The Granta Book of India Edited by Ian Jack Granta Publications, 2004 [ #15: East meets West: A book taking place in Asia (Turkey to Japan, Siberia to Vietnam) ] The local Little Free Library has, again, provided me with a challenge book! This one, The Granta Book of India. I had a good experience …
The School of Whoredom by Pietro Aretino (Translated by Rose Maria Falvo, Alessandro Gallenzi and Rebecca Skipwith) Hesperus Press Ltd., 2003 [ #31 — No hablo: A book originally written in another language (either a translation or in the original if you’d like!)] The School for Whores, by Pietro Aretino, is not long, but boy …
Angels Losing Sleep, by Leah Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Ten years ago Livejournal had a short-lived Zepfic community, which in turn had replaced an earlier one that was short-lived; from the more recent one (active 2011-2014) I read this story. Zepfics have a rich range of real-life conflicts and tragedies to hang their …
I became aware of Led Zeppelin fanfic in the late 1990s when the web exploded with archive sites. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I’d known of Star Trek fanfic for years, and Buffy, X-files, and Xena fanfic sites were all over the place. But Zep fanfic was a new thing, especially …
Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz Penguin Press, 2021 When the first Led Zeppelin biography, Hammer of the Gods, by Stephen Davis, was published in 1985, it caused a sensation. Riding on the coattails of the equally sensationalistic No One Here Gets Out Alive, the Jim Morrison autobiography published in 1980 that caused a …
1959 by Fred Kaplan John Wilwy & Sons, Inc., 2009 [ #14 — Article free in ’23: Read a book whose title doesn’t contain “a” “an” or “the.” ] 1959 by Fred Kaplan is a sociopolitical history book about various events of that year that “broke the barriers” and opened up new frontiers in …
Ties that Bind Stories of Love & Gratitude from the First Ten Years of Story Corps by Dave Isay Penguin Books, 2013 [ #27 — Bits and pieces: An anthology (poetry, short stories, whatever). ] Ties That Bind, edited by David Isay is a collection of personal anecdotes from people who participated in the …
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane Voracious, November 2019 [ Challenge # 3 : Just the facts, Ma’am: Nonfiction on any subject ] I’ve followed Janelle Shane’s weblog on AI and computer learning for a while, and it’s never failed to make me laugh. Out of that endeavor came …
The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation by Cathy O’Neil Crown, March 2022 [ Challenge # 45 : Face your fears: A book that intimidates you, for any reason ] This one’s a late-year substitute. Shoehorned The Shame Machine by Cathy O’Neil into the “Intimidating” category, because the title certainly is. …
Finally got around to watching the first season of The Wheel of Time, the 2021 Amazon production based on the fantasy book series by the late Robert Jordan. The first book was published in 1990 and last, number 14, in 2013, finished by author Brandon Sanderson with the approval of Jordan’s widow (who really …