Book review: 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith

Ecco. 279 pp. $27

"I want to be a poet," Arthur Rimbaud wrote in May 1871, at the age of 16, "and I'm working to make myself a visionary: you won't understand at all, and I can hardly explain it to you. . . . The sufferings are enormous, but you have to be strong, to be born a poet, and I've realized I'm a poet."

Almost exactly 100 years later in New York City, Patti Smith stood in front of an audience at St. Mark's Church as part of the Poetry Project and chanted the opening lines of "Oath": "Christ died for somebody's sins/But not mine." The audience included poets Anne Waldman and John Giorno ; Warhol Factory luminaries like Lou Reed , Gerard Malanga and Warhol himself, as well as members of the music intelligentsia such as Lillian Roxon, Todd Rundgren and Harry Smith . Rock-and-roll critic-cum-guitarist Lenny Kaye provided musical accompaniment , the first time the church's rafters echoed to an electric guitar. After that night, Smith was a star, "bombarded with offers" from magazines, publishers, a record company.

Happy Tree Friends - Books of Fury

A special Happy Tree Friends episode that features Buddhist Monkey. Watch him unleash volumes of vengeance on evil paper perpetrators! Episodes ...

From a Distance (Timber Ridge Reflections, Book 1)

Bethany House Publishers

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Product Description

What happens when the realization of a dream isn't what you imagined... and the secret you've spent a lifetime guarding is finally laid bare?

Determined to become one of the country's premier newspaper photographers, Elizabeth Westbrook travels to the Colorado Territory to capture the grandeur of the mountains surrounding the remote town of Timber Ridge. She hopes, too, that the cool, dry air of Colorado, and its renowned hot springs, will cure the mysterious illness that threatens her career, and her life. Daniel Ranslett is a man shackled by his Confederate past, and he'll do anything to protect his land, and his solitude. When an outspoken Yankee photographer captures an image that appears key to solving a murder, putting herself in danger, Daniel is called upon to repay a debt. He's a man of his word, but repaying that debt could reveal secrets from his past he would prefer remain buried.

Forced on a perilous journey together, Daniel and Elizabeth's lives intertwine in ways neither could have imagined when first they met from a distance.


Hide in Plain Sight (Three Sisters Inn, Book 1)

Steeple Hill

List Price: $5.50

Product Description

She couldn't turn her back on her family in their time of need. So when her sister was injured, financial expert Andrea Hampton traded the big city for Amish country to help turn her grandmother's house into an inn.

But life with the Plain People took a treacherous turn when a string of accidents and pranks threatened her family. Someone didn't want the secrets the old house harbored to come to light. Trusting anyone-- even the handsome carpenter who seemed so genuine--was a battle for Andrea, but her life depended on her ability to find the truth.


Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)

Scholastic Press

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Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

 


Motorcycles, Sushi& One Strange Book (Real Life)

Zondervan

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Product Description

Normal? While family dinners and vacations to touristy destinations are ordinary events for her 'normal' friends, fifteen-year-old Jessie Hatcher's normal life means dealing with her ADHD and her mother's bipolar disorder. So why is Jessie shocked when the unexpected happens? Now her 'normal' includes living in Florida with the father she always thought was dead and learning the secrets of sushi from a man who teaches by tormenting her. Life isn't any saner with her dad, but a cute guy and a mysterious book might just be the crazy Jessie needs.

The Book Thief

Alfred A. Knopf

List Price: $12.99
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Product Description

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.


From the Hardcover edition.