues in remote North Dakota, the book weaves a compelling portrait of the mind of Decker, a man devastated by loss and head trauma, who becomes a relentless avenger for truth. The character development keeps getting better in this series, and it’s a hard to put down nail biter. Send more Decker!!!!

Genre: Film 

Grade: A+

Notable People:  Oakes Fegley, Ansel Elgort, Jeffrey Wright, Nicole Kidman, Directed by: John Crowley

Title: The Goldfinch

Review: Beautifully rendered interpretation of a masterpiece book by Donna Tartt which I reviewed many years ago. Fegley and Elgort are wonderful as the young and older Theo Decker- a young man who loses his mother in a terrorist attack inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in his shock and trauma makes off with three-hundred-year old art masterpiece. The cast is dead on for the book and the reflections of life as art take us on whirlwind story. I loved the book, and the film surprisingly does it justice.

Genre: Book

Grade: A

Notable People: Louise Penny

Title: A Better Man

Review: After two dozen novels in this series, I am trying to imagine what would make them any better? Frankly, if you like a- mysteries B- noir c- All Things French d- Canada e- top notch prose f- extraordinary character development over twenty years and g- a wonderful sense of humor………well if you don’t like any of that…are you actually still respirating? Penny never settles in these thoughtful and reflective books on the nature of life and loss and love and evil……plus she is wicked funny in a subtle way, and extraordinarily historically accurate. She has the best-ever acknowledgements sections – which themselves can make you weep……. she honors woman all the time without dismissing men……and she levitates dogs to godliness. Even with a very key character exiting in this book (which fans will pray is not final) this is a story that is hard not to love. And Gamache……. oh, Gamache…the father/mentor/brother/sage we wall wish to be around. Hot tip from Northern Michigan: amazon is hard at work filming a Gamache series starring Alfred Molina (good choice) Just cannot wait.

Genre: Book 

Grade: A-

Notable People:  Jeanine Cummins

Title: The Crooked Branch

Review: after two books, Cummins is fast becoming one of my favorite new wave of young American authors. Following up the brilliant “American Dirt” with this powerful novel about two women related by blood, and separated by an ocean and two hundred years; one in County Mayo, Ireland during the great potato famine, and her great, great, great granddaughter in contemporary Queens, NY. Cummins continues her in depth portrayal of the live of “immigrants in one form or another (the modern woman has immigrated from a trendy Manhattan life to what she calls the hell of suburban queens after the birth of a first child, which may be no less an immigration than that of her ancestors). The modern tales of angst and post-partum depression wore a bit thin on me over the course of the book, but were still quite compelling, and the alternating chapters focused on mid-19^th century Ireland were just plan riveting. Get characters, great storytelling, powerful messages about love, fear, survival, intimacy, trust and class. Great stuff.

Genre: Book    

Grade: A-

Notable People:  David Handler

Title: The Blood Red Indian Summer

Review: The umpteenth offering in the Mitry/Berger mystery series is probably the best yet. Set, as usual, in the bucolic Big Indian Island on the Connecticut/Long Island Sound shoreline, it finds our mismatched heroes (she a striking Conn. State Resident Trooper, he a former “Doughboy” Jewish New York film critic- as they pursue justice in what should be, by all counts, a panacea of mellow, but in reality, seems to be a magnet for very strange happenings. The characters are reaching prime development in this 9^th installment of the series, and the dialog is crisp and often hilarious. I clearly have a soft touch affinity for these genres, and especially those that seek to emulate the magnificent John D. MacDonald/ Travis McGee epics…that is just fine with me.

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People:  Mark Seal

Title: Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli

Review: Unbelievably captivating recounting of the making of the most infamous film in history. This book has it all: Mario Puzo’s desperate attempt to write a book to pay his mob debts. The ongoing fights with the mob and their sinister involvement in getting the move made, cutting a real horse head for the most dramatic scene in film history, the extraordinary fights by Coppola to get the right casting done……and the rise of a group of unknown actors to stardom…along with the total rebirth of a washed up Brando. Who knew??? An absolutely riveting story for any fan of the film. Seal is not the world’s best writer, but the material almost writes itself here. They made me an offer I could not refuse. Long live Fat Pete Clemenza.