Slash by Slash and Anthony Bozza

Book Description
From one of the greatest rock guitarists of our era comes a memoir that redefines sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll
He was born in England but reared in L.A., surrounded by the leading artists of the day amidst the vibrant hotbed of music and culture that was the early seventies. Slash spent his adolescence on the streets of Hollywood, discovering drugs, drinking, rock music, and girls, all while achieving notable status as a BMX rider. But everything changed in his world the day he first held the beat-up one-string guitar his grandmother had discarded in a closet.
The instrument became his voice and it triggered a lifelong passion that made everything else irrelevant. As soon as he could string chords and a solo together, Slash wanted to be in a band and sought out friends with similar interests. His closest friend, Steven Adler, proved to be a conspirator for the long haul. As hairmetal bands exploded onto the L.A. scene and topped the charts, Slash sought his niche and a band that suited his raw and gritty sensibility.
He found salvation in the form of four young men of equal mind: Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler, and Duff McKagan. Together they became Guns N' Roses, one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time. Dirty, volatile, and as authentic as the streets that weaned them, they fought their way to the top with groundbreaking albums such as the iconic Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusion I and II.
Here, for the first time ever, Slash tells the tale that has yet to be told from the inside: how the band came together, how they wrote the music that defined an era, how they survived insane, never-ending tours, how they survived themselves, and, ultimately, how it all fell apart. This is a window onto the world of the notoriously private guitarist and a seat on the roller-coaster ride that was one of history's greatest rock 'n' roll machines, always on the edge of self-destruction, even at the pinnacle of its success. This is a candid recollection and reflection of Slash's friendships past and present, from easygoing Izzy to ever-steady Duff to wild-child Steven and complicated Axl.
It is also an intensely personal account of struggle and triumph: as Guns N' Roses journeyed to the top, Slash battled his demons, escaping the overwhelming reality with women, heroin, coke, crack, vodka, and whatever else came along.
He survived it all: lawsuits, rehab, riots, notoriety, debauchery, and destruction, and ultimately found his creative evolution. From Slash's Snakepit to his current band, the massively successful Velvet Revolver, Slash found an even keel by sticking to his guns.
Slash is everything the man, the myth, the legend, inspires: it's funny, honest, inspiring, jaw-dropping . . . and, in a word, excessive.

Sweet Serendipity: Delightful Desserts and Devilish Dish by Stephen Bruce

Serendipity 3 is New York's legendary dessert restaurant and boutique. On it's 50th anniversary, this book was published to give the world an amazing but simple collection of dessert recipes enjoyed by anyone who has ever dined there. Treat yourself to a Strawberry Fields Sundae or a Frozen Hot Chocolate, a favorite of stars ranging from the Kennedy family to Cher! Let these desserts help you capture the heart of your sweetie this February.

Questions for discussion:

Have you ever been to Serendipity 3?

Have you tried any of the recipes from the book?

Street Logos by Tristan Manco

Editorial review from The New Yorker:
Over the past decade, many graffiti artists have moved away from painting their signatures in the familiar wide-style lettering (a practice known as "tagging"). Instead, they leave—and make—their mark with pictograms that become personal trademarks. Thus, a Belgian artist known as Plug appends large, cartoon electric plugs to machines in public places, while Cha, an academy-trained painter, adorns the walls of Barcelona with Picasso-influenced cats. Manco's colorful survey of this D.I.Y. subculture spotlights some seventy artists working in the service of an impulse that is variously subversive, ironic, pop, celebratory, and dogmatic. In this medium, recognition is everything, and Manco's subjects are heavily influenced by the use of logos in advertising; the London artist Banksy terms his work "Brandalism." Exuberantly inventive, they enjoy responding to, and even altering, each other's work, to form what the New York-based artist Swoon calls a "community of actions." Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Edward S. Curtis by Hans Christian Adam

From the Taschen Books website:

In search of lost time

For over thirty years, photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952) traveled the length and breadth of North America, seeking to record in words and images the traditional life of its vanishing indigenous inhabitants. Like a man possessed, he strove to realize his life`s work, which culminated in the publication of his encyclopedia "The North American Indian." In the end, this monumental work comprised twenty textual volumes and twenty portfolios with over 2000 illustrations. No other photographer has created a larger oeuvre on this theme, and it is Curtis, more than any other, who has crucially molded our conception of Native Americans. This book shows the photographer`s most impressive pictures and vividly details his journey through life, which led him not only into the prairies but also into the film studios of Hollywood.

About the author:
Hans Christian Adam studied psychology, art history and communication studies in Göttingen and Vienna. As a specialist in historical pictorial material, he has published numerous articles and books, including titles on travel and war photography. He is the author of TASCHEN’s Edward Sheriff Curtis: The North American Indian, Karl Blossfeldt, Eugène Atget: Paris and Berlin.

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

The Stolen Child is a classic tale of leaving childhood and the search for identity.
Stolen from his family by changelings, Henry Day is given the name "Aniday" by the ageless magical beings, who replace him with another child who takes his place with his parents, a young boy who posesses an extraordinary gift of music.

About the author:
(from the Novelist book discussion guide)

Donohue had many childhood experiences in the forests and swamplands surrounding the tiny Maryland town where his family lived from the mid-1960s.
Donohue returned to his native Pittsburgh for college, earning a degree from Duquesne University in 1984. He was already a writer, paying his way through college with two creative writing grants. After graduating, he returned to the Washington, DC, area to take a job at the National Endowment for the Arts; his thirteen-year tenure there, as a speechwriter to three directors and as a Director of Publications, would coincide with the height of the culture wars. In his off hours, Donohue continued to write fiction, placing short stories in small journals, and pursued his doctorate, earning a Ph.D. in English from the Catholic University of America in 2002.

Questions for discussion:

What is the purpose of the pseudo-scientific discussion of fairies, hobgoblins, and changelings that opens the novel?

What does the novel seem to be saying about children and childhood?

What is the role of memory in The Stolen Child?

What do Aniday's writing, Henry Day's music, and Speck's map share?

How are Henry Day's and Aniday's lives linked?

How is Henry Day's childhood different from other children's?

Is The Stolen Child a "fairy tale for adults," as some reviewers have called it?

Did you like the book? What did you like or dislike about it most?

The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards

In this collection of 14 stories set all over the globe, Edwards explores the lives of those who exist on the fringes of society. Among them are a fire-eater, an American and his Korean war bride, Madame Curie's maid, a first-time sky diver, a trapeze artist, a rubber plant worker, an Englishwoman who has lived in the Third World for 30 years, and the daughter of a prominent anti-abortion protestor. Though their tales vary dramatically, each comes up against the barriers of place and circumstance in the most universal of experiences: the quest to discover and understand the elusive mysteries of love.

Questions for discussion:

Which story did you like the most and why was it your favorite?

Which story did you like the least? What didn't you like about it?

What did the characters in the stories have in common?

Have you read Kim Edwards' bestseller The Memory Keeper's Daughter?
If yes, how does the Secrets of a Fire King collection of stories compare to The Memory Keeper's Daughter?

Bust by Adam Resnick

From the book cover:

On the surface, Adam Resnick was your typical guy next door, a dynamic young businessman, a devoted husband and father of two. But Adam spent nearly two decades as an obsessive gambler, chasing his habit from casino to casino, bookie to bookie, winning and losing millions, often in mere hours--until one day he received a phone call that was his moment of reckoning, and that marked his transition from lifelong addition to awareness and recovery. Bust is a true-life tale of a man whose gambling roller coaster finally stops and he has to winback millions in a day or lose everything.

Adam Resnick grew up in a typical middle-class Wisconsin household. From early childhood, he exhibited behavioral patterns that would later define and drive his gambling. Before his indictment in 2005, he had built a successful career as a health care entrepreneur. In January 2007, after pleading guilty to wire fraud, Resnick began a forty-two-month term in federal prison.

Questions for discussion:

What did you think about the book?

Do you think the book paints a realistic picture of the world of gambling?

Have you ever gone to a casino or gambled? How does it make you feel?

Have you ever known anyone with a gambling addiction or other addiction?