From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars

By: Virginia Hanlon Grohl (foreword by Dave Grohl)

Hennepin County Library hardcover 214 plus bibliography and acknowledgements

Published: 2017

Genre: non-fiction, motherhood, rock stars

 

I don't know how this title came across my radar, but it was so interesting! I love how she focused on the moms of these stars. It was nice to learn about the mothers who raised these famous musicians.

 

Mary Weinrib was one of the interviewees. Her son Gary Lee "Geddy Lee" was in Rush. Her story was amazing! She was a Holocaust survivor.

 

Page 84: Mary shakes her head at the memories of those difficult times. She was in the middle, trying to keep peace between her hard-rocking son and her kosher-keeping mother. "I survived the war and the concentration camps," she recalls. "But I also survived the war in my house. When I was a kid, I didn't know I'm gonna come out alive. But I knew I'd come out of this alive . . . bruised, but alive!"

 

Turbulent teenagers . . . can definitely be a challenge! 

 

Hanlon Grohl included several vignettes throughout the book of interviews with other moms. One of them really caught my attention.

 

Page 89 (Vignette #5): My favorite event is the Kennedy Center Honors annual presentation. On one prestigious evening each year, a few of our best and brightest artists are chosen to be honored for their lifetime of work in the arts. Other artists perform their music and sing their praises as these icons receive medals. The event is filled with newsmakers and newswriters. . . . After these, all eyes turn to the first balcony, where the president and his wife are seated next to the honorees. There are many standing ovations.

 

Ugh. I feel sorry for artists under our current administration. What a farce the "Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Arts" has become. I'm glad that it used to be an amazing experience to participate in the honors.

 

A LOT of these moms recognized that their talented children were struggling in regular school classrooms. A LOT of these musicians were seen as underperforming and "not working to their potential."

 

Page 127: Val fairly simmers as she tells the story. She and I have both been through this territory many times. It is hard to forgive school programs that can't find ways to generate interest from kids who show great talent and commitment to artistic endeavors. It is my profound hope that someday, somehow, our school systems will begin to reflect the diversity of their student population.

 

In this section, the author is talking with Val Matthews, mother of Dave Matthews (of the Dave Matthews Band). The moms of many, many rock stars are included in the book. Kelly Clarkson, Pharrrell Williams, Dr. Dre, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown, and so many more are included. Very cool.

 

Page 139: Zac is still grateful for the dinners the Meekses and other families cooked for him and for his Christian faith for keeping him "solid" during that time. 

 

This is when Zac Brown's dad and stepmom relocated but let him live in his own apartment to finish his senior year of high school.

 

Page  141: As my afternoon with Bettye came to an end, I was more convinced than ever that the things mothers are most proud of are the magnanimous efforts our sons and daughters make that reach far beyond their music and their fame.

 

This idea that the parents are most proud of their famous kids when they are good human beings. I can relate! (Not with the famous kid part, but of being thankful that they are wonderful people.)

 

Page  174(Vignette #10): It should be noted, though, that most of us secretly value unreported acts of generosity and kindness even more than prestigious trophies. We are most proud of commitments to family or community that reveal the real essence of the man or woman our child has become, that show us "It's times like these you learn to live again . . . / It's times like these you learn to love again," as the songwriter I'm so proud of put it.

 

Again, she addresses the pride and love she has for Dave AND her daughter Lisa a lot in this book. It really is a beautiful testament to mothers' love. She included Kurt Cobain's mom and Amy Winehouse's parents in this, acknowledging how the darker side of fame can be painful.  

 

Page 201: She says her philosophy of good parenting is quite simple: "Anybody in the world can raise a child well if they pay attention to him. That's my theory. you really have to listen, to pay attention."

 

This comes from Mary Morello, mother of Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. For a woman born in 1924, she was quite the traveler and free thinker. It was fascinating to read about all these different women.

 

Page  207 (Vignette #12): "Food Fighters?" people asked me for years. "No, Foo," I explained, trying to sound patient. "From the World War II flying squadrons that thought there were UFOs waiting to invade European fronts." There are varying interpretations of the name, but all agree that foo was the mispronounced French word for fire, feu. That's really all I know about it. I wasn't consulted on naming the band, and that's probably a good thing. Weird as it was, Foo Fighters sounded a lot better to me than the names of some of David's earlier groups: Dain Bramage and Freak Baby. Band names mystify me. The Beatles, for example. Misspelled by young lads who were playing their guitars when they should have been doing their lessons? Or a word cleverly coined from the noun "beat"? Pink Floyd. What's that about?

 

I think my favorite parts were all the photographs and the interview with Pharrell's mom. This book was a delight. But I still don't really know why I requested it from the library . . .  Oh! And Dave Grohl was in Nirvana until Kurt Cobain's death. Then he formed the Foo Fighters. It's a pretty cool story. His mom (the author) died in August 2022, five years after publishing this book.

The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists

By Ravi Zacharias (Foreword by Lee Strobel)

Donated hardcover 128 pages plus notes and index

Published: 2008

Genre: non-fiction, theology

 

This was perhaps a bit too theological for me. I'm not really interested in Christian apologetics, (Grace Theological Seminary defines it as, "Christian apologetics is the intellectual, reasoned defense of the Christian faith, derived from the Greek word apologia (a formal defense or answer). It seeks to provide logical justifications for Christian beliefs, remove intellectual obstacles to faith, and counter objections, usually based on 1 Peter 3:15, which calls for gentleness and respect in dialogue.")

 

But our pastor had mentioned this author a few times and when someone was donating books, I grabbed it out of curiosity. It's pretty well-written in terms of clarity. I especially liked when the author related what he was teaching to something in his own life. 

 

Page 39: As individuals and collectively as cultures, we humans long for meaning. But if life is random, we have climbed the evolutionary ladder only to find nothing at the top.

 

I would be curious to hear how an atheist would respond to this, but I really do not enjoy that type of dialogue / debate. I know why I believe in Jesus, but I also understand some of non-believers' barriers to belief.

 

Page  41: Pleasure without boundaries produces a life without purpose. That is real pain. No death, no tragedy, no atrocity - nothing really matters. Life is sheer hollowness, with no purpose.

 

I think my teenage brain would have enjoyed wrestling with these ideas more. The meaning of life is a big deal and raises lots of questions! (It did for me, anyhow.) Part of the reason Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy appealed to me as a teen is because of this wrestling about the meaning of life. Trying to re-read it as an older adult, it just seemed inane. The pursuit of pleasure for pleasure's sake does not provide fulfillment.

 

Page 55:   

• When you assert that there is such a thing as evil, you must assume there is such a thing as good.
• When you say there is such a thing as good, you must assume there is a moral law by which to distinguish between good and evil. There must be some standard by which to determine what is good and what is evil.
• When you assume a moral law, you must posit a moral lawgiver - the source of the moral law.

 

This was one of those places where his arguments seemed so logical and straightforward. He goes on to anticipate the challenges an atheist would make to these points. It gets very confusing for me. My aging brain does not love the mental gymnastics.

 

Page  63: Isn't it ironic that when Islam is in a position of power, Islamic beliefs are forced on everyone, and that when atheism has the upper hand, atheistic beliefs are enforced on everyone? Only in Christianity is the privilege given both to believe and to disbelieve without any enforcement.

 

This is part of why I think many non-believers are rejecting the new Christian Nationalism that some people are espousing. People want to be free to believe or disbelieve without coercion. That said, I'm glad I live in America and enjoy more freedoms than many other humans on Earth.

 

Page 77: Using his same argument, he may as well say that the problem in the world is males - if we could just eliminate all males under twenty-five, we would have a better world.

 

This seems out of context, but Zacharias is responding to Sam Harris' assertion that Muslims are responsible for a long list of ills. Zacharias is extrapolating his remarks to other groups and pointing out that Harris wouldn't be able to be published if he said such things about African-Americans, for example. But I started thinking about it . . . if the United States got rid of one population to make the world a better place, which would it be? I'm not sure males under the age of 25 would be the place to start. (Plus, I would defend my grandsons with my own life.)

 

Page  82: The boundary-less life of sensual pleasure is a field of landmines, fraught with the real risk that even the very possibility of pleasure might be blown away.

 

That idea of boundaries again. I don't know if I've ever really known a true hedonist, but to be so focused on your own wants and pleasures seems incredibly selfish and ego-driven.

 

Page 88:  It seems to me that the gospel writers understood the likes of atheists better than atheists understand themselves or, should I say, better than atheists care to understand themselves. Those of us who have spent half our lives wrestling with these kinds of arguments recognize hostility for what it is and know when arguments go beyond the boundaries of what is believable.

 

I think I flagged this because I don't want to wrestle with these arguments! And that's okay. God has a plan and a purpose for me, but I don't think it's to become a theologian.  I sometimes worry that I'm dumbing down my own thinking, but there are only 24 hours in each day and there are so many things to do! I'd rather read those gospels and ponder God's Word than dig into argumentation.

 

Page  99: Jesus worked by changing the heart, not by legislating. Legislation can only force compliance. It can never produce the love necessary to change an attitude.

 

Praise God! Jesus has changed my heart. And He's still working on me. 

 

Page 123: I plead with society to allow the diversity of religious beliefs to be heard in the marketplace of public dialogue. Let the individual weigh the facts for himself or herself and see where the truth lies.

 

 I enjoyed reading this book and appreciate his approach (He used to be an atheist himself!) in sharing the reasons to refute Sam Harris' book The End of Faith. This entire book is basically refuting Harris' book. I'm fine with donating this. I won't re-read it.

 

 

Send for Me

By: Lauren Fox

Libby audiobook 7 hours

Read by: Natasha Soudek

Published: 2021

Genre: Historical fiction

 

This book sounded promising, but after investing two and a half hours in listening, I decided to call it quits. I don't usually blog about a book I didn't finish, but I think my quick notes show my confusion.

 

Julius and Clara (?) - daughter Annalisa - 15 y.o. / 18 y.o. 

Max ("mocks") and Katerina and their 7 year old . . . killed in Auschwitz (Annalisa reads about them sixty years after . . . )

Ugh! Time bouncing around too much!

"Secret society of the life givers" and "sisterhood of the swollen ankles"

Annalisa noticing other parents and children once she gets pregnant

 

Sudden switch to Claire! And Ruth? Who are these people? Why are we suddenly in the United States? 

 

Claire / weddings / mothers and daughters

"The house you grew up in was your psyche's excretions. . . . "
 

This is where I gave up. We've learned a lot about Clara and her relationship with her daughter Annalisa . . . and Annalisa's infatuation with Max, then her marriage to the shoe salesman. Then as she is becoming a mother, there is an abrupt change of protagonist. From reading the book's blurb, I can see where this is going, but I have no more patience for it. There's nothing to indicate that switches in time and place are being made. It's too chaotic to jump around in time. 

Heartwood Hotel: A True Home

By: Kallie George

Libby audiobook 2 hours

Read by: Amy Melissa Bentley

Published: 2017 (this version )2024

Genre: Children's fiction, talking animals

 

I had checked out a few short kids' audiobooks for when I took my grandson to Pizza Ranch and a play at NPMS (right before the blizzard started a few weeks ago). He chose this one to listen to. We only got halfway through, but I had him finish it the next week while I tried to get his brother down for a nap. Then I finished listening.

 

Mona is a little mouse whose house got flooded in a big storm. She came across the Heartwood Hotel and was taken in to help as a maid. Tilly the squirrel is not very kind to her, but Mona tries her best to help out and she appreciates the seed cakes and having a safe place to stay.

 

I like how brave she is in talking with the bear and coming up with a plan to foil the wolves. Cute little story. Apparently the author is working on book six in the series! 

The French Kitchen

By: Kristy Cambron

Dakota County Library paperback 362 pages plus author's note and acknowledgments

Published: 2025

Genre: Historical fiction, WWII

 

I won't be able to attend our book club discussion tonight (3.30.2026), but I'd probably be a bit of a wet blanket anyhow. I didn't enjoy reading this book. There were too many time jumps (both in year and in which month of the year) and those made it challenging to follow the story line. There were also too many double identities. I made a cheat sheet . . . and there may be spoilers in this entry. There were positive aspects to the story as well; I just didn't care for this book. 

 

The one theme I did appreciate is "don't look back" and the notion of moving forward into the future rather than living in the past.

 

I did, however, make lots of notes. Because of course I did.

 

Page 18: Decisions - their weight had the ability to sink or save the heart. Trouble was, you never knew which road you'd chosen at the beginning. 

 

Sometimes we weigh decisions carefully and other times we just choose. But each decision we make has impact and Gavin realizes this. 

 

Page 19: A lump formed in her throat and she fought against it, battling to do the thing she'd always been best at - pushing emotion out of the equation until all that was left was the comforting strength of resilience.  

 

This is definitely not me! Stuffing my emotions is not something I'd be accused of doing. Kat is such a strong woman and her strength comes partly from her own resilience. It kind of bothered me that Cambron didn't incorporate faithfulness into this book.

 

Page 58 - the December 1951 scene where Leo / Xandré is presented as Mimi's husband and Kat / Celeste is blown away. This was where my cheat sheet really helped me. It was a bit convoluted, but all my questions were answered by the end of the book. Sadly, it was a bit too late for me.

 

Page 71: She recognized it with every blitz bomb and bullet and beautiful soul they'd wiped from the earth, without justification or certainly without mercy. 

 

I loved Manon! Her heart for innocent people's suffering and her careful threading of resistance while cooking for the German officers was amazing.

 

Page  73: She was struck by what she hadn't felt for so long in their war-torn world, save for when working alongside Valens: unyielding kindness. 

 

Kindness is powerful! I loved that Manon fell in love with Dominique / Gavin. For some reason, I kept forgetting that Valens was her father-in-law and not just a nice old male co-worker. I loved that I recognized so many of the cooking terms from all the time I've spent watching The Great British Baking Show!

 

Page 112: Before he even realized what he'd just revealed, the spark hit touch paper, and Kat rose with a fierceness that cut him to the core. 

 

WHAT DOES THIS SAY? Read this sentence carefully. I did - about twelve times. Is "touch paper" a thing? Did the spark hit or touch the paper? I just did not understand this at all. 

 

Page 125 - August 1943 - Kat is taken for torture as a . . . test? Thrown in a trunk, water boarded, . . . Jeffrey / still in the US! This seemed very out of place, but the scene does show her incredible strength and ability to be an OSS agent.

 

Page 154 - We finally learn why Kat has the scar on her shoulder! She was pierced by a tree limb when she parachuted out of the plane hit before it got to their actual drop point . . . That had been bugging me. There were lots of references to it in the first 150 pages and I guessed it had happened during the war. I finally found out how she got the scar, but now I'm wondering why it was so significant.

 

Page 225 - Gavin. Is Dominique. He and Kat meet in the town near the chateau. Seriously? The biggest driver of the story is Kat wanting to find out what happened to her brother during the war and she just runs into him in town?

 

Page 278 - It was always the hint of something beautiful next to brokenness with him. 

 

There were a lot of places where beauty and brokenness co-existed. The fact that this was in reference to Gavin / Dom made me wish we had learned more of his story (as we learn of Kat's). 

 

Page 338-340 - Kat finding Gavin and Manon. WHY?! The author explains why they were in hiding, but don't tell me they couldn't have found a way to communicate they were alive to their family members within the seven years following the war. This just bothered me a lot.

 

The book just didn't resonate for me. But I liked the food parts! There were lots of codes, secret identities, etc. and I generally like mystery type stories.