![]() ![]() ![]() With that in mind, the broad strokes of her book are that: Odell's central thesis is hard to pin down part of her subject-matter here is that really important ideas don't neatly distill down to short, punchy summaries or slogans - instead, they occupy a kind of irreducible, liminal complexity that has to be lived as much as discussed. Artist and writer Jenny Odell ( previously) is justifiably beloved for her pieces and installations that make us consider the economics and meanings of garbage, weird markets, and other 21st century plagues in her first book, How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Odell draws on art criticism, indigenous practices, "Deep Listening," anti-capitalist theory, and psychology to make the case that the internal chaos we feel is no accident: it's the result of someone's business-model, and until we reject "productivity" in favor of contemplation and deliberation, it will only get worse. ![]()
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![]() This practice continued into the current age of the internet, birthing a movement of repurposed and rearranged material that shifted its meaning and focus into whatever we wanted it to become.įitting that John Darnielle ditches his signature documentarian approach to music with his band The Mountain Goats to build the novel Universal Harvester by inserting his own disruptive digital dread into a purposefully cryptic four-act drama. Whether prankster animators of the past splicing frames of pornography into the reels of a children’s film or marketing mavericks flashing pictures of soft drinks into a movie to imperceptibly suggest a need for a trip to the concessions, our mediums of entertainment have always been a playground for creative saboteurs. ![]() Within the flickering spaces of a film reel, speeding along at twenty-four frames per second, lies the potential to insert our own images, altering the material for whoever sees it next. ![]() ![]() ![]() The way he talks about Prince’s 1999 exhibits the powerful way music has affected him and is something I can relate to. I love to know what inspires people and how they think, which I’m sure is why I’m so drawn to McKagan’s distinct writing style. This chapter brings to mind Billy Idol’s (who Duff refers to as a friend and mentor) bio that oozed with enthusiasm about music. There are some obvious music choices for a punk rock bassist who grew up in the ’70s – Aerosmith, The Beatles, Black Sabbath – but then there’s ABBA, Bauhaus, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Elton John, Etta James, and Kate Bush. In the chapter “Know Your Tunes” he lists 100 albums that he says are “critical to my being” and that every man should know. ![]() In How To Be A Man, McKagan strips down his experiences and offers quick, easy tips on how to be a better (hu)man, starting with music. His latest book, How To Be a Man, is a humorous, well-written account of a man who has turned his vices into life hacks for a healthy, productive journey. ![]() His last book It’s So Easy (And Other Lies) was the first rock bio that made me both laugh, cry, then want to conquer the world. ![]() You’d hardly expect Duff McKagan from the ’80s hard rock band Guns N’ Roses to have become such an inspiration, but every time I finish one of his books I feel energized. ![]() ![]() “I am depraved,” announces her narrator, Joan, with a mixture of pride and shame. Her first novel, Animal, explores the same territory. In each of her three case studies lurked the shadow of past or present abuse female desire, the book seemed to conclude, is inseparable from what has been done to us by men. L isa Taddeo’s bestselling debut, Three Women, made headlines as much for its process as its theme Taddeo spent eight years moving around the US, immersing herself in her subjects in pursuit of an intimate portrait of the sex lives of (straight, white) American women. ![]() ![]() Yet no matter how much she longs to love again, she is hindered by a secret she can never share. When she runs into her former high school friend Don Callahan, she begins to yearn for change. But Beck can't even remember him.ĭecades earlier, widow Everleigh Applegate lives a steady, uneventful life with her widowed mother after a tornado ripped through Waco, Texas, and destroyed her new, young married life. ![]() Matters of the heart only become more complicated when she runs into handsome Bruno Endicott, a sports agent who has never forgotten their connection as teenagers. When a mysterious letter arrives informing Beck that she’s inherited a house along Florida’s northern coast, she discovers something there that will change her life forever. ![]() Eighteen years later, she’s a tough New York City cop burdened with a damaging secret, suspended for misconduct, and struggling to get her life in order. When Beck Holiday lost her father in the North Tower on 9/11, she also lost her memories of him. The inspirational story of two women whose lives have been destroyed by disaster but find healing in a special house. ![]() |