I have seen Bruce in concert but I am not an obsessive fan and haven’t read his autobiography, although I bet one of my brothers-in-law owns it. However, I have read Born to Rock by the irrepressible Gordon Korman (2006). In this book, Leo Caraway, a Harvard-bound Young Republican, learns that his biological father is a famous punk rocker, so decides to become a roadie for his father’s band Purge for a summer reunion tour, with many crazy antics resulting.
Born is the link to an oldie, Born in Fire by bestselling Nora Roberts (1995). This is part of a series that built her reputation, set in Ireland, with a heroine who manages a B&B. When an American writer arrives, hoping for isolation to write his next book, he gets more than he bargained for with his attractive hostess.
My next link is fire. Kristin Cashore’s Fire (2009) is an enthralling book about a young woman with a wild appearance and hair the color of flame. She is the last remaining human monster, fearful of her skills and heritage, but cannot refuse when asked to use her mind-probing abilities to save her homeland. This was a five-star book for me!
More fire! Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (2017) was a huge bestseller with a recent miniseries. It’s about secrets and how an artist and her daughter move to town and upend the lives of the Richardson family.
Little led me to These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1943), my favorite of the Little House books.* I love reading about Mary going to a college for the blind, Laura teaching school, Almanzo courting her with buggy rides, and how Ma accuses her of marrying Almanzo for his horses.
The final link is years. Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles (1997) is generally considered one of the best rock music biographies because it is based on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews of McCartney over a period of five years, so uses his own words, and was written by someone who knew him nearly from the beginning. For Beatles fans, it’s a real insider’s look at the brilliance of McCartney and Lennon, with Paul’s memories of every song:
PAUL: John had the title and he had the first verse. It started off very Alice in Wonderland: 'Picture yourself in a boat, on the river …' It's very Alice. Both of us had read the Alice books and always referred to them, we were always talking about 'Jabberwocky' and we knew those more than any other books really. And when psychedelics came in, the heady quality of them was perfect. So we just went along with it. I sat there and wrote it with him: I offered 'cellophane flowers' and 'newspaper taxis' and John replied with 'kaleidoscope eyes'. I remember which was which because we traded words off each other, as we always did ... And in our mind it was an Alice thing, which both of us loved.
Next month (May 6, 2023), we’ll start with Hydra by Adriane Howell. It’s the date of King Charles III’s coronation so I wondered if Kate would pick something royal – maybe next time!
* The Long Winter is a close second but at the moment I am quite tired of winter.
* The Long Winter is a close second but at the moment I am quite tired of winter.
I've made a note of Fire, it's a book that's new to me but I love the sound of it. My reading of The Little House on the Prairie books ended with The Long Winter, some years ago, so I need to get back to them. They lived in Kansas didn't they? I think that's the region for May for my Read Around the USA challenge so I could read one of those.
ReplyDeleteLittle House on the Prairie is set in Kansas. I really think The Long Winter and the two that follow are the best (and I think they are all in your guest room!) and are short reads.
ReplyDeleteFire is extremely good but so is its predecessor, Graceling, which you should probably read first. I have been disappointed in her more recent books but those two were so good I bought them after getting them from the library and my sisters and mother both liked them too. They're recent enough that your library might have them as ebooks - have you tried this?
I always love reading these posts, and yes, I liked how you started with Bruce and ended with Paul. Nice arc. I've read Little Fires Everywhere and, of course, These Happy Golden Years, which I also loved best of all the LH books. I'm not much of a fantasy reader but Fire is appealing, and with a 5-star endorsement, I might check it out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for including the snippet about how Paul and John worked together. Very interesting.
Apparently, I really need to read Many Years From Now, since I have read all of the other books! My favorite LHOTP book was always Little Town on the Prairie, because of the sewing. Or maybe just the fact that I took a paperback with me when my family vacationed in the summer of 1977. Fun reading exercise!
ReplyDeleteEvery month when I see your Six Degrees post I regret that I did not make the effort to do it. Maybe next month.
ReplyDeleteIt was really good that you could end the chain at Paul McCartney. That does sound like a very good book.
Very cool that you got to Paul McCartney in the end! Lovely chain.
ReplyDeleteGood one. I even read one of your books, the one by Laura Ingalls Wilder. And my Six Degrees of Separation were all about music. They took me from Born to Run to Number One in Heaven by Jeremy Simmonds.
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