Book Description
Courtney B. Vance met Angela Bassett….
They ran for years as friends in the same small circles. They had some hits, but mostly misses with other partners, and they shared one spectacularly dreadful first date together. And then, Courtney and Angela connected.
Experience the up-close-and-personal, real-life love story of this inspirational African-American celebrity couple. Learn how they navigate the fickle tides of fame, while keeping their relationship fresh and true. See how they've carved a meaningful life together in spite of humble beginnings, family tragedy and the ups and downs of stardom with love, faith and determination.
Customer Reviews:
A Real Love Story.......2007-10-10
I could barely put this book down! I enjoyed reading the candid story about Courtney and Angela. I appreciate all the sound advice given throughout the book concerning relationships. If you can get past some of the expletives used by Angela, you will find this book enjoyable. I wanted to put my "stamp of approval" on such a well written, down to earth story about a man and women who meet and fall in love. God truly has joined these two together and may the love they share sustain this marriage.
Excellent Book!.......2007-10-02
Bravo Courtney for evolving into the man that you are. It took great strength and courage to defy the many evils of today. I hope many males read this book and imitate you and your union with Angela. Congratulations on a job well done.
Awesome love story .......2007-09-17
This book was well written think it was wonderful for Courtney/Angela to share their lives with readers. Points of interest: the lessons Angela/Courtney gives about being a God fearing wife and husband. This will help anyone who takes the time to read/apply it to your life. Please write another book soon.
WONDERFUL!.......2007-08-23
This book was such a joy to read. As a young single lady in my 40's, it was a joy to learn of the forces that lead Angela and Courtney to each other. If you believe there is someone waiting for you, then this is the book to read. I am so glad they made the decision to share their story with us. Thanks for sharing!
Just Wonderful.......2007-07-28
This Book was just Wonderful.
The first book in a long time that I couldn't put down!!
Book Description
A multi-textual memoir chronicling the life of one of our most potent pop icons
Groundbreaking rock musician. Award-winning actress. Perceptive songwriter and author. Mother. Wife of a rock god. Fashionista and trendsetter. Provocateur. In each and every one of these roles Courtney Love has demonstrated a wholehearted commitment to her art, and an intense drive and a lust for life that have made her a star and a celebrity icon—but have also led her into some unwise, uncharted, and even dangerous territory. Simultaneously candid and enigmatic, Love has a mordant wit and vivid intelligence matched in intensity only by the extraordinary life she has led, from a bleak early childhood through great fame and terrible heartbreak to the present day. By turns exhilarating and unsettling, this is a story told for the first time in Dirty Blonde.
Composed of an astonishing and eclectic collection of deeply personal artifacts including personal letters, childhood records, poetry, diary entries, song lyrics, fanzines, show flyers, other original writings, and never-before-seen photographs, Dirty Blonde leads us through the unimaginable highs and the despairing lows of one of the most compelling and creative figures in the world of popular culture. Through these diaries we see Love’s accomplishments, her mistakes, her history, and her bright future in a whole new light. From her upbringing in Oregon through her years living in Japan, New Zealand, and London, from her career highs with Hole and as a Hollywood leading lady to her personal heartbreak and struggle, Dirty Blonde is Love laid bare—a wholly fascinating portrait of a fierce and insightful woman with an unblinking worldview and a determination to express herself no matter the cost.
Customer Reviews:
Its good, but... .......2007-05-08
Its good, but not as good as I thought it would be...
It is exacally her journal pages, pictures & scribbles. And you can't read some of it because she has messy hand writing, but what you can is pretty interesting - she is very intelligent.
2 things I didnt like:
1; is they added some things to make it look more like a journal. ie- taped pages in, burn holes, cigarette butts. At first its nothing but i really got annoyed when they put cigarette butts on the page because they wouldn't have stayed in her book this entire time. And if they some how did, they wouldnt be all 3D and "perfect" as they were.
2; its interesting, but not as interesting as i thought. its more of her feelings & thoughts than what she did or who she was with or saw. She never mentions Billy for the pumpkins, but she posted a news paper clipping...
Lots of song lyrics, thoughts, feelings but nothing thats made my jaw drop yet...
I would recommend you buy this second hand from eBay or a book store..
Dirty Blonde .......2007-04-11
Good Quality. Not as good as I had thought it would be. Too "scrap booky". I thought it was going to be an autobiography.
A triumph of minutiae..........2007-03-25
Courtney Love's "diaries", despite a lack of real substance for the sake of design, is a disarming scrapbook which may have the power to inspire the artistic and creative capabilities in others (whether that was the intention or not, we'll never know). Any passionate fan--after sifting through the poems and the diary entries, snapshots and club advertisements--may be inclined to write a poem of his or her own, or put on an old record and leaf through letters kept from the past. I for one felt a studied contrast between the book and the Courtney Love I thought I knew (there's very little anger here, and feminist empowerment without the usual sting of retribution). It is, at once, like a day-old glass of champagne: rich, provocative, glossy, and yet without fizzle. Love slathers the pages with juvenalia, some bad taste from her '80's club years (though not from the perspective of a wizened twentysomething), funny asides (as a pre-teen, she wanted to be Coco Rodriguez, Mouseketeer!), candid pictures of deceased husband Kurt Cobain and Love with daughter Frances, scrawled poems with lines going up and down the page, doodles (some visually arresting), and several revealing attributes (for instance, Love hates to kiss 'n tell, and she admires others who feel the same, but although she doesn't gossip she does occasionally enjoy dropping names). It's an intriguing, meandering, windy, romantic run-through of a rock icon's spotty career. It can be read for what it is or it may be completely misconstrued (Love is used to be misunderstood). It can be viewed as an inspirational tomb, a signpost of the times, or as complete bulls***t. B-
essential.......2007-03-18
if you're a courtney love fan, you have to have this book. if you're not a courtney love fan, you have to have this book. it's that great. also, it has the best cover of any rock and roll book ever printed.
Dificult.......2007-03-09
Its a nice book, specially if you are a big fan of CL or if you are curious about her life. It is a very difficult book to read because it all comes written by her own hand, and being honest, she does not have nice handwritting. But its intresting when you get use to her handwritting.
Book Description
Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane has always stood at the intersection of fashion, art and music. Over the past 10 years, his slick, sexy designs and signature cut have revolutionized menswear. Several bodies of his photographic work--2005's London Birth of a Cult and his ongoing "Rock Diary" series for V magazine--have documented underground rock culture at its loudest and most extreme. In this latest project, Slimane teams up with the editors of Visionaire and V to deliver Portrait of a Performer, an exclusive photojournal devoted to the provocative musician and muse, Courtney Love. Shot in New York in August of 2006, just before the release of Love's latest record, the intimate black-and-white studies capture the American pop icon, semi-nude, just before her return to the Billboard charts--defiant, mesmerizing, flawed and vulnerable. Portrait of a Performer documents a highly charged encounter between two creative forces who have influenced rock and fashion, each on their own terms.
Average customer rating:
- Great for a non-medical view!
- Great!
- Its pretty good!
- GREAT!!
- Just what I needed
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The Conception Chronicles: The Uncensored Truth About Sex, Love & Marriage When You're Trying to Get Pregnant
Patty Doyle Debano ,
Courtney Menzel , and
Shelly Sutphen
Manufacturer: HCI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Pregnancy & Childbirth
| Women's Health
| Personal Health
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Love & Romance
| Relationships
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sex
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Fertility
| Parenting & Families
| Subjects
| Books
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Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health
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A Few Good Eggs: Two Chicks Dish on Overcoming the Insanity of Infertility
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Fertility and Conception: A Complete Guide to Getting Pregnant
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The Everything Getting Pregnant Book: Professional, Reassuring Advice to Help You Conceive (Everything Series)
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Making a Baby: Everything You Need to Know to Get Pregnant
ASIN: 0757302386 |
Book Description
When we first started down the baby-making path, we thought we'd be pregnant in no time. We'd just toss out our birth control pills and before we knew it, we'd be rocking our little one to sleep. Little did we know what was in store for us, or the energy it would take to face all of the crazy, unpredictable and (sometimes) irrational emotions we felt along the way. Neither did our husbands. Sound familiar? If your idea of foreplay is screaming, "I'm ovulating; it's time!!!" to your oblivious husband... If your ovulation schedule is ruling your life and every trip to the drug store includes a bulk purchase of pregnancy sticks... If you're running out of answers to the chronic questioning from the pregnancy paparazzi about your plans for parenthood ... Then this is the book for you. Whether it's been three months or three years since you've been trying, the more complicated and overwhelming the process becomes. The Conception Chronicles shares candid humor, hold-nothing-back banter and practical advice on everything that goes along with trying to start a family: from dealing with your fertile friends to the battery of tests you may have to face; from surviving "sex on demand" to navigating the ins and outs of high-tech fertility treatments. This book will guide you through the emotional journey to motherhood, offering compassion and laughter like only your best girlfriends can. And we promise you'll never hear us say, "Relax and you'll be pregnant in no time."
Customer Reviews:
Great for a non-medical view!.......2007-08-16
When my husband and I first started talking about trying, I wanted a book that was going to give me a more light-hearted view of the conception process. I was pleased when I found this book! I have read most of it now, and it's informative, but keeps me laughing. If you are looking for something that will help you analyze your fertility with steps and procedures and all that medical mumbo-jumbo, this is not the book for you! The only downfall is that the last third of the book is all about infertility treatments, and doesn't fit my interests at the moment.
Great!.......2007-08-06
Thank God these women wrote this book. Until i read this I thought I was the only one experiencing some of these things or feelings. At least I know (or am reminded) there are other women out there who feel like freaks too. I would have liked to know how things turned out for them though. I did do a lot of back and forth to review things or skipped portions that didn't apply, etc. but since part of me felt like I was going through it w/ them (or them w/ me), I wish I knew how things turned out for them. But, for those of us whose girlfriends didn't have the same conception problems as us, this book was great!
Its pretty good!.......2007-06-26
This book is a really cute book and you learn about your body in a light hearted kind of way. After getting half way through the book I realized I wasn't learning anything new that I didn't already know. I really like Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Its a huge book filled of so much information and a book I can always refer to. If you want to get a book that is easy to read and you know nothing about your body and your cycles then this is the book for you.
GREAT!!.......2007-05-14
This book is smart and funny! A very candid look at the joys and struggles of trying to get pregnant!
Just what I needed.......2006-12-30
My husband and I have been trying for nearly 2 years and I was feeling quite alone in the process. This book helped me not feel so alone. There are other women out there struggling to have a child and the feeling I was having were common and normal. It gave some simple insight to the different treatments. I recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with infertility (took me a while to say that word). You aren't alone.
Customer Reviews:
A smart, no-nonsense guide.......2002-01-04
This book offers a straight-forward approach to dating that apeals to both men and women alike. Phillipa Courtney gives relationship advice that's as solid as any business plan. 1-2-3 Success. A good read!
Relating Again Confidently after a 23-year Marriage.......2000-10-29
4 STEPS TO BRING THE RIGHT PERSON INTO YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW! encountered me when I was recently separated after a twenty-three marriage. While I already knew I still wanted the right long-term relationship, I was skeptical that anything other than the time-honored trial and error method of finding a mate would work. But my first trial was a crashing error, so I figured anything was worth a try at that point. Philippa Courtney's straightforward, warm, and humorous style convinced me her process made sense. I worked through the steps she outlined, something I rarely have the patience for. I was able to turn my jumbled thoughts and emotions about the kind of man I thought I wanted into something tangible and clear. A year later, and long since divorced, I've built good relationships with several men. It hasn't been a pain-free year. But I've gone from lamenting my age and my history, and assuming there is no one out there for me, to knowing there is someone. I've become stronger in myself, more adventuresome and confident in meeting men, and more knowledgeable about the relationship I ultimately want to have. Of course I still want that relationship yesterday...I think...but I am having fun, something I would not have imagined possible when I was first separated. And one of these tomorrows he will walk into my life and, most importantly, I will recognize him. I may have arrived at this point eventually, but 4 STEPS TO BRING THE RIGHT PERSON INTO YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW! helped me to get there a lot sooner.
Bill's book review.......2000-08-23
After the demise of two marriages and several failed relationships, I found the Meant2be 4-step book to be more valuable than I ever could have imagined. As a businessman, I appreciate the author's analytical approach to finding and recognizing the right person, as opposed to my previously random and time-consuming ways. Although I have not yet found the "right" person for me, I now feel that I can define this special person and will recognize her soon after meeting her. The book was funny, easy to read, and hit home for me. I recommend this book to all single people that seek to put fun, logic, realism and time efficiency into dating and matchmaking. I only wish I had read this book a long time ago!
Compelling Solution for a Dating Cynic.......2000-01-08
I received Courtney's "4 Steps" book for Christmas. At first I was dubious having seen all the sophomoric "dating" books in the bookstores. But after a closer look I was very pleasantly surprised. This book is logical, it is filled with common sense plus I had more than few chuckles from the author's candid and well-written stories. You can tell that the author really knows what it's like to be a single adult these days. As a twice divorced father of two teens, I have become somewhat of a dating cynic, but reading this book has made me willing to give it one more try knowing I'll be a whole lot smarter this time.
I strongly recommend this book - a great read with great advice!
Great for thinkers, not just lovers.......1999-12-17
I've taken Philippa's mean2be seminar and found this book to reinforce sound principles that make sense.
It's a quick read, and I found it comforting for the soul. I highly recommend it!
Book Description
Human love relationships are one of the most fertile grounds for growth and transformation. Also fraught with difficulty, frustration and pain, they dramatize for us our projections, addictions and wounds. Yet conscious use of relationships can be a fast track to spiritual and psychological transformation.
In The Marriage of Sex and Spirit, thirty-five of the most provocative and fresh voices of our generation give us the keys to transforming relationships from a source of grief and bondage to a celebration of self and other. Drawing together the most powerful wisdom of spiritual teachers, psychiatrists, anthropologists, educators, therapists, coaches, writers, artists, this groundbreaking anthology presents the visions and ideas that form the gateway to transforming both spirituality and sexuality. This powerful collection of practical techniques and breakthrough insights offers the potential to utterly transform your experience of relationships into a source of joy, inspiration and fuel for your spiritual and emotional journey.
* Contributors include many best-selling authors including John Gray, Margo Anand, Gay Hendricks, Susie Bright, Wayne Dyer and others.
Customer Reviews:
great anthology.......2007-09-27
I highly recommend this book for couples interested in sacred relationship. As it is an anthology you do not have to read all the chapters-some may resonate with you more than others
Sacred dimensions of sex.......2007-04-24
Reviewed by Louise Landeta for Reader Views (3/07)
This book is a compilation of philosophical/spiritual/theological thought from a wide variety of teachers in the context of the spiritual dimensions of sexuality. The editor's premise is that sex is sacred.
Ms. Gendreau draws on the wisdom of numerous religious traditions--Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and Jewish, as well as psychological and sociological models. The book presents a wealth of relationship knowledge all in one place and can be an extremely useful resource to those who wish to learn more and improve their interactions with others.
I note, however, that some of the chapters do not seem to have anything or much to say about sexuality, for example Scott Peck, Francine Ward, Wayne Dyer and Gloria Jean to name a few. They are rather more about traditional approaches to interpersonal dealings. This is not to take away from their value, but I do question their relevance to the book's intent.
Nevertheless, I think this is an excellent anthology, a valuable collection of wise words and ideas.
Margot Anand proposes a thought that was completely new to me and one I find intriguing. She says that, "Orgasm brings us closer to the divine than any other experience . . .a bonding happens between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. . .The ego disappears, time and space cease to exist and you become one with energy and consciousness. This is the sacred dimension of sex." I think her chapter in "The Marriage of Sex and Spirit" was one of the best in relationship to the book's stated intent.
Information for the real world.......2007-01-03
Who doesn't want to improve thier relationships? The idea of expanding the awareness and integration of spirituality into intimate relationships is something that I think will be critical not just to the improvement of individual relationships but to planetary health. The subject matter, and authors like Chopra, Myss, Church and Thich Nhat Hahn caught my attention initially, and while I enjoyed these established thinkers of our time I also enjoyed the newer voices like Courtney Arnold and Jeanne House among others. As with most anthologies, I didn't agree with everything, but there is so much good information that it far outweighed that which didn't resonate.
This book contains real world information by some brilliant people that can be applied in relationships starting today. If you really want to experience not just good but truly successful and fulfilling relationships, the collective wisdom in books like this just might give you the direction and clarity to do just that!
Book Description
The daughter of esteemed writer Paula Fox and the mother of Courtney Love relates “the curse of the first-born daughter” that has haunted four generations of her family.
As an adopted child, Linda Carroll created a magical world of her own, made up of dramatic adventures and the abiding fantasy that her real mother would come and take her away. When she finds herself pregnant at the age of eighteen, she is determined to have the perfect understanding with her child that she lacked with her adoptive mother. But readers will know better, for that baby grows up to be Courtney Love, desperately attention-seeking, deeply troubled, and one of the most talented women in rock.
Even as a baby, Courtney is beset by mood swings that no doctor can explain or cure. Her dark moods and paranoia escalate as she grows up, driving mother and daughter apart. When Courtney has a daughter of her own, Linda finally decides to find her own biological mother, and end the estrangement of generations of first-born daughters.
Her Mother’s Daughter is Linda Carroll’s story of self-discovery as an adopted daughter, a childlike hippie mother and a woman determined to find herself before finding her roots. Set apart from the typical celebrity memoir by Carroll’s gifted storytelling, Her Mother’s Daughter gives a fresh perspective on the elusive yet enduring connections between mothers and daughters, and reveals the true history of the wildly confabulatory Courtney Love.
LINDA CARROLL was adopted at birth, raised in San Francisco and only later discovered that her biological mother is the writer Paula Fox. Married at eighteen, and twice more before she was thirty, she is now the mother of five grown children, including singer/songwriter Courtney Love. She is a therapist and writer and lives in Corvallis, Oregon with her husband of seventeen years.
Advance Praise for Her Mother’s Daughter
“Even if you start reading Linda Carroll's memoir out of curiosity about her famous daughter and biological mother, you'll keep reading to find out more about Linda herself. This is no celebrity potboiler, but a fascinating, beautifully written work of narrative nonfiction; Carroll unites the intimate perspective of a psychologist, the contextual sense of a historian, and the clarity of a fine biographer in one absorbing package. One of her central themes is what she calls the "curse of the first-born daughter," and it does seem that a tendency to live fascinating but difficult lives runs in these women's veins. But so, apparently, does the talent of drawing, holding, and rewarding our attention. Bravo, Linda Carroll!”
—Martha Beck, author of Expecting Adam and Finding Your Own North Star
“There is a delicious fictional quality to this true-life story that I found riveting. In Carroll's deft telling, the book is a kind of resurrection of a family…. I think I loved Her Mother's Daughter most for the devotion that Linda Carroll has for her unusual family through decades of separations and unconventional journeys.”
--Terry Ryan, author of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
“Looking backward and forward in time, this haunting memoir tells the story of a young woman’s journey to finding herself, her birth mother, and her daughter, Courtney Love. The candor and power of these pages illuminates the difficulties of all mother-daughter relationships, but offers a rare glimpse into that elemental relationship when it is shadowed by the temperamental features of early-onset bipolar disorder. Linda Carroll has grit and grace, and writes like her mother’s daughter.”
—Demitri F. Papolos, M.D. and Janice Papolos, authors of The Bipolar Child
Customer Reviews:
Best book club selection .......2007-04-25
My books club cloose "Her Mother's Daughter" for our April meeting and we were so into Linda Carroll's story that we had to meet the following week to finish our discussion. Mothers and daughters, relationships with men, finding yourself, finding what spiritual means, friendships, mental illness, death, birth, accepting life's bumps with grace laughter and compassion and going back after 30 years to find your first love, forgiveness, and lots of Catholic craziness of the 50's...this book has it all. Her descriptions of San Francisco are astounding and meaningful, ( I have lived here for 15 years)..I could imagine perfectly sitting at The Green Valley Resturant or Alioto's market at Fishermens Wharf. So is the way she describes having attention deficit disorder,"Fidget and Squirm were like an angry couple that lived in my body. Their constant warring made it impossible for me to sit still." I look at my students who struggle the same problem through new eyes. Its a fantastic book, colorful, intimate, honest, and thoughtful.
Excellent read!.......2007-04-20
I loved this book, I devoured it in a weekend. It was interesting to learn more about Courtney Love that explained why she acts so insane at times. But I really fell in love with her mom's story. I could completely identify with the victimizing kind of family life she grew up in. She is painfully honest and very insightful.
This is a great book........2007-03-15
This book is a really great. I can't put it down. It aslo was delivered pretty quickly and was cheap.
When is the movie coming out?.......2007-01-18
I just read about this book in a rave review in an old Entertainment book, I agree with the other readers who say she describes the decades with just the right emphasis. What a great movie this would be; the themes are universal.Attitudes about religion, relationships, child-raising sex, drugs and rock and roll and how they changed through time and the core of the book which is one woman's finding her roots within herself. I have been expecting it to appear on TV or as a film, it would be a blockbuster.
As a Catholic (I'm a decade younger and had it a little easier than she did) I felt her determination to find spirituality in her life heroic, (in spite of her religion) and it seems she really did get there. I too loved the last chapter. I am sure she could have done a lot more with her relationship with Paula Fox, but can understand why she didn't. All in all, a really grand story, well written, intimate and real.Hope to see it on a movie screen.
Enjoyable and Insightful, a Page-Turner.......2007-01-17
I purchased this book because of its generational mother-to-daughter topic, knowing that with Linda Carroll being both a psychologist and an adoptee, she would add dual perceptions. Her book is clearly insightful, especially in Carroll's ways of dealing with the feelings of the adopted child (and somewhat less so of the adoptive parents' feelings), and she truly reveals some of the harmful "denial" aspects of adoption of the 1940s and 1950s, with its "don't ask, don't tell" philosophy--that somewhat veiled and secretive view of the adoption process all around: the biological parents, the adoptive parents, and the adopted child all becoming unknowing victims of that process. At that time, to be enlightened was to "forget about the past." Linda Caroll makes it clear that one can never be quite whole without all of those pieces to put into their places.
Where Carroll is lacking slightly is in her depth of understanding of her adoptive parents' feelings and her own troubled daughter's, although she tries honestly and valiantly to do. Some parts still seem to be missing, and the reader comes away, mostly towards the end, sensing that some parts are just not there.
Nevertheless, it is a well written book, and one that I couldn't put down. It also offers some insight into the 1960s and early 1970s in terms of our views of what works in a family, and what we know now, just doesn't.
Book Description
How do people practice religion in their everyday lives? How do our daily encounters with people who hold different religious beliefs shape the way we understand our own moral and spiritual selves? In Heaven's Kitchen, Courtney Bender takes a highly original approach to answering these questions. For more than a year she worked in New York City as a volunteer for a nonprofit, nonreligious organization called God's Love We Deliver, helping to prepare home-cooked meals for people with AIDS. Paying close attention to what was said and not said, Bender traces how the volunteers gave voice to their moral positions and religious values. She also examines how they invested their conversations, and mundane activities such as cooking, with personal meaning that in turn affected how they saw their own spiritual lives. Filled with vibrant storytelling and rich theoretical insights, Heaven's Kitchen shows faith as a living practice, reshaping our understanding of the role of religion in contemporary American life.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing Study.......2007-08-13
What a wonderful book. Nicely written; thoughtful; and insightful. Professor Bender of Columbia University spent months observing the actions, conversations, and ideas of volunteers and workers at God's Love We Deliver in New York. What she found abounded in ironies about religion and spirituality in the everyday lives of people. Dr. Bender found that an organization with "God" in the title actually had very little overt conversation about God; Dr. Bender found that volunteers brought spiritual feelings to their work, often in the silences and quiet times of the labor. This is a fabulous book about religion in everyday life and how people make sense of their spiritual lives in various means. Recommended for all scholars of religion in America and for those interested in spirituality and volunteer organizations.
Amazon.com
Poppy Z. Brite, better known for her punk-gothic horror and dreadful taste in clothing (the jacket photo shows her looking like a reject from a 1985 audition for a Cure video) here gets her hands on something much scarier than club-hopping vampires: the life of Courtney Love. Born Love Michelle Harrison, Courtney's childhood combines the worst of doped-up hippie parenting with her innate autism to produce a life that could only lead to rock-and-roll stardom. Starting with her first acid trip at age 4, administered by her father, a paragon of parental responsibility, Courtney went on to four name changes, two years in juvenile detention, a trip to Japan courtesy of a white slave ring, living with gloom rockers in Liverpool, and a melange of drugs and sexual experiments all prior to leaving her teens. This makes for quite the page-turner--in a guilty sort of way and in spite of Poppy Z.'s occasionally cutesy-teen prose: "Courtney Love has always been surrounded by chaos, triumph, pain, and glamour." Still, in spite of the taboo of reading celebrity bios, this one stands out because of the truly odd and, perhaps, innovative life of its subject. Not simply a rock-and-roll musical bedrooms romp, Love's life is far enough out of the mainstream, or even the alternate streams, to offer challenges to many of the values we take for granted in living our lives. Things such as safety, stability, and even hygiene are thrown out the window in a life that reads like the outsider fiction of Hesse or Kerouac, only with more electric guitars.
Book Description
Courtney Love. The girl with the most cake. The girl with the loudest mouth and the fiercest guitar. The girl of many talents -- not least among them the power to shock. Not since Madonna declared that she was like a virgin has someone in the public spotlight so consistently challenged the notion of what it means to be female -- and what it means to be well behaved. In Courtney Love: The Real Story, Poppy Z. Brite tells the whole truth about the lead singer of the band Hole and uncovers more about this pop culture heroine than any music magazine could ever hope to.
Replete with revealing details and photographs, information from Love's inner circle, and excerpts from Love's diaries and letters, this book has the intimacy of secrets told to a friend and delivers revelation after revelation. With equal parts compassion and black humor, Brite chronicles the turbulent lives of Love and introduces us to Love Michelle Harrison, the troubled girl who would be queen of postpunk rock, and her childhood spent shuttled from reform school to former stepfathers to family friends. As a precocious, flamboyant teenager, she hung around backstage after concerts, soaking up the star power she knew she had to possess one day, and then traveled to Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to work as a stripper. Brite also takes us to new-wave Liverpool and to that citadel of grunge, Seattle, to see Courtney come of age in the circus that became alternative music, dishing much along the way about some of the biggest stars of that show from past and present.
Brite also sets the story straight about Love's life with Kurt Cobain; the allegations of her drug use that surrounded the birth of their daughter, Frances Bean; and the wreckage of Cobain's suicide. But what emerges out of all the drama is a woman determined not only to survive, but to succeed more than anyone ever expected. As seen from her stunning performance as the wife of the publisher of Hustler magazine in The People vs. Larry Flynt, and her transformation into a runway acolyte, she just may catapult herself out of the mosh pit and into the mainstream.
Only Poppy Z. Brite, the acclaimed author of literary horror fiction, whom Publishers Weekly called "a singularly talented chronicler of her generation," could have written this outrageous, comic, and ultimately moving tale of ferocious femininity and fishnet stockings. Courtney Love: The Real Story is a no-holds-barred biography that is as raw as a three-chord punk song -- a work that is as uncompromising and as unforgettable as its subject.
Customer Reviews:
Doesn't even get Courtney's real name correct.......2006-11-02
Poppy Z. Brite asserts that Courtney was born Love Michelle Harrison. However, if you read another book, Her Mother's Daughter, written by Courtney's mother Linda Carroll, you see that Courtney's birth name was Courtney Michelle Harrison. If Poppy Z. Brite can't even get the name of her subject correct, I question the overall accuracy of other facts in this book.
Brite 'vs' Rossi.......2006-01-01
I read this biography after reading "Courtney Love: Queen of Noise" by Melissa Rossi. Both definitely have their flaws and strong points. Each contributes different facts and stories, so if you read both you get a pretty complete picture of Courtney Love's life.
BRITE:
Very easy to follow, but kind of feels like an overview. I wish she would have gone into more depth on some issues. Also Poppy Brite desperately needs an EDITOR! The mistakes don't really affect the story, but they certainly don't give the reader much faith in her abilities. Lots of color pictures and an extensive bibliography.
ROSSI:
This biography gives much more detail and depth into Courtney's life. The writing style is a bit haphazard and choppy, but is still understandable and more interesting than Brite's. The one main fault against Melissa Rossi is that she doesn't cite any of her sources which leads you to wonder where she got her information. She does admit that she never interviewed Courtney and this was "unauthorized."
Neither book is really above the other and both books are entertaining reads for a cheap price.
Poppy should never write again.........2005-09-12
I'm an avid fan of Courtney Love. I think she's wonderful and regardless of what this book did to her, I'll always be a fan.
However, Poppy Z. Brite is seriously the worst writer I've ever encountered in my life. She destroyed my interest in Love's story by sounding more like a gushing teen than someone who knew what the hell she was doing.
I used to love her ..........2005-08-19
I used to love Courtney Love. I thought she was a wonderful empowerment for girls when she first came into the spotlight 15 years ago, trying to tell girls don't aspire to sleep with a guy in a band but to be in a band. Make your own music, make your own way because you don't have to ride someone's coattails to fame and fortune.
But she's not about that. Courtney slept her way to the top and could care less about dignity, class and making her own way. Poppy kissed her ass like so many did at first, but hopefully she's wiser now. I think we all are.
It was fun........2005-05-25
I like Courtney Love, still love Hole's CDs. I enjoyed the read, but took it with about a pound of salt. Poppy Z. Brite should get some kind of award for how much she can kiss Courtney's ass.
Fun fluff.
The Courtney Bio by Melissa Rossi is better.
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