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Arnold Schwarzenegger Be Useful Seven Tools For Life Book Review
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been one of my heroes since I was a little kid.
I love most of his movies, and his current show on Netflix Fubar is a lot of fun too.
His autobiography Total Recall is excellent.
And this book, Be Useful Seven Tools For Life, is quite good also.
Released on October 10 of 2023, this book is part self help/part autobiographical/part inspirational/very positive.
I so wish I could be as positive and driven as Governor Schwarzenegger is.
I’ve been a fan since I was little, but I’ve never been confident or driven and ambitious like he is.
I don’t know if I ever could be.
Either way, I enjoyed this book very much.
I’ve been lucky enough to meet him and just be in the room with him a few times, courtesy of the Arnold Sports Festival.
I can tell you he is very much as he appears to be. Very smart, confident, positive, driven, focused, disciplined, and much more. All the things I’m not.
But still, he is a hero to me and he always will be.
Check out this book.
And as he says “Be useful”.
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Sting Broken Music Book Review
I’ve been a fan of the singer/songwriter/musician Sting for decades.
I’m a fan of his work with The Police and his solo work.
He’s a tremendous talent all around.
I’m also a fan of his book.
Broken Music was released in 2003.
In the book, Sting talks about his upbringing, his parents, school days, first getting into music, early bands, early relationships (including his first marriage and becoming a father), and the initial days of The Police.
It’s a great book, but I do wish he would have talked more about the rest of his career.
But his intention was to talk about his early days, and he does that quite well with this book.
If you are a fan of Sting, you need to read this book Broken Music.
And in order to know what he means by “Broken Music”, you have to read the book.
Please do.
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Ian Gillan: The Autobiography of Deep Purple’s Singer by Ian Gillan w/David Cohen Book Review
Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan released his autobiography in the late 90s.
Called Ian Gillan: The Autobiography of Deep Purple’s Singer, he talks about his upbringing, early bands, playing Jesus for the Jesus Christ Superstar album, his stints with Deep Purple (3 stints, 3rd time was the charm, staying to this day), his solo stuff and brief time as the singer of Black Sabbath, fun, wild rock and roll road stories, and just his life basically.
It also includes some of his lyrics interspersed throughout, when talking about certain life stories, in which he wrote into song.
It’s a fun read and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of his or just a fan of music, bands, and life on the road.
Like I said, this book was initially released in the late 1990s, but has reprinted a few times.
Ian is still going strong with Deep Purple, FINALLY being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, still making albums, actually releasing a new album in 2024 and still touring.
Ian Gillan is one of my favorite singers and I’ve been blessed to see him in concert 3 times as of this writing.
He’s always been great and always will be, as far as I’m concerned.
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Tom Selleck You Never Know: A Memoir Book Review
Tom Selleck has been one of my favorite actors since I was a kid.
He released his memoir called You Never Know: A Memoir on May 7 of 2024.
It is a great book.
It by no means covers everything that has happened in his life, but he focuses on certain parts of his life and career throughout the book.
He talks about trying to hang on to his basketball scholarship and deciding to take a theater class because he thought it would be an easy A.
Well, when he started taking the class, his instructor told him he could get him an agent. Tom being new at this said Oh-Kay. This agent ultimately got him some jobs but also got him an appointment with the then head of 20th Century Fox, in which he was sent to their studio system program.
Tom says in this book that his career was really an accident because he never had aspirations or dreams on being an actor. But through studying, hard work, and luck, and as he says throughout the book, laying down bricks, he became an actor and eventually a very successful one.
He talks a lot about his time starring in Magnum, PI (as he just calls it Magnum).
I love the whole book, but these parts of the book are especially a big deal for me because the show Magnum PI came along at a very tough time in my life growing up. I had moved to a new state, with all new people, and had to try and get used to that.
Magnum was the one of the few shows I watched at the time (two shows a day in reruns on two different stations) and I really clung to this show. I really needed it at the time and I will be forever grateful to Tom Selleck John Hillerman (RIP), Roger E. Mosely (RIP), Larry Manetti, Donald P. Bellisario, and everyone involved in Magnum PI. Thank you so much for all of your hard work and dedication to the 8 years that show was on the air.
Tom also talks about some of his movies, including The Sacketts and The Shadow Riders (two of my favorite movies ever), High Road To China and Lassiter (two really good movies he did while filming Magnum), Three Men and a Baby, and how he ALMOST became Indiana Jones for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Read the book to find out more.
Again, I love this book and Tom Selleck will forever be a hero to me.
I wish he would have talked about some of his other work too (Such as the movies Runaway, Her Alibi, Folks, An Innocent Man, and other. He touches on Blue Bloods some too but not a lot.) but I still love the book and I especially love all the Magnum stories.
And, thanks to Premiere Collectibles, where I purchased this book from, I was able to get a signed copy. Thank you so much for that. I’ve wanted his autograph for 30 years and now I have it.
Thank you so much.
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The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage by Nick De Semlyen Book Review
The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage is a great book about movie action heroes of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Released in 2023, Nick De Semlyen has written a very good book about a few of the biggest action heroes of all time.
The action heroes included in this book are Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Dolph Lundgren, Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and Bruce Willis.
Each star has some of their history chronicled throughout the book, and some even overlap because some of them worked together at certain points in time.
Lots of great stories here.
If you are a fan of these stars, like I am, then I highly recommend this book.
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Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap Stories Book Review
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Randy Bachman has released three books.
Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap Stories is one of them.
This was released in 2011 and chronicles some of Randy’s stories of working with The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO for short), and working with several other musicians and just life stories.
All of these stories and more he has told on his successful radio show/podcast Vinyl Tap, which lasted from 2005 to 2023.
Randy has tons of fun music stories, and I highly recommend reading this book.
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Shattered Love: A Memoir By Richard Chamberlain Book Review
Movie/Television/Theater actor Richard Chamberlain released his autobiography Shattered Love: A Memoir in 2003.
I first became aware of Richard when I watched his movies King Solomon’s Mines and Allan Quatermain and The Lost City of Gold as a kid.
I know those movies are not on top of his favorite works list and that’s OK. But I loved them then and still do.
Richard has done a lot of great works over the years (Dr. Kildare, The Towering Inferno, The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, Centennial, Shogun, The Thorn Birds and it’s sequel (or “mid-quel” as he called it), and many others, and he talks about some of them in his book.
He has a lot of great stories.
However, his book is about much more than his life in the entertainment business.
His book is much more about finding oneself, everything around us, and how to become a better person.
He took most of his life to finally come to peace with his upbringing (he had a psychologically abusive Dad), hiding his true self from most people, and just ultimately being.
I suppose it does take your whole life to accomplish this, if you ever do.
Richard got into meditation and learned from many people and books about ways to try to “just be”.
I applaud him for being able to do it.
I’m not saying he’s perfect. No one is. But he was able to find some peace and “just be”.
I know I will never be able to do it. It is impossible for me to “just be”.
I wish I could but I can’t.
Anyway, I found Richard’s book a great read and I recommend this to anyone.
And even though he may not be wild about them, thank you Richard for making the Allan Quatermain movies. They were an important part of my childhood and I’ll always love your work in them.
Thank you.
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Miles The Autobiography by Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe Book Review
I have been a Miles Davis fan since I was a teenager.
My brother got me into his music.
Miles Davis (1926-1991) is one of the biggest contributors to Jazz music and just music in general.
His trumpet playing influenced so many and his music is timeless.
He had a great ear for music and for talent.
He worked with a lot of great musicians, some of whom were Charlie “Bird” Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and soooooo many more.
His body of work is phenomenal.
Such classic albums such as ‘Round About Midnight, Kind Of Blue, Bitches Brew, and a TON of others.
This book, released in 1989, is about his life, told by him in his words.
No filter. It’s all there.
He was one of a kind and there will never be another like him.
Seek out this book and his great music.
You won’t regret it.
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The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx By Nikki Sixx Book Review
I’m a huge Motley Crue fan, but I was late reading Motley bassist/songwriter/founder Nikki Sixx’s most recent book.
The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx, was released in 2021, and as the title suggests, covers Nikki’s first 21 years of life leading up to the formation of Motley Crue.
The book actually starts more in the present about Motley getting back together (a few years after their “Final Tour”) to do a stadium tour.
Once Nikki talks about that, he goes back in time to the early years of his family, him being born, and a lot of things that happened in his first 21 years of life.
This is not a long read, but it is a fantastic read.
I highly enjoyed this book.
Yes I’m a fan, but I would have loved it anyways because I am such a music fan and a fan of autobiographies.
Autobiographies are my favorite type of book and even though Nikki has put out other books (The Dirt, The Heroin Diaries, This Is Gonna Hurt) he still has a lot to say, and he went into much more detail about his early years in this book.
Again, not a long read, but such a great book, though.
Check it out.
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Heaven And Hell: My Life In The Eagles (1974-2001) by Don Felder With Wendy Holden Book Review
I was super late to this, but I finally read Don Felder (ex lead guitarist of The Eagles) book earlier this year.
This book, called Heaven And Hell: My Life In The Eagles (1974-2001), was released in the late 2000s.
Don collaborated with author Wendy Holden on this book.
As the title suggests, this book chronicles Don’s time in the hugely successful band The Eagles. It also talks about his life leading up to being in the band and afterwards.
In short, it’s Don’s autobiography, and if you are a fan, I highly recommend reading this book.
Lots of stories. Lots of details.
As a side note, I also highly recommend seeing Don in concert. You will not be disappointed.
Don is an extremely talented guitar player and actually is a very good singer too.
He sings/plays The Eagles songs in concert and does a great job. He also has a few really good solo albums too. Check them out.
And check out this book.
Even if you are not a fan of The Eagles but just are a fan of music and bands in general, then this is quite the book to read about music and the music business.
Very good read.
