The Storyteller by Dave Grohl →

I liked this book. He seemed to write for me rather than a particular genre audience.

Dave Grohl, the twice-inducted Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member for his work with Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, decided to tell stories about his life and music on social media. The book gives a unique perspective on the grunge movement and the rock scene from the 80s.

Grohl says writing his first book, “The Storyteller,” was a familiar experience since it felt like his stories were individual songs. The book starts with Grohl’s love of the drums. He taught himself by watching others, using pillows for drums, and an account of how the young Grohl goes from grinding his jaws rhythmically to using them as drum beats.

He dropped out of high school with his mother’s support and approval. He joined Scream, a hardcore punk band from Washington, D.C. Eventually, Scream is suddenly defunct, and Grohl hears that Nirvana – then merely well-regarded was interested in him. He moves in with Kurt Cobain, who is home sleeping on the couch. The story includes Nirvana’s remarkable rise to fame.

In 2022 Dave Grohl’s net worth is $320 million. Not bad from starting from nothing at age 17 and 36 years later, wow!

Cobain dies from drugs, the band dissolves, and Grohl’s debut is a Foo Fighters album made in a home studio, playing every instrument himself.

I found the title “Storyteller ”rang true. The book is a well-written overview of a series of events and band groups that will be an education for some and others a trip down memory lane.

Write For Your LIfe, by Anna Quindlen Review

Anna Quindlen is an author that makes you better because you read her work. My own goal is to read her latest book, whatever that is, each year to recharge. She shows us how anyone can write and why everyone should.

In her book, Write For Your Life, she tells us what matters in life and where we can find our humanity. She answers that we see what matters to us through our writing. Quindlen says she wrote this book for “civilians,” who use the written word to become more human, more themselves.

Write for Your Life shows how writing connects us to ourselves and those we love in our lives. She encourages us to record our daily lives in writing.

Those thoughts resonated for me, having recently written the book: “Why Life Stories Change: As You Look At Your Own Life Story You See Yourself Differently” The book presents the thought that “We have a choice in putting together the narrative of who we are and who we become. We can pick which of the events we connect with, what we conclude about them, and then weave and reweave them into our story. As my story changes with the retelling, it changes me. I become different because of how I see the story.”

Writing gives you something to hold onto in a changing world. “To write the present,” Quindlen says, “is to believe in the future.

Source: https://connectedeventsmatter.com/blog/202...

Choose Your Story, Change Your Life: Silence Your Inner Critic and Rewrite Your Life from the Inside Out by Kindra Hall →

When we consider our lives and the vast number of experiences we have had, it is clear that those events are stories, and we supply the plot lines and even the conclusions for many of them. Over time we create our decisions, and with each tale repeated, we reinforce our findings. The message of “Choose Your Story” is summed up in a quote by Seth Godin: “ We are not who we are because of our atoms, our molecules, our DNA. We’re who we are because of the stories we tell ourselves- about our pain, the hopes, and the dreams we live with.”

The author lays out the components that make stories stick and shows how we construct the beliefs and use them to prop up our conclusions. This allows us to catch glimpses of our subconscious at work, creating false assumptions.

The book offers a solution to findingour authenticl self in what turns out to be an approach that most anyone could follow.

This author is an inspriation and her life validates her book. →

Efficiency and Organization: To Achieve More in Life by Ruszanna Krdilyan Hernandez Ed.D

The author’s stated purpose for the book is to show how to “achieve more in life, to guide, inspire, and give step-by-step strategies for building organizational skills that will lead to efficiency, which will lead to a more balanced life. The goal of balance is woven into all 15 chapters, and the chapters end with a checklist of practical steps and states of what needs to be done based on what is presented.

This book is based on the experiences of an immigrant woman who, by staying focused, having determination, and self-discipline, was able to develop the skills necessary to accomplish more in one day than an average person can achieve in two or three days. She did it out of necessity but built some remarkable organizational skills along the way.

This author is still young and has many years ahead of her, so when she tells us, describing her approach, that she values authenticity and truthfulness and has been open and honest about her challenges, we know that. We know it because we read her book, and it just shines through that this isn’t the standard list of platitudes for the genre but is clearly who this author is as a person.

Quantum Physics for Beginners by Michael Rutherford →

The book, Quantum Physics, is an excellent step to finally understanding the basics of this subject, but it seems clear after finishing it that I need to reread it and or find other beginner books. The easy part was the theory and explanation of how quantum dysfunctions function in our everyday lives.

Also, more essential conclusions that seemed beyond basics were presented throughout the book. We learn that quantum physics is a branch of science that focuses on quantum mechanics and quantum mechanics is the set of principles used to explain the behavior of matter and energy.

Quantum mechanics is also part of this book because it explains how the universe works at a scale smaller than atoms. On the other hand, the process is also called quantum physics or quantum theory. Mechanics is the part of physics that explains how things move, and quantum is the Latin word for 'how much. Quantum mechanics describes how the particles that makeup atoms work."

It isn't fair to rate a book when you don't fully understand the subject. Was it five stars because I could understand it or two stars because I couldn't? I conclude that it probably is a 4-star because it is clear the author knows a lot more than I do, and I did learn a lot.

Call Us What We Carry, Poems by Amanda Gorman

Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s poem from the 2021 Inauguration, Call Us What We Carry, was formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems.

The poem “The Hill We Climb” is a moving poem she read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden.

Gorman was born on March 7th, 1998, and her stunning performance signals an exciting future for her poetry style and a new voice of influence. (She recently said on the Today show that “she aims to run for the nation's highest office when she becomes eligible in 2036 after passing the requisite age of 35 outlined in the U.S. Constitution”.

Press releases have referred to this book as a “remarkable new collection that reveals an energizing and unforgettable voice in American poetry bursting with musical language and exploring themes of identity, grief, and memory.”

Not everyone loves or even likes good poetry. I love good poetry, and Gorman’s style is exciting. Her choice of words brings intense focus to her subject, and the rhythm and cadence drive the message. You can hear her voice even as you just read the comments.

Thoreau, Henry David, Natural History Essays →

Thoreau’s essays suggest that the universe holds higher sources of meaning and that man might get closer to those accurate sources by getting closer to nature.

His writing is often referred to as being intended for “other nations.” Perhaps this is simply that he was letting the rest of the world know about America, but it seems to fit the idea that he was showing connections between humans and the natural world.

Literary naturalists intend to transcend political boundaries, social concerns, and historical relationships. Thoreau wrote in Huckleberries: “I think that each town should have a park, or rather a primitive forest, of five hundred or a thousand acres, either in one body or several- where a stick should never be cut for fuel- nor the navy, nor to make wagons, but stand and decay for higher uses - a common possession forever, for instruction and recreation.”

Thoreau’s ideas embrace the natural side of history and life but leave a great deal of mystery about who lives in that world.

Remember: The Science Of Memory and the Art of Forgetting →

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“In Remember, neuroscientist and acclaimed novelist Lisa Genova delves into how memories are made and how we retrieve them. You’ll learn whether forgotten memories are temporarily inaccessible or erased forever and why some memories are built on existing for only a few seconds (like a passcode) while others can last a lifetime (your wedding day)".

The book will bring more profound understanding and, therefore, relief to many who fear Alzheimer's disease, a progressive neurologic disorder that causes the brain to shrink (atrophy) and brain cells to die.

The book doesn’t present the story of a person suffering from the disease as in "Still Alice" and "Left Neglected.” Those books gave information as well as compassionate teachable moments with the story of her characters.

Also, unlike this author’s other books, this book communicates like a textbook, in many ways teaching what expectations a person can have for these diseases. The resulting reduction of fear can be life-changing.


Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir Book, by Ruth Reichl →

Condé Nast is home to some of the world's most iconic brands, including Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, Architectural Digest, Condé Nast Traveler, and La Cucina Italiana.

When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at Gourmet Magazine in January of 1999, it was announced that Ruth Reichl would leave her post as restaurant critic of The New York Times to become editor-in-chief of Gourmet.

Gourmet was America's oldest epicurean magazine, but at first, Reichl declined, thinking she was a writer, not a manager, and was doing just fine as a food critic for the New York Times. Even so, she had been reading Gourmet since she was eight, and it had inspired her career. So she thought, how could she say no?

Reichl, a native New Yorker, started working as a chef in Berkeley, California, in the 1970s; she began writing about food, at New West and then the Los Angeles Times, before returning to New York. Gourmet paid her six times her Times salary plus perks, and Condé Nast publisher Si Newhouse directed her to rebuild the magazine.

In this memoir, Reichl offers revealing glimpses of her parents and life, but the main focus is on the process of “magazine making,” which means turning an old-fashioned book into a modern, cutting-edge monthly.

Reichl’s way of describing her excitement and offering insights on her talented staff, including quirks and infights, made you feel like an insider as you read the book.

She describes the goings-on of the Conde Nast cafeteria, midnight parties for chefs, expensive annual meetings, and providing food to 9/11 firefighters.

She also writes about some of the wells know articles like David Rakoff’s “Some Pig,” about Jews and bacon, and David Foster Wallace’s classic “Consider the Lobster,” on the ethics of eating, taught her that “when something frightens me, it is worth doing.”

The book looked deeply at a dream job that ended with the early 2000s recession when delining ads forced the publication's closing.

White Fragility | Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo →

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“Robin DiAngelo is an academic, lecturer, and author and has been a consultant and trainer on racial and social justice issues for more than twenty years. She formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University.”

“The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance.”
—The New Yorker

DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility " focuses on white people’s attempts to analyze and develop what she sees as a universality of white people’s predictable patterns of viewing and discussing racism. Her conclusions apply to all white people, not just those openly racist.

“She argues that our largely segregated society is set up to insulate whites from racial discomfort so that they fall to pieces at the first application of stress—for instance, when someone suggests that “flesh-toned” may not be an appropriate name for a beige crayon.”

She concludes that white society has expectations that they are entitled to peace and deference, which leads them to respond defensively to “racial triggers” with anger, fear, guilt, “and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and withdrawal from the stress-inducing situation.”

The book opens eyes and lets. Whites see themselves differently and seem to be an analysis of only whiteness. (Of course, the subtitle tells us that) Some have found fault in the book’s approach, but that seems to miss the point. White Fragility is the point. Whites, in general, have not confronted the issues this author brings up.