Another straightforward, solid hard rock bio from Wall.
A raucous biography of the legendary heavy metal band infamous for their offstage behavior.
Now recognized as one of the most influential and notorious rock bands in history, it was never easy for the four principal members of Black Sabbath. Growing up within a short distance of each other in the bleak Birmingham suburb Aston, the band formed in unlikely, albeit coincidental circumstances when former boyhood adversaries Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi reconnected and brought together friends and fellow musicians Geezer Butler and Bill Ward to round out the core lineup of the group. The band toiled endlessly through name and lineup changes, honing their dark and sludgy sound in clubs (often getting tossed out after a few songs), and they built a devoted following on the back of their frenetic live shows. Suddenly, as quickly as it was improbable, Black Sabbath had landed a record deal and was being courted by established impresario/gangster Don Arden. The band refused Arden's advances, at first, but their fate was sealed when Osbourne was introduced to his daughter, Sharon, whom he would marry. Arden would later help the band recover from being ripped off by their managers. Veteran music journalist and biographer Wall (AC/DC: Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be, 2013, etc.) writes with conversational verve and wit, matching the lifestyles of his subjects, as he chronicles their unexpected rise to international fame and catastrophic downfall. The archetypal hallmarks of Black Sabbath’s career were epitomized after their sophomore album, “Paranoid,” went to No. 1 in the U.K.: “The next three years flew by in a blizzard of dope, cocaine, booze, sex, and the best music anybody in Black Sabbath would ever make.” Osbourne was ultimately expelled, and Sabbath reimagined itself with Ronnie James Dio as their new frontman and a host of other stand-ins before the original lineup reunited 35 years later.
Another straightforward, solid hard rock bio from Wall.Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-05134-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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