Specific Groups Books - Page 3

The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way

Diahann Carroll

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It's conventional wisdom that Hollywood has no use for a woman over forty. So it's a good thing that Diahann Carroll—whose winning, sometimes controversial career breached racial barriers—is anything but conventional. Shonda Rhimes, the creator and executive producer of the hit program Grey's Anatomy, developed a role just for her, and a recent show that's touring the United States, The Life and Times of Diahann Carroll, was enthusiastically embraced by the New York Times. And all this since Carroll turned seventy!

Here she shares her life story with an admirable candidness of someone who has seen and done it all. With wisdom that only aging gracefully can bestow, she talks frankly about her four marriages as well as the other significant relationships in her life, including her courtship with Sidney Poitier; racial politics in Hollywood and on Broadway; and the personal cost, particularly to her family, of being a pioneer. Whether she's recalling an audition for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, reflecting on her marriage to Vic Damone, or talking about her experience with breast cancer, Carroll's storied history, blunt views, and notorious wit will be sure to entertain and inform.

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Kay Redfield Jamison

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 186 new & used starting at $4.46

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Depression

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 328 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very Interesting Educative 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

portrait of a controlable disease . I understand jlalbee manic-depressive illness for the charmed life , but i do not agree . The more learned people know , the better we will be able to be part of the healing process . Some readers might be a bit resentful is not accurate , the lonely and the poor will most likely not read this book . But the more we know , more compasionate we will become and be able to help . Even that i do agree that her case is above the normal person , it takes this kind of person to guide us to the tunnel , so that we can be run over by that train called madness that we all posses in different degrees . So be it .

Editorial Review:

As a founder of UCLA's Affective Disorder Clinic and a co-author of a standard medical text, Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison may be the foremost authority on manic-depressive illness.  She is also one of its survivors.  And it is this dual perspective -- as healer and healed -- that makes Jamison's memoir so lucid, learned, and profoundly affecting.

Even as she was pursuing her psychiatric training, Jamison found herself succumbing to the exhilarating highs and paralyzing lows that afflicted many of her patients. Though the disorder brought her seemingly boundless energy and mercurial creativity, it also propelled her into spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempt at suicide.  

Powerfully candid, exceptionally wise, An Unquiet Mind is one of those rare books that has the power to transform lives -- and even save them.

Audition: A Memoir

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Random House Audio Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $11.44

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Total reviews: 233 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 made Barbara aware of the ups and downs that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks.

The financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love all 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 has spent a lifetime auditioning, and 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.

Anne Frank the Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank

List Price: $4.50 By: Pocket Books Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 630 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Diary of Anne Frank 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I knew that the Diary of Anne Frank was the second most purchased book in the world, the Bible being the first, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to read it.
In our eighth grade class, our teacher is big on the Holocaust. And when she first mentioned that we would be learning about it, I was excited; to a point. I know that most kids my age think 'ooh blood and guts and gore' and think it's cool or funny or a joke. They all watch horror movies that almost make them immune to real life experiences that involve real horror or real tragedy.
So before we started learning about it, I wanted to know more in depth about how it was like to be a teen during the Holocaust. So, I summed up the guts and checked it out at the library. When I started reading it, I couldn't stop. Anne and I are so similar. She's always happy-go-lucky despite the terrible circumstances; she's very curious, careless, and sometimes a trouble maker. And even though I'm not Jewish, I think it's extremely easy to worm your way into her shoes. You learn so much, and it's really emotional, knowing that Anne Frank, this person you've grown attatched to, and her family, everyone except her father Otto Frank, has been killed. Slaughtered innocently by the Nazis, a cult led by Hitler that cornered them just because of their religion or their looks.
I think that if anyone wants to learn about the Holocaust, this is a must read; it's an amazing journey that might not end so happily, but Anne never ceased to hope. It has such vivid details of everything that sometimes it's hard to believe that something like the concentration camps and Hitler and everything existed. The fact that it's in diary form makes it all the better.
This non-fiction diary is amazing, and I think everyone, at some point, should read it.

Editorial Review:

The compelling diary of a young girl on the brink of maturity as her life draws to toward its tragic end -- one of the most moving and vivid documents of the Jewish experience.

Against Medical Advice: One Family's Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Mystery

James Patterson, Hal Friedman, Cory Friedman

Amazon Price: $17.81 List Price: $26.99 Not yet published By: Little, Brown and Company Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $17.25

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Editorial Review:

Cory Friedman woke up one morning when he was five years old with the uncontrollable urge to twitch his neck. From that day forward his life became a hell of irrepressible tics and involuntary utterances, and Cory embarked on an excruciating journey from specialist to specialist to discover the cause of his disease. Soon it became unclear what tics were symptoms of his disease and what were side effects of the countless combinations of drugs. The only certainty is that it kept getting worse. Simply put: Cory Friedman's life was a living hell.

AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE is the true story of Cory and his family's decades-long battle for survival in the face of extraordinary difficulties and a maddening medical establishment. It is a heart-rending story of struggle and triumph with a climax as dramatic as any James Patterson thriller. (2008)

Into Thin Air

Amazon Price: $21.86 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Random House Audio Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $13.98

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1492 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Who's got more credibility? 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It's interesting to read all of the articles criticizing Jon Krakauer, saying he painted himself in a heroic light, that his book is a giant ego trip, and that Anatoli Boukreev's book is so much more accurate. Many of these so called experts seem to assume that the only way to believe Krakauer, is to NOT read "The Climb". How do any of these reviewers know which account is what really happened? They weren't there. Both books are well-researched. Although, "The Climb" is co-authored by someone other than an eyewitness. G. Weston DeWalt takes Boukreev's word as if it was gospel. He does interview others, but nowhere near as many people as Krakauer. Why is Boukreev more credible than Krakauer? As a matter of fact, in most recent printings of "Into Thin Air" Krakauer rebuts the claims that DeWalt/Boukreev make. There seems to be no response from DeWalt that I can find. And if you carefully read Krakauer's book, while sometimes critical of Boukreev, Krakauer also points out how heroic Boukreev was going back out in the storm. Armchair climbers need to stop and think before they jump to conclusions. Want an accurate account of who might be to blame for what happened that day? Ask someone who was on the mountain: Ed Viesturs. I did.

Editorial Review:

Into Thin Air is the definitive, personal account of the deadliest season in the history of Mount Everest--told by acclaimed journalist, and bestselling author of Into the Wild and Eiger Dreams, Jon Krakauer. On assignment for Outside magazine, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas to report on the growing commercialization of the planet's highest mountain. Even though one climber in four dies attempting to reach the summit of Everest, business is booming as guides take the rich and the adventurous up the mountain for a fee of $65,000. Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people--including himself--to throw caution to the wind and willingly subject themselves to so much danger, hardship, and expense.

The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives

Cheryl Jarvis

Amazon Price: $16.32 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $12.49

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The true story of thirteen women who took a risk on an expensive diamond necklace and, in the process, changed not only themselves but a community.

Four years ago, in Ventura, California, Jonell McLain saw a diamond necklace in a local jewelry store display window. The necklace aroused desire first, then a provocative question: Why are personal luxuries so plentiful yet accessible to so few? What if we shared what we desired? Several weeks, dozens of phone calls, and a leap of faith later, Jonell bought the necklace with twelve other women, with the goal of sharing it.

Part charm, part metaphor, part mirror, the necklace weaves in and out of each woman’s life, reflecting her past, defining her present, making promises for her future. Lending sparkle in surprising and unexpected ways, the necklace comes to mean something dramatically different to each of the thirteen women.
With vastly dissimilar histories and lives, the women show us how they transcended their individual personalities and politics to join together in an uncommon journey. What started as a quirky social experiment became something far richer and deeper, as the women transformed a symbol of exclusivity into a symbol of inclusiveness. They discovered that sharing the necklace among themselves was only the beginning; The more they shared with others, the more profound this experience–and experiment–became.

Original, resonant, and beautifully told, this book is an inspiring story about a necklace that became greater than the sum of its links, and about thirteen ordinary women who understood the power of possibility, who touched the lives of a community, and who together created one extraordinary experience.

Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass LookBig, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer

Jen Lancaster

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 75 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

On a shelf I almost didn't see .... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

When I decided to buy Jen Lancaster's book, I had never heard of her or her writing before. After having a bad day after a lifetime of struggling with a bad body image, low self-esteem and an eating disorder, I went to Barnes & Noble to find a book to take my mind off of my life (a favorite escape of mine). I saw this on display and decided to give it a try.

What I didn't know is that I had in my hands a hilarious yet deeply insightful and even beautiful book that would change my thought process forever. I remember thinking at some point while reading, "Why does she make this diet thing such a big issue? Her life is perfect." And then I went through a mini-enlightenment: my bad body image had everything but destroyed my relationships with my family, friends and loving boyfriend. Jen, unlike me, was a strong and intelligent woman that had the sense to realize that "until you figure out your insides, nothing on the outside matters."

Even though she has the perfect life and an adorable husband, she approaches her autobiography in a down-to-earth, yet never self-deprecating fashion. Her book is refreshing in today's culture of the pursuit of pointless perfection. In this far from serious book, I learned very serious life lessons of what's important and what isn't worth my time even thinking about.

I hope Jen is still fat, drunk and happy. She is an inspiration to all.

Editorial Review:

A NOTE FROM JEN LANCASTER:

"To whom the fat rolls…I'm tired of books where a self-loathing heroine is teased to the point where she starves herself skinny in hopes of a fabulous new life. And I hate the message that women can't possibly be happy until we all fit into our skinny jeans. I don't find these stories uplifting; they make me want to hug these women and take them out for fizzy champagne drinks and cheesecake and explain to them that until they figure out their insides, their outsides don't matter. Unfortunately, being overweight isn't simply a societal issue that can be fixed with a dose healthy of positive self-esteem. It’s a health matter, and here on the eve of my fortieth year, I've learned I have to make changes so I don't, you know, die. Because what good if finally being able to afford a pedicure if I lose a foot to adult onset diabetes?"

The Lost Boy: Foster Child's Search For the Love of a Family (Sequel to A Child Called It)

David J. Pelzer

List Price: $10.00 By: Omaha Press Publishing Company, Incorporated Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $1.67

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 450 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

opened my eyes 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book helped open my eyes to what children go through in Foster Care. It helped me to relize that you can't judge a book by its cover. That the struggle for acceptance,love acknowledgement or to be recognized can consume & overwhelm a child...to even the point of doing something you know in you heart is wrong. This book makes me want to work hard, so I can buy a big house, Just so I can provide enough love and support and room for not only my three children, but for those children in need of a place to call home & to know that they have someone who care about them.

Editorial Review:

Imagine a young boy who has never had a loving home. His only possesions are the old, torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. The only world he knows is one of isolation and fear. Although others had rescued this boy from his abusive alcoholic mother, his real hurt is just begining -- he has no place to call home.

This is Dave Pelzer's long-awaited sequel to A Child Called "It". In The Lost Boy, he answers questions and reveals new adventures through the compelling story of his life as an adolescent. Now considered an F-Child (Foster Child), Dave is moved in and out of five different homes. He suffers shame and experiences resentment from those who feel that all foster kids are trouble and unworthy of being loved just because they are not part of a "real" family.

Tears, laughter, devastation and hope create the journey of this little lost boy who searches desperately for just one thing -- the love of a family.