Working as I do with the Amish, it’s interesting for me to get a look at what Amish life is like when we English aren’t around. Bearing in mind that this is a different state (and the Amish can differ quite a bit from one church district to another, let alone another state), and a different era, it is still clear that the Amish are just people, dealing with many of the same issues we all do, but in a completely different framework. Saloma left […]
The good old days: Quite overrated, actually
I began this book in October, and it seemed a bit of a slog, and I’m not sure why. I love Bryson’s signature style of history enlivened with juicy tidbits of whimsy. The people involved are interesting. The stories are compelling. The year, 1927, was the year my mother was born, adding an extra element of interest for me. Maybe it was just that there were too many stories, too much to keep track of, for someone reading it piece-meal. 1927 was a busy, busy […]
Who’d win in a wrestling match, Lemmy or God? Trick question, Lemmy is God.
Starting a trend of music related read for my Cannonball Read, the second book I have read is White Line Fever: The Autobiography by Lemmy Kilmister with Janiss Garza. In case you did not know, Lemmy Kilmister is the leader of the band Motörhead, a primary example of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) of the ‘70s and thought by some to be the origin of speed/thrash metal seen later in the ‘80s. Although this band is traditionally lumped into the NWOBHM category […]
Some facts about Jim Henson you may not know
I’m going to attempt this review without making any sweeping assumptions about how anyone could possibly dislike Jim Henson, or the muppets, and what that would say about a person’s soul or LACK THEROF. (Point of interest: my boyfriend is indifferent toward Jim Henson and can’t stand the muppets. Other than that he’s great and has all the outward signs of a soul, but I should dump him, right?) With biographies, especially of a person I admire, there’s always this feeling of uncertainty whether I […]
Up in the Air
A Cannonball reviewer recently commended an author for keeping himself (herself?) out of their nonfiction story, and letting the work speak for itself. I believe Mark Schreiber could take a note. Dreams of the Solo Trapeze purports to be a backstage tour of Cirque de Soleil.
Book of Ages by Jill Lepore
Book of Ages was a 2013 National Book Award finalist in the non-fiction category. Historian Jill Lepore pieces together the life of Ben Franklin’s sister Jane and in doing so not only reveals the life of a fascinating “ordinary” 18th-century woman who happened to be the beloved little sister of a Founding Father, but also demonstrates her own prodigious skills as an historian. Lepore’s work is specifically about Jane but more broadly about history and historians, biography and novels, and determining whose lives are worth […]