BOOKS THREAD

Did my annual crime fiction binge, caught up on some Crais and Robert Parker stuff. I know it's blasphemy, but Ace Atkins puts more effort and writes a more enjoyable Spenser novel than Parker did. There are nods to previous cases and past clients pop in here and there. He's also done a nice job of moving the characters along, without aging them out. Spenser is in the "present" but he's still in his 40s, and no longer fought Jersey Joe Walcott, just "a fighter who was a big deal at one point."

 

Moddy and @PCLoadLetter did a better job on Spenser here years ago than Parker ever did

 

Robert Hilburn's new Paul Simon book covers all the same ground as the one Peter Ames Carlin brought out last year except Simon cooperated with Hilburn. To me if you read the Carlin book you have pretty much read this one too. Hilburn's Johnny Cash bio was much better.

 

Classic rock fans are directed to Twilight of the Gods, A Journey to the End of Classic Rock, by Steven Hyden in which the author covers such topics as dad rock, "Turn the Page", Prince, Disco Demolition Night, Bowie, Black Sabbath, Phish and REO Speedwagon among many others. Highly recommended.

 

Damn, I hoped you'd be too busy enjoying the Caps run to the Stanley Cup to see this and get pissed!

 

A must-read. Hyden's a strong writer and just about everything I listen to could be called "dad rock."

 

Very entertaining stuff, it will strike a huge chord with anyone of a certain vintage who grew up when what we know as classic rock was what was new. The book also reminded me of how rock radio was such a huge part of our lives in those pre-MTV days

 

Just finished “Sticky Fingers,” the bio of Jann Wenner. Read like 300 pages last weekend alone. Massively entertaining.

 

It is a great book, not just as a bio of Wenner and a history of the magazine (and I have been a subscriber since 1978) but of rock and roll, pop culture, celebrity and journalism over the past 50 years.