Watership Down by Richard Adams

So, I started Watership Down by Richard Adams on January 15th, paused on February 13th, picked it back up on February 25th and finally finished it on March 9th.  What a journey.  The pause was due to The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly - library books wait for no other.  When I heard the name of this book, who knows how long ago, I seriously thought it was a book about a Navy ship that sunk.  I mean, Watership Down - totally a Navy ship that sunk, right?  Well, no.  I never read the book before now, and I firmly believe the universe wanted me to read the book - there were several signs pointing me to it.  First - last August when The Husband and I were on vacation, we were in a class on harnessing your intuition and sitting next to a man who was holding a book.  One of the exercises we had to do in the class was to exchange an item we had with us with the person sitting next to us and then try to intuit why the item was held in high esteem (or not) by the other person.  Well, the man, his name was Quantrell, gave me his book, and when I opened my eyes after trying to intuit why it was important to him, I noticed the book was Watership Down.  So I asked him about it.

Turns out it is absolutely NOT about a Navy ship that sank.  It is about rabbits!!  Yes, rabbits!!  I'm a little obsessed with animals, so was kind of shocked to see this manly man reading a book about rabbits and not sunken Navy ships.  I was intrigued more after Quantrell told me a little about the book.  I made a mental note to pick it up soon to read.  Around the holidays last year, I was with my Step-Mother getting a massage at Burke Williams.  We were waiting in the quiet room for our appointments and a lady sat down next to me and pulled out a book to read while she was waiting for her appointment.  The book was.... wait for it....  Watership Down.  When I was gathering my things and packing for my trip home after Christmas, I took a look at the bookshelf in the room I was in at my parents' house.  And, right there in plain sight at my eye level was none other than...  wait for it....  Watership Down.  So, I took it from the bookshelf and brought it home with me and started reading it on January 15th.  The day before I started reading it, I was shopping at Anthropologie and everywhere I looked, I saw rabbits - rabbit mugs, rabbit hooks, rabbit tie backs, rabbit everything.  I mean, if this isn't the universe talking to me trying to get me to read this book, I don't know what it is.  Too much of a coincidence.

The book from my parents' bookshelf is old - printed in 1975, I think, and the print is miniscule.  I powered through it, but it was slow going.  I know I've heard references to Hazel and Fiver before, but had no context.  Well, now I do!  They are brothers, and rabbits, who live on the periphery of a warren in England.  Fiver is an odd lot, and has premonitions.  He has a premonition that something bad is going to happen to the warren.  He and Hazel go to the chief rabbit to tell him about Fiver's vision.  They are ostracized by the chief and kind of shuttled out of his audience.  Some other rabbits on the periphery come to learn about Fiver's premonition and a small group of rag-tag rabbits leave the warren.

This book tells the tale of that group.  Man, they overcome some serious shit.  Like snares, bad humans, rats, owls, dogs, cats, foxes, stoats (I learned that a stoat is like a weasel), birds, and more.  And, man, wait until you meet General Woundwort and the rabbits of Efrafa.  Talk about a despotic, evil lunatic and a crazy lot of rabbits.  This book was a page turner, especially toward the end, but since the words were so small, it took me a while to flip those pages.  I stayed up too late a few nights to "see what happened" in the book.  And, some shit happened, that's for sure.  You know what they say about cats - they have 9 lives - some of these rabbits did too.  I LOVED THIS BOOK!

I learned that it was made into an animated movie.  After a little search on the Google, I found THIS recent article that the BBC and Netflix are remaking it into a less violent version than the original because the original scars kids.  I couldn't find an original movie trailer, but found a few 3-minute "trailers" on YouTube.  It looks like an older cartoon - circa 1978 - but seems like it will be good.  And, yes, it looks violent.  This picture is from the article about the remake - that rabbit on the right sure looks scary and evil.  I mean, blood and saliva dripping from his mouth and body?  Yikes - wouldn't want to meet that scary rabid rabbit in a dark alley, or any alley for that matter.

I do want to watch the original movie, but have been advised to do it when I'm in a good mood...  Yikes!  I loved the book though - great writing, wonderful rabbit characters, enthralling, endearing.  And most decidedly not about a sunken Navy ship.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly

So, after finishing The Revolving Door of Life on January 14, I picked up another book, but had to hit the pause button on that one when The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly came into the library.  I started this one on February 13 and finished it on the 24th.  Like every Michael Connelly / Harry Bosch book, this one was a very quick read.

Connelly has a tried and true recipe for success with his Bosch books, and this one is no different.  This book opens with Harry taking on a private investigation case for a reclusive billionaire searching for a possible heir to his fortune.  Harry is also a volunteer detective working unsolved cases for the San Fernando Police Department which fell victim to budget cuts and has a bare-bones budget and staff of public servants.  Why is Harry a volunteer detective?  Of course it's because he's Harry and sued the LAPD for making him retire.  So, of course, he's black-balled by the LAPD and the vast majority of officers there.

San Fernando needed detectives and Harry still wanted to work - a match made in heaven.  He's so passionate about the work that he seems to do anything he can to keep doing it.  He picks up an unsolved case that he thinks is part of a series of crimes in the area.  As he investigates this case with the San Fernando PD, he is also working a private case trying to locate the billionaire's heir.  Both cases preoccupy him and compete, at times, for his attention.  Harry is Harry and finds a way to tackle both cases, not without hiccups on the way.  Both cases resolve satisfactorily.

I really liked this book - it kept me wanting more - a real page turner, especially at the end.  I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly, or detective books.  I do recommend reading these books in order, but it is not 100% necessary.  I think I missed one or 2 before this, and was puzzled about Bosch's retirement, and some of the happenings with his daughter.  But my puzzlement didn't detract from my enjoyment and understanding in this book.

While we are on the subject of Harry Bosch - I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the series Bosch on Amazon Prime.  After doing a little search for this on the Google, I see that there will be a 3rd season (YEAY!).  Each season covers a few different Bosch books worked and melded together, and of course with a few liberties.  Click HERE for season 1 (based on Echo Park, City of Bones, and The Concrete Blonde), click HERE for season 2 (based on Trunk Music, The Drop, and The Last Coyote), and a trailer for season 3 is HERE.  OMG - the trailer for season 3 looks AMAZING!  Titus Welliver makes a fantastic Bosch.  The series is gritty, feels real, and is way better than if it was on network TV.

If you are a fan of the Harry Bosch books, you should like the series on Amazon Prime.  And, if you like the books, The Wrong Side of Goodbye is a slam dunk.  Two thumbs up for the book and the series.

The Revolving Door of Life by Alexander McCall Smith

So, after finishing The Speed of Sound by Thomas Dolby, I returned to The Revolving Door of Life by Alexander McCall Smith.  I grabbed this book from the up for grabs book table at my parents' house the week before Thanksgiving.  I started this one back in November, read a little, then picked up the Angel of History and then The Speed of Sound, and then came back to this one.  I finished it last night, January 14.

I hadn't head of this author before, but I do remember when the movie "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" came out some years back.  I didn't see the movie, but that caught my eye when I grabbed this book from the up for grabs table.

So - this book was good, but it was also strange.  I think it would be less strange if I read the books in order - it looks like there are 9 books before this one in the series.  Regardless, this book was easy to read, and the characters seemed realistic.

This book follows several characters in Scotland who all live in the same neighborhood.  Each person / couple live their own life but they intersect periodically with others in the neighborhood.  This book focused mainly on Bertie - a young boy whose mother has "accidentally" been taken to a harem in some part of the middle east.  His father is left to care for Bertie and his little brother Ulysses.  The boys' grandmother comes to help out and we learn that the boys' mother is quite overbearing and a major thorn in Bertie's side.  His grandmother changes everything and lets Bertie be the boy he wants to be.  The most touching - she takes Bertie to get his very own kilt.

The stories of the people in this book are quite interesting and I found I really wanted to know what happened with all of them.  The ending was unremarkable and a little disappointing - it left me wanting more.

Although it took me quite a while to read this book, it was an entertaining and enjoyable read.  I would say read the books in order and it will be better than picking up a book in the middle of the series.  I think you will get a richer and deeper experience with the characters.  My guess is that you'll want to read all of the books in the series.

Now on to my next read - about bunnies! I'm kind of obsessed with animals - you can read more about that on my other blog here.

The Speed of Sound by Thomas Dolby

So, after turning in The Angel of History back in December, I got the next book The Husband requested from the library for me - The Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers Between Music and Technology by Thomas Dolby.  Yes - THAT Thomas Dolby - as in She Blinded Me with Science.  I was listening to NPR on my way home or somewhere and Thomas Dolby was on talking about his new book - The Speed of Sound.

So, if you are anything like me, you know Thomas Dolby as a musician from the 80s.  What you don't know is he is so much more than just She Blinded Me with Science.  The book starts with a recollection in 1984 where Dolby is hopping off his tour bus in the middle of the Nevada desert to use some fancy not yet widely adopted machine to transmit a song over a pay phone line to none other than Michael Jackson.  Yes.  Michael Jackson.

Dolby grew up in England and used to work at a grocery / fruit stand.  He was very into music at the time, but was barely eking out a living at the grocery store.  He eventually got fired from the store and the rest is history - a fascinating, crazy history.

He writes about seeing Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, XTC, Roxy Music, Siouxie and the Banshees, and more all in the very early days of these performers.  He started helping a sound guy set up for shows, and eventually graduated to handling sound set up on his own.  He longed to be in a band making music.  He placed an ad in a local paper and eventually ended up playing with several different local bands - his first was Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club.  Eventually, though he had one record deal, but it crashed and burned.  He took off for Paris to lick his wounds.  While there, he got a call from Mutt Lange asking if he would play with Foreigner on their new album.  Off to America he went and worked with them for about a month.  Then he worked with a small label that didn't do much for him.  Then he happened upon a deal with EMI that was the best he thought he'd get.  Sadly for him, the terms of that contract said that EMI owned in perpetuity any and all music he recorded while he was working with them.  He ran into bands such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, and others during his time with EMI.

He writes about his journey in creating more music, dabbling in music videos (and directing them), meeting Michael Jackson, who really liked She Blinded Me with Science, and gave Dolby his phone number in Los Angeles.  He details how on a trip to America, he came down with mono, played a live set on Richard Blade's (of KROQ fame) show, ended up in a limo with record execs and not wanting to go out with them, so called the only person he knew in LA - Michael Jackson.  And guess what - Dolby went to Jackson's house and hung out with him for a while.

The music portion of the book is full of crazy tales of encounters and time spent with a ton of very famous people.  In 1985 he performed on the Grammys with Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, and Howard Jones.  He was hired to produce songs for Joni Mitchell in 1985 (and was fired by her that same year), played with David Bowie for Live Aid at Wembley Stadium.  I could go on and on about his music experiences - if you want to know more, read the book.

But where I was blown away was learning about how Dolby eventually made his way to Silicon Valley, founded a company called Headspace (then Beatnik), was almost in on the tech IPO fever, but didn't quite make it.  Dolby's goal was to sound-ify this new thing called the internet by using the RMF digital music format he created.  He had a big deal with Netscape that crashed and burned.  Sadly for Dolby (there's a lot of "sadly for Dolby" in his book), his dream to sound-ify the internet didn't immediately catch on.  He moved on to other ways to use sound for things, and eventually changed the way these new devices called mobile phones rang.  He worked with Nokia to change their ringtone and invented their tell-tale tone (listen here).  He played poker with Chris Anderson (who created the TED conference), the San Francisco chef (Howard Bulka) who founded Howie's Artisan Pizza, and Rob Reid (of RealNetworks).

This book is full of revelations (at least to me) about Thomas Dolby - the musician, the tech geek, the entrepreneur, the CEO.  Ultimately, his main interest was music and sound and how to create and invent new and interesting ways to play and hear sound.  He was in Serra Monte mall in Daly City (I've been to this mall - in the range of malls, it is one of the more janky malls) and he had an epiphany - some girl's phone ringtone blurted out a song by Eminem.  Dolby's epiphany was - RINGTONES - that was where he could do something.  Downloadable ringtones (for a fee, of course) playable through the software he created at his company, Beatnik.  Nokia was onboard, but with a nonexclusive license to Beatnik.  Soon, Samsung, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and Panasonic were using his software and paying a royalty.  And chipmakers got in on this and licensed code to embed in their chips.

After resigning from Beatnik, Dolby founded another company called Retro Ringtones and made deals with mobile carriers to create new ringtones from Top 40 chart hits and feed them to the carriers' mobile portals for users to download (for a fee, of course).

Now, Dolby the musician, the entrepreneur, the techy nerd, the husband, the father, the inventor is a professor and spends "eight months a year in Baltimore, Maryland, where I am teaching my students some of the things I've learned in a lifetime of breaking the sound barrier."

This book was AMAZING.  Unlike Angel of History - this was a quick read, had grammar, punctuation, structure, and made sense.  I started it on 12/24 and finished it on 1/3.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes music or has experience in Silicon Valley, the tech industry, the dot-com-boom, the dot-com-bust, or is just curious about why they can play a song on their cell phone.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up from me.

The Angel of History: A Novel by Rabih Alameddine

So, a little bit after finishing Kanye West Owes Me $300 by Jensen Karp, I started reading a book by Alexander McCall Smith, and stopped mid-way through to read The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine.  I heard Alameddine on NPR and was intrigued.  The subject matter of this book seemed original, kooky, provocative, and I wanted to read it.  I asked The Husband to request it from the library - had to wait for it to come in to the library (hence the McCall Smith book).  Once it did, I cracked it open and gave it a read.

This book was STRANGE STRANGE STRANGE.  What I understood about the book - the main character, Jacob, hears the Devil and Death talking to him.  He's lost his partner to AIDS.  He talks to his dead partner.  He hears the Devil and Death.  And, then checks himself into a mental hospital for a little "vacation" to hopefully stop the voices.

The Devil and Death are interviewing 14 other Saints that have been involved with Jacob throughout his storied life about different events in his life.

The author writes in a stream of consciousness style with little punctuation and many run-on sentences.  It was very hard to follow who he was talking to and what he was talking about (present or past).  I kept reading and kept being confused and puzzled and kept waiting for it to "click" for me and make sense.  It didn't.

It pains me to say that I didn't finish this book.  It was due back at the library, The Husband and I were leaving for Southern California for the holidays, and I just couldn't get in to this book.  This is only the 2nd time that I can remember that I haven't finished a book I started (the other was a Robert Ludlum book - The Aquitaine Progression, I think).  I really wanted to know what happened in The Angel of History - but I guess it wasn't to be.  I think if something had clicked for me, I would have kept the book, paid the overdue fee, and finished it.  Or if it had really clicked for me, I'm sure I would have finished it in a week or so like I have with other books.

Sadly, I can't sing this book's praises like other reviewers on Amazon.  I wanted to like it, but, like the Rolling Stones sang, you can't always get what you want.

Kanye West Owes me $300 by Jensen Karp

Disclaimer - I would never have read this gem if it wasn't for The Husband.  He is a hard core rap fan.  I am not.  I dabble in rap.  He lives in rap.  I was thinking this morning about if someone were to write a story about us, what would the title be...  I think I came up with the perfect one, loosely based on a book by John Steinbeck.  Our story would be titled "Of Animals and Rap" - I love animals and The Husband loves rap.  The Husband read this book during our vacation in August and was giggling and laughing the whole time.  So, after I finished my vacation read, I started reading this one on/around August 23 and finished it on/around September 16.  This one took a little longer to read because I started a meditation practice and I tend to do my meditations before bed, which is when I usually read.  So, I sort of put reading on the back burner a little in order to get my feet wet with meditation.  After meditating, I usually fall right asleep.

Regardless, I read this rap book.  It was hilarious.  The author, Jensen Karp, grew up basically where I grew up.  He mentions many places that I know and have been during my upbringing in the San Fernando Valley.  His observations and remembrances are pretty spot on and funny.  Jensen is a white Jewish boy who dreamed of becoming a rapper.  His dreams came true at a Bar Mitzva where he rapped.  Through a wild set of crazy circumstances, Jensen finds himself in front of Jimmy Iovine the head of Interscope records getting a deal to become the next white rapper (this is at the same time Eminem was coming up).  Despite a little voice in the back of Jensen's head telling him that this was a bad deal because how was Interscope going to promote 2 white rappers at the same time, he was so gung-ho that he took the deal.  Interscope threw lots of money and people at him - he met all kinds of famous rappers and artists he idolized, including RZA, how could he turn that down?

I was surprised to find a mention of Ry Cooder - he wrote a book called Los Angeles Stories that I read back in September 2014.  Jensen wrote:

I had been introduced to Mathew Robinson, a writer who moonlighted as Matty Boom in Trilambs, a humorous rap group that had been garnering attention throughout LA with their over-the-top skewering of hip-hop culture.  The comedy-focused group was made up of about a dozen members, including some music royalty - ranging from Quincy Jones's grandson to Ry Cooder's son - who had little to no history in rap.  They would sample songs that had zero chance at eventual clearance, stealing elements from the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, while employing ridiculous lyrics influenced by the stream-of-consciousness style of Ghostface Killah but mostly just mentioning how they were rich enough to own a camel or reminiscing about the year that homeless people went crazy.

Where else are you going to get a mention of the Beatles, Quincy Jones, Simon and Garfunkel, and Ghostface Killah all in one place?  In this book, apparently.  And, apparently, Kanye West, was a humble music producer peddling his beats to anyone who would listen before he became a famous, rich, crazy person.  Jensen worked with Kanye and wrote about the first time he spoke with Kanye:

On the resulting conference call with our managers, Kanye was polite and accommodating, excited to be making what would be, at the time, the most money he'd ever made from music: somewhere between $5000 and $7500.  But that all took a quick turn when he heard what track I selected.  The vision and stubborn determination we're now accustomed to seeing from Kanye suddenly cropped up out of nowhere.

     "But that's the one I made for Ghostface", Kanye explained.

     One of his managers, Gee, reminded him that Ghostface had heard it and passed.

     "Yeah, but I gotta talk to him.  Pick another one."

     I said excitedly, "Oh, you know Ghostface?"  Even after my personal experience with RZA, I still wasn't cool enough to hide my enthusiasm whenever Wu-Tang was mentioned. 

     "No," Kanye said abruptly.

This recollection of Jensen's first in-person interaction with Kanye made me laugh out loud:

 I was also pretty taken aback by what "K.West" looked like.  The swagger you see in the megastar now was entirely absent.  His Enyce tracksuit jacket and baggy pants were about two sizes bigger than anything a rapper would wear, even in 2001.  He was sporting an outfit that a fifty-year-old woman in a wardrobe department would put together if "rapper" was mentioned in your script.  We were more than a decade away from rappers mentioning Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs in songs - or from Kanye debuting his own weirdo high-end clothing line during Fashion Week - but the guy looked just plain goofy.  And the gold chains and Jesus piece that would eventually appear around his neck were replaced by the only bling he had at the time: adult braces.  I vividly remember saying, "This guy looks like Bowfinger" to my manager, who would whisper "Urkel" in my ear over and over.

Apparently, Kanye was dorky.  Who knew?

This book is hilarious, from Jensen's rap persona's name - Hot Karl - to his stories of interactions with Kanye and everything in between.  If you know anything about rap at all and/or grew up in LA, you'll find this book comical, entertaining, and interesting.  The Husband was surprised about how many of the rappers I remembered from his random rap-like tales of rappers he likes.  I feel proud that I can shock him with my rap knowledge.  I don't necessarily share his love for rap, but I love him.  So, maybe by affiliation I love rap too.  I don't know.  But this book was funny.

Oh, and if you read it, you'll learn why Kanye owes Jensen Karp $300.  I, personally, think Kanye should pay him back.

The Affair by Lee Child

So, after finishing String Too Short to be Saved, by Donald Hall, I started a Jack Reacher book by Lee Child - The Affair.  I started this on August 18 and finished it on/around August 28 or so (I got bad with my reading tracking).

I'm a fan of Lee Child and Jack Reacher books - I've read many of them (in order too!).  Child has a formula for these books, and it works.  It is funny, I was visiting my dad while I was reading this book and we decided to watch the first Reacher movie with Tom Cruise.  I have a love-hate relationship with that movie.  I love it because it brings the book to life.  I hate it because, um, Tom Cruise as Reacher?  In no way, shape, or form does he match the description of Reacher that Child repeats in book after book after book.  Reacher, in the book, is huge - he's tall, thick, muscular.  Tom Cruise... isn't.  It just doesn't match up.

But the movie is entertaining, just like the books.  The Affair is no different.  It is entertaining and a good read.  This book answers the ultimate Reacher question - how did he exit from the military.  It was interesting to have a look back into Reacher's life.  If you've ever read a Reacher book, you know he doesn't follow orders.  He goes off on his own line of inquiry and investigation.  That's Reacher.  And, that's what he does here too.  This book has a few turns that were unexpected.  And, of course (with 2 exceptions so far) he gets the girl.

Reacher isn't that different in the military than out.  He's his own man, doesn't really follow orders, is kind of rogue.  The story for this one is that Reacher is sent to a small town to support a military investigation into some deaths of beautiful young women in the town adjacent to the military base.  There is another investigator on the base, and Reacher is trying to gather intel in the town.  Of course it gets messy.  Of course he kicks some ass, and then some - I was surprised at what he did at one point.  He takes chances, goes out on limbs, all in an effort to do the right thing and uncover the truth.  How he does that though is somewhat not entirely law-abiding.  Oh the irony.

I really liked the look back into his life, and look forward to his next nomadic adventure.