I Am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne

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Depending on your age and demographic, your familiarity with Ozzy Osbourne will stem either from his music career, as frontman of Black Sabbath, or from his later foray into reality TV, as the doddery, drugged-up patriarch in The Osbournes, which he filmed for several years with his wife Sharon and two of their three children, Kelly and Jack. 
 
In I Am Ozzy he recounts all of the above, and while the memoir features sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll from start to nearly finish, and the bones of the story are familiar, it is far from cliché. Born in 1948 to a working-class Birmingham family, young Ozzy (he is known by his given name, John, only to his family and his first wife) did poorly at school and was unable to hold down a job. He was, he says fortunately, dissuaded from a life of petty crime by a short stint in jail. (He notes that his poor literacy and inability to concentrate at school were explained in mid-life, when he was diagnosed with dyslexia and attention-deficit disorder.)
 
What Ozzy developed an early talent and affinity for was going down the pub. He says he has an addictive personality; even in the final part of the book, when he describes the past five years of full sobriety, he swaps his copious consumption of alcohol and drugs for tea, drinking eight or 10 enormous mugs a day. In a bid to cut down on smoking he gave up cigarettes for cigars, and was quickly inhaling up to 30 Cohibas each day.

Open: By Andre Agassi

Preceding Open’s publication was a classic media frenzy, stemming from the revelation that the text contained an admission by Agassi, one of tennis’ most beloved practitioners, that he used pure methamphetamine for a period during his career. Everyone from Roger Federer to Boris Becker to Martina Navratilova weighed in with personal opinion, most of it harsh.

Click here to read my complete review of Open as a Personal Choice.

Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger

Until January 15, 2009, Chesley Sullenberger, known to all as Sully, was just one of around 5,000 commercial pilots employed by US Airways. He had five years of military training and service, and nearly 30 years’ commercial piloting (close to 20,000 hours of flight time), under his belt. He rose to international celebrity on that chilly day when he safely landed Flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River after it was struck by a flock of Canada geese and lost all engine power. Sully saved the lives of all 155 people on board.

Highest Duty features a detailed account of what happened that day, but above all it’s a story of an American life lived with true goodness. What happened to Sully’s plane that day is a once-in-a-decade occurrence anywhere in the world; as he says, most commercial airline pilots will serve an entire career without losing even one engine. His calmness in handling such an unlikely and profoundly hazardous situation is explained by his account of his history of piloting. He fell in love with flying at the age of 19, when a local flight instructor in Sully’s hometown of Denison, Texas, began giving him lessons.

Despite his family’s shortage of money, Sully’s father, recognizing his son’s passion and talent and wanting to support his goals, found the money to fund most of the cost of the weekly lessons; Sully paid for the rest through after-school jobs.

Sully went on to train at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, and then served in the US Air Force, attaining the rank of captain. Crucially for his ill-fated flight many years later, he was a member of the official aircraft accident investigation board while in the Air Force, and then, as a civilian pilot, he served as an accident investigator. The many things he learned about aircraft incidents, including his study of a number of cases involving planes landing unexpectedly in water, contributed to the wealth of knowledge that allowed him keep the aircraft in one piece when he hit the Hudson.

Sully writes movingly about his wife, Lorrie, and their two daughters Kate and Kelly, and confesses that the very qualities that have made him an outstanding pilot – perfectionism, attention to detail, ability to control emotion, being extremely organized – have made him hard to live with. He says his wife has told him more than once: “Sully, life is not a checklist.”

But the real reason to read this book – and you should – is Sully’s detailed account of what happened that cold January day. His remarkable recall is aided by the cockpit recording (a full transcript and flight path illustration are included at the back of the book) of the words exchanged with his co-pilot Jeff Skiles and with the air traffic controller on the ground, Patrick Harten.

And just as Agassi’s book is not really about tennis, Sully’s is about much more than flying. I loved reading about the tens of thousands of people who sent him letters and emails in the wake of the landing: some were relatives of those whose lives he saved; others were people who had themselves survived plane crashes and wanted to share their memories; most were simply moved by the powerful story of catastrophe so skillfully averted. Few people have ever been yanked from anonymity as deservedly as Sully.

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson

Kerre warned me at the outset of our chat not to give away too much about The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, the final in the trilogy by Swedish journalist/novelist/crusader Stieg Larsson, who died prematurely, in 2004 at age 50, shortly after handing the complete series to his publisher. I wouldn’t dare; to do so would destroy the amazing treat in store for whoever picks up this 600-page delight of a political crime thriller. In fact, to some extent the three books, known as the Millennium trilogy, defy genre categorization. They involve complex family dramas, serial killers and sexual psychosadists, political conspiracies, journalistic crusades, international computer hackery, espionage, criminal industrialists, Russian defectors, sex crimes, corrupt psychiatrists and the Swedish secret police. And a love triangle or two.

If any of that appeals to you, I urge you to get to work on this little collection – it’s a trilogy that you can completely immerse yourself in for the duration. You could read The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest as a stand-alone book, though I wouldn’t advise it – you’d be cheating yourself. The first two books (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire) have many characters in common (including the primary one, The Girl of the titles, the remarkable Lisbeth Salander) and great plots of their own, and set up the complex stories that Larsson brings to fruition in the final instalment.

Part of my enjoyment of the series has come from learning about Larsson, an extraordinary character who quite literally worked himself into an early grave. He wrote the Millennium trilogy (which has to date sold 12 million copies worldwide) as a hobby, a distraction, from his day job as the chief editor of the left-wing, anti-fascist magazine Expo. His lifelong campaigning against right-wing extremism in Sweden took a toll on his day-to-day life; for the last 15 years, of his life, Larsson and his partner, Eva Gabrielsson, lived under constant threat from right-wing violence, particularly after a labour-union leader was murdered in his home by neo-Nazis in 1999.

According to the website stieglarsson.com, he fit the classic definition of a workaholic, working on the magazine and related political activity by day, and writing the books by night, while smoking 60 hand-rolled cigarettes and skipping most meals.

The aftermath of the books’ success is a story in itself; despite being with Eva for decades, because they never married, under Swedish law she is not entitled to any of the proceeds from the books, and Larsson’s father and brother, from whom he was estranged, are raking in the profits. Meanwhile, a film of the first book (the Swedish title is Men Who Hate Women) is in the works. Hopefully a subtitled version will show up in our neck of the woods.

Do check out stieglarsson.com for a full biography – his death was a loss to more than just lovers of good fiction.

Just in Time to be Too Late by Peta Mathias

On a more cheerful note, one of New Zealand’s true grande dames, Peta Mathias, has published a book about men, Just in Time to be Too Late: Why Men are Like Buses. It’s a companion of sorts to her 2008 book about women, Can We Help it if We’re Fabulous? and, as much as I liked that, I think this new tome is even better. For starters, I learned more. She retains the successful formula of assigning chapters by topic, including Work, Family, Relationships, Sex & Love, Food & Health, Sports (in which Peta goes off on an hilarious tangent about the sadistic battiness that is the Spanish devotion to bullfighting) Fashion, Gay Men (my personal favourite), and the delicious, save-the-best-till-last final chapter, entitled Why Men Lie, in which Peta (who is single at 60 but a great believer in taking lovers) tells the story of the scoundrel who broke her heart.

Peta is best-known to most Kiwis for her association with food and cooking; she has produced many cookbooks, is a newspaper columnist on the topic and has been the longtime host of TVNZ’s Taste New Zealand. She’s a tremendous self-actualizer, having returned to New Zealand in the early 1990s after 10 years in France with a plan to make a living working for herself writing about food. She has also established successful cooking schools in the south of France and Morocco.

A woman who has lived so well has a fair few stories to tell, and this is what makes her non-food books such thoroughly engaging reading. Peta is a great writer and does her research; Just in Time to be Too Late features Q&As with several men she knows, friends and acquaintances, who candidly offer their thoughts on everything from monogamy and children to food and footwear.

My favourite parts are Peta’s story of The Best Gay Man She Ever Knew, and her description of her wedding in France, at which all the guests wore black. One of the best New Zealand books of the year, for my money. Maybe we can make her a real Dame?

Since 2008, Paper Plus has held a series of successful Books & Bubbles events across New Zealand.  Alexander Communications have assisted Paper Plus in bringing these events to life, together with the marketing team, since the very beginning.

Paper Plus Books spokesperson, Kerre Woodham features as host in these events with (usually) one to two guest authors. This year, Alexander Communications was briefed to take these events to the next level with five high profile ‘metro’ events in the main centres.

Tarts for Tea was the first of the five metro events, held on Mother’s Day, Sunday 10th May 09 at SKYCITY. Proceeds from each event went to Cure Kids, Paper Plus’ chosen charity.

Kerre Woodham had the entire venue in stitches of laughter with her witty, but highly appropriate sense of humour. The marketing team headed up by Lyle Hastings have enjoyed an excellent relationship with Kerre Woodham. Kerre has a natural affinity for books. She throws herself  at the task of being the advocate of  good reading on behalf of Paper Plus. Kerre interviews Stephanie Jones from Alexander Communications on Newstalk ZB “Kerre’s Cafe” every three week on her favourite pics too.

High profile authors Mary Lambie, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, Suzanne Paul and Wendyl Nissen were invited to take part in the event as guest panelists and to promote their books.

Alexander Communications distributed a media release together with a box of tarts to mainstream and local media, inviting them to attend the event to which we had a positive response. New Zealand Woman’s Weekly featured the event with five double passes to giveaway on their website. Denise, Suzanne and Wendyl were each interviewed by Kerre Woodham on NewsTalk ZB and Mary by Mel Homer on EasyMix. The event was also featured online on eventfinder.co.nz, classichits.co.nz, thebreeze.co.nz and coastfm.co.nz, Scoop, Voxy and InfoNews.

Ticket sales went extremely well with the event becoming a sell out and having to turn away people, and the online ticket purchasing website shut down. More than 500 guests filled the room and had a roaring good time as each author and Kerre spoke about their books. Each guest was treated to a goody bag including a full size product from key sponsor L’Oréal Paris. Prizes included a $500 pamper pack from L’Oréal Paris, a ‘Mother Daughter’ necklace from Pascoes and a hamper from Dulcie May Kitchen.

A Prime News reporter attended the event to film the guest speakers and featured a segment on the Sunday 10th May news at 5.30pm.

Many of the guests on the day indicated that they would definately attend another event. Watch this Space!

Kerre and I disuss the latest novel from John Grisham, The Associate, and The Past and Other Lies by Maggie Joel.

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