Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Gillian G. GaarBoss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Gillian G. Gaar


Thanks to Steve Roth of Quarto Publishing Group, I am giving away one print copy of Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Gillian G. Gaar

Description of Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Gillian G. Gaar


Find out how legendary musician Bruce Springsteen earned his moniker. There’s only one Boss; his story is revealed here.

Bruce Springsteen is a platinum-shifting, stadium-filling rock star, but he is also more nuanced than that. He is a man of the people, making conventional-and-proud-of-it rock music aimed at the American working class.

A supreme songwriter, Springsteen is a rock ‘n’ roll legend, and this lavishly illustrated book is an examination of his life and music. A comprehensive overview of a fascinating and unique artist, Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – The Illustrated History is a tribute to Springsteen’s body of work, from the rock anthem Born to Run to his sepia-toned analysis of working-class misery, The River. There’s Springsteen’s gnarly, Bonnie and Clyde-style tableaux Atlantic City, as well as his debunking of guys’ yearnings for youthful Glory Days. Throughout it all, Springsteen has demonstrated that he knows how to create a classic track. Find out once and for all why his nickname is The Boss.

My Thoughts Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Gillian G. Gaar


I have been a fan of Bruce Springsteen for as long as I remember.  Okay, that’s not quite true, please don’t judge me on this, but it was actually David Cassidy first.  LOL!  I think I was about 5 years old then.

Bruce has go the perfect package for me.  He is a poet, musician, and wordsmith.  His songs resonate with me.  He writes and sings about the downtrodden and disenfranchised.  He in part, is why I became a social worker. 

Boss is a great collection of photos.  Even if you weren’t to read the heavy book, it would make a great coffee table book but it should be read.  Gillian G. Gaar writes a beautiful biography on Springsteen, including his entire life and career.

I love that she reports on Springsteen, rather than judge him.  I have read other biographies about musicians that come off as judgemental.  I would rather know the person’s life and background and perhaps, form my own opinion.  Perhaps part of it is I don’t want my lifelong opinion, tarnished.

The only negative I have with the book is the cover.  There are so many great photos within the book, I have to wonder who made to use the one for the cover.  In my opinion, it was a poor choice.  Other than that small criticism,  I highly recommend Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Gillian G. Gaar for any Bruce Springsteen fan.  It would equally make an excellent gift.

4.5/5

I received this book for my honest review.

About Gillian G. GaarBoss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Gillian G. Gaar


Gillian G. Gaar has written thirteen books, including The Doors: The Illustrated HistoryShe’s A Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll, Entertain Us: The Rise of Nirvana, and Return of the King: Elvis Presley’s Great Comeback. She was a contributor to Voyageur Press’ Nirvana: The Complete Illustrated History and has also written for numerous publications, including MojoRolling Stone, and Goldmine. She lives and writes in Seattle.

Giveaway of Boss: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Gillian G. Gaar


This giveaway open to Canada and the U.S. only and ends on September 9, 2016 midnight pacific time.  Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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Bukowski In A Sundress by Kim AddonizioBukowski In A Sundress by Kim Addonizio


Thanks to Jessica Fitzpatrick of  Viking/Penguin Books, I am giving away one copy of  ‘Bukowski In A Sundress’ by Kim Addonizio

Description of Bukowski In A Sundress by Kim Addonizio


A dazzling, edgy, laugh-out-loud memoir from the award-winning poet and novelist that reflects on writing, drinking, dating, and more
 
Kim Addonizio is used to being exposed. As a writer of provocative poems and stories, she has encountered success along with snark: one critic dismissed her as “Charles Bukowski in a sundress.” (“Why not Walt Whitman in a sparkly tutu?” she muses.) Now, in this utterly original memoir in essays, she opens up to chronicle the joys and indignities in the life of a writer wandering through middle age.
              
Addonizio vividly captures moments of inspiration at the writing desk (or bed) and adventures on the road—from a champagne-and-vodka-fueled one-night stand at a writing conference to sparsely attended readings at remote Midwestern colleges. Her crackling, unfiltered wit brings colorful life to pieces like “What Writers Do All Day,” “How to Fall for a Younger Man,” and “Necrophilia” (that is, sexual attraction to men who are dead inside). And she turns a tender yet still comic eye to her family: her father, who sparked her love of poetry; her mother, a former tennis champion who struggled through Parkinson’s at the end of her life; and her daughter, who at a young age chanced upon some erotica she had written for Penthouse.
 
At once intimate and outrageous, Addonizio’s memoir radiates all the wit and heartbreak and ever-sexy grittiness that her fans have come to love—and that new readers will not soon forget.

Praise for Bukowski In A Sundress


“A poet and writer with decades of accolades, Addonizio . . . comes across as the outsider-insider, wine-swilling but clear-eyed. . . . Accessible and unpretentious, sexy and funny, boastful and vulnerable, she’s the girlfriend who’s willing to dish, whether about ‘How to Try to Stop Drinking So Much’ or ‘How to Succeed in Po Biz,’ which ends, beautifully, with the command: ‘Don’t be such a goddamned little baby.’ This is a woman who, no matter the costume, you want to hear.”—The Village Voice

“Addonizio is brash and tender, pissed off and funny, well armored and wounded. Emotions, bravado, and empathy run high in her award-garnering poetry and novels, and she now taps into the wellsprings of her creativity in this rollicking and wrenching memoir-in-essays. . . . Always vital, clever, and seductive, Addonizio, a secular Anne Lamott, a spiritual aunt to Lena Dunham, delivers shock and awe, humor and pathos with panache.”Booklist

“Filled with Addonizio’s usual jaunty wit, sarcasm, and irreverence. This ‘Emily Dickinson with a strap-on,’ as she calls herself, is ruthlessly honest and writes so well that whatever she’s excoriating or dissing or musing about becomes immediately fascinating. . . . An unrelenting, authentic, literary midnight confession.”—Kirkus Reviews 

About Kim Addonizio


Bukowski In A Sundress by Kim Addonizio

Photo Credit-Elizabeth Sanderson

Kim Addonizio is an award-winning author of fiction, essays, and poetry. She has received numerous honors for her work, including the John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her poetry collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award, and she has won Pushcart Prizes for both poetry and prose.

 She is also the author of two hugely successful guides for beginning poets, The Poet’s Companion and Ordinary Genius, and has taught writing workshops in New York City, the Bay Area, and at conferences across the country.

Giveaway of Bukowski In A Sundress by Kim Addonizio


This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on July 8, 2016 at midnight pacific time.  Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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Dirty ChickThanks to Julia Borcherts of Kaye Publicity, I am giving away one copy of  ‘DIRTY CHICK: True Tales of an Unlikely Farmer’ by Antonia Murphy.

Book Description:

“One month into our stay, we’d managed to dispatch most of our charges. We executed the chickens. One of the cats disappeared, clearly disgusted with our urban ways. And Lucky [the cow] was escaping almost daily. It seemed we didn’t have much of a talent for farming. And we still had eleven months to go.”

Antonia Murphy, you might say, is an unlikely farmer. Born and bred in San Francisco, she spent much of her life as a liberal urban cliché, and her interactions with the animal kingdom rarely extended past dinner.

But then she became a mother. And when her eldest son was born with a rare, mysterious genetic condition, she and her husband, Peter, decided it was time to slow down and find a supportive community. So the Murphys moved to Purua, New Zealand—a rural area where most residents maintained private farms, complete with chickens, goats, and (this being New Zealand)  sheep. The result was a comic disaster, and when one day their son had a medical crisis, it was also a little bit terrifying.

Dirty Chick chronicles Antonia’s first year of life as an artisan farmer. Having bought into the myth that farming is a peaceful, fulfilling endeavor that allows one to commune with nature and live the way humans were meant to live, Antonia soon realized  that the reality is far dirtier and way more disgusting than she ever imagined.  Among the things she learned the hard way: Cows are prone to a number of serious bowel ailments, goat mating involves an astounding amount of urine, and roosters are complete and unredeemable assholes.

But for all its traumas, Antonia quickly embraced farm life, getting drunk on homemade wine (it doesn’t cause hangovers!), making cheese (except for the cat hair, it’s a tremendously satisfying hobby), and raising a baby lamb (which was addictively cute until it grew into a sheep). Along the way, she met locals as colorful as the New Zealand countryside, including a seasoned farmer who took a dim view of Antonia’s novice attempts, a Maori man so handy he could survive a zombie apocalypse, and a woman proficient in sculpting alpaca heads made from their own wool.’

Part family drama, part cultural study, and part cautionary tale, Dirty Chick will leave you laughing, cringing, and rooting for an unconventional heroine.

About Antonia Murphy:antoniamurphy

ANTONIA MURPHY is an award-winning magazine journalist, author and adventurer.  Her short stories, essays and travelogues have appeared inSail magazine, Cruising World and Latitude 38. Since graduating from Columbia University with a degree in European History and Comparative Politics, Antonia has earned her living as a doll designer, union stagehand, Internet geek, and yacht chef.  She spent three years managing the Young Performers Theatre in San Francisco, where she taught playwriting and storytelling to children ages 3-14. She has also backpacked across Central America, chopped peppers for Thomas Keller, broken down sets for Aerosmith and run a youth hostel at the bottom of the world.

Raised in San Francisco, Antonia has lived and worked in various countries, from New York to Rome, Villefranche-Sur-Mer to Invercargill.  She now lives and writes in Whangarei, New Zealand, with her husband Peter and their children, Silas and Miranda.

This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on February 20, 2015.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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