Ten pages into this book, I was smiling because it turns out Jennings and I had a very similar childhood fascination with maps. Finally, I thought, soTen pages into this book, I was smiling because it turns out Jennings and I had a very similar childhood fascination with maps. Finally, I thought, someone who GETS ME! I was so nerdy about maps and geography that in high school I took a dual-enrollment college course in cartography (I think I was the only student who actively wanted to be there rather than just breeze through to fulfill a credit requirement.) This is a book made for map geeks, mapheads, and geography wonks. I especially enjoyed the chapter on the Geography Bee (I entered one in middle school but was eliminated on the first question, about Lake Baikal), the illustrations of countries and states with very similar shapes, and the geography quiz in the back (I scored 22/40, gotta brush up on my trivia!).
Overall the book is engaging, but there are a few chapters and topics that I felt were too broad in scope; I'm not into geocaching, and the chapter about the Traveler's Century Club seemed like it was more focused on people who want to check countries off a list rather than actual geography nerds. I would have preferred a little more focus on the history of cartography, or more examples of how maps have influenced politics or culture, or interesting facts about geographical borders, etc. And more illustrations! But this is a fun book regardless and definitely worth a read if you are a maphead....more
Terrible excuse for a biography: no interviews, no sources cited, full of typos, incoherence, and no editorial oversight. There are sentences that makTerrible excuse for a biography: no interviews, no sources cited, full of typos, incoherence, and no editorial oversight. There are sentences that make no sense; the subject and verb don't align, sentences and phrases are repeated verbatim in different paragraphs as though copy + paste were used, the wrong person's name appears as the subject of a sentence, etc. Multiple times I had to go back and re-read to see if I'd skipped some information; no, it turns out the author neglected to mention some vital detail that became important later. The book opens with an unbearably long, pointless, and tedious history of John Phillips' ancestors and his childhood that I skipped for several CHAPTERS until I finally got to the formation of the group. No other member gets more than a few paragraphs of background information. Also the book is filled with dialogue but no citations. Where did Shea get his information? Did he just make up all the conversations depicted in the book? There's a bibliography in the back, but no sense of what was used for source material.
The section about the Monterey Pop Festival takes over 60 pages and describes in detail every single act, what time they played on stage, which songs they played, who was in the band, what they wore, how they were received by the audience, etc...which would be great if this were a book strictly about the Festival, but that wasn't supposed to be the book's focus....more
Self-published, riddled with typos and historical inaccuracies, and badly in need of an editor. There is no linear narrative; the timeline jumps all oSelf-published, riddled with typos and historical inaccuracies, and badly in need of an editor. There is no linear narrative; the timeline jumps all over the place and it's chaotic and hard to follow. One moment we're in 1968, then the next paragraph is an anecdote about something that happened in 1965, then there's a vague mention of stuff that took place possibly in the 1970's; suddenly we're at Woodstock with Janis in 1969, but immediately in the next paragraph Caserta claims Janis was afraid she'd be "fired" from Big Brother...a band she'd left in 1968. For good portions of the book, Caserta doesn't mention any dates at all. I had no idea if an event or anecdote was taking place in the 1970s or 1980s. At one point she mentioned using her house as collateral for a friend's bail bond, but then pages later she talked about buying the house for the first time. This jumping around in time is incredibly annoying and confusing. Likewise, verb tenses change mid-paragraph from past to present tense.
Caserta also tells stories that contradict recorded events in other, well-researched biographies. And there is no excuse for writing things like "By August of 1969, the Kent State massacre had happened." Come on. Even if you can't recall the year it happened, it takes three seconds to Google that it was May 4, 1970. I realize she spent two or three decades as a junkie and her memory may be fuzzy about certain things but that's no excuse for not having an editor look over your book.
Based on this laziness, I can't trust that anything in this book is factual. And it's not even very entertaining....more
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