Television Performers Books

A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity

Bill O'Reilly

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Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

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The year was 1957, the month September, and I had just turned eight years old. Dwight Eisenhower was President, but in my life it was the diminutive, intense Sister Mary Lurana who ruled, at least in the third-grade class where I was held captive. For reasons you will soon understand, my parents had remanded me to the penal institution of St. Brigid’s School in Westbury, New York, a cruel and unusual punishment if there ever was one.

Already, I had barely survived my first two years at St. Brigid’s because I was, well, a little nitwit. Not satisfied with memorizing the Baltimore Catechism’s fine prose, which featured passages like “God made me to show his goodness and to make me happy with him in heaven,” I was constantly annoying my classmates and, of course, the no-nonsense Sister Lurana. With sixty overactive students in her class, she was understandably short on patience. For survival, she had also become quick on the draw.

Then it happened. One day I blurted out some dumb remark, and Sister Lurana was on me like a panther. Her black habit blocked out all distractions as she leaned down, looked me in the eye, and uttered words I have never forgotten: “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.”

And she was dead-on.

One day in 1957, in the third-grade classroom of St. Brigid’s parochial school, an exasperated Sister Mary Lurana bent over a restless young William O’Reilly and said, “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.” Little did she know that she was, early in his career as a troublemaker, defining the essence of Bill O’Reilly and providing him with the title of his brash and entertaining issues-based memoir.

And this time it’s personal. In his most intimate book yet, O’Reilly goes back in time to examine the people, places, and experiences that launched him on his journey from working-class kid to immensely influential television personality and bestselling author. Readers will learn how his traditional outlook was formed in the crucible of his family, his neighborhood, his church, and his schools, and how his views on America’s proper role in the world emerged from covering four wars on five continents over three-plus decades as a news correspondent. What will delight his numerous fans and surprise many others is the humor and self-deprecation with which he handles one of his core subjects: himself, and just how O’Reilly became O’Reilly.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

Jeannette Walls

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Total reviews: 1140 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.

Audition: A Memoir

Barbara Walters

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Total reviews: 242 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: “I want to be you.” My stock reply is always: “Then you have to take the whole package.”

And now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that “whole package,” in her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than forty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murderers, inspirational figures, and celebrities of all kinds, Barbara Walters has turned her gift for examination onto herself to reveal the forces that shaped her extraordinary life.

Barbara Walters’s perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Her father, Lou Walters, was the owner and creative mind behind the legendary Latin Quarter nightclub, and it was his risk-taking lifestyle that gave Barbara her first taste of glamour. It also made her aware of the ups and downs, the insecurities, and even the tragedies that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks, for Lou Walters didn’t just make several fortunes—he also lost them. Barbara learned early about the damage that such an existence can do to relationships—between husband and wife as well as between parent and child. Through her roller-coaster ride of a childhood, Barbara had a close companion, her mentally challenged sister, Jackie. True, Jackie taught her younger sister much about patience and compassion, but Barbara also writes honestly about the resentment she often felt having a sister who was so “different” and the guilt that still haunts her.

All of this—the financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love—played a large part in the choices she made as she grew up: the friendships she developed, the relationships she had, the marriages she tried to make work. Ultimately, thanks to her drive, combined with a decent amount of luck, she began a career in television. And what a career it has been! Against great odds, Barbara has made it to the top of a male-dominated industry. She was the first woman cohost of the Today show, the first female network news coanchor, the host and producer of countless top-rated Specials, the star of 20/20, and the creator and cohost of The View. She has not just interviewed the world’s most fascinating figures, she has become a part of their world. These are just a few of the names that play a key role in Barbara’s life, career, and book: Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, Menachem Begin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, Katharine Hepburn, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Richard Nixon, Rosie O’Donnell, Christopher Reeve, Anwar Sadat, John Wayne . . . the list goes on and on.

Barbara Walters has spent a lifetime auditioning: for her bosses at the TV networks, for millions of viewers, for the most famous people in the world, and even for her own daughter, with whom she has had a difficult but ultimately quite wonderful and moving relationship. This book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives. In doing so, she has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating.

Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life

Tim Russert

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 142 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great to remember the little things with a big effect 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

What a page turner! Not so much for the next chapter of events, but to bask, to saturate in the delight of the wholesome memories of which I had forgotten so many details. I will revisit Big Russ and Me to restore my belief in the goodness of folks or at least that there was a time when it was genuine. Russert captures it in an easy style that brings to mind a lazy afternoon over coffee at the kitchen table. So glad I didn't miss this one.Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life

Big Russ and Me 4 out of 5 stars.
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Big Russ and Me was in the condition described. The book came in a timely manner.

Cheryl

Editorial Review:

Tim Russert's #1 New York Times bestseller -- now in paperback.

Now in paperback -- the #1 best-selling Father’s Day book of 2004, with over half a million copies sold in hardcover. Tim Russert, one of America’s most watched and trusted news anchors‚ connected with readers across the nation with his critically acclaimed memoir about growing up in the 1950s and the special bond between fathers and sons.

Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin' (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series)

Paula Deen, Sherry Suib Cohen

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Total reviews: 156 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Do you know the real Paula Deen? You may think you know the butter-loving, finger-licking, joke-cracking queen of melt-in-your-mouth Southern cuisine. You may have even visited The Lady & Sons to taste for yourself the down-home delicacies that made her famous and even heard some version of her Cinderella story (a single mom with two teenage sons started a brown-bag lunch business with $200 and wound up with a thriving restaurant, a fairy-tale second marriage, and wildly popular television shows), but you have never heard the intimate details of her often bumpy road to fame and fortune.

Courageously honest, downright inspiring, and just a little bit saucy, Paula shares the highs and lows of her life in the inimitable charming and irreverent style that you know from her television shows and personal appearances. She talks about long childhood summers spent in a bathing suit and roller skates and hard years living in the back of her father's gas station; a buzzing high school social life of sleepovers, parties, cheerleading, and boys; and a difficult marriage. The death of her beloved parents precipitated a debilitating agoraphobia that crippled her for years. But even when the going got tough, Paula never lost the good grace and sense of humor that would eventually help carry her to success and stardom. Of course, you can't get by on charm alone: as Paula has learned, you need plenty of willpower, hard work, and, above all, the love and support of family and friends to finance, sustain, and run a successful restaurant.

In each chapter, Paula shares new recipes: there's serious comfort food like her momma's Chocolate-Dippy Doughnuts, Courage Chili for when you know life's going to get tough, Sexy Oxtails for seducing that special someone, and the recipe for her new mother-in-law's Banana Nut Delight Cake that Paula finally got just right. And you'll love the never-before-seen photos of her family.

In this memoir, Paula Deen speaks as frankly and intimately as few women in the public eye have ever dared. Whether she's telling tales of good times or bad, her story is proof that the old-fashioned American dream is alive and kicking, and there still is such a thing as a real-life happy ending. PAULA DEEN is the bestselling author of Paula Deen Celebrates!; Paula Deen & Friends: Living It Up, Southern Style; The Lady & Sons Just Desserts; and other books. She is the host of the Food Network's Paula's Home Cooking and Paula's Party, and has appeared on Good Morning America, Today, Fox and Friends, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Paula is the founder of The Lady & Sons restaurant and co-owner of Uncle Bubba's Oyster House. She lives with her family in Savannah, Georgia. SHERRY SUIB COHEN has written twenty-one books for major publishers and was a contributing editor at McCall's, Rosie, New Woman, and Lifetime magazines. She regularly writes for periodicals, including Parade, Family Circle, Redbook, Reader's Digest, and Ladies' Home Journal. Cohen is an award-winning member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and lives with her husband, Larry, in New York City. She makes a great soup.

Roasting in Hell's Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection

Gordon Ramsay

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Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Everyone thinks they know the real Gordon Ramsay: rude, loud, pathologically driven, stubborn as hell

For the first time, Ramsay tells the full inside story of his life and how he became the world's most famous and infamous chef: his difficult childhood, his brother's heroin addiction, his failed first career as a soccer player, his fanatical pursuit of gastronomic perfection and his TV persona—all of the things that made him the celebrated culinary talent and media powerhouse that he is today.

In Roasting in Hell's Kitchen Ramsay talks frankly about his tough and emotional childhood, including his father's alcoholism and violence and their effect on his relationships with his mother and siblings. His rootless upbringing saw him moving from house to house and town to town followed by the authorities and debtors as his father lurched from one failed job to another.

He recounts his short-circuited career as a soccer player, when he was signed by Scotland's premier club at the age of fifteen but then, just two years later, dropped out when injury dashed his hopes. Ramsay searched for another vocation and, much to his father's disgust, went into catering, which his father felt was meant for “poofs.”

He trained under some of the most famous and talented chefs in Europe, working to exacting standards and under extreme conditions that would sometimes erupt in physical violence. But he thrived, with his exquisite palate, incredible vision and relentless work ethic. Dish by dish, restaurant by restaurant, he gradually built a Michelin-starred empire.

A candid, eye-opening look into the extraordinary life and mind of an elite and unique restaurateur and chef, Roasting in Hell's Kitchen will change your perception not only of Gordon Ramsay but of the world of cuisine.

La dieta del Gordo

Raul De Molina

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Raúl de Molina siempre había sido gordo y esto no le molestaba ni lo acomplejaba; al contrario, era un gordo feliz. Sin enbargo, tras librar una batalla contra el cáncer, tomó conciencia de que debía bajar de peso y que esto sólo podría lograrlo cambiando radicalmente su alimentación.

Con mucho esfuerzo y fuerza de voluntad, y ante el asombro y orgullo de sus familiares y de los adeptos a su programa El Gordo y la Flaca, ha bajado 70 libras en ocho meses sin la necesidad de medicamentos ni operaciones; lo ha logrado con ejercicio y modificando sus hábitos alimentícios.

Por primera vez, el afamado presentador de televisión comparte en forma abierta e íntima una mezcla de circunstancias familiares y de trabajo que siempre convirtieron la comida en uno de sus más grandes placeres, sin saber el efecto que esto tendría en su salud. Sin perder su sentido de humor, “El Gordo”, como lo siguen llamando cariñosamente, guía al lector sobre los factores básicos para lograr este objectivo: “¿Qué debes comer?”, “¿Cuántas veces al día puedes comer?” y “¿En qué cantidades?”

Ademá, el libro incluye un menú tipo, una rutina de ejercicios básica, un listado de alimentos que no deben faltar en tu dispensa, así como consejos prácticos y útiles para mantenerse en forma y evitar el tan temido “rebote”.

Dispatches from the Edge CD: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival

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Total reviews: 203 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this gripping, candid, and remarkably powerful memoir, Anderson Cooper offers an unstinting, up-close view of the most harrowing crises of our time, and the profound impact they have had on his life.

After growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Cooper felt a magnetic pull toward the unknown. If he could keep moving, and keep exploring, he felt he could stay one step ahead of his past, including the fame surrounding his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, and the deaths of his father and older brother. As a reporter, the frenetic pace of filing dispatches from war-torn countries, and the danger that came with it, helped him avoid having to look too closely at the pain and loss that was right in front of him.

But recently, during the course of one extraordinary, tumultuous year, it became impossible for him to continue to separate his work from his life. From the tsunami in Sri Lanka to the war in Iraq, the starvation in Niger, and ultimately Hurricane Katrina, Cooper gives us a firsthand glimpse of the devastation that takes place when the normal order is ruptured on such a massive scale. Cooper had been in his share of life-threatening situations before -- in Sarejevo, Somalia, and Rwanda -- but he had never seen human misery quite like this. Writing with vivid memories of his childhood and early career as a roving correspondent, Cooper reveals how deeply affected he has been by the wars, disasters, and tragedies he has witnessed, and why he continues to be drawn to some of the most perilous places on earth.

Always by My Side: A Father's Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series)

Jim Nantz, Eli Spielman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Book! Great service from Amazon! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I ordered three copies of the book for Father's Day gifts for two of my sons and my husband. According to the recipients, it was a great read. Amazon service was, as always, superb!

Excellent read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

We gave it to our son after we had read it and it was excellent. We wanted to share with him.

A bit schmaltzy for my taste 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Nantz seems like a really good guy. And if you're a sports fan, you'll enjoy some of the behind the scenes and inside stories no doubt, as I did. But throughout I thought it was a bit self indulgent on Jim's part, and quite a bit schmaltzy. That is, overly sentimental. At least for my taste. Am I the only one felt that way ?

A Moving, Personal Adventure from the 'Voice' of Sports 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

You don't need to be a sports fan to appreciate this book. Despite Nantz's carefully-worded prose about the Masters, Final Four, and the Super Bowl, this book is truly about the bond that he formed with his father.

The story takes us on a journey. Nantz discovers his passion for sports and wants to share each and every moment with his father. As his father drifts into the abyss of Alzheimer's disease, he is moved and touched by the 'little things' that his Dad showed him on the road of life. I had a grandma with Alzheimer's, so I definitely understand the emptiness one feels when a loved one is distant and fading.

A great gift for first-time or long-time Dads. The most important takeaways from this book are: Appreciate the time that you have and be generous and loving, especially to close famiy.

Dan Naden
http://www.dannaden.com

Editorial Review:

Abridged CDs • 5 CDs, 6 hours

America’s most visible sports commentator tells the stories of the most dramatic moments in sports and pays tribute to the man who inspired him to pursue his broadcasting dream—his beloved father, who has fallen victim to Alzheimer’s disease.

Private Parts

Howard Stern

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 82 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The #1 bestseller and fastest selling autobiography of all time, Private Parts, will be released on March 14 as a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures and Rysher Entertainment. This is the event Stern's millions of fans have been waiting for. Yes, The King of All Media is back, letting it all hang out in his outrageous new movie. And here is the book that tracks the odyssey. In Private Parts Stern spills his life story, from his dysfunctional beginnings to his unlikely, turbulent rise to super stardom. In the process, he shares his views on everything from foreign policy to fatherhood and Madonna to masturbation, with lots of lesbians in between. No matter whose side you're on -- Cher's "I hate him. He's just a creep," or Stallone's "I love him. I really love him" -- Stern's brutally frank "Don't ask, I'll tell" tome spares no group or institution. Studded throughout with Howard's favorite photos, pickings from the Hate-Mailbag and illustrations, this is the original, in-your-face manifesto complete with movie art that will once again have fans storming the bookstores...and everyone else running for cover.