A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

In a series of short stories we discover one man's effect on popular music in the past, the present, and the near future. Also, we see the world around him and it's interconnectedness.

Bennie was a punk kid in a rotten band who couldn't get a date. Bennie is a record company owner navigating a new world of tech. His long-time assistant takes care of everything - and pockets quite a lot, too. Her best friend in college met a terrible end. Her son is interested in pauses during songs.

This book won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and I have no idea why I have not read it until now. It's all the things I love: music, fandom, quality writing, interconnected short stories.

The Excellent Lombards by Jane Hamilton

As the second generation growing up on a Wisconsin apple orchard, Mary Francis Lombard has a contented life full of farming and extended family. She can't imagine a different life, or even one she'd prefer.

The child narrator of this adult fiction novel offers a unique perspective on the family and business of the orchard - she sees the world through a kid-shaped window and often doesn't necessarily understand what she sees and hears. She's precocious and curious about the grown-ups but often believes her own fictions rather than the truth. The adult relationships around her take on a fuzziness; they're less important than the make-believe war between cousins or the wonder of a new teacher.

This is a quiet novel of rich characters and small dramas. There's a lot of family and almost-family at the orchard - it's practically a commune and various relatives share several houses on the farm. There's also a caring, tough female "hired man" who suffers a great and terrible love story.

I loved this book, and since I have friends who own an orchard I understood more than I otherwise might have about the seasonality of the work to be done. The small dramas of the story make for a quiet novel about family and growing up, and an overall excellent read.

Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz

Craig and Lio's friendship seems to be leaning towards something more than "just friends," but each boy carries a heavy burden of grief into their fresh, budding relationship.

The dark pall of 9/11 is only a year in the past, and the Beltway Sniper is all over the news; schools and parents are on high alert to perceived threats and security concerns. Which only makes things more stressful and tense for one boy missing his first big love and another whose twin is dead. They try to find solace and happiness together, but it's a lot to process when you're just a teen.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the realistic way the 24/7 news coverage of public security threats affect the people in the book - many of them take it very personally, in a fashion that's true to the time. While the relationship between the teens is at the center of the story, their homosexuality is in no way the dramatic core of the book.

There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll by Lisa Robinson

Lisa Robinson has been everywhere and knows everyone ... or at least, most of the cool music people you wish you knew. That's what this book is about: a behind-the-scenes look at rock stars from the 1970s through today. It's not Robinson's memoir or autobiography; you only learn bits and pieces about her through the other stories. Instead, the book is about the people who make music, who tour to entertain us, and what they're like outside the spotlight.

Robinson toured with Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, but she's not a relic of rock days gone by. Did you catch the book title is an Eminem lyric? Robinson's stories run the gamut from New York Dolls to Kanye West, Jay-Z, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

There's no real cohesive timeline or thematic evolution in the order the stories are told. For the most part they work from oldest to newest, but that's not strictly enforced. It's more like a casual sit-down with a great storyteller who's had some awesome experiences.

I enjoyed the book, but if you're not already a music fan you won't be convinced; you really need a little knowledge going into this book to get the most out of it. And she's not terribly concerned with helping you place these icons into any perspective - the deep thoughts and philosophy will be strictly your own. She may have been the only sober one at the party, but she was more concerned with having fun than gaining any real insights.