Scars of Sweet Paradise

By Alice Echoes,

Book cover of Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin

Book description

The undisputed queen of sex, drugs and rock n' roll was also the voice of a generation who, when she overdosed on heroin at the age of twenty-seven in October 1970; became the posthumous icon of bad girl femininity for millions around the world.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews Echolsā€¦

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Why read it?

1 author picked Scars of Sweet Paradise as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Thanks to this book, I know that a great biography can also serve as a penetrating lens into an era. Yes, this is a book about Janis Joplin, but I do not value it because I care particularly much about the tragic specifics of her life, as much as I respect her music.

I love this book because it serves as a deep dive into the links between the often tritely-considered 1960s triumvirate: sex, drugs, and rock ā€˜nā€™ roll. Echols does not lightly throw around the word ā€œcountercultureā€ā€”thatā€™s a big pet peeve of mineā€”but takes the reader on a tourā€¦

From Jennifer's list on hidden histories of American subcultures.

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Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

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