Lord of Garbage
by Kim Fowley (Kicks Books)
Fowley is a music man, but not in the jacket-and-tie mold of a Clive Davis or Tommy Mottola. As a producer, writer, performer, manager and more — his first hit was “Alley Oop” by the Hollywood Argyles in 1960 — he’s been on the wild side of rock ’n’ roll. The son of a pair of Hollywood B-actors, he describes his childhood as Dickensian. He calls legendary disc jockey Alan Freed a father figure and tells funny tales like about the time he had a choice of going onstage with the MC5 or dating Michelle Phillips. (He chose her.) Other musicians he’s linked to in this crazy quilt of a book included the Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Warren Zevon, Frank Zappa and the Runaways.
Gunfighter in Gotham
Bat Masterson’s New York City Years
by Robert K. DeArment (University of Oklahoma Press)
The famed tale of maverick cowboy avenger Bat Masterson is mostly hoax. But it was also a fascinating true story about old New York, historian DeArment writes in his book about the huckster of many hats who spawned the popular 1958-1961 TV series. The myth began in the 19th century when a young New York reporter, eager for a scoop on the Wild West, believed some exaggerated Kansas barroom banter about outlaw Masterson — and unwittingly roped his readers right in. Later, the real Masterson moved to Big Apple and became one of the most famous and colorful Gotham newspaper columnists of the early 20th century.
Blood Sisters
The Women Behind the War of the Roses
by Sarah Gristwood (Basic Books)
In England, everyone’s talking about the discovery of Richard III’s body in a parking lot. But in Richard’s England, the women were firmly in the driver’s seat, says historian Gristwood. When Henry VII took over Richard’s throne, it was because his mother, Margaret Beaufort, gave up her own claim in favor of her son. To strengthen his hold, Beaufort negotiated for her son to marry Richard’s niece, Elizabeth of York. The marriage ended the so-called Wars of the Roses and created a new dynasty: the Tudors.
After Visiting Friends
A Son’s Story
by Michael Hainey (SCribner)
When Hainey was just 6, his father, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter, died suddenly. For years, neither his mother nor other family members said much about it. At 35 and a journalist himself, Hainey set out in search of the truth — talking to relatives, friends and his father’s tight-lipped newsroom colleagues — his interest piqued by a line in his dad’s newspaper obituary that said he died “after visiting friends.”
The Beggar’s Opera
by Peggy Blair (Pintail)
For mystery fans who need a break from both our winter weather and the proliferation of Nordic crime tales, here’s a first-time novelist introducing Inspector Ricardo Ramirez of the Major Crimes Unit of the Cuban National Police. Havana is as much a character as the people in Canadian author Blair’s fast-paced story, which has Canadian cop Mike Ellis in Cuba for a warm-weather trip he hopes will fix his ailing marriage. Instead, he winds up arrested for murder. Ramirez is on the case.