The Uncool by Cameron Crowe

The Uncool by Cameron Crowe is an interesting memoir by the writer and director of movies including Say Anything, Singles, Jerry McGuire, and Almost Famous. Additionally, Crowe wrote the book Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and then won an Oscar for the movie screenplay he adapted.

Crowe was born in 1957 and in The Uncool, writes about heavily about his teen years in San Diego in the 1970s. He had a supportive mother and father, older sister Cindy, and oldest sister Cathy who committed suicide. He began writing music reviews for an alternative weekly newspaper, The Door, at the age of fourteen and at fifteen both graduated high school and became Rolling Stone's youngest-ever contributor.

The movie Almost Famous is about his youth, and before long he was interviewing Ozzy Osbourne at a Black Sabbath show, the Eagles, Kris Kristofferson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Allman Brothers Band. Later there was Led Zeppelin, who he was flying with on their plane, and significant time with David Bowie, who told eighteen-year-old Crowe, "ask me anything, hold up a mirror and show me what you see." 

Bowie also told Crowe he "young enough to be honest," perhaps part of why other musicians spent time with Crowe. Later Crowe recounts the story of bringing from Jamaica back to the U.S. marijuana seeds he pulled out of Bob Marley's stash. At twenty-one, Crowe wrote about everyday high school kids, with his book Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The Uncool closes around the time Almost Famous: The Musical came out in 2019, with the ending centered around Crowe's mom. It's a revealing and solid book.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is a lovely novel that tells the story of Sybil Van Antwerp, done entirely through letters she writes and receives. The book begins with seventy-three year old Sybil in 2012 writing to her brother Felix, and goes up to letters from 2021. Sybil corresponds as well with people including: 

• Fiona, Sybil's at times estranged daughter
• Theodore Lubeck, her neighbor that cares for her
• Melissa Genet, a local college Dean who refuses her request to audit classes
• Harry Landy, the troubled high-achieving student son of a former colleague 
• Dezi Martinelli, the son of someone she played a role in sending to jail
• Basam Mansour, a customer service agent with a DNA testing company
• Henrietta Gleason, her recently learned of biological sister in Scotland 
• Gilbert, her son who died young and with whom she regularly writes missives to
• Authors like Ann Patchett, Joan Didion, and Larry McMurtry that she writes with
• People that she wrote in the 1950s when her letter writing began

Evans writes an originally constructed book, spinning the story together letter by letter. They're lovely pictures of relationships progressing over time and the wrap up to the book is kind of great.

Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe

Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe is a solid collection of a dozen The New Yorker pieces. The collection is subtitled True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks, with those below ones that stood out:

The Jefferson Bottles (2007) - Noteworthy was how Bill Koch, whose father founded Koch Industries, collected wines, and sued people.

The Avenger (2015) - Details Ken Dornstein, whose brother died in the Pam Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. Interesting from this piece is the level of obsession that it shows Dornstein had to find those responsible.

The Empire of Edge (2014) - About New York Mets owner Steven Cohen and his hedge fund SAC Capital. Covers his scant punishment for wrongdoings, especially in relation to how much he profited from them.

Journeyman (2017) On Anthony Bourdain and his CNN show No Reservations that would travel the world to authentic places. Bourdain then took his life in 2018.

The Worst of the Worst (2015) - Details defense attorney Judy Clarke, who has represented a number of extremely high-profile guilty people that she's attempted to keep off death row, seeking life imprisonment sentences instead. Plaintiffs she's represented include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Ted Kaczynski, Zacarias Moussaoui, Eric Rudolph, Susan Smith, Robert Bowers, and Jared Loughner.