by Roddy Doyle

The movie was better. It did more with the girls, making them three very distinct individuals, and it did more & better with their affair(s) with Joey.

by Daniel Mason

I just didn’t much like anyone or care about anyone in it.

by Steven Hyden

Steven Hyden is younger than me, and from Wisconsin rather than New York; but his experience growing up with classic rock radio was the same as mine. This book is a wonderful celebration of that noble genre that will never die! Long live rock!

Seriously, the book starts really strong; and I can’t resist any writing with such deep cuts about the Stones and Dylan. Hyden is obviously an essay writer; each chapter is an essay on a theme. Some are better than others, depending how much you care about the topic (e.g. Springsteen? meh).

It’s very hard to imagine there was once a time when classic rock didn’t exist yet, and terrifying to think there will come a day when it doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve thought about that a lot myself… will anyone care about the Beatles decades, centuries from now? Will all this be lost, that which feels so timeless to us now?

Long live rock, be it dead or alive!

by Danzy Senna

I don’t know why I picked this up. The sample obviously misled me.

The main character, Jane, is – guess what! A writer! Of fiction! Who teaches at a southern California university – just like our author! Authors of the world, please, please, do a modicum of research… write about a protagonist who is engaged in one of the many OTHER fine occupations out there? There’s, oh, I don’t know… mechanical engineer… night nurse… ad exec… barista… web content manager… software developer… insurance salesman… the list really goes on and on.

The plot revolves around lies that Jane tells and gets caught up in. It’s one of those stories where you can’t really understand why the person started with all the lying in the first place. Her life really wasn’t that bad.