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pascalthehoff's reviews
404 reviews
Face the Music: A Life Exposed by Paul Stanley
5.0
I don't know what I expected going into this, but this (audio)book was MUCH more interesting than expected. My personal background with KISS might be kinda relevant for this review:
I used to be really into KISS for about a year or so when I was 15/16 years old (almost ten years ago). Since then, I feel out of love with them pretty hard. The reasons for that were on one hand the misogynistic content of their lyrics and on the other hand my growing (let's just call it) "contemptuous cynicism" for their comparatively simplistic (if not downright stupid) music.
There are still quite a few KISS songs I've always genuinely enjoyed. Songs like 'Detroit Rock City' hardly ever grow old and other songs like 'Love Gun' that lean a bit more on the sexist end of the spectrum have always been somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. But to think that I ever used to enjoy songs like 'Plaster Caster'... But I digress...
I originally started listening to this audiobook as a tangent to an academic paper I planned to write about misogyny in rock music. Pretty soon, I was extremely surprised by how compelling Paul's retelling of his life's story was.
Maybe I was a bit too cynical writing off about 80% of KISS' song catalogue as trash, often making fun of their style over substance-approach to making music.
Despite being a big fan back then, I never really dug into Paul Stanley, the persona. He appears to be A LOT more sophisticated than I ever would've expected and I respect his sense of showmanship as well as the pride he takes in his music a lot more after listening to this.
I know, he wrote this book himself and he could have basically portrayed himself in whichever way he wanted. But I think there are certain values you simply can't fake, just as there are certain values that wouldn't make any sense to advocate if you didn't truly believe in them.
So if you are somewhat of a jaded KISS fan like me (and if Paul was almost your favourite member of the band – for reasons that should be apparent to anyone) this is the book for you. Lots of interesting insights and great laughs, ESPECIALLY if you see the band from a slightly cynical 'Spinal Tap'-angle nowadays.
I used to be really into KISS for about a year or so when I was 15/16 years old (almost ten years ago). Since then, I feel out of love with them pretty hard. The reasons for that were on one hand the misogynistic content of their lyrics and on the other hand my growing (let's just call it) "contemptuous cynicism" for their comparatively simplistic (if not downright stupid) music.
There are still quite a few KISS songs I've always genuinely enjoyed. Songs like 'Detroit Rock City' hardly ever grow old and other songs like 'Love Gun' that lean a bit more on the sexist end of the spectrum have always been somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. But to think that I ever used to enjoy songs like 'Plaster Caster'... But I digress...
I originally started listening to this audiobook as a tangent to an academic paper I planned to write about misogyny in rock music. Pretty soon, I was extremely surprised by how compelling Paul's retelling of his life's story was.
Maybe I was a bit too cynical writing off about 80% of KISS' song catalogue as trash, often making fun of their style over substance-approach to making music.
Despite being a big fan back then, I never really dug into Paul Stanley, the persona. He appears to be A LOT more sophisticated than I ever would've expected and I respect his sense of showmanship as well as the pride he takes in his music a lot more after listening to this.
I know, he wrote this book himself and he could have basically portrayed himself in whichever way he wanted. But I think there are certain values you simply can't fake, just as there are certain values that wouldn't make any sense to advocate if you didn't truly believe in them.
So if you are somewhat of a jaded KISS fan like me (and if Paul was almost your favourite member of the band – for reasons that should be apparent to anyone) this is the book for you. Lots of interesting insights and great laughs, ESPECIALLY if you see the band from a slightly cynical 'Spinal Tap'-angle nowadays.
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
2.0
This is another one of these books where the premise sounds SO compelling and which then falls kinda flat on its face in execution – at least for me. This is probably a pretty important work, as far as novels in 2019 go, but I just couldn't bear it; not even halfway-through.
I appreciate the book for raising awareness for the horrific deeds it is based upon, but that act of highlighting the crimes alone does not turn the book into a compelling story.
This is probably pretty subjective, but I tend to have a hard time with books that throw a whole bunch of equally-(un)important characters at me without establishing each character adequately. The other thing that bothered me personally was... well, the incessant talking among a group of characters I had no real connection to. I knew the book would contain A LOT of dialogue – anyone who can read the title should know that. But I could hardly stay awake with the way the discussions between the women were written.
After Naomi Alderman's "The Power", here is another feminist opus I wasn't able to enjoy for reasons completely unrelated to the ideals of the book, which, at a glance, kinda makes me look like an ignorant dingus now, I guess.
I appreciate the book for raising awareness for the horrific deeds it is based upon, but that act of highlighting the crimes alone does not turn the book into a compelling story.
This is probably pretty subjective, but I tend to have a hard time with books that throw a whole bunch of equally-(un)important characters at me without establishing each character adequately. The other thing that bothered me personally was... well, the incessant talking among a group of characters I had no real connection to. I knew the book would contain A LOT of dialogue – anyone who can read the title should know that. But I could hardly stay awake with the way the discussions between the women were written.
After Naomi Alderman's "The Power", here is another feminist opus I wasn't able to enjoy for reasons completely unrelated to the ideals of the book, which, at a glance, kinda makes me look like an ignorant dingus now, I guess.
Eine Idee erscheint by Haruki Murakami
3.0
So, first of all, one should keep in mind that this is only the first half of Murakami's new novel. That being said, I had my fair share of personal issues with his newest work.
My problems are probably mostly a result of me having read every single of Muarakami's novel by now. I'd really like to know what it would have been like to have read this novel as an entrance to the Murakami cosmos. As it is, however, I couldn't help but feeling like stumbling from one deja-vu into the next one while reading this book.
Especially with Wild Sheep Chase and Dance, Dance, Dance being the last Murakami novels I've read before this one, the similarities and parallels between Commendatore and Murakami's previous works were extremely hard to ignore to a point where it almost killed my motivation for reading this long-awaited novel. It got a lot better in the second half (of Part I) where more of the unique supernatural elements and ideas (no pun intended) were introduced. But until that point reading Commendatore was a slog for me. It took me over a month to read this comparatively short book, despite eagerly anticipating it for almost a year.
This first half of Commendatore might be one of the best Murakami novels (at least other people have told me so), but it is also feels pretty formulaic for long-time readers. Luckily, the last few chapters as well as Murakami's overall sublime prose still got me waiting for the next part of this arguably slightly overpriced 54€ two-part novel.
My problems are probably mostly a result of me having read every single of Muarakami's novel by now. I'd really like to know what it would have been like to have read this novel as an entrance to the Murakami cosmos. As it is, however, I couldn't help but feeling like stumbling from one deja-vu into the next one while reading this book.
Especially with Wild Sheep Chase and Dance, Dance, Dance being the last Murakami novels I've read before this one, the similarities and parallels between Commendatore and Murakami's previous works were extremely hard to ignore to a point where it almost killed my motivation for reading this long-awaited novel. It got a lot better in the second half (of Part I) where more of the unique supernatural elements and ideas (no pun intended) were introduced. But until that point reading Commendatore was a slog for me. It took me over a month to read this comparatively short book, despite eagerly anticipating it for almost a year.
This first half of Commendatore might be one of the best Murakami novels (at least other people have told me so), but it is also feels pretty formulaic for long-time readers. Luckily, the last few chapters as well as Murakami's overall sublime prose still got me waiting for the next part of this arguably slightly overpriced 54€ two-part novel.