On reading groups for the new year

Welcome back! We’ve taken a break for the past couple weeks due to the holidays. Now
we’re back and ready to get reading - but there are a few quick changes. To begin with,
we’ll now only be posting twice a week (on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Three times a
week was exhausting and once school got busy, I was struggling to keep up. In the past
couple months, I’ve also tried to focus more on book lists instead of book reviews or
lengthy posts with me rambling. I’ve really enjoyed the book list format, so I think we’ll
continue doing that for most posts for the foreseeable future.

For our first new post of the year, I’d like to focus on some book groups that will help you
to read more, discover new books, and engage with the bookish internet community!
These should help you complete any New Year’s reading goals you’ve set.

• Tor’s ebook of the month club - This ebook club is fantastic - not only do you get a free ebook download every month, but you also get to interact with other readers online about the book. And Tor picks some interesting books - I got Kushiel’s Dart, Old Man’s War, and Truthwitch (from Tor’s brand new Teen ebook club) this past year. Tor picks unique books and has an interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy. The club took a hiatus for a few months, but should be picking up again sometime soon!
• Dragons & Jetpacks - This Goodreads reading group is the perfect group for SFF readers. Every couple months, group members vote on new SFF books to read and the selected books are discussed on the message boards. It’s a fun book club (and a very interactive one) and they pick excellent books.
• David Bowie Book Club - As I write this, Bowie’s club is still somewhat unofficial. Bowie’s son Duncan recently decided to start reading his father’s favorite books as a tribute to his old man - and invited the world to join him. Follow Duncan’s Twitter account for further information and new updates on upcoming books.
• Big Library Read - This book club is facilitated by Overdrive and can be run through your local library. Participating libraries can have access to the monthly book for their readers and can choose to run book discussions in person. If your library isn’t currently running groups, don’t let that stop you - download the book and get some friends together to participate in the first global ebook club!

What book groups do you participate in to learn about new books and discuss things you’ve read? How do book groups help you achieve your bookish reading goals?

On the best rock 'n' roll biographies I've read (so far)

It’s impossible to read every rock biography ever written. I’m trying, yet it always seems just out of my grasp. There are countless biographies on so many people in the music industry that I’ll never get to all of them. My goal right now is to read a few here and there and to eventually get a good overall view of the music industry and the history of music.

While I’ve read quite a few music histories, I like to focus on musician biographies. In looking at the biographies I’ve read so far, I realized a few things:

1. I read mostly rock musicians from the 1970’s - maybe it’s time to branch out a bit more - to understand the influences of other people from other eras and other genres.
2. I haven’t read a single biography about a female musician. I need to find some of those.
3. Apparently I really like music biographies with black and white covers.

Anyway - with those thoughts in mind, I present to you a commitment to read more broadly in music books. Also, here are my favorite rock biographies so far.

• Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life by Graham Nash - I honestly wasn’t too interested in CSNY until fairly recently - After I read Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970 by David Browne, I was intrigued and wanted to know more about CSNY (especially after hearing about Crosby’s two month sailing trip to get over his dead girlfriend). So this book was perfect for that. I liked Graham Nash immediately and he quickly became my favorite member of CSNY. I like his attitude and I like the work he’s done and I especially loved his friendship with David Crosby. This book is a lot of fun and definitely worth reading if you like CSNY.

• Change of Seasons: A Memoir by John Oates - I wasn’t too into Hall & Oates until I read this book, which sparked a fervor in me for H&O that I wasn’t aware I could feel. The first half of this book bored me, but once I got into the second half, I couldn’t put it down. I feel like John Oates would be buddies with my dad, which endeared him to me. This is a fun look at 1970/1980’s pop and rock.

• Bowie: A Biography by Mark Spitz - This was only the second Bowie biography I read, but I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the first. I especially loved that Mark Spitz discusses Bowie’s musical influences and spends quite a bit of time sharing specific bands and songs that a Bowie fanatic should familiarize themselves with. For me, that was priceless and gave a whole new view to Bowie. I’ve since read more Bowie biographies, but this one sticks out in my mind as the best so far.

What music biographies have you loved? Do you agree with my picks? Which biographies would be on your list? Is there a different subgenre of biographies that you prefer reading?

Fierce Fangirl Friday: David Bowie

This post is inspired by Too Much of a Book Nerd’s Fierce Fangirl Friday meme.

Happy Friday, friends! We interrupt your normally scheduled blogging adventures for a Fierce Fangirl Friday: David Bowie Edition!

Now, anyone who knows me is well aware that I’m a huge Bowie fan (and avid blog readers may have been clued in by how often I mention the genius in posts). But I figured I should probably come out and be very clear.

I LOVE DAVID BOWIE.

It’s difficult to explain why I love Bowie as much as I do. There are so many reasons - he’s unique, he’s a musical game-changer, he’s got intense personality.

Also, he wears knitted jumpsuits and I can’t resist that (in fact, here’s the knitting pattern).

Most of all, I love Bowie’s unique musical style. He changed rock ‘n’ roll and was a huge influencer of glam rock. He also had some fantastic (and ridiculous) style.

And once you separate David Robert Jones from 1970’s David Bowie, you understand that he’s just a nice guy with some excellent musical talents and some weird clothes. Later in life, Bowie reported that he preferred staying at home with his wife, Iman, than going out and partying. He changed from a heavy rocker to a quiet homebody - but he still worked, releasing his Blackstar album just days before his death in 2016.

In that time, Bowie released a lot of music. Here’s a bit of a musical education for you - my favorite Bowie tracks (in no particular order):

• Sons of the Silent Age from Heroes

• Kooks from Hunky Dory

• Blue Jean from Tonight

• Blackstar from Blackstar

• Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed from Space Oddity

• Station to Station from Station to Station

• Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

What Bowie songs do you love? What’s your favorite Bowie style?

On science fiction albums

Sometimes, it’s nice to have a break from your favorite things - either by doing them in a different way or by doing something completely different. For those of you who love science fiction novels, this is your chance to continue loving your sci-fi while taking a break from reading. Here are a bunch of science fiction themed albums that you need to listen to:

• .clipping - Splendor & Misery - Experimental hip hop

• David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - Glam rock

• Electric Light Orchestra - Time  -Progressive Rock

• The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - Alternative rock/neo-psychedelia

• Hawkwind - In Search of Space - Progressive Rock

• Janelle Monae - The Archandroid - Neo soul

• Outkast - ATLiens - Southern hip hop

• Parliament - Mothership Connection - Funk

• Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship - Blows Against the Empire - Psychedelic rock

• Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Space Rock

• Zappa & Ensemble Modern - The Yellow Shark -20th Century Classical music

What science-fiction albums am I forgetting? What sci-fi albums would you recommend?

On David Bowie's favorite books

When David Bowie passed in January 2016, my heart broke. And my quiet mourning turned to full-blown obsession. I’ve read three biographies on the man (my public library has the next one I’ll read), watched two documentaries (plus another waiting on Overdrive), listened to all of his music, and watched countless interviews and performances online. Bowie is legend and I, of all people, know that.

So when I happened upon this list of books recommended by David Bowie, I nearly died of happiness. My favorite artist was releasing information about a common interest we had. AHHHH.

Unfortunately, I’ve only read 7 of them so far. The rest….are what I should have expected from Bowie, but not necessarily what I want to read.

David Bowie, from what I can tell, was a very thoughtful and deep-thinking individual. He consumed mountains of art during his lifetime, so if he thinks these books are worth reading, the Bowie fanatic inside me tells me that I must run to my local library and check out all these books IMMEDIATELY.

A different, more rational side of me says that these aren’t the sort of books I could read one after the other. At some point, I’d need a break to read some bright chick-lit or children’s fantasy or a new book from a beloved author and that I’d get bored of David’s deep novels.

So here’s my compromise: I’ve put a handful on my TBR list. Once I finish those, I’ll get around to a few more of them. And eventually, I’ll have read 100 books that David Bowie loved and I’ll get to know him just a little bit better.

Want to know how many you’ve read? Here’s the Goodreads version of the list that you can check.

On new books! - from Half Price Books

Yay! New books!

The husband and I were exploring antique shops this weekend when we decided to take a break to go book shopping. The closest bookshop was Half Price Books and we popped in to see what was available. While this was a lot more of a discount bookshop and less of a thrifty used bookstore, I had a lot of fun and we thumbed through a lot of books and it was overall an enjoyable way to spend a Saturday. And I managed to find two books that I couldn’t bear to leave in the store.

-David Bowie Changes: His Life in Pictures 1947-2016 by Chris Welch - This beautiful book is full of pictures AND information about Bowie and it’s a wonderful addition to my Bowie obsession.

-Thrice Upon A Marigold by Jean Ferris - Jean Ferris has long been one of my favorite authors and I’ve had some trouble finding the final book in the “Upon A Marigold” series. Though I’ve heard it isn’t as good as the first two, I’m still excited to finish the story and to own another Jean Ferris book.