Friday Reads is a new weekly feature here on
Cityline.ca, where we give you a behind-the-scenes look at what
Cityline guest experts and staff members are reading. Each week we’ll
put the spotlight on the “Friday Reads” of two of our crew. This week,
we’re taking a peek at the bookshelves of Tracy Moore and Sandra Martin.
Tracy Moore, host:
I saw a review for Deborah Copaken Kogan’s The Red Book (Hyperion) in an edition of People Magazine and wanted to read it immediately. Firstly, I loved Copaken Kogan’s first book Shutterbabe (about reporters who cover wars), which I read in Journalism school when I dreamt of being a war correspondent. Stop laughing! Yes I know I talk about sofas for a living…but I was hardcore back then.
Anyway, this book looks at four Harvard graduates who roomed together and are all attending their 25 year reunion at Harvard. Since my latest fixation is learning about “WASP” culture, this book was amazing at explaining the social strata that exists at an Ivy League melting pot like Harvard. Even though the book runs out of steam at the end and throws in some surprise twists to boot, I enjoyed every page.
Sandra Martin, Cityline guest expert and Today’s Parent executive editor:
I always knew I was a bit of a goody-goody – but reading Scar Tissue (Hyperion), the biography of Red Hot Chili Peppers front man Anthony Kiedis (written with Larry Sloman), made me feel like a nun. Actually, Kiedis makes Keith Richards look like a nun.
At the tender age of 12 (when I was asking my parents for a Cabbage Patch Kid), Kiedis smoked marijuana and had sex for the first time, abetted by his drug-dealer dad. (Young Anthony’s sexual partner was dad’s girlfriend at the time.) As a teen, he jumped off low-rise apartment buildings into swimming pools with his friend, and later band mate, Flea – until the day Kiedis missed the pool, flattened his vertebrae and spent part of the summer in traction.
Into adulthood, Kiedis’s thirst for risk-taking led him to hardcore drugs like cocaine and heroin – and a serious addiction. Yet despite the self-destructive behaviour, and the death of their first guitarist from an overdose, the Chili Peppers carved out a place in rock history, first as a cult act on the Los Angeles scene, and then as a multi-platinum record-selling supergroup. Kiedis’s success also came despite so-so skills as a singer: He admits that his ability to croon the band’s famous “Under the Bridge” in tune is hit-and-miss, and recording vocals on the band’s breakout cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” took multiple takes and much coaching.
If Scar Tissue were made into a movie, it would include an unending parade of walk-on players. Among the celebs who crossed Kiedis’ path: Cher (who “babysat” him), Nirvana (who shared a bill with the Chili Peppers on several occasions), actress Ione Skye (one of his countless girlfriends) and Sinead O’Connor (who shared an odd, unconsummated romance with the notorious skirt-chaser).
Definitely not for the faint of heart, this is a down-and-dirty rock fable – and a phenomenal long-weekend read.
What are you reading this Friday? Tell us in the comments what books are currently residing on your bedside table!