The Food Service Professionals Guide to Food Service Menus: Pricing and Managing the Food Service Menu for Maximum Profit: 365 Secrets Revealed (Food Service Professionals Guide to)

Book Description

This new series of fifteen books - The Food Service Professional Guide TO Series from the editors of the Food Service Professional are the best and most comprehensive books for serious food service operators available today.

These step-by-step guides on a specific management subject range from finding a great site for your new restaurant to how to train your wait staff and literally everything in between. They are easy and fast -to-read, easy to understand and will take the mystery out of the subject. The information is "boiled down" to the essence. They are filled to the brim with up to date and pertinent information.

The books cover all the bases, providing clear explanations and helpful, specific information. All titles in the series include the phone numbers and web sites of all companies discussed. What you won't find are wordy explanations, tales of how someone did it better, or a scholarly lecture on the "theory". Think of them as "Cliff Notes TM" on the subject matter.

Every paragraph in each of the books are comprehensive, well researched, engrossing, and just plain fun-to-read, yet are packed with interesting ideas. You'll be using your highlighter a lot! The best part aside from the content is they are very moderately price. You can also purchase the whole 15 book series the isbn number is 0-910627-26-6. You are bound to get a great new idea to try on every page if not out of every paragraph. Do not be put off by the low price, these books really do deliver the critical information and eye opening ideas you need you to succeed without the fluff so commonly found in more expensive books on the subject. Highly recommended!

Customer Reviews:

A wake up call for any restaurateur... .......2006-01-27

This book is a wake up call for any restaurateur who believes that creating a menu is as simple as lumping a few dishes together on a sheet of paper. I put thought into my menu, scoped out the competition, and even developed signature dishes. Food Service Menus took me several steps further. It provided samples of market and competitor surveys so I could determine if what I was offering was something that customers would actually want. The book really came in handy with links to menu building software and nutritional calculations. It seems like a lot of work to put into a menu. When you consider that that the majority of your profit rests on your menu, the hard work is well worth it.

THIS is FSP's most useful, most thorough, guide!.......2004-01-13

If you will peruse my other two reviews of guides published by Food Service Professional you will note I am not bashful - when they short change me I tell you straight out!

This guide, though, is superior to any other guide I have read - thorough, detailed, and helpful without wasting reams of paper to appear more complete. This is a must-read for anybody wanting to set their menu prices at optimum profitability.

I especially appreciated the various formulas, explanations and examples they provided so I could get my head around the topic (as the Brits are fond of saying) and not feel that some rule of thumb (such as, three times the ingredient cost) is the only way to price. Rules of thumb can get you in trouble and are only a guide based on 'all other things being equal.' That explains why I liked their information throughout chapter 5. This one chapter would probably be worth a full semester in college!

To be sure, the principles elucidated in chapter five can be applied to any business economics class and such students would gain immeasurable benefit.

Be watching for LJ's Breaking Free$ to learn more ways to make money by starting your own business or small farm - Bill Anderson (LJ).

Great Book.......2002-10-12

Great Book! I Found These step-by-step guides easy-to-read, and easy to understand! The books are packed with information. They reminded me of "cliff Notes" from my college days.The information is comprehensive without the fluff you find in so many of the more expensive books out there on the subject. The books are also packed with resources such as phone numbers and the web sites of the companies they are discussing - there is no "theory" just great information.

Book Description

The marriage of Kate Chase to William Sprague inaugurated the most publicized union and divorce of the Civil War era. Katherine “Kate” Chase was the daughter of Salmon P. Chase, a leading antislavery politician and member of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet. Motherless from an early age, she became her father’s official hostess during the Civil War and Reconstruction years as well as his unofficial campaign manager. At the opening of the Civil War, her husband, William Sprague, was a wealthy industrialist, the “boy governor” of Rhode Island, a dashing military figure, and an alcoholic.

After looking at the lives of Chase and Sprague before they met, Peg A. Lamphier analyzes their courtship, their marriage, Chase's role as her father’s campaign manager, Sprague’s marital infidelities, Chase’s affair with Roscoe Conkling, Sprague’s abusiveness, and Chase and Sprague’s divorce and the issues of child custody it evoked. Pushing the boundaries of power and gender, Chase showed her ability to play politics in both public and private forums and to regain her independence as a woman in an arena dominated by men. Kate Chase and William Sprague delves into the social history of a nineteenth-century marriage and provides important insight into the role of gender in the political history of the time.

Customer Reviews:

Kate Chase and William Sprague: Politics and Gender.......2007-01-03

An excellent book! The author really knows her subject and makes this history book as readable as a romance novel. An amazing amount of history that a lot of us might have skipped over in another book. Once I started this book I couldn't put it down.

Outstanding.......2006-03-12

I've read every biography on Kate Chase Sprague that's around today, and this one, by far, is the best. Peg Lamphier combines the historical background with the characters of Kate and William, and masterfully brings both of them to life in a way I have yet to see in other books. I was so impressed that I've read this book more than once, and each time I find something that makes me remember, Kate was a real person, and a "glorious girl", and what happened to her could happen to anyone.

Kate's life is one that makes me want to go back in time and shake her, but then, we all have to live our lives and do the best that we can with our choices and paths we take.

This biography is well-written, well-researched, and extremely interesting. The author comes across as being much more sympathetic towards Kate than some I've read do, but that's okay. It fits in this book. This is definitely not a novel and not easy reading at times, but I highly recommend it for any serious student of Kate Chase, her marriage to William Sprague, and for those curious about gender and gender differences during the Victorian Era.

Cindy Obermier

Well Researched and Illuminating.......2003-11-03

This is at least the 5th biography of the Civil War Northern Belle, Kate Chase (daughter of Lincoln's Treasury Secretary), and it takes good advantage of material not available to prior researchers. It continues the revisionist trend from the last bio ("Kate Chase for the Defense", by Sokoloff) of trying to humanize this ambitious woman and portrary her in a more sympathetic light than the first several books. The author makes as good a case as one can for her point of view, and candidly admits to favoritism (she announces in the prologue that she will ever be a Kate supporter, and discloses an unmitigated hatred of Kate's husband William Sprague). But the gender politics angle grows tiresome after a while and detracts from the story. One wishes the book were told in a more dramatic manner; there is certainly more than enough raw material for that.

The best new stuff here concerns the hitherto unknown extent to which the Roscoe Conkling-Kate Chase relationship continued well after the famous "shotgun" incident in which the cuckolded Sprague threatened to blow Conkling's head off, setting off a national scandal. I was particularly intrigued by materials indicating that Kate continued to press the case for Conkling to President Chester Alan Arthur, urging Arthur to give her lover a high-level position in his administration at a time when it should have been obvious that this was not in the cards. Indeed, much of the new research material merely bolsters the picture of Kate Chase as a ceaselessly calculating individual, almost oblivious to what others thought of her. The author is not averse to calling her subject on a number of things, particularly her public prevarication following the shotgun incident, but the sense is that Kate is let off a bit too lightly on this and other matters. And the effort to explain much of Kate's behavior as stemming from a serious, substantive concern for liberal Republican values is not terribly convincing; there is little hard evidence that Kate's political activity was based on anything other than a desire to see her and her loved ones (her father, Conkling, even Sprague) attain positions of personal and political power. That is how virtually all of her contemporaries who knew her saw her (even friends such as John Hay), and the modern biographer bears a heavy burden in trying to impeach that conventional view. (the one vignette I wish the author had included is Hay's diary account of how Kate virtually pleaded with him to dine with her and Conkling a few years after the scandal; Hay made up an excuse for declining).

While early biographers went too far in painting Kate Chase as a cold, ambitious, cutthroat personality, this book tilts a bit too far in the other direction. We could now use a full-bodied, objective bio of this fascinating woman which makes use of the wealth of new material that seems to keep turning up and does not lose sight of the powerful drama that attended her life and times.

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Kate Chase & William Sprague: Politics and Gender in a Civil War Marriage.(Book Review) : An article from: The Historian
Steven E. Woodworth
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B000B9DUQQ
Release Date: 2005-09-03

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2005. The length of the article is 486 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kate Chase & William Sprague: Politics and Gender in a Civil War Marriage.(Book Review)
Author: Steven E. Woodworth
Publication: The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 67 Issue: 2 Page: 324(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Kate Chase and William Sprague: Politics and Gender in a Civil War Marriage.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History

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Kate Chase and William Sprague: Politics and Gender in a Civil War Marriage.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History
Melanie S. Gustafson
Manufacturer: Southern Historical Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on February 1, 2005. The length of the article is 445 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kate Chase and William Sprague: Politics and Gender in a Civil War Marriage.(Book Review)
Author: Melanie S. Gustafson
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 2005
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 71 Issue: 1 Page: 172(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

revelation without naming names.......2002-05-21

Marese O Shea is the nom de pillow of Irelands most infamous femme fatal and The True Story of the Vice Queen, is her tragic yet fascinating tale. In a perhaps ghostwritten work, which is destined to become a cult classic, Marese warmly recounts her rise as a vice queen; illuminating the shadows of Irish culture- inhabited by politicans, rockstars, junkies, businessmen, cops, and the common man/woman. In parallel she reveals her years of self abuse and abuse by others while revolutionising the Irish sex industry. In what is ultimately a tale of tragedy under triumph, Merese convinces the reader that she deserves a better future but not that she will actually have one.

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The Doors, Love, Judy Collins, Tim Buckley, and Phil Ochs were all products of the nurturing environment at the Elektra Records of the '60s and early '70s. With help from coauthor Gavan Daws, the label's then head, Jac Holzman, collects his reminiscences and those of many of his cohorts in the enlightening, often hilarious Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Culture. This oral history follows Holzman's exploits from his days as a producer of small pressings of obscure folk music to his signing of rockers like Jim Morrison and Arthur Lee and his eventual sale of the company and subsequent departure. Before he left, though, Holzman and friends had irrevocably altered, as he says, the "recording technique, packaging, marketing and the behavioral sciences of rock and roll." --Rickey Wright

Book Description

Jac Holzman witnessed a cultural transformation during the time he ran Elektra Records from 1950 to 1973. Follow the Music captures pivotal scenes of pop culture as Holzman saw them, from what happened backstage when Bob Dylan went electric to Jim Morrison's legendary shenanigans.

Customer Reviews:

Simply the best.......2006-07-20

I have read my share of music industry books and this is by far the best one. And what is inspiring is that you do can make good business in this industry and still keep your integrity, just follow Jac Holzmann's example describe in this book. Awesome read!

Top Shelf.......2006-06-27

One of the best books on the music industry I have ever read. When you read a book about a band or artist, or about an era in music or whatever, what you mostly want is to feel like you were there at the time these people were recording and gigging and just being bands. Follow the Music gives you a first-class seat in Elektra's offices, at its artists' concerts, in rehearsal spaces, in restaurants where biz wheeling and dealing is done . . . You come away knowing Jac Holzman underpaid his staffers and artists, but that he genuinely cared about the quality of music his label put out, and about artists' integrity. I wish there had been as much on Arthur Lee and Love as there is on the Doors, but then the Doors were Elektra's biggest-selling act, so I guess it makes sense that they get the most ink in the book. I also didn't like the way the sections on the MC5 and the Stooges - two of the most important bands in the history of rock - are so short, while the one on Carly Simon is so long. But that's because I like the MC5, love the Stooges and wish Carly Simon would go away. But these are quibbles. I loved the book. How much did I love the book? I don't even like the Doors, save for 5 or 6 of their songs, yet I drank in every word about them, and went back and listened to their debut and L.A. Woman because the chapters on those two albums were so moving.

Worth the price for the CD!.......2006-05-09

This is a must read for music fans! There is something for nearly everyone here: The story of the founding and growth of Elektra Records (how an energetic young man, Jac Holzman, with a few hundred dollars, good musical taste and a ton of ideas could actually start a thriving record company). The history of many early folk music performers such as Theodore Bikel, Judy Collins, Jean Richie and many others. The story of the creation of Nonesuch Records (a low-cost Classical division). The history of many Rock performers (including Jim Morrison of the Doors). There is even enough technical info about early recording, studio design and Dolby units to satisfy a tech geek (such as myself)! The image conjured up of a young Holzman setting out with a Magnacord P-6 recorder strapped to his Vespa scooter, to record folk music performances in NYC really conveys the "shoestring" attributes of Elektra Records in the early days. At the other end of the scale, the design of studio "B" was perhaps representative of the "excesses " of the rock era.

The copy of this book that I got from Amazon included a "bonus" CD that contains many tracks of early Ekektra performers that have not been re-released on CD. To me, this CD was worth the price & the book was essentially "free"!

It is sad that only a few recordings from the early Elektra "folk period" have been re-issued on CD. This situation is starting to improve, (see my other reviews for some early Elektra folk "gems" that I have found on CD).

Lovely telling of Elektra and the '60s music industry.......2005-04-29

Elektra emerged from the '60s as one of a very few independent labels to match the majors success. While others had fleeting commercial success or labored in record-collector obscurity, Elektra managed to maintain its artistic roots as it found its way up the top-40 charts. Label founder, Jac Holzman, and co-writer Gavan Daws re-tell the music industry's transformation to a conglomeratized business through the prism of Elektra's emergence in Greenwich Village folk clubs to its absorption into the WEA triad.

Holzman's first-person reminiscences are brilliantly interwoven with interviews from many of those who were there, providing additional shades to many of the story's events. The first half of the book is particularly fetching, following Holzman as he founds his label amid the folk revival of the early '60s, and makes up business practices to match his feel for the art and artists. Also of great reward are Holzman's tech-rich descriptions of equipment and recording sessions. Less incisive is Elektra's flight into the arms of Warner Brothers, no doubt reflecting Holzman's relative disinterest in the business of music.

Journey of 1000 miles begins with a step.......2003-04-28

Once, in the MUSIC business, there were men and women in charge of labels who, with a combination of passion about great music,
and just the right amount of business acumen, were able to nurture the explosion of musical creativity in the 60s. Jac Holzman is just such a person.

The exciting and interesting story of Elektra records is told using an oral history approach; illuminating the story with a fascile balance of viewpoint.

I had never heard the full story of how Love and then, The Doors,
became labelmates at Elektra. There were moments in the telling of that particular story where I felt that I could almost reach out and touch the participants.

FOLLOW THE MUSIC is an entertaining, engrossing, sometimes funny-sometimes tragic account of one of the titans of American music and his lovechild; whose ability to follow his dream to it's fruition has enriched us all. Oh, if we could all be so blessed.

Book Description

In the 1960s and 1970s, the textile industry's workforce underwent a dramatic transformation, as African Americans entered the South's largest industry in growing numbers. Only 3.3 percent of textile workers were black in 1960; by 1978, this number had risen to 25 percent. Using previously untapped legal records and oral history interviews, Timothy Minchin crafts a compelling account of the integration of the mills.

Minchin argues that the role of a labor shortage in spurring black hiring has been overemphasized, pointing instead to the federal government's influence in pressing the textile industry to integrate. He also highlights the critical part played by African American activists. Encouraged by passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, black workers filed antidiscrimination lawsuits against nearly all of the major textile companies. Still, Minchin notes, even after the integration of the mills, African American workers encountered considerable resistance: black women faced continued hiring discrimination, while black men found themselves shunted into low-paying jobs with little hope of promotion.

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A thought provoking look inside the Reagan White House

Very Interesting and Entertaining Book

For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington
Donald T. Regan
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0151639663

Customer Reviews:

A thought provoking look inside the Reagan White House.......2005-09-18

When he assumed the presidency, Ronald Reagan knew what had to be done to turn the country around after four years of ruinous Democrat rule. He also knew that in order to do it, he would have to find the best qualified men and women in the nation to carry out his policies. One of the men he selected was Donald Regan, the son of an Irish policeman, who had attended Harvard on a scholarship, served in the Marine Corp during World War II, and worked his way up through the ranks to become Chairman of the Board of Merrill Lynch. By the time Reagan became president, Donald Regan was a wealthy man contemplating a quiet retirement. Instead, he came aboard and became Secretary of the Treasury in Ronald Reagan's first term and, upon Reagan's re-election, his Chief of Staff. In this book, Regan takes us behind the scenes in the Reagan White House and lets us follow the action from the beginning of Reagan's administration up to the time of his resignation.

It is an insightful story told by a man who was there. Reading it, one gets the impression that Regan has never been given the credit he deserves for his contributions to the nation's economic recovery as Secretary of the Treasury. At the same time, one senses that Donald Regan may have been seriously misjudged by the reporters with whom he was forced to interact as Chief of Staff and, partly because of his so called "abrasive" personality, was harshly treated by the news media. Looking at things from the inside, rather than the outside, it also seems likely that Regan, in the public mind, was held responsible during the Iran/Contra Affair for things of which he had no knowledge and over which he had no control or authority.

In the end, Regan was forced to resign, and his resignation was accomplished in such a manner as to embarrass Regan and detract from what should have been an exemplary reputation. The impression one gets from this sad end is that it came about not because of anything Regan had done during the Iran/Contra Affair or because of his presumed abrasive personality, or even because he was constantly under attack by the press. In my view, it happened [in the way it did] simply because Ronald Reagan had been absolutely convinced that Donald Regan had committed the one unpardonable sin in Reagan's eyes. He had rebuffed and insulted Nancy Reagan and perhaps other members of the Reagan family.

This is an in-depth and enlightening study of the inner-workings of the Reagan White House, and since it is based on the meticulous notes kept by Donald Regan while part of that administration it will be an invaluable resource for future generations of historians. The strangest and most interesting thing, to me, about this book, however, is that despite the way in which he was (essentially) fired and in light of the fact that Reagan and Regan never met or spoke again; Donald Regan seemed to have an extremely difficult time saying anything bad about Ronald Reagan.

Very Interesting and Entertaining Book.......2002-04-14

I thought this was a well written, interesting and entertaining book describing his time in the Reagan White House. The author was the topic so I always do discount a little of what I read, but from some of the other books, I have read, from the Reagan staff, it looks like he did not pull too many Al Haig's and get an over blown ego. The detail on his job in the treasury department was very interesting, the explanations of the Reagan economic policies and their effects of the debit levels and currency value was also well done. Very few authors could document this topic and make it interesting. I think the most press on this book was due to his explanation of his relationship with Nancy and her controlling of the president by some tarot card reader in San Francisco. He handled it well and it is a juicy bit in the book. If you are interested in the Reagan administration then this is a good book that keeps you interested. If you are looking for a Reagan love fest then I would pick up Meeses's book, it is like a teenager writing a love letter to a boy band.

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The Americans: An Economic Record
Stanley Lebergott
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393953114

American Indian reservations and trust areas (SuDoc C 46.2:IN 2/16)

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American Indian reservations and trust areas (SuDoc C 46.2:IN 2/16)
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Manufacturer: Economic Development Administration, U.S. Dept. of Commerce
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00010RFWK

Contemporaries of Bulstrode Whitelocke, 1605-1675: Biographies, Illustrated by Letters and Other Documents (Records of Social and Economic History New Series)

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Contemporaries of Bulstrode Whitelocke, 1605-1675: Biographies, Illustrated by Letters and Other Documents (Records of Social and Economic History New Series)
Ruth Spalding
Manufacturer: British Academy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

The Papers of Bulstrode Whitelocke, brought together from various sources, form an important archive - quite separate from his Diary - and much of it unpublished or even unknown to scholars. Ruth Spalding has selected about 1000 names from the Diary, assembled biographical details that elucidate the Diary references, and has worked into this framework much new material from Whitelocke's papers. Many entries shed light on the politics of the period, since Whitelocke knew nearly all the leading characters personally. There is also much information on the `unhonoured dead' - secretaries, servants, tenants, villagers, and petty officials. The volume complements Miss Spalding's edition of The Diary of Bulstrode Whitelocke, 1605-1675 (RSEH New Series XIII)

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CPT 2000 Medical Specialties
American Medical Association
Manufacturer: Amer Medical Assn
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Cpt Companion: Frequently Asked Questions About Cpt Coding

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Cpt Companion: Frequently Asked Questions About Cpt Coding
American Medical Association
Manufacturer: Amer Medical Assn
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0899708978

Economic Instability & Growth: The American Record

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Economic Instability & Growth: The American Record
Robert Aaron Gordon
Manufacturer: Harper&Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NVNXL4

Product Description

Deluxe p/v/g folio includes all of the songs from the album, plus two bonus songs; colour photos; and notes from Tori herself.

Customer Reviews:

Fun and Challenging!.......2006-07-08

I have been playing the piano for almost a decade and I find "Under the Pink" a challenging book. However, I am new to the music of Tori Amos and I have noticed tricky key signatures followed by many accidentals in her other book transcriptions. Rhythms are often complex but should be dampered if you are familiar with the original recording by Tori. "Pretty Good Year" is the only piece I can play in its entirety. This song alone is worth the price of the book. Other reviews of this book are correct. Some songs follow the vocal line in the right hand whereas some use the piano harmonies. Notable segments are removed from "Cornflake Girl" and "Icicle" but you do receive two piano instrumental bee-sides, which is a treat.

Personally, "Under the Pink" is my favorite studio album from Tori Amos. The piano is presented in a more dignified and classical manner than her other albums, which makes these transcriptions open to potential disappointment from fans who excel in piano and expect exact transcriptions.

I recommend this book for any pianist. To a beginner, you can simplify the transcriptions easily. Intermediate players should be able to play the music as written. Advanced players can probably ad lib to what is presented.

Under Stands (slightly) Above (most of) the Rest.......2003-03-16

Given the nature of Tori Amos's music (and slightly obsessive fans) one would think that Amsco would be interested in releasing the most accurate possible piano score to each of her recordings ... complete with vocal notation and extensive editor's notes! However, this is not always the case. Her sheet music books often provide over-simplified piano parts reduced to melody and the bass-line. Harmony vocals are nearly unheard of, and comments from the editor are virtually non-existant.

The biggest problem with many of her books is their follow-the-vocal approach to right hand notation, which typically ignores Tori's expressive playing in favor of a cut-n-paste job from the melody line along with sparse chords on the down-beats. This issue is somewhat avoided in Pink, on which Tori follows her own vocals much of the time already.

Some sections are slightly "dumbed down" from Tori's playing ("Yes, Anastasia" specifically), but the changes blend better and are much subtler here than in other books. Even the repetitive left hand parts of "Pretty Good Year" and "Icicle" are preserved nearly verbatim from the record. Bonus piano compositions "All The Girls Hate Her" and "Over It" are stunningly well-done.

However, off-setting the faithful transcriptions in this book are a few key transgressions. Foremost is the neutering of "Cornflake Girl," presented here without any of its awe-inspiring solos and with too much right-hand-play-a-long. Luckily, a brief internet search will lead you to several quality transcriptions of this gem. Equally as offensive is the trimming of the classical-style openings of both "Icicle" and "Yes, Anastasia," but the rest of each song is faithful.

Pink is a challenging album to play, and includes a few remarkable passages ("Cloud On My Tongue"), key signatures (Cb on most of "Icicle"), and ever-shifting time-signatures ("God" ... yikes). Vocals are noted with precision -- this album is largely lacking in backing vocals. The exception is "Space Dog," which *does* include backgrounds in its bridge/outro.

For the guitarists among you (of which I am one), Under The Pink offers sensible chord translations, and it includs the use of capos where chords would otherwise be painful to play. The book only ever suggests capoing up to the first fret, but you may find better options for some tunes on your own (try 6th for "Pretty Good Year").

Aside from "Cornflake Girl" every song in this book is presented in a playable *and* mostly accurate fashion. Not for the beginning pianist, but unless it comes back into print it will soon be hard to find!

Mixed feelings on partial transcription.......2000-06-11

Generally speaking, this book will be good for most fans of Tori who happen to also be reasonably competent on the piano. That said, these are not exactly what she plays (a bit easier, right hand tends to follow the melody), though they are in the correct key signatures. Advanced pianists who read music and have poor ears will likely be frustrated by the book because of the transcriptions, while advanced pianists with good ears likely can play a more accurate version of the songs than the transcriptions in the first place (this was my situation). Also, if you're a beginning pianist ( <2 years), the difficult key sigs will likely be hard for you. Still, I'm sure the book fits a nice broad swath of Toriphiles who worship the ground she walks on, so I give it 4 stars.

Better have been.......2000-04-16

I got this book for a preasent amd tryed to play all the songs. I havent played for a long time and can figur out most music but some things ae just strange. Cornflake Girl's rythm was way of in beging it was straight 8ths from the what i thinkquart 16th 16th doted quarter. It also includes all the girls hate her and over it which are easy and fun.

Great book for those of you who want to play the basic notes.......1999-10-05

This is a great and fun book for those of you who desire to play the basic notes; however, since Tori is so talented, it is somewhat toned down (at no fault of the editors). Its a fun book - I love the beginning with the pictures of Tori and the ones she drew, as well as the discography of even the hard to find singles. Aspiring serious Tori collectors will find this useful. Songs like Cornflake Girl and Yes, Anastasia are toned down a lot, but thats b/c she is just too good to transcribe efectively. Pretty Good Year is fun to play - it's pretty easy. Great book for those who want to play the basic notes, and a lot of fun :)

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Uncle Mame?

Bravo!

Gets to the heart

A backseat rider's view of Edmund White

Wonderful!

The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir
Keith Fleming
Manufacturer: Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Family & Childhood | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0060959304
Release Date: 2001-04-10

Book Description

At sixteen, Keith Fleming is so miserably defiant that he is locked in an adolescent mental hospital. Filled with despair, Keith's life is literally saved by his uncle, the writer Edmund White. Keith soon finds himself transformed as Uncle Ed arranges treatment for Keith's disfiguring acne, enrolls him in prep school, and instructs his nephew in a worldly view of life and love. Meanwhile, Uncle Ed is both strapped for cash and completely caught up in the beehive of social and sexual activity of 1970s gay Manhattan.

By turns lyrical, funny, and poignant, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side is full of fascinating characters and unexpected twists -- at once an odyssey into the extremes of the American 1970s, a universal tale of star-crossed teenage love, and an account of a deeply sensitive young person's struggle to find his place in the world.

Customer Reviews:

Uncle Mame?.......2003-12-03

Keith Fleming is a pretty good storyteller. He really makes you picture the times, places and characters in his life. Especially strong is the evil Doctor at the hospital and his wonderful uncle in New York City. (Edmund White) These characters and moments really stand out.

However most of this book just rambles about and then ends with no purpose whatsoever. At the end I wondered "why did he write it" and "why did I read it?". I would not recommend this book because it just meanders and ends with no explanation. I need more of a story arc even from a biography.

The other thing that puzzled me was why he would paint such a wonderful loving tribute to his uncle and then ruin it by mentioning an offhand sexual advance by his uncle. It seemed out of place never explored his feelings behind it or why it was even mentioned. It was kind of unsavory without a reason for it.

Keith needed a good editor on this book and some guidance.

Bravo!.......2001-08-09

This is one of the many memoirs / autobiographies, relating to the ubiquitous stories of 'troubled youth'. Flemmings emotional maturity and consistently strong writing has aloud him to tell the story of a turbulent adolescence akin to "Girl Interrupted", "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius", etc. I was not drawn to this novel for Ed White, but rather found it in the bookstore Biography section by chance. I have seen criticisms of Flemming's dupe on the public as advertising this to be a memoir of Ed White, but it this really the case? At face value, this is a remarkable memoir of a troubled journey through adolescence devoid of all "poor me" sentiments that the other above-mentioned memoirs seem to convey. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone - it is a gem!

Gets to the heart.......2001-04-08

I was going to buy this book as an anniversary present, but caught myself reading bits and pieces, until I had finished the whole thing. This is a well-written book that is very engaging. You laugh, cry, and wince as Fleming tells his story, and you close the book absolutely exhausted thinking about everything that happened within a relatively short time span. I recommend it for years to come.

A backseat rider's view of Edmund White.......2001-01-12

"Just who is Keith Fleming and why is he tryng to slay me" might be a good subtitle for this short memoir. Frankly I bought the book because of my great admiration for Edmund White (the Uncle Ed of Keith's minor autobiography) and in the end all reasons for liking the book reflect back to that initial response. Yes, this is the life of an unfortunate, acneiform teenage product of yet another dysfunctional family unit whose saving grace is his finding solace with his brilliant writer uncle in New York. Keith Fleming writes well, has some pages when his prose actually begins to sing, but aside from his "growing up" experience with Edmund White, his story - full of despair and cruel circumstances -hardly registers as a precis for a book. But all criticism aside, Fleming does give us more insights into the person of Edmund White and it is refreshing to read passages that demonstrate White's warmth and humanity and caring that often his books fail to suggest. Far from being just a flamboyant social surface person, White, as drawn by his nephew, has more than a modicum of compassion for family, for adolescence, for the sticks and stones that make us falter as we mature. So, I think this young writer bears watching. Maybe next time his misery will not be too much with us.......

Wonderful!.......2001-01-07

I found this memoir of Mr. Fleming's youth fascinating. It was extremely well written, vividly descriptive of his family and experiences with mother, father, psychiatrist, fellow patients, and finally, his loving uncle who rescued him from an ununderstanding world. I do not regard it as a "gay" book, but a moving description of a young man's journey through his youth, schooling, family, hospitalizations, love relationships. Anyone interested in young people especially, should find this as interesting as I did. I do recommend it.

The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir

Average customer rating:

The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir
Keith Fleming
Manufacturer: Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEQ5KG

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