I'm debating if I want to bother starting the Britney Spears book.  I was hoping it would be like Jessica Simpson's book where you expect it to be terrible and end up pleasantly surprised.  My friend keeps sending me Kindle screenshots of rambling nonsense, so it doesn't look promising.

I don’t usually read any books like these, but I can tell you that DW (who also usually doesn’t) enjoyed the Jeannette McCurdy book.

 

I loved the HBO/Max series Winning Time, about the LA Lakers dynasty of the ‘80s. So I’ve started reading the book it was based on, Showtime by Jeff Pearlman. I love this too—can’t put it down. Highly recommended if you liked the series or are even remotely interested in this type of thing.

Finished this; not necessarily a literary masterpiece, but I really enjoyed it. Although made me a little sad how much the series missed out on by cancelling after two seasons. Holy shit Pat Riley turned into a dick.

I finished The Woman in me by Britney Spears.  I almost bailed because the first half read like her Wikipedia page.  However, when she went into the story of being separated from her children and the conservatorship, I could not tear myself away.  It was painful, heartbreaking, infuriating, abusive, violating…all the things.  It was clear she poured her heart and soul into retelling that part of her story.

I think I need some fiction after my last two books.  Lift the mood a little.

I’m about 1/3 of the way through the beastie boys book. This shit is 550 pages long!

How is there that much to write about the Beastie Boys??

A while back I read the John Cleese autobiography So, Anyway…. I was enjoying it, but I was kind of anxious to get to the Monty Python part. I keep reading and thinking they’ve gotta be getting there soon. I get to 80+% and start wondering; sure enough the book ends at the very moment the first MPFC episode is about to start. I guess he figured there was enough written about Python, he just wanted to talk about his life before then. Which is fine, but I really wish I knew that going in.

 

For real.  Though I wouldn't dare say anything like that on social media or my mutual friends would tar and feather me for daring to besmirch the great Beastie Boys in any way.

 

I started Lessons in Chemistry.  It's been sitting on my kindle for a while and I'd like to read it before I watch the show so I can be disappointed that the series is different from the book as a matter of course.

I liked Lessons in Chemistry.  Besides the gender roles of the '50s themes, it's a great look at neurodiverse minds without ever spelling it out.

 

Girl, right??? This thing has crazy high reviews and I’m baffled as to why. I love a good origin story but ffs. It’s not an awful book, but I’m beyond ready for them to get on with it. I’ve had quite enough background story on their years as punk rock youths bouncing around NYC. Maybe it gets better once they become famous.

Lol...I listened to it, with the surviving Boys narrating most of it.  Yeah...they're pretty proud of their hardcore days, but it does give a little better understanding of how they developed into the rap oddballs they were.  Don't worry, the book covers their whole career up to Yauch's death.

They clearly more or less consider(ed) themselves a hardcore band who also raps, but speaking for myself...I could care less about their instrumental stuff.  Even "Sabotage," which they describe as built around "this awesome bassline Yauch came up with..." yyyyeah, it's a fun tune, but not that great of a bassline, and not nearly as interesting to me as anything they rap on.