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Book Review: My Kid Brother’s Band (aka The Beatles) by Louise Harrison

What to say…what to say…what to say about My Kid Brother’s Band… a.k.a. The Beatles by Louise Harrison?!  I guess my best bet would be to just dive right in and let the chips fall as they may…

Did I enjoy the book?  YES!  Louise let’s you into her life to tell you HER story.  Along the way, it obviously criss crosses and runs parallel to her brother George Harrison’s life as they grew up together and later when he became a member of the greatest band the world has ever known.  The part that most people will not like about this book is that one of Louise’s strongest personality quirks is that her mouth (and fingertips) have no filter on them.

Let me take a moment here and provide my readers with a little background information on the making of this book.  A couple years ago, I was introduced to Louise via phone and email (I still have not had the good fortune to meet her face to face, yet).  She told me she was writing a book, but that it was more her memoirs than it was a tell all about George.  As the year went by, I found out that she had changed her mind and had decided to not publish her memoirs, but to instead, just print a couple copies for her children and grandchildren.  I could respect that.  Another year passed, and lo and behold, I read that she had decided to publish after all.  I immediately pre-ordered my copy.

Since this is Louise’s book, she uses this opportunity it to give many of her personal opinions on politics, religion and her philosophical beliefs.  She does include a heads-up that not everyone is going to agree with what she has said, so read it at your own risk of being offended.  Was I offended?  No.  It would seem I have a lot more in common with Louise than I ever thought.

Some of her stories are repeated several times over the course of the book and the readers will become aware that she probably could have used a good editor, but her story is well written and easy to read (if you’re not slamming the book down after reading her opinion of Obama, abortion or the environment!).

The book is probably not the story most Beatles fans want to read since she makes it clear that she will respect George’s privacy even in death and not tell all.  I still feel this book is worth picking up and reading for the tidbits about John, Paul, George and Ringo, that Louise Harrison does provide along with her perspective of accompanying the Beatles to many of their shows during their 1964-65 tours of America.

You can order your copy of My Kid Brother’s Band (aka The Beatles) at Amazon.com.

I rate this book: 3 out of 4 Beetles!

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Book Review: “The Private John Lennon” by Julia Baird

Excuse me while a catch up on reading all the Beatles related books that have been collecting dust on my bookshelf these past several years.

The Private John Lennon: The Untold Story from His Sister by Julia Baird was published in early 2008.  In the UK, the title of this same book is “Imagine This: Growing Up with My Brother, John Lennon”.  This book was the basis for the film “Nowhere Boy,” which I reviewed when it first come out in theaters.  You can read that review here.

It’s always refreshing when you can read a first-hand account of someone’s life from someone who was actually there to witness it.  Much like Cynthia Lennon or May Pang‘s books, Julia Baird brings the reader into her and her families’ private lives to give you a glimpse of what it was like being John Lennon’s sister.  Those facts or times that she is unable to recall or know as fact, she’s gone about finding those family members and friends who can fill in the blanks for her and her readers.  It’s during her research that Julia uncovered several family secrets that help Lennon and Beatles fans better understand the world that John grew up.

This is a story of unbelievable tragedy.  Even if she wasn’t related to one of the Fab Four, one has to agree that they would not wish Julia’s losses throughout her life on anyone.   She tells of Cynthia’s kindness towards her and her sister Jackie after the loss of their mother and she tells of the embarrassment she felt at her brother John’s strange behavior after taking up residency with Yoko.

After reading this book, it becomes obvious what John saw in Yoko.  He was returning to the strange, controlled world that he had always known growing up.  Thank you Julia for telling your story.

If you’d like to read this book on Kindle, it’s available as an ebook in it’s UK title –Imagine This.

I rate this book: 4 out of 4 Beetles!

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Book Review: “Can’t Buy Me Love” by Dan McNeil

I discovered this book after the author Dan McNeil followed me on Twitter.  There is a picture of the book-cover in his Twitter banner.  After looking up the synopsis on Amazon, I thought it sounded interesting enough to download the eBook and give it a read.

This story is based in early 1964, just as the Beatles were about to invade America.  It follows the premise that there were no crimes committed in New York City the night the Beatles appeared for the first time on the Ed Sullivan show on February 7, 1964.

The main characters in this book are four adorable, lovable and awkward ex-bank robbers that will keep you entertained throughout this book.  McNeil takes you step by step through their plans to pull off one more bank robbery, while injecting humor, sex and touching moments into his story.  And though this is one more Fab Four fan fiction book, he stays pretty damn true to the story of John, Paul, George and Ringo’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan show while still mixing them into the antics.

You will laugh.  You will have a tears in your eyes.  You will enjoy this light read.

Available for $2.99 as an ebook at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

 

I rate this book: 3 out of 4 Beetles!

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Book Review: “Horse-Doggin'” by Dave Morrell

Horse doggin Author Dave Morrell is a guy you just love to hate!  He’s the guy that had that job working in the WEA distribution center…touching, feeling, smelling, caressing, fondling and listening to all the new records that all us ordinary people had to wait to get our hands on!  And he had the audacity to write a book about it!

After reading that Dave Morrell was to be a guest on Jude Kessler’s John Lennon Hour show on November 18, 2014, I decided it might be worth my while to find out who this guy is.  Jude wrote that he was friends with John Lennon and had written a book called Horse-Doggin’.  When I checked on Amazon, the Kindle version of Horse-Doggin’ was only 79 pages, presenting me with the opportunity to get the book and read it before his interview tonight.

If you like books with fluffy words and long drawn out descriptions of a look, a sunset or a song, this is not the book for you.  Dave is very concise and direct with his words.  There are no paragraphs with the same sentence written three different ways in this book!  Just the way I like my books.  He gets straight to the point of telling his stories without a lot of nonsense filler.  Along the way through his post high school years, he attends to the very best concerts of 1972-1973, meets musical legends backstage and at parties and even shares and exchanges albums with John Lennon.  He holds the very first Beatles convention in his bedroom and is often referred to as a Beatles Freak!

Wonderful book with wonderful stories.  Not the best writing style…but it’ll get you through the night!

I rate this book: 3 out of 4 Beetles!

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Book Review: ‘Confessions of a Beatlemaniac’ by Dee Elias

'Confessions of a Beatlemaniac' by Dee Elias

‘Confessions of a Beatlemaniac’ by Dee Elias

‘Confessions of a Beatlemaniac’ by Dee Elias

I had the pleasure of meeting Dee Elias at the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago and finding out about her book ‘Confessions of a Beatlemaniac: A true story of a fan who broke all the rules to meet the Beatles!‘  Without even reading a word, I got the impression that Dee’s story is going to become huge among other Beatles fans.

Though this book is currently listed on Amazon.com as being for ages 10 – 18, it’s definitely a multi-generational read.  Taken from the pages of Dee’s diary when she was 14-16 years old, this book tells of the extent to which Dee, her friends and many other Beatlemaniacs would go to just to get close to the Beatles.   This is the story of how she honed her technique by managing to meet other stars like Sonny & Cher and Simon & Garfunkel.

Why did she wait so long to tell her story?  When I spoke with her at the fest, she said not only did she think no one would be interested, she also was still keeping her antics a secret from her parents 50 years later!

If you’re looking for a fun book directly from the heart of a true Beatle fan who was THERE, you’ll enjoy this quick (168 page) read.  (And you absolutely won’t want to miss the story of Dee’s encounter with Billy J. Kramer!)

This book is available for Kindle at Amazon.com.  Paperbacks are available exclusively through Dee’s website: www.ConfessionsOfABeatleManiac.com.

You can follow Dee on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Confessionsofabeatlemaniac 

 

I rate this book: 4 out of 4 Beetles

 

 

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Johnny come lately, the new kid in town…

PSU Beatles

“Everybody’s talking
There’s a new kid in town
People started walking
There’s a new kid in town” – Eagles

With the approach of the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles coming to the United States, it seems that new events, festivals and conferences are popping up everywhere to celebrate the occasion.  And though the Fest for Beatles Fans is the biggest fest around, some of the others aren’t to shabby!

One of the biggest events will be at Penn State University in Altoona, PA on the weekend of February 7-9, 2014 and is called ‘It was 50 Years Ago Today: An International Beatles Celebration.’  This three day event isn’t a festival.  It’s a conference.  According to their website, “In addition to panels and presentations, the conference will include film screenings, musical performances, art and photography exhibits, and keynote addresses by leading Beatles critics and musicologists.”

The director of this event is Dr. Kenneth Womack, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at PSU Altoona, and the author of: Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles, Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, And the Fab Four and the soon to be released The Beatles Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: Everything Fab Four.

A few of the respected 50+ experts set to appear at this conference are:

Mark Lewisohn – regarded as  one of the world’s leading Beatles authorities, Mark is the author of the NY Times bestseller Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years, Volume 1.

Andy Babiuk – the foremost authority on the equipment used to create the Beatles’ music and the author of Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four’s Instruments from Stage to Studio.  Andy is also a staff consultant to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH.

Walter Everett – the author of the Beatles As Musicians book series, Mr. Everett is also a member of the School of Music faculty at the University of Michigan and the author of The Foundations of Rock.

Jude Southerland Kessler – a Beatles expert, author and host of her own radio show, Ms. Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series.  She has spent nearly 30 years researching John Lennon and the Beatles for her 9 book series., making her a leading expert on the topic of the Fab Four.

Dr. Kit O’Toole – For over 19 years, Dr. O’Toole has written music, concert, and book reviews, interviews, popular culture essays, and technology “how to” articles.  Her work has appeared at: Blogcritics.org, Something Else Reviews, Blinded by Sound, Cinema Sentries, Seattle PI and Beatlefan magazine.

This is definitely set to be one of the most intellectual of all the Beatles events to be held in 2014!  And what’s cool about their registration is that you not only can you sign up for which days you would like to attend, you can add your meals and accommodations to your package as you like!

For more information on this conference, along with a schedule of events & presenters, and registration, check out their website: http://www.altoona.psu.edu/beatles.

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Short Story (ebook) Review: ‘Paul McCartney’s Coat and Other Stories’ by Michael White

Paul McCartney's CoatThis holiday, I got myself a Kindle Touch…thanks to the generosity of a friend who gave me an Amazon gift card.  Wanting to put this new device to use immediately, I did a search for ‘Free books beatles’ under Kindle books.  The ebook, ‘Paul McCartney’s Coat and Other Stories’ came up first on a very short list of only 3 books.

Let me first inform my readers that only the Forward is free.  You can get a Sampler for 99 cents, but the entire book is $4.50.  So…I ended up spending $5.49, but I have now learned a valuable lesson on what not to download to my Kindle.

Now for my review of just the first short story in this ebook:

If you’re a fan of short stories and/or fan fiction, you’ll enjoy reading this tall tale about a Beatles fan having a close encounter with the Fab Four at a pub in 1967 and his short ownership of Paul McCartney’s coat that was left behind in the pub and the discovery of Julian Lennon’s drawing  of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds!

The author, Michael White, gives a footnote at the end of the his story saying that on the original drawing by Julian, the words “Lucy with diamond eyes” were crossed out and the words, “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” were written underneath.  After doing a search on the interent, I couldn’t come up with any confirmation of this…even though it plays a huge part in telling of this story and I found it quite amusing how the author may have taken this fact and turned it into his own story!  (Note: I’d appreciate it if anyone can confirm the story about the original picture.)

The story does contain quite a lot of typos, but I’ve been told this can happen when books are converted to Kindle editions.  The reader may become impatient with several missing quote marks, run-on sentences and other small publishing errors.

Also, I guess one way to get attention for your new book is to put one of the Beatles names in the title or ‘Beatles’ itself.  It got my attention and no, I didn’t read any of the other Mr. White’s other short stories, but I now have them handy in case I find myself waiting at a dentist office or such.

This book is available in it’s full Kindle editon at Amazon.com, but is only available in it’s free edition of the Forward from Barnes and Noble.

Because this story is fan fiction (and I’m not a fan of that genre) and because I felt that the author gets sidetracked on other topics to the point of feeling like he was just adding ‘filler’ to his story:

I rate this story in this book: 2 out of 4 Beetles

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Book Review: Paul is Undead by Alan Goldsher

Paul is UndeadA couple of weeks ago, my husband I happened to be in the mall on the last day that our local Borders book store was in business.  All books were 90% off that day and my husband happened to stumble upon this one.  So, I coughed up $1.50 to have something a little off the wall, yet completely on topic to review for my readers.

Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of either fan fiction or zombie genre books or movies.  But the back cover of Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion made me laugh:

Learn the tale behind a spiritual journey that resulted in the dismemberment of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  Marvel at the seemingly indestructible quartet’s survival of a fierce attach by Eighth Level Ninja Lord Yoko Ono.  And find out how the boys escaped eternal death at the hands of England’s greatest zombie hunter, Mick Jagger.

I was pleasantly surprised at how often I laughed out loud while reading this book.  The writer seemed to have a real knack at making the boys come to life (or undead) as zombies (though, only 3 of the 4 Beatles are zombies…the 4th is a Ninja).  AND, it would seem that Mr. Goldsher is as big a Beatles freak as the rest of us upon discovery that his story includes all the Quarrymen, Allan Williams, George Martin, Elvis, Geoff Emerick and many other well-known people in the Beatles entourage.  But one can’t help but notice several important people missing, such as Sid Bernstein and Linda McCartney.

Also lacking in this book, written in the style of interviews, is the dynamic of a true Liverpudlian accent.  In fact, the author seems to start out pretty well in the beginning of the book, but the accents seem to go by the wayside at the halfway point.  (Note to Mr. Goldsher – please check out the writings of Jude Southerland Kessler on how to write Beatles dialogue) Not only does the dialogue take a downward spiral…but the entire story begins to spiral out of control as each chapter (written in years) seems to get shorter and shorter as the stories get more bizarre, off topic and filled with more profanity.  I got the impression about midway through the book that Mr. Goldsher got desperate to increase his page count and just added senseless, humorless filler.

As I said, this book started out great and almost changed my mind about fan fiction…but alas, it ended up putting me to sleep on many occasions.  I’m not sure what type of audience the author was hoping to attract or this book would appeal to since some of the details and profanity are too much for the teens that really dig the Eclipse series…and I think true Beatles freaks and baby boomers will find it an insult to their intelligence.

And in the end…you just can’t wait for this book to be done!

I rate this book: 1 out of 4 Beetles

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Book Review: A Date With A Beatle by Judith Kristen

A Date with a Beatle

A Date With A Beatle by Judith Kristen

This was my second attempt at reading A Date With A Beatle.  I had bought the book at the Fest for Beatles Fans in NJ in 2010.  The first time through, I managed to get to page 61 of this 171 page book about a young girl’s attempt to meet George Harrison.  I’ll give my first impression report and in the end…I’ll give my overall impression after actually finishing this book.

I picked up this book after meetin Judith Kristen and her husband at The Fest.  Knowing that the first editions of Jude Southerland Kessler‘s self-published novel on John Lennon now sell for up to $1000, I figured I’d pick up a 1st edition copy of ‘A Date With A Beatle‘ as an investment.  After reading the first 19 very short chapters of this book, I just cringed.  Something just didn’t sit right with me about how a woman could remember such detail after 45 years.  It was then I saw in the front of the book, “This book is partially fictionalized”.  Then it made sense to me that I wasn’t quite sure how much was made up and I felt duped!  I put the book down for over a year.

Last week, I decided to pick this book up again and finally review it, knowing full well that this could turn out really bad for any future dealings with Ms. Kristen or her husband since we’ve been known to be seen in the came circles.

Once again…I struggled.  After only 1o chapters, I felt like this was work, but I championed on…determined to finish and review it.  I tried to anaylize why I was struggling with the way the story was being presented and then it hit me that Judith Kristen is also a children’s book author and I believe that in her own way…she dumbed down this book a bit much.  Or maybe it’s the attempt to write it in her voice as it was when she was 16.  Or maybe it was the over-the-top conversations between her and her friends and police officers.   Finally, I can say I finished it.

I can honestly say that by the her last attempt to meet George Harrison in the story in this book, she had me hooked.  The ending is whitty and will make you smile.  I am glad I read it…and the latest edition has a beautiful new cover from Beatles artist Eric Cash.  I’ve also read that Ms. Kristen has been invited to Beatles Week in Liverpool later this month and then will start a book tour of German where her book has now been published in German.  Best of luck to her!

You can buy her book on Amazon.

I can believe I’m about to say this….but…

I rate this book: 3 out of 4 Beetles

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Book Review – The Last Days of John Lennon

The Last Days of John Lennon – A Personal Memoir : by Frederic Seaman

Okay, so I’m a bit behind on my reading (this book was published in 1991), but I’m not like a lot of Beatles freaks…I don’t feel the need to know every detail of the Fab Four’s lives to know that they were the greatest band the world has ever known.  I have to admit that I never heard of the conspiracy theories on John Lennon’s death until about 6 months ago.  This is one of the books that was on the recommended reading list of a friend that turned me on to this alternative premise as to how/why Lennon was murdered.

The author of this book, Frederic Seaman had the dream job of many Beatles’ fans around the world – he was John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s personal assistant.  And being the smart boy that he was, Frederic kept personal journals on the daily ins and outs and going-ons in the Lennono world.

I can honestly say that this book held my interest.  It’s definitely a different read than some of the other Lennon bios that I’ve read like: Larry Kane’s Lennon Revealed, Cynthia Lennon’s John and May Pang’s Loving John.  It also brought up a lot of questions in my mind as to who was the real John Lennon in those two years leading up to his murder.  Frederic Seaman’s book paints a very scary portrait of a man that Beatles fans never knew existed and an even scarier image of exactly who Yoko Ono was/is.

Would I recommend this book?  That depends on how you feel about Lennon’s image.  If you’re a diehard fan that wants to know every detail and read every word every written about the Beatles, then yeah…read the book. I will tell you though that this book came to me with a warning from a friend that those who follow believe the theory that there was a conspiracy to kill John Lennon have been the victims of some pretty bizarre events.

For me though, knowing this all information doesn’t help in bringing John Lennon back no matter what the circumstances were behind his death.  Nor will the next book on my reading list – Who Killed John Lennon? by Fenton Bresler.

Until the next time…R.I.P. John

Rated: 2 out of 4 Beetles


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