The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me: An Aristocratic Family, a High-society Scandal and an Extraordinary Legacy

by Sofka Zinovieff      (Get the Book)
After discovering a photograph of her grandparents—socialites Robert "the Mad Boy" Heber-Percy and Jennifer Fry—with both their newborn daughter and Robert's longtime and significantly older boyfriend, Lord Berners, journalist Zinovieff was determined to find out what brought them all to live together as an unconventional, yet brief, threesome at the lively Faringdon House. The intrigue surrounding these unusual and formidable individuals is an instant hook, which is only enhanced by their personal histories and struggles. The narrative is also peppered with many creatives of the time—artist Salvador Dalí and authors Evelyn Waugh and Gertrude Stein, to name but a few—who brought with them their own dramatic trysts and pasts during their visits to Faringdon. The cast of characters can feel overwhelming at times; however, brief confusion is well worth the tidbits gleaned from a group with such diverse sexual and political leanings. No one fit the social norm of 1930s and 1940s England, and readers will be eager to gobble up the next piece of gossip. VERDICT While highlighting eccentricities, glamour, and downright debauchery, Zinovieff is also able to capture the humanity in what is a fascinating and eye-opening ancestral history. --Library Journal

The Rainman's Third Cure: An Irregular Education

By Peter Coyote       (Get the Book)
Besides having an unusual upbringing—influenced greatly by a wealthy, angry father and depressed mother; a brave, smart, and thoughtful housekeeper; a taciturn, skilled groundskeeper; and bebop jazz player Buddy, who taught him that “life could be improvised”—actor-writer Coyote was an astute, remarkable young man, able to hear animals speak and aware, early on, of the separation of mind and body. But he was also crippled by a vow never to “play,” to compete. This engagingly written exploration of his life has a few, sometimes disorienting blank spaces, but those are “covered in detail,” Coyote points out, more than once, in his memoir Sleeping Where I Fall (1998), and readers may prefer to start there for the full story. Still, there’s plenty here, in anecdotes of caring for the hungry in his Digger kitchens in Haight-Ashbury, befriending and learning from Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Gary Snyder (and then following Buddhism for more than 40 years), becoming a respected actor, and raising his own family with the wisdom he carefully garnered as a youngster. --Booklist

Mashi

by Robert K. Fitts     (Get the Book)
Baseball has been and always will be a game of firsts—the first no-hitter, the first night game, the first African American to play in the major leagues. Hidden among those firsts is Masanori Murakami—Mashi—the first native of Japan to play in the major leagues. Called up from the minors in 1964, Mashi pitched only two years for the San Francisco Giants. In 1964 and 1965, he pitched in 54 big league games, all but one in relief, winning five and losing one with nine saves—far from Hall of Fame statistics. But Mashi's rise is a fascinating story, as much off the field as on. Baseball historian Fitts (Banzai Babe Ruth; Wally Yonamine) traces the evolution of baseball in Japan as well as the player's development. Mashi's two seasons with the Giants were closely followed with great pride in Japan, which Fitts so aptly details, meshing baseball with the social impact in America and Japan. He returned to Japan in 1966 and pitched in more than 550 games in a solid career. VERDICT A thoughtful baseball biography of interest to fans of the game, especially considering the increasing number of Japanese players at all levels. --Library Journal

Sartre: A Philosophical Biography

by Thomas R. Flynn    (Get the Book)
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Regarded as the father of existentialist philosophy, he was also a political critic, moralist, playwright, novelist, and author of biographies and short stories. Thomas R. Flynn provides the first book-length account of Sartre as a philosopher of the imaginary, mapping the intellectual development of his ideas throughout his life, and building a narrative that is not only philosophical but also attentive to the political and literary dimensions of his work. Exploring Sartre's existentialism, politics, ethics, and ontology, this book illuminates the defining ideas of Sartre's oeuvre: the literary and the philosophical, the imaginary and the conceptual, his descriptive phenomenology and his phenomenological concept of intentionality, and his conjunction of ethics and politics with an 'egoless' consciousness. (Publisher)

One Way Out: The Allman Brothers

by Alan Paul     (Get Book)

Perhaps no music journalist has written as extensively about the Allman Brothers Band as Paul, who has tracked the rock group’s career for 25 years. And his deep familiarity with the band and its music shows everywhere in this fluid account. Framed as an oral history, the biography includes extensive, insightful comments not only from band members but also from players at all levels of the music business, from loyal roadies to gifted producers (including the late Tom Dowd) to money-minded record-company executives. They take us through the milestones, from the early days, when the band crisscrossed the country in the dead of winter packed into an underheated van, to the cusp of massive success and the deaths of bandleader and guitarist Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley, to the group’s decision to soldier on in spite of the losses. From the beginning, Allman had a certain vision for his band that included two lead guitarists, two drummers, and the soulful, whiskey-soaked vocals of his brother, Gregg. Improbably, Duane spearheaded a long-haired, multiracial band in the Deep South in the late ’60s, but he was supremely confident, at the tender age of 23, that his blues-based music would transcend any barriers. Augmented by photos and fascinating sidebars, this candid oral history has appeal beyond the Allman Brothers Band’s loyal fan base. --Booklist

Stevie Nicks

by Zoe Howe      (Get the Book)
Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Stevie Nicks . . . the great female singers who fronted legendary rock bands constitute a list of off-the-hook personalities. This highly engaging biography of Stevie Nicks, whose electric and eccentric involvement in Fleetwood Mac led to her being dubbed by Rolling Stone the “Queen of Rock and Roll,” is written by a distinguished British music journalist. Factually full and consistently fascinating, the life story the author assembles is one of abiding dedication, frequent hurt, and ultimate triumph. Stevie came from Phoenix, and early in her life, she was at home in a fantasy world, plus she knew for a long time that her aim was to be a songwriter. She and boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham’s early musical collaboration led to the pair being absorbed into the British band Fleetwood Mac, and their star-crossed relationship became the stuff of rock legend as they spent more time in bitter public fighting than in harmony. The Mac’s climb to top-rung status held excitement for the members, but drugs and alcohol were definitely part of their scene. The band eventually dissolved (although recently it came together again for a concert tour), but Nicks has enjoyed a solo career in which she could continue to pour her haunting, soul-baring songs. It’s important for fans to note that “the chiffon-clad rock queen image was no stage act”; it has been her armor and confidence builder. And for us, it’s how we know and adore her. --Booklist

Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven

John Eliot Gardiner       (Get the Book)
As conductor of his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in more than 50 recordings of Bach's vocal works, Gardiner is the perfect performer to approach this repertory. This book should convince those who know only Bach's instrumental music to explore the heart of Bach's works, the cantatas, passions, and the B Minor Mass. The first half of the book explores the milieu of the irascible and stubborn Bach, who sought perfection in his music in the midst of difficult work conditions and the demands of church and family. Gardiner asks of himself interesting questions: What was life like in the Latin School in Thuringia where Bach studied and in the provincial towns where he worked? What was the theological environment in Bach's Leipzig? Interspersed are Gardiner's own comments on the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage that he made with his choir in 2000. Side studies into the scores themselves, the best being a description of the St. Matthew Passion autograph, are fascinating. For a study of Bach's life and works, Christoph Wolff's Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (CH, Sep'00, 38-0223) is best, but Gardiner's beautifully written and focused book is also a must for all lovers of Bach. -- Choice