Reckless: My Life as a Pretender by Chrissie Hynde (audio)
I started listening to this one after our own KMS mentioned it in the first blog post. Wow. Whenever you think that rich, famous people have it made and have happy lives, listen to a memoir. Hynde calls herself dumb so many times. Even when she got a good grade in a high school class, she says, "There's an outside chance I was actually good at calligraphy, but I doubt it."
As she matured and as things started to come together for her musically, she began to sound more confident. I'm almost finished with this one, and it's been really interesting. The trivia she throws in is great--like that "brass in pocket" is a bit of slang she heard when someone needed to borrow money.
Wilkie Collins: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd (audio)
I've only read one Wilkie Collins book--The Woman in White--but this biography whets my appetite for more. Collins, who had Charles Dickens as mentor (after a fashion), kept two households with two women (and married neither of them) and was a feminist before feminism was cool.
Fun fact: Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker's oldest child, James Wilkie, is named after Wilkie Collins.
The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff
Stacy Schiff, I'm going to forgive you for Cleopatra*. This retelling of the Salem Witch Trials is quite interesting.
Wildflower by Drew Barrymore (audio)
Y'all know how I love a celebrity memoir. The only thing that would make this better is if I could read something that goes with it, like when I read Laura Ingalls/Mary Ingalls/Nellie Olesen's memoirs all in a row. (Summation: Mary was a real bitch. And Laura, really, who divorces Bruce Boxleitner? Come on. Only Nellie's book made me like her more.)
Y'all know how I love a celebrity memoir. The only thing that would make this better is if I could read something that goes with it, like when I read Laura Ingalls/Mary Ingalls/Nellie Olesen's memoirs all in a row. (Summation: Mary was a real bitch. And Laura, really, who divorces Bruce Boxleitner? Come on. Only Nellie's book made me like her more.)
All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani (audio)
This one's next in the audio queue.
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Career of Evil is the third book in the Cormoran Strike series. I like mysteries, and so often the prose is cringeworthy even when the story is good. But this series isn't like that, and I'm enjoying this one as much as the first two.
Slade House by David Mitchell
Mitchell's last book, The Bone Clocks, made me very paranoid about keeping photos and music in the Cloud. Will this book introduce a new paranoia? Wait and see!
The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor
Fictionalized Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? Yes, please.
What are all of you reading? Have you read any of these?
*Cleopatra was only the second univerally hated choice in my Nashville book club. (The first being The Tattooed Girl. I will never read another Joyce Carol Oates book.)
I am in a severe reading slump right now, but seeing your list has inspired me. Here's something I think would be an interesting read (Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, and the sequels, are some of my very favorite books):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/2015/10/28/450887696/a-new-alcott-emerges-from-the-annotated-little-women?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2053
That looks good! Like a really classy pop-up video.
DeleteI am keeping my grudge for Stacy Schiff but I want to know all your fun facts especially when they involve dogs practicing witchcraft!
ReplyDeleteDoes Adriana read her book because I would love for that to be my first audio book. I'm still thinking about how much I enjoyed hearing her speak at Salon 615.
I loved the first Robert Galbraith book and have the second one on my to-read list. Now, I'm getting further behind.
Every time (not often) I hear the names Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, I think of my favorite movie--You've Got Mail. After proofreading, that seems like a very random odd statement. Oh well! I'll be on the lookout for your Goodreads review of that one.
You know what's weird about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? They looked so old, and they were just...our age. (I paraphrase but did not even have to look that up.)
DeleteAdri does not read her book. The reader does a good Southern accent for Loretta Young's mom, so I give her extra points for that.
That Cleopatra book is hard to forgive, but I'm so fascinated by Salem and witchcraft. I definitely want to know how that one is as you get more into it!
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