Friday November 21, 2008
Biographies & Memoirs: Arts & Literature
Displayed below are the top selling items for today, Friday November 21, 2008 along with the review customers have voted "most useful".
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- John Lennon : The Life by Philip Norman
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A Year of Food Life (P.S.) by Barbara Kingsolver
- Pieces of My Heart : A Life by Robert Wagner
- Eat, Pray, Love : One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Too Fat to Fish by Artie Lange
- Why We Suck : A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid by Dr. Denis Leary
- A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity by Bill O'Reilly
- Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
- My Horizontal Life : A Collection of One-Night Stands by Chelsea Handler
- The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
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John Lennon
The Life
by Philip Norman
(based on 4 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: Philip Norman
Publisher: Ecco
Price: $20.55
You save: $14.40 (41%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
38 out of 40 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/29/08
Less about the myth, more about the man
Forever romanticized by his tragic and puzzling murder, John Lennon has ascended to almost god-like status in pop culture. Remembered as the visionary and dreamer who soundtracked a generation, Lennon's legacy has largely been sculpted by those who loved and admired him, as his strengths, accomplishments and inspirations shine for all to see, while his flaws and failures have been forgotten. Philip Norman believes twenty-eight years of mourning-inspired deification seems about right, and with this book, he attempts to paint a more accurate picture of the man.
The artist Norman depicts has a lot in common with the popular description of a rockstar. The poet who sang about love never missed a chance to cheat on his women, and the man who championed brotherhood and neighborly living often strong-armed and bullied his friends. Norman shows us that he never let people forget that he was John Lennon and they weren't.
His book, however, is not a hatchet-job. Intertwined with his attempts to revise the pedestalized legacy of Lennon is a thorough, faithful account of the intimate and defining moments of a life that led to a canon of music unequaled in artistic merit and inspiration. Norman's intent was to show his readers both the sour and the sweet.
He achieves his goal in part with impressive, exclusive interaction with Yoko One, Paul McCartney, Producer George Martin and others. To those interviews, Norman adds research and his own conjecture and formulates theories about Lennon's mother's death and (what is sure to be the focus of much of this book's publicity) questions about whether Lennon harbored any homosexual tendencies/curiosities.
Norman's success is creating an account of an irresistible human being who has less in common with an Olympian figure than he does with the people who will be flipping through the book's pages. With that achievement, he has probably created the first genuine biography of the man who history has transformed into a mythic figure lacking authenticity and humanity.
Click here to see more reviews for: John Lennon
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
by Barbara Kingsolver
(based on 321 customer reviews)
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(Paperback)
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Price: $10.17
You save: $4.78 (32%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
166 out of 189 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 5/8/07
This is a fascinating informative book about food
It is possible to live off the land. The Kingsolver family are proof of that. They grew their own food for a year on a farm in Virginia's Applachian mountains. It only cost 50 cents a meal to feed the Kingsolver family of four for a year, and I found that to be amazing. It is much healthier to eat organic foods which are foods produced without chemicals. This is one of the main ideas of this insightful book. I love Camille's Kingsolver's contributions in this book. She is the college age daughter of the primary author. Camille's reflections about food are thoughtful, and her recipes sound delicious. I loved her essay about how she learned to love asparagus. I learned that asparagus is an excellent source of vitamin C, which I did not know before. There is a recipe in here for an asparagus mushroom bread pudding. I never thought of putting these ingredients together. Another interesting recipe in the book is one for zucchini chocolate chip cookies. The recipe sounds so unusual, I am tempted to try it. The recipe for pumpkin soup and sweet potato quesadillas sound yummy too. Everyone in the Kingsolver family contributed in this local food project. Barbara raised and bred turkeys, while her nine year old daughter raised her own chickens and provided the family with eggs for a year. They even made their own cheese.
I also enjoyed the contributions of Steven L. Hopp in this book. He is a professor who teaches environmental science at Emory and Henry College. His short contributions in the every chapter are very insightful. He really compliments the main text written by Kingsolver. I enjoyed reading his thoughts about the popularity of agricultural education in public schools. This is a fascinating and informative book about food.
Click here to see more reviews for: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
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Pieces of My Heart
A Life
by Robert Wagner (based on 54 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Edition: 1
Author: Robert Wagner
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Price: $17.13
You save: $8.82 (34%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
32 out of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/1/08
Oh, R.J. -- be still my heart.
I initially purchased Robert Wagner's autobiography because his late wife, Natalie Wood, is my favorite movie star. I wanted more insight into her personality. The book does have quite a bit about his two marriages with Natalie, and about the fading studio system in Hollywood in the fifties which brought them together. It also chronicles the devastation brought on by her untimely death by drowning. But this book is a surprisingly compelling portrait of a handsome, charismatic, approachable leading man who has been in the limelight for most of his life.
I really didn't know much about Robert Wagner when I started reading this book. I had seen most of his movies, and I liked his old television series "Hart to Hart" with Stefanie Powers. But I knew nothing of his personal life, or about his background. The depiction of his journey from young rebel to solid leading man to Hollywood icon is told here with great charm and in-depth self-examination.
Of course the big surprise is the revelation of his early romance with the much older Barbara Stanwyck when Wagner was first starting off in Hollywood. But there is fascinating information all through the book about Wagner's love affairs, his co-stars and his friendships with other Hollywood legends. He is especially lovely when writing about his current wife, Jill St. John, herself a sex symbol and Bond girl, who helped him get over Natalie Wood's death.
I recommend this book highly to film buffs and those who enjoy movie star biographies and memoirs. Robert Wagner comes across as a wonderful man, and one who is still sexy as all get-out.
Click here to see more reviews for: Pieces of My Heart
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Eat, Pray, Love
One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
by Elizabeth Gilbert (based on 1730 customer reviews)
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(Paperback)
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Price: $9.00
You save: $6.00 (40%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
279 out of 398 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 2/26/06
HER OWN SEARCH - HER OWN VOICE, BOTH IMPRESSIVE
Reading the subtitle of Elizabeth Gilbert's latest book, "One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia," one can only think well, she certainly knows where to look! Also, upon learning that this is her chosen way of recovering from a particularly acrimonious divorce and a trying-to-make-up-for-that-loss romance that didn't work, we might think how fortunate she is to able to seek solace in such intriguing places.
Whatever our opinion of her reasons for this journey it has been established that she's a super writer (The Last American Man), and she brings all of her wit, intellect and stylish pen to Eat Pray Love. More than that, she brought a great deal of courage to her chosen task of traveling the world alone at the age of 34. She felt she needed a dramatic change, and it may be that she has found it.
It's a pleasure to listen to this memoir/travelogue in her voice. Many will associate with her initial confession that she's not a very good traveler in that she suffers from various digestive interruptions. However, on the plus side she easily makes friends with anyone. As she puts it, "I can make friends with the dead." Or, if there isn't anyone around she claims that she could chat with a pile of Sheetrock. Whatever the case, she is a very lucky lady as her travel experiences prove.
No Viva Italia for Italy because of Messina, a port town in Sicily that she describes as "scary and suspicious." Perhaps that's one reason why she's lonely and depressed there. But things definitely take a turn for the better in India and Indonesia, although her meditation needs a little more work.
Did Gilbert find what she was searching for? Listeners may not be too sure but they'll certainly enjoy the trip!
- Gail Cooke
Click here to see more reviews for: Eat, Pray, Love
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Too Fat to Fish
by Artie Lange (based on 40 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: Artie Lange
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Price: $13.72
You save: $11.23 (45%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
35 out of 39 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 11/12/08
Do Yourself a Favor: Read this Book
There is just no way to not love this book. Whether you are a fan of Artie Lange or not, the book is fresh and insightful, and it almost goes without saying, funny as hell. Not for the faint of heart (but seriously is anything connected with Howard Stern for the faint of heart?), the narrative is laced with expletives, the situations are sometimes raunchy or downright gross, and the author is not trying to paint a pretty picture of his addiction-riddled life. Once you get past the reality backwash, it is a book filled with honesty and humor as well as some surprising insights.
Artie Lange fully admits to having lived his life thus far as a first-class f***-up, allowing himself to be caught up in every imaginable vice and addiction. But he firmly believes, along with his boss, that his vices feed his amazing comedic genius. His ability to survive his own behavior in itself seems an act of genius. Personally, I think that Artie is one of that rare breed of comedian who can make people laugh hysterically with the most offhand unscripted comment. The life of decadence may make for some inherently funny situations, but I think this guy could make the telephone book funny. Ease up on yourself Artie, the world needs funny guys like you.
While I expected a book filled with humorous stories, what I didn't expect was the down-to-earth telling of them. The narrative is sometimes simplistic, but it really makes you feel like Artie is in the room with you telling you these stories. While I laughed myself sick at times, I also had tears in my eyes over the author's description of his relationship with his father, and his family's life after his father's tragic accident.
All in all the book will leave you feeling that there is a great deal more to Artie Lange than raunchy humor. He came across to me as a genuinely nice human being who cares deeply about the people who make up his universe. His occasional deeper insights (such as his description of the happiest moment of his childhood) reveal him as a complex man, whose flaws only make him that much more interesting. I loved this book, and I like Artie Lange more than ever. I wish him a long life with many fishing trips.
Click here to see more reviews for: Too Fat to Fish
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Why We Suck
A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid
by Dr. Denis Leary (based on 9 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: Dr. Denis Leary
Publisher: Viking Adult
Price: $17.79
You save: $9.16 (34%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
12 out of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 11/19/08
Classic Denis Leary
We've been waiting a long time for more biting wit from Denis, and this book does not disappoint. If you're already a fan, you will love this book. A new person investigating Leary - may be well, leery of this book. Fine. Stay away. You probably won't understand the humor anyway. As a prerequisite for anything Denis Leary, you need to be able to laugh at yourself and others without compunction. The thin-skinned & PC crowd need not apply.
Click here to see more reviews for: Why We Suck
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A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity
by Bill O'Reilly (based on 61 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: Bill O'Reilly
Publisher: Broadway
Price: $15.60
You save: $10.40 (40%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
162 out of 201 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 9/24/08
An entertaining and somwhat enlightening "thoughtography"
Forgive me if my critique is not "pithy"
I couldn't wait to read this book. I bought it this morning and left work early so I could read it. Why? Because Bill Oreilly fascinates me and I thought his memoir would give me some real answers as to how this man, who truly is an American original, thinks.
First off, I actually had the privilege of meeting and briefly working with Bill Oreilly. After graduating college in the early nineties, I wrote to Mr. OReilly and asked him for advice in getting a job in television. I knew nothing about him, only that he was a fellow graduate of my high school (Chaminade High in Long Island) and that he was the anchorman of some show called "Inside Edition (which I had never even watched)
To my surprise, Mr. OReilly not only responded, he invited me to the studio, took me to lunch and offered me a temporary production assistant job for Inside Edition. After the temporary assignment, I began a Wall Street career but I have always been grateful to him for helping out some kid he didn't know. He is a man of character.
And let me tell you. The man is fearless in every way and he is not a phony. He is exactly like he is on screen (albeit more reserved). Which is why I wanted to read this. I wanted to know- what makes this man tick? How did he come to be the person that he is today? Does this book answers the question? -
Sort of
Not really a complete life memoir "Bold Piece" is a kind of "Thoughtography"-a collection a remembrances of his early life followed by essays on how they shaped his current actions. With chapter titles like "Politics" Fear" "Saving the World" and "Standing for something", Mr. Oreilly intersperse stories of his early life with how they affected his later life dealings and adult philosophies.
Does it shed light on the inner life of the man? To a degree, yes.
The book has many entertaining and insightful highlights including:
1) A story about a grammar school classmate names Norma was especially touching. It will make you understand his sometimes-heated anger at injustice.
2) As a graduate of Chaminade High School, I especially enjoyed his thoughts on class warfare at the school. It is subject rarely discussed to any effectiveness. His story about the "Levittown Sandlot- Chaminade football game" could be a n entertaining Disney Movie
3) I never knew he had so many life experiences. Unlike Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, who I doubt have EVER sought to expand their horizons, Mr. Oreilly has walked the walk. He has traveled to 70 countries, received 2 graduate degrees, and even taught at an inner city high school. His stories about a student named "Miss Jones" and his exposure to Anti Americanism abroad will help you further understand his self reliance and love of country view point
4) His stories about friendship are especially touching. An expansion of his Friendship Factor: theme in his first book, he gives examples of why his friends are so important to him. The Joe Spencer - Peter Jennings story is especially moving. He really should write an entire book about the importance of friendship. It is his most astute chapter
But the big question I wanted to know -why is this man so confident and fearless?- Is never quite answered. Having grown up in his native Long Island, I have known many a person like Bill OReilly. You could magically drop them onto the far side of the galaxy and they will always espouse hard work, faith, family, and the goodness of America without the slightest doubt. After reading this book, I've come to the conclusion that Mr. OReilly simply is one of those men. And always will be. Some people are just born that way.
A few critiques-
1) I do think Mr. OReilly should fess up and admit that he took a teaching job in the early 70's to evade being drafted (he quits the job in 1973 just as the war ends) . It is clear that that was at least a strong possibility
2) I also think he should have elaborated on what I think is his greatest dichotomy. Why does he have so a low opinion of the competence of federal government yet sincerely believes their actions in Iraq were not to be questioned.
3) I think he is a little too hard on Katrina Victimes. In one section, he explains that he would have "gotten in his car and left" in the same situation, never once thinking that most of the people couldn't do that because they didn't HAVE cars.
4) I also think he was just a little too hard on the movie "Love Story" (you have to read the book). I loved that movie!
All in all - a good enlightening read but not the "Window into the Soul" that I was hoping for.
Click here to see more reviews for: A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity
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Letter to My Daughter
by Maya Angelou (based on 20 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Edition: 1
Author: Maya Angelou
Publisher: Random House
Price: $15.00
You save: $10.00 (40%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
72 out of 72 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/10/08
Absolutely inspiring; I couldn't put it down
"I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian and Spanish-speaking, Native American and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you," writes Maya Angelou in the introduction of her inspirational new book Letter to My Daughter. The following pages are full of stories and life lessons Angelou has learned over eighty years. "I have only included here events and lessons which I have found useful," the famous poet writes. "I have not told you how I have used the solutions, knowing you are intelligent and creative and resourceful and will use them as you see fit."
There are few books that I love so much I would read again. This is one of them. I got Angelou's Letter to My Daughter in the mail around 4 p.m. and finished it before bed. I read it to my children as they played, read it after they had gone to sleep, and far into the evening hours. Angelou's words were so poetic and musical I felt as if she were speaking directly to me. I learned of her best and worst moments in life, her ideas about love, death, violence, patriotism and spirituality. I really liked how she illustrated an important situation in her life without telling the reader what to take away from the scene.
My favorite story was when Angelou visited the famous actress Samia in Sengal. Angelou had heard that women in Egypt did not let their guests walk on their gorgeous Persian rugs and decided to test her hostess. She noticed the other guests at Samia's party were not stepping on the rugs and believed Samia had informed them not to do so. So Angelou walked on them, back and forth, back and forth. The other guests smiled at her weakly. Angelou engaged in a conversation with a fellow writer and barely noticed the maids rolling up the rug and replacing it with an equally beautiful floor covering. The maids covered the rug with place settings and dinner. Angelou had been walking all over their table cloth! She was so embarrassed she could barely eat. "In an unfamiliar culture, it is wise to offer no innovations, no suggestions, or lessons," Angelou wrote.
Here is one of my favorite paragraphs in the book: "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution."
Letter to My Daughter is a gem of wisdom and inspiration. Every woman should read it at least once. This book has become a permanent fixture in my personal library.
by Jennifer Melville
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Click here to see more reviews for: Letter to My Daughter
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My Horizontal Life
A Collection of One-Night Stands
by Chelsea Handler (based on 257 customer reviews)
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(Paperback)
Author: Chelsea Handler
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Price: $10.17
You save: $4.78 (32%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
50 out of 65 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 6/29/05
Woody Allen meets Sex and the City
Hilarious recollection of multiple amorous adventures and misadventures. Remeber when Woody Allen was funny? Well this could be his sister's version of "Everything you always wanted to know about sex but were afraid of asking"
The succession of ever so more improbable sexual fiascos and mishaps, would make Candace Bushnell cringe. Like Sex and the City, but wearing JC Penney shoes instead of Manolo Blahnik's.
A comic tour de force.
Read it, you won't regret it.
Click here to see more reviews for: My Horizontal Life
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The Wordy Shipmates
by Sarah Vowell (based on 56 customer reviews)
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(Hardcover)
Author: Sarah Vowell
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Price: $15.57
You save: $10.38 (40%) off the list price!
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Most useful review as voted by customers:
31 out of 32 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/3/08
A little-- well-- wordy...
I love Sarah Vowell's books. She is an absolute master at examining a historical subject, relating it to the world we live in, and inserting her personal foibles to it, all in a narrative that moves so smoothly and quickly that you're sometimes surprised that you've read the whole book at a sitting. That's what she attempts to do here, but she doesn't quite pull it off this time.
Don't misunderstand me; this isn't at all a bad book. In fact, it's fascinating. It is jam-packed with fascinating information about the Massachusetts Puritans and the religious, social, and historical context of their settlement. Vowell weaves comments about her family background, education, travels, and hopes and fears into the narrative, just as she usually does.
When Vowell's writing works best, it's driven by her quirkiness and her ability to veer off on what seems to be a tangent, then bring everything together in the end. She does that here, but just not as well as in her other books. Perhaps the subject just isn't as susceptible to the Vowell treatment as the subjects of her other books.
I actually enjoyed this book, and I recommend it highly. However, it's just not as good as her other books made me expect it to be. Well worth reading, though.
Click here to see more reviews for: The Wordy Shipmates
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