33 1/3

My latest find is AbFab!!!!!!

33 1/3 is a series of small books each dedicated solely to one album, such as Born in the USA (though I wish someone had done Born to Run), London Calling (coming out in April), Led Zepplin's IV, Meat is Murder, ABBA Gold, Let it Be, and on and on and on. Last night I bought Armed Forces, the book about Elvis Costello's album. I haven't read much of it, though I noticed that the author stated he is NOT a historian, NOT a musicologist, and does NOT care about Costello's personal life so I'm kind of wondering he could possibly have left to write about. I hope it's good. Because that album has some of my favorite EC songs, though (ironically) I didn't recognize the cover when I saw it! I thought Armed Forces was the Elvis album but I didn't want to look like a fool and get all excited about it and then be shown it was someone else! I'll let you know if it's any good and then I'm going to get Ramones!

Greenmantle

This is another book by one of my favorite authors, Charles de lint. Often his novels are infused with music, either on the periphery or as an integral part of the book. In The Little Country he even includes some sheet music at the end of the story. Greenmantle uses the music to bring together the two worlds he likes to write about, ours and the fey.

The story is about Tony Valenti, an ex-mob hit man who is trying to turn his life around and stay hidden after his mob family turns on him. It is also about Frankie and Ali Treasure, a mother and daughter who move to Frankie's childhood home after winning the lottery. They are also looking for a new life. What Ali and Tony (now neighbors) find, is a beautiful and haunting music that calls to them from the woods. Chasing the music and mystery it promises leads them to a forgotten village filled with people who worship and call the mystery to them every night through that music. The two worlds collide when Tony is found by a mob contact who also happens to be Ali's dead-beat father.

I loved the imagery in this book and of course, the importance of the music. The music is not good and it is not bad. The mystery is not good and it is not bad. They are what you bring to them. A very important message for us all in the way we live our lives, I believe.

From the back of the book:

Not far from the city is an ancient wood, forgotten by the modern world, where Mystery walks in the moonlight. He wears the shape of a stag, or a goat, or a horned man wearing a cloak of leaves. He is summoned by the music of the pipes or a fire of bones on Midsummer's Evening. He is chased by the hunt and shadowed by the wild girl.
When he touches your dreams, your life will never be the same again.

Teaser: More Greenmantle

The Teaser is hosted at Should be Reading. Be sure to go there for the rules and more fun!


I thought I'd give some more from Charles de Lint's Greenmantle. This is from page 212, a nice follow up but kind of make it more intriguing if you don't know what's going on!

The music that came from his reed pipes was not the same as it had been earlier. It sang of regret now, and of things lost, rather than in celebration of the mystery.

New Classics Challenge Revised

So, considering I haven't started on this, I doubt I'll be finished by next week! I found a site using this same list a perpetual challenge. Just read all the books on the list and no deadline! I love that. So I guess that's what I'm doing. I'll leave the first six books posted on my challenge bulletin and then update it as I go; six at a time until I get down to the end. This revised challenge is hosted at The Review From Here. Check it out!