On My Radar:

Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema
by Lindy West
Hachette Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author Lindy West was once the in-house movie critic for Seattle’s alternative newsweekly The Stranger, where she covered film with brutal honesty and giddy irreverence. In Shit, Actually, Lindy returns to those roots, re-examining beloved and iconic movies from the past 40 years with an eye toward the big questions of our time: Is Twilight the horniest movie in history? Why do the zebras in The Lion King trust Mufasa-WHO IS A LION-to look out for their best interests? Why did anyone bother making any more movies after The Fugitive achieved perfection? And, my god, why don’t any of the women in Love, Actually ever fucking talk?!?! 

From Forrest Gump, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and Bad Boys II, to Face/Off, Top Gun, and The Notebook, Lindy combines her razor-sharp wit and trademark humor with a genuine adoration for nostalgic trash to shed new critical light on some of our defining cultural touchstones-the stories we’ve long been telling ourselves about who we are. At once outrageously funny and piercingly incisive, Shit, Actually reminds us to pause and ask, “How does this movie hold up?”, all while teaching us how to laugh at the things we love without ever letting them or ourselves off the hook.

Shit, Actually is a love letter and a break-up note all in one: to the films that shaped us and the ones that ruined us. More often than not, Lindy finds, they’re one and the same.

In My TBR Stack:

Primal Calling
by Barry Eisenberg
Pegasus Publishing / Vanguard Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

While rummaging through the attic, high school senior, Jack Davies, is surprised to find his never-before-seen birth certificate, revealing a startling bit of information that changes his life. The story his mother told about his birth, he discovers, is revealed to be a lie, shattering long-held beliefs and the trust he had for her. Jack becomes obsessed with discovering the truth, leading him down a dangerous path. Faced with unanswered questions and confounding obstacles at every turn, Jack finds himself deeply enmeshed in an intricate world of national security and international intrigue. Relationships are tested as his every move is tracked by a group of mysterious people. Who are they? Whose side are they on? Who can he trust? And, most importantly, who will he ultimately become?

In My TBR Stack:

Eris Rising: A Memoir of Finding the Warrior Within
by Courtney Ramm
Acorn Publishing
Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

Warrior’s aren't born, they are forged from the harsh experiences that shape them as they strive to defend what is sacred and true. And geniuses aren’t born either—or are they? Courtney Ramm would know, as she’s one of 229 offspring born from the controversial “Genius Sperm Bank”, a genetic experiment that existed in the 1980s and ‘90s. 

With a predisposition for “genius”, Courtney found herself driven toward success. Following her passion for dance, by the age of eight she was studying at the renowned School of American Ballet and soon thereafter, performing on New York’s greatest stages. At twenty-five years old, she acted upon a strong inner calling to start her own dance company—in Hawaii.

 

Moving across the globe from the concrete jungle of Manhattan to the tropical jungle in Hawaii, Courtney brought along her endless to-do lists and a strong determination to succeed. But one thing was missing from the picture-perfect life she had imagined: a perfect husband.

 

When she first locked eyes with Marcus at a spiritual gathering, she sensed something was off in the uncanny intensity of his stare. But she dove into a relationship anyway, not grasping the graveness and outright danger of the decision.

 

Eris Rising is a story of breaking deep karmic patterns, grappling with the calling of destiny, and changing long-held karma into mission. With the powerful feminine warrior spirit of Eris as inspiration, this memoir shows how it’s possible to move forward after life-altering “mistakes”, and recover the true “genius” within.

On My Radar:

Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing
by Peter Guralnick
Little, Brown & Company
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

It covers old ground from new perspectives, offering deeply felt, masterful, and strikingly personal portraits of creative artists, both musicians and writers, at the height of their powers.

“You put the book down feeling that its sweep is vast, that you have read of giants who walked among us,” rock critic Lester Bangs wrote of Guralnick’s earlier work in words that could just as easily be applied to this new one. And yet, for all of the encomiums that Guralnick’s books have earned for their remarkable insights and depth of feeling, Looking to Get Lost is his most personal book yet. For readers who have grown up on Guralnick’s unique vision of the vast sweep of the American musical landscape, who have imbibed his loving and lively portraits and biographies of such titanic figures as Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, and Sam Phillips, there are multiple surprises and delights here, carrying on and extending all the themes, fascinations, and passions of his groundbreaking earlier work.

IN My TBR Stack:

Flashback Girl: Lessons on Resilience from a Burn Survivor
by Lise Deguire, Psy.D
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

At the age of four, Dr. Lise Deguire suffered third-degree burns on 65% of her body as the result of both maternal and corporate negligence. Against the odds, she lived through the trauma, beginning decades of treatment as a burn survivor…and this is just part of her compelling story.

 

Dr. Deguire brings you into the dysfunctional and tragic world of her family, which includes artistic genius, narcissistic and neglectful parents, eccentricity, and four suicides. Most importantly, she explains her long but ultimately triumphant path towards love, health, and life satisfaction.

​

Some chapters of this gripping life journey focus on early events, including the story of the fire, her years of hospitalization for reconstructive surgeries, bullying, and social isolation. Other chapters focus on her adult life, such as her struggles to find romantic love, being a parent, and her work as a clinical psychologist.

 

The voice of Flashback Girl is warm and engaging. Despite the seriousness of the subject, the tone of the memoir is positive and humorous, without self-pity. This book inspires those who suffer life’s challenges to maintain hope and to keep pushing on despite seemingly insurmountable hurdles. 

In My TBR Stack:

Dying with Ease: A Compassionate Guide to Making Wiser End-of-Life Decisions
by Jeff Spiess, MD
Rowman & Littlefield
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

We all know we are going to die, but live as though we don’t believe it. Rather than explore our options and consider the possibilities that can impact our final days, we ignore the idea altogether out of fear. By avoiding the topic of death, we increase the pain and grief we experience at the end of life, and the suffering of those left behind. 

After three decades of caring for the dying, Dr. Jeff Spiess argues that if we honestly face our mortality, we will make wiser decisions, die with less distress, and live the remainder of our lives, whether days or decades, more fully and with less anxiety. Using cultural and religious references alongside poignant narratives, this optimistic work informs, inspires, and challenges our cognitive and emotional understandings of our own lives and deaths.

Dying with Ease contains the practical nuts and bolts information about advance care planning, hospice, palliative care, and ethical and legal issues surrounding dying in America. Dr. Spiess answers such questions as: 

• How can I plan for the last part of my life?
• What options do I have if my suffering is unbearable?
• What do religion and spiritual philosophy have to say about dying?
• What does it feel like to die? 

While dying can be difficult, it can also be beautiful. By learning to relax in the face of death at our current stage of life, we can make wiser and more authentic decisions throughout the rest of our lives-- however long they may be.

In My TBR Stack:

Coronavirus Crash, Money & Survival
by Mike Janko
Bookonmoney.com
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, your livelihood, money and entire way of life have come under assault. "Coronavirus Crash, Money & Survival is a critical and groundbreaking book to help you navigate today's extraordinary and dangerous events and threats.

Because of today's multiple crises, you must drastically rethink how you earn, live, spend, invest, and save, how you think about money, economics, and politics, and ultimately how you and your family will survive the coming decades. No book dealing comprehensively with today's multiple crises, your money, and survival has been written before, so Coronavirus Crash is your must have read for coping and surviving. 

In My TBR Stack:

 My Epidemic: An AIDS Memoir of One Man's Struggle as Doctor, Patient, and Survivor

by Andrew M. Faulk, M.D.

Culbertson Publications

Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

  When young Dr. Andrew Faulk first learned he was HIV-positive, he was devastated for it certainly meant imminent death. Until then, he’d been an outstanding young physician with years of intensive training. That day, without warning, he faced the great divide of his life. Due to the rigors and stress of training, he considered abandoning his medical career. But, instead, he dedicated the remainder of his life to the fight against AIDS, ultimately participating in the care of approximately 50 patients who died, many his own peers, including his partner. Being HIV-positive, Faulk discovered something other doctors didn’t experience—in every patient he cared for, whatever the symptoms, he saw himself. As patients and friends died around him, at any time he, too, could have “stepped off the earth.” Yet with intuition, insight and compassion, he brought peace and comfort whenever possible to those he called “my guys.” After a long silence he recounts those heroic years and tells this, his true story as doctor, patient and survivor.

On My Radar:

Fast Forward, Play, and Rewind
by Michael Oberman
Backbeat Books
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

The Doors, James Brown, the Grateful Dead, the Sir Douglas Quintet, David Bowie-the list goes on. . . . From 1967 to 1973, Michael Oberman interviewed more than three hundred top musical artists. Collected together for the first time, Fast Forward, Play and Rewind presents more than one hundred interviews Oberman conducted with the most important musical artists of the day.

Along the way, Oberman touches on the influence of his brother, who interviewed the Beatles and other top artists from 1964 to 1967. He also recounts stories from his later career working for the major Warner-Elektra Atlantic recording company and producing concerts for Cellar Door Productions and managing recording artists.

Want to know the true story of how David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust? That and dozens more true tales that might seem like fiction are waiting inside the pages of Fast Forward, Play and Rewind. Each short interview is an invitation for readers to relive (or live for the first time) one of the greatest periods in rock 'n' roll history. 

On My Radar:

Do You Feel Like I Do?: A Memoir
by Peter Frampton with Alan Light
Hachette Books
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

Do You Feel Like I Do? is the incredible story of Peter Frampton’s positively resilient life and career told in his own words for the first time. His monu-mental album Frampton Comes Alive! spawned three top-twenty singles and sold eight million copies the year it was released (more than seventeen million to date), and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in January 2020.

Frampton was on a path to stardom from an early age, first as the lead singer and guitarist of the Herd and then as cofounder — along with Steve Marriott — of one of the first supergroups, Humble Pie. Frampton was part of a tight-knit collective of British ’60s musicians with close ties to the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the Who. This led to Frampton playing on George Harrison’s solo debut, All Things Must Pass, as well as to Ringo Starr and Billy Preston appearing on Frampton’s own solo debut. By age twenty-two, Frampton was touring incessantly and finding new sounds with the talk box, which would become his signature guitar effect.

Frampton remembers his enduring friendship with David Bowie. Growing up as schoolmates, crossing paths throughout their careers, and playing together on the Glass Spider Tour, the two developed an unshakable bond. Frampton also shares fascinating stories of his collaborative work with Harry Nilsson, Stevie Wonder, B. B. King, and members of Pearl Jam. He reveals both the blessing and curse of Frampton Comes Alive!, opening up about becoming the cover boy he never wanted to be, his overcoming substance abuse, and how he has continued to play and pour his heart into his music despite an inflammatory muscle disease and his retirement from the road.

Peppered throughout his narrative is the story of his favorite guitar, the Phenix, which he thought he’d lost in a fiery plane crash in 1980. But in 2011, it mysteriously showed up again — saved from the wreckage. Frampton tells of that unlikely reunion here in full for the first time, and why the miraculous reappearance is emblematic of his life and career as a quintessential artist.

In My TBR Stack:

Born Under the Gaslight: A Memoir of My Descent Into Borderline Personality Disorder
by Cindy Collins
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

“What will the neighbors think?” “Keep your voice down, or the neighbors will hear you screaming.” I never knew The Neighbors, but, more importantly, they never knew my family. Right next door was a house of horror, and they indeed never knew. This is the story that was carefully concealed from you. This is the story that can happen even if you do grow up with neighbors watching.

From author Cindy Collins comes an unblinkingly honest, poignant, and often heartbreaking firsthand account of what it’s like to live with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) . . . and the pervasive trauma she endured as a child that led to her descent into the dark world of BPD. Gaslighted by her mother—who cultivated an outward appearance of being the perfect wife and mother—Cindy suffered ongoing sexual abuse by multiple family members, abandonment, and cruelty at the hands of the one person who should have loved and protected her most. The resulting fits of rage, extreme thinking, difficulty maintaining relations, and depression would set Cindy on a path of destruction until she finally found the hope and courage to fight her demons.

Chronicling her childhood of abuse, her diagnosis of BPD in her twenties, and her ultimate road to recovery, Born Under the Gaslight is a memoir like none you have ever read before. Offering a rare and insightful glimpse into the inner struggles of someone who lives with BPD, Born Under the Gaslight is a must-read for therapists, others living with BPD, and anyone wanting to understand the complexities of BPD and how to offer practical and emotional support. 

On My Radar:

Out of My Mind: Not Quite a Memoir
by Alan Arkin
Viva Editions
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Alan Arkin has starred on Broadway, TV, over sixty films, and has won almost every acting award in North America.  In this, his ninth published book, with his characteristic wry humor, he digs into his long time search for meaning past the seductive glamour of show business.  By the time he was in his early thirties, his career was in full bloom and he had achieved everything he’d ever thought he wanted, only to find that it was not what he had hoped for. Something was missing, himself. In Out of My Mind, Arkin speaks openly about the existential crisis which brought him from analysis to the serious study of Eastern Philosophy and several teachers who helped him revise his views on almost everything. In this sort-of-memoir, the eighty-six-year-old actor tells of the adventures, which, as a direct result of decades of meditation, shook his conception of reality and brought him to a new, exciting, and expanded view of what is out there, and the endless, mind-boggling adventure into what is possible–not just for himself but for all the rest of us. 

In My TBR Stack:

The Entrepreneur's Faces: How Makers, Visionaries, and Outsiders Succeed
by Jonathan Littman and Susanna Camp
Snowball Narrative Press
Trade Paperback

From the book website:

Are entrepreneurs born or made? The answer is both, as we reveal in this book. Nearly anyone can learn to be more entrepreneurial in their lives and work, and really, why wouldn’t you want that extra innovation edge?

Entrepreneurs come in different types, and with that discovery comes power. Knowing which archetype you are can provide the spark that makes the difference between success and failure. There’s an advantage to be gained in self-awareness. By figuring out who you are, you gain clarity about who you are not. Insights to help you think, adapt and act with heightened speed and purpose as you go through this journey.

This engaging book will help you identify the ten essential entrepreneurial types to propel your professional growth.