Tag: Early Review

Cooking as Therapy

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Borden, Debra. Cooking As Therapy: How to Improve Your Mental Health Through Cooking. Alcove Press, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I often review interesting books.

Before reading a single sentence, my first thought about Cooking as Therapy was actually a question. Is this going to be cheesy? Pun fully intended. It is cheesy…to a certain degree. When you use metaphors and puns that come across like bad dad jokes, you are going to illicit a few groans here and there. (Case in point, the trademarked term of sous therapist.) The trick is finding a cooking metaphor that matches an emotion: boiling, baking, etc. My favorite analogy was washing your hands signifies cleaning out the negativity. As an aside, the use alliteration was abundant.
My second thought was another question. Can this book deliver on everything it promises: a possible fix for finding calm, banishing self-doubt, increasing self-esteem and confidence, adding positivity to my life, exploring change, improving communication, creating balance, strengthening spirit, and alleviating overall feelings of sadness?
The world is inundated with experiential therapies using activities like horseback riding, surfing, yoga, yoga with baby goats, forest walking, beach sand play, baby animal cuddling, corn mazes, nature exploring, art classes, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, EMDR, gestalt, CBT, and SFBT. Cooking is a natural fit. I have always heard that cooking is a show of love; cooking is the fastest way to a man’s heart, yadayadayada. Why not a path to the healing heart as well?
Cooking As Therapy is organized in a logical format. Part I is all about methods of cooking and Part II is all about the act of cooking (sessions). It takes nearly 160 pages before you get to the chapter called “How to Use This Book” so like watching water come to a boil, have patience. Cooking as Therapy includes a bibliography for further reading. This book is not just for tackling mental illness. Stroke* and addiction rehabilitation patients can benefit from it as well. Borden gives you the terminology to create your own therapy sessions. Verbs translate into metaphors for mindful and healing observations.
My only suggestion? Encourage people to read through the recipes several times over before beginning. It is a lot to follow the recipe and perform the associated mindfulness tasks. Not every pun or metaphor is obvious.

*How would have Gregory responded to such a therapy? The guy barely ate anything as it was.

Bonus care: Borden pointed out the index in print does not match the electronic version.
Headscratcher moment: Borden says to put away your phone. I’m reading this on my phone.

As an aside, my two degrees of separation from Borden: she mentioned the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. While I have never been there myself. I knew a yoga instructor and a massage therapist who worked there.

Music: Train’s “Bruises.”

Author fact: Borden dedicated her book to her brothers. Borden has her own website here.

Behind Closed Doors

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Silversmith, E.S. Behind Closed Doors: Memoirs of an American Call Girl. BCD Memoir, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I get to read interesting books. This is one of them.

Every so often I review a book that has me in a dilemma. Does Silversmith want me to cheer her on as a call girl or does she want me to grimace and shudder alongside her in shamed sympathy? Can I shrug off her story with indifference and say that the lifestyle was one hundred percent her choice? Silversmith’s stories are mostly about dangerous, dirty, and unhealthy situations she had put herself in for the sake of making a more than decent living. There are a sea of contradictions within the pages of Behind Closed Doors. I didn’t get the sense she was backed into a corner of desperation where the only dark hope of escape was being a call girl other than by the urgings of a domineering boyfriend. Yet, at another time when she is completely alone and unsure how to pay her rent she resorts to prostitution. It is true sex workers of any ilk run the dangerous risk of being infected with an STD or life threatening disease. Pregnancy or sterilization can occur if one is not careful. Beyond the threat of violence or death there is the unspoken reality of the erosion of mental health. Even worse, it is a known fact that serial killers target sex workers. The perception is these women are all alone, despite having husbands, boyfriends, and even children. Silversmith is aware of the statistics and although she calls her services “high end” she spends a fair amount of time in rundown, sketchy trailers and motels. Maybe that is why there was a fair amount of sighing, frowning, shuddering and mace and taser gripping in her stories. Luckily for her, as she says, she has a “flexible moral compass.” She is able to peel back the curtain and resolve some logistical curiosities like rules of engagement, payment options, and prescribed duration of service.

Observations: I wanted to know the end of the story about the time she couldn’t perform due to an extraordinarily heavy period but she stole the group’s booking fee anyway. Or the time her agency practiced robbery by leaving clients “high and dry” by pulling the fire alarm as a diversion.

As an aside, I envy Silversmith’s keen eyesight. From across the street, in the dark, and through a car window she could see that a client was sporting dandruff.

Music: Misfits, the Ramones, and Bob Marley.

No Place Like Nome

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Engelhard, Michael. No Place Like Nome: the Bering Strait Seen Through Its Most Storied City. Corax Books, 2025.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I occasionally read interesting books. This one was fantastic!

Engelhard spent a “three year stint” in Nome, Alaska and took the time to write about his experiences. Confessional: I enjoy books that are well organized. No Place Like Nome is separated into four logical parts: first, geography of the place, then the characters and personalities within the place, the business and art of Nome, and finally, journeys around the region.
Engelhard is informative without resorting to didactic explanations. Linguistics (the use of the word Eskimo for example), anthropology, short biographies (Sally Carrighar, Edward Sherriff Curtis, James Kivitauraq Moses, Father Bernhard Rosecrans Hubbard, Roald Amundsen, and Lynn Cox), the importance of whales to the Nome culture (confessional: I did not know their bones were used as construction material), the history of jade, the advent of bicycles. The photography was amazing. My favorite was the one of Serum-Run racer Leonard Seppala.
What seem barbaric and strange in our culture is commonplace in the far reaches of civilizations like Greenland, Siberia and Alaska like hunting practices and diet.
Because I read this an an ebook, it would have been great to have footnotes that jumped to the corresponding image or text.

As an aside – was it a typo when Hrdlicka was later called “Hard Liquor”?

Personal complaint – here is a description that bugged me, “nude mermaid on a floe’s edge with her feet dangling in the water.” Hello? Does anyone remember Ariel? Mermaids have tails, not feet.

Author fact: Michael Engelhard won the National Outdoor Book Award for Arctic Traverse. The photo Engelhard used for Nome shows him drinking what looks like to be a beer. I’m dying to know what kind it is.

Book trivia: No Place Like Nome will be published in September 2025.

Setlist: Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” “Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Paganini, “Float Coat” (to encourage water safety), and Madonna.

To Maggie Wherever You’ve Gone

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Andersen, Christine. To Maggie Wherever You’ve Gone. Cloeofpleirn Press, 2025.

Reason read: this was an Early Review for LibraryThing.

I have this habit of trying to solve mysteries while I read. I needed to know if Maggie was a real person and if she was, who was she to Andersen? Like a detective searching for clues I looked for answers within the words. Andersen’s daughter? No. Stepdaughter? Maybe. As I read on I stopped caring if it was real or fiction. Andersen words flow as a clear stream of meaning and you cannot help but be caught up in the flow. The reader has a vivid picture of Maggie as a child, a rebellious teenager, a lost young adult forever adrift. The imagery of angst and inner turmoil is crystal clear. So is the author’s inability to save Maggie. The feeling of helplessness and the hopelessness of trying to save a drowning soul is palpable. I read this over and over and over. While the words were painful the language was so beautiful. Beauty among the thorns. “To pick a rose you ask your hands to bleed” as Natalie Merchant would say.

Confessional: They say that once someone is deemed truly suicidal, meaning they have tried to die more than once, they won’t stop trying until they succeed. If that is the case, really and truly, then I am really and truly fukced.

I Thought I Had You Forever

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Gary’s Mum. I Thought I Had You Forever. Publish Nation, 2025.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I often read books that grab my heart and do not let go. This is one such book.

Gary’s mum lost her son when he was just thirty years old. While on vacation in Portugal Gary went to sleep one night and never woke up. For the first fifty pages of I Thought I Had You Forever Gary’s mum does a great deal of soul searching. There is a brief and didactic interlude (about ten pages) about various religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Spiritualism, and Atheist.
I have always compared grief to fire. You cannot control grief just as you cannot control a fire that has burned out of control. Both are unpredictable and ever-changing. Just when you think you have grief (or fire) licked, something will trigger a flare up and the fight starts all over again. Grief can be a rollercoaster of up and down emotions. Grief can leave you drifting without purpose. Grief is the rudder, always determining your course of healing. Grief is searching. Where did you go? Where are you now?
Confessional: I am not a mother. I do not know the pain of losing a child in any capacity, yet I Thought I Had You Forever kept me up at night. We all grieve differently. Gary’s mum lost her ability to enjoy music for nearly five years while I clung to every note and melody and lyric to keep my missing alive. Gary’s mum didn’t listen to music for four years while I couldn’t play mine loud enough.

The lesson learned is grief is grief is grief is grief. It does not matter what the relationship. Losing someone is hard.

Author fact: Gary’s mum wrote I Thought I Had You Forever “from one mother to another.”

Music: “Buffalo Soldier,” John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie.

Housekeeper’s Secret

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Schnakenburg, Sandra. The Housekeeper’s Secret: a Memoir. She Writes Press, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I often get to read interesting books. This was one book I inhaled.

Sandra Schnakenburg has always been good with numbers so it seemed like a natural fit for her to become an accountant, but an author? That seems a little farfetched until you learn that her childhood housekeeper of thirty years had a dying wish for Schnakenburg to tell her life story. Then when you read the stories Schnakenburg has to tell about her housekeeper and friend, Lee Metoyer, it all makes sense. This is an important story that needs to be told for many reasons. Lee’s life was as incredible as it was tragic. However, Schnakenburg’s own upbringing is just as compelling. Hers is a story worth telling, too. She grew up in an affluent neighborhood in an extravagant house with five siblings. This was a household where someone had to feed the koi that lived in the pond under the grand staircase. Someone had to iron the bedroom linen. Someone had to line up seven different breakfast juices so that the man of the house could take his pick. The list goes on. Hidden behind the curtain of Schnakenburg’s perfect childhood hides abuse, corruption, and fear. The Housekeeper’s Secret is a story of survival and triumph on multiple levels.
Confessional: sometimes I noticed little inconsistencies. In Housekeeper’s Secret Schnakenburg’s timeline becomes a little skewed. She was six years old when her father took the family to Disneyland, but in the previous chapter she is seven. [Schnakenburg also gets Disneyland confused with Disneyworld. I do, too.] In another scene Metoyer’s cup is empty but she takes a sip of coffee.

Quote of a quote to quote: “There is always that one summer that changes you” -Beth Merlin. Amen to that. I was 23. I experienced the first summer romance of my life and then my father died.

Music: Elvis, “Happy Birthday”, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, Glenn Miller’s “When That Man is Dead and Gone”, “We Are Family”, and “Paper Doll” by the Mills Brothers.

Cracking Up

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Lownds, Gordon. Cracking Up: From Rising Star to Junkie Despair in 1,000 Days: an Unlikely Addicts Memoir. Life to Paper, 2025.

Gordon Lownds begins his story in October of 1998 in rehab. He calls himself an unlikely addict, but how easily a stripper crackhead turned his life upside down (all for the sake of hot sex) indicates otherwise. Annabelle got him to pay for acting classes, an apartment, clothes, jewelry, headshots, twenty-eight days of rehab (which did not work), a vehicle, and so much more. She was a blackmailing siren who took Lownds entire life and dashed it upon the rocks.
As an aside, I seriously could see Lownds’s story ending up in a movie. His over the top personal life of joining a carnival when he was seventeen, being a male go-go dancer for a short time, and being a bass player in a band seemed Hollywood enough; never mind the fact he is a divorced father; there is plenty of graphic sex, violence, wealth, drug dealers, cops, and drama in his adult life. Let’s not forget Annabelle, the gorgeous troublemaker who started this whole adventure. His story is too outrageous to be true. Reading Cracking Up was a very wild ride.

Confessional: I lost a friend to addiction. If it wasn’t outright suicide, it was an accidental overdose. I have to wonder what really made Lownds, at forty-eight years of age, decide to try crack cocaine for the first time? Was a woman really to blame?

Second confessional: my link to Cracking Up expired and somehow the book was not save to Funnel. I did not finish the book.

Setlist: Enigma, Sly and the Family Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime”, “Suicide Blonde” by INXS, “Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne, “Private Dancer” by Tina Turner, “Purple Rain” by Prince, Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”, Nine Inch Nails, “Life in the Fast Lane” by the Eagles, and Tower of Power’s Back to Oakland.

Safest Family on the Block

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Brick, Jason. The Safest Family on the Block: 101 Tips, Tricks, Hacks, and Habits to Protect Your Family. YMAA Publication Center, 2025.

The first thing that struck me about Safest is the number of introductions in addition to the preface and foreword. There is an introduction for every chapter (all ten of them) as well as an introduction to the book by Larry Hagner, a foreword by Andy Murphy
Jason Brick has consulted a plethora of people for how to keep his family safe: a parenting coach, author, registered nurse, Federal Air Marshall, several CEOs and presidents of companies, a safety influencer, fire safety captain, army sniper, mental health clinician, babywearing expert; even a SWAT team crisis negotiator and a US Secret Service agent. There are twenty experts testifying to the validity of Brick’s information.
It all started when he became a dad for the first time and the advent of COVID.
Each chapter of Safest is barely longer than two pages so despite it being jampacked with information, it is surprisingly short. Brick will teach you how to stay safe in a myriad of different situations: fire and accident, automobiles, school, online, sex, relationships, communication, travel and crime. He debunks popular myths like stranger danger and has a special chapter on school bullying and your child’s online life.
Favorite portion of the book: the Golden Rules Action Plan, a checklist of things to do for a safe environment at the end of every chapter.

Favorite quote, “Even if your action isn’t optimal, it will still be better than doing nothing.” Amen to that.

Author fact: you could call Jason Brick a jack of all trades. He is a writer (obviously), a safety expert (duh), but he also is a traveler and a martial artist.

Book trivia: Safest was born out of a “show” with one hundred episodes.

Note to Self

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Nova, EV and Freya Sharp. Note to Self. Harbor Lane Books, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program I get to read interesting books from LibraryThing. This is one such book.

Think of Note to Self as a collection of tiny pep talks geared mostly towards women. Yes, you can read the entire book in one sitting, if you want. There are only fifty affirmations. I would caution against inhaling the whole book at once because every chapter becomes more repetitive as time goes on. The five clearest messages are 1) you are not alone, 2) every ending is a new beginning, 3) you are capable, worthy, and loveable, 4) it is okay to say no, especially if saying yes means sacrificing selfcare, and 5) breaking down only means building up or said another way, every ending is a new beginning. E.V. Nova and Freya Sharp take turns doling out the sage advice.
In short, this is a cool little book to pick up anytime you need a little pick me up. Tell your friends!
Author fact: Freya Sharp’s bio is a must read!

Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency and Healthy Habits That Last

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Yung-Abu, Samson. The Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency and Healthy Habits That Last: Healthy Growth is Achieved Through Consistent Flow. Publish Nation, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I get to review interesting books.

Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency and Healthy Habits That Last is, by phone, a 425 page book divided into two parts. Part one is an examination of what it means to be consistent. Part two delves into cultivating healthy habits or breaking unhealthy habits while focusing primarily on exercise. The entire book is jam packed with good advice and common sense (be smart about your goals) as well as some oddball tips: sleep in your gym clothes, keep your dumbbells in the kitchen). It is also an autobiography of Yung-Abu’s fitness routines and goals.
I found the narrative to be verbose. Each element is described in several different ways. Take the subject of making exercise fun, for example. Yung-Abu states that fun is a key ingredient; fun is essential; you need to incorporate a touch of fun; fun transforms everything; you need to incorporate fun into the process; provide fun; make exercise fun-focused. The word fun was mentioned a few more time in the section, but you get the point.
Once I became comfortable with the wordiness of Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency…I started to appreciate the nuggets of knowledge. I found the connection between consistency and respect to be interesting. I also loved the idea of figuring out a workout sequence – which exercises flowed easily with others.
A fair amount of Yung-Abi’s information could be seen as common sense. Healthy habits are widely known to impact overall health and cognitive brain function. Not ever exercise book will give you an anatomical breakdown of the brain, though.

Head scratcher moment – Yung-Abu said microwaves are “fundamental to keeping us in the flow of not starving.” Weird way to put it, but what concerned me more was that Simplest Ways to Develop Consistency is supposed to be a book about healthy habits. In my opinion, cooking by microwave is not healthy, never mind fundamental. Some of the sentence structures and phrasings seemed off. It indicated that English is not Yung-Abi’s dominant language or that there was some AI assistance.

My personal connection to consistency is through Tommy Rivs. He is constantly talking about making small deposits in the bank of health. If you practice consistency you will see results.

Author fact: Yung-Abu has a law background.

Imagine If…

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Vale, Lucien. Imagine If…Tupac Did Not Go To Vegas. Shattered Mythos Press, 2025.

Reason read: I am a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing. I occasionally get to review interesting books and this was one of them.

The one thing to keep in mind when reading Lucien Vale’s Imagine If series is that it is pure fiction. You are imagining an alternate ending to a well-known story. Everyone knows Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas. Vale is simply flipping the script and imagining a scenario where Pac would decide against that fateful trip. Vale cleverly finds a real life story and imagines an alternate ending. I don’t really care if the events in New York City mirror fact or not. The whole idea is to ask what if? and to be entertained. The action of Imagine If is tightly wound and fast paced. It reads like a movie with exaggerated dialogue full of gangster lingo and drama. If entertainment was Vale’s goal, he succeeded.

Confessional: one of my favorite movies is Sliding Doors starring Gwyneth Paltrow. It is the story of Helen’s two very different lives: the life she would lead if she had caught the train going home and the alternate where she misses it.

Author fact: Lucien Vale has also written an “Imagine” book about Bruce Lee.

Book trivia: Imagine If… is a very short 77 pages long.

I Lift, Therefore I Am

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Gezalyan, Manuel. I Lift, Therefore I Am. Identity Publications, 2025.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read interesting books.

Part journal, part self-help fitness manual, I Lift, therefore I Am is an attempt tp bring spiritual fitness to the masses. Encompassing philosophy, psychology, and expertise along with personal experiences, Gezalyan maps out all the reasons for exercising. It goes beyond looking good. Lifting weights does something for the mental side of taking care of oneself.
Something to take with a grain of salt (whatever that means), many trainers will tell you different things. In I Lift, Therefore I Am, Gezalyan wants you to be able to push past pain barriers. Meanwhile, my running coach dislikes the phrase “no pain, no gain.” He thinks that working until there is pain is stupid and irresponsible. Instead, he says “no pain…no pain.” Speaking of the subject of pain, I found it curious that Gezalyan mentions pain a few times in the acknowledgments. The love of his life kills his pain and his parents experienced pain.
Pros: Gezalyan has written a book for anyone. The tone of I Lift, Therefore I Am is conversational and casual. I liked that Gezalyan gives you permission to read his book any which way you want. You are not restricted to any particular order of information.
Challenge: It would have been beneficial to have the workbook built into the text rather than forcing one to wait for the supplemental (read separate) journal to be published later.
I would also caution people from taking advice from nearly half a century ago (Gezalyan has a thing for Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Confessional: Part of I Lift, therefore I Am focused on the physical appearance and it got me thinking. Let’s say I am 5’2″ and 250lbs. I may not look physically fit. I probably would be perceived as stereotypically fat. But. But! But, let’s just say I can bench press three times my weight and I run ultra marathons every six months. Am I still fat because I don’t look the part?

Author fact: Gezalyan calls himself unusual and I immediate thought “in the Cyndi Lauper kind of way?” Forgive me. I am a child of the 80s.

Book trivia: I Lift, therefore I Am is not intended to get you into fitness. — is merely seeking to change the perception of fitness.

Black as Hell, Strong as Death, and as Sweet as Love

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Unger, Steven. Black as Hell, Strong as Death, and as Sweet as Love: a Coffee Travel Book. Robert D. Reed Publishers, 2025.

Reason read: I am a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing and this is one of the coolest books I have had the pleasure of reviewing. I wish I knew someone who loved coffee enough to deserve this book as a gift.

First impression: for all that Unger promises in the introduction, the rest of the book seems way too brief. After all the introductions and foreword, it takes sixteen pages just to get to the first chapter and the entire book is only 166 pages long. Unger spent three years traveling specifically for this book; traveling to locations which traditionally (and obviously) have a strong relationship to coffee. He spent five years conducting additional research and probably drank countless cups of coffee in the process. Together, with the talented Ruth St. Steven as photographer, Unger has produced a stellar multi-genre (mostly travel and historical) book about one of the world’s most popular and symbolic drinks.
Beyond describing the best places to enjoy the brew, Unger outlines the correct customs for drinking coffee. The Arabic way is always with your right hand, for example. (As an aside, I am left handed like the author.) I appreciated his description of the way coffee is prepared in Ethiopia and the various ceremonies surrounding coffee. Unger also shared his opinion of where to get the best falafel in Paris, where to witness “relentless citrus-based combat” known as the Battle of the Oranges, how to swim with spinner dolphins, when to attend a voodoo festival in New Orleans, and how to hang out in the same places as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Unger delves into the importance of the traditional café as a place to socialize, argue, and create.
After finishing Black as Hell… readers might want to follow Unger on his coffee trail from Ethiopia to San Francisco, California (as a beer trail adjacent adventure?). Or. At the very least, make the recipes for dishes and drinks he generously supplies. All in all, Black as Hell… is one of the best books I’ve read all year.

Confessional: I was nervous about Unger’s web-related recommendations and contact information. I wondered if a year from now if the information would still be accurate. It was smart of him to say check the internet. I also appreciated the recommended reading if one wants to learn more. Hopefully, books will still be a thing in the future.
As you all know, I am not a fan of repeating information more than once. There is a little repetition to Black as Hell…: the roasting of green coffee beans with frankincense and served with sugared popcorn came up more than a couple of times.

Second confession: there was a time when I was addicted to a show called Castle. The description of adding spices to a brewing pot of coffee reminded me of a scene when Castle’s ex-wife prepared Castle’s coffee just the way he liked it, with a touch of nutmeg.

As an aside, I know someone who cannot stand even the smell of coffee. He will walk out of a room if someone has brewed a fresh pot or poured a cup of coffee. Interestingly enough, even though I have been drinking coffee since I was a teenager, my sister didn’t start enjoying the beverage until just a few years ago. It took her almost 50 years to try it… and like it.

As another aside: I know there is such a thing as a coffee snob. This person cannot stand coffee that is brewed at the wrong temperature, served out of the incorrect vessel, or brewed with stale beans…but is there such a thing as a coffee whore? Someone who will drink coffee reheated five times in a microwave? Someone who doesn’t mind Folgers from a can (especially if they have flavor crystals)? Someone who actually likes a cup of coffee gone cold?

Book trivia: there are a bunch of photographs included in Black as Hell… They are stunning.

Music: “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by the Beatles, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Jim Morrison, Lenny Kravitz, Gloria Estafan, “Hey there” by Rosemary Clooney, “O Sole Mio”, John Lennon,

Stagehand

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Aretsky, David H. Stagehand: a Backstage Pass to My Life Stories. BookBaby, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I occasionally get to review pretty interesting books. This is one of them (set to be published on April 4th, 2025).

Shame on me for judging a book by it’s title. I seriously thought this would be a peek behind the stage curtain of a career in music. No-name songwriters or big time musicians, I did not care which. Aretsky did not need to kiss and tell or name names (although for a bunch of stories, he does). I just wanted to hear about a life in the music industry from backstage. I know someone in the industry so I know how hard it is. In truth, there are a few chapters here and there about his career in entertainment, more towards the end, but for the most part, Stagehand is one man’s lament over losing the love of his life. Aretsky has been in the entertainment industry for over forty years, but it is about the eighteen year relationship with his Ex that he really wants to talk about. In truth, the stories are great. Aretsky is a natural storyteller, but the timeline is chaotic and the stories pinball around the various chapters. 1982 snuggles up to 2001 then jumps to 2019 and back to the 1990s again. It was hard to follow at times. In addition to the stories bouncing from decade to decade, they go from roommate to roommate, relationship to relationship, exotic adventure to exotic adventure. At various times I wanted to draw a timeline, just so I could make sense of what Aretsky wanted to say about his life thus far. My takeaways were: he enjoys going to the gym and staying physical fit; he has a myriad of female friends, and he moved around a lot in his younger years. And then there was the Ex…

Confessional: when David said he could write a book about his time with “Larry” I thought to myself that is the book I thought Stagehand would be. He mentioned wanting to write another book. My only advice would be to organize the stories a little more.

Setlist: As to be expected, there is a great deal of music mentioned! AC/DC, Alabama, Annie Lennox, Art Garfunkel, B-52s, “Back to the Cave”, Bad Religion, Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Beauty School Dropout”, Bette Midler, Billy Idol, Billy Joel, Blue Oyster Cult, Bobby Brown, Bonnie Raitt, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”, Bret Michaels, Brian Wilson, Bruce Springsteen, Captain & Tennille, Celine Dion, “Chances Are”, Cheap Trick, Cher, Chaka Khan, Chicago, Chick Corea, Chubby Checker, “Chuck E.’s in Love”, Clint Black, Cole Porter, “Cryin'”, the Crystals’ “Da Do Ron Ron”, Crystal Gayle, Dale Kristien, Darlene Love, Devo, Dionne Warwick, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”, Dolly Parton, Donna Summer, “Don’t Be Cruel”, Dred Zeppelin, Edgar Winter, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Eminem, Emmy Lou Harris, Eric Burdon & the Animals, Eurythmics’ “Let’s Go”, “When Tomorrow Comes”, and “Missionary Man”, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, “Everything Your Heart Desires”, “Forever in My Life”, Foreigner, Four Italian Tenors, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Avalon, GBH, Gene Simmons, “Sugar Magnolia” by the Grateful Dead, “Girls and Boys”, Gladys Knight, Guns N’ Roses, GWAR, Hall & Oates, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ “the Twist”, “Housequake”, Harry Belafonte, “He Has a Headlock on My Heart”, “Heaven Knows”, “I Want to Take You Higher”, “I Say a Little Prayer”, Iggy Pop, “I’ll Take You There”, Itzhak Perlman, “Irresistible Bitch”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, Jackie Evancho, Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire”, , Joan Jett, Jody Watley, John Entwistle, Johnny Cash, Johnny Mathis, Judy Garland, Kiss, “Last Time I Felt Like This”, “Love and Happiness”, Lea Salonga, Led Zeppelin, Linda Ronstadt, Lita Ford’s “Close My eyes Forever”, “Love Will Keep Us Together”, Madame X, Mariachi La Reyna de Los Angeles, Mariachi Sol de Mexico, Megadeth, Melissa Manchester, the Mentors”, Merle Haggard, Metallica, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Miles Davis, “Misty”, “Mother Popcorn”, Motorhead, Mr. Big, “My Prerogative”, Natalie Cole, Neil Sedaka, New Edition, “O Sole Mio”, Oleta Adams, “On the Edge of a Broken Heart”, “Only Women Bleed”, “Out of Touch”, Ozzy Osbourne, Pat Travers, Paul Anka, Pebo Bryson, Peter, Paul and Mary, Phantom, Rocker & Slick’s “Men Without Shame”, “Piece of Me”, the Plasmatics, Poison, the Police’s “Roxanne”, Preservation Hall Jazz Band”, Prince, Quiet Riot, the Ramones, Randy Newman, Randy Rhoads, Ratt, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Regina Bell, Rickie Lee Jones, Robert Plant, the Ramones, Robin Trower, the Rolling Stones, Ronnie James Dio, Rubin Studdard, the Runaways, Sam Kinison, Sammy Davis Jr., “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, Sebastian Bach, Sex Pistols, “Sex of It”, “Shake for the Sheik”, Sheila E., “Ship of Fools”, Skid Row, Slayer, Smokey Robinson, Social Distortion, “Star-Spangled Banner”, Stevie Wonder, Stryper, “Sweet Thing”, “Tall Cool One”, Temptations, “That’s What Friends are For”, Tom Jones, Tony Bennett, Tony Orlando, the Troggs’ “Wild Thing”, the Tubes, UFO, Vixen, Warrant, Was (Not Was)’s “Are You Okay?”, Wayne Newton, White Snake, Whitney Houston, the Who, “Whole New World”, “Wild, Wild West”, Winger, Wynonna, Wynton Marsalis, Yanni, and Ziggy Marley.

As an aside, my apologies to GNR. In Stagehand the name of the band was spelled “Guns and Roses.” Their name must have gone through some kind of autocorrect.

All Shook Up

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White, Debra. All Shook Up: Vineleaves Press, 2024.

Reason read: I really like stories of triumph and was pleased to receive Debra White’s story as part of the Early Review program for LibraryThing.

If you are of a certain age, you might be able to imagine a certain toy called a Viewfinder. Look it up if you do not know what I am talking about. For those of you in the know, imagine All Shook Up is a viewfinder with three cards: her terrible accident, her lifelong volunteerism, and her journey to find faith. Each card holds slides or pictures of an important part of Debra White’s story. She has chosen each picture with care. It is obvious every single moment is important to her.
The first card holds the story of her accident. This section hit me the hardest because as a runner, I have worried about being struck by a distracted or drunk driver. [As an aside, an acquaintance of mine was mowed down by a truck just half a mile from her home; a route she had been running for over two decades.] White’s accident sets the stage for the rest of her memoir. The slides (still using the viewfinder metaphor) tell the story of how it happened, her debilitating injuries she is lucky to have survived, and her subsequent rehabilitation, slow recovery, and hesitant reentry into some semblance of a normal life.
Card number two covers the many different charities and volunteer work Debra dedicated her post-accident life to. Despite being disables and scooter-bound, Debra poured her heart and soul into every organization her helped. From animals to airplanes to children to refugees, she cared deeply for every single animal and person she met.
Card number three illustrates White’s views on religion and the God who saved her from her 1994 car-pedestrian accident. She felt she had a debt to pay. Her acceptance into the American Muslim Women’s Association was heartwarming.
White’s life may have been shattered by her horrific accident but she was able to rebuild that life, piece by piece, until it resembled something extraordinary. Her lesson to us all should be broken can be beautiful. Because of some of the repetitiveness I felt that some of the chapters were published separately as essays. Nevertheless I truly enjoyed her story.

As an aside, I need to tell my aunt about the plant and food sniffing Beagles from the Beagles Brigade. She loves those dogs!

Author fact: Debra has her own website here. It is simple but includes a wonderful picture of her with one of her beloved dogs.

Playlist: “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”, “Jingle Bells”,