Book Description
Here are more scathingly funny tales from the wild side! Laurie Notaro survived the debauched ride of her twenties and the bumpy road to matrimony. Now she’s ready to take on the thirtysomething years . . . and almost middle age has never been more hilarious.
Laurie is married, mortgaged, and now—miraculously—employed in the corporate world, discovering that bosses come in all shapes, sizes, and degrees of mental stability. After maxing out her last good credit card at Banana Republic, she’s dressed for success and ready to face the jungle: surviving feral, six-foot-plus Gretchen (“Three Thousand Faces of Eve”) before battling the overbearing, overstuffed (in way-too-small pants) new mom Suzzi, who ruthlessly cancels Laurie’s newspaper column and learns that payback can be a bitch. Laurie also explores the backstabbing world of preschoolers at a Halloween party, the X-rated madness of a family trip to Disneyland, and the pressure from her QVC-addicted mother and the rest of the world to reproduce. But while losing more friends to babies than to booze, she realizes there’s a plus side: at least for a couple of months she gets to be the thinner friend.
I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies) is Laurie Notaro at her deliciously quirky best. Can a woman prone to what her loved ones might term “meltdowns” (she considers them “Opportunities to Enlighten”) put a smile on her face and love everybody? Take a guess.
Customer Reviews:
HAHAHAHAHA AND MORE..................2007-09-19
I haven't laugh this hard in a long time.... I was having so much fun that I gave one to my daughter and she would called me late at night, just laughing and telling me which page to go to and it was a great bonding experience........It is awesome! thank you Laurie!
I love everything she writes - funny, quirky, will lift your spirits! .......2007-05-19
Although I feel compelled to note, right up front, that humor is tricky and what one person finds funny may not appeal to another, I still think this book is one that MOST readers will find laugh out loud funny. I love every book Notaro has written and they've found a permanent place on my bookshelf because they're guaranteed to lift my spirits on even the worst days.
Hers is the kind of humor that I'm tempted to call a combination of humor and self-help because I ALWAYS feel better about my life after reading about her misfortunes (but not guilty, because she is able to laugh at herself and, besides, her books sell well, so I figure any temporary humiliation is offset somewhat by that).
Notaro has a knack for being totally shameless about exposing life's various insults foisted upon her - and making normally dull subjects seem funny (everything from having kidney stones to finding herself traumatized and in a state of near nakedness, quite by accident, at Disneyland (yes, DISNEYLAND).
She is quick to point out her character flaws as well. She can be impatient, clumsy, drawn to the wrong type of boyfriends (until she found her husband) and prone to the most embarrassing experiences. Somehow this makes for a great read. I relate to her and I think a lot of others will.
I should note that this may fall into the type of book known as a "woman's book" and I'm not sure how many men will relate to this one. I hope I'm wrong about that.
Review from a loudmouth girl.......2007-05-16
Laurie Notaro is my hero. She has a great writing style. Her stories are hilarious. I suggest every woman who has ever struggled to fit in and do the right thing to read her books.
Very forced........2007-02-12
I purchased this book on a whim and was thoroughly disappointed (there goes my future spontaneous purchases!). Couldn't even get through it because it's attempts at humor were so flat, they were almost insulting. Thank God for target's return policy; I exchanged the book for Susan Gilman's 'Hypocrite...', which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.
The Funny for the 30-something Crowd - Notaro Style.......2007-02-04
Older, but still an Idiot Girl, Notaro's "I Love Everybody" recounts snot bubbles, the trouble with email, and other minutia done in classic Notaro style.
Notaro is one of my absolute favorite authors. She never fails to make me laugh-out-loud. I highly recommend any of her books!
Book Description
Everybody Loves Raymond is the most consistently funny program on television today -- and also one of the most widely watched and hihgly praised shows of all time. Now, Ray Romano and show creator Phil Rosenthal have made an official companion to the series. This insider's look at Raymond's world features a lively introduction by Ray and Phil, where they tell the stories of how they met, how Raymond came to be, and how the first episode was made. The next eight chapters follow the show season by season, with candid photography by Tom Caltabiano, one of the show's writers, who has informally documented the cast and crew from day one. Accompanying the photos is hilarious running commentary from Ray and Phil, as they describe memorable moments, fun facts, and tales from behind the scenes. Along the way, interviews with the cast reveal humorous and insightful anecdotes from Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, and Monica Horan. And the conversation with the show's award-winning writers show how their personal family dramas provide inspiration for the on-screen stories.
Customer Reviews:
If you love the series? You would like this one........2006-08-18
Oh!! i just cant get enough of the series. This book brings you inside stories, pictures and what not. Yeah, it does not cover all 9 seasons, but is still a great buy @ Amazon. Because they sell it pretty cheap here.
Go ahead and get one. You would love it.
PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2006-06-29
I just got this book last week and I was amazed at how many pictures of the show were in there and they even put how they make an episode,now I know It's kind of weird a kid watching elr but everytime i watch the show I crack up, I have seen ATon of episodes and I also own seasons 5&6 on dvd.if you are addicted to everybody loves raymond like me and watch the show everytime It's on than this is definintly 1,000,000% the book for you there Is only on con about the book and here It is.
CON:the book only covers seasons 1-7 and a tiny bit of 8.
terrific book, but does not cover the entire series.......2006-04-25
"Everybody Loves Raymond: Our Family Album" is an ideal companion for the classic sitcom that ran for 9 successful years and continues to be loved through daily reruns.
Written by Ray Romano and series creator Phil Rosenthal, this book contains extensive information about the show, the cast and crew, and the individual episodes. It really is the perfect thing for fans who can't get enough of the show and want something a little more. This book includes an interview from everyone in the main cast (as well as some crew members), they talk a little bit about the Sweeten kids (who, of course, played Ray and Debra's three children on the show), and hundreds of color photos fill every page (both stills from the actual episodes and candid behind-the-scenes pictures). There are highlighted sections for some of the most popular episodes from each season, which are accompanied by photos and lighthearted comments from Romano and Rosenthal. There are even pictures and information about some of the cast and crew's real-life family members, which die-hard fans will love to see. Then, at the end, there is a complete episode guide for the first 7 1/2 seasons, which lists a brief synopsis and a "memorable moment" from each episode.
The only problem with this book is that, as I mentioned above, it only covers Seasons 1-7 and half of Season 8. I personally don't understand why they didn't at least wait until the entire Season 8 wrapped up before publishing this. Hopefully, though, they will come out with a revised edition that goes all the way through Season 9. Despite that, however, this is still a very valuable book to buy if you are an avid fan of "Raymond." It offers a lot of insight from everyone involved with the show, and it is more than just a short book with some pictures. It's very precise and informative, and you really get a feeling of what a special group of people worked together for those 9 years. It is sad that they could not continue the series for at least one more season, but they certainly went out on top and have deserved every bit of the credit they have received. "The sitcom of our times," it is indeed!
A Great Show and a Great Book.......2004-09-15
Everybody Loves Raymond has to be the one of the funniest comedies on TV today. It has been playing since 1996 and is still fresh and funny in it's brand new episodes.
The cast includes:
-Ray Romano as Ray Barone, the overall star of the show. He has a house, a job as a sports writer for Newsday, a wife Debra (Patricia Heaton), and three children- two twin boys (Jeffrey and Michael) and a girl (Ally). Ray's ignorance is quite funny!
-Patricia Heaton as Ray's wife, Debra Barone. she is much more intelligent than him and is always tolerating Ray's family. She's the only "normal one" of the bunch!
-Brad Garrett as Ray's older brother, Robert Barone. Robert is always insanely jealous of his younger brother and how "lucky" he is for living Robert's dream of having a house and a family. Robert, for a time, lives with his and Ray's parents, but eventually moves out and gets his own apartment. Robert is always visiting Ray's home and is also always craving attention from his mother, Marie, since Raymond is undoubtedly her favorite child.
-Doris Roberts as Marie, Ray's mother. Marie lives across the street with Ray's father (Frank) and is an unbelievable cook. She is not particularly fond of Debra, and always finds some flaw with anything Debra is doing or cooking. She loves to make fun of Debra's housework and cooking. She is constantly made fun of by her husband, Frank, who obviously cannot stand her even though they have been married for 45 years. She undoubtedly favors Raymond over Robert, and even openly admits it a few times, such as in one of my favorite quotes: "I knew something was wrong with that meatloaf, I should have thrown it out or given it to Robbie." However, despite her unfriendly sides, she loves her family truly and always attempts to act out of love (though it doesn't always appear that way).
-And finally, Peter Boyle as Ray's father, Frank. Frank is a truly disgusting man who doesn't show love well and totally lacks taste or class in public. According to Ray, he once "peed in the yard" and "threw his shoe at a flamingo to protect his sandwich". Frank's comments to Marie are hilarious (as are Marie's comments to Debra). In one Thanksgiving episode, Frank admits that he truly loves Marie, which is obviously why their relationship has lasted 45 years. Frank thoroughly enjoys all types of food and cooking and also watching TV with his pants unbuckled.
So, there you have it. ELR is truly a great show. And while the upcoming season ('04-'05) will be it's last, this book is the perfect companion to the show, including lots of show information and pictures. If you love ELR, you should get this book.
Also, check out ELR: Season 1 on DVD here at Amazon.
Product Description
\"Donald Revell Matthew Rohrer Dan Beachy Christopher Davis Janet Holmes Sarah Manguso D A Powell Tony Tost Aaron McCollough Deborah Meadows G.C. Waldrep Barry Schwabsky Lisa Fishman Lee Ann Brown Joshua Corey Betsy Andrews Ray Bianchi Ron Silliman Laura Solomon Christopher Luna Stacy Szymaszek Noah Eli Gordon C.D. Wright Rebecca Wolff Christopher Nealon Spencer Short Kent Johnson David Shapiro Ethan Paquin Dale Smith Anthony Robinson Jonathan Minton Noelle Kocot Aaron Kunin Aaron Belz Lisa Jarnot Sheila E. Murphy Geoffrey Gatza Brian Henry Joanna Fuhrman John Tranter Dana Ward Alan Gilbert Marcella Durand Matthew Zapruder T. R. Hummer Edmund Berrigan David Baker Betsy Fagin Daniel Bouchard Michael Tyrell Graham Foust Patrick Herron Linh Dinh David Bircumshaw Ed Foster Susan M. Schultz Dan Taulapapa McMullin Lee Upton Rae Armantrout Michael Farrell K. Silem Mohammad Mark Yakich Martine Bellen Maggie Nelson Joris Lenstra Todd Swift Carl Martin JUKKA-PEKKA KERVINEN Patrick Chapman Ben Lerner Stephanie Strickland Annie Finch Ton Van\'t Hof Meena Alexander Richard Meier Elizabeth Robinson Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino THOMAS SAYERS ELLIS Standard Schaefer Jennifer Grotz Barbara Tran Elizabeth James Tod Marshall Jeffrey McDaniel Shara McCallum Benjamin Friedlander John Latta Hank Lazer Gabriel Gudding Ray Hsu Christine Hume Catherine Wagner Lance Phillips Mairéad Byrne Matthew Shenoda Rodrigo Toscano Connie Deanovich Matthew Thorburn Tracie Morris Alan Catlin Stephen Burt Heather Nagami Sofia M. Starnes F.J. Bergman Simon Perchik Brian Howe Larry Sawyer Reb Livingston Jason Camlot Ravi Shankar Tim Earley Kate Greenstreet Kerri Sonnenberg Christophe Casamassima Anny Ballardini Jules Boykoff Kaia Sand Eleni Sikelianos Kristin Prevallet Rachel Loden Brenda Hillman George Kalamara Heidi Lynn Staples Max Winter David Baratier Jonathan Skinner Clayton A. Couch Gillian Conoley Robert Creeley Ed Smith Joseph Lease Chris Stroffolino Jim Ellis Brent Cunningham Elizabeth Robinson Ann Lauterbach Linh Dinh Joel Lewis Ken Rumble \"
Book Description
For years fans have been asking TV's Mr. Food to create a cookbook for people with diabetes. He's finally done it, in association with the American Diabetes Association.
Yes, in his inimitable no-nonsense style, Mr. Food helps readers say "good-bye" to good-for-us dishes that look as bland as they taste, and "hello" to more than 150 classic recipes that will satisfy time and again. As an added bonus, Mr. Food's Quick and Easy Diabetic Cooking includes personal stories and recipe specialties from celebrities with diabetes.
The book offers a seemingly endless variety of tasty meat, poultry, seafood, and meatless main course recipes. Also included are appealing appetizers such as mini meatballs and spinich dip, and sensational salads, soups, and side dishes, which add a zesty touch to every meal. Each recipes includes nutritional information and diabetic exchanges.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful book with great recipes and techniques!.......2004-01-21
My husband and I aren't diabetic, but we both need to lose weight. We didn't have much success with any of the brand-name diets, so we went to a registered dietician who put us on a diabetic exchange diet. Initially we had a hard time sticking to it, because it was hard to figure out ways to make food tasty with limited fat and starch intake, not to mention trying to figure out correct portion sizes to fit our exchanges.
This book, however, is making it much easier. I'm learning how to make subsitutions so food tastes good but is still healthy and within our dietary limits. The food may not always be as full-flavored as our favorite old fat-laden recipes, but there are recipes my husband is actually requesting, instead of wishing he could have his favorite fast food or Thai food!
The intro to the book has tips on portion sizes and subsitutionswhich are helpful in knowing what to eat and how much of it. Couple this information with a good kitchen scale, and you'll find that you'll be preparing meals you're actually looking forward to eating!
Mr. Food's Quick & Easy Diabetic Cooking.......2003-01-08
Brief and to the point, this book was just WONDERFUL. Mr. Food's TV recipes always seem so deliciously decedant. This book is also delicious ... but very far from decadent! Loved it!
Simple, quick.......2002-04-12
While his little show makes me want to jump out a window, his cookbook lives up to its name. Quick and easy, and the recipes actually work, unlike with many other cookbooks where the recipes do not turn out. I give it 4 out of 5 stars because the book lives up to its name and is affordable.
Mr. Food's Quick & Easy Diabetic Cooking.......2001-09-10
Subject Index: Appetizers, Beans, Beef, Cabbage, Cakes, Chicken, Chili, Chocolate, Clams, Cookies, Cornish Hens, Couscous, Cucumbers, Desserts, Dips, Eggs, Fruit, Fruit Desserts, Green Beans, Mushrooms, Onions, Ostrich, Pasta, Peppers, Pies, Pizza, Pork, Potatoes, Poultry, Quesadillas, Salads, Sandwiches, Sausage, Seafood, Shrimp, Soups, Spinach, Stir-Fry, Tomatoes, Turkey, Veal and Vegetables.
Before I started on a diabetic diet I had a few of Mr. Food's other recipe books. I was so excited to find out he, Art Ginsburg, had written a recipe book for those with diabetes. My diabetic diet had become so boring and plain until I received this book from Amazon.com. Now I look forward to planning my next meal.
The Double Chocolate Brownies were a hit with an Irish club I
belong to. People were happy to see something they were allowed to eat on our snack table instead of the usual sugary treats.
Comments to One Star Review.......2001-08-29
THE TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR As a Registered Dietitian, for more than 20 years, and Certified Diabetes Educator, for over 10 years, I was so distressed by reviewer comments regarding sugar in the diabetic diet, that I am taking time to respond. Since 1994 dietitians and educators working with people with diabetes have been trying to get the truth out about sucrose (sugar). Sugar is NOT a forbidden food for people with diabetes. Scientific evidence from more than a dozen studies has shown that the use of sugar does impair blood glucose control in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Sugar and foods containing sugar must be substituted for other carbohydrates, gram for gram, and not simply added to the diabetes meal plan. In making such substitutions, the nutrient content of concentrated sweets and sucrose-containing foods, as well as the presence of other nutrients frequently ingested with sucrose, such as fat, must be considered. The bottom line for people with diabetes is to check the total carbohydrate in a recipe or on a food label and work that into their diabetes meal plan. Because there are individual variations in blood glucose response, self-monitoring is an important part of diabetes control.
Book Description
What is emo? For starters it's a form of melodic, confessional, or EMOtional punk rock. But emo is more than a genre of music–it's the defining counterculture movement of the '00s. EVERYBODY HURTS is a reference book for emo, tracing its angsty roots all the way from Shakespeare to Holden Caufield to today's most popular bands.
There's nothing new about that perfect chocolate and peanut butter combination––teenagers and angst. What is new is that emo is the first cultural movement born on the internet. With the development of early social networking sites like Make Out Club (whose mission is to unite "like–minded nerds, loners, indie rockers, record collectors, video gamers, hardcore kids, and artists through friendship, music, and sometimes even love") outcast teens had a place to find each other and share their pain, their opinions, and above all, their music–which wasn't available for sale at the local record store.
Authors Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelley lead the reader through the world of emo including its ideology, music, and fashion, as well as its influences on film, television, and literature. With a healthy dose of snark and sarcasm, EVERYBODY HURTS uses diagrams, illustrations, timelines, and step–by–step instructions to help the reader successfully achieve the ultimate emo lifestyle. Or, alternately, teach him to spot an emo kid across the mall in order to mock him mercilessly.
Customer Reviews:
Entertaining.......2007-09-09
I thought it was very entertaining. Lots of fun for those tweens to twenty-somethings. Not very helpful for parents who don't have a clue to begin with. They won't get the wit. I really liked it. Very good writing.
Insanely entertaining!.......2007-08-13
I've been wanting to get this book for awhile and when I finally did, I couldn't put it down! The material is extremely fun and witty! All in all, a reader will probably only appreciate the content of this book if they can actually relate to the "emo scene" in some manner (i.e music, clothing, etc.) For someone who has a very vague idea of what "emo" is, this is the perfect guide to clarifying any and all questions one may have about this so called culture.
Everybody Hurts.......2007-07-19
I highly recommend this book. Its a good read for anyone who has, or is currently in their local scene or music group. It is very informative and gives a good perspective on life in and out of the scene.
Everybody DOES hurt sometimes.....But that's why it's so funny!.......2007-07-03
This would have to be my favourite book of the year!
Never have I come across a book that describes a pop-culture scene so brutally honest, and with such sarcastic-humour, as this one does.
Now I would have to call myself "old" when relating to this scene. (I'm 26) - but that doesn't make me any less of a scenester to comment on it.
(I mean according to the "Adult Emo" quiz at the back, I still have some Fall Out Boy shows up my sleeve before I "retire"). If you're fascinated by all things "Emo" - I would have to say this would have to be the book for you. I think it also would be a great book to explain to your parents about - just so they won't freak out about your overusage of MySpace & tortured-teen-angst poetry lying around the lounge room.
If you are a parent, and trying to decide which scene your suddenly-rebellious teenager fits into - Emo or Goth. Read Volitaire's "What is Goth?" - another funny and spot on satire of the scene.
....anyway, enough of my ramblings...
To sum up: Buy it. It's good. The End.
very funny and awesome.......2007-05-30
This was a great book.
For the people who love the scene life, this is for you
and if you have a sense of humor.
Average customer rating:
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Gerald and Sara Murphy were the golden couple of the Lost Generation. Born to wealth and privilege, they fled the stuffy confines of upper-class America to reinvent themselves in France as legendary party givers and enthusiastic participants in the modernist revolution of the 1920s. He became an important painter; she made everyday life a work of art. Their friends F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and John Dos Passos all based fictional characters on the Murphys; Picasso painted them; and Calvin Tomkins rekindled their glamour for a younger generation in his affectionate 1971 portrait, Living Well Is the Best Revenge. Amanda Vaill's vivid new biography builds on Tomkins's work to provide a full-length account of the Murphys' remarkable life together.
As well as good times, that life included suffering endured with great courage. The Murphys' teenage sons died within two years of each other in the mid-1930s--one suddenly, one after a long battle with tuberculosis--and the Depression forced Gerald to resume the uncongenial work of managing his family's business. Vaill's sensitive rendering reveals the moral substance that enabled this stylish couple to survive heartbreak. But it's her marvelous evocation of those magical expatriate years that lingers in the memory. The wit and imaginative panache with which the Murphys lived sparkles again, recapturing a splendid historical moment. As Sara later said, "It was like a great fair, and everybody was so young." --Wendy Smith
Book Description
"Once upon a time there was a prince and a princess -- that's how the story of the Murphys should begin," said a friend of this golden pair. Handsome, gifted, wealthy Americans with homes in Paris and on the French Riviera, Gerald and Sara Murphy were at the very center of expatriate cultural and social life during the modernist ferment of the 1920s. Gerald Murphy -- witty, urbane, and elusive -- was a giver of magical parties and an acclaimed painter. Sara Murphy, an enigmatic beauty who wore her pearls to the beach, enthralled and inspired Pablo Picasso (he painted her both clothed and nude), Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The models for Nicole and Dick Diver in Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night,the Murphys also counted among their friends John Dos Passos, Dorothy Parker, Fernand Leger, Archibald MacLeish, Cole Porter, and a host of others. Far more than mere patrons, they were kindred creative spirits whose sustaining friendship released creative energy. Yet none of the artists who used the Murphys for their models fully captured the real story of their lives: their Edith Wharton childhoods, their unexpected youthful romance, their ten-year secret courtship, their complex and enduring marriage -- and the tragedy that struck them, when the world they had created seemed most perfect, in what Gerald called, "our most vulnerable spot, our children." Certainly Fitzgerald, who once complained that there were no second acts in American lives, could not have envisioned the tenacity with which the Murphys struggled to hold themselves and their charmed circle together through the dark years of the thirties and forties, when death, financial ruin, madness, and war assailed it. Amanda Vaill's account of the Murphys and their friends follows them through the whole arc of their glittering and sometimes tragic lives -- the first such account to do so. Drawing on a hitherto untapped wealth of family diaries, photographs, letters and other papers, as well as on archival research and interviews on two continents, Vaill has documented the pivotal role of the Murphys in the interplay of cultures that gave rise to the Lost Generation. She explores for the first time the sexual undercurrents that ran beneath Gerald's and Sara's relationships with Picasso, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald and affected the work of all three men. Most important, she evokes both Murphys, and the geniuses who had the good fortune to be their friends, with a clarity and tenderness that makes them virtually step off the page. "There was a shine to life wherever they were," said the poet Archibald MacLeish -- and this book, which reads as much like a rich and engaging novel as a work of biography, shows why.
Customer Reviews:
"Making It New".......2007-09-06
I had to go out and buy this book after seeing "Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy" at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, MA. The book is terrific, but if you're interested in this period, its writers and artists than track down this exhibit. It's a wonderful and extraordinary show about the Murphys and those they were friends with. Paintings, theater pieces, diary entries, letters, amazing photographs, home movies and more illustrate that the Murphys were really an essential part of the 1920s and 1930s. An argument can be made that they were the center that everything spun out from. It is absolutely sensational.
The Murphys: maybe more interesting than their pal Fitzgerald.......2007-04-01
Zelda Fitzgerald died on March 10, 2005. Hers was a terrible death --- she was a patient at the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, and the building caught fire, and because the patients were locked in, Zelda and eight others died. She was 48.
Her life had, effectively, ended years earlier, when she had the first of her breakdowns and was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Or had it ended earlier than that? Perhaps with the death of her estranged husband, the once glamorous, then ruined F. Scott Fitzgerald, in 1940. Or maybe even earlier, on the Riviera, in 1924, when she had a dalliance with a French aviator that so enraged that her husband she tried to kill herself a few months later. Or even earlier, when Scott started appropriating her personality and her ideas for the characters in his novels.
Yes, but for a few years there, they had it all, didn't they? They were the Golden Couple, the personification of the '20s: young, beautiful, gifted. But not smart about fame, although, back then, almost no one understood how the flame of media draws you in, consumes you for the amusement of an uncaring public, and leaves you with ashes in your mouth and regret in your heart.
No, wait. Some people did grasp that. The Murphys did. And, as Amanda Vaill tells their story, they are considerably more interesting than their friends, the drunk and disorderly Fitzgeralds.
And can we talk about turning life into art?
Late each morning in the summer of 1922, Gerald went outside his home in Antibes and created something never seen before --- a beach! --- by raking the seaweed and stones. For this, he is said to have invented the idea of the Riviera as a summer destination.
Moments later, Sara would join him and, on a blanket, read or write. She wore a white linen dress or bathing suit. And, always, a long strand of pearls, which she looped around her back so she wouldn't mar her tan (and, she said, because the sun was good for them). For this, she became a style-setter and muse.
Gerald and Sara together were not two but one. They were "The Murphys," a young and rich American couple who used their youth and money to establish themselves at the center of a cultural elite in which everybody was young, talented, acclaimed. Cole Porter, Stravinsky, Picasso (who was in love with Sara), Cocteau --- though they were stars on their own, they orbited the Murphys. "There was a shine to life wherever they were," Archibald MacLeish said. "It was as though custom and habit had been wiped away and the thing itself was, for an instant, seen. Don't ask me how."
Then F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway showed up.
If you've read Tender Is the Night, you know that Fitzgerald took the Murphys as models for the Divers. Whatever its merits, the novel reduced the Murphys to "Beautiful People." In fact, Gerald was an accomplished painter, an American Leger. He and Sara were experts on African-American spiritual music. They financed theatrical productions and helped worthy friends (Hemingway, for just one).
And they were far from untouched by the troubles of ordinary mortals.
First their young son Patrick came down with tuberculosis. Then, suddenly, their younger son died of meningitis. "Fancy. There's no other word for it," John Dos Passos said. "They could have thought & thought for a million years and they wouldn't have been able to think of one like that." And then, "fancy" again, a few years later, when Patrick died, and the Murphys had to carry on for their one remaining child.
It gets, if possible, more intense. Gerald returned to America to run his family business, a posh New York leather store named Mark Cross. He sent money to the faltering Fitzgerald. He had some deep poetic attachments with young men. And then he died. Dorothy Parker sent his widow this telegram: "Dearest Sara Dearest Sara." The widow staged a funeral that was described as "courage disguised as taste." But that was his life. And hers.
It's easy to read a book like this for the anecdotes about the mighty. But Fitzgerald comes across here as an eternal college boy and a bit of a fool, Hemingway as cold and manipulative. In contrast, the Murphys seem like explorers of the rarest kind --- blessed with money, they set out to find beauty and harmony. That they also found tragedy only makes their story more fascinating.
College kids majoring in Gender Studies can find much in the life of Zelda Fitzgerald to ponder. I'm not knocking that --- there are lessons galore in that roller coaster of a life. But when you're further along the road, the Fitzgeralds start to be, at bottom, a lot of noise --- spoiled children breaking things.
The Murphys, in contrast, look more substantial, more worthy of a sustained view. The Murphys, for all their money and privilege, seem real. These days, I don't want to read about the Fitzgeralds; I want to read Fitzgerald. But the Murphys --- they're well worth 500 pages.
Real Life Is Better Than Fiction!.......2007-01-11
This delightful story is like watching a wonderful old movie from the 30's-40's! And I learned a thing or two about history!!! I'll be urging my book group to read this.
You will wish you had lived and loved and laughed with them.......2006-07-23
This is a joy, a party, a nonfiction book that reads like a novel. It will make you long to be a part of the expatriate Americans in Paris and the south of France during the 1920s, even if you are not particularly good with history. Amanda Vaill takes a decade, a place, and a group of friends, and unravels for you a world where Hemingway and Fitzgerald adored, hated and envied one another; a world in which Picasso draws Sara Murphy on the beach, nude but for a long strand of pearls; a world in which John Dos Passos and Dorothy Parker and so many others of the "Lost Generation" simply populated each other's lives with more talent and longevity than any of them truly knew. Meeting them one at a time, through beach parties and romances and the writing of novels and the making of art and the normal joys and tragedies of life, will plant the history of this time in your mind like you would never guess. Watch out -- your next step may be Hemingway's "Moveable Feast" and Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night," and you will be yearning to eat at The Brasserie Lipp in Paris, straining to hear the ancient laughter coming from the back room.
A beautiful story beautifully written.......2005-12-27
The story of Gerald and Sara Murphy is sprawling and encompasses so much that was exciting about America's last period of innocence, and runs the gamut from being the golden-child chosen ones of their era to something approaching Greek tragedy in their private lives. But the real test of a good biography is in the writing, and Amanda Vaill stands beside David McCullough as one of the most engaging biographers in our time, doing the incredible job of keeping all the players and egos, all the locations and permutations straight, intriguing, and finally resulting in something most biographies never are: A real page-turner. Even if you've never read Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Dos Passos, or MacLeish, their stories as interwoven with the Murphy's own will grab and hold your attention as brilliant, distinct, and all-too-human characters. Kudos for a masterwork that pulls all the disparate elements of the Lost Generation together so effortlessly to convey this important time in 20th century history.
Book Description
This is a workbook for bullies and victims ages eight to fourteen. With sample dialogue and exercises, it teaches children to respect themselves and introduces them to a variety of threatening situations and how to resolve them nonviolently. It also includes notes to teachers on how to combine various lessons for the most effective teachings.
Customer Reviews:
Helping Students and Parents deal with bullying ..........2007-08-22
I have used this book to teach 100s of Martial Arts students about conflict and how to resolve it without using violence. It has helped me and my students understand there are many options to solving conflict. Many parents and students return to me saying "The lessons you taught me and the books from Dr. T have helped me focus on the important things in school, keep the bullys away, and find good friends". School teachers have commented how the children from my classes share the lessons from the books with other students and have helped spread the peaceful ways accross the community. I highly recommend this book and others from this author.
Guide to Handling Bullies.......2007-08-12
I have had GREAT! success with this book. In fact, the success was actually documented in a case study with several children. If you are any kind of teacher at all, you will find this book useful. I think it gives children a number of options to manage conflict. I also think if we taught our children more from this author's books and programs, we would all be more peaceful people and actually be able to live with each other, (there's a concept)no matter how different we are! It is not a passive response...it is a SMART response!
Experience Counts! ( re-wrote, think the first didn't get posted).......2007-08-11
I first met the Author in the late 1980's. I have since employed much of his work within the many programs I have done.
Dr. Webster-Doyle has enormous experience as both a psychologist (with background in Youth related work), and as a experienced Martial Artist.
Psychologists might not fully understand the synergy with martial arts, and many (most, I'm sorry to say) martial artists do not fully comprehend the many ways Body & Spirit are driven by Mind. I have used this material in many public & Private Programs, from NYC Bd of ED programming to Community Non-Profit Organization & Commercial Martial Arts Programs. I recommend it highly.
GM Ticali ,
Old Lion Karate Academy
Martial LIFE Arts Assoc.
An excellent educator.......2007-08-11
Terrance Webster-Doyle's books are a great help for teaching youth the art of non-violence which is, essentially, the essence of Martial Arts. Anyone who criticizes this basic premise just doesn't get it. Terrence Webster-Doyle does, that is why he is a respected educator and Master worldwide.
Useless.......2006-01-04
First, the reviews for this awful book are from the guy who wrote it (or his wife), and some lady who co-write another book with him. These people are without a shred of character or honesty. Don't buy this book.
The guy has no real doctorate from any accredited institution and yet refers to himself as doctor on every possible occasion. And, if he has an actual Black Belt in anything, it isn't listed anywhere that I know of.
To be a passivist one must have been a warrior, not just passing on some sad issue from his own childhood and inflicting it on actual martial artist community. He should stay out of the martial arts and maybe write books about dance studios or hippie communes, because this kind of junk will get your kid beat up badly in the real world. If you look closely it is the philosophy of failure and cowardly, dishonest action. He would have done very well in the German occupation of France. If you allow your son to read this book, you are participating in the further feminization of his future. Not a bad thing maybe, as these people are in a full-on war against anything masculine or realistic. But, like it or not, there are a few human male warriors left. We aren't violent, but that is because our enemies fear us and we have been in the battle and realize it is nasty. For a warrior, the last resort is violence; for a lying cowering simp, every day is a defeat.
Why not allow your son to be initiated into a warrior tradition like Shotokan or Jujitsu instead of reading this pure psuedo-intellectual junk.
But that's just my opinion, and I may just be out of touch with the new sensitivity. Thank goodness.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent !! Couldn't put it Down.
- To The Dillards, With Love
- The Dillards Rule!
- Great Book from a Great Guy
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Everybody on the Truck!: The Story of the Dillards (The Life and Times of the Dillards)
Lee Grant , and
Denver Pyle
Manufacturer: Eggman Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Back Porch Bluegrass/ Live!!! Almost!!!
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Home Grown Stories & Home Fried Lies
ASIN: 1886371113 |
Book Description
Biography of the bluegrass book, The Dillards who gained fame as the Darlin' family on The Andy Griffith Show. Known as the fathers of country rock this book also contains the lyrics to their hits as well as the never before heard lyrics to the Songs that Made Charlene (Darlin) Cry.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent !! Couldn't put it Down........2004-01-17
I'm a big Dillard and Andy Griffith Fan.
This book provided information I other wise would have not have access to. I have read everything I could find on the group, but It never told the whole story and left me longing for more.
Lee filled that hole. Nicely laid out, kept a smooth timeline, plenty of
funny stories.
I recommend this book to anyone.
On top of that Lee is a fine person to do business with. The book was shipped promptly and in great condition.
Thanks for a great book.
John
Chepatchet , R.I.
To The Dillards, With Love.......2002-01-29
"Everybody on the Truck!" is an unabashed valentine to the unfairly unsung Dillards, who were bluegrass when bluegrass wasn't cool and country rock when there wasn't such a thing. As breezily told by Lee Grant, The Dillards' story is refreshingly devoid of raging egos, self-destruction and bitter ends. You'll come away from this compelling biography knowing, perhaps identifying with, and most assuredly liking The Dillards.
Grant sketches the original Dillards - brothers Douglas and Rodney Dillard, Dean Webb and Mitch Jayne - as proud sons of Missouri who longed to set the world afire with their hell-for-leather approach to bluegrass music. Grant's account of the band's misadventures during their go-for-broke journey from the Show Me state to California in late 1962 is funnier and more unbelievable than anything Hollywood could concoct. Against all odds, The Dillards enjoyed nearly instant but well-deserved success soon after reaching Los Angeles, landing a major recording contract and what would become a recurring role on "The Andy Griffith Show".
Grant devotes a good chunk of his book to his subject's indelible association with the Darlings, the eerily deadpan but musically gifted hillbilly clan The Dillards played on six episodes of "TAGS." Interestingly, The Darlings are the source of lingering ambivalence for Rodney Dillard, the group's integrity-conscious musical heart, who wasn't wild, at first, about playing a hayseed stereotype.
Between 1963 and 1970, The Dillards produced five critically-acclaimed albums, rubbed shoulders with the likes of Perry Como, Judy Garland, the Byrds and Bob Dylan and seldom rested from public appearances. "Truck" lets The Dillards themselves analyze the music and their somewhat anachronistic place in the swingin' Sixties. The insights and anecdotes of Mitch Jayne, who played bass and dispensed folksy humor in the role of group spokesman, are particularly entertaining.
To paraphrase Jayne, this "Truck" will run. Hitch a ride and hold on.
The Dillards Rule!.......2000-12-28
This book is an excellent reference for one of bluegrass music's legendary bands, the Dillards. Anyone interested in learning about Rodney, Doug, Dean and Mitch need to get a copy of this book, and fast. Lee Grant has provided us Dillards junkies with a veritable "bible" on the lives and careers of the boys. It is an engaging read. When I bought my copy, I read it straight through in one sitting! For me, that is a rarity. :-)
Suggestion: put on a copy of their CD, "There Is A Time", while reading this book. See why Briscoe Darling once said, "they's all keyed up"!
They were, and you'll be, too.
Great Book from a Great Guy.......2000-04-20
Lee Grant's fresh southern (but not too southern) writing style lights up the page. This book is a real joy to read. I highly recommend it. I am eagerly awaiting another Lee Grant book. I have heard rumors of a novel in the works. I am waiting anxiously to see if this is a rumor or plain old fact.
GG
Average customer rating:
- Voice of the Mets, Norte Dame, and television sports
- A Sportscasters Life
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Hello Everybody, I'm Lindsey Nelson
Lindsey Nelson
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0688041868 |
Customer Reviews:
Voice of the Mets, Norte Dame, and television sports.......2002-05-04
I became a Lindsey Nelson fan, like others, simply by hearing his voice and broadcasting style many times. He had, to me, one of the most recognizable voices in sports broadcasting. Nelson's style was low-key, informative, and easy to digest. His book is excellent--those who remember him or followed sports during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s will especially enjoy the book. Nelson was not only a great broadcaster, but shows he is a terrific writer also. He actually started in the newspaper business as a youngster, and his flair for writing is evidenced throughout the book. He was the play-by-play voice of the Mets for 17 years and also for many years the voice of Notre Dame football highlights. His tales of his early, and later years at the University of Tennessee are outstanding. Although he passed away in 1995, his legend continues to shine as UT's baseball facility is named Lindsey Nelson Stadium. A fitting tribute for a wonderful man, and an outstanding sports broadcaster for over 30 years.
A Sportscasters Life.......2001-06-01
This may be the best book about sportscasting since Red Barber's "Rubarb in the Catbird's Seat." Lindsey Nelson was the top sportscaster in the country during the late 50's and into the early 60's. He was the first well-known TV play-by-play man but he spanned back into the radio days and writes about the radio guys like Ted Husing, Bill Stern and Mel Allen. It's basically the life of a sports announcer at the top of the profession. He also writes about his WW 2 experiences and getting started in radio in Knoxville, Tennessee. He also writes eloquently about his daughter who was born with a mental handicap, the early death of his wife and his love of travel...he once went to Timbuktu. One of the best things about the book is he wrote it himself...no ghost writer.
Books:
- In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine
- Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
- Introductory Guide to High-Performance Audio Systems: Stereo - Surround Sound - Home Theater
- Invisible Gardens: The Search for Modernism in the American Landscape
- Knitting on the Edge: Ribs, Ruffles, Lace, Fringes, Floral, Points & Picots: The Essential Collection of 350 Decorative Borders
- Lamps of Tiffany Studios
- Learning Autodesk Maya 8|Foundation +DVD
- Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
- Making Authentic Craftsman Furniture: Instructions and Plans for 62 Projects (Dover Books on Woodworking & Carving)
- MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation
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