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Record Label Marketing: How Music Companies Brand and Market Artists in the Digital Era

Paul Allen, Amy Macy, Tom Hutchison and Clyde Philip Rolston

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Book

Record Label Marketing, Third Edition is the essential resource to help you understand how recorded...

The Essential Pregnancy and Birth Guide

Rebecca Chicot, Diana Hill and Robert Winston

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Book

Finding out you are pregnant is a momentous event for parents. From the start there are so many...

ClareR (5955 KP) rated The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 in Books

Apr 18, 2021

The Hard Crowd is a collection of essays about culture and politics. I had read Rachel Kushner's novel The Mars Room and loved it (even went on to buy it for a friend), so I was intrigued to read this collection. There really is a mix here - something for everyone.
The opening essay about Kushner’s participation in an illegal motorbike race on the Baja Peninsula was probably my favourite - it sounded terrifying and exciting all at once. She does seem to like anything to do with motors, as a later essay showed. This one wasn’t really for me, but this is a collection where there is something for everyone. The chapter on wild cat strikes was interesting, as were the ones where she describes her formative years in her hometown and the music concerts she went to (loved these too). The last essay in the book played out as though it was on a film in my head.
The essay about prison reform was really thought provoking, as was that of when Kushner visited a Palestinian refugee camp. I could easily have read more of this one - no matter how saddening it ultimately was.
Rachel Kushner really can write. As she did in The Mars Room, each of these essays really evoked a time and place and made this book pretty hard to put down.
Many thanks to Jonathan Cape for inviting me to read this via NetGalley.

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Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated A Vampire's Salvation (Beyond Human Novellas, #1) in Books

Sep 6, 2019

*Copy received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review"

I could tell this was going to be a hot read from the first chapter when Frankie was fantasising about JakeSteamy!and I wasnt wrong.

You get to see from both Frankies and Jakes POV, which is an advantage when Jake is described as being a serious, moody guy by Frankie. But then seeing from Jakes POV just why hes behaving like that balances it out and it switches between every so often.

The first sex scene between the pair took up a fair bit of the book but it also contains an intriguing plotline. Who was Frankies stalker and why were they stalking her? Unfortunately we dont find out in this one but I hope the author is well on her way to finishing a second book in the series so we can.

I liked it but I also feel slightly cheated since we didnt find out who was behind the attacks against Frankie. Im left with more questions than answer but at the same time Im happy that Jake and Frankie got a happy ending as they are both really likeable characters and deserve some happiness after what theyve both been through.

Short and sweet. I will certainly read the next in the series when it comes out.