Review by New York Times Review
WHY BUDDHISM IS TRUE: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment, by Robert Wright. (Simon & Schuster, $17.) Can Buddhism's central tenets lead to more enlightened individuals and societies? Wright, the author of "The Moral Animal," draws on evolutionary psychology and neuroscience to make his case, weighing the advantages of mindful meditation and how it can potentially benefit humanity. THE END OF EDDY, by Edouard Louis. Translated by Michael Lucey. (Picador, $16.) This autobiographical novel follows gD0UARD a young gay boy's coming-ofage in working-class France. Growing up in a stagnating factory town, where violence and xenophobia are endemic, Eddy was subjected to torment that was only compounded by his sexuality; ultimately, his attraction to men may have been his salvation. CATTLE KINGDOM: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West, by Christopher Knowlton. (Mariner/Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $15.99.) Cattle ranching took off in the 1870s, with wealthy Northeast entrepreneurs lured by the promise of the West's rewards. Knowlton picks three novices, including Teddy Roosevelt, to illustrate the industry's boom and bust; for all the eager forecasting, the era of the cowboys lasted less than two decades. THE AWKWARD AGE, by Francesca Segal. (Riverhead, $16.) When a widowed English piano teacher and an American obstetrician fall in love in North London, their blossoming romance faces just one hurdle: their teenage children, who can't stand each other. As the families work to knit together, some prototypically English scenarios arise ("polite, brittle, utterly empty" conversations, for starters), adding humor to the drama. Our reviewer, Hermione Hoby, called this tidy novel a "spry and accomplished comedy of manners." THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock, by David Weigel. (Norton, $17.95.) Weigel delves into the genre's history, including what it inherited from predecessors like the Beach Boys and the Beatles and its resonance today. As John Williams wrote here, the book is "a new history of the genre written by an ardent, straight-faced defender who also understands what is most outlandishly entertaining about it." PERENNIALS, by Mandy Berman. (Random House, $17.) Camp Marigold is the backdrop for this debut novel, where teenagers navigate the perils of female adolescence: puberty, friendship and, above all, sex. At the core is the friendship between Sarah and Fiona, two girls who go on to become counselors, but the book expands to include memories from generations of campers and even Marigold's director.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Current rock wisdom dictates that progressive rock, or prog, was a bloated monolith of oppressively baroque noodling helmed by pretentious, arrogant fools, the genre itself a dinosaur too gargantuan to continue life on Earth. In his first book, Washington Post political-reporter Weigel proves this wasn't the case not exactly, anyway by taking a deep dive into prog history, from 1960s middle-class English schoolboys interested in psychedelic drugs, the Beatles, classical music, and jazz; to 1970s stadium shows marked by bedazzling stagecraft and manifold synthesizers; to later, shameful accusations of irrelevance and gimmickry. He plumbs the origin stories of meaty giants like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Genesis without sacrificing lagniappes such as the French prog act Magma, who made up its own language and appeared on the soundtrack to Alejandro Jodorowsky's ill-fated film version of Dune. Weigel's clearly a superfan, and the book is best suited to his ilk, but there is much here for the casual progster, thanks to the author's self-awareness and the universal appeal of stories about excess.--Williamson, Eugenia Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Washington Post reporter Weigel draws on interviews with musicians, industry insiders, and fans in this history of progressive rock. He traces its beginnings from the early 20th century to its initial influencers in the 1960s, full emergence in the '70s, and downward turn in the '80s and '90s, profiling numerous musicians along the way, including the Beatles, ELO, Kansas, and King Crimson. Voice actor Sanda stands in for Weigel in the audio edition, but never captures the author's enthusiasm for his subject. Too often, his narration is flat. The book makes use of a lot of quotes from the people Weigel interviewed, but in Sanda's reading there's no way of distinguishing when a quote ends. As with other productions that adapt text about sound into an audio format, this one fails to capitalize on using sound creatively or to its advantage. A Norton hardcover. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Progressive rock originated in the 1960s and reached its height in the 1970s. Washington Post journalist Weigel's history of the style begins with its classical origins and influences and takes a deep dive into its psychedelic roots, tracing the complex cross-pollination among bands as prog evolved. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's and King Crimson's -stories form the heart of the book, with artists such as Genesis, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Marillion, and Rush orbiting the narrative. The overview wraps up with a chapter on the genre's continuing influences from the 1990s to the present. Rudy Sanda's narration is personable and bright (though prog purists may ding him for his pronunciation of "Moog"). VERDICT For fans of prog, naturally (especially ELP and Crimson devotees), or readers interested in a thorough and affectionate history of a slice of 1970s rock.-Jason Puckett, Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Dinosaurs once roamed the Earth. Then came prog rock, as this partial but pleasing account of the love-it-or-hate-it genre chronicles.As Washington Post reporter Weigel cheerfully admits, professing a love for progressive rockthat sometimes-pretentious, sometimes-endless blend of rock, classical, and jazz forms whose chief premise would seem to be an absence of any discernible African-American influencecan quickly get a person branded as a dweeb. Indeed, as the narrative opens, the author is among "the most uncool people in Miami," preparing to climb aboard a cruise ship with "the living gods of progressive rock," namely mostly old men with what rock writer John Strausbaugh uncharitably called "melting cheese faces." They are also mostly British, and Weigel does a good job of describing what happened to American rock when it fell into the hands of the British kids in orchestra, filtered by way of psychedelic rock and its "simple formula" of guitar, drums, bass, vocals, and keyboard. By 1969, bands like Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and King Crimson were beginning to come together, forming a distinct genre marked by compositional complexity and odd time signatures. Some of Weigel's roster is debatablepurists may argue about including Jethro Tull in the annals of prog, since Tull was really a blues band to which something strange happened along the wayand it's a little light on the Canterbury scene, but the author ably captures the ambition of rock nerds who, as Yes singer Jon Anderson put it, saw "the possibility of rock musicreally developing into a higher art form." Points and plaudits are due for enlisting Rush, too, and for including the yobbos of Marillion, one of whose fans Weigel credits with inventing crowdfunding in the service of reviving a genre nearly killed off by prog-hating punk in the 1970s. Prog fans will take to this book like Keith Emerson to an upside-down Hammond. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
