Bowie, Ep. 29 - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark & What Makes One "The Crème de la Crème"
75 Reads
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark is our latest read, and our last read before we take a few weeks off for spring break. One of us loved this book, and one of us really and truly did not, and that’s what makes for a fun book club chat! Miss Brody is a progressive teacher at a rather formal and traditional girls’ school, who’s girls (the Brodie set) are being groomed to be the “crème de la crème. “ She’s in her prime, she’s got two lovers on the faculty, she’s influencing young minds. It’s a story of love, hate, manipulation, and betrayal on several levels....
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Bowie, Ep. 28 - On Having No Head by Douglas Harding & What If We Didn't Have An Eight Inch Ball
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One day in the early 1940s Douglas Harding, an English architect, was hiking in the Himalayas when he had a shocking realization…he had no head. He realized that we can’t see what he called the eight inch ball on the top of our body, except by looking at a photo or a reflection in a mirror. If we cannot see ourselves the way other people see us, how do we know who we are? At the moment he realized this, all sense of time past and future fell away. He forgot his name, gender, even what type of animal he was. All the traditional markers of identity ceased to exist. In Buddhist terms, Harding...
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Bowie, Ep. 27 - Silence by John Cage & Why There Is Always Sound
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Silence by John Cage is a collection of lectures and stories. Some are written in vertical columns. Some have, let’s call it interesting, spacing. And some, as Cage will tell you, have piano accompaniments, street noises, and the like. There was a lecture where he gave himself one minute to tell each story. So if the story had three lines, he had to stretch it. If a story was long, he’d have to talk fast to fit it into a minute. There’s a lecture called What Are We Doing? It’s actually three lectures sharing the same space on the page, written in vertical columns, one part in regular...
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Bowie, Ep. 26 - Strange People by Frank Edwards & Is "Freak" Really The Right Word?
75 Reads
A “monkey girl”, sleepless people (one named David Jones - not our David Jones), water diviners, an author who was a channeled spirit, psychic detectives, and so many more “Strange People”. This collection of stories relayed by Frank Edwards will entertain, will make you wonder, and will sometimes tug at your heart. Perhaps the most heart wrenching story, and the story with the biggest Bowie connection, is that of Joseph Merrick, the so-called Elephant Boy. Bowie played this character beautifully on Broadway in 1980. In subsequent books, Frank Edwards tackled the subject of UFOs....
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Bowie, Ep. 25 - The Divided Self by R.D. Laing & Why This Book Seemed Personal
75 Reads
To start with, Laing states that the basic purpose of this book is to make madness, and the process of going mad, comprehensible. The full title is The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. Okay, what’s the definition of existentialism? It’s a philosophical movement that stresses the individual’s unique position as a self-determining agent responsible for making meaningful, authentic choices in a universe seen as purposeless or irrational. What did this all mean to Bowie? We do know that his brother was schizophrenic. And, we go into that in more detail in this...
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Bowie, Ep. 24 - All The Emperor's Horses by David Kidd, aka Peking Story
75 Reads
If you follow us on Twitter you know that we’re reviewing All The Emperor’s Horses in one episode. And you know that this read is also found under the title Peking Story, which is the newer version with a chapter added at the end, which was written years after the original story was told. Intrigued? You should be! The Emperor’s Horses is the story of a young American teaching and studying in China. He marries into the aristocratic Yu family, and into the family mansion and gardens, which are characters in this book just as much as any of the people written about here. The year is 1949,...
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Bowie, Ep. 23 - Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse & Why Two Ways of Thinking Aren't Better Than One
75 Reads
We typically split our reads in half and record two episodes per book here on the pod, but Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse was such a quick read that we felt one episode would do the job. The story is in the title, Billy is a liar. He’s a 19 year old who is living at home with his parents and grandmother, working at a job he hates, dreaming of being a comedy writer. Even though this book was published in 1959, it sounds like your typical kid of today. But, the thing that sets Billy apart is that he just can’t tell the truth. To anyone. About anything. And eventually, he gets found out. He...
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Bowie, Ep. 22 - The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, Part 2 & Why The Prince Is Really A Serval
75 Reads
We’re wrapping up The Leopard, so you may wonder, “What the heck is that animal in the photo? It doesn’t look like a leopard.” You would be correct! It is, in fact, not a leopard. It is a serval. A much smaller feline, it is the symbol on the Tomasi di Lampedusa coat of arms. One of the serval’s few North African ranges is near Lampedusa. And, servals were (not very commonly) owned by some Sicillians as exotic pets. But, we suppose that in English, “The Serval” might not have sold as many books as “The Leopard”. So, there you have it! At any rate, the second half of this...
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Bowie, Ep. 21 - The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, Part 1 & Why the Prince is Swoon-worthy
75 Reads
The Leopard, by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, is an historical fiction novel centered around Prince Fabrizio (the leopard) and a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy in 1860 that is threatened by the forces of democracy and revolution. One of us swooned over The Leopard, and one of us chuckled, but by the end of the first half we were both looking forward to the rest of the book. Listen to find out why! (Oh, and here’s a fun tid bit: The title of the book in Italian did not actually translate to “The Leopard” in english. We’ll tell you what cat originally had the title role in the next...
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Bowie, Ep. 20 - On The Road by Jack Kerouac, Part 2 & Why Your Feelings About Sal and Dean Might Change Over Time
75 Reads
We’re wrapping up our journey with Sal and the gang with the second half of On The Road by Jack Kerouac. And we are a house divided. One of us liked it, one of us not so much. There were some beautiful life lessons, mostly learned by watching the supporting characters, the jazz musicians and the people encountered on the Mexico trip. Did we continue to see Bowie in the book? Mmmm, not really. Does the book hold up today? Well, geographically yes. But, if you are in a different phase in life than you were when you first read this book, probably in your early twenties, you may have a different...
info_outlineJoin us as we follow young Richard to the north. Will Chicago be the place where the color of his skin is no longer a factor in how Richard lives his life?
Friends, we had some feelings about part two of this wonderful book. Things we were afraid to say, but said anyway. Things we loved, things we wish we’d loved. It’s all here in episode two.
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