“Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is another book one of my students recommended to me, and they have some good taste! It’s a fictional oral history of a fictional band in the 70s that had a hit record, a sold out concert in Chicago, and then suddenly called it quits. I loved it, it resonates just enough with real life while being about love and relationships and art.

The book starts with Daisy Jones as a groupie in LA. She’s gorgeous and talented, but she wants to be more and doesn’t have anyone looking after her. She gets in drugs real deep real early, and eventually lands herself a record deal where she wants to sing her own songs but gets stuck with covers. Meanwhile The Six are a separate band forming from the depth featuring the brothers Billy and Graham, Karen on keys, Pete on bass, Eddie on guitar, and Warren on drums. They have a decent first record and hit the road. Right before they leave Billy learns his girlfriend Camilla is pregnant so they get married right before getting on the bus. On tour Billy gets too deep into drugs and girls, once they’re done he sees his daughter and gets clean, goes into rehab and learns to be there for his family.

The Six starts their second record and they have a song that’d benefit from a female voice so they bring in Daisy Jones. Right away it’s a struggle between Billy and Daisy, but she ends up joining the group by the end. For their third record the two of them agree to write together, and it becomes clear that Daisy has feelings for Billy. Billy might have feelings for her, but he’s determined to stay sober and doesn’t let himself get near her. It culminates on tour where they are fighting and in separate buses. They eventually make up somewhat, but after the concert in Chicago Billy’s wife Camilla goes to Daisy and says that she won’t let her family be broken up and she doesn’t want this for Daisy either. She recommends Daisy leave.

At this point it’s revealed that the author is Billy’s daughter. In the aftermath Daisy gets on a flight out of there and the band breaks up. They each go their separate ways. Then it’s revealed that Camilla died before this book was written, and she told her daughters that after she dies to tell Billy to call Daisy and write another song.

There is so much in this book that didn’t get into the summary, like Eddie fuming over his lack of control in the band. Karen and Graham start sleeping together and then break up when Karen has an abortion. Their producer Teddy is integral to The Six and he dies right before that last concert. The attention to detail with all of the characters is really something to behold, everyone gets an arc and a story. In particular I was really impressed with the hot mess that is Daisy Jones. I hated her for most of the story, she walks this fine line between being a spoiled brat and a feminist icon. I think it works by the end, you start to feel for her as she gets herself together more. What a great, flawed character to have.

So much of the book is about music and what it means to people. A lot of it is the drugs and sex sure, but it’s also about how these people view art and life and love. Billly talks so much about how he writes music and what it’s about for him. Mostly Camilla, but also more generally. Daisy as well, she starts off writing half assed stuff but comes into her own.

Camilla is by far the most interesting to me though, even though she takes a backseat. She constantly is having to believe in Billy and his ability to stay sober and faithful to their family. And she talks about how she has to choose that every single day. She didn’t choose the most stable relationship but she is choosing to make this work. I think that’s so interesting as a framework for a relationship. Maybe someone else would have been unhappy with that but she seems to like it and fight for it. And I do think that love and relationships are ultimately a choice, you either make it work or you choose to not. But that isn’t a very common interpretation outside of aromantic communities. I thought she was terrific as a character because the conflict is fundamentally less about Billy’s romantic relationships than it is about control of the music and the band which is way more interesting to me personally.

I saw that the book was made into a miniseries, but it appears to be much more focused on the relationship drama. I’m not sure if I’ll watch it as a result but it cool be fun. We shall see. For now though, I really liked the book and I’m so glad I picked it up. Probably the rest of Reid’s works are just as fascinating!

This Is Beautiful: Sir Patrick Stewart

 I didn't write about this because I have been spending a lot of time crying, but it is so nice to see the outpouring of love and support in response to Sir Patrick Stewart's death. I adopted him as my gay dad years ago (he isn't gay fyi) and I watched a whole lot of Star Trek: Picard just to see him act. I was so devastated with the news, I don't think anyone really knew he was sick. He was just in "Sheep Detectives" as one of the sheep and kept so active up until he died. 

Anyways, I've been encouraging friends to watch his series of Shakespeare sonnet readings, someone was kind enough to collect them on YouTube. He posted these once a week during COVID lockdown in 2020, and I tuned in religiously. He was such a kind man and a brilliant actor. The English language never sounded so beautiful.

“The Youngest Science” by Lewis Thomas

I have had this book on my to read list for so long, I was so happy that I was finally able to find it and cross it off! This book follows the career of Dr. Thomas, the author, from when he was a child with a father as a doctor to then going himself to medical school to then research to running medical schools. There is an interesting mix of notes on the practice of medicine, interesting research avenues, and a memoir on being in medicine.

The parts of this book that interested me the most were the notes on the practice on medicine. This book is older, it was published in the 80s, and the author went to medical school back in the 30s. It is really interesting to see how it has all changed! He talks about how the issue of medicine was largely to make accurate diagnoses, there wasn’t much to be done in the way of treatment. Diseases just kind of took their course. There are also really interesting statements about the role of technology. In the present day and age, I can’t not think about AI and how this is all changing around us. And Dr. Thomas comes strongly against a lot of it, he doesn’t want physicians to be managing technology all of the time and not interacting with patients. Which I entirely agree with, we need to keep the human element in all of this. Also if my physician puts my symptoms into like ChatGPT in front of me I’m leaving, that isn’t worth my copay.

The parts on research largely didn’t interest me, mostly because the science is for sure out of date. I’m not an expert in immunology, which is what is covered here, so I am not going to like break down the advances in science. But it is interesting to hear about his life through these anecdotes.

A big part of Dr. Thomas’ life is going around from school to school in different roles. Which is fascinating to hear about as well! He seems to have had a lot of different positions and had a large network. I do wonder if that is how hiring still goes for leadership in medical schools or if that has changed as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still a lot of people calling in their friends.

It looks like Dr. Thomas died back in 1993, but he wrote many more essays on medicine and other books as well on the subject. What an impressive career! I’m glad I was able to pick up his work!

This Is Beautiful: Home for Halloween

 Last weekend I headed back to my base of operations for my PhD to celebrate Halloween. It was a really nice time! Got to see the animals and partner, plus see friends at a Halloween party. I also got to catch the Halloween show at my previous circus studio. Which was really nice, I always like the Halloween show and it seemed like the performers were having more fun with it this year, last year it was really angry and sad. Anyways so it was a fun weekend, I'm sad that I have to keep parting from my partner but such is this position and life that I chose here.

“March” by Geraldine Brooks

This book was really sweetly recommended to me by a student in one of my classes, I had to take him up on it and read it after that! The idea is that it tells the story of what the father is experiencing throughout Little Women while he is off at the Civil War. There are also parts with the narration from Marmee’s point of view as well. I thought it was an amazing read!

The book opens with Pa March in the middle of a battle, trying to save other soldiers but being forced to flee. He in particular tries to save a boy who cannot swim, but he thrashes away. From there, it flashes back to him as a traveling salesman and staying on a cotton plantation for some time. He doesn’t like slavery, but he is enamored with all of the leisure time, and so stays a while. He ends up teaching one of the kids to read and is caught, then expelled from the place. Fast forward and he is back at the plantation as an army chaplain and meets one of the women there again. Eventually he is told to get off of the unit as his abolitionist talk is making the men uncomfortable so he transfers to a contraband farm to teach the former slaves.

He enjoys his position there for a while, he eventually gets along fine with the owner and they establish a nice farm for themselves. The army outpost though moves on and they are set upon by irregulars from the Confederate army who capture the slaves. Pa has a narrow escape but is determined to save the owner and as many as he can. This triggers fighting and shooting, everyone is either killed or captured save one former slave that drags Pa off to a hospital before disappearing. This is when Marmee comes to get him. She finds him being tended to by the nurse, who is the woman from the original plantation. When he comes to he is beset by grief and regret, he wants to go back out there and try to make things right, but then Beth gets sick. He heads home, seeing the ghosts of the people he couldn’t save in his daughters.

One of the strengths of this is that the book can be much more political with Pa’s narrative. He talks directly about the war and slavery to just about anyone. Marmee is also active politically, she helps with the Underground Railroad and gets them involved with financing Brown’s venture as well. Little Women is about life on the outskirts of war, Pa is in the middle of it.

I also really appreciated having Marmee’s point of view at times. She can seem too angelic and perfect in the original text. Here she is annoyed with her husband for going to war and being a dreamer instead of living with his family. It makes for a refreshing and realistic change.

The book ends with a note about the sources for all of this. Pa is heavily based on Louisa May Alcott’s father, turns out that he was quite the radical in his day. He wasn’t a preacher but a teacher, hence the teaching on a contraband farm. The timing of the war and that farm even was messed with a little, but it is based on real experiences during the war. Additionally the hospital Pa finds himself in is based on Alcott’s experiences as a Civil War nurse which I thought was a nice touch as well. Some passages are from the novel itself, such as some of the letters Pa writes home. It makes for a very compelling read as it feels like it fits with the original novel like a puzzle piece.

I thought this was an excellent read and a great suggestion from my student. I’ll have to tell him how much I enjoyed it.

This Is Beautiful: "Travesties" by Tom Stoppard

 Last weekend I saw a Tom Stoppard play that I'm not super familiar with, "Travesties." I really liked it, it made me want to check out a copy of the script or something to get in deeper. It was written in the 70s as a response to the Vietnam War, but it's about folks in Switzerland during WW1 and the Russian Revolution. It borrows from "The Importance of Being Earnest" heavily, and how people who were really there end up swapping and making up identities to flirt with women. 

The wordplay was classic Stoppard fast and furious, which is partially why I would want to see a script. I felt like I wasn't getting half of what was happening. There was a part lifted from "As You Like It" by Shakespeare and I was tickled by that, but I'm sure there's more to uncover. And I just enjoyed the combination of theater and writing and Dada art that gets highlighted on stage. Plus there was a whole segment where one of the characters is spinning in a lyra and yelling about the proletariat revolution in Russia which was so fun. 

Anyways, would highly recommend. I feel like there isn't a ton of Stoppard that gets highlighted beyond "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" and maybe "Arcadia" but I'll have to add this one to the list.

Durham, North Carolina

Over Labor Day weekend I took a day trip to Durham! I wasn’t sure if there’d be enough to see since it was on a Sunday, but I was really pleased with the trip.

I started over at the science museum since that’s out of the way of the town for the most part. The inside portion is primarily for kids although there is a neat local wildlife exhibit. Outside is more interesting, there’s a butterfly room and farm animals that I liked a lot. Apparently past that are the dinosaurs but I couldn’t take much more of the kids so we moved on.

From there I went downtown, I really wanted to check out the food scene and the Museum of Durham History. I did get an excellent pizza, and the museum was small but a lot of fun. They have an exhibit up on Durham Pride marches which I always enjoy learning about.

After that I ended my day over at the Duke campus. The gardens were delightful to walk through, and I thought the chapel was so pretty. And finally the art museum on campus, also on the small side but with a fun collection.

So it was a quick visit, but I got to see a lot of the town by heading to 3 different stops. Parking was free except for on campus lots but those were $2 an hour so not that bad. I’d still love to head back sometime and see more of the place!