‘Bowie: A Biography’ (Books)

David Bowie knows what he’s singing about when he performs “Changes.” After making a big splash in the early 1970s as Ziggy Stardust, he went on to become the Thin White Duke, an artsy Berlin angst rocker, the Bowie of “Let’s Dance” and more recently the distinguished rock elder who goes to fashion events with his model wife, Iman.

The career full of characters obscures the less fantastic, but very interesting, back story of David Jones, a British teen in the ’60s who desperately wanted to make it big. Marc Spitz, a music journalist, does a decent job of tracking Bowie’s evolution through copious research and interviews with dozens of people who knew him.

Spitz clearly gets Bowie, and this is an unapologetic fan-boy biography. He is good at analyzing what Bowie accomplished, why it matters and what was likely influencing him at the time. He has insightful things to say about landmark Bowie songs “Life on Mars?” and “Heroes.”

But be warned: Unlike a lot of top-rate biographers, Spitz is not big on narrative and crafting scenes. Events are recounted, at length, through gushy quotes from Bowie’s old chums.

The result is a book at turns interesting and irritating that reads like a very long music magazine article.

‘Louisa May Alcott’ (Books)

“Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women”: In her new biography of the fiercely independent author of “Little Women,” screenwriter Harriet Reisen draws a lively, engrossing portrait of Louisa May Alcott’s life that will appeal to the legions of women who grew up worshipping the book.

Reisen takes us through Alcott’s life from birth to death, which makes for some unwieldy storytelling in the early chapters as we follow the Alcott family through decades of shiftless wandering across the East Coast. And with writing that is at times overly dramatic, we trod through territory that’s been chronicled before: the poverty, the desperation, the alienation from genteel 19th century society.

“Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women” does not quite do justice to the complicated relationship between Louisa and her father, Bronson Alcott, whose Transcendalist philosophizing and refusal to maintain steady employment often made the family destitute.

The book works best when Reisen allows Alcott to speak through her wonderfully witty and clear-eyed letters. They offer a glimpse of the kind of unsentimental prose that Alcott, who made her fortune in children’s literature, often said she longed to write in an “adult novel” but died before she had the chance.

“Little Women” fanatics will find much to love in Alcott’s story, which is far more compelling and gritty than any she dreamed up in her lifetime.

Rod Stewart (Music)

Rod Stewart grew up idolizing soul singers like Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and Otis Redding. On his new album, “Soulbook,” he gets a chance to pay tribute to his childhood idols in song — and even gets a chance to sing with one of them on the CD.

Smokey Robinson is one of the guest stars on “Soulbook,” which features Stewart singing some of soul music’s most revered tunes. It follows in Stewart’s trend of recording classic covers (he had a resurgence with his “Great American Songbook” album series).

In an interview, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said he was elated to sing “Tracks of My Tears,” which Robinson recorded with the Miracles decades ago on Motown, with the legendary singer and composer.

“I grew up listening to Smokey Robinson to have that guy come into the studio and sing on ‘Tracks Of My Tears’ (was great),” he said.

Stevie Wonder also joined Stewart to sing one of his signature songs, “My Cherie Amour,” another highlight for Stewart. Even calling Wonder on the phone turned out to be a treat for Stewart.

The CD also features appearances by Mary J. Blige and Jennifer Hudson. “Soulbook” was released in October.