viewOathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe by David M. Perry, Matthew Gabriele (2025)
Warnings from the Carolingian Empire about our current era. To be familiar with 2025, we get Brinkmanship, bloody battles, and family infighting deconstructed and reexamined. Charlemagne’s offspring did not honor him.
Perry and Gabriele are dynamic public historians, deploying a lively narrative and sharp scholarship. The use of poetry and participant reflections builds empathy for players in this epic soap opera.
I appreciate the reminder that egos, power-mad schemers, and an endless supply of nepobabies are centuries-old tropes. The authors spare no one as they posit elites can be the stupidest of us, then and now.
Place a library hold.
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viewThe Uncool: A Memoir, Cameron Crowe, Audiobook Read by author (2025)
Note: This is part of a series on memoirs read by their authors. #AudioMemoir
Previously in this series: Neko Case
Coming soon: Wayne Kramer, Evan Dando, Larry Charles
Listening to Crowe’s warm narration as he mines his teen music journalism years for laughs and tears, it felt like Almost Famous: Writer's Cut.
A love letter to the 1970s, with Rock Stars galore, from Lou Reed to Dicky Betts. Tales of long tours, late nights, and chance encounters. All guided by mentor Lester Bangs.
Light on movie career, but has choice Fast Times stories. Even winning an Oscar is quick business.
Not the box set of his life, rather a double album. But in the end, it is a story about a family in San Diego.
Listen to it.
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viewDeath of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (2025)
In January, I wrote, “I feel bad for the rest of the books I will read this year.” As we wind down 2025, my statement holds.
No spoilers, but multiple stories power this novel. Advanced bio-prosthetics, driverless cars, and battle bots all feature in the plots. The narrative is American, African, and Galactic, expanding by the powers of ten.
Okorafor gives a soul and voice to what is artificial. Through that alchemy, she quilts together a complex, creative, and cautionary story about our collective walk into AI Evolution with intimacy and scale.
A novel for the Neo-Neolithic age.
Read it.
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viewRed Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone (2024)
Helming Robert E. Howard's Red Sonja, author Gail Simone demonstrates a bard's touch for the Sword & Sorcery genre.
Simone celebrates the character's excesses and writes her lively action sequences, on the battlefield and in the bedroom. At times, overburdened by side quests, but the epic boss battles thrill with clear emotional stakes.
Chapters opening with historical documents, folklore, and societal analysis ground the narrative in a larger world but in inventive ways.
The Falcon's “Blood Man” is a devastating character study of violent male fragility. His POV chapters are like reading the manifesto of a real-world incel terrorist.
Read it.
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viewThe Blacktongue Thief – Christopher Buehlman (2021)
Branded deadbeat by his thieves guild, rare of coin, but still a romantic optimist (when he's feeling lucky), protagonist Kinch Na Shannack colorfully narrates us along his macabre adventures.
What unfolds is a rollicking low fantasy adventure—more taverns and flophouses than courtly castles. Kinch picks up a motley crew, including a red wine-obsessed knight who stores giant fighting birds in her tattoos, a paraplegic witch who enchants recently deceased torsos to walk, and an assassin cat.
Magic systems and world-building are inventive but subtle, opting to start small and grow.
Ever the trickster, Kinch is a riot. Read it.
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viewNeko Case – The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir (2025)
Most will start this expecting Neko's tales of Rock & Roll, only to read a memoir about poverty, family pain, and generational trauma. Case presents a stark look at growing up poor and neglected in North America.
There are some music business bits, but they feel like addenda to her rich story. Music helped save her, but it's only part of her narrative. Her quest to find her Slavic heritage resonated with me, from horse-riding women warriors to lady wrestlers to The Muffs.
Her writing crackles with verve. She dashes off analogies, deploying wordplay with a songwriter's touch. Listen to it.
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All reviews on Larry's 100 are exactly 100 words. Read why →