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A musician’s dive into three gripping reads.
In 1999, the California-based trio Blink-182 burst onto the charts with infectious tunes like "What's My Age Again?" and "All the Small Things." Combining high-energy songcraft with a potent live act, Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker quickly earned a standout place in the era's pop-punk Renaissance. After a four-year hiatus, Blink-182 returned to touring and recording -- and the acclaim of fans worldwide -- in 2009. The groups's bassist and singer Mark Hoppus spoke with us about his three favorite books.
By Robert Kurson
"It's the true story of a group of scuba divers who discover a sunken German U-boat off the coast of New Jersey. It's a thrilling, can't-put-it-down type of book, as they search to identify a submarine with no record of having been where it was found."
By Thomas Harris
"I read this book back when I was in Junior High. It freaked me out It's the original CSI! It gave me nightmares for months and made me want to become a crime scene investigator -- but I started playing bass instead."
By Raymond Chandler
"Based in Los Angeles during the '40s -- it's crime, suspense, tough guys, detectives, gorgeous women. The foundation of Los Angeles film noir. There's a reason Humphrey Bogart starred in the film adaptation."
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"The moral and philosophical questions that Henry wrote up as fiction and William as science," Jean Strouse writes of her subject's more famous brothers, "Alice simply lived." It took a biographer of sensitivity and brilliance to give that "simply" the profundity it deserves, and the resulting book, now reissued in the peerless NYRB Classics series, is one of the richest life stories you'll ever read.
The world of Jane Austen's fiction has long been an imaginative playground for writers and readers of a certain stripe. Shannon Hale's Austenland wittily took the next step, setting comic romance in a faux-Pemberly resort for the Darcy-smitten. Her latest returns for more Regency fun, but with a twist: does murder stalk Pembrook Park?
Childlike retreat? Arts and crafts challenge? Frugal and eco-friendly living option? The notion of the "tiny house" has the surprising potential to fire the imagination. In this exuberant volume of sketches, plans, and commentary, the artist Derek Diedricksen shares his infectious enthusiasm for the idea of the micro-mansion.
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