Book Review: My First Guitar

Katie September 20, 2012 0 Comments

Book Review: For The Sender

Katie September 18, 2012 0 Comments

I’m not sure how to explain this book (and the fact that the “blurb” is nearly 500 words is not helping me any either as it tends to cover everything.)  But Alex is a musician and he decides to start writing songs about other people based on letters that they write him.  The book chronicles 4 of the letters he received and the songs that came from them.  It also tells a bit about Alex’s life and how he came to this point in his life after quitting his job and deciding that he wanted a dog and trees.

The content was a bit heavier than I was expecting – probably because by the time I actually got around to reading it was a long time after I had selected it from NetGalley. (It wouldn’t work on my Nook so I had to find the time to sit still at my computer and read it.  Easier said than done, I get easily distracted!)

All of the letters that inspired the songs are included and all of the lyrics to the songs that these letters created are included as well.  I am assuming that the hard versions include a CD as well since it says “CD Included” but unfortunately I only had an e-copy to read so I didn’t get to hear the songs for myself.

This was a touching story and a very interesting concept.  There is an address at the end where you can send a letter if you’d like for it to be considered to be turned in to a song.  It says that while they read every letter that they receive, they do not write based on all of the letters.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review. All opinions are my own.

About the Book

What if . . .
     . . . Grammy-winning songwriters, singers, and engineers, with millions of records sold, took your letters and turned them into songs?     After years of chasing his dreams, singer-songwriter Alex Woodard finally had a record deal and an album to promote. He offered to write a song for anybody who preordered his self-titled release; all they had to do was send him a letter about their story, and he would write and record a song just for them at his kitchen table.     The promotion came and went-and as the year wore on and the record deal fell apart, Alex watched his best friend, a Labrador named Kona, die in his living room with her head in his lap. Her passing shone a harsh light on how far away Alex really was from his dreams, and autumn found him trying to let go of both Kona and everything he thought would have happened by now.     And then he got a letter from Emily.     Emily had finally found the love of a soul mate, a true kindred spirit and best friend, when autumn took him away. Every year since his passing, she wrote him a letter to say that she missed him and remembered the beautiful moments they had together. She usually tucked the letter away into a box, since there was nowhere to send it, but this autumn she sent the letter to Alex.     She didn’t want Alex to write a song for her. She just felt like his songs were pieces of himself he gave to others, and she wanted to give him a piece of herself as her own kind of gift.     But Alex did write a song for her. And that song became two, then three, then eventually twelve as more letters came in and Alex showed them to a group of talented musicians who share “family dinners” in his San Diego neighborhood. The letters ranged from descriptions of unfathomable grief and destruction in Haiti to more intimate tales of being and belonging, which soon took on a life of their own through the songs.     He didn’t know it yet, but Emily’s letter had started Alex down his own path of moving through loss and reconciling broken dreams, culminating one cold December night on a small stage in suburban Atlanta. And he found out for himself that a song is like a letter, and a letter is like a prayer.      It’s more for the sender.

CD INCLUDED
Proceeds generated by the songs from each letter go to a cause of the sender’s choice.To learn more, visit: www.ForTheSender.com

Alex Woodard lives in a little beach town north of San Diego with a big brown dog named Stella.

Book Review: Cosmo’s Fifty-One Shades of Blonde

Katie September 16, 2012 0 Comments

Cosmo’s Fifty-One Shades of Blonde is a short novela that originally ran in the magazine, but has now been put into a book.  It is only about 31 pages, containing 5 chapters of a steamy relationship between a budding reporter and a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

This books is certainly aimed at more… mature audiences… if you get what I am saying and if you enjoyed the blockbuster hit Fifty Shades of Grey than I think you will have no problem reading and loving Fifty-One Shades of Blonde.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review.

About the Book

The sexy story that first burned up the pages of Cosmopolitan is here-with three new chapters that are so hot they may steam up your screen

Christopher Reiss is the handsome and extremely intimidating CEO of a major financial firm. Megan’s nothing but a lowly assistant. But when she stumbles upon some incriminating evidence that could threaten Christopher’s career, she finds herself on his radar . . . and eventually his desk, his kitchen counter, his bed . . . you get where this is going, right?

Jessica Knoll is a senior editor at Cosmopolitan, where she writes about relationships, sex, career, and health. According to her colorist, her hair is only three shades of blonde.

Book Review: Girl Gone

Katie September 15, 2012 0 Comments

I had been hearing a lot about this book, but a lot of times I have many other review commitments to keep and the books I want to read for the hell of it get pushed aside.  In the time I waited, my mom’s friend ended up lending her the book – not knowing I had it waiting. Once she started talking to me about it “You’ll LOVE it”, I knew I had to shuffle things around so that I could find the time to read it.

I’m not sure how to really talk about the book without giving things away – so bear with me if things are a bit vague.  On Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary, Nick gets a call from a neighbor that the front door is open – wide open.  Nick heads home and finds that his wife Amy is nowhere to be found and the living room is messed up a bit which he assumes means there was a sign of a struggle.

He calls the cops and they start an investigation to find his missing wife but as most of these investigations go – the husband is always suspect #1.  The chapters alternate between Amy’s diary entries about how they met and their early life together as a couple and Nick’s recounting of the events since Amy’s disappearance.

In the second part of the book – things REALLY start unraveling and there were a few twists that shocked me quite a bit. (Although my mother says she was not shocked over any of the same things that I was.)  At this point I could not put the book down.  Things just seem to get crazier and crazier.

However, I felt that the ending didn’t really live up to the rest of the book.  This is something my mom had warned me about – she (and I) dislike endings that don’t really seem to wrap everything up.  The friend who lent my mom the book said “Well, it ends” when my mom asked at first if it had a good ending.

But, with the exception of that – I definitely recommend this suspenseful page turner and I am looking forward to finding the time to read Gillian Flynn’s other books because I absolutely loved her writing style.

I read this book on my own time and was not asked to write a review. I simply thought it was a book that my readers might be interested in.

About the Book

Marriage can be a real killer.
One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

Book Review: The Art of Making Magazines

Katie September 14, 2012 0 Comments

The Art of Making Magazines is a series of 12 lectures and esssays put together by various people who have had jobs in the magazine world as journalists, editors in chief, etc.  Each one talks a bit about different aspects of life in the magazine business.  There is talk about editing, fact checking, deadlines and more.

I’ve always been interested in the magazine world and even went to school for a minor in journalism – my dream has always been to have my own online magazine (but I’ll settle now for this blog!) but I wanted to do all the writing and the coding and the design of the site myself.  After reading this book I realize that even if I had all the time in the world, I wouldn’t be able to do it all myself – I’d need to have fact checkers and copy editors to keep my work polished.  So maybe it’s a good thing I kind of have put that dream on the back burner!

There are 12 essays – you can find all the details of them below! I loved a lot of the anecdotes included – a movie reviewer who fell asleep during movies and would write about 2 differnt movies as if they were one, leading copy editors and fact checkers to need to unravel the plots for each to figure out what was going on!  Also, the editor in cheif at Gourmet magazine would go “undercover” to restaurants to see how they were treated versus when showing up as herself and getting treated better than the King of Spain!

Even if you don’t want to be in the industry of making magazines, but you enjoy reading magazines, the book has some interesting insight about how they are all put together.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the editor through NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

In this entertaining anthology, editors, writers, art directors, and publishers from such magazines as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Elle, and Harper’s draw on their varied, colorful experiences to explore a range of issues concerning their profession. Combining anecdotes with expert analysis, these leading industry insiders speak on writing and editing articles, developing great talent, effectively incorporating art and design, and the critical relationship between advertising dollars and content. They emphasize the importance of fact checking and copyediting; share insight into managing the interests (and potential conflicts) of various departments; explain how to parlay an entry-level position into a masthead title; and weigh the increasing influence of business interests on editorial decisions. In addition to providing a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the making of successful and influential magazines, these contributors address the future of magazines in a digital environment and the ongoing importance of magazine journalism. Full of intimate reflections and surprising revelations, The Art of Making Magazines is both a how-to and a how-to-be guide for editors, journalists, students, and anyone hoping for a rare peek between the lines of their favorite magazines. The chapters are based on talks delivered as part of the George Delacorte Lecture Series at the Columbia School of Journalism.

Essays include: “Talking About Writing for Magazines (Which One Shouldn’t Do)” by John Gregory Dunne; “Magazine Editing Then and Now” by Ruth Reichl; “How to Become the Editor in Chief of Your Favorite Women’s Magazine” by Roberta Myers; “Editing a Thought-Leader Magazine” by Michael Kelly; “Fact-Checking at The New Yorker” by Peter Canby; “A Magazine Needs Copyeditors Because . . . .” by Barbara Walraff; “How to Talk to the Art Director” by Chris Dixon; “Three Weddings and a Funeral” by Tina Brown; “The Simpler the Idea, the Better” by Peter W. Kaplan; “The Publisher’s Role: Crusading Defender of the First Amendment or Advertising Salesman?” by John R. MacArthur; “Editing Books Versus Editing Magazines” by Robert Gottlieb; and “The Reader Is King” by Felix Dennis

Book Review: Empire State of Mind

Katie September 13, 2012 0 Comments

Empire State of Mind: HOW JAY-Z WENT FROM STREET CORNER TO CORNER OFFICE is the biography of rap mega super star Jay Z.  However, this book focuses more on how Jay Z went about building his empire more so than it focuses on his music career.

I don’t closely follow Jay Z’s career, I only know what I read in gossip mags or anything that is big enough to make it to the news (like his ownership of the Nets and moving the team to Brooklyn – that tends to be on our local new a lot) so I was definitely interested in learning more about the guy behind what I find to be the most annoying rap song of all time. (ok, that might be stretching it but I am certainly not a fan of Empire State Of Mind – moreso because of it’s being linked to the New York Yankees than anything else)

The book talks a bit about how Jay Z was able to align with the Yankees in 2009 and how this is just all part of his plans to expand his empire. He has business ventures in various different areas, many of which are making him lots and lots of money.

The book also talks about his relationship with Beyonce and how they were an unlikely pairing in the beginning – Jay Z was on probation when they first met, but somehow they made it work!  It talks about how their relationship evolved and started out with their collaborations, etc.

The final chapter discusses some of the business ventures that landed in Jay Z’s wastebasket. Failed ventures that were either thought about or tried to come to fruition and never did.  This is definitely an interesting read for anyone who is a fan of Jay Z or just interested in how his mind works and how he has become so successful.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated for my review.

Book Review: Queen of Vaudeville

Katie September 12, 2012 0 Comments

I have a strange fascination with entertainment from the early 1900s (mostly with PT Barnum – love his museum in Bridgeport!) so I figured I would be entertained checking out the book about Eva Tanguay who for a while was the Queen of Vaudeville.

She certainly was a fascinating woman and she definitely had an interesting story. At the end of the book there is her family tree – which is traced back to 1622! I wish I could get my own family tree back that far! (Maybe someday)

Eva got in to vaudeville and performing at a young age and many people developed their acts based on hers.  With the evolution of technology, she is becoming popular again as some videos of her have sufaced on YouTube.  Many other acts from this time vanished “when the curtain fell.” because there was not technology to record their performance so that they may continue on.

There is talk that her niece, Florence, was actually Eva’s illegitimate child.  No one knows who the father was, but it was written off to be the child of Eva’s brother, Adolphe Etienne.  There is no evidience either way with who Florecene’s parents really were.

Another interesting story was about Eva’s dog Stokie.  She loved animals, perhaps more than people.  When the dog was dying she called the vet that was in Brooklyn and told him to come to TN to try and save the dog. He didn’t want to leave his family so Eva told him to bring his wife too.  When the vet got there, there was nothing he could do and the dog died.  But Eva took his heart and kept in in a jar to remember him by before burying him.  (See, she is a bit of an interesting character!)

Eva was engaged twice before her first marriage – a marriage decided on a whim.  Eva later regretted it and they were divorced 5 years later. Her second marriage was to her pianist who was half her age! It was done just as a publicity stunt, but when it does not get Eva the attention she had hoped for, they get an annulment.

At the time of Eva’s death – her estate was worth $584.  Shortly after a movie about her life was made – The I Don’t Care Girl – which is said to not have been an accurate representation of her life.

This was a very well written and thorough biography on a very interesting woman.  It was very interesting to read and I quite enjoyed it.  I’ll have to see if I can dig up any clips of her on YouTube!

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

In her day, Eva Tanguay (1879–1947) was one of the most famous women in America. Widely known as the “I Don’t Care Girl”—named after a song she popularized and her independent, even brazen persona—Tanguay established herself as a vaudeville and musical comedy star in 1904 with the New York City premiere of the show My Lady—and never looked back. Tanguay was, at the height of a long career that stretched until the early 1930s, a trend-setting performer who embodied the emerging ideal of the bold and sexual female entertainer. Whether suggestively singing songs with titles like “It’s All Been Done Before But Not the Way I Do It” and “Go As Far As You Like” or wearing a daring dress made of pennies, she was a precursor to subsequent generations of performers, from Mae West to Madonna and Lady Gaga, who have been both idolized and condemned for simultaneously displaying and playing with blatant displays of female sexuality.

In Queen of Vaudeville, Andrew L. Erdman tells Eva Tanguay’s remarkable life story with verve. Born into the family of a country doctor in rural Quebec and raised in a New England mill town, Tanguay found a home on the vaudeville stage. Erdman follows the course of her life as she amasses fame and wealth, marries (and divorces) twice, engages in affairs closely followed in the press, declares herself a Christian Scientist, becomes one of the first celebrities to get plastic surgery, loses her fortune following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and receives her last notice, an obituary in Variety. The arc of Tanguay’s career follows the history of American popular culture in the first half of the twentieth century. Tanguay’s appeal, so dependent on her physical presence and personal charisma, did not come across in the new media of radio and motion pictures. With nineteen rare or previously unpublished images, Queen of Vaudeville is a dynamic portrait of a dazzling and unjustly forgotten show business star.