Book Recs

I feel kinda weird writing during the Oscars. People are e-mailing me and I've got a bit of FOMO, but not enough to turn on the show. Tomorrow it will be history, and what I missed today won't matter. Even worse, nothing seems to matter to everybody these days. Although that's a great Bonnie Raitt song, from "Give It Up, her best album, until decades later "Luck of the Draw" came along to eclipse it. Even more amazing, "Nothing Seems to Matter" was written by Bonnie, a rare event. It's the second song on the first side, which is the one with the "hits," but I always played the second side more, for a long time, until the aforementioned "Luck of the Draw," "Too Long at the Fair" was my favorite Bonnie Raitt song, albeit written by Joel Zoss. And the second side ends with Bonnie's version of "Love Has No Pride," before it became a standard when done by Linda Ronstadt, albeit years after it was released in '73. But after "Too Long at the Fair" comes a rollicking version of Jackson Browne's "Under the Falling Sky," which is different from the original on Jackson's debut, but nearly as memorable. And then comes the Sippie Wallace/Jack Viertel "You Got to Know How," which I never loved, but then comes "You Told Me Baby," also written by Raitt, just before the aforementioned closer, "Love Has No Pride." And on a good system you can hear the tape hiss, when records were recorded analog and it was more important to get the emotion right than be perfect, mistakes were left in, because after all it's a performance, if you try to get it exactly right you oftentimes excise the soul. And Bonnie was still relatively unknown, a college favorite, but if you don't fall in love with her after hearing "Nothing Seems to Matter" and "You Told Me Baby," you don't want to let go. And after they gave up trying to steer Bonnie on to the hit parade, she wrote another killer, with her now ex-husband, "One Part Be My Lover," which I loved, but today it's the title cut of "Luck of the Draw" that resonates. I'll make it very simple:

"These things we do to keep the flame burnin'
And write our fire in the sky"

That's the L.A. story, hanging in there, waiting for your big break, which may never come. And Paul Brady wrote "Luck of the Draw," I was just talking to Dann Huff about him, he's one of the greats, and I don't think I sold the Dann Huff podcast heavily enough, he's so honest, you'll not only learn so much, you'll get a feel for the unpredictable roadmap of a musician.

But this is about books.

The most eagerly anticipated book of the year was "To Paradise," by Hanya Yanagihara. You know if you have to read it. Not that I can recommend it. You see Yanagihara's previous book, "A Little Life," was a slow burner, as in it took a while for the public to adopt it. We're so used to being driven by the hype, but it's the stuff that doesn't jump out of the box that truly ends up reaching and touching us. And it took at least a year for all the recommendations to reach me, because on the surface "A Little Life" is not appealing, but it's an adventure you can't get anywhere else. But you've got to be able to accept negativity and loss. Which reflects life. People tell me they want nothing negative, they want more shows like "Ted Lasso," but that's a fantasy, real life is grittier, that's what truly resonates and lasts, like "A Little Life." "To Paradise" is split into three sections, and the end of the first is fantastic, but then the scene changes. People like the second section, but I prefer the third, set in a climate-affected future. You read and you can feel what it might be like. But if you're at all intrigued, start with "A Little Life." And if you want to know more about Yanagihara, read the profile in "The New Yorker": https://bit.ly/3IJG51C She's not part of the New York literary scene, the book business. Which is a controlled cabal with its own judgments. Her day job is running "T Magazine" for "The New York Times," and she reflects how they can't fire her, because of her ethnicity, because she's a woman. And this self-knowledge is sprinkled throughout, Yanagihara knows she's not beautiful, most of us are not, but in a world where everybody is b.s.'ing 24/7 it's refreshing to encounter honesty.

Anyway, one book you need to read is "American Dirt," by Jeanine Cummins. I know, you couldn't read it after the controversy, but that was years ago. Yes, after being anointed by Oprah, the politically correct police came down on the book because it's about the Mexican experience and Cummins is not Mexican. But the book is so good! Doesn't that trump everything? And no one is preventing someone of Mexican heritage from writing a book about this experience, it's not like the doors are closed. I mean would I be bothered if a non-Jew wrote a great Holocaust book? Absolutely not, greatness trumps everything. And Cummins has Latina heritage, and despite the blowback it turns out you still can't get "American Dirt" from the library, it took me months, I reserved it on a whim. And this book is UNPUTDOWNABLE! I can't say I love the style of writing, but it doesn't interfere with the plot, the experience. Actually, Don Winslow wrote about "La Bestia," the train migrants ride atop, in his book "The Border," and Winslow is a better, more gripping writer than Cummins, but Cummins's book rings more true. At first you're hooked by "American Dirt," then you can put it down, but about thirty five percent along...you'll stay up all night reading it, to finish it. I started at 5 PM and finished at 11 and was happy about the whole experience, I guarantee it's better than the Oscars, fiction is always better than fact, it's more truthful.

And the other book I want to recommend is "Mercy Street," by Jennifer Haigh. Haigh is the opposite of Yanagihara, in that she went to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and too much of the output of the graduates of that school is mannered, overwritten, focused on words more than plot. That's what passes for "literature" today. Where to me, it's all about a great story, it trumps the writing, all the time. But having said that, I was stunned by some of the mistakes in the book, there were just too many, I had to go back to the beginning to see who the publisher was, turns out it's Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, a first rate operation, but "Mercy Street" definitely needed one more proofread. The cop is driving a Charger and then moments later he's in a Tahoe. I expect these inconsistencies in rock biographies, but not in top level fiction. And I started reading "Mercy Street" and got immediately hooked, Haigh can write, the characters come alive, you're taken immediately out of everyday life, you're right there in the story, a great escape. And you think the book is about Claudia, but then it switches and there are other major characters and you think it's becoming predictable, but ultimately it's not, not that it's completely satisfying. The ride is really good, the feelings engendered, it's just that the story ultimately is not as innovative as you want it to be, but having said that I spent five hours finishing it last night, I wanted to know what happened, but also I was enjoying the ride.

Would I have enjoyed the Oscar ride?

Have you caught the negative blowback? It's everywhere. You know you've got a problem when the press has declared you dead and you're unaware of it. There's the "Los Angeles Magazine" article everybody's been e-mailing me, and that story in the WaPo saying the ceremony should be on Netflix, which I agree with, and have said previously. It's just that the world moved and the Oscars did not, kind of like rock.

Then again, is Bonnie Raitt rock? She's got a new album coming...the hype is beginning, it was in this week's "Pollstar."

But one thing is for sure, we're looking for peak experiences. And when we have them we tell everybody about them. Which I'm doing now. Check 'em out.

Bonnie Raitt Spotify Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3Ln9sbE

"A Little Life": https://amzn.to/3LhynO3

"To Paradise": https://amzn.to/3LikW0e

"American Dirt": https://amzn.to/3Nrp8wI

"Mercy Street": https://amzn.to/3DeJXqe

"Are the Oscars Over?": https://bit.ly/387WEb1

"The Oscars are niche entertainment now. Just let Netflix stream them.": https://wapo.st/3tK1nIh

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