A Sick Life (Watkins)

A Sick Life: TLC 'n Me: Stories from On and Off the Stage, by Tionne Watkins (2017)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

The title "A Sick Life" is has a double meaning in that it is "sick" (slang) the life that being a part of a successful singing trio leads to, while at the same time acknowledging the struggles that Tionne Watkins (I assume Tionne is pronounced like Dionne) had with a crippling disease that she didn't have a diagnosis for her until she was an adult. She has a rare form of sickle-cell and had been told that she would live until adulthood, nor would she ever have children. She proved the doctors wrong.

The book covers the birth of her daughter, Chase, her marriage and divorce, the crazy life and sudden death of Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and discovering, on top of everything else, the presence of a brain tumor. All against the backdrop of her music career with TLC.

The final chapters of the book deal with doing The Apprentice where she clashed with a couple of the people, and didn't care for Donald Trump (she had spoken highly of his hotels earlier in the book). She raised money for sickle research, and managed to get herself off the show. After that, it's the final album for TLC and the adoption of her son Chance, and living life.

Hardcover book, read on subways and in school. Approx 230 pages. Not sure where the book came from -- it was likely a giveaway from a talk show that Tionne Watkins appeared on, either to promote the book or to promote awareness afterward. At some point, it came into my possession.

The Supervillain Field Manual (Wilson)

The Supervillain Field Manual: How to Conquer (Super) Friends and Incinerate People, by King Oblivion, PhD, as told to Matt D. Wilson (2013)
Illustrated by Adam Wallenta

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This will be short because I wrote this up and it dissovled in the digital round file.

Every now and then, I check what's free on Amazon, and this appeared. It looked interesting, and it was. I thought it might be a graphic novel. It was not. It's a humor book, and it was sufficiently amusing.

The first thing I noticed was the reviews, starting with one by Stan Lee and moving on to other comic industry professionals. This told me something worth reading was coming. (You have to watch out for free things.)

The second thing I disovered, as was mentioned many times throughout the text that this was a sequel. This was a little odd. Usually the first book in a series is the free one. It could have been just a matter of timing.

The conceit of the book is that King Oblivion is sharing his wisdom and telling the reader how to succeed as a supervillain. And he knows if you are understanding him because (as he reminds you constantly) he is reading your mind. The text covers announcing yourself, winning, losing, making alliances, dissolving alliances (sometimes with acid), acquiring power and wealth, keeping power and wealth, weilding power and spending wealth, and preparing for destruction. There's a lot of killing everyone involved.

Worth reading, even if it was sometimes repetitive. Some of the jokes fall flat, but Wison does turn some funny phrases. And if you're planning on being a supervillain, it isn't a bad guide book to have.

I labeled this "How To" just because. Maybe it's fictional, but it's not you're usual fiction.