Let Love Rule

 

You know that thing from Friends where Chandler and Janice have the "freebie list" of their celebrity free passes? Lenny is my #1. You remember that show Behind the Music? Lenny's changed my perspective on the man and his music AND introduced me to my all-time favorite love story (Lenny and Lisa Bonet.) And, I think his album Mama Said is one of the top 5 best road trip albums.

Of course I was going to love his book.

I'm going to go against APStyle here and call him Lenny here, because we're on a first-name basis. He's my #1, as you know.

The moment I could, I pre-ordered Lenny's memoir. Then, I had to spend the last few weeks ignoring every interview he's done as not to give anything away. While some of his early life was depicted in tat Behind the Music special, this book focuses entirely on it. It's his life leading up to the release of Let Love Rule, the album that launched him into stardom. But, you realize when you learn about his life, Lenny was surrounded by stardom from the beginning.

His parents were well-connected even before his mom got her role on The Jeffersons. Lenny talks about going to Manhattan clubs as a kid and seeing jazz legends play up close. He lived across the street from Joe Namath. His first concert was The Jackson 5 at Madison Square Garden. Still, it was decades before he would find his voice, his muse and his style. 

The book details a move to California, struggles with his dad, his musical connections with people like Barry Gordy's son. He talks about the moment he simultaneously discovered marijuana and Led Zepplin. You learn that he predicted his marriage to Lisa Bonet before they ever met. And, when they did finally meet (at a New Edition concert, people), their now-legendary love story began as a friendship instead.

I loved hearing these stories in Lenny's voice. He was from a mixed-race family in the 70's, grew up loving fashion and music way outside of his family's comfort zone. He found faith before he found Denise Huxtable. Most of all, he loved his mom. 

I'm not kidding you, my main parenting goal is for my two sons to love me even a fraction of how much Lenny loved his mom. 

(Let's take a moment and appreciate that. Just watch.) 

I love Lenny and loved these stories. Now, I want more. Now, I want life after Let Love Rule. 

Hollow Kingdom

 

One review described this book as a cross between The Secret Life of Pets and The Walking Dead. I can't imagine a better way.

As someone with a lifelong distrust of birds, I was skeptical about reading a book narrated by a domesticated crow. I don't think I would have even gotten past the cover without a personalized recommendation from my favorite local, independent bookstore. But, when the good folks at Auntie's suggest a title, who am I to question it?

Our hero in the book is that crow, named S.T. It's short for Shit Turd, because what else would a white trash dude call the crow that becomes his pet? Anyway, S.T. tells the story in real-time of what's happening in Seattle during a zombie apocalypse. He watches his "owner" Big Jim acting strangely, and when he ventures out to pick up some medicine at the nearby drug store, he realizes all of the humans (or MoFos, as he calls them) are out of their minds. He knows its most dire when he flies home and sees the sweet old lady next door eating Triscuits. Triscuits, we soon learn, is the name of her dog.

S.T.'s exploration paint a fascinating picture of what might happen if the humans of Seattle are dead, insane, imprisoned, overrun. His journey to find the animals who know better takes us to Century Link field, to the Amtrak station and throughout Pike Place Market. In those common Seattle sights, we find packs of wild dogs and zoo animals that have been set free. And, we find that the ping of a cell phone makes the zombies lose control.

I loved the concept of this book. I LOVED S.T. I loved the way the narrator described how the animals might see the world (calling the zoo a "creature quilt", for example, because imagine what a zoo looks like from the air.) The story itself started to lose interest for me about 65% of the way through, though. We were traveling to find info and to rescue the other domesticated animals and I found myself impatient to reach the destination. When we finally did, I thought it was sweet and, somehow, hopeful. I just needed a little more meat to get me there (or maybe some more Cheetos - S.T's favorite.)

It's a book like none I've ever read and really did keep me mostly entertained. If you live in Seattle, especially, it's worth your time.

Furious Hours

 

From what I've encountered so far when I tell people my opinions about this book, I can warn you now: this is a hot take.

It just tried to do too much. 

It took too long to read.

It didn't hold me. At least not the way it was structured.

I'll back up and explain what it's about, because it's fantastic.

In the 1970's, famed author Harper Lee returned to her home state of Alabama, determined to write a true crime account of a series of murders that captivated the region. She hadn't put out a book since To Kill a Mockingbird and, by all accounts, was tortured by the very process of writing. She spent countless hours sitting in trial, researching, interviewing, writing... But the book was never released and no one knows how far she got if she tried.

The murder case itself is fascinating. It's multiple murders, in fact. An Alabama preacher was implicated in the deaths of five people close to him: his first wife, his brother, his neighbor (whose wife he later married), his nephew and his step-daughter. All of the deaths were suspicious, many were under similar circumstances and all of them had a life insurance link back to William Maxwell. The town was scared and one man was so fed up, he shot Maxwell at point blank range in the church after Maxwell's stepdaughter's funeral. Hundreds saw it happened, yet the man who did it was acquitted.

The first part of this book is an incredibly detailed account of Maxwell's life and crimes. Dare I say, too detailed. There are so many people to track, so many extraneous details and nary a mention of Ms. Lee. On its own, it would have been a hell of a book.

Then, we move into Lee's connection. Well, first, we go into her background. I had no idea she grew up next door to Truman Capote and that she was along with him when he was researching In Cold Blood. That part, and the background of the release of To Kill a Mockingbird, was fascinating, too. But, it was also dragged down by more extraneous details that did not advance the plot or characters.

Finally, we get to the final years of Lee's life and writing career. As is widely known, she became a recluse and never wrote again. Yes, Go Set a Watchman was released, but the back story on that thing is another book altogether. In fact, this book reveals that it was the book she wrote before Mockingbird and that it was shopped around, yet never released. This book gets into the demons Lee was fighting and everything her family and agents tried to do to help before her death in 2016. To me, it was the most compelling part of Furious Hours.

This book exists in three sections and would have been better off as three books. I admire the research and detail, but an author also needs to know what to leave out. I felt myself initially captivated, but almost quit multiple times before ultimately finishing it, unsatisfied.

Women Talking

 

The weight of this book is instant. What it means is a slow burn. I finished this book a couple of weeks ago and can't get it out of my mind. The plight of these women and they way in which they reacted to it reflect society's views on abuse and gender so deeply, its message is now imprinted in my heart.

The premise of Women Talking is horrific. Women of a Mennonite colony in Bolivia were repeatedly attacked and sexually assaulted in their sleep. The men of their colony knocked them out with a cow anesthestic, assaulted them, then made them believe it was demons coming to them in their sleep. 

This story takes up what might have happened next. It's set up as a man who once left the colony and returned is taking notes on meetings the women were having about what to do next. The men who inflicted this pain on them have been arrested (though, it's explained, it was for their protection, not the women's). The women have a small window on their own to decide what to do next. Do the run away and leave the only home they've ever known? These women don't speak a language spoken by anyone else outside of their religion. They have no money, no map, no idea about the outside world. Do they stay and risk further attack? If they do leave, what about the men and boys they leave behind?

That last question is the moral dilemma faced by so many women who are abused. No one is denying these women are victims. So, why should they struggle with the guilt of what happens to everyone else? Why is the burden theirs to carry?

The book describes life in a colony like this, of course, but it's such a lesson about our world as well. The more removed I am, the more I think of that weight and the centuries that got us to this place.

This book is a hard read. Not because of the prose, but because of the message. But, it's equal parts beautifully done and important.