AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Books that Made Me Laugh

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re talking about books that really tickle the funny bone. And I don’t mean books that had a humorous line, or some quip that brought a smile to your face. I’m talking about books that made you literally LOL!

Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe
by Preston Norton

 

Whenever I’m confused with why I keep requesting ARCs when I clearly don’t have time for them, I remember this book. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was one of the first “big company” ARCs I was able to get. Then, I end up finding a spirit animal in Cliff (Neanderthal) and an insanely funny book.

“My fight-or-flight response was currently telling me to get the hell outta there. Except that my fight-or-flight response had a third, less-evolved option called deer-in-the-headlights.”

 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams

A classic. And timeless. I’m sure there are piles of books that were funny during their time, but age has a way of removing relatability or making a shocking punchline seem banal and obvious. This however, retains all of its original magic. Clever, witty stuff that is keeps being funny even with re-reads.

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”

 

A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman

This book wrecked me. Oh, sure, it has comedy and plenty of it. It’ll make you laugh one moment and melt your heart the next. Then just as it allows your heart to become something as stable as jello, STOMP! But, yes. Lots of funny!

“Now you listen to me,” says Ove calmly while he carefully closes the door. “You’ve given birth to two children and quite soon will be squeezing out a third. You’ve come here from a land far away and most likely you fled war and persecution and all sorts of other nonsense. You’ve learned a new language and got yourself an education and you’re holding together a family of obvious incompetents. And I’ll be damned if I’ve seen you afraid of a single bloody thing in this world before now….I’m not asking for brain surgery. I’m asking you to drive a car. It’s got an accelerator, a brake and a clutch. Some of the greatest twits in world history have sorted out how it works. And you will as well.” And then he utters seven words, which Parvaneh will always remember as the loveliest compliment he’ll ever give her. “Because you are not a complete twit.”

 

Furiously Happy
by Jenny Lawson

This was another surprise. Not that I wasn’t expecting comedy. Everyone and their mom told me this book was funny. I went in with a bit of skepticism. How can it be that funny? It is. It’s that funny.

“Like my grandmother always said, “Your opinions are valid and important. Unless it’s some stupid bullshit you’re being shitty about, in which case you can just go fuck yourself.”

 

A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole

This one is a very different kind of comedy. The lines themselves aren’t funny. The situations aren’t necessarily funny. But the main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is really, really funny, even though he’s never trying to be. He’s funny in his audacity, the things he’s willing to say, the apparent lack of shame he has in everything he does. All made more interesting by the idea that the author just might have been writing something semi auto-biographical…

“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”

Fun fact about this post: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Sanity Savers

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re not talking about books at all! We’re talking about the things we do to stave off insanity. What are we doing with our time now that there seems like so much more of it?! How are we going to survive if quarantine doesn’t go away AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!!

Work (Believe it or Not)

 

 

I’m one of the lucky ones that gets to keep working by commandeering my wife’s crafting room and turning it into a home office. For the first two weeks, I was so busy getting used to the new accommodations, adjusting to everything taking longer from home, and generally just putting out little fires everywhere. (see what I did there?) It was so much work that I barely had a moment to spare thinking about isolation and the world going insane around me. Now that I’ve climatized, I can’t seen to keep hitting refresh on cnn.com!

Reading (of course!)

 

I mean, we’re readers, right? We read in the best of times, how can we be expected not to read in the worst of times! I was hoping this would mean that I’d have so much more time to read, but honestly, that hasn’t changed. Probably because of the other things on this list, but there it is.

Catching Up on TV (and Video Games)

I know, it’s a bit of a cheat to put TV and video games as one item, but they both serve to destroy my time doing anything productive. When it comes to video games, I’m a bargain shopper. I don’t buy them when they come out. I buy them when they go on sale (half price or less) thinking I’ll play them when I “have time.” I should have more time now, but as I said above, I don’t. And when it comes to TV, my wife and I usually take forever to get through a season of something. Lately though, we start and end a season within the same week, or close to it. Our latest was The Stranger on Netflix. As most of the best shows usually are, this one was based on a book. Now we’re struggling to find the next show to watch. Please drop me your binging recommendations in the comments!

Writing (sometimes)

Another of the more productive things I tend to do in the best of times, and another thing that I still wish I was doing more of. I started off last week writing and thought I’d continue the momentum all week long. NOPE! But alas, the times I do sit down and do it, I love it. It’s maybe the best escape of the list, especially if I can find myself completely immersed in the worlds of my own making.

Home Projects

I never thought this would make the list, but it did. I’m a procrastinator, through and through. But since we aren’t really leaving the house, I’m stuck nose-to-nose with all those things that are on the “eventually I’ll get to this” list. So far, I’ve done a bunch of landscaping in the front yard and a bunch of organizing in the basement. That may not seem like a lot (and it’s not) but for me, it’s A LOT!

Fun fact about this post: Oh, I also started running again on Sunday. Don’t forget to leave me your binging recommendations!
AllBooksReviews

Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

RUTHLESS GODS
by Emily A. Duncan

Macmillan
April 7, 2020

From Goodreads:

Darkness never works alone…

Nadya doesn’t trust her magic anymore. Serefin is fighting off a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to him. Malachiasz is at war with who–and what–he’s become.

As their group is continually torn apart, the girl, the prince, and the monster find their fates irrevocably intertwined. They’re pieces on a board, being orchestrated by someone… or something. The voices that Serefin hears in the darkness, the ones that Nadya believes are her gods, the ones that Malachiasz is desperate to meet—those voices want a stake in the world, and they refuse to stay quiet any longer.

Thanks to the good people at NetGalley and Macmillan for providing me with a eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wicked Saints, the predecessor of Ruthless Gods, was a strong debut with enticing characters, a great premise, a unique magic system, and limitless potential. Ruthless Gods, however, didn’t follow through on any of of the first book’s promises the way I had hoped.

As we rejoin our beloved characters from book one. A little time has passed, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing really happened and it seems like maybe they just say around waiting for the second book to start.

They thing proceed to embark on a journey that none of them knows anything about, including why they’re actually doing it at all. Each one of them then spends the rest of the book flip-flopping back and forth enough to frustrate any politician. It goes something like this:

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate hime, I LOVE HIM, I hate him, I hate him…

This kind of conflict can be great if there are reasons for each step, but without any reason at all it reads much more like a group of people who should be medicated.

Without a clear goal to the seemingly random quest and characters would say one thing and do another, everything about this story seems listless and random.

I was excited to read this sequel, but unfortunately I found nothing but letdown. It was left open for at least one more book, but at this point, I can’t imagine I’m going to pick it up.

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Book Riot’s Free Association Friday

Posted on by J.W. Martin

I just want to be clear right off the bat that ALL credit for this post goes to the good people at Book Riot. I received an email from them today and enjoyed reading the Free Association Friday section so much I felt like I had to share. Allow me to shut up, and present their genius:

Well, here’s a cheerful thing for April 3: in 1888, the first of the Whitechapel murders occured, starting off the serial-killing career of the still mysterious figure of Jack the Ripper. But hey, it’s not pandemic-related! So how about five works of SFF that feature that infamous figure?

Note: I was unable to find SFF titles for this topic by authors of color. If you know of any, shout them out!

Though first, I would very much like to step out of my wheelhouse and recommend a non-fiction book: The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold. It’s immensely good (I listened to the audiobook) and Hallie actively works to defeat a problem a lot of true crime writers run up against, which is placing the emphasis on the victims who had their lives cut short rather than spotlighting the monster that took them. Also, there are some really uncomfortable echoes of Victorian British attitudes we can scope out still in modern America, but that’s a whole other topic.

 

the strange case of the alchemists daughter cover image

The Strange Case fo the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss is what I’d call the very definition of a literaray “romp.” It’s a giant, multi-layered pastiche of public domain characters (or their maligned female relatives) getting together to solve mysteries and become a family. The mystery here is nominally the Jack the Ripper killings, but all is not what it seems… and Sherlock Holmes is also on the case, along with the Monstrous Gentlewomen.

 

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman – Another pastiche-o-rama, which asks what if Dracula had won? And then he went ahead and converted Queen Victoria and quite a few citizens of London to vampirism. He’s made becoming a vampire a trendy thing, which quite a few people–and notably some vampires, utterly disgusted. Enter Jack the Ripper, who has turned his murderous talents to thinning out the swelling ranks of the vampires.

 

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny – How about a book from the viewpoint of Jack the Ripper’s dog? His name is Snuff, and he’s accompanying his master into Whitechapel on “collecting” expeditions, during October, when the borders of reality thin and “Openers” secretly compete with “Closers” to see if the pathways to a decidedly chthonic plane of great old ones will stay open or closed.

 

Ripper by Amy Carol Reeves – After her mother’s sudden death, Abbie ends up living with her grandmother in London… and volunteering at the Whitechapel hospital. Convinced she’s found her calling, helping the poor and abused, she takes it very personally when the very women she’s trying to help begin turning up murdered… and then she begins experiencing visions of the Ripper luring them to their deaths. Using this knowledge, she’s determined to use all of her courage and intelligence to hunt this criminal down… and finds a wider, more horrifying conspiracy than she could have imagined.

 

Cruel… and Unusual by D. Michelle Gent – Awooo, werewolves of London! The Wolf Society has a problem–there’s a real nasty piece of (human) work wandering around in Whitechapel, brutally killing women. And they’re deeply concerned that the unwanted attention he’s bringing in will cause the werewolves to be discovered, which could be a real issue. They’ve got to decide if they’re going to hunt down this menace themselves, or risk letting the human police force see to it.

Fun fact about this post: I ended up adding just about every single one of these titles to my TBR…
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Authors – F, G, H, I, & J

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re talking about favourite authors F through J. This one was even tougher than last week. If this theme has made me realize anything, it’s that I jump around from author to author A LOT. There aren’t very many that I’ve read deep into, and some are being put on these lists based off of a single book, or books that I have on my TBR!

F – Jonathan Franzen

So, right off the bat, Jonathan Franzen is one of those authors who I’ve only read one book from. To be fair, The Corrections is a fantastic book that has stayed with me 10+ years later. I have another of his on my bookshelf that I auto-bought on his name alone, though I haven’t read it just yet.

G – Neil Gaiman

Anyone who doesn’t have Neil Gaiman on their top authors list has probably never read a Neil Gaiman book. The guy has this ability to make you laugh at silly, slapstick antics and still come away feeling emotionally torn over one issue or another. It’s almost like he’s able to walk into a room and give you a bag of candy. And it’s really good candy, so you eat the whole bag. And when you’re done he comes back and says, “That wasn’t candy. It was vegetables. You’re healthier now.”

H – Hugh Howey

Hugh is another 1-booker, but what a book! Wool brought me out of a huge reading slump once upon a time, and I’m a fan of his online antics. There’s a video of him crashing a book party where a bunch of his fans were meeting in costume and he shows up, also dressed in costume. Pretty epic.

I – Walter Isaacson

Okay. This is my biggest stretch so far. I haven’t read any of Mr. Isaacson’s books, but I have 2 on my shelf. One on Steve Jobs, and one on Leonardo DaVinci. I’m very much looking forward to reading them, it just hasn’t happened yet!

J – Jay Kristoff

 

This guy. THIS guy! Jay Kristoff is a creative juggernaut. I imagine the stuff he’s thrown out is world’s ahead of some of the awful, awful books I’ve read in my time. I have to believe he has like a literary Midas touch. Jay works on a story, it’s dripping in gold.

 

Fun fact about this post: You think this week is bad? Just wait until I start inventing names because I can’t find an author with a name that starts with X!!
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Authors – A, B, C, D, & E

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re talking about favourite authors A, B, C, D, & E. This was a tough one, and while sometimes I used the first name and sometimes the last, I didn’t have to cheat or really reach to use middle names of anything like that.

A – Amie Kaufman

Unearthed left me wanting a little more, but for her part in the Illuminae series, she totally deserves to be the first author named in this series.

B – Pierce Brown

Yup. You all knew this one was coming. Author of the Red Rising series, which is one of my favourite series of all time.

C – Chuck Palahniuk

This guy single-handedly brought me out of a multi-year reading slump, and inspired me to finish my own first novel. His writing style is truly unique. Also, it’s pronounced pal-a-nik. You know you were wondering.

D – Philip K Dick

The brilliant mind that brought us Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, Man in the High Castle, and a ton of other titles that you’ve probably heard of multiple times in multiple forms of media, even if you’ve never picked up one of his books.

E – Ernest Hemingway

One of the smoothest writers I’ve ever read. The pages seem to fly by whether he’s writing about murder or an old man on a boat prepping a fishing pole.

 

Fun fact about this post: Wow. This list started out with the young and current and just got older and older the further down it went…
AllBooksReviews

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

WANDERERS
by Chuck Wendig

Del Ray
July 9, 2019

From Goodreads:

Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.

For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it. As the rest of society collapses all around them–and an ultraviolent militia threatens to exterminate them–the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart–or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.

There are many words that come to mind when I think about describing Wanderers. Thoughtful. Prophetic. Disturbing. Entertaining. Funny. Heartfelt. Relevant. Amazing. And that’s just the tip of this epidemic iceberg. If I had to boil it down to a single word to describe Wanderers: Important.

From the opening chapter, this book left me wanting more. More action, more confrontation, and more answers! Every time a question was answered, two more took its place.

The sleepwalkers are driven down the road by a cast of characters I won’t soon forget. Oddly enough, considering they become known as shepherds, they’re all black sheep of their respective flocks. Such personality in each one, and real enough that you can feel the joy when something good comes their way, or the dragging disappointment when they make a decision that you, the reader, don’t agree with. And there are plenty of bad decisions being made!

At 782 pages, it’s a long story! (If it’s ever made for the screen, it better be a Netflix series and not a 2 hour movie.) But the story doesn’t lose you. It doesn’t go off in tangents of whimsy. Believe it or not, it’s very streamlined. I tried to look at it and see what could have been cut, and the answer is nothing. Everything Mr. Wendig left in this book was crucial to telling the story. He didn’t even spend time leading into the “walkers”. You start reading, and in the back of your mind, you’re thinking, “I wonder how long it’ll be before we actually see a—Oh, there’s one.”

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. I read it around the same time as a certain Bionic Bookworm, and I know she hated the ending. I pretty sure I don’t hate it. But I do have questions. And I don’t just mean the normal kind of questions where the author would say, “I’m leaving that up to your imagination!” Before giggling and running away to hide in a forrest (unless you’re inside somewhere, in which case they would have to hide behind a couch or a vending machine, but still giggling.) My questions are more like, HOW? Many things are explained, scientific reasons given that are convincing enough for lamen like me. And then there are a few things left completely unexplained. Small things, to be fair. Small but nagging. 

But why do I call this book important?

Wanderers tackles a wide gamut of cultural issues that are all extremely relevant, even more so in the wake of the current Coronavirus situation. In addition to that, racism, religion, sexism, politics, technology dependance, violence, and society as a whole. I wouldn’t say there’s a deep dive on any one of these issues, but they’re all there. At the very least, a book like this has the potential to start a dialogue that could turn into something bigger. It’s not going to solve racism, but maybe it makes a few people think twice. Maybe someone puts a little more kindness into their day and it spreads as far and as wide as any virus. 

This is easily my favourite book of the year so far. Warning: it’s going to stick with you. It’s a book hangover waiting to happen. And it’s the kind of book that made me worry that the more great books I read, the harder it’s going to be to find books that are great. Don’t wait. Start now, especially because it’s going to take a while!

Fun fact about this post: I first discovered Chuck Wendig on his blog where he doles out writing advice, long-ass posts about apples, and macro photography on Monday, and does it all while being absolutely hilarious. www.terribleminds.com
AllMemesTop 5 Tuesday

Top 5 Bookish Habits

Posted on by J.W. Martin

Top 5 Tuesday is created by the always prolific Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and this week we’re looking at bookish habits. This was a tough one to figure out, because I’m so blind to the habits I have. They all blend into my daily life so seamlessly, it’s hard to see that they exist at all. Upon a closer look, here’s what I discovered:

Constantly Rearranging Bookshelves

Right now, my book are arranged in two sections. Read and unread. The read are arranged by genre, and the unread by the ones I want to read most. Though there’s nothing saying that next month I won’t rearrange by author name, or alphabetical by title.

Getting More and More Books Even When I Have Too Many to Read

Whether I’m cruising NetGalley for yet another ARC, or falling for another Amazon book sale, I can’t seem to stop myself from adding more and more books to my pile.

Getting My Hackles Up When People Diss Reading

“Why bother reading? I’d rather wait for the movie to come out.” Cue roaring laughter from people that don’t realize they’re making themselves sound like dumbasses. I’m not going to begrudge anyone who doesn’t like to read. But the people who have their cute little quips imply reading is stupid, pointless, for losers, or anything else makes me see red. I don’t like hunting, but I don’t talk shit about it. I don’t like figure skating, but I don’t talk shit about it. Why some people talk about not reading like it’s something to brag about is so far beyond me. Would these same people brag about not using math since being in high school?

Buying Additional Copies of a Book Because of a New Cover

This isn’t a common one, but it’s been known to happen. With those books that are the absolute top of my list, I can’t resist buying additional copies with a better cover. Witness the first copy I bought of The Art of Racing in the Rain, and then the second. (and no, I didn’t stop at 2 copies…)

 

Using Goodreads More Than Any Other Social Media

I can’t remember the last time I was on Facebook. I’m not interesting enough to post much on Instagram. I’m too old for Snapchat and TikTok. And twitter might be the only one that comes close to claiming as much of my time as Goodreads.

Fun fact about this post: Not sure if this counts as a hobby, but there is ALWAYS a book next to the toilet…
AllBooksReviews

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood — Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

 

THE UNSPOKEN NAME
by A.K. Larkwood

Tor Books
February 11, 2020

From Goodreads:

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

The good people at Tor Books and NetGalley provided me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Unspoken Name was a fascinating premise with some great characters, but despite a plethora of glowing reviews from the rest of the world, the plot just didn’t come through for me.

The premise is a young girl, chosen to be ritual sacrifice, given a chance at the last minute to escape death and become something far greater. A life spent helping, and learning from, a great and powerful wizard. (No. Not the wizard of Oz.) Under his training, she’ll become a warrior, spy, and assassin, though the degree she does any of those things is up for debate.

I was in love with this premise. It showed so much process, but I found it to be full of half-truths. And very quickly, the book becomes about something else completely. But more on that later.

The characters were fantastic. I enjoyed them all. Deep, developed, and all with their own lives and backstories. These weren’t just people waiting in the wings until the novel needed them. However, after getting to know them, they started to do things that completely went against their nature, at least as far as I understood it. Gave me the impression that many of their decisions were based purely on plot development, which made everything feel just a little cardboard.

I usually enjoy when a book can surprise me. This book did that a lot, but not in a good way. Most of twists and turns didn’t make sense to me, which as I said above, the characters had something to do with. But also, you’re told this book is one thing, and it ends up being another all-together.

With the amount of love this book is getting, I feel like I’ve missed something. I would suggest you take my review as a grain of salt (or less) and try it out yourself.

Fun fact about this post: Yesterday I said I was going to cut down and requesting ARCs, and then requested two more ARCs. I hate myself.
BooksReviews

JAY-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson – Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

jayZMadeInAmerica

 

JAY-Z: MADE IN AMERICA
by Michael Eric Dyson

St. Martin’s Press
November 26, 2019

From Goodreads:

JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson’s decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he’s sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he’s been for so long.

This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z’s career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he’s always weaved politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties, and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect time to take a look at JAY-Z’s career and his role in making this nation what it is today.

In many ways, this is JAY-Z’s America as much as it’s Pelosi’s America, or Trump’s America, or Martin Luther King’s America. JAY-Z has given this country a language to think with and words to live by.

The good people at NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press provided me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I’ve always had respect for Jay-Z. I haven’t been a listener since the beginning, but I started tuning in about 15 years ago. Anyone who can get to the top of the charts and stay there for DECADES is certainly doing something right. 

What this book did was show me the side of the story I wasn’t paying attention to. The personal side of Jay-Z. The political side. The entrepreneur. The freedom fighter. The movement leader. 

It was so interesting to read about who influenced him and who he’s influenced since. It also talked a little about the beefs he’s had and dug into what rivalries are all about in general. They aren’t nearly as personal as they might seem (not all of them, anyway.)

My absolute favourite aspect of this book was a breakdown and a deciphering of many of his lyrics. 

Truthfully, the meaning in his songs wasn’t buried as deep as I make it seem. I was just terrible at understanding them on my own. If I was a little more curious, I might have looked up things like blight hustle vs bright hustle, but I never did. 

The references get for more impressive when reading about the reasoning behind them. Any musician can drop Andy Warhol’s name because they heard someone talking about him and knew he was an artist. It’s completely different when you read about Jay-Z’s interest and ownership in fine art. It’s not just a name drop for him. When he says Warhol, it’s a calculated reference.

While this isn’t an official biography by any means, it’s such an interesting read for anyone who’s interested in Jay-Z, rap culture, or the music industry as a whole. 

Fun fact about this post: This book brought Jay-Z back into my regular playlist.