#ireadabook

I read a book! Loving Frank details the rather scandalous affair between Mamah Borthwick Cheney and architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 1900’s. Nancy Horan masterfully combines fact and fiction to tell the story from Mamah’s perspective—a feminist who struggles with how to balance being a wife, a mother, an intellectual, and a creative. I love a book that gives a little history lesson along with interesting character studies of complex people. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I give it 14 essays on organic architecture and personal freedom. #ireadabook https://www.instagram.com/p/CSniTV3HwcN4keqcCjkt91Nc-esSK8RxVd1zhU0/?utm_medium=tumblr

When they said "Top hat and tails" but weren't quite specific enough. #TheLarpGuy #Larp #Larper #Larpers #LarpersOfInstagram #TopHat #Tails #TopsAndTails #Carnies #CarniesAndCreme #CarniesForLife #TheMagnanimous #VincenzoAlejandroSassfrassDeLaVega #MoreTusk #AlwaysMoreTusk #ImAScholarNow #SeeTheGlasses #IReadABook #ItWasMostlyPictures

I read a book! I started writing down who recommended or gave me books, because I was losing track of why I was reading something. I think I picked Separation Anxiety up at my local bookstore when shops started opening up last year, but I can’t remember for sure, because I didn’t WRITE IT DOWN. This was a pleasurable and humorous enough read about a 50-year-old woman dealing with all the joys mid-life has to offer. You know, like brain fog. I give it 8 adult coloring books. #ireadabook https://www.instagram.com/p/CQEIX-Jjp2LcG-_wVblVAtri6T0txkUX1cuErQ0/?utm_medium=tumblr

I read a book! I’m on a tear with the celebrity memoirs. I think they all had pandemic downtime. Plus I can read them in a day or two. I don’t think I would have read Seth Rogen’s Yearbook had I not heard him tell a pretty hilarious Nic Cage story on a podcast. And Yearbook did not disappoint. Seth shares some pretty crazy “only in Hollywood” stories mixed in with quite a few hilarious personal regular guy life stories. If you see me out and about one day I’ll share his yarn about the time he ate an Angry Whopper. Surprisingly few stories about his hits; he mostly recounts his misses, which is self-deprecating and rather charming. He’s Canadian, so what’s not to love. I give Yearbook 15 Angry Whoppers. #ireadabook
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I read a book! I think I’ve established my love of a good celebrity memoir, and Val Kilmer’s is top notch. 😚 It’s full of Love and his poetry, and it’s kooky and honest. He name drops like crazy, but he isn’t nasty or indiscreet. I mean, Cher has been his BFF since the 80’s. He was buds with Marlon Brando! It doesn’t get much better than that. Val had a reputation for being difficult late in his career, but mostly he comes off as a true artist, and those folks are sometimes a challenge. He addresses his throat cancer, and his recent bizarre reputation. He’s an eccentric storyteller, and I found his life story incredibly absorbing. He dated Mare Winningham in high school, and she narrates some of the audiobook if that tells you anything. I’m Your Huckleberry is wonderful for any Gen X’er who wants a fun and thoughtful read. I give it 20 Hamlet soliloquies. Also rewatch Real Genius, Tombstone, and The Doors again if you get a chance. #ireadabook #valkilmer 
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I read a book, yo! I read Steve Almond’s Against Football sort of on accident. I listen to his Dear Sugars podcast with Cheryl Strayed, and I enjoy his articulate advice. I believe they call it radical empathy (his parents are psychotherapists). I stumbled on Against Football while looking for something else he wrote. I’m a football fan (some years more than others), and this book does a pretty impressive job of summing up my own ambivalence toward the sport over the last several years. From Amazon: In Against Football, Steve Almond details why, after forty years as a fan, he can no longer watch the game he still loves. Using a synthesis of memoir, reportage, and cultural critique, Almond asks a series of provocative questions: • Does our addiction to football foster a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia? • What does it mean that our society has transmuted the intuitive physical joys of childhood—run, leap, throw, tackle—into a billion-dollar industry? • How did a sport that causes brain damage become such an important emblem for our institutions of higher learning? It’ll make you think. I give it five first round draft picks. #ireadabook

I read a book, yo! I’m a bit of a comedy nerd, so if a comedian writes a book I’m all over it. I’ve enjoyed Louie Anderson since the 80s, and I love his comedy and his family stories. Hey Mom: Stories for My Mother, But You Can Read Them Too is Louie’s latest book, and it’s sweet, sad, and very funny. Louie has been playing Christine Baskets on the sitcom Baskets for three seasons (he even won an Emmy), and he lovingly bases his character on his own mother. Louie’s beloved mother died in 1990, and this book chronicles some of Louie’s childhood as well as his comedic career as he relates it to his mom through recent letters to her. Louie catches his mom up, while sharing his troubled heart and mind, his triumphs, and his ongoing struggles. I give it 18 statement necklaces. #ireadabook #louieanderson

I read a book, yo! Nick Nolte discussed the screen adaptation of North Dallas Forty in his recent interview with Marc Maron. I realized I had never seen the movie, so Scott and I watched it, and he told me to read Peter Gent’s book since he thought it was very different and much better. Well, it was certainly both of those things. And also incredibly depressing. Spoiler alert: there’s no cute Mac Davis exchange at the end of the book. But if you like football, 60’s drug culture, NFL corruption, and depressing books, well then, this baby is for you! I give it eight taped ankles. #ireadabook #northdallasforty