notanotherbookreview

KIM GORDON'S GIRL IN A BAND AND PAULA HAWKINS' GIRL ON THE TRAIN ROCK MEMOIR AND THRILLER --EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN IN POST FEMINIST WASTELAND plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose . The more things change, the more they are the same.   This proverb is an ironic subtext for the two exceptional women in these otherwise dissimilar books. Rock memoir and thriller both have soulful narrators, searching for truth buried in the wreckage of their marriages. Blindsided at huge emotional cost, they need to figure out what really happened to become whole again. The answers have much to do with the status of women and the status quo of male expectations. GIRL IN THE BAND, Kim Gordon's memoir is a history of punk, post punk, wave, no wave 1970-80's rock music and her roles as iconic rocker, visual artist, wife and mother. She adds writer, after this entertaining and philosophically rich look at the life of an original, who says she became so almost by default. Gordon w...

News- Foreword Reviews Award https://indiefab.forewordreviews.com/winners/2014/photography/ This is the first study of artists in their working spaces with their work, as part of their process.    Katrina anniversary is 8/29, gives this story poignancy. Many of the artists recreated their studios with a new sense of the importance of place,  The work is on view at THE OGDEN  MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN ART. It's interesting to see the artists' work in their studios in the book and then to see it on the white walls of the Museum. It looks very different . The book is published by   University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press  www. ULPRESS .org Tina Freeman has been photographing artists and their interiors from the early years of her career in New York, when she photographed Diana Vreeland and Andy Warhol. Also an accomplished photographer of architecture, landscapes and portraits, her work has graced magazines, such as Hous...

Humans now have the possibility of editing our genome (NY Times  (3/20). Ethicists are discussing the implications of being able to  not just produce physically beautiful and intellectually superior people,  but to pass down those traits forever. Of course scientists have already edited the genomes of mice and other lesser mammals,  though how that might change the planet doesn’t seem to be  a concern. Superior mice simply exist to show the procedure will  work on humans, the leap from mice to men is a small step. This procedure, considered relatively easy, is sure to catch on. Manipulating gender by aborting females is already a norm in  some countries, so look out for a world of smart pretty people.  Will this boon, the most coveted of human fantasies, be widely available? Or will the process quickly disappear from public view,  controlled by a group of mega corporations? In the 1980’s, when I began my novel PAR...

Reporters Without Borders is a non-profit organization headquartered in France and they do 3 or 4 of these photographer portfolios every year to raise money for the organization.  http://en.rsf.org/100-photos-of-sam-shaw-for-press-14-12-2012,43787.html   Sam Shaw (with Marilyn above) was a photographer of films known for his iconic Hollywood shots. Remember the one where the heating grate sends Marilyn's dress upward? He also shot documentary films and John Cassavetes' cinema verite. But what I found stunning in this book were not the star turns but character portraits behind star poses. You actually get a sense of who they were. There's Liz the beauty looking goofy, Marlon in an altered state. Real people. He shot meaning beyond pretty people in pretty photos. His lens was true. And he went after meanings in other forms. Here from an online bio: In the 1960s, Shaw branched out into producing. He made the film  Paris Blues  (1961) starring Paul Newman an...

Farewell to  The Author's Corner,  a grand experiment. Thank you for being part of a grand experiment --  to keep literary voices alive . Instead of the ho-hum “book review” or “author interview,” how about “authentic author readings” from new books? That was the concept, a new third platform known as  The Author's Corner,  distributed nationwide to public radio stations for daily airing. TAC aired numerous debut authors plus ten Pulitzer-winners, with fully 50% women authors by design, in fiction and non-fiction. Listeners heard dramatic, revelatory and moving passages from hundreds of books they'd otherwise not encounter: truly --  many voices, many views, changing daily . It was delightful to introduce new authors to audiences... but where else could you also hear from the son of the "Cowardly Lion" of Oz, the younger brother of Lady Diana, sassy Amy Poehler, and a Nobel-winning president? The concept still se...