just the usual stuff, look you see. i have, to be sure, completed the reading of two more books (as opposed to less, you say), and so it is time for me to comment on them.
quite a bit of a difference in my reading with this post. well, a 50% change, since it does not affect both. but of the 50% change, 100% totes was. yes, then, i have indeed delved into the rarely seen realm of non-fiction.
a look at what i read, and some spoiler-free overviews? surely.
to start where i started, then, Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite by Roger Daltrey would be the rare non-fiction read. if you think i am going to speak ill or with about but praise about Roger Daltrey then you are quite mistaken. on more familiar territory would be the most recent of Charlie Parker novels, The Woman In The Woods by John Connolly. superb would be my chosen word on it.
can anyone actually give spoilers on non-fiction? i am not sure. well, anyway, to play safe, do please take note that an incidental *** POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING *** is in place for the remainder of this post. i shall, as ever, attempt to refrain from such.
provenance of my copy? off of my Dad. he got it, read it and post it across a great many oceans and seas to me. nice one Dad, cheers. he kind of knows that i seldom go near non-fiction, but wished to ensure that i "got around" to reading this, the tale of a shared idol of ours.
normally around here i would give some details on the plot. erm, ok, it's the life and times of Roger Daltrey as told by Roger Daltrey. that's the Roger Daltrey, him off of The Who. unless i am mistaken this is the first non-fiction i have read for some 5 or 6 years, with the last being either the Warren Zevon book, or possibly the Keith Richards one.
to use those books as a reference, Daltrey's telling of his life is neither as in depth or exhaustive as Richards, and in no way is it as dirty, shocking or revealing as the Zevon one. frankly, what you get here is a sequence of anecdotes, with things referenced rather than explained. he talks about things which let you see and, if you so wish, understand his passion for, say, trout farming, and how he became the uber acolyte at the altar of the genius of Pete Townshend. yes, there are one or two funny tales of the legend of Keith Moon, but there's rather more how problematic he was to live with.
it's all told as you would expect Daltrey to tell it - no mincing words, no hiding away from things and always being up front. yes, now that i think, there are one or two quite surprising revelations - in particular why certain tours happened - but let me not spoil the read for anyone intending to have a look at this.
one thing, maybe. Roger seems genuinely upset that one of his solo albums, Rocks In The Head, did not sell very well. this is 25 or so years later. well, Roger, for what it is worth, my Dad got me that one, and it's an album i rate highly. perhaps, as a thanks for the read, i shall give the CD a spin again in the not too distant future and do a post on it.
back into the world of fiction for me, then, and very much a return to the familiar world of the works of John Connolly. The Woman In The Woods is the latest Charlie Parker "supernatural thriller" to be available in my preferred medium, paperback.
provenance? Tesco, once more. i think this was just £3 on the week it came out, but also if it was £3.50 i would have purchased it.
the plot? an unusually quiet time for protagonist Parker. mostly he is focusing on the welfare of his two friends and protectors, Louis and Angel, but then his quasi legal representation asks him to "shadow" a seemingly straightforward (in relative terms) police investigation into the discovery of a dead female found buried in the woods. with no foul play suspected or considered, it all seems to be open and shut, just an illegal burial after an unregistered death. but, of course, this is a Charlie Parker story, and so more, much more, rises to the surface......
wow. this one was good. really good. after a few blips here and there, and a period where John Connolly seemed to be rushing out great ideas so they were so-so tales, he is well in a groove. i would suggest that this is top 5 or 6 material out of the 15 or 16 Charlie Parker novels he has done. curiously, or interestingly, this one is all flat third person, rather than the usual mix of 1st / 3rd. hey ho, it works.
so here's the problem with my "highly recommended" for this novel. for it to make any sense one would very much have to have read all of the previous novels. there are just too many threads and plot points lurking to read it in its own right, should i have worded that correctly.
or what it is worth, though, oh indeedy yes i would strongly suggest reading all of them. well, at the least starting off with the first one, Every Dead Thing. if you were to give that a go and liked it, well then there's somewhere north of a dozen books (and thankfully counting) of more of the same - often better - waiting.
anyway, that will or would be that for this look at some books. in conclusion, then, it would be fair to say that the Roger Daltrey one is a great read for Roger Daltrey fans, and the John Connolly book is an excellent one for anyone that happens to have read the 15 (maybe 16) or so that came out before it.
many thanks for reading, and as ever hopefully this has been of some use to someone out there somewhere!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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