Author talk
All the Sinners Bleed. S A Crosby. Flatiron Books, 2023. 352 pages.
"Mystery/Thriller/Suspense" is not a usual genre for me to read, but I've read great things about author S.A. Crosby, and he is one of the guest authors at February's Savannah Book Festival, so I decided to give his latest a try. It ended up being a good read. The "Mystery/Thriller/Suspense" part is a pretty good thriller that definitely kept me engaged, but there's more to Crosby's books. He's gotten a lot of attention because he's very good at writing thrillers through the southern history lens. His books incorporate all the southern threads: race, class, poverty, religion, change, and resistance to change.
All the Sinners Bleed's main character is Sheriff Titus Crown, former FBI agent and the first black sheriff in a rural Virginia county. He has a lot to deal with. Memories of his last major FBI case, which left him mentally and physically damaged, affect every aspect of his personal and professional life as he steps into his new role as Sheriff of the county he was born and raised in. He knows the people, their stories, and their attitudes. A year into his tenure, a serial killer emerges, and it becomes Titus' job to stop him. History is a major part of the story, the characters' histories, the community history, and southern history in general.
Great quote from the book: "It occurred to him that no place was confused about its past or more terrified of the future than the South."
.png)
James Garner on The Tonight Show
The Garner Files. James Garner and Jon Winokur. Simon & Schuster, 2011. 288 pages.
James Garner may be the most beloved man in the history of the entertainment industry. No one has ever had a bad word to say about him, and co-stars, crewmembers, and friends speak in glowing terms. Men love his common sense, humble, smart, and funny on -screen characters, and women love his tall, dark, handsome, sensitive, and humorous side. As the saying goes, women want to be with him, and men want to be him or at least be buddies with him.
I'm no exception. "Maverick" is my all-time favorite western tv show and character, and I still watch often. I watched "The Rockford Files" as a kid and still watch occasionally. I discovered his autobiography from a social media reel that quoted from it. The man was everything you would expect. James Bumgarner grew up in Depression-era Oklahoma, and he had a really hard life with an alcoholic father and an abusive step-mother. He got into acting because he didn't want to be a carpet-layer, and he carved out a fantastic career. The whole book is a great read, and my impressions of Garner are confirmed. He does seem to really have been a great guy. OK, he did have one major defect: even the scent of garlic or onions made him physically ill, but I can overlook that.
Garner, Maverick, and Rockford fans will really enjoy the book with all of its behind the scenes stories. Garner created two of the most unique, interesting, and beloved characters in television history. "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files" are both genre-benders that have endured for decades. Throughout his career, Garner hated all of the trappings of Hollywood stardom, the awards, the pretensions, the publicity, and the business aspects. He simply saw acting as a job (better than laying carpet), and he did his best at it. Along the way, he treated co-stars, crew members, and fans respectfully and became one of the most admired and universally loved people in entertainment history.
CBS Sunday morning segment
Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Self Agin): A Memoir. AUWA, 2023. 320 pages.
I have always been aware of Sly and the Family Stone. Peripherally, growing up in the 70s and 80s. Mostly country music was played in our house, and my older brother was listening to rock, especially southern rock, but I heard Sly Stone music and caught variety and talk show appearances here and there. Then, he seemingly disappeared. I discovered funk as a teen and saw huge connections between Sly Stone and Prince, Rick James, George Clinton, and The Time, so I went back and dug slightly deeper into Family Stone music, still didn't know much beyond the hits.
As Sly and the Family Stone climbed the charts, Stone, aka Sylvester Stewart, fell into the trap of drug addiction and developed an unprofessional reputation of no-shows, tardiness, abbreviated and bad performances, incoherent interviews, tantrums, excess, and even gunplay. As a result, he disappeared from the music industry. (Actually, he still worked, sometimes in front of very small audiences.) Thankfully, he's now in a period of sobriety, at age 80, and he tells his own story in this just published autobiography. In spite of his struggles with drug use, the story is clearly and thoughtfully told. I'm amazed by his memory. His genius also shines through as it becomes clear that he became a real student of music and music theory at an early age, and he was calculating and methodical about so much of his career, not just the music itself, but also how he put the band together, how he dealt with record company executives, and how he managed the band, He created a new kind of music and brought people together during a very divisive period, creating iconic and unique songs that have stood the test of time, and he was a major influence on many performers since, but he wasn't always the best human being. It's great that he is still around to tell his story and perhaps still be recognized during his lifetime. Most people around him in the 1970s probably never imagined that would have been possible.
Interview in two parts (audio)
An Edible History of Humanity. Tom Standage. Bloomsbury USA, 2010. 288 pages.
In 2005, Tom Standage published A History of the World in 6 Glasses, telling history through the histories of 6 of the most common drinks in the world, including coffee, tea, beer, and Coke. It became one of my favorite reads. In 2010, he published An Edible History of Humanity, a more general look at world history.
"More than simply sustenance, food historically has been a kind of technology, changing the course of human progress by helping to build empires, promote industrialization, and decide the outcomes of wars. Tom Standage draws on archaeology, anthropology, and economics to reveal how food has helped shape and transform societies around the world, from the emergence of farming in China by 7500 b.c. to the use of sugar cane and corn to make ethanol today. An Edible History of Humanity is a fully satisfying account of human history." (publisher's blurb)
The result is a really engrossing new perspective on history, but it's not quite as engrossing, in my opinion, as Six Glasses. It reads a little drier --- no pun intended -- and at times is a little dense in science. As the title implies, it's not as much about specific foods as about the impact of certain foods, like grains, sugar, and spices, and the use of food by governments to drive economies, force change, and even to wage war.
Author interview
Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America From the Bubonic Plague. David K. Randall. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019. 304 pages. (American Experience documentary here https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/plague-golden-gate/ )
A deadly epidemic, originating in Asia, threatens the US. Politicians, the press, and scientists are divided and at odds with each other on how to deal with the threat. Various jurisdictions discuss and implement quarantines and start requiring health documents for travel. At-risk people are isolated. Large portions of the population lose faith in the government and the healthcare system. Many refuse vaccinations.
No, not 2020 and the pandemic. All of this took place in California in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1900, the first cases of bubonic plague, black death, occurred in San Francisco's Chinatown. Eventually, there are over 100 confirmed deaths, and probably many, many more hidden from authorities. While one bacteriologist, one of the first in America, recognizes the grave threat and fights it, politicians, the press, the US Surgeon General ( his boss), Chinese business and tong leaders, and President McKinley all actively conspire to deny the plague's existence and to destroy the career of the one man who knows what's going on.
This book, published in 2019, very much reads like an Erik Larsen or David Grann work- in other words, first-rate. ... And if you're that rare bird that has any remaining trust in politicians, journalists, or humanity in general, be prepared to lose some of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment