On Record: Vol. 10 – 1983: Images, Interviews & Insights From the Year in Music by G. Brown
This book is the tenth volume in the On Record series on various years in music from 1978 to 1998 (not in chronological order). Published by Colorado Music Experience (sales benefit this non-profit cultural and educational organization), founding director and author G. Brown covered popular music at The Denver Post for 26 years, interviewing more than 3,000 musicians, and collecting an archive of close to 15,000 rare promotional photos. Much of those seem to be incorporated in this series.
The book includes 235 musicians or groups, mostly from American rock, but other genres and nationalities are included. Despite being pretty young in 1983, I'd only heard of about half of the artists. (I probably would have found Volume 1 - 1978, or Volume 7 - 1979, to be a better fit.)
The first 207 pages covers 100 of those, with double-page spreads on each. On the left is a color photo of an album released by them in 1983, and captions indicating if the album made the Billboard Top 200 and what cuts made the Billboard Hot 100 (and the respective rankings). There is also a write-up about the album, the musician or group, and quotes from interviews Brown did with them. On the right is a black-and-white promotional photo of the musician or group from the record company (sometimes the same as the image on the album cover).
Sets of two double-page spreads start on page 208. The first page pictures three album covers (in color) with the name of the musician or group and a single sentence about them and/or the album, along with the Billboard information as in the previous section. This is followed by three pages of black-and-white publicity photos, one for each musician or group.
Finally, for ten pages starting on page 348, three albums are on each page as in the previous section, but there are no publicity photos. I found these last two sections a little confusing, as (except on page 216), all the headers said the albums were from 1992, not 1983, but perhaps that's corrected in later printings.
It's a lavish book and would make a great gift for a music fan. As a retired university librarian (with public and K-12 school experience), I think there needs to be a hardcover version with better binding to hold up better in a circulating library setting.
Boy Here, Boy There, written and illustrated by Chuck Groenick
This lovely picture book depicts an encounter between a Neanderthal boy and a Homo sapiens boy, something scientists now think could have happened. The text consists of simple phrases, easy for a beginning reader, and there's a longer author's note (as well as a list of sources) at the end of the book for adults or older readers. The gorgeous illustrations are done in gouache, pencils, wax pastels, charcoal, and digital media. I loved how the Neanderthals were pictured so realistically, with smudged hands, feet, and knees.
I Am Wind by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Rachel Wada
This 73-page nonfiction picture book for middle-grade readers has the subtitle "An Autobiography," as some of its short chapters are "narrated" by the subject itself. Beginning and ending with poems, this book incorporates mythology, science, geography, and history covering all aspects of wind - its many forms and effects. The book has a universal approach, with stories and names for winds from all over the world, and a balanced view of its effects on the land and its use as a power source.
The wind's motion is aptly conveyed by colorful illustrations that combine traditional brush and ink with digital editing. The table of contents at the beginning, the index to key terms and suggested further reading at the end, and the many diagrams and sidebars throughout the book make it a great teaching resource.
Recycled Virgin by DA Brown
I read this fantasy because I was intrigued by the premise after reviewing the author's other book, Spit and Polish, and because its e-book price was quite low and I had Amazon No-Rush Rewards to apply towards it. Mary, the mother of Jesus, gets reincarnated over and over, and the book presents an alternate history from that given in the Bible and religious (especially Catholic) doctrine. Told from the viewpoint of Mary (Marian in her current life), I found her present-day situation believable, and enjoyed the glimpses into the historical lives of women from Mary's previous reincarnations. A book to make you think - particularly if you are Catholic born-and-bred but now mostly agnostic like me.
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