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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
What a wonderful book about siblings, love and one of the best rock and roll bands there ever was. This one may have have hit me different because of the loss of my little brother 3 years ago. I felt what Alex read off the pages he wrote about grief.
I also enjoyed the story of Van Halen. It's interesting to hear the truth behind the music.
I also enjoyed the story of Van Halen. It's interesting to hear the truth behind the music.
If Alex had included the Hagar and Cherone eras of Van Halen in this, it would be a Top 10 Autobiography. Alas, it's solid and wholesome.
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
This was a touching tribute from the author to his little brother and it's easy to hear the emotion in his voice. He tells briefly of their childhood in the Netherlands and immigrating to California, with an emphasis on how their father shaped them. With short anecdotes about their love of music and life with the band, he describes their rise to fame including conflicts. I enjoyed the background on their songs and would have liked more of this as well as more personal stories, as his marriage to Valerie Bertinelli is only briefly mentioned and there is nothing about the birth of their son.
This was great hearing the perspective from Alex Van Halen. His voice was not out there as much over the years and he didn’t seek the attention.
I almost went a little lower in the rating but it wasn’t for the book itself, so I didn’t. I’ll throw the warning out there though. With the audiobook it can be kind of hard to track sometimes as he uses a lot of direct quotes from other books (Templeman, DLR, other books in VH) and interviews of Eddie. So Al will be talking in first person and then goes into someone else talking in the first person from another source and you don’t know until it’s done that he was reading a quote.
So that is more of a format issue than a book issue.
I don’t see why a VH fan would not devour this for the first hand stories.
I almost went a little lower in the rating but it wasn’t for the book itself, so I didn’t. I’ll throw the warning out there though. With the audiobook it can be kind of hard to track sometimes as he uses a lot of direct quotes from other books (Templeman, DLR, other books in VH) and interviews of Eddie. So Al will be talking in first person and then goes into someone else talking in the first person from another source and you don’t know until it’s done that he was reading a quote.
So that is more of a format issue than a book issue.
I don’t see why a VH fan would not devour this for the first hand stories.
Review at https://stuff.graves.cl/posts/2024-11-23_13_39-book-review-brothers-by-alex-van-halen.html
emotional
funny
informative
fast-paced
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
•non-fiction memoir•Van Halen Brothers and their rise to fame•heartfelt•the death of Eddie Van Halen•a lot about David Lee Roth
• An interesting look at the rise of Van Halen through the eyes of Alex Van Halen (the drummer). This wasn’t too much of a deep dive, more like a skimming of the surface up until the release of Jump, which was the song that catapulted them to fame. Mostly though, this was a homage to his brother and his talent, I felt the immense love he has for his brother, Eddie. Weirdly, he mentions David Lee Roth continuously but rarely mentions the other guy in the band, Michael Anthony.
• It's been my experience that when the author narrates their own story, the result tends to be better than if someone else does it. However, when Alex Van Halen narrated his memoir, "Brothers", it sounded like he was reading the book to us instead of actually telling his story. Actors have a slight edge over musicians when it comes to something like narration, but I think it was still important for Alex to narrate his own memoir.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Easily more intimate, deeper and with a perspective that has always been missing, this is the story about Van Halen we have always been missing. Truly what we all need as we still grieve Eddie's passing.