House doesn’t take himself, country music or his book too seriously. Pass.
A veteran country broadcaster mixes memoir with anecdotes and corny jokes.
House, a nationally syndicated country DJ, has also written more than 40 songs recorded by country artists and has supplied jokes and scripts for numerous country awards shows. In the incestuous world of country music, he’s a well-connected member of the family, and he shares some tales here that he never could on air (including one about Waylon Jennings driving with two kinds of blow). The author also tells some apocryphal tall tales—one about a roadie and another about a conniving couple named Buddy and Julie, apparently no relation to the Millers, recording artists who are married. “Nearly everyone I know in the music business is nice,” he writes, and he’s nice in turn to almost everyone, including Garth Brooks (“a genius at marketing [who] has figured out how to sell the same twenty songs over and over in different packages”), Kenny Rogers (“the Kenmeister”), Pam Tillis (“supernaturally talented”), Ray Stevens (another “genius”) and the Oak Ridge Boys (“unique and wonderful people—gentle, caring and fascinating. And they are stunning showmen”). House also discusses Taylor Swift, who was initially so appreciative but then once gave him the brush off. He also doesn’t much care for Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks—though few country insiders do. A typical passage: “Tanya Tucker has no editing button. If it occurs in her head, it’s gonna come spilling out her piehole. I think she’s hilarious because of that one fact. She’s also hell on wheels.” A typical joke: “I always think of Dolly [Parton] whenever I visit the Great Pyramids. I don’t know why, I just do. They’re enormous. The pyramids, that is.”
House doesn’t take himself, country music or his book too seriously. Pass.Pub Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-939529-90-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: BenBella
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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