Tag: books

#Books #MusicMonday Read Keith Richards’ memoir Life

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LifeLife by Keith Richards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Life, Keith puts to rest the crazy stories of him getting his blood exchanged and snorting his father’s ashes.

I like Keith’s plain-spokenness. He doesn’t merely call a spade a spade, he calls it a sh** shovel. His most memorable comment was calling the late Hugh Hefner a pimp.

Toward the end of his autobiography, Keith talks about being a voracious reader: his favorite subject is naval history. He also talks about cooking traditional English fare: he even offers a recipe for bangers and mash! This is not the image of Keith Richards that the media has crafted.

Keith and Patti Hansen have now been married for 39 years: they will celebrate forty years of marriage on December 18, 2023 (also Keith’s 80th birthday).

Altogether, an entertaining read!

Citation:
Richards, K., & Fox, J. (2012). Life. Phoenix.

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#Review of 📖 Korean Beauty Secrets

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Korean Beauty Secrets: A Practical Guide to Cutting-Edge Skincare and MakeupKorean Beauty Secrets: A Practical Guide to Cutting-Edge Skincare and Makeup by Kerry Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Korean Beauty Secrets: A Practical Guide to Cutting-Edge Skincare and Makeup lists K-beauty brands; describes skincare products and products like cushion makeup; explains the multi-step skincare regimen; recommends particular products; and provides a Korean to English glossary. It’s a manual or reference book on K-beauty.

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#MusicMonday – Review of A Very Irregular Head – Syd Barrett

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More of my obsession or “hyper focus” on Syd Barrett.

A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett by Rob Chapman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett is one of the most renowned casualties of Rock ‘n’ Roll. At the cusp of stardom with Pink Floyd in 1967, he had a major breakdown. He was 21 years old. His behavior became erratic (to say the least) and he left Pink Floyd or was dismissed.

Syd Barrett in May 1967, before his collapse.

Syd’s mental collapse continues to be a source of speculation and fascination 54 years later and 15 years after his death at age 60 in 2006. Was it the onset of schizophrenia? Was it autism, as suggested in The Interesting Case of Syd Barrett? Was it LSD, or the more dangerous DOM, as suggested by Men on the Border? Was it temporal lobe damage, as suggested in Julian Palacios’ biography Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd: Dark Globe? Or was it just the sixties, man? Our interest in Syd’s mental collapse isn’t merely voyeuristic, it’s also about making sense about what happened.

Rob Chapman de-emphasizes Syd’s drug use, which makes it harder to make sense of what happened to Syd. Syd’s gifts at songwriting left him. His singing left him. His guitar playing left him. His mental health left him. I wept as I read about Syd’s deterioration.

But Chapman makes an interesting point: A rock star’s peak creativity lasts for a very short while: after that, he or she becomes redundant. And being redundant was Syd’s major fear.

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Book sale haul

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Friends of Oakton Library are hosting their semi-annual book sale this weekend. Here’s my haul – all in pristine condition, all for $2.25.

Book sale

Buckley, W. F., & Rosen, J. (2016). A torch kept lit: great lives of the twentieth century. New York: Crown Forum.
Didion, J. (2018). The year of magical thinking. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Kingsolver, B. (2017). The Poisonwood Bible. London: Faber and Faber.

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The Style Page reviews Idiot’s Guides: Everyday Makeup Secrets

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Idiot's Guides: Everyday Makeup SecretsIdiot’s Guides: Everyday Makeup Secrets by Daniel Klingler

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Idiot’s Guides: Everyday Makeup Secrets devotes too much space on faking the perfect face shape (oval, with evenly proportioned features) and perfect eye shape (almond) through highlighting and contouring. It also recommends eyebrow shapes for different face shapes: I would think that the best approach is to follow the natural shape of the brow bone.

The best parts of Idiot’s Guide: Everyday Makeup Secrets are the call-out boxes, which feature many interesting hacks.

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The Style Page reviews The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

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The Blue Castle The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was into Anne of Green Gables, even before the 1985 TV series starring Megan Follows. I was 17, and a copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was lying around the house, a Christmas gift from my mother’s friend. I read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and liked it. Mom suggested that I read Anne of Green Gables. I loved it. In 1980, soon after I graduated from college, I went on my “pilgrimage” to Prince Edward Island.

I discovered The Blue Castle through Susan L.M. Goldberg on PJ Media. She wrote: if you’ve never, you must read The Blue Castle now—quickly! I’ll wait. As a fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery‘s books, I had to read The Blue Castle.

Valancy Stirling fits the archetype of the lonely, sad person living in a home where others are cold to her (think Cinderella or Harry Potter). A medical diagnosis gives her one year to live. She casts off her inhibitions, scandalizes her family, and lives life to the fullest. She even proposes marriage! Then multiple revelations upend her life in a day (I won’t disclose them – read the book). The Blue Castle has a “happily ever after” ending.

I’ve decided that a cynic is a disillusioned romantic. In reading The Blue Castle, I can momentarily believe in romance again.

PS Read the introduction by Collett Tracey after you read The Blue Castle. It contains spoilers.

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Could vegetarianism negatively impact mood? from Science of Us

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According to this article, preliminary studies have found a link between a meatless diet and mental problems like depression, anxiety, and self-harm. A nutrient-deficient plant-based diet might create problems that contribute to psychological disorders.

I quit eating red meat several years ago, mostly for health reasons. After reading an article about the benefits of vegetarianism for spiritual development (!), I quick eating poultry. I seldom eat eggs, but I still include dairy in my diet. On rare occasions, I eat fish.

Depression, anxiety, and fearfulness have ruled my life for as long as I can remember. I wonder if a mostly vegetarian diet has made things worse. Blood tests have revealed that I had severe deficiencies of Vitamins B12 and D in my diet. So much for spiritual development! (When I told my nephew why I had given up poultry, he said that that was ridiculous).

I don’t plan to give up my diet, but I’ll add nutritional supplements to my diet.

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The book The Vegetarian reminds me of Margaret Arwood’s proto-feminist The Edible Woman, in which the engaged-to-be-married heroine loses her appetite for food, to the point that she can only eat noodles. After she breaks off her engagement in dramatic fashion, she suddenly becomes ravenously hungry.

“If you’re going to be a vegetarian, you have to be more thoughtful about what you eat.”

Source: ‘The Vegetarian’ and the Puzzling Link Between Diet and Mood — Science of Us

#Canada Day again

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I’m taking a different tack on Canada Day this year. On Facebook, I attributed the massacre at the Pulse night club to the killer’s professions of Islamic ideology. A prominent Canadian beauty blogger subsequently ripped into me:

It’s time to examine why your country [emphasis mine] gives guns to people who are mentally unstable. Especially when the FBI knew about them, and had been following them. Who cares about whether or not it was an American who decided to use ISIS to focus his hatred? Your gov’t knew all about him, yet he could still get guns. Stop talking about Islamic hatred and start talking about why your country discriminates against the gay community, which gives people like this shooter a reason for his own hate. IT DOESN”T MATTER that he was with ISIS. The US has had 7 mass shootings this week. Get your head out of the sand.

or did she really mean to say, get my head out of my ass? 😀

It’s time to examine the ideology of your country [emphasis mine] that went to war in Muslim countries, destroyed entire countries, armed rebels and basically created ISIS. Jesus. Read a book.

I felt that her references to your country reeked of contempt for the good old United States and that she regarded me as yet another contemptible  illiterate American ignoramus.

Jesus. Read a book.

I don’t know if she had any particular books in mind, but here are some books that I’ve read:

  • The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood (in fact, I’ve seen Margaret Atwood read from her works in person)
  • Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen
  • Roughing it in the Bush by Susanna Moodie
  • The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies
  • The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy
  • The whole series of Anne of Green Gables books (six books) by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I can tell you why Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside are the worst books of the series. I’ve also read Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside, but these are not considered as part of the Anne canon, as they deal with Anne’s children.
  • The three books of L.M. Montgomery’s Emily series

Notice a pattern here? All these books are written by Canadian authors.

Happy Canada Day. 🍁​

It’s Canada Day again, and time to revisit this article Canada Day.  Happy 148th Canada!

Source: #Canada Day | The Style Page | The Style Page

Finding Mr. Righteous

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Finding Mr. RighteousFinding Mr. Righteous by Lisa De Pasquale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I discovered Finding Mr. Righteous through the conservative web site PJ Media. Initially I submitted a request to Fairfax County Public Library to carry it, but there was no follow-up: strange, because I had thought that FPCL would support a local writer (Ms. De Pasquale lives in Northern Virginia). I had to wait the mandatory 6-12 months after publication to submit a request through Interlibrary Loan.

Finding Mr. Righteous is about Ms. De Pasquale’s search for God in the context of the men in her life: Chris the Atheist, Joe the Catholic, John the Evangelical, etc. I looked forward to reading this book, as I thought there would be a spiritual component to the book, but most of the book is about Ms. De Pasquale’s attachments to men who have other women in their lives and won’t commit to her. I wonder why Ms. De Pasquale didn’t go in therapy to try to break this pattern. The spiritual component comes at the end of the book when she has an epiphany about her relationships and her role in them. I won’t give away the ending: that’s for you to read.

This book dredged up my unhappy experiences with men and my feeling insecure and that no one would love me. If Ms. De Pasquale ever revises her book, I could contribute a chapter on Ali the Muslim.

Altogether, Finding Mr. Righteous is a quick read. As I said, the spiritual component comes at the end of the book, and I’m glad that I read it to the end.
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The Style Page reviews How Not to Look Old by Charla Krupp

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How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter, 10 Times Better by Charla Krupp

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read How Not to Look Old after reading Andrea Robinson’s Toss the Gloss. Charla Krupp’s book is more extensive, as it covers fashion in addition to make-up.

Charla Krupp begins this book by saying that looking old negatively impacts you both personally and financially. Not a very upbeat way to begin a book.

I disagree with Krupp’s aversion to nude pantyhose: I feel undressed without hosiery. Krupp also advocates shimmery pink gloss (see the back cover), something that Robinson opposes.

Krupp’s best chapter is on bra fitting. Did you know that the band should provide more support than the straps? For more tips about bra fitting, I recommend reading How to properly measure from my favorite lingerie store Trousseau.

Had I not read Kathy Shaidle’s humorous 50 is the New Crappy, I would not have known that Charla Krupp died in 2012 at age 58. She did not get to live to old age.

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