Amazon.com
In this autobiography, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson says one of his prime business criteria is "fun." Fun made Branson a billionaire, and few business memoirs are one-billionth as fun as Branson's, nor as niftily written. Not only does it relate his side of near-death corporate experiences, it tells how the chairman literally cheated death by gun, shipwreck, and balloon crash.
Branson's empire--now encompassing interests in an airline, pop music, soda pop, e-commerce, and financial services--began when the dyslexic 16-year-old dropped out of school in 1968 to found the British magazine Student. His headmaster said, "I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire." Briefly imprisoned for dodging customs selling records, Branson got his first million by releasing Tubular Bells, a maverick recording all the stuffy executives rejected. (1998's Tubular Bells III puts the series' sales over 20 million.)
Despite wild tales of Branson's wife-swapping and Keith Richards fleeing naked from Branson's studio at gunpoint with another man's woman, the most shocking parts of the memoir concern British Airways' James Bond-like "dirty tricks" campaign against Virgin Atlantic, resulting in the biggest award for damages in English history.
Though it's filled with famous names, witty quotes, and pulse-pounding accounts of lunatic balloon adventures, it is as a business thriller that the book really scores. His instinctive bet-the-ranch tactics could cost him all, or earn another billion. Either way, Branson will likely remain the most entertaining entrepreneur in Europe. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
"Oh, screw it, let's do it."
That's the philosophy that has allowed Richard Branson, in slightly more than twenty-five years, to spawn so many successful ventures. From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), to music (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), to retail (Virgin Megastores), and nearly a hundred others, ranging from financial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track record second to none.
Losing My Virginity is the unusual, frequently outrageous autobiography of one of the great business geniuses of our time. When Richard Branson started his first business, he and his friends decided that "since we're complete virgins at business, let's call it just that: Virgin." Since then, Branson has written his own "rules" for success, creating a group of companies with a global presence, but no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, and minimal bureaucracy.
Many of Richard Branson's companies--airlines, retailing, and cola are good examples--were started in the face of entrenched competition. The experts said, "Don't do it." But Branson found golden opportunities in markets in which customers have been ripped off or underserved, where confusion reigns, and the competition is complacent.
And in this stressed-out, overworked age, Richard Branson gives us a new model: a dynamic, hardworking, successful entrepreneur who lives life to the fullest. Family, friends, fun, and adventure are equally important as business in Branson's life. Losing My Virginity is a portrait of a productive, sane, balanced life, filled with rich and colorful stories:
Crash-landing his hot-air balloon in the Algerian desert, yet remaining determined to have another go at being the first to circle the globe
Signing the Sex Pistols, Janet Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Boy George, and Phil Collins
Fighting back when British Airways took on Virgin Atlantic and successfully suing this pillar of the British business establishment
Swimming two miles to safety during a violent storm off the coast of Mexico
Selling Virgin Records to save Virgin Atlantic
Staging a rescue flight into Baghdad before the start of the Gulf War . . .
And much more. Losing My Virginity is the ultimate tale of personal and business survival from a man who combines the business prowess of Bill Gates and the promotional instincts of P. T. Barnum.
Also available in the UK from Virgin Publishing, and in Canada from General Publishing,
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
The best business autobiography?.......2007-10-22
I have to say I really enjoyed this book from start to finish. It is not a typical business autobiography. In fact it sometimes reads like a novel, I mean how many business entrepreneurs have cheated death on at least 3 occasions I can think of, have flown at 200mph in a ballon in the upper atmosphere, have sped accross the Atlantic in a souped up speedboat, or worked with some of the biggest bands in the world (The Rolling Stones etc).
It is hard to believe all Richard has achieved. It really makes most other entrepreneurs look like amatures! Some of his stories from the 1970's are particulary funny!
Well worth a read.
I'd rather get the updated edition.......2007-10-18
There is an updated (614 page) version of this title available, but I can see that this first edition is still widely available. No matter where you go, they are trying to sell this at "full" price, taking advantage of Branson's popularity. Meanwhile, if you want more bang for your buck (and who doesn't), why not get the latest edition instead? Branson is in my opinion totally unique in his personality and drive (charisma, I don't know, I think some others have more of that) and I learn a lot from his experiences, so can you!
Excellent.......2007-10-01
I have read this book three times. Branson does business the way we should all aspire to do business. He has built businesses that he is passionate about. He enjoys his life and has been exceptionally successful. I find it to be an inspiring and enjoyable read. Probably why I have returned to it multiple times.
The best book I've read!.......2007-09-24
This is probably the best book I've ever read so far. Its not a business book, so read it as you would "literature" over a weekend... but its filled with great entertaining stories and helps you see how this guy's life has been. And you definitely learn some lessons.
If you are an entrepreneur, you MUST read Losing my Virginity!
Enjoyable read. Buy it!.......2007-09-14
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
I'm not big on reading autobiographies, but this one I really enjoyed, couldn't put it down!
Average customer rating:
- A good read
- Still on the Planet, But this Book lacks the Soul of his First
- amazingly heartfelt
- Significant Loss of Credibility
- Reflections of a Life Boldly Lived
|
Since Then: How I Survived Everything and Lived to Tell About it
David Crosby , and
Carl Gottlieb
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
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ASIN: 0399153810 |
Book Description
David Crosby, the outspoken founding member of CSNY and The Byrds, turns his wry and unstinting eye to a fascinating, prickly subject: himself.
Known to millions as the trickster poster boy for folkrock utopia and the inspiration for Dennis Hopper's wild-eyed antihero in the film Easy Rider, David Crosby is every bit the quintessential American icon of the counterculture today that he was in the sixties and seventies. Legendary, controversial, beloved, he is never far from the headlines, as the upcoming (Summer 2006) 50-city reunion tour of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young will demonstrate once again.
Since Then is both a self-skewering look at the twists and turns of an impossibly rich life, and Crosby's confident declaration that it's far too soon for him to don the robe and slippers of Generational Elder. As a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he has an unparalleled legacy as a singer, songwriter, and musician-and few would object if he were to rest on his laurels. Yet despite Crosby's history of extravagant excess, he's never forgotten his great good fortune, and has never stopped using his enormous gifts in service of both his art and social causes to which he is committed.
This memoir shows the contradictory aspects to a personality whose truth-to-power outspokenness, exuberance, and creativity have made him a great and inspirational artist, yet whose struggles with private demons have resulted in arrests, chronic health issues, and ruined friendships. It discusses frankly the people and events that have drastically altered his definition of "family": raising ten-year-old son Django, with lover/wife/partner, Jan; reuniting with his adult son, musician James Raymond, while Crosby waited in the hospital for a life-saving liver transplant; becoming sperm donor to Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher. Above all, it illuminates how, despite a staggering series of personal setbacks-including hepatitis C, liver failure, diabetes, heart attacks, and a crippling motorcycle accident-the music, and the people he loves, keep him young at heart.
Customer Reviews:
A good read.......2007-07-04
If you're a fan of David Crosby, this is a very good read and serves to improve on the image he left with his earlier autobiography, Long Time Gone.
Still on the Planet, But this Book lacks the Soul of his First.......2007-06-12
I had Purchased two Tickets ( At $201.00 a Piece, from Ticketronarrippoff ) to see C,S,N & Y play in the Harveys Casino Parking Lot ( ANOTHER RIP-OFF ) as it is a LOUSY VENUE with HORRIBLE ACOUSTICS.
After Parking the Car, as close as we were gonna get, My Wife, Two Friends and Myself walked Through Harrahs Casino towards the Show. Passing the Smoke Shop, one of our Friends gasps, "I just saw David Crosby in the Smoke Shop and he was Snorting Something". Like a flash I backpedaled to the Scene of the Crime, and there he was The Cros', My third encounter with the Man in Person, after 37 Years and Dozens of Shows, and still in Awe of his Powers, all I could muster up was: "Have a Great Show, David". His reply was: "Thank you, it's Hot out there today".
Needless to Report, the Concert was Great, and David Bravely stood his ground on the Right Side of the Stage and spent most of the show Watching Neil Young play and Sing like a man Possessed... ( Against George W. Bunk ).
David's third Book: "Since Then" is mainly about the Events in his life since the publication of his first book: "Long Time Gone", was released in 1989. To put out there and be Frank about it, this one is not the "Gripping Yarn" the First book was. There is still a lot of controversy surrounding such Events as his Liver Transplant, when a normal guy would have not been 'Bumped Up' on the transplant list like a Big Name Celebrity such as David, and that normal guy would be Dead now.
The entire "Sperm-Donor" incident was only news because David & Melissa Etheridge Dropped that story on the Doors of Rolling Stone magazine. The David and the Gun Story is as Dumb as anything that Happened to Crosby during his "Crack Fiend" years. It's harder to Connect to David's big Mistakes after everything that we already know about him, and if he want's to snort, smoke or Shoot-up anything today that's his personal business...BUT if he want's to write more books of his Life I hope they will be more interesting than "Since Then".
I am still a fan of David, I do hope he will continue to release Great Music, such as CPR, and tour and give us those nights of magic on stage, BUT I will be slower on the draw in Purchasing his Books if they are like this one... it's just O.K.
amazingly heartfelt.......2007-05-15
The format of David's friends and relatives perspective is great. What a life he has led!! Didn't want to put the book down.
Significant Loss of Credibility.......2007-05-11
One of the pivotal scenes in the DVD, "Daylight Again," occurs when Stills pours a full cooler of ice water on a coked out Crosby and calls him a hyppocrite. Midway through this amusing follow up of sorts to his harrowing and hillarious first book, Crosby wonders why anyone would be in a band with Stephen Stills if they didn't have to. I suspect that's the pot calling the kettle....
While I await Stills' rebuttal, I'll tell you that this book again is suffused with Crosby's ironic sense of humour and interesting insights on what life on the road is really like. He is also genuinely lucky and knows it. His brother was tragically off his rocker, yet David seems to have an aura of charm that rescues him at very nearly every moment. He is not ungrateful, yet he also comes across as picking and choosing what he wants to learn from his close encounters of the terminal kind. I have an aunt like that. Anyway, seriously concerned that there is an abiding perception that he got a liver transplant because he was David Crosby, he is also very forthcoming in explaining the process and the anxieties, especially in his case as they were interwoven with IRS and management issues, and earthquake and fire, and a slew of children who were surfacing or being conceived at unprecedented rate, even for Southern California.
Julie Cypher's account of being inseminated with David's sperm is almost like I Love Lucy in its preposterousness. Chris Hillman's loyalty to Crosby at a financial low point is strianed because they are diametrically opposed politically and socially. Crosby loves contradiction. I can think of no better partner for Stills. Even Nash intones that being David's friend is not the hippie picnic one imagines. Unrelentingly in love with himself as well as his wife and many children, Crosby is the perfect bad boy that you can not help but adore. And he knows it. It seems that urge to get in trouble has been his life long mantra for attention.
It surfaces towards the end of the book when he admits to going back on the weed and toting guns. What is a fat, balding, out of shape, diabetic singer songwriter with the finest voice in music still smoking dope and carrying a .45 for? Has he latent desires to move into hip-hop. You get the usual apologia - it's safer than alcohol and doesn't damage your liver. True enough, fatso, but it does impact your pancreas and you are a diabetic... His most inane, and typically dope-addled statement, comes when he states that he would rather his beloved song Django (jayzuz, I hope that kid gets through school OK) smoke dope, his dope coz he has the really good stuff, than drink. How about not at all, genius? That's not in the program.
Crosby is perfectly correct in stating that you can not base your sobriety on someone else's. Exactly. What's disappointing is that he doesn't get it that having been through what he has been through, he needs to be clean and sober and straight. FOR HIM. and then maybe for his wife and son. DC gets busted in NYC for carrying pot and a gun and the wind it takes out of your sails is palpable. You feel very disappointed in him. Again.
Mind you, of the four of them, his songs ahave always had the most depth and intricacy and have been the most compelling. It is no accident that as he has gone back to weed, he's also stopped writing. That he had to be arrested in front o his son, James Raymond, as gifted a writer and singer as his father, led to the demise of CPR. How you live with yourself after that embarrassment, how that doesn't convince you that you must change, I do not know. It undercuts the compelling ideological positions he takes, and while an ad hominem argument is not a valid counter attack on a position, he is clearly dancing on marbles.
I get it that he is in pain, that he doesn't want to be addicted to narcotic pain killers. Still, he is the one who has inflicted all of his ailments upon himself, and you'd think he would put that same effort into taking care of himslef for whatever number of years he has left so that his expanding brood might look at him as a man who overcame the demons he once embraced.
In both this book and the last, Crosby declines to name who in his circle of acquaintences are the dealers, the gophers. Maybe that's why he carries a gun. He speaks of a break in and talks of how ready eh and his wife were to return fire. Nice. Wooden Ships. Moving to someplace like Nova Scotia must be out of the question. He wants to be near the mouth of the monster and must get some vicarious thrill from it. More's the pity. He is genuinely a very gifted and bright artist. His music is sublime. But how anyone would be in a band with David Crosby unless they had to be, I don't know...
Reflections of a Life Boldly Lived.......2007-05-01
Recently I attended a marvelous photo exhibition by Henry Diltz, which wonderfully captured the spirit and creativity of the 1960's music (r)evolution, particularly in the Los Angeles/Laurel Canyon area. It got me on a roll, having thoughts the likes of "I wonder what they're doing now", etc. So to follow up on my musings, David Crosby & Carl Gottlieb's "Since Then" seemed a reasonable choice of a read.
The book begins with a description of awaking at night from an earthquake, followed by its aftershocks. I found that to be an apt metaphor for the tumultuous life that Crosby's led. Between incarcerations and hospitalizations, he's certainly been to Hell and back. But he has been blessed as well, with loyal family and friends, and offspring who have come forward and accepted him with open arms.
Some of the details are a little schmaltzy and push a few of my cynicism buttons, but overall it seems apparent that David Crosby is rather intelligent (though capable of doing stupid things) and insightful, at least in retrospect. And he also nails the travesty/tragedy of the corporate takeover of the music industry quite well.
But what compelled me to submit this review is a little moment of serendipity. I had reached the section of the book where Crosby had been sober and free from hard drug use for many years, but was explaining how he didn't think an occasional toke (of marijuana) was a bad thing. I took a break from the book at this point and read news ticker stories online while having supper, and came upon an item about how pot can induce paranoia (it was scientifically explained). Upon resuming "Since Then" where I left off, Crosby proceeds to describe some of his apocalyptic scenarios. YIKES; and they seemed plausible, too! So in that sense I'm actually hoping that it IS just paranoia!
But in short, "Since Then" is a good read for those of us nostalgic for the days before "selling out" became commonplace.
Amazon.com
Michael Wolff, the author of NetGuide, one of the first major guides to the Net, gives you a tour of this medium that could best be described as "Alice's Adventures Through the Monitor." Burn Rate is the story of Wolff's transition from journalist to entrepreneur in the Internet business--a business in which the investment elite beat down doors to invest vast sums of money in companies whose chief product seemed to be red ink. Wolff reports that what was being bought and sold was not technology, content, or even concepts. It was the potential to be in on something very cool that may one day be sold to somebody else--despite even more red ink.
Wolff's story could easily have been bitter but is instead both fascinating and hilarious. Wolff's money-losing company's negotiations with Magellan--a search-engine company that Wolff eventually discovers is also financially unstable--are comical. The scene where key big shots from a major publisher fall all over Wolff in their eagerness to buy an all-but-worthless name and database are a complete farce. Wolff is by no means above showing his own foibles. Some of the book's best parts are where he shows himself swept up in the intoxicating flow of a deal and calls home to report developments to his wife. She promptly translates the nonsense into sobering reality.
Wolff takes plenty of time off from his personal journey to explore significant events in the development of cyberculture, such as the transition of Louis Rosetto from a least-likely-to-succeed publisher into the creator of the revolutionary Wired magazine. He chronicles the emergence of America Online from dark horse to dominance, while the efforts of companies expected to be major contenders fade into the background.
His candid view shows it all--the oddball characters in expensive shirts and T-shirts, the crazy dealing, the exhilaration, the heartbreak, and the fear. This would be a wonderful work of satirical fiction if it weren't actually true. --Elizabeth Lewis
Book Description
For much of the 1990s, starting up a business on the Internet offered young go-getters with a taste for risk the fastest route to glittering prosperity. Our light-speed economy has made possible a new American dream, to take an idea overnight from the kitchen table to hundreds of millions of dollars in market value. But the desperate Internet entrepreneur knows every day, every night -- that the chances of success and survival dwindle at the same rate as the cash evaporates. Make the right deals, announce the right products at the right time, and the investors will beat down your doors with money. Falter, and the venture capitalists will eat you alive.
Michael Wolff was one of the first to see the potential of the Internet and one of the pioneers of new media. As he labored to build his own company, Wolff, a former journalist, knew he had stumbled on the seminal business story of the 1990s. Burn Rate is about the heart-in-your-throat struggles of being an entrepreneur. It is about witnessing an industry being born: the founding of Wired magazine, the launch of Time Warner's much-touted Pathfinder, the conflict between content centered on the East Coast and technology on the West Coast, the rise of the search engines, the dominance and dysfunctionality of America Online, and the thud of Microsoft stumbling and falling down on the Net.
In the precarious world of the Internet, where income is a rosy projection and profit little more than a hope and a prayer, a company is no better than the confidence it radiates to its potential partners. After the freewheeling early years of the World Wide Web, the financial prospects of fledgling Web businesses collectively dropped in one stunning month when Wired, the most famous Internet company, failed to launch its stock. Wolff found himself at the head of a rapidly expanding company with seven weeks of capital remaining, trapped between the insatiable needs of his business and the chilling machinations of his investors. With the clock ticking, his only hope was to strike a winning deal.
With mordant wit, Burn Rate portrays life on the bleeding edge of capitalism -- a realm where your savior, the venture capitalist, may also be your undoing. A Faustian figure, the venture capitalist reveals to Michael Wolff the secret workings of business, as well as the human dimensions of how companies are made, bought, and sold. But the price he asks in return is steep. He never risks too much of his own money but makes sure that he will profit best and first from the entrepreneur's work.
As Wolff builds his business, you'll get to know the geeks, billionaires, weasels, and, of course, visionaries he meets along the way. Louis Rossetto, the unemployed expat who creates Wired. Walter Isaacson, the prince of Time Warner, who throws the resources of America's largest media company behind the Web. The boy investor, the "dumb money" who backs Wolff's company. Halsey Minor, the executive recruiter who founds a publishing empire on the Net. The CMP boys, the computer magazine publishers who are desperate to get into the Internet game. Robert Maxwell's children, whose high-flying company is one of the first bubbles to burst on the Internet. Even Barry Biller, who advises Wolff that getting in on the ground floor is good only if you're still standing in the end.
Wolff discovers, much to his own consternation, that his work, inspiration, and imagination entitle him to no more than a minor share of his own company's potential wealth. And, in the end, he may only be along for the ride.
Customer Reviews:
Why I rate Burn Rate 4.......2006-08-26
It's about that time about ten years ago - those thrilling days of yesteryear - when the Web was new, that's the time well captured in Burn Rate by Michael Wolff. Aptly cover the 24 weeks or so when 'content was king.'
Like many others, Wolff could not resist the opportunity to be a part of a medium in its infant days. His delivery is generally well paced, often witty. It is old news now of course, and says nothing of Google or AOL since its merger with Time. The time capsule effect is for the better.
What is your business model? When Netscape met advertising. The conundrum of the CPM [Cost per Thousand] trade press advertising model. And the larger more targeted more economical online version. Can software tell you what music you may like better than a skilled critic? In those days the folks with the money had not been on the Internet anymore than they have used Del.icio.us these days. Would the Internet level magazines? Minimal entry cost, but then what? Users taking control of news delivery systems. Pathfinder. Burning venture capital faster than achieving revenue. If you build it...
It's all there.
A little dippy.......2006-04-07
While I don't know the whole story, Wolff seems to have a lot of experience, and little business smarts. Heck, from the few descriptions of his wife, SHE seems to have more business smarts. This is certainly an interesting, well-written book (he's a writer after all,) but the fact that he drove himself to near insanity as well as bankruptcy all in the name of pure greed leaves me feeling this book has no real point other than "How I wanted to get rich, or die tryin!" He described endless begging for money, which seems to be the central point of the book. You will find an interesting set of stories here, but the message is a rather shallow one if there is one at all. But then I guess that was the point of most of the internet bubble as a whole.
Can't Put this Book Down !.......2004-04-08
If you are into the Internet Gold Rush, or just like a hard-hitting, true story about business, personalities, and playing hardball, you MUST read this book.
Interesting story of the very early internet years.......2004-01-29
I really liked this book and got to learn about the hardships entrepreneurs go through in a startup.I was also not much aware about the differences in thought between West Coast and East Coast IT companies.Finally, kudos to Michael Wolff for potraying an honest,funny and nerve wrecking real life story and am happy he is doing what he likes to do!!
How to survive having a few megabucks thrown to you.......2003-08-17
Next up: How Donald Trump survived his Daddy's money, How Nelson Rockefeller survived the shadow of his family's name, how George Bush survived his years of failing oil companies.
The book is reasonably refreshing in its self-assesment of knowing virtually nothing about how the internet would affect publishing and how anybody would make any money off it. Its candor is also refreshing in describing how they had so little to offer but were so willing to sell it at a high price to the even more gullible ("they want how many million for the contents of my palm pilot?")
If the author were a disinterested party reporting the actions of others, one would have to rate this book 4/5 for good writing, clarity and candor. As a player who took huge sums of money from investors, suspecting the business was a house of cards, one can only wonder if he shouldn't be in jail. As a book, I have little choice but to recommend it. The description of AOL alone is worth the purchase price.
Average customer rating:
- The Cybill Strikes Back!
- You Know...She May Be A B-List Celebrity But This Isn't That Bad A Book
- I'm blonde, I'm beautiful, and don't you forget it!
- Example of one version of the Liberated Life
- You have to be a big fan, to find all of this interesting.
|
Cybill Disobedience : How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Irrepressible Urge to Say What I Think
Cybill Shepherd
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0060193506
Release Date: 2000-04-04 |
Book Description
Few women in the past three decades have lit up the American imagination like Cybill Shepherd. From wholesome beauty queen to saucy cover girl, from heartbreaking movie star (The Last Picture Show) to one of television's most beloved comediennes (Moonlighting and Cybill), she has imbued each of her roles--right down to her current passions as devoted mother of three, champion of women's issues, and sultry cabaret singer--with an indomitable spirit that has made her, at fifty, a female icon to an entire generation. Now in her much-anticipated memoir, she tells her remarkable story with humor, pathos, and more highlights than her famously blond hair. Cybill has absorbed the lessons of Southern womanhood, including the whispered message about sex: Wait until you're married, then you won't enjoy it, and certainly never speak of it. She gleefully disobeyed these and other rules of decorum in a career laced with controversy, featuring unforgettable cameos by Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Orson Welles, Robert De Niro, and Jeff Bridges. Whether stepping on Elvis's blue suede shoes or going toe-to-toe with Bruce Willis, Cybill has never held anything back, and it's all in Cybill Disobedience, including:
the night a network executive tried to barter thirteen episodes for a horizontal tour of Cybill's bedroom
why she'll never be invited back to Ryan O'Neal's beach house or Marlon Brando's island
the time she greeted David Letterman in nothing but a towel
the real reason two of television's most popular and acclaimed series, died premature deaths
how she made Richard Nixon blush for the first and only time in his life
From her Memphis roots to her insider's track in Hollywood, Cybill Shepherd is a woman who has weathered every onslaught and withstood every rebuke to emerge as a luminous model of endurance, courage, and an insatiable lust for life.
Customer Reviews:
The Cybill Strikes Back!.......2007-05-07
I wanted to read this book mainly to see what Cybill would say about Bruce Willis and Moonlighting, one of my all-time favorite shows, and although I was left wanting more, she does give a few interesting tidbits about them. But even if she hadn't this would still be a page turner.
Most references to Cybill Shepherd by the media over the years have been negative. I just wanted to hear her side of her story for a change and I have no problem with this so-called 'B-list' actor making a few bucks in the process.
While I don't approve of or agree with everything Cybill says she's done or believes in, this little book is a small interesting slice of history and a record of how things work behind the scenes of the modeling and acting professions. The message I got is 'proceed with extreme caution - or better yet choose another career.'
Also, my belief that Hollywood culture is depraved in general remains unshaken after reading this. And you certainly can't blame it all on Cybill Shepherd.
Even so, I appreciate what I believe is Cybill's candor about herself, the people she's met and her experiences which is written with a witty humor and a verbal style I appreciate.
You Know...She May Be A B-List Celebrity But This Isn't That Bad A Book.......2005-10-16
I don't know what compelled me to check this out from the library since I didn't really know who Cybill Shepherd was, but she kept me reading with her honesty and `dang-it-it's-true' breed of self-flattery. In this autobiography, the star of the '80's TV hit Moonlighting (when she mentioned Moonlighting, I was finally like, "Oh, I know who she is...") candidly talks about the cut-throat world of Hollywood, tells about how Hef, of Playboy fame, stole images from her nude scene and improperly published them, talks about an affair with Elvis (who "charmed" her by telling her in one of his pill-popping hazes about the time a doctor gave him an injection directly into the pupil of his eye!!!!!) and throws caution to the wind and dodges claims of skankhood by talking about a seemingly unending series of affairs with scores of married and unmarried men, from her beauty queen teen years in Memphis, well into her fifties. Shepherd name-drops and that's the making of this book since it's most interesting when the focus is not on her. She tells about having Orson Welles as a long-term house guest, about how she introduced Elvis to certain amorous technique, tells of clashes with Bruce Willis, whose ego was a match for her own, and provides tell-all revelations about some of the biggest stars in the movie business during the 1970's. Shepherd is also doggedly committed to certain feminist causes and gives ink to her views on them. This book is definitely a celebrity stroking her ego, but it's not dull or preachy and since it can be read in about two hours, it's not a bad way to spend a free afternoon.
I'm blonde, I'm beautiful, and don't you forget it!.......2005-05-20
Truly the title sums up the whole of this autobiography. I wonder if Ms. Shepherd hadn't believed so deeply in her ephemeral outer beauty, maybe others wouldn't have assumed that that's all she had going for her.
Conspicuously absent from her story were her relationships with her siblings, which were touched on ever-so-briefly toward the end, tellingly admitting that they had a tenuous connection at best, their sibling bonds having been sacrificed at the alter of Shepherd's career.
Cybill Shepherd spent her life being promiscuous, including involvment with married men, and lays it all out for the record, no matter how it makes her look. It's amazing to me that she never came away from fling after short-term fling not feeling used or taken advantage of.
The comment that rings the loudest to me, out of everything she crammed furiously into this book, was the fact that she tried to make '5 minutes feel like 5 hours' with her kids, as if that were possible. Although she does go on to admit that it is simply not possible to do it all.
Contradictory to me is the fact that Ms. Shepherd found lurid tabloid stories to be embarassing and insulting to herself and her children, but she voluntarily lays bare all her personal laundry.
I picked up this book because I fondly remember Moonlighting as must-see TV of my teenage years, Maddie Hayes and David Addison being the best on-screen couple of my generation. Although that was just one small part of Cybill's story, I did find the Hollywood insider stuff a fun guilty pleasure.
One last criticism - the subtitle is far too long and completely unnecessary, bordering on downright silly.
Example of one version of the Liberated Life.......2004-08-24
Cybill Disobedience : How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Irrepressible Urge to Say What I Think
by Cybill Shepherd
This was an interesting read and useful as a resource since it is a first person description of the kind of life one can lead as a liberated (using the pill) female. Not only was Cybill successful, but as she says, she was "a very, very, bad girl." Cybill did what she wanted to do.
Regardless of whether or not this sort of life should be recommended, it is certainly a resource that can be referred to as an example.
You have to be a big fan, to find all of this interesting........2004-04-19
Some interesting comments about show business, and about some of the people she worked with, and went to bed with. The last part, about her TV show, "Cybill," would only interest a BIG fan of the show. (Who did what and who said what about the show's individual episodes isn't exactly gripping reading.) (I'm glad it's a short book.)
Book Description
Dear Diary, You will never in a million years guess where I’m going....Italy! In Europe!! Across the ocean!!! I even have a passport. It’s really cool, except I’m squinting my eyes in the photo, so I look like a dork. At least that’s what my brother said. I call him Matt the Brat. You would too. Trust me....
When Melanie Martin heads to Italy on a family vacation with her art-obsessed mom, her grumpy dad, and her little brother, she has no idea what she’s in for. As she discovers Michelangelo, Italian ice cream, and poetry, she also realizes how much her family means to her. Maybe she won’t trade them in after all.
Customer Reviews:
Melanie Martin Series; a great set of books!.......2007-02-12
My 10 year old daughter loves all four of the Melanie Martin books. She cannot put them down. Not only is she entertained, but also has learned a few things about other countries. As a teacher, I highly recommend the Melanie Martin books. I sure hope Mrs. Weston keeps adding more to this series.
Melissa Lombardo
Kid's reveiw.......2007-02-08
The Diary Of Melanie Martin is a book about a young girl called Melanie. She flies to Italy with her family on an airplane when she had never been out of the U.S.A. She loved the thought going to a foreign country, but things didn't turn out how she expected... I liked this book and all the characters in it. My favorite part of the book was when Melanie just went back home to the U.S.A. She had realized a lot about her family and learned some important values. Melanie inspired me to be nicer to my sibling, as she did in the book. I definitely recommend this book to anybody who has a sibling, or who has never been out of his or her country. In this book, she gives the lesson about trying new things and taking risks. I am sure that anybody who reads this book will learn some useful information about life! Enjoy!
Great!!!!!!.......2006-10-09
I read melanie martin, and it was sensational!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I wanted to learn about Italy, and she helped me learn about it. Read this book, and you'll wanna read the other three book too.
The Diary of Melanie Martin.......2006-05-11
A must read with the monalisa, sistin chapel, and boots the cat. Also it has ton of poetry. The book makes your mouth water for more.
Melanie on her own Roman Holiday.......2005-03-15
Having traveled to Italy with my family when I was twelve, The Diary of Melanie Martin called back dozens of similar memories of all the museums which were endured with the promise of gelato and of the delicious food which Weston describes to mouth-watering perfection. Reading this book, I kept on wishing it had been around for my family vacation so that my brother and I could have played "Point out the Naked People" during our museum tours; now I can only wholeheartedly recommend it to every member of a family planning a trip to Italy or just looking for a funny and truthfully-written book too perfetto to be missed.
Average customer rating:
- interesting
- The Best Music Bio I've Read!
- Be My Baby by Ronnie Spector and Vince Waldron
- Worth 10 Stars-Required Reading for Ronnie Spector Fans!
- WOW: RONNIE AT LAST!
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Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, or My Life as a Fabulous Ronette
Ronnie Spector , and
Vince Waldron
Manufacturer: Onyx
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0451411536
Release Date: 2004-06-01 |
Book Description
Updated with new material
Ronnie and Phil Spector made music history with the Ronettes, but as Phil's creative powers began to wane, their marriage soured. He became increasingly reclusive and violent, and Ronnie's life became a constant battle to fend off madness-both his and her own.
Customer Reviews:
interesting .......2007-01-15
Ronnie Spector is more interesting when she was young and a Ronnette as opposed to when she got older. The first half of the book was fascinating, especially from the music history point of view. Once she seperated from Phil Spector, it was not that interesting.
Since the book was updated, I would have liked to hear a lot more about the homicide at Phil Spector's hosue as well as how Joey Ramone's relationship with her.
If you are a fan of Ronnie SPector than this is an enjoyable read.
The Best Music Bio I've Read!.......2003-12-12
I've been in love with this woman and her music ever since I saw The Ronettes live at The Brooklyn Fox Theatre in 1964. I was only 15 years old at the time. If you love Ronnie Spector as much as I do, then do yourself a favor and buy this book. It isn't only about music. It is about courage, and the ability to overcome barriers. Very inspirational. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.
Be My Baby by Ronnie Spector and Vince Waldron.......2003-10-20
Like so many other baby boomers I grew up listening to the likes of many girl groups, doo wop, early British and American rock as well as buble gum pop of both East and West coast origin. In high school I fell in love with the sound of one of these girl groups. The voice, the smooth moves and grooves of the greatest of these groups kept me longing for more. I couldn't buy enouph of anything relating to The Ronnets. When I stumbled on this book by accident, some 7 years ago, I thought hmmm, no accident, I am destined to read and know more about my musical Lady heroine.
In this read, I learned more about Ronnie than I ever dreamed I might. I took a trip back in time and found it difficult to put this book down. I felt her pains and gains, and I grew to know more about her than I probably wanted to, after all I had been in love with the likes of this Fabulous Ronnet for so long, that it was often cause for discomfort. I learned so much about other musicians and singers from that era as well, to think that Ronnie hung out with the likes of some of them.
This is a must read for someone who thought they knew a thing or two of a time gone by and its musical influence and the people who helped make it what it was. If ever Rock-101 were taught in any format, this book need-be included.
Worth 10 Stars-Required Reading for Ronnie Spector Fans!.......2003-02-06
This book is even more timely to read now that Ronnie's ex-hubby Phil Spector was arrested the other day for the murder of a woman in his house. It gives great insight not only into Ronnie's life story and rise to stardom but also into Phil's personality and temperament. While there is absolutely no doubt of Phil's musical genius, the man was(and possibly still is)mentally unstable(he claims to be bipolar and does not like to take his meds). I first bought and read this book when it first came out years ago but it is still a great read, one of the very best rock-bios around. It is also a great companion piece to Darlene Love's autobiography. If you are a fan of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, both books are essential reading. Very highly recommended.
WOW: RONNIE AT LAST!.......2002-07-10
For Ronnie Spector fans everywhere, this book has it all. Her early days in New York City, the beginning of the Ronettes, their spectacular number 1 hit BE MY BABY, her nightmare of booze and obsession while married to that creep Phil Spector, and her triumphant return to her first love of music and singing. If you want a fascinating look at the girl groups in Rock and Roll history, then you want to read this book. She writes in a down-to-earth way that makes you feel like a good friend is telling you a heart-wrenching story of pain and loss, of fear and courage. Good going, Ronnie! We love you.
Average customer rating:
- Reveiw from "The Hot Shot"
- Click here:For a snickers or a tootsie pop
- Best Book Ever
- Click Here
- It helps!
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Click Here: To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade
Denise Vega
Manufacturer: Little, Brown Young Readers
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Deliver Us From Normal (Apple Signature)
ASIN: 0316985597 |
Book Description
magine if all your personal thoughts about crushes, fears, enemies, and even kissing practice ended up on the internet for everyone to read! That's what happens to Erin Swift when her secret blog lands on the school Web site. As if navigating the treacherous waters of seventh grade weren't enough! Writing with warm, knowing humor, first-time novelist Denise Vega perfectly captures life from a seventh grade girl's point of view.
Customer Reviews:
Reveiw from "The Hot Shot".......2007-04-26
Hey! Whats Up? I loved this book, Click Here. It was entertaining and a wonderful in all sorts of ways... One reason I liked it was, because in 2 years in going in 7th grade. But in are school district middle school starts in 6th grade, not 7th. Back to the story. Last year I was on a select soccer team, the a team to be exact. This year i tryed out and didn't make it.. all my friends did. I cryed for DAYS. I didn't make it because i wasnt good enough, it was a political reason. Yes, my stories not like Erin's but it relates.
Erin Swift, is going to 7th grade. Uh Oh... Her and her Best friend Jilly are in different tracks! On the first day she gets to school and punches a girl in the face for calling her "Pinnocio." Well, i'm not going to give away the story, but, what i can give away that this book is GREAT!
~The Hot ShoT~
Click here:For a snickers or a tootsie pop.......2007-03-31
Plot:in this book there are many plots.So,to start off we'll start off at Erins house,you know where she eats,sleeps,does her homework,dresses,and writes in her secret online journal.The second plot is at Molly Brown Middle School where most of her life consists of,and dont forget...go down the toilet.You'll see once you read the books.The last plot in the book is at the YMCA.This is where Erin shoots hoops with cute boy(mark sacks),and eventually it will be a place of forgiveness.
Specific events:Erin starts school at Molly Brown Middle School,Erin thinks "cute boy" is very,very cute!,Erin becomes Rosies friend,Erin becomers "cute boy's" friend,Erin starts I-club.
Setting:this book takes place in the present,there is no information on the state,see the plot.
Conflict:Erins deep dark secrets,feelings,and other buissness is revealed..to the whole school!
Resolution:This is a problem that can only be solved with self forgivness and the forgivness of others.
Charecter:My main charecter's name is Erin P. Swift,she loves b-ball,soccer,computers,and apparently her Chuck Taylors!Erin has big feet.Erins mom is a professional web designer who taught Erin how to do web designs.Jilly is Erin's best friend and has been since kindergarden.Oh,and she loves snickers and she comes to like tootsie pops.
Best Book Ever.......2006-12-27
It was fun to read and there's comedy, things that might occur to you in real life, and other fun things. The book is based on a girl who gets her internet website accidently published onto the school's intranet. It's a funfilled comedy. I highly recommend it.
Click Here.......2006-11-30
Writen By: Clara
Click Here is told by a 7th grade Web Nerd, Erin Swift. The Book starts when Erin and her best friend Jilly find out that they want be on the same track in the new school (which is middle school.) Erin grows to be more social and meets new people now that Jilly's not around. Erin is faced with a bully, a really cut guy, Mark Sacks, feelings of her own that are hidden inside of on a personal blog, and most of all a horrible situation.
Jilly trys out for the school play and makes Erin try out to, they both make it but Erin wants to do something she likes doing. Erin and her new friends Mark which she likes a lot and Rosa a new best friend all are apart of the school Intranet Club. Ms. Moreno puts Erin as the head of the program only because she has the most experience with computers. The club is to lunch a live internet webpage for all students to view at all times but something happens.
Many things happen between Jilly and Erin, and even a lot of other kids at the school that Erin writes about in her personal blog. Erin learns that life goes on and you meet other people. We all think that if we loses are best friend the world comes to an end, but Erin keeps going.
We all know middle school can be a big drama but we get thought it, fights and argument are resolved and people are forgived. In "Click Here" Erin has it the most but if you read this book you would understand that no matter what your friends are your friends forever. I would say that girls in there middle school ages would like this book the most. "Click Here" is a favorite book this year.
It helps!.......2006-11-30
I'm a 6th-grader and I'm going into 7th. Anyways, I read this book, and it was truly hilarious. I can't believe how true it is! I mean, I've had this stuff happen already in 6th, and I can wait to see what will happen in 7th a.k.a. middle school (since my school goes to 6th). My favorite characters would probably be the janitor and Erin. I read it in the hospital and it was so cool! I really suggest buying this book.
Average customer rating:
- Sad Funny True
- Bouncing Back helped me cope after seeing my Daddy die.
- Very uplifting
- Pitiful
- Hurray for Joan!
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Bouncing Back: I'Ve Survived Everything... and I Mean Everything... and You Can Too!
Joan Rivers
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0061096016 |
Book Description
"There are many self-help books by Ph.D's, but I hold a different degree: an I.B.T.I.A. I've Been Through It All. This degree comes not on parchment but on gauze, and it entitles me to tell you that there is a way to get through any misfortune."
From Bouncing Back
Survival stratagems from Joan Rivers
Whatever doesn't kill you makes you strongerAnd always remember: Surviving is the best revengeLook at Alexander Graham Bell, who did 22,000 experiments before he hit on the telephone. Just a few more and he would have had call waitingWhenever I hit bottom, the only thing I think of was set down by Jerome Kern: Pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again. Dr. Kevorkian will get no call from me, unless I think he'd look good in a brooch.
A fiercely honest and moving story of how Joan Rivers, one of comedy's greatest stars, survived the worst that life could throw at her, how she hit bottom and then made it back to the top.
Customer Reviews:
Sad Funny True.......2006-09-27
I read the book and I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with Joan.
Bouncing Back helped me cope after seeing my Daddy die........2005-02-25
The audio book version of "Bouncing Back" is WONDERFUL! It's read by Joan Rivers herself, the way she intended for it to be read :-) Her moving message of survival comes through loud & clear & of course FUNNY! What a lady! What a TALENT! THANK YOU Ms. Rivers for being so forthcoming with us. Your story is truly INSPIRATIONAL!
Very uplifting.......2002-04-12
Joan has some helpful advice on how to overcome obstacles in life. While she is not a psychologist, she has been through many painful things in her life and has always "bounced back."
Pitiful.......2001-02-02
Joan Rivers presents herself as the most put upon victim in the world, the ultimate survivor. Heartrending. I'm sure that the AIDS victims, the cancer patients, the Christopher Reeves of this world, will join me in sympathizing with this martyr.
Hurray for Joan!.......2000-07-13
I can't believe that those who are putting down this book have gone through much of a crisis in their lives. Having gone through the fire myself with losing a father, nephew, and son in addition to illnesses and financial troubles, I found this book to be very inspirational. This may be because Joan was echoing what I have come to believe on my own, but sharing it with the world takes a huge amount of courage. I never cared much about her as a comedienne but a person's work does not necessarily reflect who they are inside. I felt very sorry for her when her husband committed suicide and, at the time, I remember wondering if she was just going to shrink into herself and go off on her own to lick her wounds. Well, she didn't and I say, bravo, Joan! Edgar is gone but you and Melissa are still here and to keep plugging away at life takes strength. I have had so many people ask me how I go on and say they couldn't do it. Well, you have two choices: you either give up or you go on. We are big on humor in our family and a bit of black humor does come out now and then. I am just very careful as to who I allow to hear it. You need to separate Joan from her work to get what she is saying in this book. And, if you can do so, and if you can learn from it, you will go on and you will be stronger. Those who nitpick specifics like decorating your house and all will be well are totally missing the point. What she is saying is to find what makes you feel better and get up off your bum and do it. Don't sit and wallow in self-pity and pain. Believe me, when a loved one is no longer there in your life, just vegetating can be SO attractive. It takes a huge amount of strength just to get out of bed in the morning. Who says we aren't supposed to laugh after someone dies? My son loved to laugh and to not do so would be to dishonor his memory. I know he is out there laughing with us just as Joan's Edgar is applauding her efforts to get on with her life.
Book Description
The first full insider’s account of Viacom's meteoric rise to become the largest entertainment conglomerate in the world, this inspiring account of the life of Ralph Baruch can be read by those seeking to overcome their own personal and professional challenges or simply by those interested by a fullfilling human-interest story. As a teenager, Ralph faced the Pyrenees Mountains separating Nazi-controlled France from Spain as his family fled Hitler’s Europe for freedom; in his adult life he faced CBS, government bureaucrats, Hollywood stars and shysters, greedy outsiders coveting Viacom, and the loss of his wife and mother of four young daughters. Intimate and uninhibited, this autobiography also provides a revealing top-to-bottom tour of the television industry with anecdotes of the stars including Bill Cosby, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Raymond Burr, Ted Turner, and Mary Tyler Moore.
Customer Reviews:
Brave Woman.......2006-11-30
I recently read this book after seeing the made for TV movie with the same title. This is a true story of Lauren Elder and the plane crash she was involved in, in the freezing cold Sierra mountains in 1976. In the tiny plane, during high winds, the pilot, Jay misjudges a clearing & they find themselves staring into a giant granite mountain. The crash happens instantly. There is no time to act. They have little food or supplies and just some beer to drink. It is later learned Jay did not have alot of flight hours under his belt and he made some careless mistakes. Because of the altitude of the mountain top there is not alot of oxygen to breathe which makes them weaker & disoriented. After the crash, Jay is suffering from severe internal injuries and bleeding & that's what is causing his bizarre behavior and lack of trying to save himself as described in the book. He's dying & Lauren does not realize it. He never makes it through the night and along with his other injuries, freezes to death. The other girl Jean(Jay's girlfriend) who is only 21 dies rather quickly within hours from massive head injuries. Lauren is suffering form a deep leg wound, smashed teeth, a broken arm and multiple cuts - and no underpants (she could not find any clean ones the morning of her departure and she's just wearing a long skirt).To stay warm she has a clever plan to pour gasoline on the rocks, light it with the airplane lighter and it works like a furnance - until the gas & lighter run out. After barely escaping the freezing cold night in the wreckage where Jay dies in her arms, Lauren decides help is not coming, her friends dead, she decides to go down the cliff and into the dessert to find help for herself. It's a long, cold and treacherous climb for many miles down the mountain and across the dessert. Lauren is dressed in a summer dress, covered in blood, no shoes & no supplies. Lauren is suffering from hallucinations because of her injuries, exhaustion, exposer and overall shock and the book becomes a little confusing at this time because you don't know if she is actually seeing the people she's describing or if it's the hallucinations again. So many times I thought she was about to be saved when in fact she was seeing just boulders. What I find more shocking is that when she does reach civilization no one would help her. She goes to two different hotels and a gas station and approaches a few other people on the way and each time she is turned away because of her disheveled & bloody appearance. No one would take a chance and help this bleeding half dead woman! Shame on those people for not helping this severely injured person! Someone finally calls the sheriff & she is taken to a hospital. It's later explained in the book that this is the area where crazy Charles Manson and his women followers were at one time living and the hotel clerks thought she was part of "the family" or on "drugs", because of her injuries - she looked "doped up".
My only question is: Why does Lauren not put any shoes on before her long walk looking for help? She walked so many miles, her feet are described as "shredded" like monzarella cheese at the end.
This is a good story of survival, 36 hours of hell and I would recomend it.
Inspriational.......2006-02-19
I recently picked this book up at the Salvation for a buck. I usually grab anything that is true-to-life, preferring to hear about real people rather than fictional characters. I wasn't holding my breath as I prepared to read this, as I've read other survival stories that are by all means justifiable, but not necessarily breathtaking. This book was that and more. It is a concise narrative about a women whose will to survive motivated her to do what she had to do - stay alive. She didn't sit around and wait to be rescued from her challenged state of being. She took her fate into her own hands at all costs and kept a positive attitude along the way. This person showed how determination can pay off. This life story, which happened many years ago, has inspired me to take action in my own life. If you feel the need to read a self-help book with answers into the meaning of life and what its all about, pick up a copy of this book. It's an easy read. I read it in less than 24 hours and was reluctant to put it down to get about my daily business. It's that good.
We are so often bombarded with stories of tragedy involving tens, hundreds, thousands of souls, so the story of one person's survival many years ago might seem a bit ho-hum. But this is truly moving and if you are able to empathize at all, this book will move you to tears.
Kearsarge Pass..........2005-08-20
I read "And I Alone Survived" in the 70's, loved it (although I felt I lived every agonizing moment and walked every inch with Ms. Elder, so gripping was the story) and was reading something just tonight that had the word "Kearsarge" in it. So, one thought leading to another, I remembered that was the name of the pass the pilot was trying to crest on his way to Furnace Creek from Oakland...and I just got curious to see if the book was still in print. I must take exception with a couple points in reviews here...one, I don't believe that "the pilot having had just 300 hours of flight time and therefore wasn't experienced enough to make this flight" was really the issue. He was just plain reckless...he not only didn't follow common sense (one NEVER should venture out when there are high wind warnings, which there were, let alone around the Sierras of all places which magnifies everything and tosses a plane not powerful enough to handle it around like a leaf...that was just stupid, and he broke a cardinal rule by cavalierly not filing a flight plan. This is unforgivable!) And I also recall, not that he necessarily emotionally lost the will to live...but that he had such severe internal injuries that he had a lot of internal bleeding which, when mixed with the trauma and the lack of oxygen at 13,000 feet...hardly anyone could have survived. There was a particularly dramatic passage where Lauren describes his dying in her arms. I too am very familiar with, and very much love, the Sierras. And when I drive past Indepedence even to this day and look up to see what I think might be Kearsarge Pass...I still can't believe that this woman made it out ALONE, from way up there...to way down to the Owens Valley. With a broken arm, yet! And I too wonder where she is today and what she is doing. Bravo to you, Ms. Elder...you were truly amazing in your will to survive.
If You Love and/or Hike The High Sierra, Read This Book!.......2004-03-14
I re-read this book just last year, the first time being when it first came out in the 70's. I didn't know a whole lot about the High Sierra mountain range when the book came out, but I was just starting to hike in the Mt. Whitney area and I hadn't been up to any of the summits in the range.
Now decades later and having summitted Mt. Whitney and other of the many 14,000 foot peaks there, I have a real appreciation and awe for Ms. Elder somehow getting herself down in the area of that monster mountain, Mt. Williamson. Having gotten lost a few times in the Sierra, let me tell you, just going down a cliff is easier said than done. The cliffs up there can be over a 1,000 feet high, straight down and slick. Ms. Elder got down in torn street shoes and that's a miracle in itself. I have also been in a High Sierra storm at only 9,000 feet and it was beyond any cold you could imagine. That she survived the sub-freezing temperatures at around 13,000 feet in only a torn summer dress is another miracle.
To drive to So. Calif. I pass through the town of Independence and the motel, Ray's Den,where she was mistakenly turned away because this was just after the Manson arrests and they thought she was a drug-addled hippy! I see how far away the mountain is from the town and it just blows me away that she survived. I think of her journey every time I pass through. If you are a mountain buff and/or a hiker, buy this book. You won't be able to put it down!
There is a movie!.......2004-03-04
oreally asks why no one ever made a movie about this story. Actually there was a made-for-tv-movie produced, in 1978 (also known as "And I ALone Survived"). Blair Brown stars as Lauren Elder, and Dan Ackroyd plays Jay Fuller (the incomptent pilot). I haven't seen the movie, but presumably it comes around every so often on late night television.
Jay's post-accident lethargy and lack of will to live reminded me of the line in the movie "The Edge": "Why do most people die after getting lost? They die of shame". Here, Jay was so overcome by his piloting screw-up (and subsequent death of his girlfriend, Jean) that he seems to essentially have decided that live wasn't worth living any more.
oreally also asks what became of Lauren Elder. As far as I can find out on the Internet, she still lives in the San Fransisco area, where she makes her living as a set designer for local plays.
Books:
- Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son: A Memoir
- Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty
- Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them : When Loving Hurts and You Don't Know Why
- My Last Chance to Be a Boy: Theodore Roosevelt's South American Expedition of 1913-1914
- Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (P.S.)
- Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe
- Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book: More Lessons and Hand Analysis in No Limit Texas Hold'em
- Positive Magic: Ancient Metaphysical Techniques for Modern Lives
- Prayer Shield How to Intercede for Pastors, Christian Leaders, and Others on the Spiritual Frontlines (Prayer Warrior)
- Red Rock to Ravendale: Memories of a northern California community
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