books 2023

Over the years, this blog has evolved into a place for me to write about movies, along with a weekly look at music. I used to write a lot about television, about teaching, about current affairs ... don't know why that's mostly absent nowadays. I only posted once about books this year, so it must be time for a year-end list. These are some of the books I read in 2023 ... yeah, I should say something about them, a list is useless, but whatever. If you're looking for recommendations, I suggest the books by Maureen Ryan, Annalee Newitz, and Matt Singer, along with the two memoirs, and obviously I have a thing for David Thomson.

Culture:

Peter Biskind, Pandora's Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV.

Michael Harriot, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America.

Mehdi Hasan, Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking.

Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World.

Kliph Nesteroff, Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars.

Maureen Ryan, Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood.

Fiction:

Mick Herron, Real Tigers.

Annalee Newitz, The Terraformers.

Ursula Parrott, Ex-Wife.

Memoirs:

Elliott Page, Pageboy: A Memoir.

Sarah Polley, Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory.

Movies:

Stephen B. Armstrong, I Want You Around: The Ramones and the Making of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.

Matt Singer, Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever.

David Thomson, Acting Naturally: The Magic in Great Performances. The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies. Disaster Mon Amour. The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film. Sleeping with Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire. Why Acting Matters. (Yes, I read 6 books by the same author.)

Music:

Phil Dellio, Happy for a While: "American Pie," 1972, and the Awkward, Confusing Now.

Will Hermes, Lou Reed: The King of New York.

Dave Marsh, Kick Out the Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing.

Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk.

Hank Rosenfeld, The Jive 95: An Oral History of America’s Greatest Underground Rock Radio Station, KSAN San Francisco.

Joel Selvin, Sly & the Family Stone: An Oral History.

Lucinda Williams, Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir.

Warren Zanes, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska.

Sports:

Russell A. Carlton, The New Ballgame: The Not-So-Hidden Forces Shaping Modern Baseball.

Ian Herbert, Tinseltown: Hollywood and the Beautiful Game - a Match Made in Wrexham.

Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100.

Comments

[Diana]

We just binged Slow Horses S3 which is based on Real Tigers. Tempted to try the books but sometimes the shows come off better if I have no expectations. My father-in-law enjoys the Reacher series but can't stop comparing the show to the books and the books are always better in his mind.

I love that both memoirs are Canadians. I gave my in-laws the newest Rick Mercer memoir for Christmas. Have you ever seen his Talking to Americans segments?

[Steven Rubio]

Sarah Polley's movie Take This Waltz is a bit of a love letter to Toronto ... really lets me know she's Canadian :-). As for Slow Horses, since I only just learned this bit of trivia, I'll mention it here, in case you hadn't heard it. We love the character Shirley Danders, who is a real shrimp but who kicks ass all the time. Turns out the actress, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, played rugby until she was 14 ... the only girl on a boys' team. I haven't noticed that reading the books affects my show-watching, so far at least.

Haven't seen Talking to Americans. Robin watches the Reacher show.

[Diana]

I know it's a Welsh name but my initial read of the actress's name was Aimee F'in Edwards. :) Rather apt.

I have a co-worker who hasn't given the series a chance because she's afraid it won't live up to the books. Specifically, the River Cartwright character. I pointed out the actor looks like Simon Pegg and Ben McKenzie had a kid and now she's willing to give it a chance. lol

Talking to Americans: https://youtu.be/AZREHsC6eNM?si=W6leNDNBRSb7pMcX