TWO OF US. Giuliano, Geoffrey. 1999, Penguin Studio.

The subtitle reads: "John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Behind the Myth."
I'm not sure what the myth(s) the author's referring to. That they hated each other? That they co-wrote each and every song together? That they themselves were the myth?

Anyone reading this who's known me for a while, also knows I'm slightly obsessed with the Beatles for reasons I, myself, cannot explain. Well, except I love their music, and unlike some of the music from my youth, when I replay any given Beatles CD, it sounds fresher than ever.
I enjoyed this book so much I read it in one evening and the following morning. I could not put it down. The book portrays both the professional and personal relationship between Lennon and McCartney. Despite having listened to their songs for years, I found the author's insight enlightening and refreshing. Most of the information was gleaned from interviews over the past thirty years with the subjects, as well as their peers and family. It follows the two songwriters from the time they met as teenagers until the formal breakup of the Beatles.
After I finished the book this morning, I played almost all of my Beatles CDs through. I found THE WHITE ALBUM immensely refreshing, esp. the Lennon songs that I hadn't cared for all that much when I was thirteen. I have to still, after all this time, disagree with my Dad in his assessment that the Beatles' best stuff was pre-1966. No way, Dad. It is amazing how innovative, even today, the post-1966 music is, and how original and unique. There's still nothing like it.

Currently Reading:

FOUR QUEENS, by Nancy Goldstone.
and soon to read: SAVAGE KINGDOM, a book about settling Jamestown.

The World Without Us. (August 2007)

Peeling the Onion. Grass, Gunter.

Gunter Grass's infamous memoir revealing details about his involvement with the Waffen SS during WWII.
That's right, folks. The author of one of the most beautiful novels ever written and a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature served in the auxiliary for the Waffen SS. Ain't life rich?
Ok, well he was drafted into the SS and pleads ignorance on having known about the real dirty work of the SS at the time - his service was at the end of the war, as the Russians invaded Germany, including his hometown of Danzig, now part of Poland again. The real scandal about his memoir was that Grass had never revealed this information before. I understand his reasons for doing so, but I'm not sure I agree with his choice to keep it secret all of these decades. However, that may be easy for me to say, having never been drafted into anyone's war, much less the SS, and never having had my mother and sister raped by foreign troops, and my homeland completely devestated and annihalated. I, for one, see THE TIN DRUM as Grass's redemption.

I recommend this to only die-hard Grass and TIN DRUM fans, as it may be boring otherwise, even the parts detailing the war.