Open Me Last List!~

A Good Book---the Gift that keeps on Giving!

What books did I read this year? Which ones am I giving as gifts? I enjoyed so many, having to narrow it down was difficult. In no particular order, here they are:

Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller

Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon, need I say more? If you  love the songs they wrote and sang, this tells you how they came to be some of the best singers/songwriters of their day. Music lovers delight.

Zeitoun by David Eggers
Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and here Eggers tells the tale of what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American, married to an American, and their four children. One of the best novels about the events  in New Orleans after Katrina

The Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley

First of all, Douglas Brinkley writes great historical books; second, Theodore Roosevelt lived a life that was never boring. What might be a surprise is that Roosevelt, being  the great hunter he was, believed in conservation and went on to make it a universal effort. Written with humor and the vitality that Roosevelt was known for, it's a great book for anyone who admires, Roosevelt, conservation, and maybe explain how someone who revered animals, could have no qualms about killing them...

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
Was there resisitence in Nazie Germany? Meet Otto and Elise Hampel who try, in their own small way, to undermine Hitler after their son is killed in the war. The Hampels print postcards denouncing the war and Hitler, leave them around Berlin hoping they will make a difference with someone. While you know there can only one way for the book to end, you keep hoping maybe........ Wonderfully written.

*Hans Fallada wrote this book in 24 days. Fallada was a bestselling novelist before the war and refused to leave Germany like some of his friends. He was brutalized psychologically by Goebbels for refusing to write a anti-Semitic book, hounded by the Gestapo, put into an asylum for the criminally insane. While Fallada died in 1947,  he did outlast the Reich.

Good Soldiers by David Finkel
True story about the 2-16 battalion, called the Rangers, and their experiences when they were sent to Baghdad in 2007. The changes that occurred within themselves, the horrors that they saw, and how war changed them, some for better and some for the worse. Did the surge in Iraq work? Do you ever recover from being in war? Finkel gives opinions from those who were there.

Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton

While this book reads like a fiction thriller, it is true. A small band of Special Force soldiers sneak into Afghanistan after 9/11. They went to help the Afghans fight the Taliban. They needed to take the town of Mazar-i-Sharif to put a dent in the Taliban. One of the first obstacles to overcome was the fact that the Afghans mode of travel was horses...which most of the soldiers had ever been on. As always in war, there is the horror, but Stanton somehow shares some of the humor that occurred. If you want to have a better understanding of why we are where we are with Afghanistan, read this. Stanton did a terrific job of researching and talking to those that were there.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

King Henry VIII and the one man who would do anything to ascend to political power...Thomas Cromwell. Mantel fills in the empty spaces of what transpired during eight years of Henry's reign, the Anne Boleyn years. Not afraid to get his hands dirty and achieve his ends by any means, Cromwell becomes Henry's right hand man. If someone loves the Tudors, or if you do, the history of England during their time....here you go.

*Mantel won the Booker Award this year. for this book.

Clapton by Eric Clapton

Clapton played with some of the best in the music world, he wrote and sang songs that are considered classics. In his straight forward, honest autobiography he shares everything, how he went after his best friends wife, (George Harrison) and strangely, this didn't affect their friendship; and his anguish when his four-year-old son Connor fell to his death. I was glad when he came to realize how talented he is and what pleasure he has brought to many people. For those who love Clapton, the history of the 60's music and how most of it came to be, this is the book for them.

These are the books I am giving as gifts., hopefully one of them will make you think of someone who might enjoy it. I call this my Open Me Last list because when I open the gift of a book, I want to stop everything and start reading it. .....

I wish you a Blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year...and always...Happy Reading!

Peace.....

Wonderful Tonight

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience:

this is the ideal life.

Mark Twain

Wonderful Tonight
George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me

Patti Boyd

A few years ago Pattie Boyd wrote a book about her life and I knew I had to get around to reading it. Here was the woman who had lived my fantasy life—married to George Harrison AND Eric Clapton! Talk about lucky....it doesn't get any better then then having married two of my favorite musicans.

George Harrison was always been my favorite Beatle, and Clapton-well he's Clapton. He played with so many great groups, Blind Faith, Cream, Yardbirds, Derek and the Dominos, Delany and Bonnie… some of the best from the sixties and seventies. Ms. Boyd had married two of the most famous musicians of all time and she inspired them to write some great songs, and they were about her; Something, I Need You, by Harrison—Layla, Wonderful Tonight, Old Love by Clapton….. just to name a few. How did one woman become the muse to two of the most gifted and talented rockers in history?

Ms. Boyd was a teenager on the set of the movie A Hard Days Night when she met Harrison. He asked her out on the second day....she said no, as she had a boyfriend When he asked her out again she said yes. (The boyfriend was gone) It was a whirlwind time, Boyd's modeling career was taking off and the Beatles-they ruled the music world. Boyd and Harrison married and it being the 1960’s, they entered the world of sex, drugs and rock & roll. Boyd and Harrison adored each other and were very happy, which she makes evident. They moved in a world of rock ‘n roll royalty which included the Rolling Stones, the Who, Mick Fleetwood, and Eric Clapton. Living a life so public can have it's toll, and living the life that you are expected to live can bring some unpleasentness with it.

Clapton was Harrisons best friend and living with Boyd’s sister Paula at the time. Clapton and Harrison spent a lot of time together having dueling guitar sessions, making music, drinking and doing drugs. Clapton fell in love with his best friend’s wife, and wanted her. By now, the Harrison marriage had hit a rocky time, but both wanted to try and work it out. Clapton pursued Boyd, even in front of Harrison. Getting nowhere, Clapton put his passion and feelings for her into the song Layla. Eventually, as we know, he succeeded in getting Boyd to leave Harrison for him. Clapton seemed to adore Boyd, their life together wasn’t what she had hoped. Here again, it was sex, drugs and rock & roll and went downhill quickly.

Ms. Boyd’s early life was interesting; she grew up in Africa and came from a dysfunctional family. It wasn’t an easy childhood and, as she states, you do become a product of your upbringing. Did she enable Harrison and Clapton? Wanting to be what she thought they wanted her to be she joined in with the drugs and alcohol. Letting herself be treated the way they treated her was what she had observed in her own family growing up and so she accepted it. Being strong enough to walk away from everything took courage. The fact that both Harrison and Clapton kept in touch with her after the divorces, even when they remarried, does say a lot about how they felt about her. When Clapton’s son died, Boyd was one of the first people he called. He asked her to come to his son’s funeral. Harrison kept in touch with her, visiting her, making sure she was doing okay; he had told her if she ever needed anything, he would be there for her. When Harrison died, Boyd had a hard time grasping that she had lost such a big part of her life, and her friend.

What happens in your life makes you who you become; Boyd came out the other side stronger and happy with being Pattie Boyd. This is her story, how she remembers it and what she wants to share. She doesn’t really “dish the dirt” and I was so glad she didn't and I do respect her for it.

Did I like the book? Yes, I liked it very much. Did I wish there had been more? Yes, but sometimes you always want more from a book. I am going to pick up Clapton's book, it always great when you get both sides of the story.

She still lived my fantasy........ and I am glad I didn't.

Happy Reading!