Not Dead Yet by Phil Collins

Not Dead Yet: The Memoir 
by 

Phil Collins

 

Oct 23, 2018  ·  edit

really liked it

Interesting look into an amazing life. I have always been a huge fan of Collins' and learning about his life, his musical collaborations, his famous friends, and yes, his messed up marriages was a lot of fun. Some softening of those details are to be expected, and some funny anecdotes about the making of his music had me laughing aloud. Lots of name dropping and brushes with the rich and famous from the music business and beyond. A bit dry at first, but I think Phil warmed up as he began talking about his years on tour and the affect that had on his career (fabulously successful) and his families (tremendously damaging). At what price, fame???

And, he does answer the question of What does Sussudio mean....but it's a letdown! Many other tidbits make up for that though. And now, I get to go see my favorite drummer this weekend on his Not Dead Yet tour in Las Vegas!!! He is not the drummer on this tour, his son Nic is, so that is pretty cool.  Definitely worth a read for anyone into 80's music!!  And 70's....and British royalty.....and drama....and, well, Phil.

Update - the show was AMAZING!!!  Nic is an incredible drummer - his solo was total proof.  Phil has aged tremendously and walks with a cane now - he even sat during the show.  But he still rocks, he still rolls (his eyes hilariously), and he still has that spark of humor, timing, and storytelling, even if he cannot really hit the high notes anymore.  What a life.  Well done, Phil, I promise I won't remember you only as the guy who wrote Sussudio.  

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Another book club book - I have only read one other Hannah book, and NO, it was not THAT one.  I read Firefly Lane years ago, also for book club, so I guess it was high time to read another!!

Alaska. That is who I thought the main character would be here.  Set in the tundra, in a tiny community of tough, rough, dig down deep characters, this is the story of wilderness and cold.  Of survival where humans probably should not survive.  Of bears and salmon and canning your vegetables for the winter because you ain't leaving your house/cabin for 4 months - not to mention, there's only a few hours of daylight - grey daylight.

Sounds fun, right?

Add in an abusive husband with paranoid tendencies and undiagnosed PTSD from the war, a young girl trapped and in love, and a wife torn between her deep love for the man her husband used to be and her desire to help her daughter live a better life, and now you see my dilemma - there are several main characters here, and they are all trying to survive the best way they know how.  They've moved several times at Dad's whim, but this time really seems like it might be The One.  They take to Alaska and it's toughness, and 13 year old Leni falls in love - with Alaska and with Matthew, the only other teenager around.   But as her father's paranoia builds, and as his hate for Matthew's successful father increases, Leni realizes she is a prisoner in her own house.  While the neighbors, including Large Marge from the local store where Leni works (loved her!!!!), try to help out, Leni realizes it is up to her to make a change.  And when change comes, everyone and everything is affected way more than she bargained for.

A few holes in the second half of the story, but I was hooked and invested and really enjoyed the writing.  So much so that I found myself accidentally promising my book club that I will finally read THAT Kristin Hannah book.  Sigh.  Stay tuned......

The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne

For fans of Room and The Great Alone.....

A fairy tale about a frog and a princess is turned into a modern day story of survival and warped relationships.  Helena is brought up with her parents in the woods of the Michigan Upper Peninsula.  She adores her father, who teaches her to hunt and shoot, and can't understand why her mother is so unemotional, or why there are no other kids to play with.  When she turns 11, a stranger stops by their house, and all hell breaks loose.

Fast forward 20 years and Helena is married with two adorable daughters, but no one knows. No one knows about who her parents really are, or that her father is in jail, or that her mother was a victim of a kidnapping.  Until the day her father breaks out of prison, and Helena is the only one who knows how to find him.  What will she do??

Lots of good questions here -  about family, love, forgiveness (or not), mental illness, appearances, and secrets.  Interesting how the author wove the fairy tale in, and I liked the references to how Helena still struggles with modern society's rules.  The majority of the novel is flashback, and her father is violent.  But it is a quick read, and worthwhile.  Recommended by Sally from my local!!!

Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. Yates

I read Black Chalk (Yates' first novel) and it was NOT my favorite book.  Creeped me out.

So when my friend Erin lent me Yates' second novel, I was a bit hesitant.  But I have learned not to judge an author solely on one book, which is a valuable lesson in reading as in life!!!  This book hooked me from page one.  What an opening line!!!!  A horrible act of violence (not rape though) on a teenage girl witnessed by two teenage best friends, one of them the perpetrator.  Flash forward to the adult lives of those involved, and this incident remains a major trauma point especially for the boy who witnessed it and did nothing to stop it.

I actually loved the format of this book - you get into several of the characters' minds - and the way the story unfolds is absolutely brilliant.  The impact of one tiny decision leads to a passel of lies, omissions, regrets, and behaviors.  Or, was it just one tiny decision?  Was it assumption?  What you see is not necessarily what you get. (wink) There are always two sides to a story.  And sometimes, there are three.  You decide who the narrator is here!  Static or ever changing??

Excellent thriller with very inventive plot points.  Storytelling at its "can't put it down" best as far as I'm concerned!!!!  Thank you Erin!!!

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

My book club decided to go back to the classics this month and read (or re-read, or try to remember reading) Jane Eyre.  I still have my 1960 copyrighted edition with my middle-school looking handwriting marking it in my maiden name!!  And yes, it has been about that long since I read it (probably high school in the early '80's!).

I cannot imagine that I understood what I was truly reading then.  It is almost a tragedy that teenagers were asked to read this at that age.  And also a tragedy that they are not introduced to it now.  Oxymoron much??

My teenage daughters will never read Jane Eyre.  They will find it way too old fashioned, maybe even offensive.  There is no sex, but there is some violence.  There is a twist, and there is definitely drama.  There is a rags to riches arc, and an extremely strong heroine.  But would they see Jane that way?  As a strong woman?  Ahead of her time?  Opinionated and not docile?  One of my friends at Book Club asked if I thought this book was even relevant today - asked SHOULD our young girls (and boys) read this novel from 1846?

I say YES.  Because situational content is so important to the girls of today.  How else will they really know how far women have come??  There was NO chance of divorce at that time.  None.  Ever.  A governess position was about all they could hope for if they did not get married super young (usually arranged, rarely for love) or become a nun - what a choice!!  Early sex or none at all???  They rarely owned property and if they did and they subsequently got married, guess who owned it then?  It was very unusual that Jane should travel alone - gasp!!  Not to mention the fact that Charlotte Bronte felt compelled, no required, to publish this under the name of Currer Bell.  So no one would know it was actually written by a woman (another gasp!).

We complain that women are still oppressed, we don't have equal pay, we are marginalized and traumatized especially in this environment of #metoo.  I do not dispute that.  But please, go read Jane Eyre and for five minutes focus on how far we've come.

Yes, the language is flowery and romantic and the story is heartbreaking.  Redemptive, but heartbreaking.  No one but this particular character would have come out ahead - why?  Because she RISKED EVERYTHING.  She left.  She begged. She worked. She stood up for herself and ultimately she held out for love.  She did not settle. And she risked it AGAIN to leave again and go in search of answers.  It worked out great for Jane - thank goodness for fiction!  And yes, the drama levels are extremely high, especially in the break up scene when she first leaves Rochester and again when they are reunited - I could see my kids sticking their fingers down their throats in disgust (and maybe I did too!).

The language here is tiresomely descriptive - the author spends line after line describing the "lineaments" of her characters. And there are several references to the Bible, to high moral standards, to decorum.  This would probably be offensive today (that and, again, there is NO SEX!!!).  Rolling my eyes.

I have to say, I absolutely LOVED reading this again.  I had forgotten parts of it, I substituted a movie scene for what really happened, I confused this one a bit with Rebecca (my other favorite gothic novel - don't bother reading the so-called sequel Mrs. DeWinter - yuck) and with Wuthering Heights by her sister Emily.  But, how wonderful to really let myself go in a classic of English literature, a book which ushered in romance like no one else could.

Hmmm. Maybe Jane got a bit of her gumption, as well as her backstory, from Charlotte herself.

Alex and Me by Irene Pepperberg

Fascinating!

I am not usually one to read memoirs or nonfiction for that matter, but something about this book intrigued me.  Honestly, it has been on my Kindle for a while now, so it was probably a BookBub special!!!!

So, I found myself taking this with a little bit of salt, but Irene, a pyschologist, certainly did develop an amazing attachment/relationship with her African Grey Parrot  Now, I want one!  But they are extremely social creatures, and she spent hours in her lab testing him and working with him and teaching him to talk and doing all kinds of crazy things that seemed to give credence to the fact that we really should NOT be using "Bird-Brain" in a derogatory manner.  She and Alex became famous, and had a banter of communication that was likened to an old married couple.  Irene discusses the judgment she faced for her gender in her field, for her CHOICE of field, and for her work at all.  But she was nothing if not determined.  A very sweet story with some scientific interest - I did not find it overly so.   A fun, and funny, different type of read for me.  Perfect for summer!!!  And, allowed me to stick to my rule that when I traveled this summer, I only took my Kindle!!!

Ink and Bone (The Great Library #1) by Rachel Caine

Another book I downloaded probably two years ago that I finally got to this summer while traveling.

I immediately bought/downloaded the second AND third books. 

Maybe this is YA, I don't know anymore.  Dystopian, futuristic, oppressive society notwithstanding, this story borrows a little bit from Harry Potter, a tiny bit of green juice from Game of Thrones, and a smidge from The Hunger Games while remaining mostly original and creative.  Automatons, anyone?

Plus, it IS about BOOKS.  Or, rather, the lack thereof.

In the future, the Great Library of Alexandria controls what everyone may read.  It's like everyone has a blank ipad and the Library controls what you are allowed to read, or even know about.  Over the centuries, power has of course corrupted the leaders of the Library, and so here we go with the rebellion.  What I like is that the rag-tag group of teens that are forced together to train at the Library to be Scholars, High Guarda, or Obscurists locked in a tower, are all very different yet they see the faults of the system and with some well placed allies begin the fight to change the world.  There is travel to different continents, there is referral to history both ancient and more modern and how the centuries long oppression of education has affected everyone and created a huge black market for the buying and selling (and ink-licking, gross) of hardback books.  It is illegal to own them - gasp!!!  But Jess Brightwell, himself from a family of smugglers, bands with his German Genius BFF Thomas, the swashbuckling Dario Santiago who annoys him no end, the tough as nails Welsh girl Glain, the braniac and loyal Khalila, the powerful and valuable young Obscurist Morgan and their unlikely allies - their disgraced Scholar teacher and the Elite High Guarda Captain - to try and improve their world and remove the blight and let the light of education and reading back into the world!!!  Whoo hoooo!!!!  I am currently reading the fourth book, and cannot put it down.  Please let there be a fifth, although I will probably have to wait for that one.....ugh!!!!

PS - I would let my kids read this - they are mature readers at 17 and 15 and listen, if they've read The Hunger Games, this one is fine........