en-US Sat, 25 Jan 2025 08:26:25 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 17349
Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.]]> 459 Carl Sagan 0345409469 Leah 0 to-read 4.28 1995
author: Carl Sagan
name: Leah
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/25
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]]> 14349009
Financial Sorcery will give you the step-by-step instructions on how to improve your fiscal situation. You will learn how to:
•Stop using magic to fix emergency problems and start using it to build your dream life.
•Use time of economic uncertainty to create new opportunities rather than cause problems.
•Work joyfully with money as part of your spiritual discipline rather than as a necessary evil.
•Make offerings to help increase the flow of prosperity around you.
•Ditch old concepts and retrain your mind to make money in today's world.
•Use the interplay of macro- and micro-enchantment to find jobs and get promoted.
•Deploy strategic sorcery to kill your debt.
•Create secondary income streams that will ensure continued revenue.]]> 224 Jason Miller 1601632185 Leah 0 currently-reading 4.10 2012
author: Jason Miller
name: Leah
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 125201732 448 Jessie DaSilva 1728271762 Leah 0 to-read 4.07
author: Jessie DaSilva
name: Leah
average rating: 4.07
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> 17333291 Recipes, tips, and strategies for easy, delicious vegan meals every day of the week, from America's bestselling vegan cookbook author.

How does Isa Chandra Moskowitz make flavorful and satisfying vegan meals from scratch every day, often in 30 minutes or less? It's easy! In ISA DOES IT, the beloved cookbook author shares 150 new recipes to make weeknight cooking a snap. Mouthwatering recipes like Sweet Potato Red Curry with Rice and Purple Kale, Bistro Beet Burgers, and Summer Seitan Saute with Cilantro and Lime illustrate how simple and satisfying meat-free food can be.

The recipes are supermarket friendly and respect how busy most readers are. From skilled vegan chefs, to those new to the vegan pantry, or just cooks looking for some fresh ideas, Isa's unfussy recipes and quirky commentary will make everyone's time in the kitchen fun and productive.]]> 320 Isa Chandra Moskowitz 0316221902 Leah 5 4.35 2013
author: Isa Chandra Moskowitz
name: Leah
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> 194785126
I want this book to end marriages. But more importantly, I want it to prevent marriages. Women are allowed to aspire to more than what we've been told we should want in order to be happy. Let yourself have a bigger dream than becoming the supporting role in someone else's story.

Why, when there is so much evidence of the detrimental, suffocating impact marriage has on women's lives, does the myth of marital bliss still prevail? If the feminist project has been so successful, why do so many women still believe that our value is intrinsically tied to being chosen by a man?

In her most incendiary and controversial book to date, Clementine Ford exposes the lies used to sell marriage to women to keep them in service to men and male power. From the roots of marriage as a form of property transaction to the wedding industrial complex, Clementine Ford explains how capitalist patriarchal structures need women to believe in marriage in order to maintain control over women's agency, ambitions and freedom.

I Don't presents an inarguable case against marriage for modern women. With the incisive attention to detail and razor-sharp wit that characterises her work, Ford dissects the patriarchal history of marriage; the insidious, centuries-long marketing campaign pop culture has conducted in marriage's favour; the illusion of feminist 'choice' in regard to taking men's names; and the physical and social cost that comes with motherhood.��But most importantly, Clementine Ford shows us what a different kind of world could look like for women if we were allowed to be truly free.]]> 368 Clementine Ford 1761187988 Leah 0 to-read 4.12 2023
author: Clementine Ford
name: Leah
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 199392896 Journalist and former Allure editor Sable Yong debuts with a sharp-toothed and hilarious essay collection about beauty and vanity, examining their stigmatization in the cultural zeitgeist, and how to shift the focus to use both for powerful tools for self-exploration, interpersonal connection, and cultural change.

The beauty industry has a single mandate: be hot.

In the same week that you might be encouraged to try curtain bangs, contouring, bleached eyebrows, laser facials, buccal fat removal, fillers, and “non-invasive�� facelifts, you’re simultaneously absorbing mantras about self-care, body positivity, empowerment, and loving yourself just as you are.

Overwhelmed yet?

Fear not. Die Hot with a Vengeance delves into the machinations of this multi-billion-dollar industry, offering readers an expert analysis of its inner workings with the precision of a scalpel and the humor of a stand-up comedian. Along the way, Yong sets off to answer some of the biggest questions of our time:

How do you break through the noise of beauty and wellness culture’s endless optimization protocols?
How can you find actual authenticity in a world of performative artifice?
Can the antidote to aging be found in a jar, tube, or at the end of a syringe?
Do blondes really have more fun?
Using Yong’s many years of experience as a beauty editor to unlock the industry’s myriad secrets, Die Hot with a Vengeance gives beauty and vanity a neutralizing make-over. At its best, beauty is so much more than an aesthetic; it’s an inspirational mindset. It’s a playfulness inherent to the practice of self-expression.

And yet it’s difficult to engage playfully when it feels like beauty is an ever-moving target. We’re all subject to societal expectations surrounding beauty and vanity, enough so that breaking through the capitalist pressures can feel impossible. Yong argues that while the mandate may be for us to be hot, the beauty industry thrives on us absorbing its teachings so it can keep us in a constant feedback loop of appearance-based anxiety, forever perpetuating unattainable standards. Flipping that imperative, Yong’s debut collection poses the most important question of all: How do you discover your value of beauty so you can free yourself from the loud and bullshitty noise of all these entities telling you that you’re not good enough?

Digging deep into our most pervasive and questionable beauty trends and conventions, Die Hot with a Vengeance offers an incisive yet wry dissection of one of our most enduring cultural addictions. Irreverent, side-splittingly funny, and astute, the book is as amusing as it is insightful, an instant classic for beauty-readers and aspirant hotties alike.]]> 256 Sable Yong 0063236486 Leah 0 3.63
author: Sable Yong
name: Leah
average rating: 3.63
book published:
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date added: 2024/12/23
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]]> 38464216 Damien Echols��Discover a Powerful Practice for Transforming Yourself and Your Reality��At age 18, Damien Echols was sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit. “I spent my years in prison training to be a true magician,�� he recalls. “I used magick—the practice of reshaping reality through our intention and will—to stave off incredible pain, despair, and isolation. But the most amazing feat of all that practice and study was to manifest my freedom.�� With High Magick, this bestselling author shares his first teaching book on the powerful spiritual techniques that helped him survive and transcend his ordeal on death row.��Though our culture has consigned “magic�� to fiction, stage illusions, or superstitions about dark practices, the magick Damien learned is an ancient Western tradition equal the Eastern practices of Buddhism, Taoism, and yoga in its wisdom and transformative power. Here he brings you an engaging and highly accessible guide for bringing magick into your own life, ���� What is High Magick? Damien clears away the stigma and reveals the history and core teachings of this extraordinary art.�� The Four-Fold Breath—a foundational meditation practice to train your mind and body to channel subtle energies.�� The Middle Pillar—how to bring divine energy into the central channel of your body for empowerment and healing.�� The Qabalistic Cross—a centering technique to help you stay balanced and protected regardless of circumstances.�� The Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram—powerful practices for banishing negative energies and invoking energy to manifest your goals.�� Working with angelic beings and other spiritual allies to support your practice.�� Creating thoughtforms to assist you in your ongoing magickal development.�� Guidance for overcoming your doubts, enhancing your visualization skills, creating talismans, practicing magick ethically, and much more.��“Magick is a journey,�� writes Damien. “It’s a continuously unfolding path that has no end. You can study and practice magick for the rest of your life and you will still never learn everything that it has to teach you.�� If you’re ready to discover your untapped potential for co-creating your reality with the energy of the divine, then join this extraordinary teacher to begin your training in High Magick. ��]]> 220 Damien Echols 1683641353 Leah 0 currently-reading 4.20
author: Damien Echols
name: Leah
average rating: 4.20
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rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> 123164605 ��
Tarot has always been a powerful guide for introspection and inner work, so what better tool to use when we’re ready to do the really hard work? Author Maria Minnis takes a radical new look at the Major Arcana in this tarot workbook, which provides readers a unique, personal understanding of systemic racism—and what steps we can take to begin to dismantle it. This is a book for anyone who has been overwhelmed, outraged, or frustrated and asked, “But what can I do?�� It is a book for anyone ready to look within and do the uncomfortable inner work necessary to demolish everyday racism. This book says tarot can be a tool for action, one that may offer great satisfaction as well as great difficulty, all while pushing you out of your comfort zone.
��
You’ll explore the Major Arcana to uncover how each archetype can help cultivate a freer, anti-racist world. The book highlights some of the reversed, shadow aspects of each Major Arcana card in relation to the different ways that racism shows up in our lives. It will consider the upright, or benevolent, aspects of each card and how readers can use those themes to dismantle internalized racism, racism in our relationships, and racism in our communities. As you move from the Fool to the World card, you’ll discover that everything we do ripples beyond us, and that there are practical ways to change our actions and perspectives.
��
This is a book that speaks to both white and BIPOC audiences. For BIPOC, it explains how the shadow aspects and card energy have shown up or manifested in the internal and external life. For white people, the books shows how those same aspects can become an educational process to help identify how they’ve been part of the problem and can be part of the solution. The author addresses the human community as a whole and how racism affects our relationships to each other, to our communities, and to our institutions. For all readers, this book addresses how the energy can be turned around into self-awareness, self-love, and positive action.]]> 259 Maria Minnis 1578638070 Leah 0 currently-reading 4.67
author: Maria Minnis
name: Leah
average rating: 4.67
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]]> 52569124
Polyamorous psychotherapist Jessica Fern breaks new ground by extending attachment theory into the realm of consensual nonmonogamy. Using her nested model of attachment and trauma, she expands our understanding of how these emotional experiences influence our relationships. Then, she sets out six specific strategies to help you move toward secure attachments in your multiple relationships.

Polysecure is both a trailblaizing theoretical treatise and a practical guide. It provides nonmonogamous people with a new set of tools to navigate the complexities of multiple loving relationships, and offers radical new concepts that are sure to influence the conversation about attachment theory.]]> 268 Jessica Fern 1944934987 Leah 0 backburner 4.36 2020
author: Jessica Fern
name: Leah
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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shelves: backburner
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]]> 61272274 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NPR’s 2023 Books We Love

“Riveting, essential reading.�� —Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland

The definitive biography of Vince McMahon, former WWE chairman and CEO, charts his rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world’s most influential media empires—and features never-before-seen research and exclusive interviews with more than 150 people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent.

Even if you’ve never watched a minute of professional wrestling, you are living in Vince McMahon’s world.

In his four decades as the defining figure of American pro wrestling, McMahon was the man behind Dwayne “The Rock�� Johnson, “Stone Cold�� Steve Austin, John Cena, Dave Bautista, Bret “The Hitman�� Hart, and Hulk Hogan, to name just a few of the mega-stars who owe him their careers. For more than twenty-five years, he has also been a performer in his own show, acting as the diabolical “Mr. McMahon”—a figure who may have more in common with the real Vince than he would care to admit.

Just as importantly, McMahon is one of Donald Trump’s closest friends—and Trump’s experiences as a performer in McMahon’s programming were, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the 45th President’s campaigns and presidency. McMahon and his wife, Linda, are major Republican donors. Linda was in Trump’s cabinet. McMahon makes deals with the Saudi government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And for generations of people who have watched wrestling, he has been a defining cultural force.

Accessible to anyone, regardless of wrestling knowledge, Ringmaster is an unauthorized, independent, investigative chronicle of Vince McMahon’s origins and rise to supreme power. It is built on exclusive interviews with more than 150 people, from McMahon’s childhood friends to those who accuse him of destroying their lives. Far more than just an athletics or entertainment biography, Ringmaster uses Vince’s story as a new lens for understanding the contemporary American apocalypse.]]> 491 Abraham Riesman 198216946X Leah 0 backburner 3.75 2023
author: Abraham Riesman
name: Leah
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 319464
Ian Fraser Kilmister was born on Christmas Eve, 1945. Learning from an early age that chicks really do appreciate a guy with a guitar, and inspired by the music of Elvis and Buddy Holly, Lemmy quickly outgrew his local bands in Wales, choosing instead to head to Manchester to experience everything he could get his hands on. And he never looked back.

Lemmy tripped through his early career with the Rocking Vicars, backstage touring with Jimi Hendrix, as a member of Opal Butterflies and Hawkwind. In 1975, he went on to create speed metal and form the legendary band Motorhead.

During their twenty-seven-year history, Motorhead has released 21 albums, been nominated for a Grammy, and conquered the rock world with such songs as “Ace of Spades,�� “Bomber,�� and “Overkill.�� Throughout the creation of this impressive discography, the Motorhead lineup has seen many changes, but Lemmy has always been firmly at the helm.

White Line Fever, ��a headbanging tour of the excesses of a man being true to his music and his pleasures, offers a sometimes hilarious, often outrageous, but always highly entertaining ride with the frontman of the loudest rock band in the world.]]> 306 Lemmy Kilmister 0806525908 Leah 0 backburner 3.93 2002
author: Lemmy Kilmister
name: Leah
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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]]> 20821134 This epic cultural and historical odyssey unearths the full influence of occult traditions on rock and roll—from the Beatles to Black Sabbath—and shows how the marriage between mysticism and music changed our world.

From the hoodoo-inspired sounds of Elvis Presley��to��the Eastern odysseys of George Harrison, from��the dark dalliances of Led Zeppelin to��the Masonic imagery of today’s hip-hop scene, the occult has long breathed life��into rock and hip-hop—and, indeed,��esoteric and supernatural traditions are a key ingredient behind��the emergence and��development��of rock and roll.��

With vivid storytelling and laser-sharp analysis, writer and critic Peter Bebergal illuminates��this web of influences to produce the definitive work on how the occult shaped—and saved—popular music.

As Bebergal explains, occult and mystical ideals gave rock and roll its heart and purpose, making rock into more than just backbeat music, but into a cultural revolution of political, spiritual, sexual, and social liberation.

Editorial Reviews
Review
“A fascinating thesis reflecting the time when everyone seemed to give rock and roll the status of, if not a religion, then certainly that of a spiritual belief system. Peter Bebergal’s Season of the Witch brought it all back. It's an absorbing read deserving an important place in rock literature.��
—Michael Moorcock

"Rather than turning in either a fanboyish rhapsody or a scholarly dissertation, he treads the line between those approaches. The result is passionate, informed, gripping and at times wonderfully lyrical."
—N�ʸ�

“This sharply written narrative illuminates the centrality of the occult imagination at the heart of rock and roll.��
—Library Journal (starred review)

“A thoroughly researched, absorbing, entertaining ride for anyone who’s ever played the Beatles�� ‘White Album�� backwards.��
—Andrea Shea, WBUR/ NPR

“Kudos to Bebergal for taming the wily spirits of rock long enough to capture their essence in this fascinating book. Perhaps more impressive is the book’s comprehensiveness—from Delta blues to beatnik bluster to acid evangelists to metal overlords, Season of the Witch puts the hellfire in highbrow.��
—The Contrarian

“Skillfully woven...will delight any music fan and music historian in equal measure.��
—Spirituality Today (5/5 stars)

“Peter Bebergal has written of his own searching, reconciling spiritual aspirations and personal background, in The Faith Between Us and Too Much To Dream. Both are on my bookshelves. Here, in Season Of The Witch, Peter presents an overview of one “alternative influence�� at work on some of those intending to change the world.

The world they hoped to change was a dangerous mess.

Now, half a century later…��
—Robert Fripp

“This book is a glorious headlong rush into the dark, full of the electricity of the arcane. I loved it.��
—Warren Ellis, author of Gun Machine and Transmetropolitan

“From grimoires to topographic oceans, from heavy metal to hip-hop, Peter Bebergal tracks the Mysteries through half a century of popular music (and some underground noise as well). At once an overview of rock's mystic rebellions and a handy primer on modern esoterica, Season of the Witch suggests that we may need to round out the trinity of sex, drugs, and rock' n' roll with an additional deity: the occult, another primal portal to a re-enchanted world.��
—Erik Davis, author of Led Zeppelin IV and Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica

“Told with clear-eyed scholarship and delectable anecdotes, Peter Bebergal's mind-expanding occult history opened my third eye to Rock & Roll's awesome power over human behavior. Rock & Roll will never sound the same to me again, and I'm glad about it.��
—Mark Frauenfelder, founder of Boing Boing

"Bebergal displays an intelligent understanding of the interaction between religion and culture when he argues that the "occult imagination is the vital force of rock-and-roll culture." "
—Publishers Weekly]]> 288 Peter Bebergal 0399167668 Leah 0 3.45 2014
author: Peter Bebergal
name: Leah
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: rock-n-roll-book-club, backburner
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]]> 13592176 -- Library Journal

"So much of the allure here is in watching Svenonius skirt absurdity. He’s always seemed delighted by the fact that the profound and the preposterous can sound awfully alike, a realization that puts him in line with an avant-garde tradition that stretches back before rock ’n�� roll crystallized this fact...Svenonius has the spirit of a long-gone punk past, but his book has more to tell us about rock’s here-and-now than about its hereafter. Neither bourgeois nor prestigious, Supernatural Strategies may be the rare book by a rock musician to retain any power or threat."
-- Los Angeles Review of Books

"Like its author, Supernatural Strategies is part tongue-in-cheek, part deadly serious -- a satire of rock's consumerist origins but also a thoughtful treatise on what it means to devote yourself to a collective…Drawing from the wisdom of rock'n'roll’s most famous ghosts, Svenonius�� advice ranges from hilarious to cryptic to surprisingly useful."
-- Pitchfork

"Svenonius has walked the walk. . . Even today—as the frontman of Chain & The Gang and the host of the online talk show Soft Focus—he remains cool, cryptic, and impeccably dressed, a mod magician with a trick always lurking up his tailored sleeve.��
-- The Onion AV Club

“If 'write what you know' is one of authorship’s prime dictates, then Ian F. Svenonius seems uniquely qualified...Svenonius�� contrarian, anti-establishment rhetoric is his greatest gift...Strategies plays to these same strengths by allowing him to run roughshod riot over hallowed ground he’s already trod—and sometimes paved—more than a few times.��
-- Baltimore City Paper

Ian F. Svenonius's experience as an iconic underground rock musician--playing in such highly influential and revolutionary outfits as The Make-Up and The Nation of Ulysses--gives him special insight on techniques for not only starting but also surviving a rock 'n' roll group. Therefore, he's written an instructional guide, which doubles as a warning device, a philosophical text, an exercise in terror, an aerobics manual, and a coloring book.

This volume features essays (and black-and-white illustrations) on everything the would-be star should know to get started, such as Sex, Drugs, Sound, Group Photo, The Van, and Manufacturing Nostalgia. Supernatural Strategies will serve as an indispensable guide for a new generation just aching to boogie.]]> 250 Ian F. Svenonius 1617751308 Leah 0 backburner 4.11 2012
author: Ian F. Svenonius
name: Leah
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> 61060273
Pleasant Gehman could write the phonebook and I'd read it. In Rock & Roll Witch , she ties together tales of cemetery adventures from childhood through her wild days as a Hollywood punk rocker in the 1970's and beyond. Her language is thrilling and the stories remind me of great pulp fiction, except it's all real!
- John Doe from X, Austin, TX


Reading this book is like sidling up to the bar in a dark and dangerous dive, sitting next to a stranger who begins telling you a story that draws you in and weaves a magnetic web of fascination. Her stories prove that ghost stories are not just "stories." It's a true mystical, magical page-turner that will leave you spellbound.
- Madame Pamita, author of Madame Pamita's Magical Tarot (Weiser)]]> 225 Pleasant Gehman 1940213118 Leah 0 currently-reading 4.25
author: Pleasant Gehman
name: Leah
average rating: 4.25
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]]> 203607340 A transformative guide to embrace your own mortality and live a more fulfilling life

Talking about death has been deemed morbid, taboo, or even pathological. But in order to fully embrace life, scientists, psychologists, and spiritual leaders all agree—contemplating death is the key to living a life with meaning.

This life-changing book will give you a 12 week program to befriend death in your own way, creating your own personal, daily meditation on what it means to be mortal. Through personal anecdotes, historical examples, meditations, exercises, journal prompts, and reflections, you will learn to both come to terms with what death means and to live alongside it without fear. In doing so, you will see your own life in a new light and discover what makes life worth living. After all,��there’s no better motivation to seize the day than a regular reminder that your days are numbered.

Whether you're struggling with anxiety, grieving a loved one, or seeking a greater sense of purpose, Memento Mori is an invaluable guide to living a life of greater meaning and joy.]]> 303 Joanna Ebenstein 0593713451 Leah 0 currently-reading 4.03 2024
author: Joanna Ebenstein
name: Leah
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> 3484259 260 Peter Grey Leah 0 currently-reading 4.23 2007
author: Peter Grey
name: Leah
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 43306206
The Courage to Be Disliked shows you how to unlock the power within yourself to become your best and truest self, change your future and find lasting happiness. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of 19th-century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, the authors explain how we are all free to determine our own future free of the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. It’s a philosophy that’s profoundly liberating, allowing us to develop the courage to change, and to ignore the limitations that we and those around us can place on ourselves.

The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance. Millions have already read and benefited from its wisdom. Now that The Courage to Be Disliked has been published for the first time in English, so can you.]]> 288 Ichiro Kishimi Leah 0 currently-reading 3.90 2013
author: Ichiro Kishimi
name: Leah
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/16
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]]> 125253126
Diana Helmuth, thirty-three, is skeptical of organized religion. She is also skeptical of disorganized religion. But, more than anything, she is tired of God being dead. So, she decides to try on the fastest growing, self-directed faith in Witchcraft.

The result is 366 days of observation, trial, error, wit, and back spasms. Witches today are often presented as confident and finished, proud and powerful. Diana is eager to join them. She wants to follow all the rules, memorize all the incantations, and read all the liturgy. But there’s one glaring problem: no Witch can agree on what the right rules, liturgy, and incantations are.

As with life, Diana will have to define the craft for herself, looking past the fashionable and figuring out how to define the real. Along the way, she travels to Salem and Edinburgh (two very Crafty hubs) and attends a week-long (clothing optional) Witch camp in Northern California. Whether she’s trying to perform a full moon ritual on a cardboard box, summon an ancient demon with scotch tape and a kitchen trivet, or just trying to become a calmer, happier person, her biggest question Will any of this really work?

The Witching Year follows in the footsteps of celebrated memoirs by journalists like A.J. Jacobs, Mary Roach, and Caitlin Doughty, who knit humor and reportage together in search of something worth believing.]]> 335 Diana Helmuth 1668002981 Leah 0 3.75 2023
author: Diana Helmuth
name: Leah
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/05
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]]> 199344846
On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.]]> 209 Salman Rushdie 0593730240 Leah 0 to-read 3.99 2024
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Leah
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/24
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]]> 208580597 The long-awaited essay collection from one of the most influential voices in disability activism that detonates a bomb in our collective understanding of care and illness, showing us that sickness is a fact of life.

In the wake of the 2014 Ferguson riots, and sick with a chronic condition that rendered them housebound, Johanna Hedva turned to the page to How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed? It was not long before this essay, “Sick Woman Theory��, became a seminal work on disability, because in reframing illness as not just a biological experience but a social one, Hedva argues that under capitalism—a system that limits our worth to the productivity of our bodies—we must reach for the revolutionary act of caring for ourselves and others.

How to Tell When We Will Die expands upon Hedva’s paradigm-shifting perspective in a series of slyly subversive and razor-sharp essays that range from the theoretical to the personal—from Deborah Levy and Susan Sontag to wrestling, kink, mysticism, death, and the color yellow. Drawing from their experiences with America’s byzantine healthcare system, and considering archetypes they call The Psychotic Woman, The Freak, and The Hag in Charge, Hedva offers a bracing indictment of the politics that exploit sickness—relying on and fueling ableism—to the detriment of us all.

With the insight of Anne Boyer’s The Undying and Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams, and the wit of Samantha Irby, Hedva’s debut collection upends our collective understanding of disability. In their radical reimagining of a world where care and pain are symbiotic, and our bodies are allowed to live free and well, Hedva implores us to remember that illness is neither an inconvenience or inevitability, but an enlivening and elemental part of being alive.]]> 384 Johanna Hedva 163893116X Leah 0 to-read 3.88
author: Johanna Hedva
name: Leah
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 208971054
Set against the backdrop of Lynchburg, Tennessee, this narrative weaves together a thrilling blend of personal discovery, historical investigation, and the revelation of a story long overshadowed by time. Through extensive research, personal interviews, and the uncovering of long-buried documents, Weaver brings to light not only the remarkable bond between Nearest Green and Jack Daniel but also Daniel’s concerted efforts during his lifetime to ensure Green’s legacy would not be forgotten. This deep respect for his teacher, mentor, and friend was mirrored in Jack's dedication to ensuring that the stories and achievements of Nearest Green's descendants, who continued the tradition of working side by side with Jack and his descendants, would also not be forgotten.

Love & Whiskey is more than just a recounting of historical facts; it's a live journey into the heart of storytelling, where every discovery adds a layer to the rich tapestry of American history. Weaver's pursuit highlights the importance of acknowledging those who have shaped our cultural landscape; yet remained in the shadows.]]> 376 Fawn Weaver 1595911340 Leah 0 to-read 4.00 2024
author: Fawn Weaver
name: Leah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 84259 280 Starhawk 0807010375 Leah 0 to-read 3.93 1982
author: Starhawk
name: Leah
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 202104218
The world over, humans have been fascinated by hell in some form or another for thousands of years and across cultures. Now, with this illustrated collection, you can add hell to your travel bucket list with more than 50 one-of-a-kind underworld destinations, from ghost towns where Halloween is always in season, to ancient caves long viewed as entrances to Hades, to volcanoes that brim with fire and legend.

Don’t be scared: along with the fascinating history of each location, star author Erika Engelhaupt also offers practical tips to make the most of your visit to the underbelly of the world. These hellish destinations include:

Ireland's “Hell Caves,�� where Halloween was born
The Gates of Hell crater in Turkmenistan, burning for more than 50 years
Hell, Michigan, where you can serve as the mayor of Hell for a day
Turkey's Pluto’s Gate, an ancient Greco-Roman temple guarding a toxic cave
China's Fengdu City of Ghosts, where tourists pre-game the afterlife in a town devoted to the underworld
The Maya Cenotes throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, long considered portals to hell
And so many more!
Ever wish you could send a postcard from hell? Now you can.]]> 288 Erika Engelhaupt 1426223536 Leah 0 to-read 3.92
author: Erika Engelhaupt
name: Leah
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 201632616 Murdered bad girl Annie Lane is back from the grave and hellbent on revenge . . . she just has to figure out who killed her.

This fast-paced thriller by a talented debut delivers a horror-infused hunt for justice that's at once furiously feminist, darkly funny, and utterly satisfying.

Between her careless mom, her cheating ex-boyfriend, and her rotten reputation around town, Annie Lane is used to being left behind. But she’s never been left for dead before—until she wakes up to find her body’s been dumped on a mountain rumored to raise the dead.

Annie can’t remember who killed her, but she’ll stop at nothing to figure it out and make them pay. Because girls like her don’t get justice unless they take it for themselves.

Codie Crowley’s propulsive debut presents a furious and cathartic thriller skewering society’s condemnation of “unlikeable�� girls.]]> 304 Codie Crowley 1368099904 Leah 0 3.67 2024
author: Codie Crowley
name: Leah
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
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]]> 25937937 For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan s mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently?
These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In"A Mother s Reckoning," she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.
Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, "A Mother s Reckoning"is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the recent Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent.
"All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues."


"From the Hardcover edition.""]]> 305 Sue Klebold 1101902752 Leah 4
Sue Klebold is a true lion-hearted mother. This book is part memoir, part true crime, part plea, and part declaration. It's vividly palpable that Klebold has needed to exorcise this story from her bones. She desperately needs the public to know of the normal home life she kept with her notorious son, and valiantly tells us of the boy she still, after everything -- suicide, murder, and time, has bottomless love for. I have tremendous respect for this move; it won't satisfy everyone. The consensus of the public is that her son, Dylan, is a "monster" who committed mass homicide. This book begs for a more multi-dimensional look at him, and in her prerogative as this boy's mother, emphasizes the suicide she lost him to; a detail often not considered.

In A Mother's Reckoning we get a very full picture of Dylan's life as it appeared to the onlooker, which is, to be sure, a very conventional life at worst. He played sports, made computers, was enrolled in honors classes, had several close friends, made videos, and played an active role in his family. He was off to college and visited several campuses in the weeks before his death, thwarting any suspicion that he had intention to end his life. In reading about his family dynamic, I couldn't help but compare mine to his. Had I been caught in the kind of mess he was, I would've raised far more red flags than Dylan did. Sue makes us look at behaviors that we consider to be "normal teenage behavior" and consider if they are symptomatic of depressive or suicide behavior. It begs the question if parents should respect the privacy of their children by not searching their rooms. They're complex questions, and while readers will be tempted to answer definitively either/or, I think Sue's biggest takeaway is a more agreeable place to start: to listen over lecturing.]]> 4.18 2016
author: Sue Klebold
name: Leah
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2016/02/20
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves:
review:
"Brain illness is not a hall pass. Dylan is guilty of the crimes he committed. I believe he did know the difference between right and wrong at the end of his life, and that what he did was profoundly wrong. But we cannot dedicate ourselves to preventing violence if we do not take into account the role depression and brain dysfunction can play in the decision to commit it."

Sue Klebold is a true lion-hearted mother. This book is part memoir, part true crime, part plea, and part declaration. It's vividly palpable that Klebold has needed to exorcise this story from her bones. She desperately needs the public to know of the normal home life she kept with her notorious son, and valiantly tells us of the boy she still, after everything -- suicide, murder, and time, has bottomless love for. I have tremendous respect for this move; it won't satisfy everyone. The consensus of the public is that her son, Dylan, is a "monster" who committed mass homicide. This book begs for a more multi-dimensional look at him, and in her prerogative as this boy's mother, emphasizes the suicide she lost him to; a detail often not considered.

In A Mother's Reckoning we get a very full picture of Dylan's life as it appeared to the onlooker, which is, to be sure, a very conventional life at worst. He played sports, made computers, was enrolled in honors classes, had several close friends, made videos, and played an active role in his family. He was off to college and visited several campuses in the weeks before his death, thwarting any suspicion that he had intention to end his life. In reading about his family dynamic, I couldn't help but compare mine to his. Had I been caught in the kind of mess he was, I would've raised far more red flags than Dylan did. Sue makes us look at behaviors that we consider to be "normal teenage behavior" and consider if they are symptomatic of depressive or suicide behavior. It begs the question if parents should respect the privacy of their children by not searching their rooms. They're complex questions, and while readers will be tempted to answer definitively either/or, I think Sue's biggest takeaway is a more agreeable place to start: to listen over lecturing.
]]> 56644004
Masochism is sexy, human, reviled, worshipped, and can be delightfully bizarre. Deliberate and consensual pain has been with us for millennia, encompassing everyone from Black Plague flagellants to ballerinas dancing on broken bones to competitive eaters choking down hot peppers while they cry. Masochism is a part of us. It lives inside workaholics, tattoo enthusiasts, and all manner of garden variety pain-seekers.
��
At its core, masochism is about feeling bad, then better—a phenomenon that is long overdue for a heartfelt and hilarious investigation. And Leigh Cowart would they are not just a researcher and science writer—they’re an inveterate, high-sensation seeking masochist. And they have a few Why do people engage in masochism? What are the benefits and the costs? And what does masochism have to say about the human experience?
��
By participating in many of these activities themselves, and through conversations with psychologists, fellow scientists, and people who seek pain for pleasure, Cowart unveils how our minds and bodies find meaning and relief in pain—a quirk in our programming that drives discipline and innovation even as it threatens to swallow us whole.
��]]> 237 Leigh Cowart 154179804X Leah 4 4.10 2021
author: Leigh Cowart
name: Leah
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves:
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]]> 54962462 144 Bettina Hindes Leah 0 to-read 4.63
author: Bettina Hindes
name: Leah
average rating: 4.63
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 78130090 An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

Hey girlfriend I got a proposition goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want

Kathleen Hanna’s band Bikini Kill embodied the punk scene of the 90s, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like “Rebel Girl�� and “Double Dare Ya�� are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?

In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumul­tuous childhood to her formative college years and her first shows. As Hanna makes clear, being in a punk “girl band�� in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her, including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman. And her friendships with musicians like Kurt Cobain, Ian MacKaye, Kim Gordon, and Joan Jett reminded her that, despite the odds, the punk world could still nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its exclusivity.

In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful—and how they continue to fuel her revolutionary art and music.]]> 326 Kathleen Hanna 0062825232 Leah 0 4.40 2024
author: Kathleen Hanna
name: Leah
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 205784445
This is the true history of women directing horror movies.

Having conducted hundreds of interviews and watched thousands of horror films, Heidi Honeycutt defines the political and cultural forces that shape the way modern horror movies are made by women. The women’s rights and civil rights movements, new distribution technology, digital cameras, the destruction of the classic studio system, and the abandonment of the Hays code have significantly impacted women directors and their movies. So, too, social media, modern ideas of gender and racial equality, LGBTQ acceptance, and a new generation of provocative, daring films that take shocking risks in the genre.

Includes short films, anthologies, documentaries, animated horror, horror pornography, pink films, and experimental horror.

I Spit on Your Celluloid is a first-of-its-kind celebration, study, and “a book that needed to be written�� (says cult filmmaker Stephanie Rothman). You will never look at horror movies the same way again!]]> 464 Heidi Honeycutt 1915316294 Leah 0 to-read 4.09
author: Heidi Honeycutt
name: Leah
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 26823012
This study delineates how such Satanic feminism is expressed in a number of nineteenth-century esoteric works, literary texts, autobiographies, pamphlets and journals, newspaper articles, paintings, sculptures and even artefacts of consumer culture such as jewellery.

We encounter figures like the suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton, author and diplomat wife Aino Kallas, gender-bending Theosophist H. P. Blavatsky, actress Sarah Bernhardt, anti-clerical witch enthusiast Matilda Joslyn Gage, decadent marchioness Luisa Casati, and the Luciferian lesbian poetess Renée Vivien.

The analysis focuses on interfaces between esotericism, literature, art and the political realm. New light is thus shed on neglected aspects of the intellectual history of feminism, Satanism and revisionary mythmaking.]]> 683 Per Faxneld Leah 0 currently-reading 4.27 2014
author: Per Faxneld
name: Leah
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 344574
The Tarot is an eternally fascinating set of strange and beautiful pictures. But beyond this lies a world of potent symbols granting access to a path of self knowledge, personal growth and freedom. These symbols connect us to the great stories of world mythology and the eternal truths of the soul. 'Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom'shows you how to use Tarot as an effective and accessible means of self-enlightenment. The book includes a complete section on how to give Tarot readings, as well as an analysis of the origins, meaning and psychological aspects of Tarot divination.]]> 356 Rachel Pollack 0722535724 Leah 3 4.31 1980
author: Rachel Pollack
name: Leah
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
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]]> 145625057
After bottoming out, being institutionalized, and getting sober all by the tender age of fifteen, Moshe Kasher found himself “What’s next?�� Over the ensuing decades, he discovered the a lot.

There was his time as a boy-king of Alcoholics Anonymous, a kind of pubescent proselytizer for other teens getting and staying sober. He was a rave promoter turned DJ turned sober ecstasy dealer in San Francisco’s techno warehouse party scene of the 1990s. For fifteen years he worked as a psychedelic security guard at Burning Man, fishing hippies out of hidden chambers they’d constructed to try to sneak into the event. As a child of deaf parents, Kasher became deeply immersed in deaf culture and sign language interpretation, translating everything from end-of-life care to horny deaf clients�� attempts to hire sex workers. He reconnects and tries to make peace with his ultra-Hasidic Jewish upbringing after the death of his father before finally settling into the comedy scene where he now makes his living.

Each of these scenes gets a gonzo historiographical rundown before Kasher enters the narrative and tells the story of the lives he has spent careening from one to the next. A razor-sharp, gut-wrenchingly funny, and surprisingly moving tour of some of the most wildly distinct subcultures a person can experience, Subculture Vulture deftly weaves together memoir and propulsive cultural history. It’s a story of finding your people, over and over again, in different settings, and of knowing without a doubt that wherever you are is where you’re supposed to be.]]> 320 Moshe Kasher 0593231376 Leah 0 to-read 4.10 2024
author: Moshe Kasher
name: Leah
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 14865302
The story of the Runaways has never been told in its entirety. Drawing on interviews with most of this seminal rock band’s former members as well as controversial manager Kim Fowley, Queens of Noise will look beyond the lurid voyeuristic appeal of a sex-drugs-rock ’n�� roll saga to give the band its place in musical, feminist, and cultural history.]]> 360 Evelyn McDonnell 0306820390 Leah 0 3.70 2013
author: Evelyn McDonnell
name: Leah
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, rock-n-roll-book-club
review:

]]> 43236893 Why the Ramones Matter compellingly makes the case that the Ramones gave us everything; they saved rock and roll, modeled DIY ethics, and addressed our deepest collective traumas, from the personal to the historical.]]> 167 Donna Gaines 1477318739 Leah 0 3.82
author: Donna Gaines
name: Leah
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, rock-n-roll-book-club
review:

]]> 25816741
In the second half of the twentieth-century New York was the source of new sounds, including the Greenwich Village folk scene, punk and new wave, and hip-hop. But as the end of the millennium neared, cutting-edge bands began emerging from Seattle, Austin, and London, pushing New York further from the epicenter. The behemoth music industry, too, found itself in free fall, under siege from technology. Then 9/11/2001 plunged the country into a state of uncertainty and war—and a dozen New York City bands that had been honing their sound and style in relative obscurity suddenly became symbols of glamour for a young, web-savvy, forward-looking generation in need of an anthem.

Meet Me in the Bathroom charts the transformation of the New York music scene in the first decade of the 2000s, the bands behind it—including The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, and Vampire Weekend—and the cultural forces that shaped it, from the Internet to a booming real estate market that forced artists out of the Lower East Side to Williamsburg. Drawing on 200 original interviews with James Murphy, Julian Casablancas, Karen O, Ezra Koenig, and many others musicians, artists, journalists, bloggers, photographers, managers, music executives, groupies, models, movie stars, and DJs who lived through this explosive time, journalist Lizzy Goodman offers a fascinating portrait of a time and a place that gave birth to a new era in modern rock-and-roll.]]> 622 Lizzy Goodman 0062233092 Leah 0 4.15 2017
author: Lizzy Goodman
name: Leah
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, rock-n-roll-book-club
review:

]]> 60828859
“Holly Knight wrote some of the best and toughest songs for female artists. Her songs helped pave the way for women in rock. Not to mention a few dudes.�� —Patty Smyth

As a writer and musician, Holly Knight worked hard and played hard with the likes of KISS, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and Heart. She showed the boys how it was done when many women were still struggling to get a foot in the door. Starting in the late 1970s in post-punk New York, Knight, a gifted keyboardist, joined the band Spider—which quickly ascended to buzzworthy status before things began to disintegrate. Fortunately, her song “Better Be Good to Me�� found its way to Tina Turner and became the second single on her landmark solo album, Private Dancer , launching Holly into rarified air. Soon she was being sought out to write for other artists in search of the big hit or their lead single. Coinciding with the birth of MTV, Knight’s powerful lyrics, hooks, and melodies became a staple on the channel as it exploded into a cultural force.

“People who grew up in the eighties tell me that MTV was the soundtrack to their lives. Holly Knight deserves much of the credit. Few songwriters have written such a diverse collection of songs for such a broad range of superstars.�� —Alan Hunter

But it was an often lonely journey to success. Not only was Holly a woman in a male-dominated industry that didn’t welcome women warmly into the inner sanctum, she carried with her the baggage of a difficult childhood and a fraught relationship with her mother, the substance of which informed the themes that made her songs so anthemic. I Am the Warrior is a story of survival, perseverance, and triumph laced with ample amounts of sex, drugs, and rock ’n�� roll. Backstage, onstage, in the studio, and on the road, this book is a revealing, bang-bang tale that welcomes you along for a look back at one of the most adventurous and colorful periods in music history.

�� I Am the Warrior takes readers on a wild ride through the eighties world of rock ’n�� roll from a strong female’s perspective. Songwriters Hall of Fame-inductee Holly Knight delivers the goods and stands out as a creative, gutsy woman who made her way through a field dominated by men, ultimately coming out on top. If you love music like I do, this is a must-read!�� —Cassandra Peterson (AKA Elvira, Mistress of the Dark)]]> 272 Holly Knight 1637584393 Leah 0 4.17
author: Holly Knight
name: Leah
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, rock-n-roll-book-club
review:

]]> 56980614
The long-awaited autobiography by one of heavy metal’s most revered icons, treasured vocalists, and front man for three legendary bands—Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and Dio.

Prior to his tragic death in 2010, Ronnie James Dio had been writing his autobiography, looking back on the remarkable life that led him from his hometown in upstate New York to the biggest stages in the world, including the arena that represented the pinnacle of success to him—Madison Square Garden, where this book begins and ends.

As Ronnie contemplates the achievement of a dream, he reflects on the key aspects that coalesced into this moment—the close gang of friends that gave him his start in music, playing parties, bars, frats, and clubs; the sudden transition that moved him to the microphone and changed his life forever; the luck that led to the birth of Rainbow and a productive but difficult collaboration with Ritchie Blackmore; the chance meeting that made him the second singer of Black Sabbath, taking them to new levels of success; the surprisingly tender story behind the birth of the Devil Horns, the lasting symbol of heavy metal; his marriage to Wendy, which stabilized his life, and the huge bet they placed together to launch the most successful endeavor of his career…his own band, Dio.

Everything is described in great detail and in the frankest terms, from his fallout with Blackmore, to the drugs that derailed the resurrection of Black Sabbath, to the personality clashes that frayed each band.

Written with longtime friend of thirty years and esteemed music writer, Mick Wall, who took up the mantle after Ronnie’s passing, Rainbow in the Dark is a frank, startling, often hilarious, sometimes sad testament to dedication and ambition, filled with moving coming-of-age tales, glorious stories of excess, and candid recollections of what really happened backstage, at the hotel, in the studio, and back home behind closed doors far away from the road.

(Black and white photos throughout plus an 8-page 4-color photo insert.)]]> 264 Ronnie James Dio 1642939749 Leah 0 4.11 2021
author: Ronnie James Dio
name: Leah
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, rock-n-roll-book-club
review:

]]> 38657798 In this New York Times bestseller, Tina Turner—the long-reigning queen of rock & roll—reveals personal stories she’s never told before in print or film, about her complicated relationship with her mother, the tragic death of her son, and finally finding true love with Erwin, setting the record straight about her illustrious career in this eye-opening and compelling memoir.

From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between.

My Love Story is an explosive and inspiring story of a woman who dared to break any barriers put in her way. Emphatically showcasing Tina’s signature blend of strength, energy, heart, and soul, this is a gorgeously wrought memoir as enthralling and moving as any of her greatest hits.]]> 272 Tina Turner 1501198246 Leah 0 4.05 2018
author: Tina Turner
name: Leah
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, rock-n-roll-book-club
review:

]]> 55669013 An exploration of female friendship and women in music, from the iconic singer-songwriter and bestselling author of Another Planet and Bedsit Disco Queen

In 1983, backstage at the Lyceum in London, Tracey Thorn and Lindy Morrison first met. Tracey's music career was just beginning, while Lindy, drummer for The Go-Betweens, was ten years her senior. They became confidantes, comrades and best friends, a relationship cemented by gossip and feminism, books and gigs and rock 'n' roll love affairs.

Morrison - a headstrong heroine blazing her way through a male-dominated industry - came to be a kind of mentor to Thorn. They shared the joy and the struggle of being women in a band, trying to outwit and face down a chauvinist music media.

In My Rock 'n' Roll Friend Thorn takes stock of thirty-seven years of friendship, teasing out the details of connection and affection between two women who seem to be either complete opposites or mirror images of each other. This important book asks what people see, who does the looking, and ultimately who writes women out of - and back into - history.]]> 256 Tracey Thorn 1786898225 Leah 0 4.16 2021
author: Tracey Thorn
name: Leah
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, rock-n-roll-book-club
review:

]]> 6952423 I Am Ozzy 391 Ozzy Osbourne 0446569895 Leah 0 4.08 2009
author: Ozzy Osbourne
name: Leah
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read, rock-n-roll-book-club
review:

]]> 11681414 Iron Man chronicles the story of both pioneering guitarist Tony Iommi and legendary band Black Sabbath, dubbed “The Beatles of heavy metal�� by Rolling Stone. Iron Man reveals the man behind the icon yet still captures Iommi’s humor, intelligence, and warmth. He speaks honestly and unflinchingly about his rough-and-tumble childhood, the accident that almost ended his career, his failed marriages, personal tragedies, battles with addiction, band mates, famous friends, newfound daughter, and the ups and downs of his life as an artist.Everything associated with hard rock happened to Black Sabbath first: the drugs, the debauchery, the drinking, the dungeons, the pressure, the pain, the conquests, the company men, the contracts, the combustible drummer, the critics, the comebacks, the singers, the Stonehenge set, the music, the money, the madness, the metal.]]> 381 Tony Iommi 0306819554 Leah 3 4.00 2011
author: Tony Iommi
name: Leah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 103511538
Fancy Feast draws back the curtain to reveal a world that most denizens of the daytime never see. Part exclusive backstage pass, part long-form literary striptease, these essays confront our culture’s tightly held beliefs—like so many clutched pearls—about sex, communication, power, and the messiness of life on the margins of respectability. In “Dildo Lady,�� Fancy recounts her time compensating for the failures of the American sex education system while working retail at a sex toy store. In “Doing Yourself,�� Fancy tackles fatphobia and dating, self-love, and fantasies. In “Yes/No/Maybe,�� Fancy brings the reader from sex parties to polyamorous relationships as she contrasts the undeniable sexiness of enthusiastic consent with the devastating effects of miscommunication and entitlement.

Fancy Feast does this all as a fat woman who makes a living taking off her clothes—a triumphant punch-back at a culture that wants fat people to be self-hating or sexless. For fans of Lindy West and Melissa Febos, Naked is by turns splashy, vulnerable, and always powerful.
��]]> 256 Fancy Feast 1643752375 Leah 5 4.36 2023
author: Fancy Feast
name: Leah
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 57933306 Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening--and how to get our attention back.

In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions--even abandoning his phone for three months--but nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention--and he discovered that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.

We think our inability to focus is a personal failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more disturbing: our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces that have left us uniquely vulnerable to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. Hari found that there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, from the decline of mind-wandering to rising pollution, all of which have robbed some of our attention. In Stolen Focus, he introduces readers to Silicon Valley dissidents who learned to hack human attention, and veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD. He explores a favela in Rio de Janeiro where everyone lost their attention in a particularly surreal way, and an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore workers' productivity.

Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus--as individuals, and as a society--if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.]]> 357 Johann Hari 0593138511 Leah 2 4.22 2022
author: Johann Hari
name: Leah
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/01/25
shelves:
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]]> 62926962 An illuminating exploration of how to maintain a happy sex life in a long-term relationship, from the New York Times bestselling author of Come as You Are and co-author of Burnout.

In Come as You Are, Emily Nagoski, PhD, provided science-backed lessons that revolutionized the way we think about women’s sexuality. Now, in Come Together, Nagoski takes on a fundamentally misunderstood subject: sex in long-term relationships.

Nagoski breaks down the myths many of us have been taught about sex—for instance, the belief that sexual satisfaction and desire are highest at the beginning of a relationship and that they will inevitably decline the longer that relationship lasts. Nagoski assures us that’s not true.

So, what is true? Come Together isn’t about how much we want sex, or how often we’re having it; it’s about whether we like the sex we’re having. Nagoski breaks down the obstacles that impede us from enjoying sex—from stress and body image, to relationship difficulties and gendered beliefs about how sex “should�� be—and presents the best ways to overcome them. You'll learn:
�� that “spontaneous desire�� is not the kind of desire to strive for if you want to have great sex for decades
�� vocabulary for talking with partners about ways to get in “the mood�� and how to not take it personally when “the mood�� is nowhere to be found
�� how to understand your own and your partner’s “emotional floorplan,�� so that you have a blueprint for how to get to a sexy state of mind

With her signature insight, humor, and empathy, Nagoski shows us what great sex can look like, how to create it in our own lives, and what to do when struggles arise.]]> 368 Emily Nagoski 0593500822 Leah 0 to-read 4.13 2024
author: Emily Nagoski
name: Leah
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 33313 A deluxe, annotated edition of Kitchen Confidential to celebrate the life of Anthony Bourdain, featuring new photo inserts

Over two decades ago, the New Yorker published a now infamous article, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,�� by then little-known chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain spared no one’s appetite as he revealed what happens behind the kitchen door. The article was a sensation, and the book it spawned, the now iconic Kitchen Confidential, became an even bigger sensation and megabestseller. Frankly confessional, addictively acerbic, and utterly unsparing, Bourdain pulls no punches in this memoir of his years in the restaurant business.

Fans will love to return to this deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade, laying out Bourdain’s more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine. Including a handwritten introduction and annotations done by Bourdain about a decade after the book was originally published, this edition also features previously unpublished photos to accompany the now-classic text.]]> 312 Anthony Bourdain 0060899220 Leah 0 4.17 2000
author: Anthony Bourdain
name: Leah
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/11
date added: 2023/12/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 75289825 An intimate, illustrated collection of spells and stories to infuse our lives with ritual, history, and magic from the visionary artist and infamous witch Bri Luna, founder and creative director of “The Hoodwitch.�� Blood Sex Magic ��is an invitation and an awakening—a guide toward a life of connection to self and spirit, to the seen and unseen realms, and to magical traditions past and future. Bri Luna honors traditions from her African American and Mexican roots and celebrates magic that is “from dirt and blood, jewels and bones, moon and sun.�� Full of stunning photography and color illustrations, and brimming with incantations, spells, stories, vignettes, and warnings,�� Blood Sex Magic ��is divided into three powerful An instant classic and timeless resource for both new and experienced witches alike, this beautiful collection shows us how to access the untapped magic within, and encourages us to see and channel that same magic in the world around us.]]> 224 Bri Luna 0063081458 Leah 0 4.24
author: Bri Luna
name: Leah
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/25
date added: 2023/11/25
shelves:
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]]> 63133205 The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.]]> 288 Britney Spears 1668009048 Leah 0 3.83 2023
author: Britney Spears
name: Leah
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/30
date added: 2023/10/30
shelves:
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]]> 52833748 The Devil’s Tome: A Book of Modern Satanic Ritual explores non-theistic satanic ritual as a means for healing, empowerment, and community building. It brings light to what is often a hidden and misunderstood practice and provides insight into how to cultivate your own personal power through Satanism. Shiva, a long-time leader within The Satanic Temple, discusses her own 'journey to the underworld,' the scientific case for ritual, and how to create your own Satanic ritual practice. Shiva includes a collection of Satanic rituals for the solo practitioner as well as group rituals, which include photographs, scripts, and background on rituals done at The Satanic Temple Salem. The book features a foreword and illustrations by co-founder of The Satanic Temple Lucien Greaves and illustrations by Lex Corey.]]> 0 Shiva Honey Leah 0 4.29
author: Shiva Honey
name: Leah
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/21
date added: 2023/08/21
shelves:
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]]> 60965426 From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.

"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment." --Anne Lamott

"I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be." --Rick Rubin

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output, it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments--and lifetimes--of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.]]> 406 Rick Rubin 0593652886 Leah 0 4.00 2023
author: Rick Rubin
name: Leah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves:
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]]> 60486110 526 Michael Hann 1472134079 Leah 4 4.16
author: Michael Hann
name: Leah
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/07/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 554498 Mankind 069452218X Leah 0 backburner 4.33 1999
author: Mankind
name: Leah
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/03
shelves: backburner
review:

]]> 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,�� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?�� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!��), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy Leah 5 4.45 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Leah
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/25
date added: 2023/01/25
shelves:
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]]> 60880788 A shocking, groundbreaking oral history of the notorious Rikers jail complex and an unflinching portrait of injustice and resilience told by the people whose lives have been forever altered.

What happens when you jam almost a dozen jails, bulging at the seams with society's cast-offs, onto a spit of landfill purposefully hidden from public view? Prize-winning journalists Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau have spent two years interviewing more than 130 people comprising a broad cross section of lives Rikers has touched--from incarcerated people and their relatives, to officers, lawyers, and commissioners, with stories spanning the 1970s to present day. The portrait that emerges calls into question the very nature of justice in America.

Offering a 360-degree view inside the country's largest detention complex, the deeply personal accounts--featured here for the first time--take readers on a harrowing journey into every corner of Rikers--a failed society unto itself that reflects society's failings as a whole.

Dr. Homer Venters was shocked by the screams on his first day working at Rikers: "They're in solitary, just yelling . . . the yelling literally never stops." After a few months, though, your ears adjust to the sounds. Nestor Eversley recalls how detainees made weapons from bones. Barry Campbell recalls hiding a razor blade in his mouth just in case.

These are visceral stories of despair, brutality, resilience, humor, and hope, told by the people who were marooned on the island over the course of decades. As calls to shutter jails and reduce the number of incarcerated people grow louder across the country, with the movement to close the island complex itself at the forefront, Rikers is a resounding lesson about the human consequences of the incarceration industry.]]> 464 Graham Rayman 0593134214 Leah 0 to-read 4.08 2023
author: Graham Rayman
name: Leah
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44294937
Gothic Queer Culture examines the material effects of marginalization, exclusion, and violence and explains why discourse around the complexities of genders and sexualities repeatedly returns to the gothic. Westengard places this queer knowledge production within a larger framework of gothic queer culture, which inherently includes theoretical texts, art, literature, performance, and popular culture.

By analyzing queer knowledge production alongside other forms of queer culture, Gothic Queer Culture enters into the most current conversations on the state of gender and sexuality, especially debates surrounding negativity, anti-relationalism, assimilation, and neoliberalism. It provides a framework for understanding these debates in the context of a distinctly gothic cultural mode that acknowledges violence and insidious trauma, depathologizes the association between trauma and queerness, and offers a rich counterhegemonic cultural aesthetic through the circulation of gothic tropes.
��]]> 288 Laura Westengard 1496217020 Leah 0 to-read 4.00
author: Laura Westengard
name: Leah
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 54798456 Laugh-out-loud, deeply insightful, and emotion-filled essays from multi-talented actress, comedian, podcaster, and writer Casey Wilson.

Casey Wilson has a lot on her mind and she isn’t afraid to share. In this dazzling collection of essays, skillfully constructed and brimming with emotion, she shares her thoughts on the joys and vagaries of modern-day womanhood and motherhood, introduces the not-quite-typical family that made her who she is, and persuasively argues that lowbrow pop culture is the perfect lens through which to understand human nature.

Whether she’s extolling the virtues of eating in bed, processing the humiliation over her father’s late in life perm, or exploring her pathological need to be liked, Casey is witty, candid, and full of poignant and funny surprises. Humorous dives into her obsessions and areas of personal expertise—Scientology and self-help, nice guys, reality television shows—are matched by touching meditations on female friendship, grief, motherhood, and identity.��

Reading The Wreckage of My Presence is like spending time with a close friend—a deeply passionate, full-tilt, joyous, excessive, compulsive, shameless, hungry-for-it-all, loyal, cheerleading friend. A friend who is ready for any big feeling that comes her way and isn’t afraid to embrace it.

Bed person --
The wreckage of my presence --
To all the boys I loved before --
Cool girl --
A saber story --
Send in the clowns --
Flyentology --
Hide your phones --
Expect a miracle --
Hiked out --
The BBQ --
Tears of a clown --
Happy endings --
My husband's just not that into me; or Afrin: a love story --
Grandpa's pretty girl --
It doesn't do --
What dis --
Open-door policy --
Mother's day --
People don't know how to act --
Gimme some sugar; or, the wreckage of my presence redux]]> 288 Casey Wilson 006296058X Leah 2 4.13 2021
author: Casey Wilson
name: Leah
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2023/01/11
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves:
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]]> 60097432 A modern, nonjudgmental guide to reclaiming and embodying your sexuality as nothing short of divine.

There has never been a more vital time to embrace the union of sex and spirit. With Gabriela Herstik's expert and inclusive guidance, learn to shed societally ingrained shame and reclaim your birthright to sacred sex as a foundational part of your spiritual path. Sacred Sex covers topics including:

- how to work with the divine erotic and sex magick
- how mystical traditions from around the world, such as tantra, kundalini, Kabbalah, and Taoism, work with sexuality in a mystical context
- how to use the tarot as an archetypal framework to go deeper in your practice
- how honoring your boundaries, tuning into your intuition, and having a personal set of values around sex are necessities
- why releasing judgment and shame is a vital piece of the puzzle
- rituals to activate self-love and self-lust, to embody your higher sexual self, to heal, to manifest your power, and to release judgment
- the paths available for your individual journey, such as the union of the self and the higher self, sexual alchemy, devotion, sacred kink, glamour and embodiment, and redefining the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine
- guided journaling and affirmations for each chapter
- interviews with sex therapists, sex workers, and sexuality professionals
- and much more

Honoring the sexual as a path to the sacred is life- and heart-changing work that begins with you, respecting your desires, and standing in your erotic power. Whether you are single or in a relationship(s), embracing the divine erotic can infuse your life with purpose, love, self-lust, and plenty of magick, which you can then share with partners, lovers, and the world.]]> 352 Gabriela Herstik 0593421655 Leah 0 4.10
author: Gabriela Herstik
name: Leah
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2022/12/27
date added: 2022/12/27
shelves:
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]]> 17837762
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral �� the hypnotic secret shape of the world. This bizarre masterpiece of horror manga is now available in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!]]> 653 Junji Ito 1421561328 Leah 0 4.45 2000
author: Junji Ito
name: Leah
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2022/12/02
date added: 2022/12/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 60791673
Rob Halford has long been known for his legendary voice. As the front man of Judas Priest, his vocals have been tremendous, and tremendously influential. In 2020, he brought his voice to the page with a glorious autobiography. Fans and readers loved Halford’s frank and open narrative, as well as his terrific insight and sense of humor. In an ideal follow-up, Halford runs his lively eye over all facets of the hard rock history and the heavy metal world. Biblical is an encyclopedia and manifesto in which Halford shares his opinions, memories, and anecdotes regarding every element of the rock and roll work and lifestyle from tours to tattoos, riffs to riders, and drugs to devil horns. In Halford’s relaxed and honest tone, the book mixes serious and in-depth pieces with whimsical reflections on lessons learned during his fifty years of a life in music. Biblical is a handed-down-from-on-high holy tome that transports fans behind the scenes and back into their record collections, to the almighty ways of rock.]]> 336 Rob Halford 0306828243 Leah 0 4.24
author: Rob Halford
name: Leah
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/29
date added: 2022/11/29
shelves:
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]]> 34017010 Iconic couples�� therapist and bestselling author of��Mating in Captivity��Esther Perel returns with a provocative look at relationships through the lens of infidelity.

An affair: it can rob a couple of their relationship, their happiness, their very identity. And yet, this extremely common human experience is so poorly understood. What are we to make of this time-honored taboo—universally forbidden yet universally practiced? Why do people cheat—even those in happy marriages? Why does an affair hurt so much? When we say infidelity, what exactly do we mean? Do our romantic expectations of marriage set us up for betrayal? Is there such a thing as an affair-proof marriage? Is it possible to love more than one person at once? Can an affair ever help a marriage? Perel weaves real-life case stories with incisive psychological and cultural analysis in this fast-paced and compelling book.

For the past ten years, Perel has traveled the globe and worked with hundreds of couples who have grappled with infidelity. Betrayal hurts, she writes, but it can be healed. An��affair��can even be the doorway to a new marriage—with the same person. With the right approach, couples can grow and learn from these tumultuous experiences, together or apart.

Affairs, she argues, have a lot to teach us about modern relationships—what we expect, what we think we want, and what we feel entitled to. They offer a unique window into our personal and cultural attitudes about love, lust, and commitment. Through examining illicit love from multiple angles, Perel invites readers into an honest, enlightened, and entertaining exploration of modern marriage in its many variations.

Fiercely intelligent,��The��State��of��Affairs��provides a daring framework for understanding the intricacies of love and desire. As Perel observes, “Love is messy; infidelity more so. But it is also a window, like no other, into the crevices of the human heart.”]]> 352 Esther Perel 0062322605 Leah 0 4.35 2017
author: Esther Perel
name: Leah
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2022/10/27
date added: 2022/10/27
shelves:
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]]> 36611752
Plug in and walk the same streets a young Bob Dylan walked. See where Patti Smith, the Ramones, Beastie Boys, and Jeff Buckley played. Visit on foot the places Lou Reed mentions in his songs or where Paul Simon grew up; where the Strokes drowned their sorrows, Talking Heads created art and Jimi Hendrix found his vision. Rock and Roll Explorer Guide gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at how bands came together, scenes developed, and classic songs were written. Artists come and go, neighborhoods change, venues open and close, but the music lives on.]]> 256 Mike Katz 1630763160 Leah 0 backburner 4.17
author: Mike Katz
name: Leah
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/09
shelves: backburner
review:

]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
-��Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
-��Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- Design your environment to make success easier;
- Get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]> 319 James Clear Leah 4 4.34 2018
author: James Clear
name: Leah
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/08
date added: 2022/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 57693663
Now, he is a true crime writer, with one grisly success--and movie adaptation--to his name, along with a series of subsequent lesser efforts that have paid the bills but not much more. But now he is being offered the chance for the big break: To move into the house--what the locals call "The Devil House"--in which a briefly notorious pair of murders occurred, apparently the work of disaffected 1980s teens. He begins his research with diligence and enthusiasm, but soon the story leads him into a puzzle he never expected--back into his own work and what it means, back to the very core of what he does and who he is.]]> 403 John Darnielle 0374212236 Leah 3 3.21 2022
author: John Darnielle
name: Leah
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/03
date added: 2022/10/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 104825 301 David Sklansky 1880685000 Leah 0 backburner 4.03 1983
author: David Sklansky
name: Leah
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1983
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/22
shelves: backburner
review:

]]> 18599653 Face the Music, Paul Stanley—the co-founder and famous “Starchild�� frontman of KISS—reveals for the first time the incredible highs and equally incredible lows in his life both inside and outside the band. Face the Music is the shocking, funny, smart, inspirational story of one of rock’s most enduring icons and the group he helped create, define, and immortalize.

Stanley mixes compelling personal revelations and gripping, gritty war stories that will surprise even the most steadfast member of the KISS Army. He takes us back to his childhood in the 1950s and ��60s, a traumatic time made more painful thanks to a physical deformity. Born with a condition called microtia, he grew up partially deaf, with only one ear. But this instilled in him an inner drive to succeed in the most unlikely of pursuits: music.

With never-before-seen photos and images throughout, Stanley’s memoir is a fully realized and unflinching portrait of a rock star, a chronicle of the stories behind the famous anthems, the many brawls and betrayals, and all the drama and pyrotechnics on and off the stage. Raw and confessional, Stanley offers candid insights into his personal relationships, and the turbulent dynamics with his bandmates over the past four decades. And no one comes out unscathed—including Stanley himself.

People say I was brave to write such a revealing book, but I wrote it because I needed to personally reflect on my own life. I know everyone will see themselves somewhere in this book, and where my story might take them is why I’m sharing it.—Paul Stanley]]> 480 Paul Stanley 0062114069 Leah 4 4.08 2014
author: Paul Stanley
name: Leah
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/18
date added: 2022/09/18
shelves:
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]]> 59135431 1970s New York City: Go-go dancers, The Peppermint Lounge, gangsters, Billy’s Topless, and Stephanie Johnson��

In 2019, Humans of New York featured a photo of a woman in an outrageous fur coat and hat she made herself. She instantly captured the attention of millions. Her name is Stephanie Johnson, but she’s better known to HONY followers as “Tanqueray,�� the indefatigable woman who was once one of the best-known burlesque dancers in New York City.

Brandon Stanton chronicled her life in the longest series he had yet posted on HONY, but, now, Stephanie Johnson—a woman as fabulous, unbowed, and irresistible as the city she lives in—tells all in Tanqueray, a book filled with never-before-told stories, personal photos from her own collection, and glimpses of New York City back in the day when the name “Tanqueray�� was on everyone’s lips.]]> 180 Stephanie Johnson 1250278279 Leah 0 4.17 2022
author: Stephanie Johnson
name: Leah
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2022/09/06
date added: 2022/09/06
shelves:
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]]> 57402596 ��
It began with the Beatles�� “Helter Skelter.�� It was distilled to its dark essence by Black Sabbath. And it has flourished into a vibrant modern underground, epitomized by Newcastle’s Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs. This is the evolution of heavy music. The voyage is as varied as it is from the lysergic blunt trauma of Blue Cheer to the locked grooves of Funkadelic, the aural frightmares of Faust to the tectonic crush of Sleep, alighting on post-punk, industrial, grunge, stoner rock, and numerous other genres along the way. Ranging from household names to obscure cult heroes and heroines, Electric Wizards demonstrates how each successive phase of heavy music was forged by what came before, outlining a rich and eclectic lineage that extends far beyond the usual boundaries of heavy rock or heavy metal. It extols those who did things differently, who introduced something fresh and exciting into this elemental tradition, whether by design, accident, or sheer chance. In doing so, Electric Wizards weaves an entirely new tapestry of heavy music.]]> 480 J.R. Moores 1789144485 Leah 3 3.90
author: J.R. Moores
name: Leah
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/04
date added: 2022/09/04
shelves:
review:
3.5 stars. Some glaring omissions, some overstated (take a shot every time Moores mentions Steve Albini.) The parts about the music you like are enjoyable (unless you’re a fan of Limp Bizkit, in which I’m guilty), while the parts you care less for can feel like a slog. Still, you’ll likely find new things to check out and learn some factoids about the bands you’ve been listening to for years.
]]> 29632242 750 Junji Ito 1421590565 Leah 0 4.14 1987
author: Junji Ito
name: Leah
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at: 2022/08/22
date added: 2022/08/22
shelves:
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]]> 58393129 Memoir meets craft masterclass in this “daring, honest, psychologically insightful�� exploration of how we think and write about intimate experiences—“a must read for anybody shoving a pen across paper or staring into a screen or a past" (Mary Karr).

In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and master class, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller’s life and the questions which run through it.

How might we go about capturing on the page the relationships that have formed us? How do we write about our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean for an author’s way of writing, or living, to be dismissed as “navel-gazing”—or else hailed as “so brave, so raw��? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong?

Drawing on her own path from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor—via addiction and recovery, sex work and Harvard night school—Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas—and occasional notes of caution—to anyone who has ever hoped to see themselves in a story.]]> 171 Melissa Febos 1646220854 Leah 0 4.23 2022
author: Melissa Febos
name: Leah
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2022/07/07
date added: 2022/07/07
shelves:
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]]> 50196744
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.

Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.]]> 384 Chanel Miller 0735223718 Leah 4
All that said, this is easily one of the better memoirs I've read in a long time. If you're unacquainted with what a survivor is up against if she chooses to press charges and wonder why so few do, this book will take you to school. I felt a lot of things reading this: exhaustion, frustration, even yelling "fuck you!" aloud at the judge during parts. I cried more than once. Miller masterfully weaves a web between her assault, her life thereafter, and later in the book, relevant current events and their public reception. Of the few survivors who see their cases through, it's a gift (perhaps one you don't want, but need) to the reader that one was so eloquent and self aware and took to the task of writing a book about it.]]> 4.69 2019
author: Chanel Miller
name: Leah
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/27
date added: 2022/06/28
shelves:
review:
I do feel the need to say this first: this book is deceptively long. at 357 pages, it's a bit longer than your average memoir, but because it has virtually no dialogue, it lacks the rhythm and space a memoir ought to. Where there is dialogue, Miller chooses to put it in italics and within the paragraph, rather than in quotes and giving each line its own line. This is a confusing stylistic choice that took me a while to realize I was reading words spoken aloud, not inner thoughts. It doesn't lend to the artistry of the book and would never fly in a memoir writing class I've ever taken. /rant

All that said, this is easily one of the better memoirs I've read in a long time. If you're unacquainted with what a survivor is up against if she chooses to press charges and wonder why so few do, this book will take you to school. I felt a lot of things reading this: exhaustion, frustration, even yelling "fuck you!" aloud at the judge during parts. I cried more than once. Miller masterfully weaves a web between her assault, her life thereafter, and later in the book, relevant current events and their public reception. Of the few survivors who see their cases through, it's a gift (perhaps one you don't want, but need) to the reader that one was so eloquent and self aware and took to the task of writing a book about it.
]]> 51959287
Smarsh challenged a typically male vision of the rural working class with her first book, Heartland, starring the bold, hard-luck women who raised her. Now, in She Come By It Natural, originally published in a four-part series for The Journal of Roots Music, No Depression, Smarsh explores the overlooked contributions to social progress by such women—including those averse to the term “feminism”—as exemplified by Dolly Parton’s life and art.

Far beyond the recently resurrected “Jolene�� or quintessential ��9 to 5,�� Parton’s songs for decades have validated women who go unheard: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the struggling mother disparaged as “trailer trash.�� Parton’s broader career—from singing on the front porch of her family’s cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains to achieving stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from “girl singer�� managed by powerful men to leader of a self-made business and philanthropy empire—offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture.

Infused with Smarsh’s trademark insight, intelligence, and humanity, She Come By It Natural is a sympathetic tribute to the icon Dolly Parton and—call it whatever you like—the organic feminism she embodies.]]> 208 Sarah Smarsh 1982157283 Leah 0 backburner 3.83 2020
author: Sarah Smarsh
name: Leah
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/27
shelves: backburner
review:

]]> 56921930
Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York. At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed�� his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents.

In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him.

A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions.

Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.

Deaf Utopia is intimate, suspenseful, hilarious, eye-opening, and smart—both a memoir and a celebration of what makes Deaf culture unique and beautiful.]]> 317 Nyle DiMarco 0063062356 Leah 3 4.23 2022
author: Nyle DiMarco
name: Leah
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/18
date added: 2022/06/18
shelves:
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If you don’t know much about Deaf culture, I do recommend this book; you’ll learn a lot. The voice is casual and dry (as is often the case with celebrity memoirs) and I so badly wanted to edit it in places. Still, it’s a story written out of necessity. The reader can feel that and will stay with and root for DiMarco through the end, even if it isn’t a stellar work of literature.
]]> 54814676
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band �� and meeting the man who would become her husband �� her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 243 Michelle Zauner 0525657746 Leah 2 4.25 2021
author: Michelle Zauner
name: Leah
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2022/05/31
date added: 2022/05/31
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]]> 35406499 SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2018

What was I fighting for? Even now I'm not sure. Something so old and so deep, it has no words, no shape, no logic.

Every memoir is a battle between reality and invention - but in her follow up to Clothes, Music, Boys, Viv Albertine has reinvented the genre with her unflinching honesty.

To Throw Away Unopened is a fearless dissection of one woman's obsession with the truth - the truth about family, power, and her identity as a rebel and outsider. It is a gaping wound of a book, both an exercise in blood-letting and psychological archaeology, excavating what lies beneath: the fear, the loneliness, the anger. It is a brutal expose of human dysfunctionality, the impossibility of true intimacy, and the damage wrought upon us by secrets and revelations, siblings and parents.

Yet it is also a testament to how we can rebuild ourselves and come to face the world again. It is a portrait of the love stories that constitute a life, often bringing as much pain as joy. With the inimitable blend of humour, vulnerability, and intelligence that makes Viv Albertine one of our finest authors working today, To Throw Away Unopened smashes through layers of propriety and leads us into a new place of savage self-discovery.]]> 307 Viv Albertine 0571326234 Leah 0 4.18 2018
author: Viv Albertine
name: Leah
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2022/05/02
date added: 2022/05/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 58088523 315 Phil Schneider Leah 0 to-read 4.04
author: Phil Schneider
name: Leah
average rating: 4.04
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 57801489
An Electric Literature “Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of 2022�� Selection

A love letter to the legendary Black and Latinx LGBTQ underground subculture, uncovering its abundant legacy and influence in popular culture.

What is Ballroom? Not a song, a documentary, a catchphrase, a TV show, or an individual pop star. It is an underground subculture founded over a century ago by LGBTQ African American and Latino men and women of Harlem. Arts-based and intersectional, it transcends identity, acting as a fearless response to the systemic marginalization of minority populations.

Ricky Tucker pulls from his years as a close friend of the community to reveal the complex cultural makeup and ongoing relevance of house and Ballroom, a space where trans lives are respected and applauded, and queer youth are able to find family and acceptance. With each chapter framed as a “category�� (Vogue, Realness, Body, et al.), And the Category Is . . . offers an impressionistic point of entry into this subculture, its deeply integrated history, and how it’s been appropriated for mainstream audiences. Each category features an exclusive interview with fierce LGBTQ/POC Ballroom members—Lee Soulja, Benjamin Ninja, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and more—whose lives, work, and activism drive home that very category.

At the height of public intrigue and awareness about Ballroom, thanks to TV shows like FX’s Pose , Tucker’s compelling narratives help us understand its relevance in pop culture, dance, public policy with regard to queer communities, and so much more. Welcome to the norm-defying realness of Ballroom.]]> 248 Ricky Tucker 0807003484 Leah 0 to-read 3.95 2022
author: Ricky Tucker
name: Leah
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 54980908 280 Mike Errico 1493059874 Leah 0 to-read 4.47
author: Mike Errico
name: Leah
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 56912932
Kelefa Sanneh, one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture, has made a deep study of how popular music unites and divides us, charting the way genres become communities. In Major Labels, Sanneh distills a career's worth of knowledge about music and musicians into a brilliant and omnivorous reckoning with popular music--as an art form (actually, a bunch of art forms), as a cultural and economic force, and as a tool that we use to build our identities. He explains the history of slow jams, the genius of Shania Twain, and why rappers are always getting in trouble.

Sanneh shows how these genres have been defined by the tension between mainstream and outsider, between authenticity and phoniness, between good and bad, right and wrong. Throughout, race is a powerful touchstone: just as there have always been Black audiences and white audiences, with more or less overlap depending on the moment, there has been Black music and white music, constantly mixing and separating. Sanneh debunks cherished myths, reappraises beloved heroes, and upends familiar ideas of musical greatness, arguing that sometimes, the best popular music isn't transcendent. Songs express our grudges as well as our hopes, and they are motivated by greed as well as idealism; music is a powerful tool for human connection, but also for human antagonism. This is a book about the music everyone loves, the music everyone hates, and the decades-long argument over which is which. The opposite of a modest proposal, Major Labels pays in full.]]> 496 Kelefa Sanneh 0525559590 Leah 0 to-read 4.16 2021
author: Kelefa Sanneh
name: Leah
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58357560 Rock-and-roll icon and three-time bestselling author Nikki Sixx tells his origin story: how Frank Feranna became Nikki Sixx, chronicling his fascinating journey from irrepressible Idaho farmboy to the man who formed the revolutionary rock group Mötley Crüe.

Nikki Sixx is one of the most respected, recognizable, and entrepreneurial icons in the music industry. As the founder of Mötley Crüe, who is now in his twenty-first year of sobriety, Sixx is incredibly passionate about his craft and wonderfully open about his life in rock and roll, and as a person of the world. Born Franklin Carlton Feranna on December 11, 1958, young Frankie was abandoned by his father and partly raised by his mother, a woman who was ahead of her time but deeply troubled. Frankie ended up living with his grandparents, bouncing from farm to farm and state to state. He was an all-American kid—hunting, fishing, chasing girls, and playing football—but underneath it all, there was a burning desire for more, and that more was music. He eventually took a Greyhound bound for Hollywood.

In Los Angeles, Frank lived with his aunt and his uncle—the president of Capitol Records—for a short time. But there was no easy path to the top. He was soon on his own. There were dead-end jobs: dipping circuit boards, clerking at liquor and record stores, selling used light bulbs, and hustling to survive. But at night, Frank honed his craft, joining Sister, a band formed by fellow hard-rock veteran Blackie Lawless, and formed a group of his own: London, the precursor of Mötley Crüe. Turning down an offer to join Randy Rhoads’s band, Frank changed his name to Nikki London, Nikki Nine, and, finally, Nikki Sixx. Like Huck Finn with a stolen guitar, he had a vision: a group that combined punk, glam, and hard rock into the biggest, most theatrical and irresistible package the world had ever seen. With hard work, passion, and some luck, the vision manifested in reality—and this is a profound true story finding identity, of how Frank Feranna became Nikki Sixx. It's also a road map to the ways you can overcome anything, and achieve all of your goals, if only you put your mind to it.]]> 224 Nikki Sixx 0306923696 Leah 0 4.41 2021
author: Nikki Sixx
name: Leah
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2021/12/31
date added: 2021/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 55809879 The woman behind the icon known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the undisputed Queen of Halloween, reveals her full story, filled with intimate bombshells, told by the bombshell herself.

On Good Friday in 1953, at only 18 months old, 25 miles from the nearest hospital in Manhattan, Kansas, Cassandra Peterson reached for a pot on the stove and doused herself in boiling water. Third-degree burns covered 35% of her body, and the prognosis wasn't good. But she survived. Burned and scarred, the impact stayed with her and became an obstacle she was determined to overcome. Feeling like a misfit led to her love of horror. While her sisters played with Barbie dolls, Cassandra built model kits of Frankenstein and Dracula, and idolized Vincent Price.

Due to a complicated relationship with her mother, Cassandra left home at 14, and by age 17 she was performing at the famed Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. Run-ins with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Tom Jones helped her grow up fast. Then a chance encounter with her idol Elvis Presley, changed the course of her life forever, and led her to Europe where she worked in film and traveled Italy as lead singer of an Italian pop band. She eventually made her way to Los Angeles, where she joined the famed comedy improv group, The Groundlings, and worked alongside Phil Hartman and Paul "Pee-wee" Reubens, honing her comedic skills.

Nearing age 30, a struggling actress considered past her prime, she auditioned at local LA channel KHJ as hostess for the late night vintage horror movies. Cassandra improvised, made the role her own, and got the job on the spot.��Yours Cruelly, Elvira��is an unforgettably wild memoir. Cassandra doesn't shy away from revealing exactly who she is and how she overcame seemingly insurmountable odds. Always original and sometimes outrageous, her story is loaded with twists, travails, revelry, and downright shocking experiences. It is the candid, often funny, and sometimes heart-breaking tale of a Midwest farm girl's long strange trip to become the world's sexiest, sassiest Halloween icon.]]> 284 Cassandra Peterson 0306874350 Leah 4 4.36 2021
author: Cassandra Peterson
name: Leah
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/10
date added: 2021/10/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 56269833 For the first time, the full, fascinating, and inspirational true story of Danny Trejo’s journey from crime, prison, addiction, and loss to unexpected fame as Hollywood’s favorite bad guy with a heart of gold.

On screen, Danny Trejo the actor is a baddie who has been killed at least a hundred times. He’s been shot, stabbed, hanged, chopped up, squished by an elevator, and once, was even melted into a bloody goo. Off screen, he’s a hero beloved by recovery communities and obsessed fans alike. But the real Danny Trejo is much more complicated than the legend.

Raised in an abusive home, Danny struggled with heroin addiction and stints in some of the country’s most notorious state prisons, including San Quentin and Folsom, from an early age, before starring in such modern classics as Heat, From Dusk till Dawn, and Machete. Now, in this funny, painful, and suspenseful memoir, Danny takes us through the incredible ups and downs of his life, including meeting one of the world’s most notorious serial killers in prison and working with legends like Charles Bronson and Robert De Niro.

In honest, unflinching detail, Danny recounts how he managed the horrors of prison, rebuilt himself after finding sobriety and spirituality in solitary confinement, and draws inspiration from the adrenaline-fueled robbing heists of his past for the film roles that made him a household name. He also shares the painful contradictions in his personal life. Although he speaks everywhere from prison yards to NPR about his past to inspire countless others on their own road to recovery and redemption, he struggles to help his children with their personal battles with addiction, and to build relationships that last.

Redemptive and painful, poignant and real, Trejo is a portrait of a magnificent life and an unforgettable and exceptional journey through tragedy, pain, and, finally, success that will transfix and inspire.]]> 288 Danny Trejo 1982150823 Leah 2 4.40 2021
author: Danny Trejo
name: Leah
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2021/09/20
date added: 2021/09/20
shelves:
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]]> 54614578 How to Write One Song.

Why one song? Because the difference between one song and many songs isn't a cute semantic trick--it's an important distinction that can simplify a notoriously confusing art form. The idea of becoming a capital-S songwriter can seem daunting, but approached as a focused, self-contained event, the mystery and fear subsides, and songwriting becomes an exciting pursuit.

And then there is the energizing, nourishing creativity that can open up. How to Write One Song brings readers into the intimate process of writing one song--lyrics, music, and putting it all together--and accesses the deep sense of wonder that remains at the heart of this curious, yet incredibly fulfilling, artistic act. But it's equally about the importance of making creativity part of your life every day, and of experiencing the hope, inspiration, and joy available to anyone who's willing to get started.]]> 176 Jeff Tweedy 0593183525 Leah 0 4.21 2020
author: Jeff Tweedy
name: Leah
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/21
date added: 2021/07/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 52699756 Jessica Hopper Leah 0 to-read 0.0
author: Jessica Hopper
name: Leah
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 21531347
How to Write About Music includes primary sources of inspiration from a variety of go-to genres such as the album review, the personal essay, the blog post and the interview along with tips, writing prompts and advice from the writers themselves.

Music critics of the past and the present offer inspiration through their work on artists like Black Sabbath, Daft Punk, J Dilla, Joy Division, Kanye West, Neutral Milk Hotel, Radiohead, Pussy Riot and countless others. How to Write About Music is an invaluable text for all those who have ever dreamed of getting their music writing published and a pleasure for everyone who loves to read about music.]]> 432 Marc Woodworth 1628920432 Leah 0 backburner 4.09 2015
author: Marc Woodworth
name: Leah
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/04
shelves: backburner
review:

]]> 13231076 400 David Todd 161374059X Leah 0 backburner 3.97 2012
author: David Todd
name: Leah
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/04
shelves: backburner
review:

]]> 6071868 121 Carmel Cassar 187057947X Leah 0 backburner 3.80 1996
author: Carmel Cassar
name: Leah
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/04
shelves: backburner
review:

]]> 53138020
From the do-or-die early days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grunge bands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's "Nothin' But a Good Time" captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it.]]> 535 Tom Beaujour 1250195756 Leah 4 4.06 2021
author: Tom Beaujour
name: Leah
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/21
date added: 2021/06/21
shelves:
review:
Like the title suggests, this book is fun. Unlike other rise-and-fall books, this one dwells little on the fall and emphasizes what made the time so electric. The introduction warned me of a more offensive re-telling (look, we all know the role women generally played in this genre. What's in these pages is not surprising or frankly all that bad.) The format seemed daunting at first; this book is narrated by a loooong laundry list of names. It reads like a documentary, camera constantly cutting to different talking heads. It's easy to lose track of what band is being talked about or who is even talking but frankly, like the oversaturated and monotonous image of hair metal that eventually led to its downfall, it almost doesn't matter. If you want to be a stickler about what story belongs to who, there's a helpful glossary in the beginning of the book. But if you're not invested enough to keep turning back the pages, just take the book for what it is: a campfire story of a time lost that can't ever be again.
]]> 36672583
Turns out, one lesson applies to living through illness, keeping the show on the road, letting go of the person you love most, and eating fire:
The trick is there is no trick.
You eat fire by eating fire.

Two journeys—a daughter’s and a mother’s—bear witness to this lesson in The Electric Woman.

For three years Tessa Fontaine lived in a constant state of emergency as her mother battled stroke after stroke. But hospitals, wheelchairs, and loss of language couldn’t hold back such a woman; she and her husband would see Italy together, come what may. Thus Fontaine became free to follow her own piper, a literal giant inviting her to “come play�� in the World of Wonders, America’s last traveling sideshow. How could she resist?

Transformed into an escape artist, a snake charmer, and a high-voltage Electra, Fontaine witnessed the marvels of carnival life: intense camaraderie and heartbreak, the guilty thrill of hard-earned cash exchanged for a peek into the impossible, and, most marvelous of all, the stories carnival folks tell about themselves. Through these, Fontaine trained her body to ignore fear and learned how to keep her heart open in the face of loss.

A story for anyone who has ever imagined running away with the circus, wanted to be someone else, or wanted a loved one to live forever, The Electric Woman is ultimately about death-defying acts of all kinds, especially that ever constant: good old-fashioned unconditional love.]]> 384 Tessa Fontaine 0374158371 Leah 3 3.90 2018
author: Tessa Fontaine
name: Leah
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/02
date added: 2021/04/02
shelves:
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]]> 11330361
Dugard's memoir is written by the 30-year-old herself and covers the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present. In her stark, utterly honest and unflinching narrative, Jaycee opens up about what she experienced, including how she feels now, a year after being found. Garrido and his wife Nancy have since pleaded guilty to their crimes.]]> 273 Jaycee Dugard 1451629184 Leah 0 to-read 3.95 2011
author: Jaycee Dugard
name: Leah
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 31213472 From side show to main-eventing in the WWE, documenting��the rise of women’s wrestling

Sisterhood of the Squared Circle presents the fascinating history of women’s wrestling, from the carnival circuit of the late 1800s to today’s hugely popular matches. With more than 100 wrestler profiles, find out how the backstage politics, real-life grudges, and incredible personalities shaped the business. The careers of many well-known trailblazers, including Mildred Burke, the Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, Penny Banner, Wendi Richter, Trish Stratus, Chyna, and Lita, are celebrated alongside today’s stars, like Charlotte, Natalya, and Paige.

With rare photographs, and an exploration of women’s wrestling worldwide �� including chapters on Japan, Mexico, England, and Australia �� Sisterhood of the Squared Circle is a priceless contribution to the history of professional wrestling.
]]> 423 Pat Laprade 1770413073 Leah 4 3.85
author: Pat Laprade
name: Leah
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/09
date added: 2021/02/09
shelves:
review:
I’m really impressed with the amount of information lent to everyone featured here, even lesser known talent from the 1940s and 50s. It’s not a gripping page turner, but a good primer on women’s wrestling from its inception to the 2010s.
]]> 43126457 Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly in a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Jia writes about the cultural prisms that have shaped her: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the American scammer as millennial hero; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the mandate that everything, including our bodies, should always be getting more efficient and beautiful until we die.]]> 303 Jia Tolentino 0525510540 Leah 2 4.04 2019
author: Jia Tolentino
name: Leah
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2021/01/27
date added: 2021/01/27
shelves:
review:
Ironic to echo other similarly rated reviews about this book's overall cultural redundancy, so I'll keep it short. Within this book lies heavily cited stale tweets, taken and stretched far beyond their margins (each essay clocks in at a laborious 40ish pages each.) And after all this, I failed to reap -the point- of rehashing our generation's most prevalent cultural phenomenons: Facebook, Trump, Amazon, student rape, etc. The essays are unsatisfying in their conclusion, serving mostly to recap than to deliver new insights. It's not poorly written, it's just boring. I kept asking myself who this book was for, and ultimately the only answer I can come up with is Tolentino herself; her bucketlist item, our chore.
]]> 49814228
A New York Times Notable Book

“The tale of how Konnikova followed a story about poker players and wound up becoming a story herself will have you riveted, first as you learn about her big winnings, and then as she conveys the lessons she learned both about human nature and herself.”���� The Washington Post

It's true that Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn't even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fame inductee and winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings, and convinced him to be her mentor. But she knew her a famously thoughtful and broad-minded player, he was intrigued by her pitch that she wasn't interested in making money so much as learning about life. She had faced a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance had led her to a giant of game theory, who pointed her to poker as the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish between what can be controlled and what can't. And she certainly brought something to the table, including a Ph.D. in psychology and an acclaimed and growing body of work on human behavior and how to hack it. So Seidel was in, and soon she was down the rabbit hole with him, into the wild, fiercely competitive, overwhelmingly masculine world of high-stakes Texas Hold'em, their initial end point the following year's World Series of Poker.

But then something extraordinary happened. Under Seidel's guidance, Konnikova did have many epiphanies about life that derived from her new pursuit, including how to better read, not just her opponents but far more importantly herself; how to identify what tilted her into an emotional state that got in the way of good decisions; and how to get to a place where she could accept luck for what it was, and what it wasn't. But she also began to win. And win. In a little over a year, she began making earnest money from tournaments, ultimately totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.�� She won a major title, got a sponsor, and got used to being on television, and to headlines like "How one writer's book deal turned her into a professional poker player." She even learned to like Las Vegas.

But in the end, Maria Konnikova is a writer and student of human behavior, and ultimately the point was to render her incredible journey into a container for its invaluable lessons. The biggest bluff of all, she learned, is that skill is enough. Bad cards will come our way, but keeping our focus on how we play them and not on the outcome will keep us moving through many a dark patch, until the luck once again breaks our way.]]> 368 Maria Konnikova 052552262X Leah 5 4.03 2020
author: Maria Konnikova
name: Leah
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/05
date added: 2021/01/26
shelves:
review:
This book was effective in every way a memoir ought to be: it placed us right at the poker table with her and gave us reasons to care about it at all. Maria Konnikova connects the dots from the microcosmic experience of a poker game to the more general experience of life; our own baggage and biases informed by our demographics and who we are otherwise in the world. Her journey is extremely readable; a compact timeline jam-packed with experience, someone who really surrenders to the process and actively seeks every avenue available to her to master the game, rendering a satisfying conclusion. She so easily could've been the kind of character you don't root for: a complete novice who lucked out and got her hand held by a world champion player and shows out with a year and change under her belt. And yet, an insightful, studious underdog, who thwarts sleazy tactics from her opponents who underestimate or take advantage of her for being a rare woman in the game; you can't help but get on her side.
]]> 268192 127 Barbara Black Koltuv 0892540141 Leah 0 3.66 1986
author: Barbara Black Koltuv
name: Leah
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at: 2020/11/03
date added: 2020/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 48613493 The legendary frontman of Judas Priest, one of the most successful heavy metal bands of all time, celebrates five decades of heavy metal in this tell-all memoir.


Most priests hear confessions. This one is making his.

Rob Halford, front man of global iconic metal band Judas Priest, is a true "Metal God." Raised in Britain's hard-working, heavy industrial heartland, he and his music were forged in the Black Country. Confess, his full autobiography, is an unforgettable rock 'n' roll story-a journey from a Walsall council estate to musical fame via alcoholism, addiction, police cells, ill-fated sexual trysts, and bleak personal tragedy, through to rehab, coming out, redemption . . . and finding love.


Now, he is telling his gospel truth.

Told with Halford's trademark self-deprecating, deadpan Black Country humor, Confess is the story of an extraordinary five decades in the music industry. It is also the tale of unlikely encounters with everybody from Superman to Andy Warhol, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and the Queen. More than anything else, it's a celebration of the fire and power of heavy metal.


Rob Halford has decided to Confess. Because it's good for the soul.]]> 355 Rob Halford 0306874946 Leah 4
Halford truly seizes the challenge to tell-all in writing this book. The good and the bad, all sprinkled with some grandpa humor; if it hadn’t been told, it needed to be here. Even at 70, Rob is as excited about life and metal as ever. ]]> 4.39 2020
author: Rob Halford
name: Leah
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/24
date added: 2020/10/24
shelves:
review:
The bulk of this book is about a gay man who comes to front one of the biggest heavy metal bands in the world; not to be confused with “a heavy metal frontman who happens to be gay.�� Halford’s homosexuality is the vehicle for this book above all else. Yes, the tale of Priest is plenty detailed, but what we learn about tour life orbits around his obstacles: how does he partake in typical rock star antics? Evade loneliness? It makes sense, as these are the details less told; what begs to be confessed by such a high profile man who put the band’s reception over his own needs for decades.

Halford truly seizes the challenge to tell-all in writing this book. The good and the bad, all sprinkled with some grandpa humor; if it hadn’t been told, it needed to be here. Even at 70, Rob is as excited about life and metal as ever.
]]> 206899 The Devil's Knot remains the most comprehensive, insightful reporting ever done on the investigation, trials, and convictions of three teenage boys who became known as the West Memphis Three.

For weeks in 1993, after the murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas seemed stymied. Then suddenly, detectives charged three teenagers--alleged members of a satanic cult--with the killings. Despite the witch-hunt atmosphere of the trials and a case that included stunning investigative blunders, a confession riddled with errors, and an absence of physical evidence linking any of the accused to the crime, the teenagers were convicted. Jurors sentenced Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to life in prison and Damien Echols, the accused ringleader, to death. The guilty verdicts were popular in their home state--even upheld on appeal--and all three remained in prison until their unprecedented release in August 2011.

With close-up views of its key participants, this award-winning account unravels the many tangled knots of this endlessly shocking case, one that will shape the American legal landscape for years to come.]]> 419 Mara Leveritt 0743417607 Leah 0 4.17 2002
author: Mara Leveritt
name: Leah
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at: 2020/09/16
date added: 2020/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 26814777
Masciotra takes readers into the recording studio, giving them Metallica's account of how their most successful and famous record was born and learned to walk into every radio station and stadium stage around the world. Masciotra not only talks to the band about the making of the album, but also the stories that inspired the songs. Readers will not only learn about "The Black Album" but they will also gain greater knowledge and familiarity with the men who created it.

With direct access to the band, Masciotra offers a fascinating and inspiring account of the creation of one of music's best and best-selling albums.]]> 129 David Masciotra Leah 0 3.06 2015
author: David Masciotra
name: Leah
average rating: 3.06
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2020/09/06
date added: 2020/09/06
shelves:
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]]> 222070 A guide to the art of personal writing, by the author of Fierce Attachments and The End of the Novel of Love

All narrative writing must pull from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver a bit of wisdom. In a story or a novel the "I" who tells this tale can be, and often is, an unreliable narrator but in nonfiction the reader must always be persuaded that the narrator is speaking truth.

How does one pull from one's own boring, agitated self the truth-speaker who will tell the story a personal narrative needs to tell? That is the question The Situation and the Story asks--and answers. Taking us on a reading tour of some of the best memoirs and essays of the past hundred years, Gornick traces the changing idea of self that has dominated the century, and demonstrates the enduring truth-speaker to be found in the work of writers as diverse as Edmund Gosse, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, or Marguerite Duras.

This book, which grew out of fifteen years teaching in MFA programs, is itself a model of the lucid intelligence that has made Gornick one of our most admired writers of nonfiction. In it, she teaches us to write by teaching us how to read: how to recognize truth when we hear it in the writing of others and in our own.
]]> 174 Vivian Gornick 0374528586 Leah 0 3.90 2001
author: Vivian Gornick
name: Leah
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2020/07/31
date added: 2020/07/31
shelves:
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]]> 26058182
“A gritty and courageous story of one woman’s journey to make peace with her past. Powerfully written. A compelling read.��

—Helen Numphreys, author of The Evening Chorus

"Told with searing honesty and peppered with vivid imagery, First Gear is a memoir that will leave you marvelling at Lorrie Jorgensen’s intelligence, generosity, and resilience. When I was a teenager, I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and learned much from it. And while Jorgensen’s tale is also a journey by bike, it goes far beyond the philosophical musings in Pirsig’s compelling work �� because truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. Stranger. Fiercer. And ultimately, much more forceful. long after I turned the last page, this memoir has stayed with me. I often find myself musing about Lorrie’s teachings �� about family, wisdom, friendship, self-reliance, and survival."

—Rena Upitis, Professor of Arts Education, Queen’s University and President, Wintergreen Studios
"First Gear is the memoir of writer Lorrie Jorgensen and her companion Thema D, a Dyna Super Glide Custom Harley-Davidson. These are their trials together through small town Ontario—it is both bike-lover's journey on asphalt and the three decades long retracing of tough youth spent in the Ottawa Valley. This is a fighter's tale of survival against abuse, her debilitating muscular disease, addiction and depression. First Gear is studded with good humour, kindness, and remarkable resilience. Readers will cheer Jorgensen on and laugh out loud. She finds love, reclaims her integrity and discovers a disconcerting truth that is both unexpected and painful. You will marvel at the crisp lucid language and—above all—the honesty of this document of persistence, and the courage it took to write it down."

—Robin Collins

"This is a book about courage, about rising above circumstance and claiming your life as your own. First Gear is a first rate memoir about confronting the demons of the past and dealing with the vicissitudes of the present. At times, while reading the book, I wanted to rush in somehow and stop Lorrie from having to experience the nightmares that no one should have to go through. I really felt as if I got to know Lorrie, her wry humour, her skillful story telling and, as the story unfolded, so equally rose my respect and admiration. An inspiring read that tells you in no uncertain terms that it’s never too late to take charge of your life and travel down the road that you want to."

�� Lisa de Nikolits, author of A Glittering Chaos, The Witchdoctor's Bones, and Between the Cracks She Fell]]> 264 Lorrie Jorgensen 1771332468 Leah 0 to-read 4.90 2015
author: Lorrie Jorgensen
name: Leah
average rating: 4.90
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 12409
Larsen's journey tests the limits of her own endurance, challenges her long-held beliefs and values, and asks what it means to belong to a family. Through the the fields of Iowa and the deserts of the Southwest, over the Rockies and across Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Larsen confronts questions of femininity, family, independence, and personal identity.

Her journey speaks to the immense space and over-whelming beauty of North America, as well as to the diversity and vitality of the people she meets along the way. Breaking the Limit invites you to join her as she braces against the wind, trades security for freedom, sacrifices stability for motion, and opens herself up to the vast canopy of a continent.]]> 384 Karen Larsen 0786868708 Leah 0 to-read 3.88 2004
author: Karen Larsen
name: Leah
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53056002 How Poetry Saved My Life.
In this, her second poetry collection, Amber Dawn takes stock of the costs of coming out on the page in a heartrendingly honest and intimate investigation of the toll that artmaking takes on artists. These long poems offer difficult truths within their intricate narratives that are alternately incendiary, tender, and rapturous.
In a cultural era when intersectional and marginalized writers are topping bestseller lists, Amber Dawn invites her readers to take an unflinching look at we expect from writers, and from each other.]]> 128 Amber Dawn 1551527936 Leah 5 4.39 2020
author: Amber Dawn
name: Leah
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/05/27
date added: 2020/05/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 25378 The Dirt.

Here -- directly from Nikki, Vince, Tommy, and Mick -- is the unexpurgated version of the whole glorious, gut-wrenching story. In these pages, published for the first time anywhere, are Tommy Lee's letters to Pamela Anderson from prison: Mick's confession to having an incurable disease that is slowly killing him; Vince's experience burying his own daughter -- and the train wreck that his life became afterward; and Nikki's anguished struggle to deal with an entire life fueled by anger over his childhood abandonment, his discovery of the family he never knew he had -- and his subsequent loss of them. And all of it accompanied by scores of rare, never-before-published photographs, mug shots, and handwritten lyrics. No one is spared. Not David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, Vanity, Aerosmith, Heather Locklear, AC/DC, Lita Ford, Iron Maiden, Pamela Anderson, Guns N' Roses, Donna D'Errico, RATT, or those two girls from Dallas, Texas.

Make no mistake about it: these guys are geniuses. They invented glam metal and then left it in the dust; sold more than forty million albums from Shout at the Devil to Dr. Feelgood; toured the world dozen times and have the scars to prove it; and maintained a rabid following in an era of throwaway pop stars. Mötley Crüe has done nothing less than tattoo the psyche of the entire MTV generation. They are the ultimate rock 'n' roll band. And if you don't believe it, read The Dirt. You don't know what decadence is...]]> 431 Tommy Lee 0060989157 Leah 4 4.13 2001
author: Tommy Lee
name: Leah
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/15
date added: 2020/05/15
shelves:
review:

]]>