Posts Tagged Book Review
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December 20, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Parker Posey: You’re On An Airplane
You’re On An Airplane: A Self-Mythologizing Memoir Parker Posey Blue Rider Press In the 1990s Parker Posey started appearing in movies; quirky films, funny films. She was savage or sexy or cheeky or some combination of those things – she was weird and wonderful, a little odd and a lot of wonderful. She was a […]Archive
December 9, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Michael Diamond/Adam Horovitz: Beastie Boys Book
Beastie Boys Book Michael Diamond/Adam Horovitz Spiegel & Grau It finally arrived – after so much talk and plenty of hype, the memoir of The Beastie Boys written by its two surviving members. When Adam Yauch (MCA) died from cancer in 2012 that was the end of the group. Respectfully and realistically Michael Diamond (Mike […]Archive
September 8, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Kristin Hersh: Nerve Endings – Selected Lyrics
Nerve Endings: Selected Lyrics Kristin Hersh Unbound Though I’m a sucker for a book of lyrics I usually read and discard – realising as I’m reading it that most lyrics deserve to hang in the air, are made for the stage more so than the page; it’s nice to check in with them, really ever […]Archive
August 21, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Ezra Furman: Lou Reed’s Transformer (33 1/3)
Lou Reed’s Transformer (33 1/3) Ezra Furman Bloomsbury Academic The death of the album – so greatly exaggerated. And the 33 1/3 series of books in tribute to classic albums (old and new) continues to trot out the titles. Here, musician Ezra Furman looks at Lou Reed’s Transformer album in this volume of the same […]Archive
June 9, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
James Rhodes: Fire On All Sides
Fire On All Sides James Rhodes Quercus James Rhodes, the classical pianist with rock’n’roll swagger, is a prodigy-level player that’s not there to please the purists but is – in his love of the music and his ability as conduit for it – far closer to being a purist than any of the snobs he […]Archive
April 24, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Brett Anderson: Coal Black Mornings
Coal Black Mornings Brett Anderson Little, Brown [This review originally appeared at The Spinoff] We are drawn, so often, to music memoirs for the clichés of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. The very best ones, however, ignore these tenets. Think Patti Smith’s Just Kids or Bob Dylan’s Chronicles. They also exist for both the mouth-breathing, moisty-palmed […]Archive
March 3, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Gabrielle Union: We’re Going To Need More Wine
We’re Going To Need More Wine: Stories Gabrielle Union Dey Street Books A memoir – in stories, We’re Going To Need More Wine is candid, well written. It’s both funny and heart-breaking. You know Gabrielle Union from so many movies and TV shows – but she was the ugly duckling at school, or so she […]Archive
February 28, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Art Garfunkel: What Is It All But Luminous
What Is It All But Luminous: Notes From An Underground Man Art Garfunkel Knopf; First Edition edition Something like starting from the beginning feels like the right thing to do… Do you remember that clip of Art Garfunkel talking absolute-fucking-balderdash between takes in the studio? For his memoir he’s essentially done the same thing. Why […]Archive
February 26, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Teju Cole: Blind Spot
Blind Spot Teju Cole Random House Award-winning novelist, essayist and journalist Teju Cole here provides an innovative, masterful meditation on the way we see things; the relationship/s between words and images. Blind Spot is all at once a set of micro-essays, a photography book, a travel diary and yet it transcends all – stands on […]Archive
February 18, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill
Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: With a Reflection by Zadie Smith Jerry Dantzic Thames & Hudson; 1 edition Less a review, more a recommendation – though sometimes one exist for exactly the other – this book of Billie Holiday photographs is a must-see/read for fans of the singer, the era; for fans of beautiful black […]Archive
January 25, 2018 by Simon Sweetman