Biography

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RATED X: HOW PORN LIBERATED ME FROM HOLLYWOOD – Maitland Ward

Posted by Daniel on October 5, 2022
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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There have been a few books and ‘tell-alls’ from people (specifically women) in the porn industry, but few, if any, come from someone who worked as a high-profile Hollywood actor prior to making the conscious decision to start working in porn.  Maitland Ward was a teenager when she worked on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and a young woman when she was cast in the role of ‘The Girl Next Door’ Rachel McGuire on the successful Boy Meets World series and in the film White Chicks.

But Maitland quickly ran into casting issues – as in, no one wanted to cast her in anything … especially anything beyond the cute arm-candy girl – and she got frustrated with The Industry. She continued to interact with fans at conventions and found she really enjoyed doing cosplay.  Her fans seemed to really like it as well, which is not surprising since she leaned toward the more exploitative cosplay (ie dressing as Slave Girl Leia from Star Wars). Each time she did this, which often got press attention, her manager would tell her that such action would make her untouchable in Hollywood. Not much of a threat if Hollywood isn’t casting you anyway.

Ward developed her cosplay, creating an OnlyFans account (a website where people can load videos and photos and then fans can then subscribe [for a fee] to look at the videos and fees) and realized that she still had a lot of fans who would shell out good money to catch a glimpse of her.  This led to some nudity (good money there). She often posed for cosplay photos with a friend who also did some porn and Maitland had a lot of questions about how this worked.  She was then introduced to a porn producer who was wanting to make some ‘serious’ porn … films with hardcore action but also with a story (and dialog) which would require actual acting abilities.  Maitland Ward, with a built-in fan base and some real acting experience, was just what this producer was looking for.

The first third of the book details a lot of Maitland’s upbringing (strict, repressed, religious) and her constant curiosity regarding sex, as well as the leering males she had to put up with for years (I’m not quite sure the purpose of all the information about a specific male actor from her The Bold and the Beautiful days).

What Ward doesn’t note (perhaps because she’s not aware of it?) is how much of her ‘legit career’ was pretty much handed to her.  As an actor, she didn’t suffer through hundreds of cattle calls just to be excited by a callback much less getting a role.

The second third of the book talks about her no longer getting cast and her interest in cosplay and developing her fan base through online sites like OnlyFans, which leads to her involvement in porn. And then the last third of the book is how she is changing the face of porn by bringing it some legitimacy with her acting and with the producer willing to spend money on actual sets and costumes and porn actors.

Ward does take a lot of credit for her presumed changing attitudes toward porn (I can’t say if there’s a change in attitudes or not).  Her awards (porn has its own versions of the Oscars) for her performances give her some credence.

Ward is clearly excited by this new phase of her career and by her discovery that she can combine acting with sex – something she really likes (she also constantly tells us that her husband is very supportive of her new career), and I think it’s great when anyone is excited by what they are doing. But I also think she has a bit of a Pollyanna attitude (a naked Pollyanna, of course) about the porn industry and her new profession. She may have gone a little too far to call her new porn films ‘art,’ but what is art is generally pretty subjective.

I believe it’s true that the professionals in porn – specifically those in the porn film industry – are likely pretty good people (I’ve read other such books and I had a friend years ago who worked behind the scenes in porn), but she doesn’t touch on the seedy side of porn which seems to have taken off with the ease of getting porn on the internet.

There are some parts of the book, very specifically some of the frank sex discussion, that I didn’t need.  I didn’t need all the background (pun not intended) on the preparation for and then the act of anal sex. This was definitely a “TMI” moment.

Yes, I did go to watch some of Ward’s porn and honestly, I didn’t enjoy it.  It was much too rough and aggressive for me and I wasn’t expecting that.  I didn’t watch a whole film, just a scene, so maybe I selected the wrong one?

It will be interesting to follow Ward’s career from here.  Does she stay in porn? Does she get some ‘legit’ offers again now that she’s getting a lot of attention? Does she shun porn at some point? Does she fade into obscurity?

Looking for a good book? Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood by Maitland Ward is a quick read biography of a young women many watched on the Disney channel who is now making porn films with the hope of bringing the ‘legit’ and porn industries together.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me From Hollywood

author: Maitland Ward

publisher: Atria Books

ISBN: 9781982195892

hardcover, 256 pages

BEATLES WIVES – Marc Shapiro

Posted by Daniel on March 4, 2022
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Let’s see… The Beatles reached their peak as a working band almost 55 years ago and still we can’t seem to get enough of them.  I wonder how many new Beatles-related books are still published each year.  They broke up as a band well over 50 years ago, never had a reunion tour, two of the members have passed away … what more can we write and publish about them?

Answer: Who cares … just keep ’em coming!

Author Marc Shapiro digs deep to come up with a new twist on Beatlebilia – let’s look at their wives.

Why didn’t anyone think of this before? A spouse has considerable influence on an artist (or at least often can), as evidenced by so much hatred by many Beatle fans for Yoko Ono and the sometimes tepid reactions to Linda McCartney.

The book isn’t really written so much as it is pieced together. Shapiro has researched old interviews, and visited a good number of Beatles-specialty websites to gather a clear snapshot of the former and current Beatle wives. Because of this, it’s little more than window dressing. But for those of us not really willing to put in the time to do even this much research this is a nice, quick look at these women who are generally (not always) famous for whom they were married to, rather than for who they themselves are.

I’m not a super-knowledgeable Beatle fan but having read a lot of the books about them, I feel I have a better than average understanding of the lads so it was nice to learn a few new things through Shapiro’s work.

While I know this is specific to the wives, I wish Shapiro had found a way to include more information about Paul McCartney’s long-time partner Jane Asher.

Looking for a good book? Beatle Wives by Marc Shapiro is a quick look at the various former and current Beatle wives – a work of piecing together of available information. Consider it a Polaroid™ snapshot of these women, rather than fresh, in-depth essays, but it’s still a valuable (for Beatles fans) addition to a Beatles library.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Beatle Wives: The Women the Men We Loved Fell in Love With

author: Marc Shapiro

publisher: Riverdale Avenue Books

ISBN: 162601602X

hardcover, 192 pages

A PRIVATE WILDERNESS: THE JOURNALS OF SIGURD F. OLSON – David Backes, editor

Posted by Daniel on December 15, 2021
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Thoughts, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Nature writer, environmentalist, essayist, educator, conservationist, and former president of the National Parks Association, Sigurd F. Olson had a long career working in wilderness areas. For some, such as myself, he is best remembered for his gentle, thoughtful reflections of nature found in books like  Listening Point, The Singing Wilderness, or Runes of the North (among others).

Editor David Backes has previously written a biography of Olson and put together a collection of Olson’s notable quotes, but with this book we get our best, most intimate look at Sigurd F. Olson, the man, the dreamer.

As I only know of Olson from his published books of nature reflection, what struck me here was how much he agonized over his desire to be a writer – to be able to quit his other work (primarily, early on, as a college teacher) and just be outdoors and writing. And when he wasn’t waxing on about his desire to just focus on writing, he was wondering and worrying about what to write. In his earliest days he was writing short stories but having limited luck selling them. With each rejection would come angst-filled journal entries questioning whether or not he could do this, generally followed by yes, what should he write.

This is often quite repetitive, but editor David Backes does a great job of selecting entries that differ just enough to show Olson’s frame of mind during these different periods and how Olson slowly grows into the author most of us know him as.

For those who might be drawn to this, hoping for some wilderness connections – there is some here.  Olson spent his time and his thoughts in the outdoors, and that comes through in his personal reflections.

Young or hopeful writers will understand Olson’s frustrations about making time to write and the hard questioning of one’s work with each rejection.  That Olson ultimately became quite successful with his goal gives every amateur writer hope.

The book includes a few photos from the appropriate time periods and often showing someone that Olson mentions in one of his journal entries.

We have to remember that journal entries are meant to be private reflections and never intended for a general readership and even though nicely edited, there are times when we sometimes feel we’re intruders.

I highly recommend this book.

Looking for a good book? A Private Wilderness: The Journals of Sigurd F. Olson is just what the title suggests – a look at the man, Sigurd Olson, through his private journal writings. It is an excellent book on many levels (such as nature writing, autobiography, psychology, and the business of writing).

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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A Private Wilderness: The Journals of Sigurd F. Olson

editor: David Backes

publisher: Univ of Minnesota Press

ISBN: 1517910951

hardcover, 376 pages

OTTO BINDER – Bill Schelly

Posted by Daniel on October 4, 2021
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Otto Binder was science fiction, science, U.F.O., and comic book author who wrote in the early days (Golden Era) of comic books (specifically the 1940’s) and the New Wave of science fiction (the 1960’s-1970’s). He is credited with truly defining Captain Marvel (Shazam) and wrote nearly 1,000 (of the 1,700) stories in the Marvel Family (ie: Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr).

In science fiction, his short story “I, Robot” (about a robot named Adam Link) was impactful in the late 1930’s-early 40’s and led to a series of Adam Link stories and books.  Isaac Asimov, who wrote the more famous I, Robot book acknowledged Binder’s earlier creation and its influence on the genre.

In his later life, Binder rivalled Erich von Däniken for his books on UFO’s and extraterrestrial life.

Binder often wrote using the name Eando Binder which began when he first wrote with his brother Earl (E and O Binder).

Much of today’s comics work still has its roots in Binder’s early writings and his science fiction is right on par with some of the other early greats. And yet Binder is comparatively unknown. Only those truly interested in the culture are aware of his work.  Some of this comes from the era in which he worked where he was nothing more than a hired hand.  Authors weren’t even given credit for their work in the comics at this time and some of his work is only guessed at and pieced together from other sources. And as comics were the main source of income for Binder in the early days, anonymity was par for the course.

This book is a very thorough, one might even say ‘loving,’ tribute to this comics and sci-fi workhorse. In addition to the detailed look at his work during these early days, author Bill Schelly also shares information on Binder’s personal life, including the very tragic death of the Binders’ only daughter when just a young school girl.

I first became aware of Binder in the 1970’s when I purchased a novel of the comic book Avengers (which I have learned was not looked upon favorably either by Marvel comics or comics fans). From that, I had learned that Binder was a comic book author, but I didn’t give him much thought until I saw this book and wanted to learn more.

Schelly’s research is strong and his writing is really clear, making this very easy to read.

Looking for a good book? Anyone interested in comics, comic book history, or the early days of science fiction should really do themselves a favor and read Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary by Bill Schelly.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary

author: Bill Schelly

publisher: North Atlantic Books

ISBN: 9781623170370

paperback, 264 pages

EUGENE O’NEILL – Robert M. Dowling

Posted by Daniel on March 1, 2021
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I have an undergraduate degree in theatre and am familiar with the works of Eugene O’Neill, having read or seen (or both) most of his body of works. I was only passingly familiar with O’Neill the man, the writer, from brief bios in college text books.

Author Robert M. Dowling has done an exhaustive amount of research to give us a deep understanding of the man, Eugene O’Neill, and understanding the man provides insight to the works.
Dowling gives us O’Neill in a straight-forward presentation, and although I presume he has respect or deep appreciation for O’Neill, manages to keep his personal thoughts out of the writing. There are times, especially early in the book, when this comes across as dry academic writing and it takes some patience to keep going, but the further we get in the more I appreciated the style.
O’Neill the playwright defined an era.  When his play Long Day’s Journey Into Night had its world premiere in Sweden, the critics wrote that O’Neill was (according to Dowling’s postscript), “the world’s last dramatist of the stature of Aeschylus and Shakespeare.” I may not go quite that far but I respect the way he raised the bar in modern drama.
Like so many writers of this past era – especially those who brought forward deep themes – O’Neill had his demons. How much those demons affected his writing or how much his writing created the demons can only be guessed at and debated by scholars and students, but books like this are important tools for those who really want to understand the man and his work.
Looking for a good book? The biography Eugene O’Neill by Robert M. Dowling is an important scholarly work and should be required reading for any theatre or English student.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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Eugene O’Neill: A Life in Four Acts
author: Robert M. Dowling
publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300170335
hardcover, 584 pages

BARNUM – Robert Wilson

Posted by Daniel on February 8, 2021
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Is there an American entertainer who’s had more written about him (or her) than Phineas Taylor Barnum? It’s been 130 years since Barnum died and still we are fascinated by this celebrated huckster.
P.T. Barnum was a man of action who took advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves and created opportunities when they didn’t. He was a businessman, a politician, a philanthropist. He was an advocate of temperance, black suffrage, and animal protections (despite [or perhaps because of] losing animals in fires in his circuses).
He was a colorful character, to be sure, and he was probably the first person to be a celebrity just by being a celebrity and also likely the first person to use social media (newspapers and magazines) effectively to draw attention to himself and his interests. I can only imagine what he might have done had he lived in this time with social media that can reach millions in a minute and more gullible ‘suckers’ than ever.
Plenty has been written about Barnum before (including by Barnum himself), but author Robert Wilson has done his research and presented a new look at this old huckster. We spend a a fair amount of time with his working relationship with Jenny Lind, “The Swedish Nightingale.” Wilson briefly brings up the question as to whether or not there was any romantic involvement between the two, but quickly dismisses the notion. Although less exciting from a reader perspective, it actually makes the most sense given what else we know about the man.
Prior to his working with the renowned singer, Ms. Lind, Barnum had a contracted business arrangement with Charley Stratton, aka General Tom Thumb – a dwarf with remarkable stage presence and wit. I learned quite a bit about this partnership.
It takes a little while to get to Barnum’s partnership with James Anthony Bailey, but we certainly get there, which is important since most people likely know the P.T. Barnum name because of the Barnum & Bailey Circus (which much later became The Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus).
This book is a great introduction to the world of Mr. P.T. Barnum and anyone interested in biographies, history, or entertainment is likely to find something to enjoy here. For those who already have a passing familiarity with Mr. Barnum, there are still things to learn, making this book worth reading.
Looking for a good book? Barnum, by Robert Wilson, is a very good modern introduction to one of the first, great self-promoters and businessmen.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Barnum: An American Life

author: Robert Wilson

publisher: Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 1501118625

hardcover, 352 pages

GONE TO THE WOODS – Gary Paulsen

Posted by Daniel on December 22, 2020
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, OTHER. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I almost missed reading books by Gary Paulsen. His books came out well after I would have been interested in reading his kind of adventure stories, and my children had interests in other themes and genres. Fortunately there was a teacher or two who required my children (and their classmates) to read Hatchet – and I often tried to read what they were reading (if I wasn’t already familiar with the book) so that we could talk about.

I enjoyed it and quickly read many of his other books. Which of course brings me now to this, Paulsen’s narrative autobiography.

This is one of the most unusual biographies I’ve ever read.  It does not read like a biography. It does not read like a memoir.  This reads exactly like one of Paulsen’s adventure tales.  This means a couple of different things.

First, this means that the book will be easily read and devoured and enjoyed by the same audience that reads Paulsen’s novels This younger audience is already familiar with how he lays out a plot and narrates a story. He spends most of his time here relating about his early years – the same age as Brian from Hatchet or Russel from Dogsong.

The second thing this means is that Paulsen had an extraordinary childhood.  The subtitle, “Surviving a Lost Childhood,” isn’t just hype to make the book sound more interesting.

Before he was even school age, Gary was witness to the horrors of war. He lived in Manilla where his military father was stationed. His father was mostly absent – which was probably a good thing. When he was home, Gary’s parents were abusive alcoholics – worse together than separate. He learns at this time to fend for himself and to not trust adults.

He is shipped off to live with and aunt and uncle – the first time he’s ever shown any warmth or caring – and it is here, through the gruff manner of his uncle that he learns how to venture safely outside in the wilderness.

But just as he is learning to trust in his family foster parents, his mother and father move back to the United States and want him ‘home.’ A young child doesn’t have much say in this, and most would assume that being with his real mother and father is best for him.

Not much has changed in their behavior and when he’s not stuck living in the corner of a cold basement, he is living outside, sleeping under the stars.

Another positive, memorable moment in his early life is when he discovered the public library and the kind librarian (whom at first he didn’t trust because, like all adults, she must have had a secret agenda) who exposes him to the many worlds found in books, and encourages him to write down his own thoughts (when he tells her all the inaccuracies in the books he’s read).

It’s a powerful autobiography, and more than just a little depressing. Paulsen saw, and experienced, more terrible things before he was a teen than most people will in a lifetime.

This will definitely appeal to anyone who’s read a Gary Paulsen book, and it might very well reach a new audience who will come to discover some of his classic books because of this biography.

Looking for a good book? Gone to the Woods, Gary Paulsen’s autobiography is quite possibly more adventurous and frightening, more a tale of survival, than his classic children’s books.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood

author: Gary Paulsen

publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

ISBN: 0374314152

hardcover, 368 pages

THE FIVE – Hallie Rubenhold

Posted by Daniel on November 12, 2020
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

By today’s standards, sadly, a mass murderer or serial killer who kills five women is hardly even worthy of front page news.  But mention the name Jack the Ripper and most people will have at the very least heard the name and many will know he was a notorious killer from the late 1800’s, and those who think they are moderately knowledgeable will say he killed five prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London.

There is no shortage of books about Jack the Ripper, fiction and non-fiction alike. Author Hallie Rubenhold takes a new direction here however. Rather than looking at Jack the Ripper and his heinous murders, she looks at the five women the Ripper is believed to have killed.

The common perception is that Jack the Ripper murdered five prostitutes.  But as Rubenhold asserts in her preface:

There is, and never was, any proof of this either. To the contrary — over the course of the coroner’s inquests, it became known that Jack the Ripper never had sex with a single victim. Additionally, in the case of each murder there were no signs of struggle and the killings appear to have taken place in complete silence. There were no screams heard by anyone in the vicinity. The autopsies concluded that all of the women were killed while in a reclining position. In at least three of the cases, the victims were known to sleep on the street and on the nights they were killed did not have money for a lodging house. In the final case, the victim was murdered in her bed. However, the police were so committed to their theories about the killer’s choice of victims that they failed to conclude the obvious — the Ripper targeted women while they slept.

Using statements made by those who knew the victims best, Rubenhold makes a very strong case for the fact that these women, from very diverse backgrounds, had fallen on hard times (sometimes by their own making) yet none had been actively engaged in prostitution.

This information is essentially covered in the preface, but Rubenhold goes on with exhaustive research into each of these women and shares their life stories – brief as the available information might be. What this does is remind us that these victims – Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elisabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly – are more than just names, famous for the terrifying name of their killer.  They were daughters, mothers, sisters, wives.

Rubenhold gives us a surprising amount of information about these women, especially given that:

The cards were stacked against Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate, and Mary Jane from birth. They began their lives in deficit. Not only were most of them born into working-class families; they were also born female. Before they had even spoken their first words or taken their first steps, they were regarded as less important than their brothers and more of a burden on the world than their wealthier female counterparts. Their worth was compromised before they had even attempted to prove it.

I can honestly say that this changed how I think about the events of the Ripper murders, and it will have an affect on how I think about the victims of violent crimes in the future.

I’ve been fascinated by the Ripper legends for a very long time.  It probably started when I first the Star Trek episode, Wolf in the Fold, sometime in the early 1970’s. I then read nearly every book I could find on the subject, wrote papers about it in college, and even wrote a full-length play with my theory of who the Ripper was (that play safely tucked away in a folder, deep in my file cabinet). In all that time, though, I never thought about these women other than as victims and as prostitutes. This book is fascinating and a great reminder that the crimes committed by the Ripper, were committed against people who lived and dreamed.

Looking for a good book? The Five, by Hallie Rubenhold, is a new, very human, approached to the Jack the Ripper murders, looking at the victims, and reminding us, not only were they not five prostitutes, as the media of the time sensationalized them, but women with histories and families and struggling to survive despite the odds against them.  Is it incredibly well researched.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

author: Hallie Rubenhold

publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN-13: 978-0358299615

hardcover, 333 pages

BIX – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on July 21, 2020
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Wow.

If you’ve ever wondered at how important the artwork in a graphic novel is to telling a story, you should definitely give Scott Chantler’s Bix a read. If you’ve heard of Bix Beiderbecke but don’t know much about him and want to know more, then you should give Scott Chantler’s Bix a read. If you’ve never heard of Bix Beiderbecke but have an interest in jazz music or American history or biographies, then you should read Bix.

Bix Beiderbecke was an amazing jazz trumpet player in the 1920’s, born in Iowa to a strict family with an unforgiving father. Bix tried to live a ‘normal’ life but the call of music was too strong.  His skills were strong and he played with some of the biggest names in jazz at the time, and his name will appear on a few records.  But like something right out of a dime novel, Bix was haunted by demons – demons that often came from a bottle.  Those demons would cause him to miss gigs, and he’d regularly lose jobs.

The actual dialog in this 250+ page graphic novel is quite slim – the first word balloon doesn’t appear until page 80! – but Chantler’s art and layout is SO expressive that we don’t need dialog to understand the story or the emotions of the characters.

The story is quite basic and touches the highlights (low-lights?) of his life, so those more familiar with the Bix Beiderbecke story may not get anything new from this story (I reviewed a Bix biography in 2018) but this is still very much worth reading for the format – the dialog-lite graphic novel.

Looking for a good book? Scott Chantler’s graphic novel Bix is an incredibly well-made, unique biography that is well worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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Bix

author: Scott Chantler

artist: Scott Chantler

publisher: Gallery 13

ISBN: 1501190784

hardcover, 256 pages

TO THE STARS – George Takei

Posted by Daniel on July 10, 2020
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

STAR TREK WEEK

If you are considering buying this book, then you likely already have a pretty good idea of who George Takei is. Most will know him from his being a regular on the original Star Trek television series (and movies). Younger audiences will know him for his social media presence.

In this biography/memoir, Takei talks about his early family life, which includes time spent in internment camps in Arkansas and California during WWII when George was quite young. Once out of the camps, the family returned to Los Angeles and lived in a “the largest Mexican American barrio in the United States.” In his early life after the camps, we get to know a little more about George Takei the student (high school and college) where we learn that Takei is motivated and competitive.

Takei is fortunate to get some early, professional acting, while in college, which put him in contact with some big names in American film. And then he went in for an audition/interview for a regular role on a potential new television series called Star Trek, where the producer was unlike what Takei had seen in other Hollywood types.  He had good feelings about the man and the show even back in this very early stage.

Takei writes about the camaraderie among the cast members … with one exception.  Star William Shatner appears to have been more focused on building his own stardom than on working with anyone else.  The two most telling moments from this book are an early days moment when Takei brought some family to the studio for a tour of the set and when Shatner walked into the studio, Nichelle Nichols calmly steered the family in another direction so that there would be no interaction between Shatner and the guests.  And when filming was completed for the first Star Trek movie that Leonard Nimoy directed, the cast all pitched in to throw a big celebration party for Nimoy.  All except Shatner who claimed he was going to do something else for Leonard, but when crew members thanked Shatner for the party, he gladly accepted those thanks.

While Takei makes it clear what he thinks/thought about his ego-obsessed co-star, he is definitely politic in the way he describes it.  Which makes some sense because after his Star Trek work, Takei delved into politics. The final chapters of the book follow Takei’s work in politics, the Star Trek movies, and just a little bit about Star Trek: The Next Generation, and ending with reflections on Gene Roddenberry’s death.

For those of us who are admittedly Star Trek fans – Trekkers (or Trekkies, depending on which generation you are from) – most of what Takei writes about his Trek days has long been circulating among the fans.  Mention something at a Star Trek convention and people all over the world will start repeating it as gospel.  It was nice to read it directly from the source.

For me, I liked some of the non-Trek reflections. His sense of family and the lessons he learned from his father are really touching and I think more important. It is so like a father to ‘encourage’ a child to take some earnings and invest it so that there is something for the lean times.  I never knew about this side of Takei (the early investor in real estate).

The book only goes up to the early 90’s, so there’s 30 more years worth of material that Takei could easily (?) do a follow-up biography.  I was a little disappointed not to get anything more directly personal (specifically what it might have been like to work in Hollywood as a gay man), but since he didn’t ‘come out’ until the early 2000’s, perhaps that will be part of the (my wishful thinking) autobiography, volume two.

Looking for a good book? To the Stars, by George Takei, is an autobiography of one of Star Trek‘s stalwart crew members whose early life in an interment camp during WWII and his political activism are as worthy of reading about as is his time as the Enterprise‘s helmsman.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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To the Stars

author: George Takei

publisher: Pocket Books

ISBN: 0671890093

paperback, 416 pages

RESISTANCE – Tori Amos

Posted by Daniel on June 17, 2020
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, MEMOIR, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I started listening to Tori Amos with the release of her album Little Earthquakes. I have purchased or listened to all of her works since then.  I wouldn’t say that I’m a dedicated fan – I know (knew) nothing about Amos other than what I interpret in her songs. Her music, her songs, to me, show incredible artistry and intelligence (which is something I think is often lacking in modern music). When I saw that Tori Amos had a book coming out, a memoir, I was quick to get a copy, hopeful that Amos would be as articulate with her book as she is with her songs.

She is.

I have certainly noted a political charge in many of Tori’s songs, but reading through this memoir and learning abut her ‘start’ – her early days in a piano bar in Washington, D.C. – I have a new appreciation of Tori’s understanding and her observing of the political landscape. Much of the first portions of the book discuss these early days and as we get to know Tori through her recollection, we come to understand how aware she is of the machinations of politics.  How does a young, artistic woman survive in this sort of setting? This is really fascinating and eye=opening.

But I think what I enjoyed even more in this book, is her discussion of art, artists, and surviving the creative process. Amos knows what it’s like to sacrifice the art at the bidding of others.  She also know that creating art is not inspiration, but lots of hard work (an awful lot of artists do not yet understand this concept).  She mentions that she can probably name all of her songs that ‘just came to her’ on one hand.

And she talks about the jealousy of other artists – the jealousy we might have for a peer who has already ‘found her voice’ or his style, while we continue to struggle. Reading her thoughts on this is meaningful because we see that she understands – that she comes at this with first-hand experience.

I do think that you need to have an appreciation of Tori Amos the singer-songwriter to appreciate this book to its fullest, but the publisher refers to this book as having “compassionate guidance and actionable advice” which is very true and applicable to anyone, whether they are already familiar with Tori Amos or not.

Looking for a good book? Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage by Tori Amos is a motivational memoir sure to offer encouragement to young artists of all mediums.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage

author: Tori Amos

publisher: Atria Books

ISBN: 1982104155

hardcover, 272 pages

BREAK SHOT: MY FIRST 21 YEARS – James Taylor

Posted by Daniel on April 29, 2020
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Having been a fan of James Taylor’s music for many, many years, I knew a small but fair bit about him. I was delighted to see this autobiography available from Audible so that I could learn more, and to hear it from him directly.

Taylor’s narrative jumps back and forth in time and you really need to pay attention. He will occasionally talk about his wife … meaning his current wife – while then talking about some the things that happened to him in the past.

Taylor had a lot of ups and downs throughout his life, including an unhealthy family. Taylor admits that they grew up privileged (and you really get a sense of that through some of the things the family does), but like any family, they had their share of troubles. He says at the very beginning that of he and his four siblings, three of them “ended up in psychiatric hospitals and a fourth should have. Drug and alcohol addiction tore us up.”

Through the narration we hear names of familiar artists – Carly Simon, Danny Kortchmar, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Peter Asher, Joni Mitchell – some of them he got to know well before they became famous, some of them already well established.

Hearing about his escapade with the shiester producer who had Taylor and his band (The Flying Machine) record an album but then did nothing with it until Taylor began to make a name for himself and then released the album, with no profits going to the band.

I knew that James Taylor was one of the first artists signed to the Beatles’ new label, Apple Records, but hearing his telling of the meeting was really interesting.  And I had to laugh when he mentioned that he had to call his father and beg him to sign the contract because, as Taylor puts it, the British were a bit more concerned about things like contracts than the Americans were at that time, and James was still a minor at the time.

And that’s what really struck home.  As we listen to the 90 minute autobiography and all the things that this man did, good and bad, the people he met, and the work that he’d begun, we are then reminded at the end, that this is just James Taylor’s first twenty-one years.

I enjoyed this and, especially given its length, I can see me listening to it again.

Looking for a good book? James Taylor’s autobiographical audiobook, Break Shot: My First 21 Years is an aural delight. A biography, with music by the author, and told by the author, is not something you get a chance to listen to very often.

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Break Shot: My First 21 Years: An Audio Memoir

author: James Taylor

narrator: James Taylor

original music: James Taylor

publisher: Audible Original

length: 1 hour, 33 minutes