BOOKS THREAD

I picked this up at the local library's used book sale a year or two ago, and didn't discover until today that I had gotten an edition that had been signed by the author. And then a few people I know were mentioned in the book as well, which was cool.

Blind Lemon Jefferson was a bluesman who was only 36 when he died. He had a short recording career, but influenced many early blues musicians, including Robert Johnson. He often traveled throughout Texas and played with Lead Belly, another historic bluesman. This was a quick, enjoyable read. The book is only about 100 pages, including index and end notes.

Joe Bob says listen to some Blind Lemon and check this out.

 

Peter Frampton's new memoir Do You Feel Like I Do? is kind of like his career: some good stuff, some mildly interesting stuff and a whole lotta meh.

 

Your mileage may vary, Moddy, but aside from talking about his days in Humble Pie (terrific band) and the insanity that was Frampton Comes Alive. there ain't a whole lotta there there.

 

This book reminded me of Gay Talese's piece Frank Sinatra Has a Cold. The author had known Burnett for years and had interviewed him for other projects, but T Bone didn't take part in the production of this book. So Sachs talked to a bunch of folks around Burnett and quoted from many other interviews Burnet had given. I'm not sure if it would have been better with Burnett's participation or not, but I enjoyed this.

Joe Bob says check it out.

 

A short (really short) novel based around the lives of three academics who study languages, but the one most featured has written a scholarly tome titled Portuguese Irregular Verbs. He's not a particularly likeable fellow, kinda snooty, as all three of them are, but I felt bad for him when life seemed to be going well for him, until it didn't.

Joe Bob says check it out for a quick read.

 

"The Big Picture" by Ben Fritz - Overall, a good but not great read. Its primary source materials come from author interviews and the Sony hack, and at least he's upfront about the ethical ick of that with a pretty long introduction. He clearly plumbed the leaks for details that are really interesting - Will Smith wanted an After Earth multiverse with a social media app and accessory products like cologne and perfume; Breaking Bad actually made Sony $400M when everything was said and done, making it the second most valuable property behind the first Spider-Man movie during Amy Pascal's run; old Adam Sandler movies would be in the Top 10 of countries where they hadn't even been released originally by Netflix metrics. And, there is some good economic stuff about why mid-tier movies are pretty much dead. (Short version: Yes, there are some occasional successes, like a Manchester by the Sea making $50M+ profit for Amazon. But the "hit" rate isn't great, and for every one of those, there are a bunch of Alohas, which lost $50M+, and a bunch of good or even great movies that don't have a profit potential of a blockbuster franchise movie with merchandise.)

The thing is, even with a new epilogue that adds about 10 pages and tells you where some of the players ended up - the derided in the hacks Pascal, for example, got some redemption by producing The Post and Greta Gerwig's Little Women - the whole book is about 250 pages. There are individual chapters on things like Netflix's dominance, Disney's success and so on, but the only thing really gone into in-depth is Sony Pictures, which again is because of the access he had via the hack. As a result, it's a mild recommendation from me, because of the interesting stories, but it's not at the level of a William Goldman "insider" book of anything like that.

 

Diverting this thread to chick lit:

I give high praise to "One to Watch." It's a parody of "The Bachelorette," which I've never watched... and after reading this novel, I'm even less likely to start.

 

I've always enjoyed her stories. Initially I was disappointed because I was in a "thriller" mindset. Instead, its more of a novel about the different views you get about the protagonist. Some of the story is especially poignant. Whereas I was initially disappointed, after marinating for a couple of days, I really enjoyed the journey.

 

Bob "Daddy-O" Wade did, indeed, make big-ass art. He created the iguana that was on top of a Texas-themed nightclub in New York City; the six frogs that were atop a club in Dallas (three of them were eventually on the roof of Carl's Corner truckstop in Carl's Corner, Texas); and a trailer depicting Texas life that was shipped to a show in Paris. He was a character, and I wish I would have learned about him when I could have afforded some of his art.

Joe Bob says definitely check this one out.

 

I really enjoyed this one too.