Book Description
The Challenge of Coming of Age in Upper-Class in America
In American Blue Blood, William C. Codington brings us the Lightfoot family of Virginia and Philadelphia that for generations has been profoundly aware and proud of its aristocratic heritage. Since the country's founding, however, America has been at war with itself over issues of class, and, when confronted with the opposing democratic social currents of the late 20th century, each Lightfoot family member must decide what is and what is not acceptable as an American. The resulting debate has created deep conflict between the siblings, between spouses, and between the generations.
Tom Lightfoot, a young man starting out in the world, finds that he does not fit in professionally because of his aristocratic heritage, and, socially, he feels alienated as friends and family turn against, abandon, or betray that heritage. At every turn he must struggle to reconcile it with mainstream democratic values. In a larger sense Tom's path to success, and the path to survival for the Lightfoot family as a coherent whole, is a passage through a battle of competing visions for the social framework of our country in the late 20th century.
With few exceptions, narratives of upper class America have been written by outsiders, infiltrators, muckrakers, or hangers-on. This coming-of-age story, edited by William C. Codington, has been written by a genuine insider.
Front cover: “Between them was a portrait of Isaac Leigh, Philadelphia Quaker and abolitionist, whose resemblance to me most of the family agreed was `uncanny.' It was painted by Robert Charles Leslie, an American who studied under Benjamin West in London.”
Customer Reviews:
Well written portrait of upper class social change.......2004-06-26
This novel's premise is: the culture of wealthy, aristocratic WASP families that was once center stage in America is all but gone. This novel is a portrait of one such family of the Philadelphia Main Line that came apart in the social upheavals of the Sixties and Seventies, and whose members had difficulty competing as America subsequently moved toward a more complete meritocracy. The main character is a sympathetic hero who is well developed and easy to understand, even for those of us who didn't grow up with the Social Register and who went to college on scholarship. The writing is excellent, the narrative voice and writing style convey a sense of propriety, a natural fit for the subject matter of this novel.
Why the Old Money WASP Has Been Marginalized.......2004-06-02
This novel helps us understand why upper class WASP culture (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) lost its exalted place in American society in the decades that ended the 20th Century.
The families portrayed in this novel are inheritors of the WASP culture that founded our country and in later generations founded and populated our exclusive suburban neighborhoods, such as the Philadelphia Main Line where this story largely takes place. Members of this culture created and sent their sons and daughters to exclusive boarding schools and the Ivy League Colleges. They were largely Episcopalian, their telephone book was the Social Register, and they hung out at clubs where tennis was played on grass and where blacks, Jews, and "ethnics" were not allowed.
In the later half of the 20th century the upper class WASP community was marginalized as standardized test scores, not family connections, determined who got accepted at elite schools and colleges. Meanwhile, technology was revolutionizing business and regional family companies all but disappeared. In short, as America moved toward "meritocracy," Old Money WASPs had a hard time competing. Furthermore, the generation of WASPs that came of age in the '60s and '70s had difficulty reconciling the elitism of their own culture with the democratic ideals for which their country was supposed to stand.
American Blue Blood deals with these themes through a Philadelphia Main Line family, the members of whom struggle to understand who they are supposed to be in the late 20th Century. The plot is primarily a coming-of-age story, and the characters are well drawn and believable.
This novel is worth a read for anyone interested in understanding what WASP culture once was, what it was up against, and what happened to it. This book is for that person who wants to learn all of the above, but who wants to do it by reading fiction as opposed to the works of University of Pennsylvania sociologist E. Digby Baltzell (The Protestant Establishment, Philadelphia Gentlemen, Puritan Boston Quaker Philadelphia), Robert C. Christopher (Crashing the Gates), Nelson W. Aldrich, Jr. (Old Money), Joseph Epstein (Snobbery), David Brooks (Bobos in Paradise), etc., etc. All are great books and are also worth reading.
Book Description
Attorney Sarah Rand returns home from abroad to discover she is a dead woman. In shocked disbelief she realizes the murder victim mistakenly identified as her was really her best friend. No one knows Sarah's still alive -- except the killers still hunting her down.
Alone and on the run, Sarah desperately seaches for answers. Why has her boss and mentor, a prominent local judge, been arrested for the crime? What does she have or know that's worth killing for? And what are the most powerful people in exclusive Newport -- a senator, a dying professor and his embittered wife, a top-notch security expert and a cadre of criminals -- determined to hide?
With danger closing in, Sarah is forced to turn to Owen Dean, a man she barely knows -- a man who has secrets of his own. But what she needs to stay alive . . . is someone she can trust.
Customer Reviews:
waste of money.......2007-05-22
I'm about halfway through this book, and trying to hurry through it so I can read something better. Characters' secrets are starting to come out. Too bad I don't care about any of these characters! Maybe I would if they had some depth, but they don't have much more than names. Before I started this book, I added another of Jan Coffey's books to my wish list. I deleted that book.
If you like Mary Higgins Clark, check this author out!.......2004-02-25
Attorney Sarah Rand wen to Ireland for two weeks. Her best friend, Tori, was house-sitting for her. When Sarah returned to Rhode Island, she was pulled over by the police. They tried to kill her, but Sarah escaped and was picked up by Owen Dean. Sarah had no idea that everyone thought her dead for weeks now! Her boss, Judge Arnold, was arrested for the crime! Sarah could not go to the police, since they had apparently tried to kill her. She first needed to find out why and who wanted her dead so she could come forward with answers to release the judge from jail and not have to keep looking over her shoulder. She called the only person no one could connect her with, Owen Dean.
Even though Owen thought Sarah was crazy at first, he agreed to help her for one day. He quickly became a believer! Soon her had several personal reasons to keep helping her. And bodies were piling up as the killers kept attempting to finish their job!
***** I have no doubt that this one will hit the best seller list! Eery page is filled with non-stop action and suspense. I was able to figure parts of it out, but most were surprises to me. I love books that keep me guessing! It seemed to me, as I read along, that Jan Coffey was born to write Mystery Thrillers! Mary Higgins Clark fans need to take a good long look at this rising author! *****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
A romantic suspense that will hook you from page one..........2003-06-05
Sarah Rand came back from Ireland to see the headlines of her own murder. Before she can even think of what's going on, she is devestated by the obvious loss of her best friend who was murdered in her place. As she realizes how much danger she is in, the only person she can trust is a stranger.
Owen Dean has his own demons to face. When he comes upon Sarah walking along a muddy road, he feels he can do no less than give her a ride. When he realizes who she is, he wants to contact the police immediately, but is convinced by her that there is a bigger conspiracy going on that anyone is aware of.
Over the course of a week, the suspense in Trust Me Once goes up and down, but stays up most of the time. Sarah unknowingly put herself right in the middle of a murder case that took place eighteen years before. Now the only person she can trust in Owen, who she is falling in love with more each day. Together Owen and Sarah work to uncover the mystery behind her 'death' and try to keep her alive at the same time.
Great!
Enteraining, Suspenseful and Fun.......2002-01-25
What would you do if you were a smart, independent, beautiful lawyer and landed at JFK only to find you were dead?
Well, you probably wouldn't go in search of romance. And neither does the protagonist of "Trust Me Once," Sarah Rand. Still that's what she finds. And it is the kind of romance that keeps the reader interested, waiting, waiting, waiting for some s-e-x to happen.
I did not find this boring. It was rather like a hard to catch beau-all the more desirable because he doesn't fall into line too quickly. And the suspense line provided plenty of the ups and downs and ins and outs to keep me in a hotel room reading when I should have been out seeing the sights in San Franciso.
So, is this a good read? Yes. Is it entertaining? Absolutely. Will you like the characters? Sure. Are you going to carry the story with you always? Probably not. If that's what you want, go back to one of those classics that you substituted Cliff Notes for when you were in school. This is a suspenseful romance, and sometimes that is quite enough.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"
JUST SO, SO. . ........2001-11-29
(...) One of my complaints about Trust Me Once was there were just too many characters roaming around. Also a couple of the coincidences in the plot line were just too contrived. For those determined to purchase this book, I don't want to ruin the story by being more specific on that point. Maybe a tighter plot would have helped or a shorter story. "Jan Coffey" also writes as May McGoldrick and I recently read THE PROMISE. In my opinion a much better book.
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Trust Me Once
Jan Coffey
Manufacturer: Mira Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739418602 |
Product Description
3 massmarket paperback Titles By Coffey - Trust Me Once - Twice Burned - Five in a Row
Average customer rating:
- Amazing Variety and Out of This World Fun
- OUT OF THIS WORLD!
- Back to the Future
- Blast from the past...
- I Want More Books Just Like This One!
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This Place Has No Atmosphere
Paula Danziger
Manufacturer: Putnam Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Remember Me to Harold Square (Novel)
ASIN: 069811695X |
Book Description
It's the year 2057 and fourteen-year-old Aurora couldn't be happier with her life on Earth—she's part of the "in" crowd, her best friend is a celebrity, and Matthew has asked her to Homecoming. But Aurora's parents have new jobs on the moon, and she and her little sister must leave their friends and schools to go with them. Aurora is sure she will hate life on the moon, because there are only 750 people in the whole colony. What if none of them is a cute boy her age?
Customer Reviews:
Amazing Variety and Out of This World Fun.......2005-07-01
This was a great story. Aurora disovers she is going to leave everything behind, her friends, her school, and most devastating of all, her boyfriend Matthew! What's worse is that she is leaving all this behind to live on the moon for 5 years, with a bunch of "barfburgers"! How will she survive?
It takes a lot of acceptance, reflection, inflection and changing before Aurora realizes that she has a place to belong on the moon in the year 2056. She discovers that the life she left behind and the friends she clung to so much are totally fake, and dispassionate about anything.
Danziger does a great job of creating Aurora and Starr, the two sisters who make this story memorable. Written and published in 1986, Danziger employs slang and cliches that would escape the grasp of todays kids. However her subtle predictions on lifestyles, and her intriguing plot develop a fun story that kids will love.
One of my favorite strategies used by Danziger is the variety of writing formats she presents different chapters in. While most is narrated in first person from Aurora's perspective, Danziger also uses letter format, lists, a lunar quiz, and even a script format for one chapter. This kind of fun writing is inspiring and encouraging to a dream to be writer like myself.
OUT OF THIS WORLD!.......2005-03-24
This Place Has No Atmosphere is probably the best book ever written.It's the story of a girl who lives in a future where kids have psychic powers,wear tunics, have funky hairstyles, and can live on the moon thanks to an oxygen filled bubble colony. Even in the future teens will still be teens and things such as crushes,dorky siblings, being cool,peer pressure and of course moving stress are all faced in this awesome read. If you didn't like this book you are probably an alien.
Back to the Future.......2004-03-13
This book is about a teenager in the year 2057 name Aurora whose life on Earth is a teenage dream. Unfortunately, she has to leave it all behind to be with her parents and bratty brother on the moon; a change Aurora has to learn to cope with, lunar dust and all.
It's been so long since I last read this book. I think I was thirteen and Amazon hadn't been invented yet (I'm now 26, by the way, and I already know of one mall that has condos built over it), but I haven't forgotten about it at all. I loved it then and I still love it now. The plot, puns and characters have stayed with me and all I could say is that a book that stays with you for this long with such fond memories deserves a five all the way.
Aurora is a wonderful character; imperfect yet lovable (when she isn't whining) and the surrounding cast bring out the best and worse in her. The setting of the story makes for a refreshing take for an otherwise uninteresting theme, yet we are not made to forget that in spite of the fast-paced developments in technology, we remain simply human, folks who eat the batch of brownies grandma sent, down to the last crumb (biggest thumb rules!) and teens who pop pimples in spite of clearasil and parents who embarrass their children.
Book best served for tweens.
Blast from the past..........2003-11-12
Whenever I think of the Thornton Wilder play "Our Town," I am reminded of Paula Danziger's book "This Place Has No Atmosphere." It was already a little dated in the mid-90s when I read it in middle school, but the characters rang true and I enjoyed it immensely. I don't remember the story itself so much as I remember that it was one of the first books that made me stop and think about new ideas every once in a while. How would people live on the moon? What does it mean to REALLY move away?
In short: if I remember this book after nearly ten years and hundreds of books in between, there's got to be something sepecial about it.
I Want More Books Just Like This One!.......2003-08-06
Aurora lives in the late 2000's!She is not exactly over the Earth when her family goes to live on the Moon!!!!!
An absolutely FUN novel with Danziger's interesting views of the future as written in the 1980's.
Average customer rating:
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This Place Has No Atmosphere
Manufacturer: Yearling Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 9995481308 |
Customer Reviews:
Journey in Spiritual Growth.......2005-10-07
The book engages you in a journey of spiritual growth and discovers. It is best experienced in the small group environment. This title is the second in a series of small-group resources. The journey takes eight-weeks with daily exercises. This particular book is designed to explore the movement from shame, guilt and anger to forgiveness and reconciliation.
I have found the book to have a profound impact on my life. I found the journey to challenge me spiritually. This adventure is not a counseling session. It is like wrestling with an angel, you emerge from the struggle with a blessing if you ask for the blessing.
I found the journey very profound. The journey is about how we daily live our lives and our faith in a world of realities far from the idea. What a blessing this journey has been in my life. I pray you experience the same.
Book Description
Firearms expert Gene Gangarosa, Jr., has written the definitivee work on the development of Spanish handguns from the late 19th century to 2001.His 320-page, heavily illustrated book features the story of the Basque people of northern Spain, whose skilled arms makers produced the famed Astra, Ruby (Llama) and Jo-Lo-Ar (Star) pistols.
Book Description
Everything you need to know to promote your salon successfully is contained in this unique, new resource by Robert Oppenheim, founder of the American Beauty Association and industry giant. No matter how large or small, every business needs promotional activity to attract and maintain clients, sell products, and increase revenue. This up-to-date, easy-to-follow book shows you creative ways to do just that-on a shoestring budget. Among the many ideas are simple methods for capitalizing on the weather, taking advantage of holidays, starting a nail club, rewarding clients to guarantee repeat business, and much more. Using Oppenheim's brainstorming techniques, this book will help any salon owner create and employ an effective promotional plan.
Customer Reviews:
101 Salon Promotions.......2000-05-24
This book is very exciting and very creative! The ideas shared are simple to do and fun as well. I can't imagine any salon without it!
Book Description
The most complete preparation available for the NCIDQ exam, helping thousands of candidates to receive their certification.
Customer Reviews:
NCIDQ STUDY GUIDE BY BALLAST.......2007-09-14
THIS IS A GREAT RESOURCE! ALMOST REFERENCES ALL THE OTHER BOOKS ON THE NCIDQ STUDY LIST. THIS COULD BE THE ONLY BOOK YOU NEED TO READ TO STUDY.
Interior Design Reference Manual: A Guide to the NCIDQ Exam.......2007-03-09
Exam Sections I, II, & III correspond to the three exams that are administered to Interior Design license candidates, a requirement in the State of Illinois.
Interior Design Reference Manual.......2007-03-09
This is an important book to read if you are studying for the NCIDQ. It is basically a good review of prior Interior Design studies. Well written and clear. A good lesson in how the NCIDQ quesitons are written.
Helpful review for the NCIDQ exam.......2007-02-21
This version of the review manual is thorough and updated from the first edition. It discusses sustainablility issues, fire protection and current code information with which interior design professionals should be familiar. Even if you are not taking the exam, this book tells you how to operate as a professional and how to protect yourself in the business world of interior design.
Interior Design Reference Manual: A Guide to the NCIDQ Exam.......2006-11-03
I think the book was helpful... it broke down the sections of design well and offered up just enough information about everything to be a good guide / refresher from the days I was in school.
Customer Reviews:
A "must have" for anyone taking the NCIDQ.......2001-11-27
Despite a couple of misstatements this book was invalueable to me in studying for the NCIDQ. Although the format of the exam has changed, the nature of the questions have not. The chapter questions force you to really think about what is being asked. I doubt I could have done well in first two sections of the exam without it.
Required Reading for Interior Designers.......2001-08-27
This is a required text in my Construction Documents Course at Parsons School of Design. The Guide is indespensible for Interior Designers and Future Interior Designers.
NCIDQ Exam Changing.......2000-05-10
This is a good book. However, the NCIDQ exam is changing -- a new exam will be administered in October, 2000. This book may not be as helpful for those that will be taking the new NCIDQ exam in October.
NCIDQ Comment/Clarification.......2000-03-19
The following is a statement from the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ):
NCIDQ does recommend this book as a preparation guide for the NCIDQ examination. Overall, this book is a good study tool for exam candidates. It provides a thorough overview of the basic knowledge tested.
However, NCIDQ is not responsible for the content of this book and recommends that this book be used in conjunction with other study materials. The sample questions and problems included in the book are not written by NCIDQ and will not appear on the examination. Any technical inaccuracies (including answers to the sample questions/problems) are the responsibility of the author. NCIDQ does not warrant or guarantee that reliance on this or any other publication will ensure successful completion of the NCIDQ examination.
Warning.......1999-12-14
Despite its title the book is not approved by NCIDQ for use in studying for the exam since it contains a number of serious inaccuracies related to technical and code issues.
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Space Graphysm
Hiromura Masaaki
Manufacturer: Gingko Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 9063690487 |
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Starring Michael Caine
David Bishop
Manufacturer: Reynolds & Hearn
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1903111579 |
Book Description
A complete guide to the wide–ranging career of one of the most esteemed actors of his day, featuring 75 still photos.
Books:
- Angel Scene / Teeth and Tongue Landscape (Eraserhead Double #2)
- Animal Triste
- Arrancame La Vida/ Tear Up My Life
- Aurelia & Other Writings
- Beyond the Cayenne Wall: Collection of Short Stories
- Blu's Hanging
- Brick Lane: A Novel
- BUCKING THE SUN : A Novel
- Burning the Sea: A Novel
- By the Light of My Father's Smile: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Books Index
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