Rock Stars Stole My Life by Mark Ellen review – misty-eyed, touchingly nerdy memoir

From the mud and thunder of early festivals to Live Aid and Rihanna, music journalist Mark Ellen was usually in the right place at the right timeMark Ellen surveys the happy youngsters comfortably cavorting at Glastonbury, marvelling at Primal Scream beneath a harvest moon. “You bastards,” moans the music journalist and editor, recalling his nascent festival experiences in the early 1970s, of trench foot, scurvy and Van der Graaf Generator. “You don’t know how lucky you are.”Still, there’s a misty-eyed reverence for the past in Ellen’s entertaining memoir of five decades surrounded by music – which is to be expected. This, after all, is the man who launched Mojo magazine after realising there was a potential readership who liked music that was “magical and built to last”. For Ellen, the magic began with the discovery of the Beatles and the Kinks, Small Faces and Chicken Shack. Like a character from Jonathan Coe’s novel The Rotters’ Club, his comfortable 60s and 70s adolescence discussing the meaning of prog is ditched for a squat in Battersea, where he begins to pen florid gig reviews for Record Mirror and NME.  Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'The New Republic' by Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver deftly handles terrorism, politics and satire in 'The New Republic.'It takes guts to write a satire about terrorism — and Lionel Shriver has guts. She has already published biting novels about the failings of the U.S. healthcare system ("So Much for That") and a school shooter... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'The Stranger Within Sarah Stein'

Thane Rosenbaum skillfully mixes fantasy and tragedy in 'The Stranger Within Sarah Stein,' whose heroine weathers her parents' divorce with pluck and defiance.Young adult novelists are increasingly tackling darker subjects: kidnappings, drugs, rape. But few have delved into so many dark subjects... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Billy Bob Thornton memoir to Virgin

Virgin Books has acquired a memoir by actor, musician and screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton, A Cave... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'These Dreams of You' by Steve Erickson

In 'These Dreams of You,' Steve Erickson writes incisively and movingly about issues of family and race, but the novel goes off the rails with tangents.Zan Nordhoc's unhappy family is certainly unhappy in its own ways in Steve Erickson's new novel "These Dreams of You." For instance, in a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'The Escape Artists' by Noam Scheiber and 'Confidence Men' by Ron Suskind

In 'The Escape Artists' by Noam Scheiber and 'Confidence Men' by Ron Suskind, President Obama's economic recovery plan and his advisors are in the spotlight, but the books' analyses are off the mark in places.On Oct. 28 and 29, 1929, when the great crash devastated the stock market, Herbert... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Peter Rabbit 110 marks website relaunch

Frederick Warne has teamed up with digital design agency tictoc to relaunch the Peter Rabbit... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'House of Stone' by Anthony Shadid

Late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid writes about insights gained rebuilding the war-ravaged home of his great grandfather in Lebanon in 'House of Stone.'A yearning for home, wherever that may be, is one of many themes that the late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid so deftly... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Review: 'Tinderbox' by Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin

'Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and the How the World Can Finally Overcome It' describes what spread the pandemic and what could rein it in.Tinderbox Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'The Guardians: An Elegy' by Sarah Manguso

In reckoning with her friend's suicide, the author pulls readers into that empty space where loss and grief reside.The Guardians: An Elegy Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'Thinking the Twentieth Century' by Tony Judt and Timothy Snyder

Controversial political and social issues are examined with an intellectual passion.Thinking the Twentieth Century Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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S&S swoops on Flying Aces memoir

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stork picks up Rozewicz memoir

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'Eisenhower in War and Peace' by Jean Edward Smith

This is a comprehensive biography of the president and an assessment of his leadership qualities on and off the battlefield.Eisenhower in War and Peace Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'Hot Pink' by Adam Levin

This collection of short stories includes the fine 'Frankenwittgenstein,' 'Considering the Bittersweet End of Susan Falls' and uneven others.Hot Pink Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'Gods Without Men' by Hari Kunzru

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nanny memoir for Avon

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book review: 'Half-Blood Blues' by Esi Edugyan

In the 2011 Man Booker Prize finalist, the author has pitch-perfect voice and her jazz musician characters have rhythmic conversations.Not unlike its counterpart rock 'n' roll, memorable jazz novels occupy a pretty slim shelf at the local bookstore. Though the music has been gracefully spun into... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The New York Times | 2012-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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