The Lightning Bottles by Marisa Stapley

 

Jane Pyre was once half of the famous rock ‘n’ roll duo, the Lightning Bottles. Years later, she’s perhaps the most hated—and least understood—woman in music. She was never as popular with fans as her bandmate (and soulmate), Elijah Hart—even if Jane was the one who wrote the songs that catapulted the Lightning Bottles to instant, dizzying fame, first in the Seattle grunge scene, then around the world.

But ever since Elijah disappeared five years earlier and the band’s meteoric rise to fame came crashing down, the public hatred of Jane has taken on new levels, and all she wants to do is retreat. What she doesn’t anticipate is the bombshell that awaits her at her new home in the German countryside: the sullen teenaged girl next door—a Lightning Bottles superfan—who claims to have proof that not only is Elijah alive, he’s also been leaving secret messages for Jane. And they need to find him right away. Simon & Schuster

I heard about The Lightning Bottles from one of my favorite booktokers, Lovie, and immediately went to go check it out of the library and I am so happy I did.  I know “I couldn’t put it down” is a cliché but it was so true for The Lightning Bottles.  I love books that are focused on the music industry and creating music.  While I don’t play any instruments like my many talented family members, I do love to sing and had the time of my life singing on stage with my cousin’s band this past summer.  It was incredible to just put all our creative energy together and create moments of pure joy.  The Lightning Bottles immerses you in this creative joy and shows the epic highs and lows of the music industry as well as examining the constant extra scrutiny put upon successful women.  Like the protagonist Jayne, I have been misunderstood and labeled the “b-word” just by standing up for myself.   I also loved the 90s grunge music setting, it was the sound of my high school years and immediately filled me with nostalgia.  The Lightning Bottles isn’t just a love letter to music but a love letter to true love and found family.  It was so many things contained in 294 pages of perfection.  

 

 

The Book of Sheen by Charlie Sheen

 

Of all the Hollywood bad boys in history, Charlie Sheen might be the baddest of them all. Now nearly eight years sober, for the first time, and in his own words, Charlie—who wrote the book himself—will truly tell all. He writes of his childhood on film sets with his father Martin Sheen, to his teen years making home movies with the Penn brothers, to early fame with roles in Platoon, Wall Street, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, to his breakout sitcom role on Spin City, and his controversy-riddled time coping with the chaos of divorces and drugs on the set of Two and a Half Men. Charlie Sheen should not be alive to tell these stories.

The Book of Sheen is a heartfelt (and hilarious) memoir of the mistakes we make and the demons we can’t shake. It is a candid portrait of the complicated, controversial, and one-of-a-kind Charlie Sheen.

From the golden days of 1980s Hollywood and Los Angeles, filled with heartthrobs like Rob Lowe, Sean Penn, and Sheen's brother Emilio Estevez; to the humid jungles of the Philippines and mock-army training that crossed dangerously into life-threatening for the filming of Platoon; to the early aughts' sitcom dominance replete with coke-filled writers' rooms, every Sheen anecdote drips with shocking lucidity, humor, and self-deprecation.
 
Sheen deftly leads readers through his childhood as the son of award-winning actor Martin Sheen (a "Cathoholic"), which took the family from New York to Mexico to Italy and beyond; his competitive brotherhood against fellow teen heartthrob and Brat Pack member Emilio; his debilitating stutter that continued into adulthood and which he attempted to hide from producers and directors; his friendships with Chris and Sean Penn, Rob Lowe, Nic Cage, Matthew Perry, and other troubled stars of the era; his adventures on and off camera for films like Platoon and Wall Street and shows like Spin City and Two and a Half Men; his challenges in fatherhood and the kids that ultimately got him sober; and more. Woven throughout is a constant: addiction, and Sheen's perpetual battle with it.
 
Riddled with regrets, filled with humor, and finally candid, Sheen delivers a truly hilarious no-holds-barred memoir, one fitting for a star of his caliber and controversy. Simon & Schuster

Posting memories of 2016 is the viral internet trend these days but if you rewind the clock even further to Spring of 2011 you may remember #winning and all the viral memes it spawned after Charlie Sheen’s very public meltdown and subsequent firing from his hit TV series.  This is just one of the many stories Sheen reveals his truth on in his memoir, The Book of Sheen. 

My favorite parts of the memoir were the stories he told about growing up and making scripted movies with his brother Emilio Estevez along with the  neighborhood kids like the Penn siblings and being on famous film sets and locations with father Martin.  It was really cool to hear how creative he was and the talent he had from a very young age.  Sheen also delves deep into his struggles with substance abuse.  He doesn’t hold back from the humbling, embarrassing and life threatening experiences he went through.  Despite his harrowing experiences and struggles he hasn’t lost his sense of humor.  At one point he quips that all the films he made in 1997 are so bad that no one would watch them.  As a connoisseur of bad movies, I accept your challenge Mr. Sheen.  I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir and wish Charlie all the best for success in his sobriety.

I borrowed The Book of Sheen from my local library as can you or you can pick it up at your local bookstore or online retailer.  

 

 

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

 

In seven days, Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old and back home, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when she is violently attacked by an unseen intruder, suffering a catastrophic head injury. Doctors are certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a fatal aneurysm. To her parents’ dismay, Jet rejects an extremely risky operation in order to guarantee herself at least a few more days.

Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now, in the one week she has left, she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

As her condition deteriorates, she reconnects with her childhood friend Billy, the only one willing to help her. With Billy at her side, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder. - Penguin Random House

 

“In seven days, Jet Mason will be dead.”  No, this isn’t a sequel to The Ring but rather the latest novel from Holly Jackson and her first for adults.  Twenty-seven-year-old Jet Mason survives a brutal attack only to discover that the assault left her with life threatening injuries that will kill her in just seven days.  So, she sets out to solve her own murder.  I loved the twist of having a living victim solve their own murder.  I also loved Jet’s strength, sarcasm and dark humor.  There were also numerous plausible suspects and motives to this crime, so it kept me guessing to the very end.  While the novel is somewhat dark by nature of its subject matter, it also has a sprinkling of a love story for balance as well as contemplative nature on what makes life meaningful and savoring every moment.

I borrowed my copy of Not Quite Dead Yet from my local library as can you or you can pick it up from your local bookstore or online retailer.  You can also visit the publisher's website for more information.

 

 

 

The Uncool by Cameron Crowe

Cameron Crowe was an unlikely rock and roll insider. Born in 1957 to parents who strictly banned the genre from their house, he dove headfirst into the world of music. By the time he graduated high school at fifteen, Crowe was contributing to Rolling Stone. His parents became believers, uneasily allowing him to interview and tour with legends like Led Zeppelin; Lynyrd Skynyrd; Bob Dylan; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and Fleetwood Mac.

The Uncool offers a front-row ticket to the 1970s, a golden era for music and art when rock was young. There’s no such thing as a media junket—just the rare chance a young writer might be invited along for an adventure. Crowe spends his teens politely turning down the drugs and turning on his tape recorder. He talks his journalism teacher into giving him class credit for his road trip covering Led Zeppelin’s 1975 tour, which lands him—and the band—on the cover of Rolling Stone. He embeds with David Bowie as the sequestered genius transforms himself into a new persona: the Thin White Duke. Why did Bowie give Crowe such unprecedented access? “Because you’re young enough to be honest,” Bowie tells him.

Youth and humility are Crowe’s ticket into the Eagles’ dressing room in 1972, where Glenn Frey vows to keep the band together forever; to his first major interview with Kris Kristofferson; to earning the trust of icons like Gregg Allman and Joni Mitchell, who had sworn to never again speak to Rolling Stone. It’s a magical odyssey, the journey of a teenage writer waved through the door to find his fellow dreamers, music geeks, and lifelong community. It’s a path that leads him to writing and directing some of the most beloved films of the past forty years, from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Say Anything... to Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. His movies often resonate with the music of the artists he first met as a journalist, including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Who, and Pearl Jam.

The Uncool is also a surprisingly intimate family drama. If you’ve seen Almost Famous, you may think you know this story—but you don’t. For the first time, Crowe opens up about his formative years in Palm Springs and pays tribute to his father, a decorated Army officer who taught him the irreplaceable value of the human voice. Crowe also offers a full portrait of his mother, whose singular spirit helped shape him into an unconventional visionary.

With its vivid snapshots of a bygone era and a celebration of creativity and connection, this memoir is an essential read for music lovers or anyone chasing their wildest dreams. At the end of that roller-coaster journey, you might just find what you were looking for: your place in the world. - Simon & Schuster

On January 7, 2023 my dad and I saw one of the final Broadway performances of Almost Famous: The Musical,  based on Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film of the same name.  We are both big fans of Carmeron’s work, musical theater and Almost Famous so these tickets were a delightful Christmas gift. It was my dad who introduced me to Cameron’s work by recommending his film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High way back when renting VHS tapes at your local video store was still a thing.  A lot of people I’ve spoken to about Fast Times at Ridgemont High don’t know the movie was based off of Cameron’s long out of print novel of the same name and based on his experiences “going undercover” at a real California high school.  I was elated to be gifted a copy for Christmas a few years ago by you guessed it, my dad and fellow Crowe fan.   

You can imagine our enthusiasm when I discovered that Cameron was finally publishing his memoir, The Uncool.   I tried to savor this and read slowly but it was just so engrossing that I burned through it in just a few days.  If you’ve seen Almost Famous, you may be familiar with some of the beats of Cameron’s life as teen journalist who went on the road with rock bands and wrote for music magazines such as Rolling Stone as did William Miller in Almost Famous.  However, Cameron’s life was much richer and his family dynamics much more heartwarming, heart wrenching and at times dysfunctional.  His experiences on the road with artists such as The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and many others will likely leave your jaw on the floor.  The book ends as Crowe transitions from rock journalist to screenwriter and I hope there is a follow-up to his memoir that explores more of this transition to writer and director.  I’d love to read more about my  other Crowe favorites such as Vanilla Sky.

I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of The Uncool by Cameron Crowe thanks to the publisher, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

You can find your copy at your favorite local bookseller, online retailer or library.