On My Radar:

Confess: The Autobiography
by Rob Halford
Hachette Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Most priests hear confessions. This one is making his.

Rob Halford, front man of global iconic metal band Judas Priest, is a true “Metal God.” Raised in Britain’s hard-working, heavy industrial heartland, he and his music were forged in the Black Country. Confess, his full autobiography, is an unforgettable rock ‘n’ roll story-a journey from a Walsall council estate to musical fame via alcoholism, addiction, police cells, ill-fated sexual trysts, and bleak personal tragedy, through to rehab, coming out, redemption . . . and finding love.

Now, he is telling his gospel truth.

Told with Halford’s trademark self-deprecating, deadpan Black Country humor, Confess is the story of an extraordinary five decades in the music industry. It is also the tale of unlikely encounters with everybody from Superman to Andy Warhol, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and the Queen. More than anything else, it’s a celebration of the fire and power of heavy metal. 

Rob Halford has decided to Confess. Because it’s good for the soul. 

On My Radar:

The Q Factor: The Elusive Search for the Next Great NFL Quarterback
by Brian Billick and James Dale
Twelve Books

Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

There are elite athletes in every sport — people who possess tangible and intangible qualities that allow them to overcome daunting odds, spot opportunity in the midst of adversity, and turn defeat into victory. No position embodies this dynamic more than football quarterbacks, and nothing is a greater test of performance than the NFL.

The tangibles — metrics, stats, ratings, bowl games, championships — are critical to evaluation. But they’re not enough. Every year, highly rated college quarterbacks are analyzed, critiqued, hyped up and/or doubted, and those who manage to survive the scrutiny are drafted early. Some of those early picks make it to the top, some end up journeymen, and some just wash out. Why? What separates the elites from the pack?

In THE Q FACTOR, former NFL coach Brian Billick takes the highly promising 2018 NFL quarterback Draft class — the most touted class since 2004 (Manning, Roethlisberger, Rivers) and 1983 (Elway, Kelly, Marino) — and measures the top five quarterback picks to gauge how, why, and if they succeed. They are all first rounders, all with sterling college credentials, all talented athletes, all taken by teams betting their futures. One or maybe two could go on to greatness. But which ones, and why? Could the prediction process be better? Are the “experts” looking at the wrong factors? How do we find the best of the best?

That’s what THE Q FACTOR explores…and finally explains.

In My TBR Stack:

Mending America's Political Divide: People Over Partisan Politics
by Rene H. Levy PhD
USA Peoplehood Press
Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

What does science tell us about the palpable level of hatred that exists between left and right in America? In MENDING AMERICA’S POLITICAL DIVIDE, prominent neuroscientist Rene Levy tells us why political hatred is our most dangerous emotion, the nuclear weapon of the mind.  The unique potency of political hatred emboldens us to view large groups of people impersonally enough to wage physical war against them, and makes us even more susceptible to propaganda from our own side that nearly consumes our daily lives. 

Levy tells us why a growing number of Americans have now devolved into using the most corrosive and primitive part of their brains.  Our “primitive brains” feed hatred, contempt, paranoia and feelings of moral superiority. When the primitive brain perceives a threat, real or imagined, it gets activated immediately and shuts off our capacity for empathy.  Empathy limits our cruelty.

How can this problem—which isn’t going to magically disappear no matter who wins the election in November—begin to be solved? Levy dispenses with the finger-pointing and instead forces us to take a closer look at how we play into the drama, asking the tough questions that we have to answer about ourselves first, before we can engage in thoughtful dialogue with others.

In My TBR Stack:

Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

by Gabrielle Robinson

She Writes Press

Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

After her mother’s death, Gabrielle Robinson found two diaries her grandfather had kept while serving as doctor during the fall of Berlin 1945. He recorded his daily struggle to survive in the ruined city—“I creep out at 10 o’clock at night to the clinic under whistling grenades and bombs, a wilderness of fire and dust, behind it, although already high in sky, the blood red moon”—and attempts to do what little he could for the wounded and dying without water, light, bedding, and medications. But then the diaries revealed something that had never been mentioned in her family, and it hit Robinson like a punch to the stomach: Api, her beloved grandfather, had been a Nazi.

In this clear-eyed memoir, Robinson juxtaposes her grandfather’s harrowing account of his experiences during the war with her memories of his loving protection years afterward, and raises disturbing questions about the political responsibility we all carry as individuals. Moving and provocative, Api’s Berlin Diaries offers a firsthand and personal perspective on the far-reaching aftershocks of the Third Reich—and the author’s own inconvenient past.

On My Radar:

My Life in the Purple Kingdom
by BrownMark
University of Minnesota Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In the summer of 1981, Mark Brown was a teenager working at a 7-11 store when he wasn’t rehearsing with his high school band, Phantasy. Come fall, Brown, now called BrownMark, was onstage with Prince at the Los Angeles Coliseum, opening for the Rolling Stones in front of 90,000 people. My Life in the Purple Kingdom is BrownMark’s memoir of coming of age in the musical orbit of one of the most visionary artists of his generation. Raw, wry, real, this book takes us from his musical awakening as a boy in Minneapolis to the cold call from Prince at nineteen, from touring the world with The Revolution and performing in Purple Rain to inking his own contract with Motown.

BrownMark’s story is that of a hometown kid, living for sunny days when his transistor would pick up KUXL, a solar-powered, shut-down-at-sundown station that was the only one that played R&B music in Minneapolis in 1968. But once he took up the bass guitar—and never looked back—he entered a whole new realm, and, literally at the right hand of Twin Cities musical royalty, he joined the funk revolution that integrated the Minneapolis music scene and catapulted him onto the international stage. BrownMark describes how his funky stylings earned him a reputation (leading to Prince’s call) and how he and Prince first played together at that night’s sudden audition—and never really stopped. He takes us behind the scenes as few can, into the confusing emotional and professional life among the denizens of Paisley Park, and offers a rare, intimate look into music at the heady heights that his childhood self could never have imagined.

An inspiring memoir of making it against stacked odds, experiencing extreme highs and lows of success and pain, and breaking racial barriers, My Life in the Purple Kingdom is also the story of a young man learning his craft and honing his skill like any musician, but in a world like no other and in a way that only BrownMark could tell it.

In My TBR Stack:

When the Red Gates Opened: A Memoir of China's Reawakening
by Dori Jones Yang
She Writes Press
Trade Paperback


From the publisher's website:

When China opened its doors in the 1980s, it shocked the world by allowing private enterprise and free markets. Dori Jones was among the first American correspondents to cover China under Deng Xiaoping, who dared to defy Maoist doctrine to try to catch up with richer nations. Though introverted, Dori used her fluency in Mandarin to get to know the ordinary people she met—people embracing opportunities that had once been unimaginable in China.

Soon, Dori fell for a Chinese man who had fled China with his family in 1949 and only recently returned. Together, they found the relatives his parents had left behind, who were just starting to hope for a better future. This euphoria—shared by American businesses and Chinese citizens alike—reached its peak in 1989, when a million peaceful protestors filled Tiananmen Square, demanding democracy. Dori lived that hope, as well as the despair that followed when the army opened fire. After Tiananmen, dejected and sure that the era of promising possibilities was over, she returned to America in 1990—only to watch as China resumed its growth.

Written in a time when China’s rapid rise is setting off fears in Washington, When the Red Gates Opened offers insight into the daring policies that started it all. 

In My TBR Stack:

The New Science of Narcissism: Understanding One of the Greatest Psychological Challenges of Our Time — and What You Can Do About It
by W. Keith Campbell, PhD
Sounds True Publishing
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Cut Through the Noise Around Narcissism with the Leading Researcher in the Field
 
“Narcissism” is truly one of the most important words our time—ceaselessly discussed in the media, the subject of millions of online search queries, and at the centerpiece of serious social and political debates. But what does it really mean?
 
In The New Science of Narcissism, Dr. W Keith Campbell pulls back the curtain on this frequently misused label, presenting the most recent psychological, personality, and social research into the phenomenon.
 
Rather than pathologizing all behaviors associated with the label, Campbell reveals that not only does narcissism occur on a spectrum, but almost everyone exhibits narcissistic tendencies in their day-to-day behavior. Drawing from real-life incidents and case studies, The New Science of Narcissism offers tools, tips, and suggestions for softening toxically selfish behaviors both in yourself and others. Here you will discover:

• An exploration of personality disorders connected with and adjacent to narcissism
• Why minor narcissistic tendencies are common in most people
• The foundational difference between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism
• Different psychological models of personality and how they interpret narcissistic behaviors
• The “recipe” of mental and emotional traits that combine into narcissism
• How to identify when you’re in a relationship with a narcissist and what you can do about it
• Why the 21st century has seen the rise of a “Great Fantasy Migration” into evermore insular subcultures
• The connection between narcissistic tendencies and leadership
• Why “the audience in your pocket” of social media has exacerbated culture-wide narcissistic tendencies

Though narcissism looms large in our cultural consciousness, The New Science of Narcissism offers many different options for understanding and treating it. With Campbell’s straightforward and grounded guidance, you’ll not only discover the latest and best information on the condition, but also a hopeful view of its future. 

On My Radar:

All About the Story: News, Power, Politics, and the Washington Post
by Leonard Downie, Jr.
Public Affairs Books
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

In 1964, as a twenty-two-year-old Ohio State graduate with working-class Cleveland roots and a family to support, Len Downie landed an internship with the Washington Post. He would become a pioneering investigative reporter, news editor, foreign correspondent, and managing editor, before succeeding the legendary Ben Bradlee as executive editor.

Downie’s leadership style differed from Bradlee’s, but he played an equally important role over more than four decades in making the Post one of the world’s leading news organizations. He was one of the editors on the historic Watergate story and drove coverage of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. He wrestled with the Unabomber’s threat to kill more people unless the Post published a rambling 30,000-word manifesto and he published important national security stories in defiance of presidents and top officials. He managed the Post‘s ascendency to the pinnacle of influence, circulation, and profitability, producing prizewinning investigative reporting with deep impact on American life, before the digital transformation of news media threatened the Post‘s future.

At a dangerous time, when health and economic crises and partisanship are challenging the news media, Downie’s judgment, fairness, and commitment to truth will inspire anyone who wants to know how journalism, at its best, works.

On My Radar:

Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime
by Debora Harding
Bloomsbury USA
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

One Omaha winter day in November 1978, when Debora Harding was just fourteen, she was abducted at knifepoint from a church parking lot. She was thrown into a van, assaulted, held for ransom, and then left to die as an ice storm descended over the city.

Debora survived. She identified her attacker to the police and then returned to her teenage life in a dysfunctional home where she was expected to simply move on. Denial became the family coping strategy offered by her fun-loving, conflicted father and her cruelly resentful mother.

It wasn't until decades later - when beset by the symptoms of PTSD- that Debora undertook a radical project: she met her childhood attacker face-to-face in prison and began to reconsider and reimagine his complex story. This was a quest for the truth that would threaten the lie at the heart of her family and with it the sacred bond that once saved her.
Dexterously shifting between the past and present, Debora Harding untangles the incident of her kidnapping and escape from unexpected angles, offering a vivid, intimate portrait of one family's disintegration in the 1970s Midwest.

Written with dark humor and the pacing of a thriller, Dancing with the Octopus is a literary tour de force and a groundbreaking narrative of reckoning, recovery, and the inexhaustible strength it takes to survive. 

On My Radar:

Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty
by Jeff Pearlman
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

In the history of modern sport, there have never been two high-level teammates who loathed each other the way Shaquille O’Neal loathed Kobe Bryant, and Kobe Bryant loathed Shaquille O’Neal. From public sniping and sparring, to physical altercations and the repeated threats of trade, it was warfare. And yet, despite eight years of infighting and hostility, by turns mediated and encouraged by coach Phil Jackson, the Shaq-Kobe duo resulted in one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history. Together, the two led the Lakers to three straight championships and returned glory and excitement to Los Angeles.  

 

In the tradition of Jeff Pearlman’s bestsellers Showtime, Boys Will Be Boys, and The Bad Guys Won, Three-Ring Circus is a rollicking deep dive into one of sports’ most fraught yet successful pairings.  

On My Radar:

Me and Sister Bobbie: Tales of the Family Band
by Willie Nelson & Bobbie Nelson with David Ritz
Random House
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:


Abandoned by their parents as toddlers, Willie and Bobbie Nelson found their love of music almost immediately through their grandparents, who raised them in a small Texas town. Their close relationship—which persists today—is the longest-lasting bond in both their lives.

In alternating chapters, this heartfelt dual memoir weaves together both their stories as they experienced them side by side and apart. The Nelsons share powerful, emotional moments from growing up, playing music in public for the first time, and facing trials in adulthood, as Willie pursued songwriting and Bobbie faced a series of challenging relationships and a musical career that took off only when attitudes about women began to change in Texas. The memoir is Bobbie’s first book, and in it she candidly shares her life story in full for the first time. Her deeply affecting chapters delve into her personal relationships and life as a mother and as a musician with technical skills that even Willie admits surpass his own. In his poignant stories, Willie shares the depth of his bond with his sister, and how that bond carried him through his most troubled moments. Willie and Bobbie have supported each other through unthinkable personal heartbreak, and they’ve always shared in each other’s victories. Through dizzying highs and traumatic lows, spanning almost nine decades of life, Willie and Bobbie have always had each other’s back.

Their story is an inspring, lyrical statement of how family always finds the way.  

On My Radar:

60 Stories about 30 Seconds: How I Got Away With Becoming a Pretty Big Commercial Director Without Losing My Soul (Or Maybe Just Part of It)

by Bruce Van Dusen
Post Hill Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

1977. New York City. Cool and crime-ridden, cheap and wild. Bruce Van Dusen shows up in town with a film degree and $150 to his name. He wants to make movies. So he does. The only ones anyone will pay him to make? Little ones. Thirty seconds long. Commercials. He has no idea what he’s doing and the money sucks. But he’s a director.

He quickly learns he has the two things he needs to succeed in the fickle world of commercial-making: a talent for telling short, emotional stories, and the hustle to fight for every job no matter how small. He still has no idea what he’s doing—not that anyone needs to know that. He just keeps making it up as he goes along.

He gets hired by a client on life support in the most depressing hospital in New York. Gets peed on by a lion. Abused by Charles Bronson. Explains peristalsis to a Tony winner. Makes a movie and goes to Sundance. Goes back to little movies when it bombs. Keeps hustling, shooting anything. Gets married, has kids. Pushes, shoves, survives. Gets divorced. Survives some more. Is an asshole, pays the price, finally learns when and how to be an asshole and becomes one of the industry’s stars.

Years go by and it’s not what he expected. It’s harder, weirder, and funnier. But it worked out. It worked out great, actually.

On My Radar:

Constant Comedy: How I Started Comedy Central and Lost My Sense of Humor
by Art Bell
Ulysses Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In 1988, a young, mid-level employee named Art Bell pitched a novel concept—a television channel focused 100% on just one thing: comedy—to the chairman of HBO. The station that would soon become Comedy Central, with celebrated programs like South Park, Chapelle’s Show, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, was born.

 

Constant Comedy takes readers behind the scenes into the comedy startup on its way to becoming one of the most successful and creative purveyors of popular culture in the United States. From disastrous pitch meetings with comedians to the discovery of talents like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, this intimate biography peers behind the curtain and reveals what it’s really like to work, struggle, and ultimately succeed at the cutting edge of show business.

On My Radar:

Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas
by Glenn Kenny
Read by Stephen Graybill
Hanover Square Press
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

When Goodfellas first hit the theatres in 1990, a classic was born. Few could anticipate the unparalleled influence it would have on pop culture, one that would inspire future filmmakers and redefine the gangster picture as we know it today. From the rush of grotesque violence in the opening scene to the iconic hilarity of Joe Pesci’s endlessly quoted “Funny how?” shtick, it’s little wonder the film is widely regarded as a mainstay in contemporary cinema.

In the first ever behind-the-scenes story of Goodfellas, film critic Glenn Kenny chronicles the making and afterlife of the film that introduced America to the real modern gangster—brutal, ruthless, yet darkly appealing, the villain we can’t get enough of. Featuring interviews with the film’s major players, including Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Made Men shines a light on the lives and stories wrapped up in the Goodfellas universe, and why its enduring legacy is still essential to charting the trajectory of American culture thirty years later.

 

In My TBR Stack:

Don't Look for Me
by Wendy Walker
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

They said she walked away. But what really happened to Molly Clarke? 
From the bestselling author of All Is Not Forgotten comes a compelling and emotionally powerful story of a daughter's desperate search to find her mother before it's too late.

They called it a “walk away.” The car abandoned miles from home. The note found at a nearby hotel. The shattered family. It happens all the time. Women disappear, desperate to start over. But what really happened to Molly Clarke?

The night Molly disappeared began with a storm, running out of gas, and a man offering her a ride to safety. But when the doors lock shut, Molly begins to suspect she has made a terrible mistake.

A new lead brings Molly’s daughter, Nicole, back to the small, desolate town where her mother was last seen to renew the desperate search. The locals are sympathetic and eager to help. The innkeeper. The bartender. Even the police. Until secrets begin to reveal themselves and Nicole comes closer to the truth about that night—and the danger surrounding her.

On My Radar:

A Better Man: A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son
by Michael Ian Black
Workman Publishing
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

In a world in which the word masculinity now often goes hand in hand with toxic, comedian, actor, and father Michael Ian Black offers up a way forward for boys, men, and anyone who loves them. Part memoir, part advice book, and written as a heartfelt letter to his college-bound son, A Better Man reveals Black’s own complicated relationship with his father, explores the damage and rising violence caused by the expectations placed on boys to “man up,” and searches for the best way to help young men be part of the solution, not the problem. “If we cannot allow ourselves vulnerability,” he writes, “how are we supposed to experience wonder, fear, tenderness?”

Honest, funny, and hopeful, Black skillfully navigates the complex gender issues of our time and delivers a poignant answer to an urgent question: How can we be, and raise, better men? 

In My TBR Stack:

The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience & Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World
by Shannon Huffman Polson
Harvard Business Review Press
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

What does it take for women to succeed in a male-dominated world? The Grit Factor. At age nineteen, Shannon Huffman Polson became the youngest woman ever to climb Denali, the highest mountain in North America. She went on to reach the summits of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Kilimanjaro and spent more than a decade traveling the world. Yet it was during her experience serving as one of the Army's first female attack helicopter pilots, and eventually leading an Apache flight platoon on deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina, that she learned the lessons of leadership that forever changed her life. Where did these insights come from? From her own crucibles of experience--and from other women. In writing "The Grit Factor," Polson made it her mission to connect with an elite pack of tough, impressive female iconoclasts who shared with her their candid stories of combat and career. This slate of decorated leaders includes Heather Penney, one of the first female F-16 pilots, who was put on a suicide mission for 9/11; General Ann Dunwoody, the first female four-star general in the Army; Amy McGrath, the first female Marine to fly the F/A-18 in combat and a 2020 candidate for the US Senate--and dozens of other unstoppable women who got there first, including Polson herself. These women led at the highest levels in the most complicated, challenging, and male-dominated organization in the world. Now, in the post-#MeToo era, when positive role models of women leading are needed as never before, Polson brings these voices together, sharing her own life lessons and theirs with storytelling flair, keen insight, and incisive analysis of current research. With its gripping narrative and relatable takeaways, "The Grit Factor" is both inspiring and pragmatic, a book that will energize and enlighten current and aspiring leaders everywhere--whether male or female.

Now in Paperback:

Rock Monster: My Life with Joe Walsh
by Kristin Casey
Rare Bird Books
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Far from bitter or self-pitying, Rock Monster is an honest account of one woman's life-changing experience in a relationship with rock legend Joe Walsh. At once envious, glamorous, debauched and disturbing, it's her long and winding journey from life in the fast lane to sobriety and redemption.

Set in the late-eighties and nineties, these are some of Walsh's darkest years, from spiraling addiction to a stunning comeback with the Eagles' Hell Freezes Over tour. Loaded with true stories never before heard, Rock Monster is essential reading for classic rock fans and anyone touched by addiction. Kristin Casey pulls no punches, sharing gritty details with self-awareness, humor, and affection. Sharply written, bold and incisive, it's the worldly-wise tome only an ex-addict, ex-stripper, and ex-rock-chick could give us.

In the tradition of women-in-rock survivor tales―think Marianne Faithful, Crystal Zevon, Jo Wood et al.―Kristin Casey pulls a veil on the enduring myth of the lifestyle's glamorous decadence. Rock Monster is a sexy, crazy, cautionary tale of two addicts in love without a single relationship skill.

On My Radar:

Inside the NRA: A Tell-All Account of Corruption, Greed, and Paranoia within the Most Powerful Political Group in America
by Joshua L. Powell
Twelve Books
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

Joshua L. Powell is the NRA–a lifelong gun advocate, in 2016, he began his new role as a senior strategist and chief of staff to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre.

What Powell uncovered was horrifying: “the waste and dysfunction at the NRA was staggering.”

INSIDE THE NRA reveals for the first time the rise and fall of the most powerful political organization in America–how the NRA became feared as the Death Star of Washington lobbies and so militant and extreme as “to create and fuel the toxicity of the gun debate until it became outright explosive.”

INSIDE THE NRA explains this intentional toxic messaging was wholly the product of LaPierre’s leadership and the extremist branding by his longtime PR puppet master Angus McQueen. In damning detail, Powell exposes the NRA’s plan to “pour gasoline” on the fire in the fight against gun control, to sow discord to fill its coffers, and to secure the presidency for Donald J. Trump. 

On My Radar:

Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece
by Dave Mustaine
Hachette Books
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

Rust in Peace details the making of Megadeth’s iconic record, which was released in 1990, at an incredible time of flux and creativity in the rock world. Relayed by the lead vocalist and guitarist of Megadeth himself, Dave Mustaine, the book covers the process of hiring the band and supporting cast, of trying to handle the ensuing success, and ultimately the pressure of fame and fortune — which caused the band to finally break-up. In short, it’s a true story of groundbreaking anti-pop that was moving toward the mainstream (or the mainstream that was moving toward the band), at a time of great cultural change, power, ego, drugs, and other vices that went hand-in-hand with Rock N’ Roll, circa the late eighties-early nineties.

Little did Mustaine know that the birth pangs of the record were nothing compared to the oncoming pain and torment that would surround it. Alcohol, drugs, sex, money, power, property, prestige, the lies the band was told by the industry — and the lies they told each other — were just beginning, and much like rust in real life, these factors would ultimately eat away at the band’s bond until only the music survived.

Rust in Peace is a story of perseverance, of scraping off the rust off that builds over time on everything: ourselves, our relationships, pop culture, art, and music. 

In My TBR Stack:

Act of Revenge: A Doc Brady Mystery
by John Bishop, MD
Mantid Press
Trade Paperback


From the author's website:

Plastic surgeon Lou Edwards’s life is complicated by two major issues.

One, his wife has lupus, possibly due to leaking silicone from breast implants Edwards himself inserted. And two, his malpractice insurance has been canceled, as it has been for many other plastic surgeons, due to the burgeoning breast implant problem.

But it gets worse.

Shortly after Edwards threatens an insurance company president on national TV, the president is found murdered in his penthouse.

Dr. Jim Bob Brady once again finds himself doing a bit of investigating, this time on behalf of a colleague. But how well does he know this colleague? Is the investigation worth the threat to Jim Bob’s own life? Will he discover that it was a burglary gone bad? A lover’s quarrel? Or is this an act of revenge?

On My Radar:

You've Never Heard Your Favorite Song: 100 Deep Cuts to Make Your World Sound Better
by Matthew Doucet
Cider Mill Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Let go of your musical biases and dive into the deep cuts that are what music is really about.

Let go of your musical biases and dive into the deep cuts that are what music is really about with You’ve Never Heard Your Favorite Song. From underground musicians to passed-over classics, your favorite song is out there waiting for you, you just need to go find it. Relearn what makes a song great and set those played out pop tunes on the back burner once and for all. The latest edition in the Curio series, this pocket-sized book is perfect for referencing on the go. So get reading to find out why you might not even know your favorite song yet, and why you should keep your musical mind open. 

On My Radar:

Proof of Corruption: Bribery, Impeachment, and Pandemic in the Age of Trump
by Seth Abramson
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In the third volume of his Proof series, New York Times bestselling author Seth Abramson takes readers on a deep dive into the Ukraine scandal, revealing it to be more sinister, complex, and transnational than previously thought. Abramson’s research on Trump administration corruption positions the Ukraine scandal as the foreseeable culmination of years of clandestine machinations involving scores of players, from Beijing to Budapest, Ankara to Caracas, Warsaw to Jerusalem, Kyiv to Riyadh, and Moscow to D.C. 

While many know about the July 2019 telephone call that ignited the Ukraine scandal, most don’t know about the concurrent attempts by members of Trump’s inner circle to take over Ukraine’s national gas company and bolster dangerous pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarchs—moves that would have benefited Putin and destabilized Ukraine’s government and economy.

In Beijing, Trump’s dealings with the Chinese government not only enriched him and his family, but also culminated in him successfully seeking 2020 election interference from Xi Jinping in the form of closely held information about Joe Biden. In Venezuela, many of the actors involved in the Ukraine scandal engaged in similarly secretive, Kremlin-friendly negotiations that undermined U.S. policy. In Syria and Iraq, Trump’s personal indebtedness to autocrats in Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE cost untold lives. And Abramson brings the story back to an increasingly fractured and depleted United States, where the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the staggering domestic consequences of the Trump administration’s foreign machinations.

In Proof of Corruption, Seth Abramson lays bare Trump’s decades-long pattern of corruption. This globe-spanning narrative is an urgent warning about the unprecedented threat posed by a corrupt president and his administration.

On My Radar:

Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump
by Peter Strzok
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

When he opened the FBI investigation into Russia’s election interference, Peter Strzok had already spent more than two decades defending the United States against foreign threats. His career in counterintelligence ended shortly thereafter, when the Trump administration used his private expression of political opinions to force him out of the Bureau in August 2018. But by that time, Strzok had seen more than enough to convince him that the commander in chief had fallen under the sway of America’s adversary in the Kremlin. 

In Compromised, Strzok draws on lessons from a long career—from his role in the Russian illegals case that inspired The Americans to his service as lead FBI agent on the Mueller investigation—to construct a devastating account of foreign influence at the highest levels of our government. And he grapples with a question that should concern every U.S. citizen: When a president appears to favor personal and Russian interests over those of our nation, has he become a national security threat? 

On My Radar:

The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi
by Richard Grant
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Natchez, Mississippi, once had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in America, and its wealth was built on slavery and cotton. Today it has the greatest concentration of antebellum mansions in the South, and a culture full of unexpected contradictions. Prominent white families dress up in hoopskirts and Confederate uniforms for ritual celebrations of the Old South, yet Natchez is also progressive enough to elect a gay black man for mayor with 91% of the vote.

Much as John Berendt did for Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the hit podcast S-Town did for Woodstock, Alabama, so Richard Grant does for Natchez in The Deepest South of All. With humor and insight, he depicts a strange, eccentric town with an unforgettable cast of characters. There’s Buzz Harper, a six-foot-five gay antique dealer famous for swanning around in a mink coat with a uniformed manservant and a very short German bodybuilder. There’s Ginger Hyland, “The Lioness,” who owns 500 antique eyewash cups and decorates 168 Christmas trees with her jewelry collection. And there’s Nellie Jackson, a Cadillac-driving brothel madam who became an FBI informant about the KKK before being burned alive by one of her customers. Interwoven through these stories is the more somber and largely forgotten account of Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, a West African prince who was enslaved in Natchez and became a cause célèbre in the 1820s, eventually gaining his freedom and returning to Africa.

Part history and part travelogue, The Deepest South of All offers a gripping portrait of a complex American place, as it struggles to break free from the past and confront the legacy of slavery.

 

On My Radar:

Red, White, and the Blues: A Long and Hard Ride Over Treacherous Terrain
by John R. Hall
Red, White, and the Blues Publishing, LLC
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

WARNING: if you are a Donald Trump minion . . . then this book is probably NOT for you. “KEEP THE SHINY SIDE UP” Biker, street performer, cab driver, magician, IT/IS specialist, long-haul trucker, soldier, and oil field worker John Richard “Little Ricky” Hall has done damn near everything in this life—and taken more than his fair share of hard knocks in the process. Red, White, and the Blues is both a riveting account of a fateful cross-country motorcycle ride and a searing indictment of the American dream. In 2011, North Dakota’s Bakken oil boom was turning the earth (literally) and men (figuratively) inside out, even as it generated unprecedented wealth. John R. Hall was on the verge of securing his future in the Bakken when a confrontation with a coworker led him to leave it all behind and head across the US on his Harley “Deuce.” Pursued by the screeching demons of abuse, financial distress, and his own tortured thoughts, John would find heartache and rough terrain on the open road—but also the kindness of strangers and sights of heartbreaking beauty. Part memoir, part collection of essays, part political treatise, Red, White, and the Blues is a must-read for motorcycle enthusiasts and anyone who’s struggled to find their place in the world. At turns funny, emotionally devastating, and incisive, Hall’s work will enthrall readers as he offers affecting commentary on racism, politics, and depression—as well as friendship and the incomparable freedom of riding long and hard. 

JOHN R. HALL is author of the HuntingForThompson.com writers blog. John studied journalism, communications, psychology, and the dramatic arts while attending City College in San Diego, California. A lifelong motorcycle enthusiast, John has been a street performer, cab driver, magician, IT/IS specialist, long-haul trucker, soldier, and oil field worker—all while struggling with PTSD, childhood abuse, parental abandonment, and dyslexia. At sixty-two, John now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he penned the stories of his travels while hoping to get back home to Seattle, Washington.

In My TBR Stack:

Fire and Vengeance: A Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery
by Robert McCaw
Oceanview Publishing
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Having killed his father’s nemesis and gotten away with it, Hilo, Hawai'i Chief Detective Koa Kāne, is not your ordinary cop. Estranged from his younger brother, who has been convicted of multiple crimes, he is not from a typical law enforcement family. Yet, Koa’s secret demons fuel his unwavering drive to pursue justice.

Never has Koa’s motivation been greater than when he learns that an elementary school was placed atop a volcanic vent, which has now exploded. The subsequent murders of the school’s contractor and architect only add urgency to his search for the truth.

As Koa’s investigation heats up, his brother collapses in jail from a previously undiagnosed brain tumor. Using his connections, Koa devises a risky plan to win his brother’s freedom. As Koa gradually unravels the obscure connections between multiple suspects, he uncovers a 40 year-old conspiracy. When he is about to apprehend the perpetrators, his investigation suddenly becomes entwined with his brother’s future, forcing Koa to choose between justice for the victims and his brother’s freedom.