Under a Rock

I so wanted to like Chris Stein’s, the guitarist from Blondie, autobiography, Under a Rock. Unfortunately, from my perspective, it needed both editing down and fleshing out. The author includes a lot of details about his childhood, 30% of the book, that didn’t add much to his story. When heContinue Reading

Retail Gangster

I’m not even from the East Coast but I remember Crazy Eddie from the satires of him on Saturday Night Live. I never heard that his whole empire was based on scams until I read Retail Gangster. As a former internal auditor, I found this book a hoot! You canContinue Reading

Truly, Madly

I love Vivian Leigh, the actress. But now, after reading Truly, Madly, I admire her courage in going all out for her dreams despite serious mental health issues. Vivian and Laurence Olivier had a real love story—not just a Hollywood romance. And, unfortunately, not all real-life stories have a happyContinue Reading

Banksy Completed

Banksy: Completed is, of course, about Banksy the provocative street artist. The book attempts, rather well I think, to explain how art critics view art differently from the public. And critics have almost unanimously hated Banksy from the start. It also investigates the nature of art itself. Can graffiti evenContinue Reading

The Confidence Men

Two British soldiers are held in a remote Turkish prisoner of war camp during World War I. One day, they hatch a remarkable escape plan. First, they convince their captors that a Ouija board works to reach the spirit world. Then,  the “spirits” tell the guards to take the prisonersContinue Reading

Unlikely Angel

Dolly Parton is an Unlikely Angel and a prolific songwriter. She has written literally thousands of songs. In fact, she vows, “I write everyday. I will do that till the day I die, whether anybody buys them or hears those songs till after I’m dead. I’m dead serious about myContinue Reading

Kusama

In the 1940s and 1950s, mental health issues were often ignored. A Japanese artist named Kusama heard voices, had panic attacks, and suffered from hallucinations. Why? It is a chicken and an egg question. Did Kusama’s mental health issues drive her mother to be strict? Or did her mother’s harshContinue Reading

American Sherlock

Oscar Heinrich was an American Sherlock Holmes. Though he believed Holmes used intuition rather than science to solve his cases. Heinrich opened the first private crime lab in the US. He invented blood-splatter analysis and ballistics while proving that a fingerprint could be relied on as evidence. American Sherlock isContinue Reading