bookshelf

YOUR SONG CHANGED MY LIFE

Name: YOUR SONG CHANGED MY LIFE
Author: Bob Boilen
ISBN: 978-0-06-234444-1

FROM JIMMY PAGE TO ST. VINCENT, SMOKEY ROBINSON TO HOZIER, THIRTY-FIVE BELOVED ARTISTS ON THEIR JOURNEY AND THE MUSIC THAT INSPIRED IT

by Bob Boilen ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2016

Boilen’s warm, engaging voice pervades this treat for music aficionados.

bookshelf

Interviews with nearly three dozen musicians about the life-altering songs that inspired their musical careers.

Since 2000, Boilen, creator and host of NPR’s All Songs Considered, has featured new and established singers of all genres on his popular online music show and podcasts. In these winning profiles, he teases out the single moment when each artist heard a song he or she will never forget. (His own life “changed forever,” he writes, when he first heard the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.”) The song for these artists varies greatly: Motown star Smokey Robinson cites Jackie Wilson’s “Lonely Teardrops,” Irish-born Hozier recalls falling in love with Tom Waits’ “Cold Cold Ground,” and composer Philip Glass remembers his discovery at age 11 of Spike Jones’ amusing version of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture,” played on pots and pans. In his fascinating explorations of these artists’ lives and work, Boilen finds pivotal moments happen most often at early ages, especially the teens and 20s. But then Justin Vernon of indie folk band Bon Iver encountered The Staves’ “No Me, No You, No More,” and “felt like I was lifting off the ground,” only recently, at age 33. Colin Meloy of the Decemberists remembers buying Hüsker Dü’s “beautiful, aching, gorgeous acoustic song” “Hardly Gotten Over It” and playing it on a boom box. Trey Anastasio of Phish first heard “Something’s Coming,” from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, among his mother’s Broadway original cast albums. Jazz violinist Regina Carter, on the other hand, rejected her own mother’s advice to join a symphony orchestra and went on to become a solo performer after hearing “Lovin’ is Really My Game” by Brainstorm, a funk band. Other contributors include Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne, Chris Thile, Jeff Tweedy, Carrie Brownstein, David Byrne, Jenny Lewis, and Jimmy Page.

Boilen’s warm, engaging voice pervades this treat for music aficionados.

Pub Date: April 12, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234444-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.