JJ

Brutal vulnerability with lots of laughs.

Revisado: 06-04-24

This book broke my moratorium on collections of essays. I normally don't enjoy them. But after watching Jamin's videos during the writers strike, I decided to take a chance on A Paper Orchestra. These are all true stories that happened to Jamin. And... the book is fantastic. Insanely fantastic.

Each story is like being a proverbial fly on the wall of an incredibly anxiety-riddled sitcom writer telling his most bizarre life stories. There are many sudden laugh out loud moments. Some of the stories have wonderful cringyness akin to The Office's Dinner Party episode. And some of the stories have a plot twist that will make parents of teenagers tear up. He's very skilled at hitting the heart when you don't expect it. I think that sums it up - he's a great writer who can aim emotional plot points like an arrow.

But now I feel bad. Friends have occasionally asked me about publishing short story or poem collections on Amazon. I've warned them that such efforts are almost always doomed to failure. And then an incredible book like A Paper Orchestra comes along and proves me completely wrong.

I do have one hope about this book - that the Just Kidding story was fiction. Having just finished the book, though, I suspect it was absolutely true. And of course, brilliant.

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Surprisingly addictive autobiography. Great story.

Revisado: 09-07-22

Surprisingly addictive autobiography. Very frank - he pulls no punches. Note for parents - subject matter and language not good for youngsters. I'd recommend older teenagers at the least.

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Wickedly irreverent and funny. I laughed a lot.

Revisado: 08-09-21

It's hard to express how much fun this book was. The authors take the marble-like icons of virtuous heroes and bring them down a notch, explaining how spite, jealousy, and downright psychopathy were involved in all aspects of book production and marketing.

Each chapter is a story from start to finish. Although they seem somewhat random, they cover some of the biggest names in book history. The humor is fantastic. The narrator does a great job with his dry biting wit. I laughed out loud in my car several times.

I've recommended this to several friends.

The only thing missing, and they came close to touching on it, were the 1930's and 1940's syndicates that produced series like the Hardy Boys, etc. where the author was fake and ghostwriters were paid $120 per book. I think these authors would do a spectacular job unearthing that mess.

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A very intense story well told

Revisado: 07-13-21

This is a very intense story that is well told and well performed. It hits the ground running and doesn't stop. Strong character development and intriguing plot. I thought I knew where it was heading, but I was wrong - pleasantly surprised. Note that it deals with grown-up themes and material, so definitely aimed at more mature readers. The narrator is perfect for the story and does a fantastic job. The story is complete and leads up nicely to the next book.

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An original post-apocalyptic quest told well

Revisado: 05-30-21

The Shifting is an apocalyptic novel that starts out in Texas after something horrific (no spoilers!) has happened. The city names are familiar, so the locations are all legit. We follow a mom, her daughter, and their dog on a journey that gets progressively wilder and more intense. With some shocking plot twists (Breaking Bad level!), this is quite a ride and I really liked the ending. I especially liked how this story had a beginning, middle and end -- no cliffhanger here like a lot of series do. I think the next book is going to be pretty wild.

As for the narrator, she was especially good here because her tone and delivery match how the character evolves in the paperback (I bought both).

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A personal history of John Lennon by his wife. A+

Revisado: 06-11-19

As a fan of the Beatles, I'd always admired their songwriting, but didn't know anything about Lennon & Yoko Ono. But this book is about his first wife Cynthia's tale of what happened. This was a really heart-warming story of people who fell in love and rode the tiger's tail for years until John Lennon lost his mind (due to drugs?) and left Cynthia for Yoko. Hearing the details about how he abandoned his first son and wife was heartbreaking. After finishing this book, I did some background fact checking because I almost couldn't believe the antagonist (Yoko Ono) could be as bad/mean as portrayed in this book. Sure enough, it seems that she was really that cold-hearted. So this book is apparently accurate. If you're a Beatles fan, then you will not be disappointed by this book. For what it's worth, I had to listen at 1.5x speed because the default was a bit slow for my taste.

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One of the best books I've ever listened to

Revisado: 04-16-19

This is one of the best books I've ever listened to. If you like a bit of time travel, thriller, history, 1950's and 1960's culture, intrigue, then this book is for you. If you happen to live in Fort Worth or Dallas, then you will really find this intriguing. One day while I was eating my usual lunch in the shadow of the Montgomery Ward (now plaza) warehouse, the story switched locations to that very neighborhood. Prior to that, I had no idea the importance that area had in JFK's history.

It's also one of the longest books I've ever listened to. Roughly 30 hours. The narrator is great, but he speaks noticeably slow. The Audible app allows you to fine tune the play speed and 1.5x was just perfect for listening to.

I haven't read a Stephen King book in 30 years because horror just wasn't my cup of tea. All throughout this book, I was waiting for him to throw in some horror sub plot, but he never did. He kept it as a thriller and the ending was genuine and satisfying.

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Useful book with moments of pure epiphany.

Revisado: 01-27-19

I've listened to a lot of self-improvement audiobooks. Mr. Clear's approach does share some common themes with Tony Robbins' philosophies, but they differ with the specific practical examples that Atomic Habits proposes. Atomic Habits is 25% theory and 75% practical, useful, and workable examples. Before I even finished the book, I applied two of his suggestions and they really do work. Of note are chapters 18 and 19. While listening to chapter 18, it was the closest I've ever been to experiencing epiphany. It felt like my brain was opened up and he was pouring in the most practical path-altering knowledge ever, in a highly condensed form. It was a literal "self-help high" and the last time that ever came close to happening was years ago when reading Darrell Carnegie stuff. I listened to it at 1.2X speed and that fit perfectly with my listening comfort.

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Very entertaining & funny interviews

Revisado: 10-26-18

This audiobook is Bob Newhart having in-depth conversations with famous modern comedic actors, standup comedians, and talk show hosts. I honestly didn't know about his life before the Bob Newhart show and found the historical aspect of this pretty awesome. He was one of the first hugely successful stand up comedians and has been friends with almost every comedian who ever lived. If you like Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedians in cars getting coffee", then you'll love this audiobook.

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A long and intense saga. Brutal. His best work.

Revisado: 07-27-18

First off, the narrator was perfect - he sounds like how I imagine Steinbeck himself sounded. I'm a fast listener, so I did ramp it up to 1.25x speed without any loss in impact. His use of slight voice differences for characters was helpful and I was impressed that he kept it up throughout the long long story.

The story is INTENSE. It covers several characters' lives from birth to death - one death in particular was very sad, like that of an old friend.

Steinbeck inserts himself as the story narrator a couple of times. This was confusing at first, but if you expect it, then it makes sense. This was the longest book I've ever read/listened to and it will take some time to process.

I've read most of Steinbeck's work, but I put this off until my mid 40's. I'm glad I did because I think you have to be older to appreciate some of the more subtle themes.

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