Next book

PARTY LIKE A ROCKSTAR

THE CRAZY, COINCIDENTAL, HARD-LUCK, AND HARMONIOUS LIFE OF A SONGWRITER

Easygoing memories of a cutthroat music business.

A country songwriter shares his zigzag path to becoming a hit-maker.

Before writing smashes for Uncle Kracker (“Smile”), Blake Shelton (“Sangria”), Keith Urban (“Somewhere in My Car”), and more, Harding was a prankish, spotlight-craving adopted kid from the Detroit suburbs. In his debut book, he captures both his impishness and dedication to his craft. Indeed, the narrative has something of the rigor and structure of a country tune. First, the setup: As a kid, he was deep into rock and pop music, excitedly engaging in KISS cosplay and talent shows as he dreamed of stardom, an enthusiasm only slightly diminished by his brother’s suicide. Then the complication: a hand-to-mouth early adulthood in Los Angeles working at Tower Records (where he once helped Michael Jackson shop for Led Zeppelin CDs) while cadging gigs as an assistant to successful acts while his own musical efforts struggled to launch. A twist on the theme: discovering his birth father, Jay Thomas, a celebrity in his own right, and then a songwriting break after years of hustling for attention. Lastly, the takeaway: Harding closes with some practical bits of tough-love advice for aspiring country songwriters—e.g., move to Nashville, don’t imitate anybody, and, his “biggest piece of advice,” keep your melodies hummable. It’s clear that Harding takes the job seriously, but he also carries it lightly. Many of his stories are self-deprecating tales of failure (a disastrous gig opening for Linkin Park) or poor judgment (throwing a shoe toward Thomas while on David Letterman’s show, a joke that landed badly in multiple ways). The author can be curiously aloof: For somebody who insists that personal experience is essential to great songs, he shares little about the heartaches that fueled his hits. Perhaps he’s truly mastered the country songwriter’s art of withholding key details and is saving them for the next book.

Easygoing memories of a cutthroat music business.

Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5387-3540-4

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Twelve

Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022

Next book

ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.

This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005

ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Next book

A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979

ISBN: 0061965588

Page Count: 772

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

Close Quickview