Koven Smith finished reading The Big Goodbye by Sam Wasson
From the New York Times bestselling author of Fifth Avenue, Five A.M. and Fosse comes …
Yeeeeah, this was so much better than a silly little show-biz book like this had any right to be.
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Arts grantmaker living in Austin, TX. Jazz, museums, pre-Kurtzman Star Trek, so forth and such as. Also in the fediverse at @5easypieces@social.coop.
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2022 Reading Goal
72% complete! Koven Smith has read 18 of 25 books.
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Koven Smith reviewed Dilla Time by Dan Charnas
Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of …
Wish all music books were like this
5 stars
This book was fabulous. Well-researched and compelling, it doubles as a history of Detroit in addition to a study of both the musical and social importance of Dilla himself.
Koven Smith finished reading Dilla Time by Dan Charnas
Dilla Time by Dan Charnas
Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of J Dilla, a musical genius …
Koven Smith commented on Dilla Time by Dan Charnas
Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time chronicles the life and legacy of …
Quick update: this book rules.
Koven Smith wants to read Nevada by Imogen Binnie
Frustrated by her current relationship, trans lesbian Maria Griffiths decides to change her life by …
Adding this to my queue based on this article: www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/07/nevada-imogen-binnie-reissue-bookselling-labor/661482/
Koven Smith rated Debussy: 3 stars
Debussy: A Painter In Sound by Stephen Walsh
A beautifully written and original biography of one of the greatest and most popular of modern composers--which also deeply investigates …
Koven Smith finished reading Debussy by Stephen Walsh
A beautifully written and original biography of one of the greatest and most popular of …
A bit more of a slog than I would have liked. There are occasional moments of real insight here, but mostly the book feels like neither fish nor fowl—not technical enough to read as a thorough analysis, but also without enough biographical detail to really bring Debussy alive as a person. Nice, but hardly definitive.
Koven Smith quoted Debussy by Stephen Walsh
A beautifully written and original biography of one of the greatest and most popular of …
The persistent slow music occasionally drags its heels, and the choral final act, in Paradise, has that slight flatness that often afflicts the music of Heaven by composers who have no particular desire to go there.
— Debussy: A Painter In Sound by Stephen Walsh (Page 221)
Love this quote, but it points up a problem with the book: Walsh’s writing is far more pointed and enjoyable when discussing Debussy’s failures than it is when it attempts to assess his successes.
Koven Smith wants to read The Big Goodbye by Sam Wasson
The Big Goodbye by Sam Wasson
From the New York Times bestselling author of Fifth Avenue, Five A.M. and Fosse comes the revelatory account of the …
Koven Smith wants to read On Track by Rick Laubscher
On Track by Rick Laubscher
San Francisco just wouldn't be the same without its colorful streetcars and cable cars. These vintage forms of public transit …
Koven Smith wants to read Medium Design by Keller Easterling
Medium Design by Keller Easterling
In Medium Design everyone is a designer. But the approach to design inverts the typical focus on object over field, …
Koven Smith wants to read No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
As this urgent, genre-defying book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts …
Koven Smith quoted Debussy by Stephen Walsh
A beautifully written and original biography of one of the greatest and most popular of …
All three pieces show that Debussy was not in rebellion against tonality, only against the rules by which it supposedly worked.
— Debussy: A Painter In Sound by Stephen Walsh (Page 128)
Finding this book generally to be a bit more of a slog than I’d hoped, but there are periodically little revelatory bits like this.
Koven Smith finished reading Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an …
Koven Smith reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled …
Fun, lightweight
3 stars
A breezy, fun(ish, given some of the subject matter) read. The resolution of the book hinges, somewhat, on a twist that is revealed near the end, and I must confess that I was finding the book far more satisfying up to the point that the twist was revealed. It just felt a bit too “plotty” to me in a book that otherwise revels in nice details.