Van Halen: Exuberant California, Zen Rock 'n' Roll

Diamond Dave as a Zen master? Eddie Van Halen as musical monk? That's the case John Scanlan makes -- tongue only partly in cheek -- in this learned but lively take on Van Halen's rise to the pinnacle of rock stardom, improvising all the way. Philosophy you can dance to.

June 19: On this day in 1816, the Shelleys, Lord Byron, and entourage gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva to tell the ghost stories that would trigger Frankenstein. This most legendary of storm-tossed evenings inspired…

Very few debut novels exhibit the charm, assurance, emotional depth and bravura fabulation which the lucky reader will discover in Helene Wecker's

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