For Roth fans, but not much here for others
930115
If you're interested in Roth as a writer (which I am), and have read his dozens of novels and non-fiction over the many years he's been writing, then this fleshes out the record, and has some facts you might not have known, although Roth himself has written quite a lot about himself, in fiction guise and straight out in his diatribes against various wives and critics. Roth Unbound has a curiously "as told to" feeling, maybe that's because the biographer, Claudia Pierpont, and Roth are such good friends, anddespite a disclaimer that Roth agreed not to see the manuscript or have a chance to change it prior to publicationthere's little in there that isn't outright partisan and sympathetic, and seen largely from Roth's point of view. Often it reads like a press release, a way for Roth to continue trying to correct the record and elaborate on his spin, well-known to his readers, about the writer's right to use autobiographical material no matter how re-imagined, no matter whom he hurts, and about the pleasures of removing all inhibitions and focusing on creating characters you might despise in real life. I'm glad I read it, but would only recommend it to another Roth fan.
1692078
This is a book to borrow from the library or buy when it's in the discount bin. It IS worth reading, for general music fans, but it doesn't go deep enough for me. It's NOT a technical book about how to make records, and it doesn't tell you what gear or unique process was used to achieve the sounds on any recording. It's more about the people skills involved in being a producer and some background stories.

Very little musical or recording "secrets" are revealed, and overall the stories are often bland because he's too polite and doesn't tell anything that would be offensive to the recording artist... I guess that's the way it should be, that's being truly professional and respectful.

In the book, Ramone is describing the various roles a producer plays in the creation of music and the product (i.e. a concert, a CD, a TV special, etc.). Each short chapter focuses on one aspect of his producer duties, and to back this up, he gives the details of working with a famous artist on a successful record, etc.

I did buy it (on sale), and I did enjoy reading it, but I doubt I'll pick it up to read again. I enjoy reading about how famous records were made, about the musicians and writers, the creative process and the gear used to achieve the results, but with Phil Ramone's amazing background, I expected much more from the book.

For stories about hit records and the engineers and producers, I'd recommend the "Behind the Glass" (2 volumes so far) books by Howard Massey instead. Biographies by George Martin and Geoff Emerick, mainly about working with the Beatles, are a very good read also but I do wish they talked more about all the other artists they recorded as well; again, they probably have so many more stories they could tell, and so much valuable technical music information they could "give away". I guess that by focusing on the Beatles, they can sell the books to a specific market.

Maybe publishers feel there are not enough people who will buy such books... and maybe they're right. Obviously more people will buy a book about Ray Charles or Billy Joel, the people; far fewer will buy a book about Ray Charles or Billy Joel, the musicians, or care about which microphones were used to record their voices and where the mics were placed to achieve their piano sounds, etc. In this sense, Ramone's book will appeal to general music fans only. Personally, I found Geoff Emerick's book much better at satisfying both Beatle fans (i.e. the Beatles as people) and people interested in the their recording process (i.e. the gear, the musicianship, technical process).
20449
Like Neil Gaiman's other book "Good Omens" (written with Terry Pratchett), Gaiman builds very interesting premises and characterizations, and yet falls short on the plot. His endings are never satisfactory. I think he is a whiz at developing fantastic characters and scenes, but that's just about it -- he's all about settings and characters, but never the story. His plot lines are shallow and thin.

Don't get me wrong -- I actually thought I'd give him a chance and read his work (because my friends were raving about him, and my curiosity compelled me to find out what's to rave about him), but after reading "Good Omens" (I think Gaiman's stories get a bit stronger if someone else writes with him) and "American Gods," and even watching "Mirror Mask," I just concluded that he's not much of a storyteller after all. I know that these three works are not entirely representative of what he can do, but I don't think I'd find any of his other work that interesting.
2169737
As a long time Baseball fan, I have read many books on the game.  I found Gmelch's book to be rather disappointing.  While it could've been more involving and presented the sport in the gawdy light it deserves, I found that Gmelch trivialized Baseball.  He was repetitive in his ideas and analysis; furthermore, his analysis was not at all insightful by any stretch of the imagination.  It simply seemed that he stated the obvious, skimming over the wondrous moments he must have experienced during his journeys.  In the end, Gmelch does not really say anything worthy of publication.  Any Baseball fan already knows much of what is in this book, and did not have to travel the country interviewing dozens of amateur and professional ballplayers of varying ranks to discover this information.  If you want to read a book that will REALLY incite you to see Baseball in an entirely different light, and make you appreciate just how magical this game can be, read A. Bartlett Giamatti's "A Great and Glorious Game."  It will give you shivers....
187355
I have very mixed feelings about this Mapp. I bought it because it's Discworld, and a serious Discworld fan like me will want to have this in their collection regardless of what rating it gets!

Nevertheless, compared to the other Mapps (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Streets-of-Ankh-Morpork/dp/B000LZ9LTK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Streets of Ankh-Morpork</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Discworld-Mapp/dp/0552143243/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Discworld Mapp</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/A-Tourist-Guide-to-Lancre/dp/0552146080/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">A Tourist Guide to Lancre</a>) it's not quite up to par.

True, the Mapp itself is gorgeous and there are some nifty pencil drawings inside the book (some of which can however also be found in&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Art-of-Discworld/dp/006121194X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Art of Discworld</a>). And there is some really funny dialogue between Albert and his master about playing golf...

But mostly, this Mapp is rather boring. Unlike the others, it just doesn't add much to the Discworld series.
The books describe the INSIDE of Death's house in much detail but the Mapp focuses on the outside of it only - which looks like an areal picture of any old manor and grounds. OK, with less green and more purple/black, but other than that...

We now know the exact location of Death's bee hives and where the stables are - but so what? Who really cares? We also learn where Death built Susan's swing but we can't actually see what it looks like, it's just a dot in the trees. The wheat field is just a patch of yellow in the distance. And then there are lots of frankly boring additions that AFAIK have never been mentioned in the books (The Pointy Tree Avenue? The Wood of Silence? The Gazebo? Give me a break...)

In short, there is just not much CONTENT. What is shown isn't bad, I just think that a plan and images of the INSIDE should really have been included as well.

Yet as it is, the steep price should make many Discworld fans wonder: do I really need this? My recommendation for casual fans is to spend the money on a Discworld novel instead...
4690207
So imagine William Gaddis' "JR", but about a third of the length and instead of covering a whole host of topics (but mostly money and what it does to people) mostly depicting pillow talk between two people cheating on their spouses.  Bingo!  Now you have "Deception", a book about people talking.

For those who don't like to read lengthy prose descriptions of, well, anything this book will be both your manna and a godsend as there is essentially no narration at all, no way to tell who is talking other than context, barely any descriptions of action (although it seems pretty clear that not a lot is happening) just a man and a woman chatting (and not always the same woman, it appears) conveyed through the magic of pure dialogue.  The man appears to be a writer named "Philip" (not knowing much about Roth's personal life I can never tell if he has the world's best romantic life or would really like to have such a thing) and the woman might be the same woman he wrote about Zuckerman having various states of affairs with in "The Counterlife" (the two books overlap quite a bit thematically, although it's only coincidence that I read them so close together) but hardly any of that seems important as much as the two of them having succinct conversations about love and cheating on your spouse and being Jewish (he is, she's not) and whatever else seems to strike Roth's fancy.

This is one of those books that is either designed to be read in tiny bits, or devoured in one sitting.  I did the latter, blazing through it in about ninety minutes, but its set up as chunks of dialogue (unlike "JR", which was one long seven hundred page scene) and snippets, occasionally bursting into the lengthier chunks of monologues that I associate more with Roth.  It all goes down quite easily but there's nothing especially revelatory here, and people who have read several Roth novels around the same time period may feel that he's repeating himself, just with different window dressing.  He writes fine dialogue (he manages to give a decent sense of place without getting too expository) but his strong point is more the intersection of prose and dialogue.  Restricting him to just one aspect, while a nice literary exercise that he had fun doing, is more like watching an artist attempting to work with one arm strapped behind his back.  It doesn't help that there isn't, as I noted earlier, a whole lot of narrative heft to the whole thing, most of it coming across as rather paternalistic, with the woman being somewhat unsure of herself and fluttery while Roth is cool and confident and given to long lectures about the things that interest him the most.  It's a characterization of a lady that I feel I've read before, which may not be a fair criticism since she may be basically the same woman/woman construct that existed in "The Counterlife".

He also doesn't quite commit to the experiment completely, dropping in a snatch of narration here and there, although if they're you're own self-imposed rules there shouldn't be too many penalties for breaking them.  It just comes across as a light work, and when he makes an attempt toward the end to justify it as a necessary self-referential writing exercise (not quite stating if the argument for being self-referential is just part of the writing exercise itself and just as false), it feels like he needed to justify publishing a series of notes and sketches as an actual novel and tacked on the "Is this not literary?" debate after the fact.  But the whole novel feels weightless and untethered, not breaking any new ground beyond us giving us a few morsels of juicy dialogue to chew on.  If you like Roth already, this is about as close to a "beach read" as you're going to get but if you are just being introduced to him, reading this might make you assume he's a bronzed Adonis, the kind of man irresistible to the likes of you and I.  Although a universe where writers are the sexiest creatures to walk this earth isn't one I'd be all too opposed to.
4799102
"Tidal" was the only Fiona Apple album to have a corresponding songbook published, so it's pretty much a must-have for fans that play piano.  It definitely has its faults, though.

As arrangements go, these transcriptions are just "okay."  It's a pet peeve of mine, but for this type of music, I would rather not have the melody (the sung part) be incorporated into the piano part.

As an intermediate pianist, "Sullen Girl" and "Never Is a Promise" were the most enjoyable to play, as well as the easiest to learn.  "Shadowboxer," "Criminal," and "Pale September" feel a little awkward, but overall are decent arrangements.  The end of "Criminal" doesn't include those nice improvisations that are on the recording, but that's not unusual.

"Sleep to Dream" is pretty much a mess, but I suppose it's a hard song to interpret on piano alone.  The rest I have yet to try, but their level of difficulty looks to be about the same as the others.

For collectors of Fiona memorabilia, there isn't much here for you: no photos or artist info included.

Hey, if we can't get the other albums, how about a pop songbook that includes "Love Ridden," "Paper Bag," "Parting Gift," and "Not About Love"?  Are you listening, editors?
651231
We use "Selected Shorts" CD's as our preferred companions for extended automobile travel. They are usually rewarding, but this one less so. The great classic "Yma-Abba" story is on here, as well as one of Philip Roth's best, but the others are so-so, and a couple are decidedly not funny at all.
1734327
This book primarily contains piano/vocal arrangements of sacred music from the Gospel/Folk era from 1970-1979, along with at most a dozen or so "chestnuts" from earlier eras.  The work of Jack Schrader, the widely respected composer and arranger whose name appears as one of the authors, is visibly present in but a handful of the pieces, and even there his piano arrangements are not of the same caliber as those he has written for his choral anthems.

Vocally, the arrangements on the whole lack soloistic touches.  Few are through composed, there is an absence of interludes and bridges where the soloist might take a few breaths, no modulations, few alternative forms of the melody at the end of each work.

Finally, the piano writing in the accompaniments is variable, at best.  Some works have minimal accompaniment that follows the melody.  Others, while sufficient, are unimaginative.  A handful are useful as written.
4465349
'White Noise' is one of those rare books that actually manages to cut through the clutter of American life and expose the blandness of it.

 Which is why the book itself is a little bland. That's not to say it lacks in intelligence or insight or great sentence construction; it has all of those, but since it seeks to accurately portray a landscape that its author probably believes to be rather miserable, it cannot tower over it. There is little character development because Delillo probably doesn't believe that much  can be developed in places like Blacksmith, middle of nowhere.

 The writing, therefore, is precise and sharp, with little ornamentation. And of course, there is no plot, the addition of which, would ruin the book, whose purpose is not to have people get excited by it, but rather, become more sober, more contemplative. Unfortunately for you Stephen King lovers, this is a serious book.

 However, the book could certainly have been better with the infusion of character. Delillo's aim is a political one, with the objective of examining the political and social enviornments of small cities like Blacksmith, and as such, people are often reduced to little more than messengers, their lives important in only so much as they reflect the greater happenings around them.

 "White Noise" is a lesser, but smarter book than Delillo's  enormous "Underworld".  The latter goes off into vague, somewhat ridiculous realms, but is that much more rewarding for it. There is also substantially more time devoted to creating actual flesh and bones people, and that gives "Underworld" an almost magical feel. "White Noise", on the other hand, hovers steadfastly around one theme, and as such, can sometimes be quite monotonous.
3993809
While this book is classically made.... Given a beautiful hardback cover and even [a surprise] deck of cards, it lacked the depth of Robert Coover's previous books. If you read 'The Grand Hotels of Joseph Cornell'&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Grand-Hotels-of-Joseph-Cornell-Burning-Deck-Fiction/dp/1886224528/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Grand Hotels (of Joseph Cornell) (Burning Deck Fiction)</a>, then this may seem to lack that same sense of wonder, innocence, and spirit. Despite this, it was a great, steady, and nostalagic attempt; however, this collection [of short stories] fell well below my own expectations for the book and work from the author.

~~4.5 stars.~~
3889556
This small memoir, originally published in Portugal in 2006 and now being published in the United States, doesn't offer much insight into the artist. It is a mildly interesting story of Saramago's youth in Lisbon and a small village, and the narrative switches back and forth between time frames and locations. However, it isn't that exciting, and nothing really happens that reveals any true insight into the brilliant writer Saramago became. It is a nice portrait of a Europe, and a world, that doesn't really exist anymore, and for hardcore fans, of which I count myself, it is nice to read the writer in his own words. But for a casual fan there really isn't much here. I was hoping for something more substantive. Not bad, but not all that exciting.
2729564
In Philip Roth's latest, "Everyman", a line appears out of the blue, and translates everything the writer is trying to tell in this novella. "Death is just death - it's nothing more". But when talking about death and all that comes with, the narrative is, above all, celebrating life. Or, at least, the fact of being alive, no matter how bad we are.

The title of the book express that the main character is supposed to represent a Joe Somebody, a man with nothing special, an ordinary type. This same casualness is present in the narrative. Roth doesn't bother too much of going deeper as he has done before. Much of "Everyman" reads like a list of complains and hospital situations involving the nameless protagonist. We follow him from childhood to death throughout the time he goes to the hospital - either to handle himself or somebody else.

This is not a light reading, mostly because the disease related plot - more than the death related plot. Except for the protagonist's infancy, "Everyman" is not interested in exploiting details of this man's life. It seems that Roth chose to do that deliberately. Probably he wants us to fill in the gaps. This is not a problem when a writer does that, but at the same time he offers something else to his readers, which is not the case here. This is not a bad book, but it is above the average when we consider Roth's work.

He is one of the most important American writers working today, that has investigated both the psychological side of contemporary America and its zeitgeist. But here he never achieves any of them. It is clear that this book could - and should go - for a psychological examination of life, aging and death. But we never have the feeling of satisfaction.

Roth might have had the urgency of writing this book. It indeed reads as something visceral, something very personal either. But, at the same time, it reads as a blueprint for something bigger, more complex, something in the same level of his best work, such as "American Pastoral".
2556027
Luckily, I never bought Best of Vol I. So this is a better value for me than others. I am satisfied with the song selection from the Roth era, which is the only thing I was interested in. Like others have noted, Roth and Hagar each serve a different audience that have little in common. Roth VH caters to the traditional long-haired hard rock demographic of the early-80s and Hagar VH is for the trimmed and primped top 40 radio audience.

 Bearing the above in mind, that brings me to my main beef with this compilation - why on earth did they interlace each track with a different vocalist, i.e. Roth, Hagar, Roth, Hagar, Roth, Hagar, etc. That is beyond annoying! You have to buy both disks with the package. Why does the record company care if you only end up listening to one of them? They still get their money. It's like they're telling me "you better listen to Sammy, too, or he might feel bad."

 Now I have to burn all the Roth tracks on to a CD-R in order to avoid pressing the skip button on my stereo remote every four minutes (not to mention switching from disk 1 to disk 2). The three new tracks are not very impressive. The guitar playing is heavier but sounds tuned way down. The lyrics are completely moronic. Way immature for guys in their fifties. I would rather have 'Beat It' on here than 'Up for Breakfast.'

 Not worth $20 in my estimation. (I got it for $14.99 by the way.)
3965524
I had no idea that Mick already wrote an autobio in 1990, so this was all new to me. However, the book is pretty boring, since it slights music in favor of endless recollections of his various wives, starting with Jenny, the sister of ex-George Harrison wife, Patty Boyd. She recurrs throughout, and much of the book seems to be a therapy session for Mick to hash out how and why he went wrong in all of his relationhips, although booze and cocaine may have played a part.
I wanted much more about music, and especially about drumming. But there is almost nothing here about Mick Fleetwood, the drummer, except his observations that he plays somewhat unconventionally. The albums do sort of get rehashed, and they are why we remain at all interested in Fleetwood Mac. I relistened to "Tusk,' the difficult third Steve Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham album, and it still sort of stinks on every other track (all Lindsey Buckingham New Wave experiments). Mick calls it their best. Um, no.
I found the latter half of the book, after the band's biggest successes, the most interesting since I didn't know what Mick did in those years. It turns out he went into various weird business ventures which lost a lot of money. He must have squandered millions over the years, but he doesn't exactly say how much, just that he declared bankruptcy twice, proving that sports stars are not the only dumb and rich celebrities.
Read this if you didn't see his first bio. Otherwise, as some point out, it's pretty much  rehash.
1250283
I'm a huge Michael Feinstein fan, with a sizeable collection of his albums, including The Sinatra Project Vol. I, which I thought was awesome.

As expected, I had high expectations for Vol. II, but sadly, it doesn't quite match, never mind outdo, its predecessor.

Might be a combination of factors, including song choices and vocal delivery. While this CD features many more pieces I'm familiar with compared to the Vol. I list, I just felt that something was lacking. And a few of the slower songs suffered from forced huskiness in Michael's tone. Could be the wrong register for him, or he may be developing a new performance habit. Either way, please stop!

That said, I give this 3.5 stars, and really enjoy the big band tracks which are beautifully arranged ( and on which Michael sings normally ). The ballads, however, don't appeal to me as much - definitely prefer his earlier work from Isn't It Romantic and The MGM Album.
1885535
I have mixed feelings about this book since I found bits of it fascinating and bits breathtakingly arrogant and narrow. Klosterman exists in the tiny bubble of New York writers who apparently never get off Manhattan Island, except maybe to go to another hipster borough on the subway. Especially in his chapter on literature, his assumption that the writers slobbered over by males in Manhattan are the best- until some day when they might still be the best but maybe not but really, how could anyone not think them the best- drove me so nuts I almost had to stop listening. The white male privilege of that chapter was suffocating and while it moderated in some other sections it is a fatal flaw in the whole book. Guess what, Chuck? Some of us think Roth is not only not the greatest 20th century writer but also mind-bogglingly insular and uninteresting. Of course, maybe that's because some of us are not obsessed in one form or another with what manhood is. I for one simply find him self- absorbed and often unreadable.
The rest of the book slisp into and out of that "I know best because I am a critic and writer in New York" thing. But every once in a while there is an idea that can catch one's attention, or an anecdote that is thought-provoking. I have liked Klosterman's writing in the past, though never thought his "Ethicist" answers were particularly ethical, again because they had a privileged world view that allowed behavior I think many would find reprehensible. But this book, although I finished it, may be my last. I think I was able to finish it because I "read" it in audio form and because of the odd choice of having a woman read the book. It did lead to some cognitive dissonance as I listened to clueless male arrogance coming out of her mouth but it also softened the impact.