Fatima's Third Secret Explained

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Fatima's Third Secret Explained
Thomas Petrisko
Manufacturer: St. Andrew\'s Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Mysticism | Other Practices | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1891903268
Release Date: 2001-11-15

Amber Green HAWKMOOR Whether in downtown Manhattan or the deep Ontario forest, shape-shifters answer to Darien Hawkmoor, and rely on him to keep the peace. He acts in the name of the long-missing Lady Hawkmoor, their hereditary ruler, to whom he was bonded as a child. When Lady Hawkmoor unexpectedly surfaces, the myths evaporate. Darien must deal with a stubborn, scrappy individual whose wary eyes hold the other half of his soul, but who has the power to destroy his world.

Calista Fox In the Heat of the Night Haunted by a century-old curse, Molina Toscano fears she won't live to see her thirtieth birthday. Nick Moretti, her former bodyguard, is hired back into service to protect her from the fatal accidents that plague her family. But In the Heat of the Night, will his passion and love for her be enough to convince Molina they have a future together?

Rachelle Chase Out of Control Astrid Thomas's world revolves around her business, Eventures, which is why she's hoping to pick up wealthy Erik Santos as a new client. Only Erik is hoping to pick up something entirely different: A weekend trophy wife. Will Astrid give in to seductive pull of Erik's proposition and do something she's never done before — be Out of Control for 48 hours?

Charlotte Featherstone Lessons In Pleasure A wicked bargain has Lily Farrington vowing never to yield to the demands of the rake she once loved and lost. Unfortunately, Damian Westerham, the Earl of St. Croix, or Saint as he is infamously known, will not take `no' for an answer. Vow or no, he means to have Lily, and he plans on getting exactly what he wants with his Lessons In Pleasure.

This final installment of Peter F. Hamilton's Homeric space adventure, which began with The Reality Dysfunction, volumes I (Emergence) and II (Expansion), and continued in The Neutronium Alchemist, volumes I (Consolidation) and II (Conflict), is no simple winding up of the story. You'll be amazed to find Hamilton busily introducing new characters, new plots, and new enigmas up to the very end. After all this time can he possibly surprise us? Absolutely. --J.B. Peck

Secondly, the book is a long overdue portrait of the real Mario Batali and of the real Marco Pierre White--two complicated and brilliant chefs whose coverage in the press--while appropriately fawning--has never described them in their fully debauched, delightful glory. Buford has--for the first time--managed to explain White's peculiar--almost freakish brilliance--while humanizing a man known for terrorizing cooks, customers (and Batali). As for Mario--he is finally revealed for the Falstaffian, larger than life, mercurial, frighteningly intelligent chef/enterpreneur he really is. No small accomplishment. Other cooks, chefs, butchers, artisans and restaurant lifers are described with similar insight.

Thirdly, Heat reveals a dead-on understanding--rare among non-chef writers--of the pleasures of "making" food; the real human cost, the real requirements and the real adrenelin-rush-inducing pleasures of cranking out hundreds of high quality meals. One is left with a truly unique appreciation of not only what is truly good about food--but as importantly, who cooks--and why. I can't think of another book which takes such an unsparing, uncompromising and ultimately thrilling look at the quest for culinary excellence. Heat brims with fascinating observations on cooking, incredible characters, useful discourse and argument-ending arcania. I read my copy and immediately started reading it again. It's going right in between Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London and Zola's The Belly of Paris on my bookshelf. --Anthony Bourdain

Book Description

Bill Buford—author of the highly acclaimed best-selling Among the Thugs—had long thought of himself as a reasonably comfortable cook when in 2002 he finally decided to answer a question that had nagged him every time he prepared a meal: What kind of cook could he be if he worked in a professional kitchen? When the opportunity arose to train in the kitchen of Mario Batali’s three-star New York restaurant, Babbo, Buford grabbed it. Heat is the chronicle—sharp, funny, wonderfully exuberant—of his time spent as Batali’s “slave” and of his far-flung apprenticeships with culinary masters in Italy.

In a fast-paced, candid narrative, Buford describes the frenetic experience of working in Babbo’s kitchen: the trials and errors (and more errors), humiliations and hopes, disappointments and triumphs as he worked his way up the ladder from slave to cook. He talks about his relationships with his kitchen colleagues and with the larger-than-life, hard-living Batali, whose story he learns as their friendship grows through (and sometimes despite) kitchen encounters and after-work all-nighters.

Buford takes us to the restaurant in a remote Appennine village where Batali first apprenticed in Italy and where Buford learns the intricacies of handmade pasta . . . the hill town in Chianti where he is tutored in the art of butchery by Italy’s most famous butcher, a man who insists that his meat is an expression of the Italian soul . . . to London, where he is instructed in the preparation of game by Marco Pierre White, one of England’s most celebrated (or perhaps notorious) chefs. And throughout, we follow the thread of Buford’s fascinating reflections on food as a bearer of culture, on the history and development of a few special dishes (Is the shape of tortellini really based on a woman’s navel? And just what is a short rib?), and on the what and why of the foods we eat today.

Heat is a marvelous hybrid: a richly evocative memoir of Buford’s kitchen adventure, the story of Batali’s amazing rise to culinary (and extra-culinary) fame, a dazzling behind-the-scenes look at the workings of a famous restaurant, and an illuminating exploration of why food matters.

It is a book to delight in—and to savor.

Customer Reviews:

Fun, fun fun in the bowels of the kitchen.......2007-10-12

I read Bourdain's book and loved it. I also liked this one. Raw, honest talk from someone who has been there.
The autobiography part was fascinating (can such characters really populate elite restaurants!?) and the lowdown on furiously making food night after night was priceless. The last section was too blah blah about Mario Batali, although the scenes of Italy were intriguing. A must read for real food lovers.

A humorous read that made me hungry!.......2007-10-07

Who wouldn't want to go on Buford's journey? He's a great tour guide on his gasto-tour of the kitchens of the Mario Batali and Pierre Marco White. He shows that kitchens can be places that are filled with potential dangers and loads of passion. It took me awhile to get through this book, in part because I kept getting hungry and had to go make something to eat! I'm ready to go clamp the pasta machine to the counter and whip up some fresh pasta.

It's a pretty dense book to get through, and the author wanders away from the main story often. Most of the time, it's to an interesting place, but sometimes, it's just a tangent. But aside from a few of those as a distraction, I thought this was a great book.

Interesting but not what I thought it was going to be.......2007-09-19

I got this book because my husband heard an interview on the radio and thought I would like it since I love to cook. It was interesting but spent too much time, for me, on the politics of working in a restaurant kitchen and not enough on the workings of food in a restaurant. I bored with the personalities and gave up trying to figure out who was who.

I think I made the pages soggy..........2007-09-17

This guy, Bill Buford, is pretty amazing. Despite the danger of slicing off his hands entirely (an accident that he somehow manages to repeat) under various huge, sharp, professional knives, he insisted going (back again and again) to Italy to learn about things so obscure even professional chefs wouldn't have much idea about.
If you're looking for a book about Batali, this isn't the most comprehensive one, but it's scathingly honest and if you really live and breathe food, you'll gain a whole lot more than goss about the inner workings of Batali's businesses. It gets a bit soppy at times - a bit too "Tuscany is beautiful, and Provence is the ultimate foodie heaven", but only fleetingly, and all can be forgiven once you read about the author's hilarious effort to cook a whole pig...

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......2007-09-11

The chapters on Mario Batali and the dynamics of his kitchen were really interesting and engaging. I was intrigud by the sections on Marco Pierre White as I had just read Gordon Ramsey's autobiography in which his tempestuous relationship with White plays a significant role. The rest of Buford's book is just too tediously, self-indulgently written to the point where it killed my interest in the underlying subjects of pasta making and butchery (I ended up skimming page after page as I just couldn't take it). It reminded me of a computer spitting forth every bit of information in its memory regardless of relevance or interest. Just too many tedious, boorish details.

Book Description

Miller’s guide to the modern examines design styles and movements from roughly 1925 onwards, looking at how these ideals translate into practical application in the decorative arts. “Focus on” features profile the most important, influential designers in depth, and this is the only volume that gives collectors an overview of all the different media. It tackles questions such as: “Why is one piece more valuable than another?” and “How does one spot an original prototype from a reproduction?” Anyone with an interest in buying modern designs must have this.

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Miller's Collecting Modern Design

Manufacturer: MITCHELL BEAZLEY (OC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GRRNXE

Book Description

Think natural, loosen up, pare down, color in, and above all, live well! These are the key words of the new country living, and no home better exemplifies this wonderful philosophy than decorator Tricia Guild's Tuscan farmhouse. A tour around this warm and wonderful home is the centerpiece in a richly photographed look at what defines the best contemporary design. The first section, "A New Attitude," pinpoints the main features of this current approach. Then, the intimate glimpse into Guild's private world, as well as four other houses, spotlights her love of natural materials, her uncluttered arrangements, her loose approach to fabric, and bold use of color--as well as the inspiration she draws from the surrounding landscape. Rooms glow with brightness; her kitchen bursts with fresh produce; inside and out, tables are laid with embroidered cloths, jugs of garden flowers, vibrant mismatched plates, and delicious local foods. Finally, "Living and Entertaining" is an exhortation to fill your world with pleasure, and to bring exuberance not only to your décor and design, but to all you do. None of the ideas is expensive, and every one is innovative, easy, and life enhancing!

Customer Reviews:

Simple, Rustic, Plain with Some Paint & Prints.......2006-04-22

After reading the great reviews, it was shocking to see all the photos and ideas are actually very ordinary, simple and rustic, with a bit of bold paint here, a bit of fabric with prints there, nothing new or interesting. There's 57 pages of recipes that didn't look too original either. Why are so many books filled with mostly ordinary, simple ideas? They deem us to not already know them ourselves??

". . . to give a loose to your soul".......2006-02-25

"Painted Country" caught my eye at a time when COLOR had made a rather large splash in our community, a splash of blue - almost pastel, but unwelcome to some who dictate the 'fashion' of storefronts in this small tourist town. What a furor can rise if circumstances & the gods intersect! "Painted Country" is the answer to such bonfires in winter, and to give a lift to February, when dullish moments need bold colors, verve, exclamation points!

Tricia Guild is known at the founder of Designers Guild (in 1970), and for her exuberance in living. She is a lucky Londoner who can retreat to Tuscany. There an existence of nature-fed tranquillity balances the city portion of her life. With Britain well over the shoulder, the creative juices are free to boil & roil with purples, reds, oranges & even blues.The subtle hairs on grape leaves add a different texture and Guild encourages variety. This freedom "gives a loose to the soul" as a journalist friend once said. Tricia Guild's philosophy of living is best shared through views of her marvelous kitchen (p.54-61), and the food produced.

Nonie Niesewand supplied the text, and Gilles de Chabaneix the stunning photographs. Their work is impressive, in part because the book represents more than a lapful in size. It has never been my desire to grow a citified atmosphere at a rough, rural address. I appreciate "spare" decoration of rooms anywhere. In the city what is called 'sophisticated' might be written off as 'shabby' in a summer cabin. One's spirit, I believe, is revived and lifted quite successfully by strategically located blocks of color. See the chair on p.46 made gorgeous with orangey, red blooms in needlepoint. It is the inspiration for Tricia Guild's painting (p.44) of field flowers reminiscent of Cezanne /OR/ did the inspiration work the other way around?

You will want to own this book, and study it often: the dining room (p.50-51), the deep sills everywhere to allow one more surface for carefully arranged flowers. The photographs of vegetables are charming; actually they will take your breath away! Then the prepared foods that caught my eye, including a tomato & zucchini pizza (p.152 that demonstrates how a Tuscan might prepare this recipe. I am further tempted by the linguine with broccoli, olives and capers (p.156). When you see the table setting of unmatched majolica dinner plates (p.174) you will yearn to become a collector.

Reviewer mcHAIKU predicts that you will inhale deeply the luminous colors & uncluttered arrangements, and will go forth to "GIVE A LOOSE TO YOUR SOUL"!

A book to enjoy!.......2002-10-25

This is a large book by size and it has 350 color photographs!
You get a feel for southern Europe through it and you even get to try some of the nice country type of foods at the end, mostly sallads, healthy stuff :-) It's beautiful and as inspirational as any book by Tricia Guild can be...somewhere to rest your eyes and calm down I'd say, without having to go to the countryside yourself. And then it gives you back that energy that only nature can give you!

beautiful photos.......2001-08-30

This book is filled with higly saturated photos of painted furniture and rich fabrics. Though the title is "Country," I would also recommend it for the modernist. Included in the back of the book are fresh summer recipes.

Definitely a book to leave on the coffe table!.......1999-02-18

Tricia Guild has done it again with this stunningly photographed book of interiors of her own, and other's Italian country homes. With not a hint of pretense, we get to roam through these houses with that feeling that we, too may be able to achieve "the look". Not just an interiors text, Ms Guild takes us into the vineyards and kitchens of Tuscany, making this more of a "lifestyle" guide. This is a book that lets you become lost to another place and time - browse for a while, and be sure not to put it away in the bookshelf - leave it on the coffee table as I do!

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Tricia Guild Painted Country Tower

Manufacturer: Conran Octopus Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1850297002

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Open Your Eyes: 1,000 Simple Ways To Bring Beauty Into Your Home And Life Each Day (Harperresource Book)

Glad I got it at the library

excellent book

A very disappointed Stoddard reader

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Open Your Eyes: 1,000 Simple Ways To Bring Beauty Into Your Home And Life Each Day (Harperresource Book)
Alexandra Stoddard
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Happiness | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Decorating | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Mental & Spiritual Healing | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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Living a Beautiful Life

Creating a Beautiful Home

Time Alive: Celebrate Your Life Every Day

Gracious Living in a New World: Finding Joy in Changing Times

Choosing Happiness: Keys to a Joyful Life

ASIN: 0380731444

Book Description

For nearly forty years and in numerous books, Alexandra Stoddard has shared her keen eye for design and sure sense of style. Now this renowned decorator and lifestyle philosopher teaches you hoe to see with the expertise and clarity of professional designers.

First, Alexandra helps you become more attuned to your surroundings-as you set a table, straighten out a linen closet, stroll through a garden, or browse in a thrift shop. Then, through personal anecdotes; examples from masters; a rich array of ideas, tips, and techniques, she reveals hundreds of ways to see and solve problems or proportion, pattern, color, and composition. Her simple suggestions-whether it's changing a lampshade, rearranging treasured objects on a table, or moving a chair-will yield dramatic results. Filled with practical solutions offered with warmth and encouragement , Open Your Eyes helps make each day a visual feats as it deepens your understanding not only of what makes something beautiful but what makes something beautiful to you.

Customer Reviews:

Open Your Eyes: 1,000 Simple Ways To Bring Beauty Into Your Home And Life Each Day (Harperresource Book).......2007-02-12

EXCELLENT ITEM!!

Glad I got it at the library.......2005-11-17

Some useful advice about solving problems like long rooms and such. But overall this book desperately NEEDED some good photographs or drawings to illustrate its suggestions and ideas. I think the messages are buried in the adjective-laden narrative and make the book much less useful than it could have been.
I do not recommend this book for that reason. Too much talk, not enough action.

excellent book.......2003-02-05

very informative. a pleasure to read. alexandra is a postive person and it shows in her words. great pictures of her own home...

A very disappointed Stoddard reader.......2003-01-16

I would have to say that this book was a disappointment in the extreme. Most of the ideas are old, tried, and true - there is nothing new in here, and her constant "name dropping" becomes quite annoying.

If you REALLY want a wonderful book... try Stoddard's "Living A Beautiful Life". It is much more worthwhile.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.......2000-02-03

This is one of the happiest little books you'll ever read. It makes you excited about decorating and improving your lifestyle.

Open Your Eyes - 1,000 Simple Ways To Bring Beauty Into Your Home And Life Each Day

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Open Your Eyes - 1,000 Simple Ways To Bring Beauty Into Your Home And Life Each Day
Alexandra Stoddard
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PHQ7J6

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Open Your Eyes: 1,000 Simple Ways to Bring Beauty into Your Home and Life Each Day

Manufacturer: Quill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GRSPPO

Book Description

Merz to Emigr+ and Beyond is a historical survey of avant-garde cultural and political magazines and newspapers from the early twentieth century to the present day. The book features a unique selection of international publications from Europe and the USA - including Merz (1920s), View (1940s), East Village Other (1960s), Punk (1970s), Raw (1980s) and Emigr+ (1990s). The design of these magazines, often raucous and undisciplined, was as ground-breaking as the ideas they disseminated. Many were linked with controversial art, literary and political movements such as Dada, Surrealism, Modernism, the New Left and Deconstruction. They contain the work of many leading experimental artists and designers of their time - from Kurt Schwitters and El Lissitzky in the 1920s and 30s, to Art Spiegelman and Rudy Vanderland in the 1980s and 90s.Steven Heller is a Senior Art Director at the New York Times and co-chair of the MFA/Design Program of the School of Visual Arts in New York. A respected authority in the design world, he has written and co-authored numerous publications, including Paul Rand, also published by Phaidon.

Customer Reviews:

Undercurrents of Modernism.......2006-11-10

A curatorial masterpiece of 20th century magazine design. Well designed, copiously illustrated, another first rate addition to design research by Steven Heller. A must have for any serious practictioner of our profession.

For anyone who loves old magazines.......2004-02-07

This is not as I expected, a collection of vintage covers of old magazines, but a detailed and interesting history of how the avant garde expressed itself and produced original art in the process. It covers the 20th century well up until the zines of the 80s - 90s. It kind of stops there because, says the author, the web takes over. I may not agree with that exactly, but I believe this is a must book for anyone who is passionate about magazine design.

Book Description

Here's the diary of a man who in mid-life found himself uprooted and dumped into West Hollywood, an unfamiliar place not exactly known for stability. White explores his neighborhood ? "queens: 6 percent; cranky 70-year-old Russians who give you the evil eye when you walk past: 2 percent; blonde girls with big, round, hard fakeys who think Jennifer Anniston just got lucky: 10 percent; miscellaneous cool kids, hustlers, and actual crazy people: 5 percent."

White gets gigs as a freelance writer, goes to the grocery store where his Russian neighbors ask him questions because they think he's from the old country; and encounters Sara Gilbert at the Laundromat, Leonard Maltin at the movies, and Ben Affleck driving a Rolls-Royce so ridiculously conspicuous he might as well be driving Chitty-Chitty, Bang-Bang.

What began as weekly diaries emailed to out-of-state family and friends evolved into a blog called "Dave White Knows" and in 2003 became a monthly column in Instinct called "Exile in Guyville." Alyson Books now presents White's blogs in expanded form with loads of new material that will be even more irritating to the Instinct readers who didn't like his column. "They requested more fashion and skin-care features in its place, which makes me kind of proud."

Dave White is a freelance journalist specializing in music. His reviews and features have been seen in E! Online, IFILM, LA Weekly, Dallas Observer, Instinct, The Advocate, Glue, Cybersocket, Total Movie, Unzipped, and Frontiers. White lives in West Hollywood with his boyfriend, the Morocco Mole, and is locally esteemed as the "King of Pancakes."

Customer Reviews:

Very Funny take on Moving to LA!!.......2007-06-21

As a native Angeleno, I was ready to take offense at Dave's experience of Los Angeles, but I was laughing too hard. He's had some pretty interesting experiences of LA. A very light, fun read.

Please sir, can I have some more?.......2007-06-12

I loved this book, I loved Dave's unapologetic ranting and whining about LA and its inhabitants (a**holes!!). I loved his special brand of 'gayness' and his queeny categorisations of the OTHER brands of gayness he is forced to interact with in rainbow flagged West Hollywood. For all the other non-shinyhappy people who inhabit (yes they do!!!) anywhere out of the LA geographical area, this book is a refreshing take on the whole stereotypical celeb seething wannabe clusterf*** that is 'reality' for anyone LIVING in LA and earning less than mega squillions a year. If you enjoy reading books like "Chorewhore", or relate to the hispanic domestics everpresent in the background in any LA-based flick, you'll also enjoy Exile in Guyville.

It'd be great to see a follow up, or even a collection of Dave's columns. His observations of his grudgingly adopted home town resonate at the same frequency as Henry Rollins occasionally do: they both live there because they have to but they aren't going down without a fight goddarnit! These are witnesses to the flabbergasting proliferation of acceptable a**holeness which is flourishing in places like LA: road rage, blithe and rampant consumerism, self-centredness, rudeness and downright unfriendliness. Dave observes the LA reactions to his natural Texan inclination to greet a stranger or passer-by with a wave or a smile and he comments also that the people of LA regard themselves, and not the sun, as the centre of the universe.

I like that people like Dave and Henry are documenting and commenting. And congratulations Dave, you did it stylishly and with humour. It'd be good to see some more.

Brilliant.......2007-03-28

White's brilliance lies in the fact that the review by "Aniston Obsessed" is a compliment to "Exile."

Funniest Book I've Read Recently.......2007-03-08

Homophobes stay away - as one should gather from the title. That being said - this book had me laughing out loud. It's a must buy. I've already bought a copy for one of my friends.

Hilarious! .......2007-01-06

I discovered Dave White because he writes an American Idol blog which I look forward to each and every week.

Exile in Guyville did not disappoint. Dave chronicles his first year in the hell that is LA. Despite that fact that he has serious trouble adjusting, he never loses his keen sense of humor. There are many many laugh out loud moments.

I loved it!

Obviously, this book isn't for everybody. So if the title offends you, move along. But if you consider whining a hobby, and other people's crabbiness makes you laugh, you will love Exile in Guyville!

Nicole Del Sesto, author of All Encompassing Trip

The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir (P.S.)

Average customer rating:

Los Angeles Diaries
Just get past the gaudy lead paragraphs
A Modern American Tragedy
Good...
Terrific concept, terrific execution

The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir (P.S.)
James Brown
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Entertainers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 006052152X
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Book Description

Plagued by the suicides of both his siblings, heir to alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and economic ruin, novelist James Brown lived a life clouded by addiction, broken promises, and despair. Beautifully written and limned with dark humor, these twelve deeply confessional, interconnected chapters address personal failure, heartbreak, the trials of writing for Hollywood, and the life-shattering events that finally convinced Brown he must "change or die."

Customer Reviews:

Los Angeles Diaries.......2007-09-13

I quit reading fiction some years ago. Now I read only true stories -- or so they claim. It's gotten so I can sense when the writer is BSing me. When a friend reccomended Los Angeles Diaries, I knew it was patched together from truth.

These days any Ivy League poseur with a cocaine habit somehow feels entitled to write a memoir. Before they do, they should read Los Angeles Diaries.

James Brown writes about a the America that flourishes on the edge of the brown sodium light of city streetlamps. He's writing about the America of wide boulevards and dispossesed kids forced to create a world for themselves because their parents are too self-absorbed in Hollywood dreams, and the poison when those dreams come true. He writes of what happens when those kids become adults and mutate into the same world of fantasy and bitter fate.

Brown is an amazing writer. His style -- short, sweet like a punch -- obviates the need for comparison, but he's the son of Bukowski and Fitzgerald writing from a motel room shared with Raymond Carver.

Then there's the drugs and the suicides and the meetings with Hollywood executives and the snipers and the crazed freeway runs and the cold nights detoxing alone in a lost room on the edge of a South Dakota reservation.

The Los Angeles Diaries takes you places that you won't want to go. But once you're done, you will be changed.

Strange thing. He's very popular in Europe. Somehow the Brits and the French see something original, something so American that Americans have trouble seeing it.

Want more info: Go to YouTube and check out the video of a CNN profile. Search under "Los Angeles Diaries."

Just get past the gaudy lead paragraphs.......2006-11-05

Linked stories of Brown's attempts to write, teach and stay married (while the siren songs of booze and cocaine call him toward self-annihilation) alternate with tales of his childhood in San Jose and Hollywood-Echo Park. We learn of his fleeting security with a sometimes beautiful mother, who burned down a local apartment building and preferred prison to a psychiatric diagnosis. We learn of his lifelong attempt, through writing, to make artistic sense out of such unshakable memories as that of his drunken father urging him to dance by speaking a gorgeous, vicious fiction. ("Dance, your mother's coming home tomorrow.") We see Brown laid desperate enough by Hollywood ambition that he sits through a sniper attack at a studio to get his pitch meeting. We meet the pedophile whose attention Brown almost accepts despite knowing what it is. This is one of many instances that reveal the hair's breadth by which Brown has, so far, survived. For we also see Brown's brother, a promising actor, shoot himself when he can't stay clean. Years later Brown's sister, after a couple of promising starts in AA, gives up too.

Brown's implacable honesty makes for some immortal, gut-punch moments of writing. ("For a while it's like old times, sitting around the kitchen table with my brother and father getting wasted on a hot afternoon.") In one transcendent passage, Brown juxtaposes the loss of his siblings with the primal gravity of a course-correcting season he spent with his dreamer Dad: "The kid who shoots heroin, robs and steals is getting drowsy, his father's voice slowly fading, and when I fall asleep and wake up thirty years later as a middle-aged man, I realize that this brief time I spent with my father has much to do with why I am still here and my brother and sister are not."

I felt that presence, like a rock you barely cling to in rushing water.

The book's only real flaws are in the frame. The intro attempts to haunt us with derivative, stylish images of the Santa Ana winds, and it's a pretentious, false cliché. Brown's voice there sounded like a narcissistic drunk (sorry), and I wasn't buying any of it. (One devastating childhood memory of ashes in place of snowflakes might have worked better at the end.) The rest of the book is so dangerously honest that I felt an uneasy privilege reading it. From about the third page on, the realization builds that he's committed not to lie to readers about anything--a choice we have to take as sacred and thank him for it.

A Modern American Tragedy.......2006-06-06

"The Los Angeles Diaries" continue the tragic story begun in the book "Final Performance". dealing with the author, James Brown's
ability to cope with the issues of a tumultous childhood, which contributed toward the suicides of his older siblings Barry (a rising TV/movie star of the 1970's) and Marilyn.

The first part of the book describes the frustrations of the author (a college professor) at his ill-starred attempts to sell screenplays to Hollywood, and the familial way of handling disappointment with drugs and alcohol. Interspersed throughout
are vignettes (told in flashback) of his childhood, some sentimental, some chilling.

Brown also relates the difficulty of maintaining a sober facade before college professors and students(well acquainted with the
drug scene) who view him cynically.

One bright spot is the hilarious narrative of Jame Brown's attempt to mollify his angry wife with a pot-bellied pig as a peace offering.

The Machiavellian porker is named Daisy, and Brown's problems
burgeon in direct proportion to Daisy's expensive appetite -
and expansive girth.

Man and pig butt heads; in a contest between man and animal,
the animal will win hands down because it has "cuteness" on its side. (The end of the chapter is a riot...)

The second half of "The Los Angeles Diaries" is depressing, describing the downward spiral, and subsequent suicides of
Brown's brother, Barry, and his sister, Marilyn.

By the end of his life, Barry Brown was out of control: impersonating a police officer (a character from a movie) and
drinking compulsively. He shot himself to death at age 27.

Marilyn Brown attempted to wean herself from alcohol and drugs, but past demons prompted her one night to climb onto the railing of an overpass, then fling herself to her death in the dry riverbed below.

The book ends on an optimistic note; while in South Dakota, James Brown resolved to go cold turkey, or die - he made it.

But - his two books ("The Los Angeles Diaries" and "Final Performance") are touching memorials by the survivor to the siblings who didn't make it...

A new American classic.

Good..........2006-05-26

Might as well read this book, it is a quick read. I found myself disappointed however. It entertained me verily while I was reading the book. I was happy I took the time... Still, now, a while later, nothing of the book sticks with me. This especially disappoints me, being memoirs of a survivor of a dysfunctional and somewhat abusive household... As I come from the same background. I was really hoping part of the book might haunt me in a way. However, with nothing bad to say about this book, I might have to attribute my disappointment to my own expectations moreso than a fault of Mr Brown.

Terrific concept, terrific execution.......2006-03-10

There are a number of things going really right for The Los Angeles Diaries, but none moreso than Brown's conception of his memoir - each chapter a different essay detailing a different discrete portion of his life, so each chapter will jump back and forth a decade or two. It could be disjointed, but instead it's the notion of one consciousness getting out exactly what it needs to for our understanding and letting us crane our necks a bit to fill in the details. This works because James Brown is a writer of such fierce conviction that the notions carry over from one section to another, the reality of his experience connected by spurts and sources of identity, linked by the fierce honesty of his experience. If you're like me, this is hardly the first "addiction memoir" you've picked up (it's practically a genre in itself), but it's especially distinct by a narrator who doesn't "hit bottom" in the typical fashion; Brown is a man always on the fringes of total oblivion managing to salvage himself. It makes for an unforgettable, even inspiring read, but it does leave a couple giant questions - notably, how was the ultimate breakthrough allowing him to remain clean so different from his others? He'd discussed other times he spent days or weeks without drugs or booze, what made this book's ultimate conclusion so distinct? It's abrupt ending won't answer that question, which is tantalizing, but it will leave you with an indelible picture of hope, and a gloriously specific, scrappy image of survival.

In Hollywood with Nemirovich-Danchenko 1926-1927: The Memoirs of Sergei Bertensson (Studies and Documentation in the History of Popular Entertainment, No. 6.)

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In Hollywood with Nemirovich-Danchenko 1926-1927: The Memoirs of Sergei Bertensson (Studies and Documentation in the History of Popular Entertainment, No. 6.)
Fryer Paul
Manufacturer: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Industry | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0810849887

Book Description

Bertensson's observations of life in Hollywood on the eve of the talkies revolution provide us with a compelling snapshot of movie history in the making, seen from the unusual perspective of an outsider.

Souls for Sale: The Diary of an Ex-Colored Man--Conflict and Compromise of Second Generation Advocacy in the Post Civil Rights Era

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Excellent Mr. Samad

Souls for Sale: The Diary of an Ex-Colored Man--Conflict and Compromise of Second Generation Advocacy in the Post Civil Rights Era
Anthony Asadullah Samad
Manufacturer: Kabili Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The book is an autobiographical perspective of a young second generation NAACP president seeking to bring about a philosophical change to the historic civil rights struggle in the post civil rights (1980s Reagan-Bush) era. The book examines several economic discrimination and police misconduct issues that brought about generational conflicts in the African American community, subsequently leading to the worst civil disturbance in American history, the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Mr. Samad.......2003-01-11

Anthony Asadullah Samad writes from his heart. This is a book about rebirth and the changes that he went thru to become who he is today. It's about being an advocate for his people at all cost. It should be required reading for African American Studies everywhere. It will captures you from the beginning until the end. Excellent debut Mr. Samad.

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The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir

Manufacturer: William Morrow; HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GX2DOW

Tomorrow's Memories: A Diary, 1924-1928 (Intersections (Honolulu, Hawaii).)

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Tomorrow's Memories: A Diary, 1924-1928 (Intersections (Honolulu, Hawaii).)
Angeles Monrayo Raymundo , and Angeles Monrayo
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Family & Childhood | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 082482671X

Book Description

"I would like to read about me--what everyday things happened to me--when I am an old woman. Right now I am only 11 years, 5 months."

Angeles Monrayo (1912-2000) began her diary on January 10, 1924, a few months before she and her father and older brother moved from a sugar plantation in Waipahu to Pablo Manlapit's strike camp in Honolulu. Here for the first time is a young Filipino girl's view of life in Hawai'i and central California in the first decades of the twentieth century--a significant and often turbulent period for immigrant and migrant labor in both settings. Angeles' vivid, simple language takes us into the heart of an early Filipino family as its members come to terms with poverty and racism and struggle to build new lives in a new world. But even as Angeles recounts the hardships of immigrant life, her diary of "everyday things" never lets us forget that she and the people around her went to school and church, enjoyed music and dancing, told jokes, went to the movies, and fell in love.

Essays by Jonathan Okamura and Dawn Mabalon enlarge on Angeles' account of early working-class Filipinos and situate her experience in the larger history of Filipino migration to the United States. Tomorrow's Memories not only provides a rare glimpse into the lives of Pinays during the 1920s and 1930s, but also contributes valuable insights into the study of race, class, and gender in American history and the study of power and resistance in Asian American and ethnic studies.

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The Los Angeles Diaries : A Memoir
James Brown
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OELP5Q

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