2009 Reading: Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story
Books 1-10.
11. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares.
12. Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins by Roy Wilkins and Tom Mathews.
13. Women, Culture & Politics by Angela Y. Davis.
14. Everyone in Silico by Jim Munroe.
15. Daughters of the North (AKA The Carhullan Army) by Sarah Hall.
16. Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story by Laurie Lindeen. So I am the ideal audience for this book: a Midwesterner who has spent the bulk of his life in Madison and the Twin Cities, and spent a significant percentage of the '90s in dirty bars watching underappreciated bands play until my ears rang. Laurie Lindeen grew up in Madison and launched her music career right here in Minneapolis. Zuzu's Petals was a female rock trio that put out two albums but never broke big, partly because it was the Age of Grunge and they weren't grunge--their stuff was by turns jazzy, poppy, even harmonic. Lindeen chronicles other challenges the band had, from casual (at times malicious) sexism to slimy promoters to a label that pushed the band to follow up their first album before the band was really ready. Oh, and there's the matter of Lindeen's multiple sclerosis, diagnosed in her early twenties and always lurking. As a chronicle of bands on the road, it's a sort of expansion of the snapshot song "Range Life" by Pavement, only more reflective. Lindeen is brutally funny and brutally honest, and she's particularly tough on herself. And as a story of an artist who ends up wondering whether it's all actually worth it, I found it thoughtful and sobering.
11. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares.
12. Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins by Roy Wilkins and Tom Mathews.
13. Women, Culture & Politics by Angela Y. Davis.
14. Everyone in Silico by Jim Munroe.
15. Daughters of the North (AKA The Carhullan Army) by Sarah Hall.
16. Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story by Laurie Lindeen. So I am the ideal audience for this book: a Midwesterner who has spent the bulk of his life in Madison and the Twin Cities, and spent a significant percentage of the '90s in dirty bars watching underappreciated bands play until my ears rang. Laurie Lindeen grew up in Madison and launched her music career right here in Minneapolis. Zuzu's Petals was a female rock trio that put out two albums but never broke big, partly because it was the Age of Grunge and they weren't grunge--their stuff was by turns jazzy, poppy, even harmonic. Lindeen chronicles other challenges the band had, from casual (at times malicious) sexism to slimy promoters to a label that pushed the band to follow up their first album before the band was really ready. Oh, and there's the matter of Lindeen's multiple sclerosis, diagnosed in her early twenties and always lurking. As a chronicle of bands on the road, it's a sort of expansion of the snapshot song "Range Life" by Pavement, only more reflective. Lindeen is brutally funny and brutally honest, and she's particularly tough on herself. And as a story of an artist who ends up wondering whether it's all actually worth it, I found it thoughtful and sobering.