Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I can understand why people enjoy this book, but I can't fathom why it's getting rave reviews. The writing was palatable and the style in which it was written didn't even bother me, but I didn't love it, it doesn't deserve 4+ stars. Two stars is generous.

A quarter of the way through the book and I'm realizing that this is it, this is the story, and I'm disappointed. I've heard it before, numerous times, thousands of variations. I grew up watching VH1 Behind the Music, and all I was seeing here was an ultimate mashup. The overall theme of sex, drugs, and rock and roll has been done, anyone that has seen a documentary on any band formed in the 70s knows exactly how this is going to end.

Each character was a bland, cookie cutter facsimile of competing leads, apathetic pragmatists, hot heads, and sleazy outliers. It was the 70s, so of course there are drugs, but the problem with addictions is that they can only end in two ways, through sobering up or in flames. There is true love and one night stands, unrequited love and convenient companionship. All of this bandied about and outlined as an interview, it plays out exactly like any one hour expose on E! Television.

It had its moments of humor and some standout lines, but each song was "the one", everyone said something "that really stuck" with whatever person, so many times did Daisy sing "from her gut" it was no wonder why she was high all the time, it had to be painful constantly singing so raw. Cliche is an understatement.

This book starts out bland and stays that way, a few mild bumps in the road, but nothing to propel you to the end except for the promise of the last page.

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Toil & Trouble: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Brilliant! It was absolutely beautiful.

I remember seeing something about it and so I put it on hold at the library. That was awhile ago, so when it popped up in my Kindle, I loved the title but I had no recollection what it was actually about. When I started reading it, it read a lot like fiction, but then when I checked out the author, it all came back to me that it was a memoir and then I was really intrigued. Especially since I had read Running With Scissors years ago and hadn't made the connection that it was the same author.

Anyway, throughout the entire book I was just swept up in the storytelling, the imagery of the house and his upbringing, not to mention his abilities. Even if you are a skeptic, which I most certainly am, he still tells a damn good story. So vivid are the details, his humor is dry and sarcastic, I want to go back and read all of his works leading up to this one.

Reading this was so much fun and delightful and I wish we were friends because he sounds like he would be so much fun to sit with and chat.

Check out my notes for the book for a few of my thoughts throughout the novel.

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