The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel

Amazon.com

Like the comic books that animate and inspire it, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is both larger than life and of it too. Complete with golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses and even hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions of love and war, dreams and art, across pages brimming with longing and hope. Samuel Klayman--self-described little man, city boy, and Jew--first meets Josef Kavalier when his mother shoves him aside in his own bed, telling him to make room for their cousin, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague. It's the beginning, however unlikely, of a beautiful friendship. In short order, Sam's talent for pulp plotting meets Joe's faultless, academy-trained line, and a comic-book superhero is born. A sort of lantern-jawed equalizer clad in dark blue long underwear, the Escapist "roams the globe, performing amazing feats and coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains!" Before they know it, Kavalier and Clay (as Sam Klayman has come to be known) find themselves at the epicenter of comics' golden age.

But Joe Kavalier is driven by motives far more complex than your average hack. In fact, his first act as a comic-book artist is to deal Hitler a very literal blow. (The cover of the first issue shows the Escapist delivering "an immortal haymaker" onto the Führer's realistically bloody jaw.) In subsequent years, the Escapist and his superhero allies take on the evil Iron Chain and their leader Attila Haxoff--their battles drawn with an intensity that grows more disturbing as Joe's efforts to rescue his family fail. He's fighting their war with brush and ink, Joe thinks, and the idea sustains him long enough to meet the beautiful Rosa Saks, a surrealist artist and surprisingly retrograde muse. But when even that fiction fails him, Joe performs an escape of his own, leaving Rosa and Sammy to pick up the pieces in some increasingly wrong-headed ways.

More amazing adventures follow--but reader, why spoil the fun? Suffice to say, Michael Chabon writes novels like the Escapist busts locks. Previous books such as The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys have prose of equal shimmer and wit, and yet here he seems to have finally found a canvas big enough for his gifts. The whole enterprise seems animated by love: for his alternately deluded, damaged, and painfully sincere characters; for the quirks and curious innocence of tough-talking wartime New York; and, above all, for comics themselves, "the inspirations and lucubrations of five hundred aging boys dreaming as hard as they could." Far from negating such pleasures, the Holocaust's presence in the novel only makes them more pressing. Art, if not capable of actually fighting evil, can at least offer a gesture of defiance and hope--a way out, in other words, of a world gone completely mad. Comic-book critics, Joe notices, dwell on "the pernicious effect, on young minds, of satisfying the desire to escape. As if there could be any more noble or necessary service in life." Indeed. --Mary Park

Book Description

With this brilliant novel, the bestselling author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys gives us an exhilarating triumph of language and invention, a stunning novel in which the tragicomic adventures of a couple of boy geniuses reveal much about what happened to America in the middle of the twentieth century. Like Phillip Roth's American Pastoral or Don DeLillo's Underworld, Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a superb novel with epic sweep, spanning continents and eras, a masterwork by one of America's finest writers.
It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Out of their fantasies, fears, and dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend of that unforgettable champion the Escapist. And inspired by the beautiful and elusive Rosa Saks, a woman who will be linked to both men by powerful ties of desire, love, and shame, they create the otherworldly mistress of the night, Luna Moth. As the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe and the world, the Golden Age of comic books has begun.
The brilliant writing that has led critics to compare Michael Chabon to John Cheever and Vladimir Nabokov is everywhere apparent in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Chabon writes "like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader," wrote Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times about Wonder Boys—and here he has created, in Joe Kavalier, a hero for the century.

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining.......2007-10-10

Well written, enjoyable read. I was interested in the characters, even though I was sometimes confused if this was truly based on someone or just pulp fiction. If you are interested in the evolution of comics and their influence, you will enjoy this book.

The book title says it all.......2007-10-03

It helps if you were born in New York and identify with people who can draw or have other creative skills. It also helps if you care about the struggles, successes and heartbreaks of the first and second generation of immigrants in the thirties and forties. Even if none of the above applies to you, you'll find Kavalier and Clay fascinating and sympathetic characters who you'll be rooting for until the end of their story.

Fun Read!.......2007-09-24

Chabon is truly a wordsmith. His novel is visually (through his narrative) rich, historic and engaging. If you are from NYC, you'd especially love this novel. Highly recommended.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.......2007-09-19

Michael Chabon, author of Wonder Boys, brings us the Pulitzer Prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. A riveting novel of the comic book world set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Its two heroes, Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, fight through the world of color, ink and writing, to compete with the likes of Superman and Batman - the result is an amazing story that has never been told.

This is a coming-of-age story for two very distinct characters. One is Sammy Klayman, an aspiring writer trying to make it in New York. Working for Empire Inc., the best he can do, in his diminished capacity, is come up with catchy ad slogans. Though he hopes for so much more, he seems stuck in this rut. During his spare time he draws pictures; though not excellent in skill and look, they are good enough for comics, one of his great loves.

Then there is Josef Kavalier: a boy born in the impoverished ghettoes of Prague, where every day is a fight for survival. Taken under the wing of a mentor, Bernard Kornblum, he is taught in the ways of the magician and illusionists - the immortal Houdini. As months pass, he is soon able to break out of any chains, and undo any luck with the help of his small tools (secretly stashed amongst his teeth and gums). Then he performs a might illusion: breaking free of a chained sack that has been hurled into an icy river; he survives barely, but his brother suffers a debilitating accident, and from then on Kavalier will have no more to do with this trickery.

His only hope of coming to true fruition is to get to America, where there is insurmountable opportunity. Having failed to get a visa, with the advent of the Germans seizing further control of Eastern Europe, h hides himself in the coffin of a golem and makes it to Lithuania, where he catches a ship bound for New York. There he meets up with none other than Samuel Klayman.

The two get together and propose their idea for the first comic book to the head men of Empire Inc. They are given the weekend to come up with the entire comic, and come Monday morning they deliver the first episode of the superhero known as the Escapist - his job: to disperse all evil; there is no lock he cannot pick, no bond he cannot break. And so begins the fulfilling career for these two young mean, covering many years and riches.

Chabon is a certified master of the language, taking the reader on sweeps and bounds through imagery set at a new level: "Thunder harried the building like a hound, brushing its crackling coat against the spandrels and mullions, snuffling all the windowpanes."

Once the reader finishes this book, they are left with the happy complacency that Amazing Adventure received one of the highest prizes possible. The story is of a quality that is a rarity in the literature of today's world. In short: everyone needs to read this book, be they reader or writer.

For more book reviews, and other writings, go to www.alexctelander.com

Excellent, well worth the read........2007-09-18

This is a good novel - it got a little long for me, even though I love a long book. The characters are interesting and the plot is great, it's definitely worth reading. Very interesting depiction of these two comic book guys though it's really not about that at all. Kavalier's character is particularly interesting to watch, as he's trying to save his family from the Nazi's, so his day to day take on that was well done.

Las asombrosas aventuras de Kavalier Y Clay/ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Debolsillo 21)

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Las asombrosas aventuras de Kavalier Y Clay/ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Debolsillo 21)
Michael Chabon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay": A Study Guide from Gale's "Novels for Students" (Volume 25, Chapter 1)

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Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay": A Study Guide from Gale's "Novels for Students" (Volume 25, Chapter 1)

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

ASIN: B000PM8DZC
Release Date: 2007-04-20

Book Description

Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Novels for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: author biography; plot summary; character analysis; an overview of the novel's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Novels for Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Novels for Students."

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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel
Michael Chabon
Manufacturer: Random House Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NY83MA

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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay : A Novel
Michael Chabon
Manufacturer: Random House, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000P84P4Y

Book Description

Two multiple–week New York Times bestsellers, Julia Quinn and Lisa Kleypas, join forces with one exciting newcomer, Kinley MacGregor, to create this sexy anthology with an exciting new theme.

In an innovative new twist for anthologies, each author is reintroducing a secondary character from a previous book to star in their own story. Revisit your favourite lost heroes, and see old friends from some of these authors' best books.

Download Description

Ever fallen for the wrong guy? Not the hero of the novel, but the other man? So have bestselling romance authors Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, and Kinley MacGregor. In this delicious new collection the most desirable men from your favorite novels return to steal the spotlight -- and satisfy your longing. Dear Avon Books, Where are my heroes? Whenever I'm reading a book by one of my favorite authors I find I'm falling for the wrong guy -- not the hero, but the other man -- and what I really want is for him to have his own story.

Customer Reviews:

Good for a Collaboration.......2007-08-09

I bought it primarily for Kinley MacGregor, who I absolutely adore and was subsequently introduced to Lisa Kleypas. I have read several books from Lisa Kleypas since then and I really enjoy her writing as well. The third author, Julia Quinn was alright, but it certainly did not inspire me to read anymore of her books.

yummy men goodie.......2006-11-06

very good characters and stories and exspecialy Sherillyn Kenyons story about stryder

Don't Miss Where's My Hero?!!.......2006-04-13

The three wonderful stories in WHERE'S MY HERO? are not to be missed! Each story is great and quick and easy to read. Very enjoyable!

Absolutely Wonderful!!!.......2006-02-14

All three stories were amazingly fantastic, which is not very common for anthology books. However, my all-time favorite out of the three stories was by Kinley MacGregor with "Midsummers Knight" with the hero Simon. Just this short story itself is worth purchasing the book. I can't believe how it just made me cry so unexpectedly, it's truly a work of art that Kinley MacGregor delievers, and I really...really recommend it. You won't be disappointed.

the second story did it for me...........2006-02-05

i thought this book was good but the second story did it for me it was by Kinley Macgregor it was soooo good it made you wanna cry and i never cry over a romance novel. it was just the way how simon is that made me fall in love with him myself its a must have it will be worth it. Its the most beautiful romantic story telling you ever read, i wouldn't give it 5 stars i would give it a perfect 10.... read her books and try to get her collection of the Brotherhood of the Sword and the MacAllisters

Also Recommended Anything:
by Kinley Macgregor, nora roberts, lori foster and sandra brown...

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Where Is My Super Hero?
Peaches Smith
Manufacturer: Fetters Infomanagement Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
ASIN: 0929599268

Book Description

Three children ask a very important question about the super heros they see on television. To find the answer they turn to Miss Sadie, who really is a living history book. Her knowledge of African-American achievement teaches the children to look for their heroes in books and not on the screen.

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The Legend of the Light-Bearers: A Fable About Personal Reinvention and Global Transformation
Joe Rubino
Manufacturer: Vision Works Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Personal Transformation | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Success | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Magic Lantern : A Fable About Leadership, Personal Excellence and Empowerment

The Power to Succeed: 30 Principles for Maximizing Your Personal Effectiveness (Power to Succeed)

ASIN: 0972884025

Book Description

Is it ever too late for a person to pursue personal reinvention and transform his or her life? Can our planet right itself and reverse centuries of struggle, hatred, and warfare? Are love, peace, and harmony possible for the world's people? The Legend of the Light-Bearers is a tale about vision, courage, and commitment, set in the magical new world of Center Earth. This much-anticipated prequel to Dr. Joe Rubino's internationally best-selling book, The Magic Lantern: A Fable about Leadership, Personal Excellence, and Empowerment explores the process of personal and global transformation within the guise of an enchanting fable. As the action unfolds in a world decimated by a global cataclysm, young Matilda embarks on a personal quest to rid the world of the pervasive gloom that has enveloped it since the Earth Change. In doing so, she also explores the nature of hatred and resignation, the keys to unlock personal transformation, the power of anger, and the means to overcoming that anger and replacing it with love. This enchanting tale shows what can happen when people live values-based lives and follow their life purposes instead of their destructive moods and their need to dominate others. If ever our world needed a guide to peace and cooperation and our people, a guide to personal empowerment and happiness, they do now…and this is the book.

Amazon.com

Anthrax, smallpox, West Nile virus, mad cow disease… and now Black Death? The 21st century's list of new and returning biological scourges is enough to make anyone go a little Howard Hughes. But knowledge is the best defense, and Wendy Orent's Plague is full of facts and educated speculations about the "world's most dangerous disease." Although always caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, plague can manifest in many ways, from a relatively benign and uncontagious infection to a potent airborne form that spreads like wildfire and kills without fail. Orent provides a gripping history of plague outbreaks around the world, such as the notorious Black Death of medieval Europe, and explains why reservoirs in rodent populations mean we will never eradicate the disease. Then, in chapters echoing recent books about smallpox and anthrax, Orent investigates the 20th century Soviet bioweapons program that focused on plague. Growing it, perfecting it, stockpiling it to use in wartime. Her insider information comes from Igor Domaradskij, a leading scientist in Soviet biological weapon development and vaccine production. In her interviews with Domaradskij, Orent allows him to show how easy it is for well-meaning scientists to shift back and forth between humanitarian and military work. Plague reveals the inner workings of a terrifying research effort, the products of which may or may not have been destroyed in 1992, when Boris Yeltsin ordered Soviet bioweapon labs shut down. Without resorting to alarmism, Orent cautions the world that plague is still out there, in nature and in laboratories, waiting for a chance to spread again. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

Plague is a terrifying mystery.

In the Middle Ages, it wiped out 40 million people -- 40 percent of the total population in Europe. Seven hundred years earlier, the Justinian Plague destroyed the Byzantine Empire and ushered in the Middle Ages. The plague of London in the seventeenth century killed more than 1,000 people a day. In the early twentieth century, plague again swept Asia, taking the lives of 12 million in India alone.

Even more frightening is what it could do to us in the near future. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian scientists created genetically altered, antibiotic-resistant and vaccine-resistant strains of plague that can bypass the human immune system and spread directly from person to person. These weaponized strains still exist, and they could be replicated in almost any laboratory.

Wendy Orent's Plague pieces together a fascinating and terrifying historical whodunit. Drawing on the latest research in labs around the world, along with extensive interviews with American and Soviet plague experts, Orent offers nothing less than a biography of a disease. Plague helped bring down the Roman Empire and close the Middle Ages; it has had a dramatic impact on our history, yet we still do not fully understand its own evolution. Orent's retelling of the four great pandemics makes for gripping reading and solves many puzzles. Why did some pandemics jump from person to person, while others relied on insects as carriers? Why are some strains more virulent than others? Orent reveals the key differences among rat-based, prairie dog-based, and marmot-based plague. The marmots of Central Asia, in particular, have long been hosts to the most virulent and frightening form of the disease, a form that can travel around the world in the blink of an eye.

From its ability to hide out in the wild, only to spring back into humanity with a terrifying vengeance, to its elusive capacity to develop suddenly greater virulence and transmissibility, plague is a protean nightmare. To make matters worse, Orent's disturbing revelations about the former Soviet bioweapon programs suggest that the nightmare may not be over. Plague is chilling reading at the dawn of a new age of bioterrorism.

Customer Reviews:

A hard-hitting discussion .......2004-11-10

Plague is the world's most dangerous bacterial disease, a frightening bioterrorist threat to the world, and yet largely misunderstood by the general public: enter Wendy Orent's Plague: The Mysterious Past And Terrifying Future Of The World's Most Dangerous Disease, which uses the science journalist's background to easily explain the history and function of the plague germ to lay audiences. From the labs of the former Soviet Union where Russian scientists worked on engineering strains of plague to be vaccine-resistant to other threats of plague's potential as a bioweapon, Plague is a hard-hitting discussion with social and political ramifications for international public health decisions.

Plague by Wendy Orent.......2004-07-20

One of the most difficult and important talents for a scientist is to communicate difficult material in an understandable way. Dr. Orent has an astounding ability to communicate complex material coherently enough for a nonspecialist to understand. She has made sense of an enormous amount of plague history: why did specific plague eruptions throughout history emerge? Why did some eruptions self destruct while others kept going for many years? Why did some plague eruptions seem to require transmission through rats and rat fleas while others transmitted directly from human to human? Why do researchers in some countries consider plague virtually always fatal while researchers in some other countries consider it primarily a disease of rodents with little potential for human infection?

Dr. Orent traveled as far as Russia to meet with leading plague researchers (and biological terrorists) in the process of preparing this book.

I had the pleasure of discussing plague with Dr. Orent a couple of years ago when she was in Maryland doing research for the work. At the time I was stuck in the mind set from my days in college, when we learned that plague died down in Europe when the brown rats (essentially imune to plague) forced out the black rats (vulnerable to plague). While Dr. Orent told me that some forms of plague transmitted directly from human to human, the horror of the situation did not come through until I read her very convincing book.

I strongly recommend this book, one of the finest nonfiction books I have read in many years. As an experienced author, it takes a lot for an author to impress me with writing ability. Based on this book, Dr. Orent is one of the finest pure writers I have encountered in many years -- as well as an excellent scientist.

Book Description

200 total recipes plus daily meal plans (for 30 days) with carbohydrate counts of 45, 60, 80, and 100 grams.

Recipes include beef, pork, lamb, seafood, side dishes, snacks, and desserts.

Caters to the busy cook with a variety of low-carb recipes.

Carb levels consistent with the Atkins plan.

Customer Reviews:

I've never been a good cook but this book has changed that.......2006-01-23

I have many recipe books but this one I keep going back to. The recipes are easy to follow but I was looking for something fast and great tasting. This book has it. The absolute best recipes are Filet Mignon with Portobello Sauce, Veg. Stuffed Chicken and the Turkey Enchiladas and they can all be prepared from start to finish in 30 minutes. Some of the recipes are not low carb but this is still a great book.

Maybe not too low carb... but.......2005-12-20

Delicious, healthy recipes! I have tried many recipes from this book and continue to go back to it. Most "low carb" book have no respect for actual calories and are full of full saturated fat dishes ("oh no, not the tomato, but pile on the butter!" kind of philosophy). This one has low cal dishes that are easy to prepare and always come out tasty. Easy every day ingredients, full nutrition info, broken into categories (eggs, meat, seafood...). Great book. Highly recommend!

Only Cookbook You'll Ever Need.......2004-02-21

This is an excellent book! Easy to read, 7 pages of unbiased useful scientific information, carb counter chart, non-extremist, 30 pages of all day meal plans, baking tips sheet, and 200 pages of really great recipes in 8 categories such as appetizers, salads, desserts, side dishes and different meats. All this and it's inexpensive. (I plan to give it as gifts to my friends, too.) Helps you balance carbs/protein/fats at any age or activity level. I hope this can counteract the very lame negative comments others have made about this wonderful book. Check it out for yourself!

Diabetic, maybe - NOT LOW CARB.......2004-01-14

This would be a good cookbook for diabetics who still eat flour, potatoes and sugar, BUT for those of us following a diet such as Atkins these recipes are useless! One recipe called for 1 1/2 CUPS of flour!!! I about fell on the floor. And a word to those people that think diets such as Atkins are all fat all the time: 1. You need to eat higher levels of fat since that is your energy source on this diet. Low-carb AND low-fat is a DANGEROUS combination. 2. Having said that, you do not eat bacon at every meal. I eat chicken, fish and veggies, too - I just don't freak out if the restaurant puts butter sauce on my veggies.

This is SENSIBLE.......2003-11-24

Jeez, the recipes might have a smidgen of flour or cornmeal BUT they are not laden with mayo, high fat meats, and tons of cheese like the other low carb cookbooks I have seen. If you are interested in cutting back on carbs without clogging your arteries, this cookbook is AWESOME!!!!!!!

Book Description

Photographs of over 1900 rings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, pectorals, earrings, etc., all identified.

Customer Reviews:

Good, but............2005-02-08

Lots and lots of great ethnic jewelry images - BUT they are very small, and many of the pages are laid out horizonally, making you have to keep rotating the book as you are flipping through it. I would suggest holding out for a used copy.

Average customer rating:

Good for all collectors of African art

Black Africa: Masks Sculpture Jewelry
Laure Meyer
Manufacturer: Terrail
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Prehistoric & Primitive | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Folk Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Sculpture | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Jewelry | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

The Royal Arts of Africa: The Majesty of Form (Perspectives) (Trade Version) (Perspectives)

ASIN: 2879390354

Customer Reviews:

Good for all collectors of African art.......1999-07-13

I found this book in Kampala, Uganda at the start of a binge of collecting Congolese artifacts and fell in love at first sight. The pictures are vibrant (if not always well-labeled); the text tries to explain the significance of the art in the African context, rather than serve to merely catalogue the tribe, the owner, etc. It certainly helped me to love it that much of what I saw was discussed and/or pictured in the book. It goes arm-in-arm with it's companion "Art and Craft in Africa : Everyday Life Ritual Court Art "

Average customer rating:

Primitive and Folk Jewelry

Manufacturer: Dover Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0844601071

Book Description

Detailed assembly drawings that show each step of building trains, planes, motorcycles, and trucks make these eight vehicle projects easy for woodworkers to complete. Starting with a full list of the materials needed to complete each vehicle, these plans guide crafters through the entire building process—from making the first cut to adding such finishing details as wheels and buckets. Full-size cutting templates are also furnished for hobbyists to use as-is or as springboards for creating their own custom vehicles.

Average customer rating:

Fantastic, informative, helpful and wonderfully written book!

Love this book!

House Keeping the cool way

Boy did I need this book!

Must Have and Great Gift

Playing House: A Starter Guide to Being a Grown-Up
Celeste Perron
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Decorating | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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How to Pee Standing Up : Tips for Hip Chicks

ASIN: 0060741635
Release Date: 2005-07-26

Book Description

Ready to graduate from dorm
decor and mismatched furniture?

Now it's easy to create a perfect, stylish space for entertaining and relaxing. Playing House is the bible for the girl who knows she has an aspiring domestic goddess inside her but doesn't know how to make those impulses meet reality. Page after page of advice on cooking, decorating, cleaning, and entertaining will provide you with everything you need to turn your bachelorette pad into a welcoming, cozy haven, including a stress-free formula for making any room look elegant and inviting for little money and minimal effort; tips on transforming an apartment filled with mismatching furniture into a well-choreographed pad; time-saving strategies for dinner parties that can be prepared 80 percent in advance and on a tight budget; advice on making a bedroom that looks like a sanctuary rather than a dorm room; and more!

Featuring the budget-friendly tips and advice of top interior designers, chefs, and event planners, Playing House will help you achieve blissful domesticity with minimum fuss and maximum fun.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic, informative, helpful and wonderfully written book! .......2007-08-25

I looooove this book and find myself referring to it repeatedly when I need to paint a room, redecorate, throw a dinner party or just have people over for cocktails. Perron offers sage, easily digested advice that makes any home or occassion seem tres chic.

Love this book!.......2006-12-02

I bought this book for myself a year ago after browsing through it one random day at the bookstore. [...]. I've spent quite a bit of time flipping around and reading various sections. This is one of those books that you can read according to your need (if you're having a dinner party or trying to make a good salad or attempting to decorate your house) or straight through from front to back. The author's tips are easy-to-follow, common sense (but not so much for us domestically-challenged ladies), and witty. This book doubles as a reference book and chick lit beach read. I have recommended it to many people and continue to. [...]

House Keeping the cool way.......2005-10-07

I saw an article on this book in Cosmopolitan and I liked the tips that were offered, so I went ahead and bought the book.

It is an easy read and it has a lot of common sense stuff that you probably would have figured out yourself but would have preferred someone told you.

Mrs. Perron makes a good job of offering affordable tips and plenty of resources. The decorating tips and guidelines will help you make your living space much more comfortable and 'yours'.

The cooking and wine sections are complete without being complex and eventhough I defend myself rather well in the kitchen, she gives simple ideas to make every meal better.

The entertaining section is one of the best parts of the book. Once I marry, I hope to host get-togethers at home and this chapter offered lots of simple yet great pointers.

I bought this book because I am getting married next March and I want to make sure that I have an idea of how to keep house. This book is a great reference guide and I would recommend it to both girls and guys who want to make their living space a comfortable and hip place to live.

I would have given it 5 stars but I was a bit disappointed that the book has almost no pictures or diagrams which would have been useful for some of the tips and instruction Celeste offers.

Boy did I need this book!.......2005-09-22

I'm basically a total idiot when it comes to keeping house, because I was raised by a groovy '70s mom who couldn't be bothered. That was fun, but frankly I really just needed some homey home advice, and this book gave it to me! Plus it's so cute. I didn't feel like a dork buying it and it is sooooo helpful. Like having a cool next door neighbor who knows stuff.

Must Have and Great Gift.......2005-09-15

This book is an awesome "must have" for every home and it especially makes a great gift for any modern woman, (or domesticated man). It is so much fun and I am embarrassed to say that I am learning so much, but am well on my way to being a domestic goddess ...thanks to Celeste Perron.

Customer Reviews:

marvelous prints, absorbing essays.......2003-09-01

If you enjoy the works of Georgia O'Keeffe, this is a book you'll want to savor. The reproductions of her paintings are marvelously printed, and the accompanying essays of O'Keeffe's life and work are erudite and lucid.

There are also pictures of O'Keeffe at various stages of her life and career, ranging from her time as a young student at the University of Virginia, into her weathered, mature age, the last one featuring her at 90 at Ghost Ranch in the desert.

You may want to scan many of the pictures, as I did, for use as computer desktops and ornamental additions to emails. Kudoes to Britta Benke for this must-have book for those who appreciate Georgia O'Keeffe!

Book Description

Just a century ago Eddie Foy was the consummate stage comedian. A versatile performer, Foy contributed to the development of popular theater from the Civil War to the Roaring Twenties, from poverty-inspired Irish two-acts to lavish musical comedies. This first-ever biography of Foy tells the story of his indigent childhood in New York's Bowery and in Chicago, his tough uphill climb as a "variety artist" at Western outposts, his success in vaudeville and Broadway, and his arrival as a national icon with the Seven Little Foys. Foy's career mirrored the growth of popular theater entertainment in America. Exhaustively researched, this work contains many rare personal photographs from the Foy family archives.

Customer Reviews:

Eddie Foy and 60 years of the Golden Age of the Stage.......2000-07-05

Congratulations to author Armond Fields and publisher McFarland & Company for this absorbing, well-written and meticulously researched biography of comedian & eccentric dancer, Eddie Foy. The story, as Fields tells it, leaves nothing to be desired, yet it isn't cluttered with footnotes. It reads easily because it is as defty organized and told as a good stage production. The scene is laid out before us, time and place, before Mr. Foy enters the scene: the Nineteenth Century, the newly arrived Irish immigrants and New York City's Bowery. When Foy's adventures take up the tale, the scene segues to the Civil War, Chicago, Dodge City, Leadville, Denver and San Francisco, and the great and glorious characters who inhabit these places and befriended Foy: Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Gentlemen Jim Corbett and dozens of theatrical managers and performers. Foy's life and career spanned the Civil War, the Westward migrations, the reach of the railways, the lawlessness of cattle-towns, the small towns and big cities of a growing America. Show Business grew too, from saloons to variety and Opera Houses, to Broadway musical comedies and vaudeville, and Eddie Foy lived and worked until the dawn of the sound films. Mr. Fields traces Foy's influences and growth as a performer and clarifies the record about Foy's personal life with no intent except telling a good story well and true.

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