Amazon.com
The same sharp intelligence and self-deprecating wit that made Michael J. Fox a star in the Family Ties TV series and Back to the Future make this a lot punchier than the usual up-from-illness celebrity memoir. Yes, he begins with the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, the incurable illness that led to his retirement from Spin City (and acting) in 2000. And yes, he assures us he is a better, happier person now than he was before he was diagnosed. In Fox's case, you actually might believe it, because he then cheerfully exposes the insecurities and self-indulgences of his pre-Parkinson's life in a manner that makes them not glamorous but wincingly ordinary and of course very funny. ("As for the question, 'Does it bother you that maybe she just wants to sleep with you because you're a celebrity?' My answer to that one was, 'Ah...nope.'") With a working-class Canadian background, Fox has an unusually detached perspective on the madness of mass-media fame; his description of the tabloid feeding frenzy surrounding his 1988 wedding to Tracy Pollan, for example, manages to be both acid and matter-of-fact. He is frank but not maudlin about his drinking problem, and he refreshingly notes that getting sober did not automatically solve all his other problems. This readable, witty autobiography reminds you why it was generally a pleasure to watch Fox onscreen: he's a nice guy with an edge, and you don't have to feel embarrassed about liking him. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
The same sharp intelligence and self-deprecating wit that made MichaelJ. Fox a star in the Family Ties TV series and Back to the Futuremake this a lot punchier than the usual up-from-illness celebrity memoir. Yes,he begins with the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, the incurable illnessthat led to his retirement from Spin City (and acting) in 2000. And yes,he assures us he is a better, happier person now than he was before he wasdiagnosed. In Fox's case, you actually might believe it, because he thencheerfully exposes the insecurities and self-indulgences of his pre-Parkinson'slife in a manner that makes them not glamorous but wincingly ordinary and ofcourse very funny. ("As for the question, 'Does it bother you that maybe shejust wants to sleep with you because you're a celebrity?' My answer to that onewas, 'Ah...nope.'") With a working-class Canadian background, Fox has anunusually detached perspective on the madness of mass-media fame; hisdescription of the tabloid feeding frenzy surrounding his 1988 wedding to TracyPollan, for example, manages to be both acid and matter-of-fact. He is frank butnot maudlin about his drinking problem, and he refreshingly notes that gettingsober did not automatically solve all his other problems. This readable, wittyautobiography reminds you why it was generally a pleasure to watch Fox onscreen:he's a nice guy with an edge, and you don't have to feel embarrassed aboutliking him. --Wendy Smith
Download Description
This memoir discusses Michael J. Fox's life--growing up in Canada and then becoming a national television star in the U.S. at the age of 19. Fox reveals the excess and temptations he fell into as a young star, and how with the help of his wife, Tracy Pollan, he quit drinking and drowning in self-pity. He tells of noticing the first tremors of Parkinson's disease, which he ignored; finding out at the age of 30 that he was suffering from early onset of Parkinson's; how this has affected his family and the extraordinary support they have provided him. He spent nine years hiding his condition from all but his closest family and friends. His courageous decision to go public and retire from active performing in order to devote his time to the foundation and to finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease makes up the last part of the book. Recounted in a witty and reflective fashion, Fox displays the kind of courage that has inspired the hundreds of thousands of fans who care about him.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book for a person with a neurological disorder.......2007-09-24
I truly loved this book. I have been a fan of Michael J. Fox's since "Family Ties" was on. He is an awesome person and I think that he is very courageous in the way he faces his own disabilty.
Like Mr. Fox, I also have a progressive, degenerative, incurable neurological disorder (mine is called Cerebellar Ataxia and you can add the word "genetic" to the descriptive adjectives). Some of the symptoms of his Parkinson's Disease are similiar to mine, so I can sympathize with what he is going through. He cites a book that he read when he was first diagnosed (page 146)-Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' ON DEATH AND DYING which tells about the five stages of grief (denial/isolation, anger, bargaing, depression, and acceptance). I read the book in college (for my major) and thought of it often after I was diagnosed with my brain disorder.
Anyway-I wish to thank Mr. Fox for writing this book because I had never read about a person, like me, with a brain disorder. It was so well written, also. It is truly a literary gem.
My book is called Dreams in August: Life, Love, and Cerebellar Ataxia
AMAZING.......2007-08-18
The fact that I'm a huge fan of Michael J. Fox has no bearing on my opinion of this book. His sophisticated yet humorous outlook on life is bound to keep you entertained from start to finish. He helps the reader to understand more about what he is all about, what he went through to get where he is today, and what Parkinson's Disease really is. Michael does not write with pride or ask for pity in this text, rather he's just sharing his story from one human being to another. I HIGHLY recommend this book!!
Lucky for us there is a "Lucky Man".......2007-08-03
This book is simply great. Michael J. Fox provides a clear, and very interesting look at aspects and highlights of his life with regards to his career, family, and especially his dealings with Parkinson's disease. He has great courage and is very candid. He also is a good writer and is very intelligent, but is not perfect. He reveals how he has also overcome alcoholism and his time in the Hollywood "funhouse," as he calls it to discover what really matters in life. His discovery has been aided by his struggle with Parkinson's Disease at a very young age and I believe that is why he considers himself a "lucky man." He says the ten years since Parkinson's have been the best of his life. His foundation strives to bring awareness to sufferers of Parkinson's in order to curtail discrimination and possibly foster a cure through research, especially stem-cell research, in ten years. I recommend this book to everyone, especially people suffering Parkinson's, and other devastating brain diseases. It will give them hope and encouragement. The book was so interesting I could not put it down and I read it all in about three days.
Lucky Man Review.......2007-06-08
An excellent memoir of a young person's battle with Parkinson's Disease.
Easy reading and uplifting too.
Michael J. Fox.......2007-06-08
A very interesting book! Easy to read, very entertaining, funny and sad.
Book Description
Enormously visceral, emotionally gripping, and imbued with the belief that justice is possible even after the most horrific of crimes, Alice Sebold's compelling memoir of her rape at the age of eighteen is a story that takes hold of you and won't let go.Sebold fulfills a promise that she made to herself in the very tunnel where she was raped: someday she would write a book about her experience. With Lucky she delivers on that promise with mordant wit and an eye for life's absurdities, as she describes what she was like both as a young girl before the rape and how that rape changed but did not sink the woman she later became.It is Alice's indomitable spirit that we come to know in these pages. The same young woman who sets her sights on becoming an Ethel Merman-style diva one day (despite her braces, bad complexion, and extra weight) encounters what is still thought of today as the crime from which no woman can ever really recover. In an account that is at once heartrending and hilarious, we see Alice's spirit prevail as she struggles to have a normal college experience in the aftermath of this harrowing, life-changing event.No less gripping is the almost unbelievable role that coincidence plays in the unfolding of Sebold's narrative. Her case, placed in the inactive file, is miraculously opened again six months later when she sees her rapist on the street. This begins the long road to what dominates these pages: the struggle for triumph and understanding -- in the courtroom and outside in the world.Lucky is, quite simply, a real-life thriller. In its literary style and narrative tension we never lose sight of why this life story is worth reading. At the end we are left standing in the wake of devastating violence, and, like the writer, we have come to know what it means to survive.
Customer Reviews:
There Is No One Like Alice Sebold.......2007-10-05
I have always told anyone I recommended Alice Sebold to that her books are like Saving Private Ryan: if you can make it through the first half hour, you can make it through the rest.
Sebold is very fond of putting her most brutal, hard content on the very first pages, in the first chapter, and in a way, it weeds out the people with the stomach for this sort of writing from the ones who do not. She lets you know immediately where she is coming from.
The details are so graphic, so real, that it is almost disturbing to the reader as you actually begin to place yourself into the pages, into the thick of the suffering that Sebold endured during and after her rape. One thing that always stayed with me was her talk of a pink hair tie, lying amongst the leaves and debris in the tunnel where she was raped, and her wondering if it had been the murdered girl before her's property. Those things, those moments, are so realistic and so intense that it makes me consider that there may never have been another writer of our time that captures the essence of a real thought process and the real world. Stream of conciousness, it is not, but it is just as alarming in its sincerity.
In short, I cannot WAIT for her next work, and I commend Sebold for being able to be blunt but vulnerable, making sure that she is not wilting underneath the cold reality of her experiences but she is not demeaning their power either.
A must-read for any woman.
great tragedy but lousy storytelling.......2007-09-09
When Imre Kertesz writes about Auschwitz, he does so in a way of mid-european intellectual, who knows his history, his philosophical predecessors, his native background and all that may be connected to it in some way. Kertesz survived notorious concentration camp, so none can say that he hasn't been there, and that he doesn't know what he's talking about.
When Alice Sebold writes about her raping, she does so in a journalistic manner. Almost transcribing line by line from official papers events that transpired in distant past. While doing this, she moves farther and farther from her experience, and text becomes monotonous and shallow speech about how horrible raping really is.
But, there really is no answer present in this book why raping is so horrible. Of course, to some this question may seem to be futile cause answer somehow imposes itself. Yet again, Sebold is a writer, and by definition writer should be able to tell her experience in a somewhat different manner than almost judicial speech. Of course, we are here for experience of reading, for answer to almost pervert question: "How does it feel to be raped?" And yet, we do not find it.
There are really brilliant passages about society lack of care for victims, and the need to "be normal again", but majority of the book is written in a way that pushes you back from the start. This changes by the end of the book, where Alice suddenly starts to be more personal, and more close that before. It almost feel as she is being more honest with herself. But few pages in the last chapter cannot save badly written piece of journalism (this can hardly be called autobiography, or a novel).
This book is easy enough to follow and it lulls you in a certain state of mind. If we presuppose the fact that raping is something awful (about which there never is any talk in the book) than what we can see and read in the book is a behavior of a insulted eleven-year old girl, and not of a older, intellectually more capable female writer. One should expect more from Sebold.
Every woman's worst nightmare.......2007-07-13
This book is awful. Really awful. Only because of what happened to her. The candid, detailed recollections she bravely shares with the world are appalling. This book made me much more aware of my surroundings and also made me realize that yes, your worst nightmare could come true. It could happen to anyone. I respect how open she was about what went through her mind during and after the rape and how she shares the horror she faced for many more years to come. Her memoir is breathless. It's like your best friend writing to you about what happened to her. She holds nothing back. I highly recommend this to all women.
A heartbreaking account of rape.......2007-07-08
Oh my god, this is an amazing book. It's a memoir of Alice Sebold's rape and her how she picked up the pieces of her life after it. It's a great read for rape survivors, friends/family members of rape survivors, and just the general public. Ms. Sebold is brutally honest and give a fully detailed account of what happened, which is difficult to read and I can only imagine how difficult it was for her to write. She is a brave, strong woman and this is a great book. It's heavy and sad at times but it is something that should be read. This book is one of my favorites because it means a great deal to me personally and it is a great addition to the literature out there.
Gripping, unflinchingly honest account of rape.......2007-07-07
I had read "The Lovely Bones" also by Sebold, and although I thought it was an interesting concept, I didn't see what all the fuss was about. So when an acquaintance suggested I read "Lucky," I didn't run right out and get it. But when I finally did read it, I literally couldn't put it down.
Sebold dives right to the heart of the matter-- her brutal rape as an 18 year old Syracuse co-ed by a stranger-- at the beginning of the book. Her account is a detailed retelling of what occured fact-wise with a running commentary on what she was feeling and thinking as it all happened. You cannot help but feel you are there with her. Only after she recounts the entire rape does she go back in time and let the reader know who she is, what kind of family she came from, etc. She is a stranger to us as much as she is a stranger to her rapist and to the police who ultimately have to decide if they believe her story or not. She is a rape victim first and foremost to us and first and foremost to herself for many, mnay years after the assault. Unlike Kathy Dobie's book, "The Only Girl In the Car" in which Dobie ineffectively details her life prior to the gang bang that ultimately defined her, Sebold only lets us get to know her as a rape victim, and only lets us know her past as juxtaposed by her present reality.
The unbelievable twists and turns of Sebold's life following her rape feel like they must have been fictionalized, but alas, they are true. She ends up running into her rapist on the street not once, but twice. (The first time resulting in his arrest.) Other things that happen lead Sebold into a life of despair, fearing she will always be a victim. Strangely (or not so strangely), within that paradigm, Sebold ultimately even victimizes herself.
Where Sebold's memoir shines the most is how amazingly honest she is about the effects of the rape on her life and psyche. Her life is forever changed and she candidly examines how friends, family and strangers react to her following her rape with the objectivity of a sociologist but also examines her reactions to how she is treated through the lenses of a keenly attuned rape survivor. She doesn't paint a picture in which we should pity her though; she lets it all hang out, warts and all. This book is not about throwing a pity party, it's about a woman who has been to hell and back and wrote a book about it. It's about a woman who learned that denial and repression are not the way to deal with trauma. It's about a woman who was raped and her struggle to not be defined by that rape.
This memoir is a must-read for anyone who has been sexually assaulted or raped or who knows someone who has. And it's a should-read for everyone else.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Author.......2007-10-08
I could not put this book down. Her second book was just as wonderful as her first. It was very well written. I was amazed at her writing skills. Great read!
Excellent, gripping and human.......2006-09-05
I read Loung's first book and liked it, but something about it subtly bothered me. Reading this book, I realized that it was the anger that underlay the whole thing. She's certainly more than entitled to the anger, but it doesn't always make for the best writing or reading.
This book has been written by a more mature and settled Loung, and it shows. There's more reflection and a lot more humanity, bringing depth to the portraits of family members who were shown more one-dimensionally in the first book: an inevitable byproduct of the book being told straight from a child's point of view, and that of a child focused intensely on survival. I especially liked in this book how the "scary" brother Khouy was given added nuances of character; the moment when he said, hearing of his small sister's death, that "she was so small" brought a lump to my throat. The characters of the brothers and sisters are fleshed out here in a way that's really delightful and much more interesting to read than in the previous book.
What's best about this, I think, is how we're given a look at the love between the siblings and the incredibly resilience of the family members who stay in Cambodia. It's also a good portrait of how some people in Cambodia are moving on with their lives: in our minds, so much of Cambodia remains the war and the killing fields. We need to know that people are surviving and living their lives despite the shadows of this past: it makes the nation real to us instead of a symbol.
A gripping story that kept me up too late to read through it in one sitting. Some reviewers have said the sections on Chou were not as good as those on Loung, but I didn't find that at all -- I could actually have read a lot more from her point of view.
One quibble: the book needed slightly better proof-reading. There were a few spelling mistakes that spell-check missed, and an astounding miss on a picture caption, where one of the Angkor Wat temples was labelled "Wat BYRON" instead of "Wat Bayon." Otherwise, an excellent read.
The tale of two sisters, worlds apart.......2006-04-30
Loung Ung's fascinating second book, Lucky Child, picks up the story that began with her first memoir, First They Killed My Father, and with both books I found it impossible to put them down once I'd begun reading. Lucky Child contrasts life for Loung as a refugee in America, with her sister Chou's life in rural Cambodia, and it's a revealing and moving comparison. Loung, with lasting feelings of guilt for those she'd left behind, found it difficult to fit in, whilst Chou, resigned to her fate, displayed the resilience and inner strength that is apparent in so many of her fellow countrymen and women.
I found two parts of this remarkable book particularly poignant, the heart-rending death of three-year-old Kung and the reunion between Chou and her brother Meng after a separation of eleven years. These passages were hard to read. Whilst the eventual meeting of Loung and Chou is an awkward affair, the tale of their brother Kim's escape from Cambodia to France is enthralling. The book tells a tale that underscores the importance of the bond between family members, the sheer strength of the human spirit and will to endure and most of all, it's a story of two sisters who have survived and flourished against all odds. Loung Ung has a special talent at storytelling. I recommend this book without hesitation.
A must read!.......2006-02-09
It's hard and saddening to know that while I was living a life of ease, Loung and her family were struggling to survive the war in Cambodia, as well as life in the U.S.
This is an important book which carries the message that, like war veterans, refugees fo war torn countries do not leave the violence behind them, that it continues to color their life.
This book should be a must read for everyone, not only so the events in Cambodia are not forgotten, but so that we can learn to appreciate what we have.
Both books by this author are wonderful. Another deeply moving memoir is Night. The author was in a World War II. concentration camp.
In depth look at change in life.......2006-02-05
Last year, I picked up First They Killed My Father while I was in Cambodia. I had already read Chanrithy Him's - When Broken Glass Floats. Both of these books are very powerful and must reads in the genre of the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979. Lucky Child is a book that takes place in a completely different world. At the end of "First They", we see Loung heading for a new life in America and we all give a sigh of relief.
Lucky Child goes in depth into the difficulties of a minority trying to adapt to white American society. All the while, Loung has everything she experienced in Cambodia continually gnawing at her spirit - the loss of her family being the most difficult for her. As the author, she is our focus, but in Lucky Child, we also get a very good look at her older sister Chou and what life was like in Cambodia in the years following the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
This book is powerful and tough to put down. It tugs at the heartstrings and provokes deeper thought into our own lives and values. Lucky Child is one of the finer books that I have read in some time and I highly reccomend it to anyone who is interested in Cambodia, the peoples, customs and landscapes of that beautiful country, and human nature, suffering, and the will to succeed. This is a book not to be missed!
Book Description
Well, hello, Dolly!
Carol Channing, one of America's most beloved and enduring theatrical legends, takes on her most challenging role yet: as the author of this funny, ribald, and moving memoir.
Known across the nation for her portrayal of the irresistible Dolly Levi, the title character of the Broadway musical phenomenon, Hello, Dolly!, Carol Channing is perhaps the only living theatrical star whose name brings a smile to the face of people in virtually every city and town across America and Canada, to say nothing of London, Melbourne, and Sydney. Her performance as the droll and leggy Lorelei Lee in the Broadway version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes made her a star and launched a career that has spanned over fifty years and has included a number of Broadway plays, many television appearances, and two movies, including Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. Capping them all, of course, was her Tony award-winning signature performance as the irrepressible Dolly.
Conversational in style, and written entirely by Miss Channing, this star-studded chronicle gives you the feeling that you are sitting down with this fascinating woman and having her delight you with tales from her long and amazing life, both personal and professional. You'll be invited behind the scenes for stories featuring an all-star cast of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Tallulah Bankhead, Gower Champion, Clint Eastwood, Julie Andrews, Marlene Dietrich, David Merrick, Noël Coward, Al Pacino, and Yul Brynner. And you'll learn of the not-so-glamorous times, too, as Miss Channing reveals her theatrical triumphs, her heritage, and her winning battle with ovarian cancer. Through it all, Carol Channing -- the real star of this story -- demonstrates with wit and candor how she kept up her spirits and forged fearlessly ahead.
From the first page to its triumphant conclusion -- and including many never-before-seen photographs -- Just Lucky I Guess is perhaps Miss Carol Channing's most engaging performance yet.
Customer Reviews:
Rather Choppy- but fun!.......2007-08-07
Carol Channing's autobiography is a fun read indeed, but is rather choppy. It was previously said that she never really finishes her stories, and that is ture, however, I was never left wanting. Her narrative is very entertaining, and the anecdotes are fun tidbits to tell! There really is one for every occasion!
A must for Channing fans!
Hello Dully!.......2006-01-26
Now, I understand that as we look back on our lives that we tend to remember the good times rather than the bad, but Carol does so to the point of chronicling a rather dull existence. She leaves out all the stories that made her one of the great survivors in the industry. Case in point, there's no mention of the story when Frank Sinatra beat her to within an inch of death with a pillowcase full of doorknobs. There's no mention of her bloodfeud with Rosemary Clooney and how she once pulled a knife on Clooney and cut off her pinky toe. And of course, the greatest omission of all: Carol has an irational fear of men with mustaches. Could have been better.
Were You Expecting Eleanor Roosevelt's Autobiography?.......2004-12-12
Carol Channing tells her life story (probably dictated with almost no editing) in her own style - delightfully mixed-up, carefree and uninhibited. Of course she skips around and even SHE forgets exactly what her point was. Is this disappointing? No, she's just being Carol Channing, a true zany. Not Lucille Ball, a very serious and level-headed businesswoman who just played a zany.
The unabashed love she felt for her best pals- Mary Martin and George Burns in particular, is heart-warming reading. Her disdain for certain others never remotely comes across as bitter,
for example in the case of the nameless "Yenta" from one of her
Broadway shows. "Yenta" was a troublesome actress who, Carol later found out, wound up as a dental assistant. "It could have happened to any of us," Carol laments to us with a straight face. As if becoming a dental assistant was like dying in a plane crash! That's Carol... if you stray too far off Broadway you might as well be dead. Her love of life and love of the theater are one and the same, and it pours forth in every page.
You will notice too that there's no photo of her husband/manager of 42 years, Charles Lowe, whom she divorced very publicly in 1997 after informing the world he was gay and in all that time they had intercourse on two occasions. All mention of him is less than she gives to describe the "pear-shaped" ass of agent Sue Mengers. So you know that there are some sad things the happy Carol would just like to blot out, or, at least not burden us with. She'd rather give us peppy and mixed-up Carol showbiz yarns in no particular order.
The most controversial element of her tome is the impossible-to-prove assertment that her father was a light-skinned African-American. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, her father's "colored" birth certificate was destroyed. Now I could be wrong, but I think it is merely some of Carol's over-stimulated imagination at play, as when she saw-
I'm not making this up- a rainbow over Mary Martin's pancreas.
And of course, it's a little extra spice for selling books. And speaking of spice, the book is worth purchasing if only for the anecdote about a "Chinaman's mustache." I'm not telling, you'll have to read it.
Those who complain that her book has no order, rhyme or reason just don't know Carol. But "Just Lucky" is a terrific way to get to know this one-of-a-kind theater icon.
Denial is a River in Egypt.......2004-10-09
Carol Channing's memoir is not candid at all. This is the story of a lady that spent 40+ years on the road doing tour after tour after tour because she was in a loveless unhappy marriage. Her abusive husband was living high off the hog with his male lover while she was out performing all over America. She had a terrible life until her husband's death...and only recently she met her current husband, a wonderful loving millionnaire whom she dated originally in Junior high. It's a fascinating story which you will not find in the book.
Two bricks short of a load............2004-07-05
What a waste of money & time!!!!!! The author is obviously in her dotage & cannot complete a sentence or a thought.Where were her editors???? Very disappointing read!!!! I've always enjoyed Carol Channing, but it was a chore to get thorugh this book. A little of her ramblings goes a long way. I suspect that Carol thinks these non-sequiters are part of her charm. Boo to the publisher of this book. One would think they'd have known better than to try to foist this inferior book off on an unsuspecting public.
Average customer rating:
- Yup, Lucky.
- The great voice of the century
- Bing by Bing
- Undeniably Craosby
|
Call Me Lucky
Bing Crosby , and
As told to Pete Martin
Manufacturer: Da Capo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Composers & Musicians
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Entertainers
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Crosby, Bing
| ( C )
| People, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Memoirs
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Popular
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Pop Culture
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams-the Early Years, 1903-1940
-
Bing Crosby-Crooner of the Century
-
Steps in Time
-
Bob Hope
-
Have Tux, Will Travel: Bob Hope's Own Story
ASIN: 0306810875 |
Book Description
"One of the most enchanting of all show-business memoirs." -Gary Giddins.
Reissued to coincide with the paperback publication of the definitive Bing biography by Gary Giddins, here is "a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences that is as warm and witty as any Crosby performance. [Bing] could have surely become a full-time writer had his schedule not been taken up with being one of the great entertainers of the century." -Will Friedwald
Customer Reviews:
Yup, Lucky........2005-04-21
Crosby says about himself that he had no skill at acting or dancing and that his singing was more gimmick than talent, a strategy learned in vaudeville. If he hadn't been in town at the same time as Paul Whiteman, his life would have taken a different turn, and that would have been okay with him. As it was, he blew around in a wind that carried him to fame, fortune, race tracks, golf courses and professional friends. Otherwise, he made no contribution, he says, except for two recordings, and he isn't kidding. What we have here is a modest little man with a great deal to be modest about. Vain, conceited, self-centered, pretentious, affable--what media turns into icon. The book itself is a series of anecdotes distilled from conversations with a ghostwriter, interrupted when Bing swaps a highbrow word for a lowbrow one, reaching for distinction. He had an ache for attention, evidently, but his book never deals with the hungers of his personality. So he's not as interesting as the people he mentions, sometimes indiscretely, despite his own penchant for privacy. It was a wonderful ride. I'm glad he enjoyed it. But yesteryear's wisecrack is this year's yawn. For a show biz autobiography that sizzles with self-knowledge, read Oscar Levant's or Lennie Bruce's.
The great voice of the century.......2004-08-11
Pete Martin, the famous journalist and profile writer who spent a lot of his time working like a beaver for the classic Saturday Evening Post of the 1940s and 1950s--the Norman Rockwell years--and who departed for LOOK magazine when Rockwell did--wrote the bulk of this book, but he did it in close cooperation with the not always easy to work with Bing Crosby, who had attained a new plateau of popularity in the 1950s (when the book was first published). It seemed as if he had everything: wonderful talent, a devoted family, a gift not only for musical comedy but for drama too, as his turns in The Country Girl and Going My Way indicated. Though filmed considerably later than the period he describes in this book, "der Bingle" did a great job as a serial killer in Ira Levin's medical thriller, Dr. Cook's Garden. Bing had a warm, jazz-inspired delivery that wrapped itself around air like it was filled with honey, he was surely the warmest singer who ever lived. If his private life was more complicated than the Saturday Evening Post was then willing to print, what we have in CALL ME LUCKY is another side to the many-faceted Bing Crosby, a construction of grit, daring and tenderness that remains remarkably durable twenty years after his death.
Bing by Bing.......2004-02-28
I read this book as a teen years ago and just purchased the new paperback version. Bing's voice, even as filtered by Pete Martin, is evident here. He's not a deep 'teller of tales' in order to let us see all his personal angst. What we do see is a guy who struggles with parenting spirited boys, who grieves the loss of a wife, who downplays his talent and, as the book's title suggests, considers himself merely lucky. There's a lot of humor in this book and the caring Crosby feels for his family and his fellow entertainers is quite evident if not overly 'blatant'. Another perfect companion to the Gary Giddins book "Pocketful of Dreams"!
Undeniably Craosby.......1998-01-15
Bing Crosby comes to life in "Call Me Lucy". Each word, each sentence, every portion evokes Crosby's wonderful exalted form of speaking. This is not a tell-all biography, but rather a wonderful recant of anecdotes and humorous observations. Crosby tells amusing stories of Bob Hope, Paul Whiteman, Oscar Levant, Groucho Marx, Al Jolson, Fred Astaire, his wife, and his kids. He also spends time telling stories of his adventures on the golf course, in movies, on radio, and traveling the country with Paul Whiteman's band.
What's more, he tells the true stories of his rise to the top of show business. From being a team with his Washington pal Al Rinker, to getting the Academy Award for "Going My Way" in 1944.
In addition to this, he speaks frankly about his wife (who died not to long before the book was originally published). An honest, and teary moment.
All together, "Call Me Lucky" is a must to any Crosby fan. It's undeniably Crosby!
Amazon.com
Perhaps they really are just a pair of lucky people, but Milton and Rose Friedman are so perfectly matched that destiny must have played some part in their coming together. Milton is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, Rose, an influential theorist who advised American presidents and world leaders on the formation of their economic policies. Together the two wrote books (one flopped, the other is 1982's Free to Choose, a runaway bestseller) and were instrumental in influencing systems and ideas like negative income tax, the balanced budget amendment, tax-withholding, and even drug legalization. At times their ideas seemed outrageous but their strong belief that personal freedom is essential to a sound economy has helped shape many of the West's socioeconomic policies in the latter half of the 20th century.
And it is together, too, that the Friedmans penned their memoirs. The tone of Two Lucky People is quite humble despite their considerable achievements. They remember the lingering, technical conversations--which would put most people to sleep--that they shared in front of their fireplace; the personal and professional relationships they had with Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Margaret Thatcher; Milton's winning of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science; and countless other triumphs in their field. The book lacks the personal information--tastes in literature, art, music--and the quotidian details that help form a solid sense of personality. But their passion for their vocation seems all-consuming and maybe, in the end, that's what defines them best.
Book Description
In Two Lucky People, Rose and Milton Friedman provide a memorable and lively account of their lives, the people they knew, and the work they shared. Their involvement with world leaders and many of this century's most important public policy issues moves their memoir beyond the merely personal and makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the history of twentieth-century ideas.
"The Friedmans come across as the last Enlightenment thinkers in a post-modern world. . . . This is a book that restores your faith in reasoned discourse. . . . There really are people who believe in scholarly exchange as a way to discover truth."—David Brooks, New York Times Book Review
"The Friedmans are a feisty couple, who clearly delight in their lives and each other. And shining through their reticence, and their conservatism, is a decency that even liberals will recognize."—Milton and Judith Viorst, Washington Post Book World
"This engaging book recounts the life and contributions of one of America's most influential writers and economists in the second half of the twentieth century. And her husband's no slouch either. . . . An indispensable guide through the evolution of economic thought."—Stephen Moore, National Review
"A thought-provoking book and one rich in history, the personal history of the Friedmans . . . and the cultural and political history of our country."—Steve Huntley, Chicago Sun-Times Books
"[Two Lucky People] is almost like a letter from a couple of old friends—a couple of old friends who had a long, compelling intellectual journey, came to know some of the great world leaders of this century, and had 60 years of happy, supportive marriage."—N. Gregory Mankiw, Fortune
"A rich autobiographical and historical panorama."—William P. Kucewicz, Wall Street Journal
Customer Reviews:
Probably the Best Autobiography I Have Ever Read!.......2005-11-17
This is a great book for anyone who is interested in Milton Friedman, economics, The University of Chicago, twentieth-century intellectual history, university politics, or rags-to-riches stories. Both authors have led very interesting lives and the tone throughout the book is upbeat and positive. This is one of the best and most-influential books I have ever read. Milton Friedman is one of the most clear-thinking, intelligent people of the twentieth-century and our country would be better off if more of his ideas on economics, education, and freedom were put into practice.
God helps those who help themselves.......2001-06-06
Milton Friedman is one the of tough guy who always support the free market idea.He is the first guy who builds the monetary school and also a good story teller.He does do a great job and I guess that is not just luck.
A fascinating account of two remarkable lives.......2000-03-31
The memoirs extend from the Friedmans' early years to 1997. The earliest times are recounted in separate voices by Rose and Milton, each telling her or his own story seriatim. For the later years, their narrative voices are presented sometimes jointly and sometimes in tandem. This method adds a great deal to the readability and interest of their story. It allows the reader to get different impressions of the same people and places and brings out the (rare) disagreements between the two authors. It provides more information and presents a more vivid picture than is typically the case in memoirs by a single author....
To read "Two Lucky People" is to get on intimate terms with a wholly delightful and wholly admirable couple. Here is a book to savor. Instructive and endlessly entertaining, it brings to life a whole era from the Great Depression to the present day.
Very Boring.......1999-08-24
More of a travelog than an interesting business book. I could not even finish it, which is very unusual for me.
Fascinating story; actually a "two-fer" - 2 biographies.......1998-09-04
I'm indebted to the review by Thomas Sowell in the July 6 issue of Forbes Magazine (Forbes.com) This book has history, sociology, romance, economics, faith, good stories and more.
Average customer rating:
|
LUCKY MAN: A MEMOIR.
Michael J. Fox
Manufacturer: Ebury
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
| Actors & Actresses
| Artists, Architects & Photographers
| Authors
| Composers & Musicians
| Dancers
| Entertainers
| Movie Directors
| New Age
| Television Performers
| Theatre
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0091879205 |
Average customer rating:
- For Smart People Only
- Many Men and Many Movies
- Unlucky Readers
- Lots of juicy tidbits... Mitchum and Montand a girl should
- What a broad will do for a buck!
|
My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir
Shirley Maclaine
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Actors & Actresses
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Entertainers
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Actors & Actresses
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Entertainers
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
You Can Get There From Here
-
Don't Fall Off the Mountain
-
The Camino : A Journey of the Spirit
-
Out on a Leash : Exploring the Nature of Reality and Love
-
Going Within
ASIN: 0553572334
Release Date: 1996-11-01 |
Customer Reviews:
For Smart People Only.......2005-12-04
This is a "Hollywood" memoir, not a "Shirley MacLaine" memoir, so be advised. Yeah, she's in there all right, but you get more, so much more. It's one of the most intelligent of all the star bios. If you are looking for a lot of mindless tibits and giggly gossip, you won't find much of that here. But if you are looking for real insight into some of our star icons, like Sinatra, Dean, Mitchum, this is the place to find it. Further, if you have any interest in what making movies is like, if you want to be an actor, director, cameraman or marry one, this is the book for you. If you are a creative person who puts yourself out there for the public, you will love this book. No one else has nailed this experience like MacLaine has. I will never see the Oscars or star interviews the same way again. In fact, the writing is so exceptional and insights so wide-ranging that this book should be required reading in any film class.
Many Men and Many Movies.......2004-12-17
Is anyone's favorite star Shirley MacLaine? I doubt it. But she's spent a lot of time thinking about stardom and Hollywood and audience and appeal, and in MY LUCKY STARS she gives it to us without holding much back. Her love affair with Robert Mitchum is presented as a Romeo and Juliet folie a deux in which the two of them entered a private world out of which they never really found their way back out. When she became intimate with Yves Montand, even after knowing what he had done to Marilyn Monroe, his co-star on an earlier picture, you really have to wonder if Shirley has a masochistic streak. (I suppose co-starring with Jerry Lewis, you'd need one.) And frankly, her description of a sizzling sex affair with Danny Kaye didn't ring true.
Far more solid is her recounting of Debra Winger's acting out on the set of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, and in one of the very last chapters, "SAY ANYTHING," Shirley really lets her hair down with a series of anecdotes about her fellow stars that are too hot to repeat; she protects their anonymity by not revealing their names, but their identities will be obvious to anyone who knows anything about Hollywood. The story about John and Bo Derek is far more graphic and gruesome than anything you could have imagined. Well, maybe it's not the Dereks, since Shirley doesn't name them, but hey, she does everything but draw their faces on the margins of the chapter. Read it if you're in the mood for a good shock.
By her own accounting, Mac Laine has now made three comebacks in the movies (with THE TURNING POINT, with TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, and with GUARDING TESS). She might go on to do more, who knows? You may not like her any more than you did before you started reading this book, but you'll have gotten a grainier look at Hollywood life than anything since the last Bruce Wagner novel. Well done, Shirley MacLaine!
Unlucky Readers.......2002-09-09
What is MacLaine's book like? Like being at a party where someone corners you, and talks to you the whole night, all about herself and her psycho-analysis of everyone else, never knowing when to shut up. Sure, I knew it was a book all about her - I was actually looking forward to reading it. Still, endless drivel and psycho-analysis on the many famous people MacLaine has met does not make for an interesting memoir. Half way through the book I gave up! I got the picture in the chapter about Lewis and Martin: the world is filled with unhappy, complex people - even Hollyworld. Next time, Shirley, remember: Less is indeed More.
Lots of juicy tidbits... Mitchum and Montand a girl should.......2001-06-23
be so lucky. I have not read Shirley's other books and I am not sure exactly why I purchased this one other than I suppose I was feeling especially nosey and liked the gossipy aspect of the book. Shirley tells a lot of her business but I suppose at this point and time in her life she could really care less how people judge her.
I always knew she had an unconventional marriage but just how unconventional was made very clear as she sustained long term affairs with Robert Mitchum, Danny Kaye and little escapades with some of her leading men like Yves Montand. What is very noticeable is that Shirley doesn't go into any of the issues associated with having such an open marriage at the time she did it. Her escapades are told with dry humor and a sort of emotional detachment. I do, however, believe that Robert Mitchum could have been one of her great loves instead of a long term affair.
I did appreciate her attempts to provide insight as to how affairs can happen so readily when making a picture. How they are in fact aided and abetted sometimes by directors and other crew members. Some directors won't let spouses on the set, some do questionable things to provoke reactions to get you to do the movie their way.... It's all very enlightening in that you do see how insecure people such as a Marilyn Monroe type would get eaten alive by these sort of games.
I suppose Frank Sinatra was really p_ _ _ _d off when this book came out because for all her flattery of him she paints such a sad picture of him. It almost.... I said almost, makes you want to overlook his ego maniac, self centered, I am God attitude towards the rest of the people on the planet. I also found her description of Debra Winger's antics on Terms of Endearment to be totally revolting. I have to think that if behavior like this is found acceptable in order to get the best from an actor then the behavior we read about shouldn't be a surprise. The anything goes behavior that is tolerated while making the movie could in fact and does create serious behavioral problems in some stars. In other words they expect real life to be like on the movie set and it doesn't work that way.
All in all I enjoyed the book, it's very juicy gossipy bits and her insights into old Hollywood.
What a broad will do for a buck!.......2001-03-10
The reply he gave when told of the book,whose reply?, who do you think,all in hearsay of course, but i believe it.Maclaines current outing is quite enjoyable really, apart from when she takes of into phycobabble,boring,in other tomes,too serious to be a good storyteller,suprisingly in this she is different,couldve dropped a few more juicy titbits,she has probably seen it all,her tales of the mafia are fasinating,that dry detached realism of hers,really suits such a subject maybe she should write a book about them sometime,but her insights into sinatra are truly fasinating,actually they are confusing,was she cutting his throat,or what,this is what baffles me,on one page calling him god,on another icily tearing him asunder,for to sinatra disloyalty,was the greatest sin of all,what i would not have given to be a fly on the wall of a reasturent, when mclaine walked in and met him after this.
Average customer rating:
|
The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano (Book Club Edition)
Martin A. Gosch
Manufacturer: Little Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Criminals
| Specific Groups
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Memoirs
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B000MF8W0S |
Product Description
Expose of organized crime families in New York, based on information provided by Charles "Lucky" Luciano and others associated with alleged Mafia activities.
Average customer rating:
|
BORN LUCKY: One D-Day Dodger's Story: RSM Harry Fox, MBE (Voices of War)
Craig Cameron
Manufacturer: Vanwell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Military & Spies
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| Leaders & Notable People
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Canadian
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Memoirs
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World War II
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Normandy
| World War II
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Personal Narratives
| World War II
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Canada
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Italy
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
20th Century
| Canada
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1551251027 |
Book Description
These are the military memoirs of Harry Fox, RSM, as commissioned by the Queen's Own Rifles on the 70th anniversary of his enlistment in the Regiment. Harry Fox was born in England and immigrated with his family to Ontario in 1920 at the age of six.
The Foxes moved to Toronto in 1929 and Harry left school to work for the T. Eaton Company. Continuing a family tradition of military service, Harry chose to enlist in one of Canada's oldest militia units, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada in 1932. He participated in the Regiment's 75th birthday trip to England in 1935.
Harry Fox was a sergeant upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. When the 1st Battalion, QOR of C was mobilized for overseas service in June 1940, Harry was enrolled and became Company Sergeant Major for Charlie Company. He served in this capacity at Borden, Newfoundland, Sussex, New Brunswick and in England until May 1942. CSM Fox was selected to be Regimental Sergeant Major of the 1st and served the Battalion in that capacity until October 1943, when he was sent on a draft to Italy to gain combat experience. Harry joined The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment in January 1944 and became a permanent replacement for their famous Regimental Sergeant-Major, Angus Duffy. He served with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment throughout 1944 and 1945, and was with them in Holland in the spring of 1945. Harry returned to Canada with his "adopted" regiment in the fall of 1945 and moved back to Toronto.
He was persuaded to come back to The Queen's Own Rifles as RSM in 1947 and served for a year before retiring from military service.
Books:
- Maimonides Reader
- Mark Twain: A Life
- Mein Kampf
- Missing You (1-800-Where-R-You, Book 5)
- Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm
- My California: Journeys By Great Writers
- My Life in France
- My Name Is America: The Journal Of William Thomas Emerson, A Revolutionary War Patriot (My Name Is America)
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: Written by Himself
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse
- The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America
- Hong Kong's Transition: A Decade After the Deal
- MP Fundamental Accounting Principles Vol 1
- Place Making
- The Golden Days
- Statistics of Income, Corporation Income Tax Returns 1994
- DD IBM 5"-Cmprt Recordkeeping & Bookkeep
- Microeconomic Theory: An Integrated Approach
- A Great Lakes Wetland Flora : A Complete, Illustrated Guide to the Aquatic and Wetland Plants of the
The First Year---Parkinson's Disease: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
Still Me
Parkinson's Disease: A Complete Guide for Patients and Families (A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book)
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Parkinson's Disease: A Holistic Program for Optimal Wellness
Parkinson's Disease & The Art Of Moving
