Review: Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock

Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock by Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story here is interesting, from the start of California country rock, courtesy Linda Ronstadt and others. Focuses on a few key people and venues, and concludes with post-punk country. Lots on the Byrds, Eagles, and some other less known bands. The pictures are all large in this large book, but I thought there was a surprising preponderance of Nudie suit pictures. I would guess from the quantity of these pictures that the Country Music Hall of Fame, the source of this book, devotes a lot of space to these suits. This is probably more interesting to a clothing designer. The book made me a bit less interested in visiting the museum, which I'm positive wasn't the intent. A short read with nice pictures, and will give you some new bands or musicians to listen to if you didn't grow up in the California country rock music scene.

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Review: Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut

Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut by Mike Mullane
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found it odd that Mullane, in the middle of the book, talks about how the shuttle designers changed a system and that change caused problems and flight delays. He used the common quote "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Then, at the end of the book, bemoaning NASA's loss of quality in the build of their shuttles, repeats a story about how an aspect of the ship's design was below tolerances, but it flew safely despite those functions being outside the specifications. When Mullane discussed this issue earlier in the story, he says that the spec writers saw what was needed for their part or process to be safe and added some contingent safety requirements, then the designer took those specs and added his own additional safety tolerances so that things tended to be oversafe. Yet by the end of the book he is saying the opposite. You can't have it both ways - "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is the opposite of "sooner or later it'll get you". I'm hoping Mullane at least understands the dichotomy here, but the way this is written, I'm not sure.

I enjoyed the book, despite Mullane's fraternity-level personality. He grows on you.

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Review: Life of Python

Life of Python by George C. Perry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book provided chapters on each of the Pythons' history before the show began, with some stories about how the group worked together for the television show, subsequent movies, and ancillary projects like the records and books and live shows. Interesting as a book about entertainers, it's also interesting in how the creative group came to be and how it created, which changed over time and project. Enjoyable, with plenty of black and white pictures that didn't add much to the text, unfortunately. Somewhat short, but that was a good thing here.

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Review: ABC for Book Collectors

ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have a hobby now of flipping modern classic books found at estate sales. I always check the prices from various amateur and professional booksellers online, and I kept finding that the professionals have their own patois. Wanting to know more, and to make my own ads with some knowing verbiage, I took a chance on this classic glossary of book related terms. So this is a British book, written with that low-key British wit throughout. I actually enjoyed reading this, and I went through it alphabetically. However, the focus here was more on books over 150 years old than on those more modern. I ended up skimming about half of the entries because they were about books I doubt I will ever see, or bindings, or research sources. What I read was interesting and entertaining, and I know more than I did, so the book did its job well.

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Review: Front Runner

Front Runner by Felix Francis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Consider me confused. The book starts with a thrown race, and our hero investigates and spies on a man making bets. He figures out the man is making money through nefarious methods, which are explained in some level of detail. And then, the book goes off in a different direction, as if this first big mystery, which is left unsolved, was just to introduce some characters. The Francis method involves mixing plots involving horse racing with other well-researched topics. In the past that included glass blowing, computer hackers, the veterinarian business, and more. This one had that horse racing bit at the beginning, but pretty much left it behind for some focus on, where I to take a guess, international tax theft, the use of Google to search the internet, and, in general, the Cayman Islands, where, it is explained in the book, there is no horse racing. The horse racing content was sadly lacking beyond the first third of the book, and really made no sense anyway.

Another of what I'd call the Francis formula is to put your protagonist through torturous pain, repeatedly, and with descriptions that cause even the most ardent crime fiction readers to wince in solidarity. I don't think Felix quite has the skill here that his Dad had. Close, and will likely match it soon, but a smidge too clinical here.

So although I found the plot disconcerting, I find promise in the hero-torture. Boy, that doesn't sound right!

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Review: Arlington Park Racetrack

Arlington Park Racetrack by Kimberly A. Rinker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It is difficult to tell a good story in these Images of America books, and sometimes the topic makes it doubly hard. That was the case here. About half of the pictures were of horses in stride, and given space limitations, you rarely saw the same horse twice. The writeups on the horses showed the expected material - owners, trainers, jockeys, record, family history... There wasn't much excitement in reading the material in this book. The only excitement was in the photos and they got repetitive, although I am sure those race fans who spent a lot of time at the facility and knew their horses would rank these pictures higher. Casual fans, not so much. There were a few pictures of the aftermath of the fire that burned down the grandstand and offices, and I actually found those pictures compelling - there should have been more about the effort to rebuild (enough) for the Arlington Million that year. That was a story. What was really sad, though, was that the book ended on a hopeful note, talking about all the great racing to come at the most beautiful racetrack in the country. Which was closed, sold off, and torn down a few short years after the book was published. I suspect that the book would have included more about the facilities themselves had they known - I don't recall the book having any pictures of the betting windows and the lines there, or the Million Room, or the crowds in the stands, the train stop from downtown, the beautiful and well-kept infield, the special events, or even the office workers. I suspect there is another book that could be written now that the jewel of Illinois horse racing has been demolished.

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Review: Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life

Peaks and Valleys: Making Good And Bad Times Work For You--At Work And In Life by Spencer Johnson
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I can't say I got much out of this. I kept hearing that sometimes you are in a valley and sometimes you are on a peak, and peaks are better places to be. You want to get to peaks more often, but understand you might end up in a valley sometimes. Seemed kind of inane, or at least over simple. This was a very short audiobook, but it was stretched by adding some questions and answers by the author. And it was still short.

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