On My Radar - Friday Edition

Even though I live in Nashville, the home of country music, I am not a huge country music fan. Like everyone, I have my own personal taste in music. The country music that I like tends to be either old school George Jones or Merle Haggard, or more contemporary folk-country like Nanci Griffith or Todd Snider. But I try to take each performer on their own merits.

To be honest, I haven't heard that much of the music of Chely Wright but I know of her. In reading the publicity about the book, she sounds like someone I'd like to read about:

In her memoirs, titled 'Like Me,' Chely traces her musical journey back to her childhood in Kansas. She chronicles her dreams and aspirations of a career in music, and the harsh realities of recording contracts and concert tours. Chely shares stories from her seven trips overseas to perform for U.S. troops, as well from as her friendships with stars like Vince Gill and Brad Paisley.

I think I'd like to read this book.

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http://chely.com/

http://www.randomhouse.com

On My Radar

Today's On My Radar is LIFE WOULD BE PERFECT IF I LIVED IN THAT HOUSE by Meghan Daum. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but, after many years in book retail I can tell you that people do. We all do. Book titles also grab us and I am not ashamed to say a book with a cute title will get my attention every time.

I used to change the furniture around in my bedroom several times a year. I would get bored with the layout and try to find the perfect way to display all my stuff. I didn't know about feng shui. I didn't know what I was doing was called "interior decorating." And I certainly didn't know all the jokes about guys who liked it.

But this book is about the house...not a home, the actual physical house. To be more precise: the perfect house. The ideal of it, the search for it and the dream of it making you whole.

I have never read Ms. Daum, but I just went to her website and subscribed to her column.

I want to read her book.

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http://www.meghandaum.com

http://www.randomhouse.com

What I'm Reading Now

I love her on the Daily Show with John Stewart and now I'm getting to know why she's so damn funny. So far I've learned that she was practically "allergic to the Sun" growing up, that she wanted to marry Jesus, and she was desensitized to porn by the time she was nine years old.

And I'm only on page 57.

I KNOW I AM, BUT WHAT ARE YOU? by Samantha Bee arrives June, 2010 from Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

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On My Radar

Having worked in many bookstores, the name Nathaniel Philbrick is to me synonymous with books about the sea: MAYFLOWER, SEA OF GLORY, IN THE HEART OF THE SEA. However, his forthcoming book (Due May 4th), THE LAST STAND: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, is the inside story of the famous battle which took place in eastern Montana Territory, near what is now the town of Crow Agency, Montana.

A late-blooming history buff, my interest in this book was whetted by this video, presented by the publisher:



There are a lot of people who think they know about the battle depicted in this book -- and a lot of what people think they know isn't true. This book promises to be a history lover's delight.

Kirkus, in a starred review, said: "A master storyteller’s vivid take on one of the most notorious military disasters in U.S. history." That's enough for me.....

I wanna read it.

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http://www.nathanielphilbrick.com/

http://www.us.penguingroup.com

After taking my sweet, savoring time through over 600 pages on the life of Willie Mays, it was only fair that I run full-tilt through an easy read. Jason Mulgrew delivers that and more in EVERYTHING IS WRONG WITH ME: A Memoir of an American Childhood Gone, Well, Wrong.

Mulgrew goes to pains describing himself as fat, pasty-white, pathetic and a loser. What he is, however, is a gifted humorist with a talent for self-deprecation. There were no less than two places in the book where I thought I was going to pass out from laughing so hard.

If you read my past reviews you will discover I have an affinity for funny memoirs. I am still in love with Diana Joseph. This book stands up well with any I've read. I have no problem suggesting this book if you like to laugh while you read. While being an easy read, this book is by no means simple. The author clearly grew up with an amazing cast of characters in his neighborhood and his eye for detail and the quirks of life serve the reader well.

Mulgrew has a popular blog (though I hadn't read it before the book), and it is bookmark-worthy in its own right. I look forward to getting my Mulgrew fix online while I wait for his next book.

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http://www.jasonmulgrew.com

http://www.harperperennial.com

Say.....Hey, this Book is Amazing

I have probably read over a hundred biographies in my life and I have to say that I just finished the best one I have ever read. WILLIE MAYS: The Life, The Legend by James S. Hirsch should be on every baseball fan's reading list.

I remember the tail end of Mays' career. The clearest memories I have are in the final year with the Mets. By this time, his peak years were way behind him and he was a shadow of his former self. However, as Hirsch makes very clear, Willie was a difference maker until the day he retired.

The detail within the book is a reflection of the research done (24 pages of Notes and 5 pages of Bibliography along with a 29 page index). But I have to say -- while most bios give you facts and historical context, Hirsch has succeeded in delivering a book which allows the reader into Willie Mays' head and into the heads of his friends, teammates and opponents. According to Hirsch, Willie still remembers in great detail events of particular games played more than three decades ago.

All of this is to say that this book is easily the most in-depth, thoroughly researched biography I have ever had the pleasure to read. I feel like I really know Willie Mays -- a man who lived as private a life as he could while simultaneously being probably the greatest baseball player who ever lived. (A case Hirsch makes.) And because I now "know" Willie Mays, I can announce: I really, really like him.

The Devil is in the Details

Being a non-fiction fan is to be reminded regularly of the adage, "truth is stranger than fiction." Some of the best non-fiction writing is to be found in the pages of our dwindling supply of magazines. Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, the New Yorker and others supply much of the best "true stories" out there.
To that end, David Grann, he of THE LOST CITY OF Z, has delivered a delectable collection of "Tales of murder, madness and obsession," entitled THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES.
I have said this before, but you know it's a good book when you put other books aside to finish it and that is the way it was with DEVIL.
Spanning the genre from the prison politics of white supremacists to the final baseball days of Rickey Henderson to the last heist of an elderly bank robber, this collection would make a great gift for the non-fiction fan in your life.
To be honest, I could spend the rest of my life reading this kind of book. And, you know what? I think I will.

http://www.davidgrann.com

http://www.doubleday.com

http://www.randomhouse.com

Honest Porno

I recently finished Kevin Sampsell's A COMMON PORNOGRAPHY and I have to say it is one of the most honest memoirs I have ever read. Sampsell writes with candor about his evolution from little boy to man.
The best way I have to describe this book is that it is like having a stranger sit down at your table and proceed to tell you dozens of little stories of things that have happened to him. Now, if just anyone did that it would likely become very old and boring very fast. But Sampsell writes with a flair for detail and with seemingly nothing held back. This is doubtlessly one of the most honest and confessional memoirs I have read.
Sampsell is a musician, publisher and bookseller -- a full life for anyone. This book is told, not in narrative style, but in a series of honest and hilarious vignettes.
This book is neither common nor pornographic but is definitely a book to read if you like memoirs.
I enjoyed having Kevin at my table.

http://www.kevinsampsell.com

http://www.harperperennial.com

Far from Perfect, Far from Doomed

I just finished Kyria Abrahams' I'm Perfect, You're Doomed, a book I've been wanting to read since it was released in early 2009. Thank Jehovah I wasn't disappointed.

Ms. Abrahams was raised a Jehovah's Witness, a particular denomination I didn't know much about except they handed out fliers that remind me of early reader books and that they don't vote. Now I know more than I ever expected to and I am relieved to discover that I feel neither perfect nor doomed.

As a side note, the JW's have been knocking on my door recently. And, thanks to my 91-year-old grandmother who lives with me, they've even been sitting on my sofa. I have been gently warning my grandmother that the "friends" she has met are actually not friends at all. But how do you tell a lonely, elderly lady that the seemingly nice people she has invited in are one day going to bare their teeth and announce that her Southern Baptist lifestyle is all for naught? How do I tell her that one day she will be told that she will die in Armageddon like the rest of the non Jehovah's Witnesses? I wish I could let her read this book, but it's not available in large print. So instead I have to be content to feed her tidbits of information like, "Nana, did you know your friends don't celebrate their birthdays," or "Nana, did you know Jehovah's Witnesses think that everyone except Jehovah's Witnesses are going to die and not receive eternal salvation?" This ploy seems to be working. She'll still talk to them but she'll put up her Southern Baptist dukes.

Also, I have a good friend who is a Jehovah's Witness. Luckily my personality is strong enough that this person will not try to "Bible Study" me. She and I have spirited debates and I am happy to report that, compared to the JW's described in Ms. Abrahams' book, she seems quite normal.

Regardless, if you've ever wondered what those non-voting, Watchtower peddling, door to door salesmen are all about, this is the book for you. A very, very funny and descriptive book. I put down one book I had already started an devoured this one in just a few days which is not my normal way of reading.

Get this book and thank Go...uh, Jehovah that you did.

Published by Touchstone
A Division of Simon & Schuster

http://www.simonandschuster.com

http://www.kyriaabrahams.com

Gonville by Peter Birkenhead

O.k., so I couldn't come up with even a remotely clever headline for this review.
As someone who grew up with a father who took his anger out on his family, I seem drawn to memoirs of bad dads. (See All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg).
Birkenhead tells in vivid detail his story of growing up with a gun-obsessed yet liberal father. The father in this memoir strikes me as a very complicated man. Throughout this engaging book, I got the feeling that there was a lot going on inside his head that no one could have known. However, this book is a masterful tale of what is going through the son's head while he tries to figure out the world around him.
The author was spared the brunt of the physical abuse, most of that going to his mother or three siblings. Birkenhead struggles with the why of that fact, finally guessing it is due to his ability to his skill at distracting his dad.
I don't like giving too many specific details from a book such as this. Suffice to say that if you like stories of families coming out the other end of tumultuous times, you will enjoy GONVILLE.
I know I did.

I'm Not Sorry at All

Public disclosure: I am in love with Diana Joseph. (I've never met her but I feel as if I have.)

I have just completed Diana Joseph's memoir I'm Sorry You Feel That Way --The astonishing but true story of a daughter, sister, slut, wife, mother, and friend to man and dog.

"Sorry" is an funny and bitingly honest look at Ms. Joseph's relationships with seemingly all the men she has ever come into contact with. I exaggerate but not by much.

We read of her father's admonition, "see, what happens is sometimes a girl will go with this one, and then she'll go with that one, and then she thinks what the hell, that one over there doesn't look so bad, why not go with that one, too." Apparently, she wanted to test dear ol' dad's theory. (I didn't put "slut" in the title!) In all seriousness, the "S word" is debated in hilarious detail by Joseph and her teenage son.

No male is safe from the sharpness of the wit. But the best moments are this mom's attempts to understand "the boy." Her son, despite her best attempts, develops political views 180 degrees from hers. This horrifies and intrigues her.

While reading this book, I imagined every mother and teenage son I've ever seen together. And then I imagined every one of those mother's having thoughts like Ms. Joseph. And then, strangely, I felt better about this planet.

I am in love with Diana Joseph. Read this book and you will be also.

http://dianajoseph.net

http://imsorryyoufeelthatway.blogspot.com

Positively Side-Splitting

I have read two of Augusten Burrough's books now and, despite myself, I am drawn to his achingly honest autobiographical style. When Burroughs is on his game, as he mostly is here, the reader is taken on a voyeuristic tour of an absurd life closely examined.

We all have strange things happen to us throughout our lives, but, if you're like me, most of them are filed away in our memories until some other event reminds us of them. Burroughs seems to remember every crazy thing that has ever happened to him and in vivid detail.

This book is funny and, at times, poignant. There were a few times I felt a little unsettled by the brutal honesty, but that is what you get with him. I enjoyed this book -- due in small part to the realization that no matter how weird my life gets, I could never top his.

http://augusten.com

http://us.macmillan.com/smp.aspx

New This Week

The only book on my radar this week is THE FORTY YEARS WAR: The Rise and Fall of the Neocons, from Nixon to Obama by Len Colodny and Tom Shachtman.

As a political junkie and a decided foe of the neocon belief system (the actual one not the stated one), I want to read this book. Published by Harper Collins, it'll be in stores on Tuesday.