Book Review
Latest
Book Review
Book Review
Country, Smoothed Over
Sep 20, 2019 Ken Burns' documentary "Country Music" and its book tie-in present country music with a naive affection that misses key American tensions.
Evolution of a Medium
Jul 12, 2019 Emily Nussbaum began writing her New Yorker TV column in 2011, and her Pulitzer-winning career parallels television's ascent.
#BlackLivesMatter and the Untold Story of Altamont
Sep 21, 2018 You've seen "Gimme Shelter," but have you heard of Meredith Hunter? A new book re-examines one of the epochal events of the 1960s.
Serkin, Gould and the Pianist’s Ideal
Jan 26, 2018 Recently available deluxe recordings from Rudolf Serkin and Glenn Gould reveal new secrets about these polar-opposite titans of classical piano.
Sticky Fingers
Dec 23, 2017 A nearsighted new biography of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner would have us believe that any narcissistic cokehead could have shepherded innovative work by Hunter S. Thompson, Annie Leibovitz and others just by being in the right place at the right time.
I Am Brian Wilson
Mar 17, 2017 The musician we meet in this book looks back on his mid-’70s Beach Boys caricature with sympathy and dread. As his gentle voice emerges from the pages, a more definitive picture takes shape.
The Man Who Invented Rock ’n’ Roll
Mar 18, 2016 This book is the story of Sam Phillips, who created the conditions for rock ’n’ roll, though he never wrote or played on any records, and his quest to rattle the foundations of American music and a country's ideas about itself.
Children of the Stone
Oct 30, 2015 A fierce 8-year-old Palestinian boy, caught in a famous photograph throwing a rock at an Israeli soldier, grows up to become a great classical violist dedicated to bringing music and musical education to Palestinian children (Above, a detail of the cover of "Children of the Stone," a book reviewed by Tim Riley).
Imagine All My Words
Nov 14, 2012 "The John Lennon Letters" collects and reproduces 285 postcards, telegrams, to-do lists and other writings from the former Beatle’s early childhood to Dec. 8, 1980, hours before he was killed.