#9 Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album by Ken Caillat and Steven Steifeld (2012) – As we move into the Top 10, we’ve got a pair of musical books making the list. At #9, I continue my journey reading about the excessive hijinks of one of my favorite bands, Fleetwood Mac. Last year, my #3 book of the year was Get Tusked: The Inside Story of Fleetwood Mac’s Most Anticipated Album. This year I stepped back to their previous album, the mega-successful Rumours and read, by recording engineer and producer, Ken Caillat, who worked on four of Fleetwood Mac’s albums, starting with the massive international hit, Rumours. Perhaps reading the two books out of order did this book a bit of a disservice, because as was revealed in Get Tusked working with the band on the Rumours follow-up was an out and out shitshow of manic, drug-induced, self-obsessed, egomaniacal personalities that made the recording sessions for Rumours seem positively tame by comparison. Yes, it was during the recording of this album that all the band members’ romantic relationships just fell apart, but in fact, according to Caillat’s account, there was actually not all that much drama. Sure, there was excessive drugs and drinking, and the occasional spat. Or the time Lindsey Buckingham tried to choke the life out of the author… but other than that…
What I loved about both of these books is the insane details of how each of the songs on the album were put together. It’s a fascinating account, right down to the timestamp of when you can hear different moments that make the songs so incredibly special to someone like me who listens to music which such effort. It really makes me appreciate the pristine recording of this amazing album when I listen to it now. The only other drawback taking away from that last star in the rating was Caillat’s insistence on commenting on every woman’s appearance, and how hot they were. I understand it was the 70’s, and a very different time, but all these “girls” hanging around the fringes of the industry, and these guys just chasing them around with their tongues hanging out of their mouths gets a little tired after a while. The book is far more interesting when diving into the craft of creating the sound and beauty of each song, or detailing the quirks of each band member, but i was not here to read about Ken’s attempts to find a girlfriend (or two).
#10 The Healing Power of Singing: Raise Your Voice, Change Your Life by Emm Gryner (2021) – I’m not one for self-help books, nor did I think to myself, I need to read a book to help me with my singing voice, but I am an admirer of Emm Gryner the musician, so I thought it might be interesting to read her first book. It was more than interesting, it was entertaining, and illuminating, and has even gotten me singing again. Mainly around the house, but I’m ready for my next performance at the Chlotrudis Awards — an event that finds me singing with some other movie geeks every few years.
What Emm does that is so captivating, is she includes stories about her fascinating musical career, signed to a major label at 19, dropped shortly after her first album came out due to a restructuring with the company, touring worldwide as part of David Bowie’s band in her early to mid-20’s, becoming a successful independent artist, producing the first song sung in orbit around the earth, and so much more, while giving tips about how anyone can sing. She also talks about how she rediscovered her true self to be the best that she can be, and dang it, it’s inspiring.
You might read Emm’s book to get an insider’s look at touring with a rock god… or perhaps you want to learn how to sing? At any rate, hopefully, after you’ve finished, you’ll want to go check out Emm’s music. You won’t be sorry.
#11 – Memorial by Bryan Washington (2020) – Washington’s first full-length novel, was an interesting read. There were times throughout the book where I grew impatient and wasn’t sure I was enjoying it, but by the third and last section, it all came together for me, and I felt it was ultimately a successful and moving story. Benson is a black man, raised in a middle class, fractured family, who is involved in a relationship with Mike, a Japanese man whose parents are also divorced and carrying a lot of baggage. When Mike learns that his father is struggling in the last phases of terminal cancer, he invites his mother to come visit them in Houston, and the day she arrives, he leaves to return to Osaka to see his father from whom he has been estranged from for years. While Ben and Mitsuko begin an awkward dance getting to know one another under less than ideal circumstances in Houston, Mike is dealing with a similarly awkward reunion with his father. All of this while Ben and Mike’s relationship appears to be unraveling.
#10 – Sex with Strangers by Michael Lowenthal (2021) – To be honest, a short story collection with the title, Sex with Strangers, made me a little wary. I wasn’t really in the mood for a series of stories focusing on tawdry hook-ups, whether they might be sexy, or funny, or dark. Thankfully, and I should have known better, Michael Lowenthal uses sex… or perhaps more accurately, desire, as the starting point, or perhaps, the driving force behind the motivations or actions of the characters in this handful of stories, some written specifically for this collection, others collected from his career. In fact, there’s actually very little explicit sex in the book at all.
#13 – If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Aging and Power in Failure by Jann Arden (2020) – Jann Arden is a Canadian pop star, and an accomplished writer, who has written a memoir, and collections of essays. She talks about aging, and how she is embracing her Crone as she enters that phase of her life. She talks about the difficult relationship she had with her father, who was an alcoholic. She discusses her own battles with alcohol and self-esteem. She talk about lots of difficult experience she had when she was younger, and how they have all contributed to the person she is today, her success, but more importantly, her failures. While Jann’s trademark humor is not as up front as in some of her other work, her conversational language makes it’s seem like you’re just having a chat with her. The book is filled with platitudes, but Jann makes them meaningful, and you can’t help but believe in her.
#12 – The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson (2019) – I know G. Willow Wilson from her work with comics; her creator-owned Invisible Kingdom, her Vertigo series, Air, and her Marvel superhero landmark series, Ms. Marvel. Recently learning of her prose work, I picked up her latest novel. This delightful fantasy tome takes place in the area that was to become Spain under the conquering Spanish monarchy. Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of the sultan of Granada. While she lives comfortably and has certain benefits form her station, she is essentially the sultan’s property. Her one true friend is Hassan, the palace mapmaker, who has two secrets that become a huge danger to his life when when an envoy for the Spanish monarchy comes to negotiate the terms of the sultan’s surrender to their new power. It turns out that this envoy, Luz, is part of the Spanish Inquisition, and Hassan’s penchant for lying with men, and more importantly, his unexplainable ability to draw maps that become reality target him for conversion or death.
#14 – Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne (2020) – Maryland-based author, Karen Osborne released her debut novel, Architects of Memory in 2020, part one of the proposed The Memory War Trilogy. Ash lost everything during the intergalactic war with the alien Vai. Now struggling with a terminal illness, the salvage pilot encounters something that could change the course of humanity, and must do everything she can first to understand it, then to keep it out of the hands of those whose best interests are perhaps not shared by many. Deft, gritty, hard sci fi, Architects of Memory does an imaginative job at creating a life form so alien to humanity that actions and motivations are nearly impossible to discern. I look forward to reading volume two, Engines of Oblivion, soon.