Henry Mancini: Reinventing Film Music
Book
Henry Mancini, the first publicly successful and personally recognizable film composer in history,...
Tanzania Safari Guide: With Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and the Coast
Book
This new, thoroughly updated eighth edition remains the only practical guidebook to Tanzania to...
The London DMS Bus
Book
Vilified as the great failure of all London Transport bus classes, the DMS family of Daimler...
Who Can Afford to Improvise?: James Baldwin and Black Music, the Lyric and the Listeners
Book
More than a quarter-century after his death, James Baldwin remains an unparalleled figure in...
The Biopolitics of Gender
Book
Winner, 2017 International Studies Association's Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section Best...
Understanding the Sexual Betrayal of Boys and Men: The Trauma of Sexual Abuse
Book
Understanding the Sexual Betrayal of Boys and Men: The Trauma of Sexual Abuse is an indispensable...
Colin O'Donoghue recommended The Conversation (1974) in Movies (curated)
But there’s a cloud that hangs over Yamaye’s life. Her mother left when she was young, and she has been raised by a father who seems thoroughly heartbroken by his wife’s departure. There’s also the spectre of racism and police brutality looming over her. Yamaye becomes involved in police brutality protests, and then becomes embroiled in a gang in Bristol, leaving London and her troubles there behind. Or so it seems, because it looked to me like she was just swapping one set of problems for another.
I loved this book, and I wish that it had come with a playlist on Spotify (the actual book may well have a playlist, but I read the NetGalley download) - but never fear! I went looking myself, and was ably assisted by my 16 year old drumming mad son. Now he LOVED the music, and regularly drums along to these new bands and songs that he has discovered for himself.
This is an engaging, exciting story with a vibrancy through its descriptions of inner London as much as those of rural Jamaica. The Jamaican patois was for me the icing on the cake. It made such a distinctive voice (quite literally!), and I soon fell into it’s rhythms.
It’s a book that reminded me of how I felt about music as a young woman (ok, it was different music, but still!) and how it crept into everything in my life.
Themes include: race, misogyny, police violence, oppression of people of colour, gangs, the legacy of slavery, music and belonging. At least these are the themes that I could pick out!
It’s an amazing book - just read it!
British Comics: A Cultural History
Book
British Comics is a unique cultural history of British comic papers and magazines, from their...
Hadrian's Wall: Archaeological Research by English Heritage 1976-2000
Book
From 1976 to 2000, English Heritage archaeologists undertook excavation and other research on...