Here are 10 books that My Effin' Life fans have personally recommended if you like
My Effin' Life.
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There is a reason we hail B.B. King as the King of the Blues. King is a cultural icon of immeasurable influence that extends far beyond the blues. De Vise tracks King's journey in great detail, from his Mississippi sharecropper upbringing, to his rise to fame among Black audiences, to breaking through with white audiences in the late 1960s, and ultimately achieving legendary status. An outstanding read, that gave me new insight into one of the 20th century's greats.
The first full and authoritative biography of an American—indeed a world-wide—musical and cultural legend
“No one worked harder than B.B. No one inspired more up-and-coming artists. No one did more to spread the gospel of the blues.”—President Barack Obama
“He is without a doubt the most important artist the blues has ever produced.”—Eric Clapton
Riley “Blues Boy” King (1925-2015) was born into deep poverty in Jim Crow Mississippi. Wrenched away from his sharecropper father, B.B. lost his mother at age ten, leaving him more or less alone. Music became his emancipation from exhausting toil in the fields. Inspired by a…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
If you like thrillers that involve dinosaurs, adventure, and quirky scientists, this is the book for you. It's like Jurassic Park with some humor thrown in. All of the Grant Coleman Adventure books are fun, but this one tops the rest. Russell James knows how to balance the suspense, danger, and action with the quirky one-liners Coleman is known for.
It seems like the perfect trip when paleontologist Grant Coleman joins a geology professor and an anthropologist to explore an unmapped canyon far out in the Utah desert. The sponsor’s team leader promises Grant he can take home all the fossils he finds.
On the first day at camp, an explosion strands the entire team hundreds of feet down on the canyon floor. It is soon clear that the mining company sponsor has more nefarious plans than the benign research they promised. The going is about to get tough for the three professors.
Dean Jobb incredibly well-researched book about 1920s' jewel thief Arthur Barry was a fascinating read. I'd never heard of Barry, but the book reads like an exciting novel as we follow his daring path to thievery—from remarkable successes to an eventual capture. I always love learning about weird and wonderful characters from the past, and Barry is absolutely one of them.
This captivating Jazz Age true crime tale about "the greatest jewel thief who ever lived" (Life Magazine), tells the incredible story of Arthur Barry, who charmed celebrities and millionaires while simultaneously planning and executing the most audacious and lucrative heists of the 1920s.
A skilled con artist and one of the most successful burglars in history, Arthur Barry was adept at slipping in and out of bedrooms undetected, even when his victims slept only inches away. He became a folk hero, a gentleman bandit touted in the press as the "Prince of Thieves" and an "Aristocrat of Crime." Think Cary…
Coyote weather is the feral, hungry season, drought-stricken, and ready to catch fire. It’s 1967, and the American culture is violently remaking itself while the country is forcibly sending its young men to fight in a deeply unpopular war.
Jerry has stubbornly made no plans for the future because he…
When I was six, I wrote an eleven-page epic about an adventurous otter named "Ottiga." The causality between that early effort and my career as a novelist is uncertain, but it did establish a pattern. I was the perpetual new kid on the block, and novels provided a pathway to escape the difficulties of being young and introverted. I learned that fiction is an antidote to loneliness; that it has the power to transport us to entirely new worlds, or to show us the familiar world in entirely new and unexpected ways. The speculative novels on this list did that for me, and I hope they do the same for you!
The true test of a good novel, for me, is if I finish it with a certain sense of wistfulness, a lingering emotional aftertaste.
With The Ministry of Time, that was definitely the case for me. I found the book frustrating at first for various reasons, but it definitely grew on me as I read on. Very smart and beautifully written, with an attention-grabbing premise and sympathetic characters that really stay with you.
I can see why it's been so popular, and I look forward to reading the next one from the brilliant Kaliane Bradley!
A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
I interviewed Lue Elizondo a few years ago for my book, We Are Not Alone, so it was personally exciting to learn even more about his life experiences that led him to the forefront of today's UAP discussions and public revelations. His story is undeniably a fascinating one, whether you believe aliens are visiting us or not.
The former head of the Pentagon program responsible for the investigation of UFOs—now known as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)—reveals long-hidden secrets with profound implications for not only national security but our understanding of the universe.
Luis “Lue” Elizondo is a former senior intelligence official and special agent who was recruited into strange and highly sensitive US government program to investigate UAP. To accomplish his mission, Elizondo had to rely on decades of experience gained working some of America’s most classified programs. Even then, he was not prepared for what he would learn, including the truth about the government’s long shadowy…
A vital narrative history of 1970s pro basketball, and the Black players who shaped the NBA
Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation’s imagined descent into disorder. A new generation of Black players entered the league then, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spencer Haywood, and the press and public were quick to blame this cohort for the supposed decline of pro basketball, citing drugs, violence, and greed. Basketball became a symbol for post-civil rights America: the rules had changed, allowing more Black people onto…
Homeless following the death of his adoptive parents in a car crash and the subsequent loss of their farm tenancy, Seb decides to enrol as a residential student at the Asklepios Foundation, a College of Natural Medicine, boasting a sanctuary modelled on an ancient Greek healing temple. Spending a night…
A Prisoner of Dreamland is truly a perfect title for this book because it makes you feel as if you are in a world that is slightly off kilter. Each story is different yet they are linked together by not just the style of writing but the unsettling feelings they invoke. I've read a lot of horror and weird fiction, but this one is unique - in a good way!
Here there be manticores!Welcome to Dreamland, where the stars are hungry and unspeakable horrors dog the dreamer’s heels.Things are seldom what they seem in Dreamland: forests are labyrinths and butterflies have teeth. Nor is there any reliable map of the twilight continent. Every oneironaut charts their own out of the whole cloth of imagination. Nor is dreaming always a private affair. Not when everyone in town shares the same dream, or a stadium full of fans participate in a Master Dreamer’s latest entertainment, or a dead sibling lures you into a haunted nightmare, or a killer leaves taunting clues in…
To a child of the 60s/70s, there are few personalities who loom as large as The Fonz. Henry Winkler, the man who brought Arthur Fonzarelli to life, is the polar opposite of his sitcom character. Anxious, in and out of fashion and work, the gaps in his career path would have caused others to simply give up. And yet here he is, a legend. From Happy Days to Barry and beyond, this book offers a thorough picture of a sweet man who I, for one, never tire of.
Henry Winkler was catapulted to worldwide fame as The Fonz in hit TV series Happy Days. When it ended, he could hardly find work. Through highs, lows and the roles that have won him a new generation of fans, this is Henry Winkler's funny, insightful and moving account of an extraordinary life.
Widely-regarded as the nicest man in Hollywood (though he would be the first to tell you that it's simply not the case, he's really just grateful to be there), Henry Winkler shares the disheartening truth of his childhood, the difficulties of a…
Another musical non-fiction book. I'm a huge fan of AC/DC, and even had a picture of Brian Johnson and Angus Young hand-drawn by a fantastic artist for my study, so reading this was always on my list. Brian is a Geordie (from Newcastle) and he has that earthy, working class humour that shines through every page of this book. I laughed out loud more than once while reading it. Not only is he a great singer and a funny guy, he's also a fine writer who knows how to tell an entertaining story. I tried to read his earlier book about cars and didn't find it very interesting, but this is much better.
Touching, personal, indomitable, but always laugh-out-loud funny, The Lives of Brian is the legendary story of one of the rock world's best-loved performers - and the many lives he's led
'Both a rollicking tale of rock's bygone glory days and a deeply human account of a working-class boy who never gave up' MAIL ON SUNDAY ___________
For over a decade rock legend Brian Johnson tried to make his mark with a succession of bands, yet big time success remained out of reach. But was he going to give up on his dream?
Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS
by
Amy Carney,
When I was writing this book, several of my friends jokingly called it the Nazi baby book, with one insisting it would make a great title. Nazi Babies – admittedly, that is a catchy title, but that’s not exactly what my book is about. SS babies would be slightly more…
I've listened to all of Du Maurier's classic audiobooks but hadn't tried this one (probably because it's far less celebrated than her other works). When I was decorating my living room this year I decided to give RULE BRITANNIA a go and I'm glad I did. It's a little bit of a silly plot with America taking control of Britain and an elderly woman causing trouble for the invading soldiers, but I just love the author's way of telling a story and I ended up thoroughly enjoying the book. Is it on a par with Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, or The Scapegoat? Not even close, but it's still a fun read.
'Daphne du Maurier told of Britain leaving the EU fifty years ago' LUCY SCHOLES, THE TIMES
'The spirit of Britannia embodied' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'She wrote exciting plots ... a writer of fearless originality' GUARDIAN
'It is rather awful, Emma thought as she walked across the fields down to the farm, how this business is leading us all into subterfuge and deception, and we can't really tell who is friend and who is enemy ... '
Emma wakes up one morning to an apocalyptic world. The cosy existence she shares with her grandmother, a famous…
