Search this site    Elvis: The King Remembered Author: Osborne, Jerry Press / Associated Press (Creator) ISBN: 1-58261-558-6 Pages: 160 Format: Hardcover Publisher: SP, LLC Published: July 2002 Condition: Price: USD $9.99 Book Description: Every major event in Elvis' amazing life is highlighted in this remarkable book: his music breakthrough in 1955 (with "Mystery Train"); his first number 1 hit ("Heartbreak Hotel") and first movie ("Love Me Tender") in 1956; his Army service (1958-60); his marriage (1965) and divorce (1973) to Priscilla; the birth of their daughter, Lisa Marie, in 1968; his Graceland Mansion; his many famous concerts, television appearances and feature films; his death in 1977; and his enormous posthumous influence 25 years after his death. All of these milestones are richly detailed from the files of the Associated Press. This unique book is a priceless addition to any collection.   My American Journey Authors: Powell, Colin / Persico, Joseph E. ISBN: 0-679-43296-5 Pages: 656 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Random House Published: September 9, 1995 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 Amazon.com: General Powell may have undertaken this book as a form of paid political test marketing, but it turns out to be a success of an altogether different kind. We don't learn from this book if Powell is presidential material, but his recounting of the various steps of his career give us an unrivaled view of the ins and outs of military bureaucracy and shows how the modern American military, with its consistent emphasis on can-do attitudes and actual results, is a much more congenial place for realizing one's talents than our still-alarmingly pigeonholing general society. From School Library Journal: The eminently readable journey of one African American boy from a close-knit neighborhood in the South Bronx through his rise to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to civilian retirement. Powell was neither an athlete nor a scholar; his childhood centered around his home, friends, and church. Later, in college, he found his niche. ROTC offered structure and purpose. A recounting of his army career and the support offered by family and friends are the primary focus of this work. Challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities opened by each posting are shared. Commanding officers, selected business contracts, and four presidents are introduced and evaluated, almost all in a positive light. Powell's involvement with and analysis of national and international affairs, from Vietnam to the Clinton administration, are succinctly and objectively recounted. Scattered throughout the book are personal rules of conduct and occasional incidents of particular kindnesses and of racism. Teens are given an opportunity to spend some time with a thoughtful, positive leader. They can share one participant's view of recent history and gain one perspective on our country's current needs. Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VA Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. A Reporter's Life Author: Cronkite, Walter ISBN: 0-394-57879-1 Pages: 384 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Knopf Published: November 27, 1996 Condition: Price: USD $2.99 Amazon.com: Cronkite's prose has the same stately cadences as that famous voice, reinforcing the grandfatherly persona that made him America's most trusted anchorman until his retirement in 1981. He also has a dry sense of humor, so his memoirs are dignified rather than pompous. Chapters on the early days of radio and television broadcasting are colorful; the more episodic later portions contain some good anecdotes, plus a frank account of Cronkite's dismay at the direction CBS News took under Van Gordon Sauter. Just the book you'd expect from Uncle Walter. From Publishers Weekly: Written with wry, self-deprecating humor, Cronkite's memoir gives us the veteran TV newscaster at his most relaxed and ingratiating as he recounts dozens of his scoops: for example, tracking down and interviewing Takeo Yoshikawa, the Japanese spy who was strategic to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Daniel Ellsberg when he was in hiding after stealing the Pentagon's secret Vietnam War plans (the Pentagon Papers). Tough-minded, Missouri-born Cronkite, who apprenticed on Houston papers, has been eyewitness to, or participant in, many of the century's momentous events. As United Press war correspondent, he covered D-Day, the Allied air war and the Nuremberg trial. He joined CBS as a Korean War correspondent, and as CBS Evening News anchor for almost two decades (he retired in 1981, pushed out, he says, by a new management more interested in infotainment than substance), he reported on the civil rights movement, NASA's first moon walk, the John Kennedy assassination, freedom struggles in South Africa. Peppered with personal encounters with presidents from FDR to Nixon, plus close-ups of Nazi Hermann Goring, Douglas MacArthur, Castro, Begin and many others, Cronkite's crisp narrative charts the metamorphosis of network television into the defining medium of American consciousness. He also lets loose brickbats on the contemporary scene, bemoaning the "ridiculously small" volume of television news and the superficial quality of political coverage ("The debates are a part of the unconscionable fraud that our political campaigns have become, and it is a wonder that the networks continue to cooperate in their presentation"). Photos not seen by PW. BOMC main selection. Available on cassette and CD from Random House Audio. (Dec.) FYI: On November 4, the date this review is appearing, Cronkite celebrates his 80th birthday. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Kendra Author: Booz, Gretchen / Holmes, Reed M. ISBN: 0-8309-0234-1 Pages: 36 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Herald House Published: 1979 Condition: Price: USD $12.99 Book Description: Rarely is death so agonizing for the living as it is when a small child is the victim of a fatal accident. Kendra was such a victim. One moment vitally present; the next moment, gone. That was twelve years ago. From then until now numerous parents have turned to Kendra's father and mother, Don and Gretchen Booz, for the comfort which can be given best by those who have suffered through grief to a most unlikely resolution of joy. For the sake of many who know already, or will yet experience such heartbreaking loss, I finally gathered the courage to ask Gretchen to share her story as the mother of that beautiful little girl, Kendra, who had captured our hearts as neighbors. The first three chapters were written by Gretchen. To her testimony are added my own words spoken at the funeral. We hope that this small volume will ease the hurt which so many share. Dolly My Life and Other Unfinished Business Author: Parton, Dolly ISBN: 0-06-017720-9 Pages: 338 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Harper Collins Published: October 1994 Condition: Price: USD $3.29 From Booklist: Even people who don't know country music from Kaopectate know Dolly Parton, the big-in-front, big-on-top blonde with the perky, little-girl voice who seems sometimes a hick Mae West and sometimes sweeter than Little Mary Sunshine. Given her obvious assets, the tabloid crowd knows her, too, which only increases the appeal of her memoirs. Well, she's more Mary than Mae here, with plenty of vanilla-lite sex-talk and spoofing of her persona ("It costs a lot to make a person look this cheap," etc.) but nary a word about extramarital tumbles or surgical augmentation of her charms. She explains that while she does indeed sleep with longtime friend Judy Ogle, it's not, never was, what suspicious minds think. She praises husband Carl Dean every time she speaks his name, and she doesn't say anything catty about Porter Wagoner, on whose TV show she found fame in the early 1970s and with whom she famously fought. In short, Dolly's so squeaky clean and nice that a reader can't help wondering why HarperCollins wouldn't countenance advance reviews and sent out no early copies. The book contains no secrets to expose, no juice to spill. That doesn't mean it's flat--coming from Dolly, how could it be? It's an entertaining country music rags-to-riches story, full of just enough humor and heart to thoroughly charm the fans. Ray Olson From the Publisher: The inspiring, tell-it-like-it-is autobiography of one of America's best-loved stars, who tells the rags-to-riches story of her life as only she can -- with honesty, insight and an unfailing sense of humor. Here, for the first time, Parton talks openly about her life -- both public and private. She reveals how she got to where she is today, her no-nonsense attitude and the down-home philosophy that has helped her from the start. Whether discussing her sense of style, her inability to have children, the music she loves so much, her unique marriage or her friendships with other stars, Parton is amazingly candid, incredibly warm, wise and funny, proving over and over again why she is so loved. In this refreshing, candid and heartfelt autobiography, Parton reveals the woman behind the superstar, who still considers herself a simple girl from the country. It is a book that millions of readers have been waiting for. Julio Author: Garcia, Elizabeth ISBN: 0-345-32349-1 Pages: 127 Format: Paperback Publisher: Ballantine Books Published: July 12, 1985 Condition: Price: USD $1.69 Julio Iglesias - The revealing biography of music's greatest superstar. Into Africa The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone Author: Dugard, Martin ISBN: 0-385-50451-9 Pages: 352 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Doubleday Published: May 6, 2003 Condition: Price: USD $4.49 From Publishers Weekly: It is rare when a historical narrative keeps readers up late into the night, especially when the story is as well known as Henry Morgan Stanley's search for the missionary and explorer David Livingstone. But author and adventurer Dugard, who's written a biography of Capt. James Cook among other works, makes a suspenseful tale out of journalist Stanley's successful trek through the African interior to find and rescue a stranded Livingstone. Dugan has read extensively in unpublished diaries, newspapers of the time and the archives of Britain's Royal Geographical Society; he also visited the African locations central to the story. Together these sources enable him to re-create with immediacy the astounding hardships, both natural and manmade, that Africa put in the path of the two central characters. Dugard also presents thoughtful insights into the psychology of both Stanley and Livingstone, whose respective responses to Africa could not have differed more. Stanley was bent on beating Africa with sheer force of will, matching it brutality for brutality, while Livingstone, possessed of spirituality and a preternatural absence of any fear of death, responded to the continent's harshness with patience and humility. Descriptions of the African landscape are vivid, as are the descriptions of malaria, dysentery, sleeping sickness, insect infestations, monsoons and tribal wars, all of which Stanley and Livingstone faced. More disturbing, however is Dugard's depiction of the prosperous Arab slave trade, which creates a sense of menace that often reaches Conradian intensity. This is a well-researched, always engrossing book. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal: A superb tale of adventure, heroism, and suffering. Dugard provides essential background information between generous servings of heart-pounding excitement. The story begins in the spring of 1866 as David Livingstone was leaving Zanzibar for Mikindary to begin his search for the source of the Nile. Meanwhile, Henry Stanley, an unremarkable freelance writer, embarked on his own adventure, a journey east from Colorado that began by rafting the South Platte River. He hoped for a career as a newspaper reporter in New York. The activities of each man are described in alternate chapters. Rich biographical detail contributes to readers' understanding of the men's backgrounds and characters. This is not a tale for the squeamish: exhausted men slogging through fetid swamps succumb to horrifying diseases; roving bandits mutilate and devour their captives. Using the men's detailed journals, the archives of the Royal Geographic Society, newspaper reports, an impressive collection of secondary sources, and a few black-and-white photographs, the author provides readers with a picture of the time that is as compelling as the story of the search. Details about the role of newspapers, the management of ships, the debates about slavery, and many other topics enrich this book. The volume ends with the burial of Livingstone in Westminster Abbey, but an epilogue provides brief notes on the remainder of the lives of the other major figures in the story. Kathy Tewell, Chantilly Regional Library, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Elvis and Me Author: Presley, Priscilla / Harmon, Sandra ISBN: 0-399-12984-7 Pages: 320 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Putnam Adult Published: September 19, 1985 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 Ingram The woman whom Elvis decided to marry when she was an innocent fourteen-year-old girl writes candidly about their twelve years together, about Elvis the husband and father, and about his drug-wracked decline and death. Reissue." --This text refers to the Paperback edition. A Royal Duty Author: Burrell, Paul ISBN: 0-451-21276-2 Pages: 464 Format: Paperback Publisher: Signet Published: June 1, 2004 Condition: Price: USD $2.29 Diana, the Princess of Wales, was one of the most publicly covered figures in the modern world. Known as "the people's princess," Diana captivated all who knew her. Much has already been written about her life, both professionally and personally, but until now no one has told her story in the way that only one man can-Paul Burrell-whom she described as both "her rock" and "the only man I can trust." Now comes the long awaited book, A ROYAL DUTY by Paul Burrell, the man in whom she confided on matters big and small. Paul, one of the Queen's personal footmen, met Diana during one of her first visits to Balmoral Castle. And while it may have been fate that brought them together, they shared a strong bond that endured to the end of her life. Burrell became Diana's confidant and his unique perspective casts new light on the Princess of Wales and the events that would shape her life and the lives of those around her. At the time of her death there was much speculation about Diana's future plans including her thoughts about remarrying and the possibility of relocating to America. Paul, who was one of the last people to speak with her, hopes to set the record straight for the Princess he so admired and cherished. Drawing on private conversations, personal recollections, diaries and letters, Paul has written an extraordinary account of a unique time in the history of the Royal Family. When asked why he wrote the book, this is what Paul had to say. "I have made this book as true to her spirit as possible-as inspiring, as loving, as fun. Over the last six years I've had time to reflect on the extraordinary events that I have witnessed. During that time, I have watched and listened patiently as many individuals have claimed to know the truth about the Princess of Wales. I have watched and listened knowing that what was claimed to be the truth is actually far from it. I decided reluctantly to tell what I know to be the truth because I firmly believe that someone has to stand in the Princess' corner and fight for her now that she cannot do so. I welcome the official inquest into her death and it is my hope that it will uncover what really happened that night in Paris. I never thought that I would need to write this book but then I never thought that I would need to redress the balance. I never thought that I would need to defend the Princess against untruths from many different quarters. I was devoted to the Royal Family for many years-first to the Queen, then to the Prince of Wales and finally to the Princess and I remain a loyal subject. But I believe that it is important that the truth is known NOW rather than waiting for the details to emerge in official papers when they are released in 25 years." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. John Fitzgerald Kennedy America's Youngest President Author: Frisbee, Lucy / Fiorentino, Al ISBN: 0-02-041990-2 Pages: 192 Format: Paperback Publisher: Aladdin Published: October 31, 1986 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 Card catalog description: A biography focusing on the childhood of the youngest man ever elected President (though not to become President) and the youngest ever to die in office. All The Best - George Bush My Life in Letters and Other Writings Author: Bush, George H. ISBN: 0-684-83958-X Pages: 640 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Scribner Published: October 5, 1999 Condition: Price: USD $3.29 Amazon.com:  In lieu of a memoir, All the Best, George Bush collects correspondence and diary entries from the former U.S. president to show, as he says, "what my own heartbeat is, what my values are, what has motivated me in life." The letters begin in 1942--when, fresh out of high school, Bush volunteered for U.S. Navy flight school--and continue to the brink of the 21st century, as the retired chief executive worries about the Melissa virus infecting his office's server and keeping his visiting grandchildren in line. ("I realize," he muses, "Keep the freezer door closed from now on and I mean it lacks the rhetorical depth of This will not stand or Read my lips.") All the Best hits all the highlights of Bush's career, from the Texas oil business to his role as ambassador to China, then CIA director, vice president under Ronald Reagan, and finally president himself. Along the way, he reveals a personality that is at turns compassionate, respectful, silly, doting, and resolute--a man for whom being a father and a grandfather matters as much as, and maybe even more than, being leader of the free world. Fans and detractors alike will find in All the Best an intimate human portrait that offers as sure a self-definition of Bush's personal life as A World Transformed did his presidential career. From Publishers Weekly:  To the present governors of Texas and Florida, his sons George and Jeb, who worried that they might upstage their famous dad, former President Bush wrote: "Do not worry when you see the stories that compare you favorably to a Dad for whom English was a second language." President Bush was indeed famously inarticulate in public. But in this collection of diary entries, memos and letters written between 1942, when he started navy flight school, to March 1999, when he wrote a friend to express his consternation that his e-mail server was down, Bush proves himself to have been a gracious and staggeringly prolific correspondent. There are long letters, such as the September 1944 missive to his parents relating how he was shot down over the Pacific. And there are truly funny diary entries from his presidency about the Scowcroft Award, a running gag in the Bush cabinet named after National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, who apparently had an uncanny knack for napping in meetings: "A fantastic challenge by Ed Derwinski. very firm eye closure and a remarkable recovery gambit." Naturally, there are long letters to world leaders such as Deng Xiaoping, King Hussein, Mikhail Gorbachev and others about matters of historical import. Diary entries cover the Tiananmen Square massacre, the failed coup against Gorbachev, the Gulf War and other crises (though there's hardly anything about the Iran-contra scandal). Rarely does Bush display any partisan bitterness, and even then it's not very pungent (though he's consistently irked by the press). Bush must have been tempted to write a memoir intended to beat historians to the interpretive punch. This modest alternative is refreshing and, in many ways, will shed more light on the man's personal character and public persona than any memoir or biography could. It offers an intriguing picture of a man who takes fierce pride in his modesty. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. A Different Drummer My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan Author: Deaver, Michael K. / Reagan, Nancy (Foreword) ISBN: 0-06-019784-6 Pages: 240 Format: Hardcover Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Published: April 20, 2001 Condition: Price: USD $2.29 Amazon.com:  Michael Deaver, a longtime political advisor who served as deputy chief of staff in the Reagan White House, offers an approving, affectionate, and well-written portrait of the former president--but one that, for an insider's account, is surprisingly short on news. The Ronald Reagan who emerges from Deaver's pages is far different from the popularly held view, fueled by the media, of the president as an amiable but limited man who napped, golfed, and left the business of running the government to his lieutenants. Far from it, Deaver insists: Reagan read widely, kept up with the issues, and "firmly believed that it was his job to set the priorities of his administrations and to make the big decisions." Thoughtful and utterly courteous, if sometimes distant, Deaver's Reagan is a man of unbending conservative principle; careful to cross party lines to secure support for his policy and to judge his opponents by character, not doctrine; stalwart in his devotion to country; and certain, in Deaver's words, "that he was the right guy at the right time." This Reagan can do no wrong, and when controversy arises in Deaver's account it is almost always because someone else has flubbed the play. Unlike Alexander Haig, David Stockman, and other former administration officials who have written about their time in the Reagan White House, Deaver is quick to fall on the sword whenever he must. He takes responsibility, for instance, for the president's controversial decision to lay a wreath at a German cemetery that contained the graves of fallen SS soldiers, and for Reagan's difficulties in convincing voters of the wisdom of an expensive military buildup in the closing years of the cold war. About the Iran-Contra affair, which blackened Reagan's second term, Deaver has little to say, and about his own departure from the administration and subsequent investigation by federal prosecutors he is even more close-mouthed. Those seeking to learn more about Ronald Reagan as president may come away from Deaver's book disappointed. His admirers, however, will enjoy the anecdotes about "the traits that made him so successful as a leader and so peculiar--and wonderful--as a person." --Gregory McNamee From Library Journal:  Reagan's former aide looks back on better days. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Diana in Private The Princess Nobody Knows Author: Campbell, Lady Colin ISBN: 0-312-08180-4 Pages: 243 Format: Hardcover Publisher: St. Martins Press Published: May 1, 1992 Condition: Price: USD $1.69 From Publishers Weekly: Aristocratic palace insider Lady Campbell's tell-all was an eight-week PW bestseller in cloth. Photos. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. The Unimaginable Life (w/ music CD) Lessons Learned on the Path of Love Author: Loggins, Kenny / Loggins, Julia ISBN: 0-380-97531-9 Pages: 379 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Avon Books Published: June 1997 Condition: Price: USD $3.29 Amazon.com: Loggins's book, co-written with wife Julia, shares its title with his album, both of which illustrate the couple's belief that love means falling in love again every day. Told with lyrics, poetry, letters, and journal entries, it is an intensely personal exploration. Says bestselling author Julia Cameron of the Loggins's The Unimaginable Life: "It takes courage to write a book like this--and courage to read it." From Library Journal: Pop music fans who've been pining for Kenny Loggins's saccharine ballads, take heart. This account, written by Kenny and wife Julia, tells of their ongoing romance. Publication will coincide with the release of a new music collection of the same title. (Book comes with music CD) Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. I'll Gather My Geese Author: Stillwell, Hallie Crawford ISBN: 0-89096-478-5 Pages: 153 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Texas A&M University Press Published: July 1991 Condition: Price: USD $1.99  From Publishers Weekly: She was brought up to be a proper Southern lady, but fate put her in a place where she needed other qualities. At 19, Hallie Crawford left home in Waco, Tex., to teach in a rural school on the Mexican border. Two years later, in 1918, she married Roy Stillwell and moved to his remote cattle ranch in the West Texas Big Bend country. Roy had three cowhands, and the author soon became the fourth. The town-bred young woman became an expert at working cattle on horseback; she learned to manage horses and to protect herself from wild animals (she once shot a mountain lion between the eyes). Now a doughty 94-year-old, Stillwell details the challenges of ranch life, explaining how she and her family, including three children, survived illnesses, drought and the Depression. Her story will strongly appeal to readers interested in the early West. Photos. Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Raising Fences A Black Man's Love Story Author: Datcher, Michael ISBN: 1-57322-330-1 Pages: 288 Format: Paperback Publisher: Riverhead Trade Published: October 1, 2002 Condition: Price: USD $1.99  From Publishers Weekly Much like Mark Matousek's acclaimed memoir, Sex Death Enlightenment, Datcher's debut confronts the psychosocial damage caused by fatherlessness. In this case, the paternal absence is compounded by abandonment by Datcher's mother. A former editor-in-chief at Image magazine, and now a successful poet and writer, the author spent part of his childhood in Long Beach, Calif., obsessed with the idea of becoming a husband and father, but determined not to become an absentee dad like many of the men in his African-American community. As a young boy, he idolized his adoptive mother, who acted as an emotional anchor for him during the turbulent years of his adolescence in the 1970s. (She had been handpicked to raise him by Datcher's biological mother, who had been raped at age 16.) Datcher's voice in this heartfelt confessional alternates between that of a truly bewildered young man desperately seeking a male role model and a hip, cocksure guy. Emotionally withdrawn and suffering from a stutter, Datcher seeks to find his way by running with a group of other lost souls, briefly stumbling into petty crime that leads to arrest and being terrorized by police. Later, he becomes romantically involved with a young Dominican woman, though complications soon develop that threaten to cast him into the role of absentee father that he has so long resisted. Deeply reflective, occasionally offbeat and tearful, Datcher's memoir combines attitude, honesty and romance in a way that should appeal to both men and women. This triumphant tale is a stunning tribute to perseverance, courage and the power of positive thinking. Forecast:  Datcher's story taps into a raw nerve in the black community, and his vibrant, down-to-earth voice should, with the help of a national media tour and radio satellite tour, attract a strong following. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: Alternating between flashbacks and real-time experiences, Datcher, a poet and journalist (Los Angeles Times, Washington Post), describes his childhood in inner-city Los Angeles as an adoptee cherished by a strong single mother whom he later chose over a birth family that offered to take him back. His most compelling point is that his later social mobility and personal relationships were both motivated by and undermined by the lack of a father (his biological mother was raped). Sidetracks into promiscuity, lawbreaking, and a kind of religious cult lend a gritty authenticity to the narrative. Although emotionally powerful, explicit, and poetic, Datcher's first original work (he edited Tough Love: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur) ultimately reads like a work in progress. Recommended for urban public libraries where it would complement the less introspective and more tragic story chronicled in Antwone Fisher's Finding Fish (LJ 1/01). Both books provide nonstereotypical coming-of-age and coming-into-success stories of young black men in late 20th-century America. Antoinette Brinkman, MLS, Evansville, IN Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Lucky Man A Memoir Author: Fox, Michael J. ISBN: 0-7868-6764-7 Pages: 288 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Hyperion Published: April 2, 2002 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 The same sharp intelligence and self-deprecating wit that made Michael J. Fox a star in the Family Ties TV series and Back to the Future make this a lot punchier than the usual up-from-illness celebrity memoir. Yes, he begins with the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, the incurable illness that led to his retirement from Spin City (and acting) in 2000. And yes, he assures us he is a better, happier person now than he was before he was diagnosed. In Fox's case, you actually might believe it, because he then cheerfully exposes the insecurities and self-indulgences of his pre-Parkinson's life in a manner that makes them not glamorous but wincingly ordinary and of course very funny. ("As for the question, 'Does it bother you that maybe she just wants to sleep with you because you're a celebrity?' My answer to that one was, 'Ah...nope.'") With a working-class Canadian background, Fox has an unusually detached perspective on the madness of mass-media fame; his description of the tabloid feeding frenzy surrounding his 1988 wedding to Tracy Pollan, for example, manages to be both acid and matter-of-fact. He is frank but not maudlin about his drinking problem, and he refreshingly notes that getting sober did not automatically solve all his other problems. This readable, witty autobiography reminds you why it was generally a pleasure to watch Fox onscreen: he's a nice guy with an edge, and you don't have to feel embarrassed about liking him. --Wendy Smith Shania Twain On My Way Author: Williams, Dallas ISBN: 1-55022-297-X Pages: 232 Format: Paperback Publisher: ECW Press Published: December 1997 Condition: Price: USD $2.49 REBEL AND SUPERSTAR, Her story reads like a fairy tale. Shania Twain rose from grinding poverty in northern Ontario to internatioinal superstardom as a country singer.But her seemingly overnight success was hard-earned, a result of her unique blend of country with a driving rock beat, her tireless devotion to her fans, and her winning combination of innocence and sultry sexiness. Here is the story of her phenomenal ascent to the top of the charts. From the dues she paid as a teenager, singing on local stages and television shows, to her mature and polished performances in music videos directed by Hollywood's Sean Penn and John Derek, Shania Twain: On My Way tracks each step of her rule-breaking, record-shattering career. Controversial, ambitious, down-to-earth: Here is Shania. Cristina! My Life As a Blonde Author: Saralegui, Cristina / Peden, Margaret Sayers (Translator) ISBN: 0-446-52008-X Pages: 288 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Warner Books Published: March 1, 1998 Condition: Price: USD $1.99  Entertainment Weekly, Charles Winecoff: ...reads like a long, savvy letter from the best big sister in the world. From Kirkus Reviews: In this gutsy but simple-minded memoir, the 49-year-old host and executive producer of El Show de Cristina, copublisher of the magazine Cristina la Revista, and host of the daily radio program Cristina Opina offers her advice on marriage, child-rearing, racial and sexual discrimination, menopause, and the challenge of growing old. Saralegui's colloquial prose also recounts the legends of her proud Basque heritage and her immigrant forebears' affluent lifestyle in the Caribbean. The granddaughter of a millionaire Cuban publishing magnate, she was born in a wealthy suburb of Havana but emigrated to Miami with her family at the age of 12, shortly after Castro's revolution. She gives thumbnail sketches of Cuban character and culture in transition as she and her fellow expatriates made their new home in a tightly knit, middle- class barrio where many immigrants grew up, lived, and died without ever speaking (or needing to speak) a word of English. Saralegui later enrolled at the University of Miami to study communications and creative writing. There she learned the dubious craft of writing ``for the dumb schoolgirl,'' a technique she has all too clearly mastered. Once finished with school, she landed a gig writing mostly fluff pieces for Cosmopolitan en Espaola hugely successful Hearst spin-off of which she eventually became editorial director. In that leading role, she seemingly chose to clone her mentor, Helen Gurley Brown, and live the quintessential ``Cosmo Girl's'' unexamined life. Saralegui's comments on her career move to television and radio are as brisk and shallow as all the others. Her life reads like a series of pranks or a continuation of her show's shenanigans, peopled with lackluster acolytes and charlatansvampires and alien abductees alike. A half-witted tell-all in the talk-show mode. Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Love, Judy Letters of Hope & Healing for Women With Breast Cancer Author: Hart, Judy ISBN: 0-943233-52-6 Pages: 256 Format: Paperback Publisher: Conari Press Published: October 1993 Condition: Price: USD $1.99  An invaluable resource for breast cancer patients, family, friends as well as nurses, doctors, psychologists, and cancer support group leaders. Hart's personal story of successfully battling cancer helps readers develop their own best resources by offering a wide variety of healing attitudes, techniques, and suggestions. Description: Warm, supportive and uplifting, LOVE, JUDY combines Judy Hart's own story with a variety of self support techniques to encourage healing. It is an invaluable resource for breast cancer patients, families, and friends, as well as nurses, doctors, psychologists and cancer patient support groups. Second Wind The Memoirs of an Opinionated Man Authors: Russell, William F. / Branch, Taylor ISBN: 0-394-50385-6 Pages: 265 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Random House Inc Published: September 1979 Condition: Price: USD $1.99  Dreamgirl My Life As a Supreme Authors: Wilson, Mary / Romanowski, Patricia / Arghus, Julliard ISBN: 0-312-21959-8 Pages: 292 Format: Hardcover Publisher: St Martins Press Published: October 1986 Condition: Price: USD $1.99  From Library Journal: Wilson and her three Detroit high school friends had big dreams when they formed the Primettes in 1959, but it wasn't until Motown's Berry Gordy reduced them to a trio, suggested a name change, and insisted Diana Ross sing lead that things started to happen. By summer 1965, eight months after their first #1 single, the Supremes were Motown's biggest act. Success meant furs, limos, lunches with royalty; also jealousies and friction, especially after the ambitious Ross became the star. Today there is no love lost between Wilson and "old friend" Diana, who is presented as a bitchy, conniving prima donna. Too tame and boringly written to engage non-fans, this may be in demand in public libraries thanks to a heavy publicity campaign. Thomas Jewell, Waltham P.L., Mass. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. Iacocca An Autobiography Authors: Iacocca, Lee / A. Novak, William ISBN: 0-553-05067-2 Pages: 352 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group Published: November 1984 Condition: Price: USD $1.99 Lost in America A Journey With My Father Author: Nuland, Sherwin B. ISBN: 0-375-41294-8 Pages: 224 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Knopf Published: January 7, 2003 Condition: Price: USD $1.99  From Publishers Weekly: In his late 30s and early 40s, National Book Award winner Nuland (How We Die) was gripped by a depression so unyielding to treatment he almost underwent a lobotomy (the procedure was halted by a young resident psychiatrist who refused to listen to his superiors). But as haunting as this beginning of Nuland's memoir is, it's eclipsed in power by the story he tells of his relationship with his father, an aging Jewish immigrant whose life was a series of family tragedies and illness. Avoiding the twin traps of nostalgia and emotional overkill, Nuland details, in beautiful, stark prose, his father's harsh life in America. Meyer Nudelman worked, and failed at, a variety of jobs and was broken by the death of his first child, the death of his wife and the near-fatal illness of another son. For him, America was never a land of opportunity, and his life sank into various debilitating physical ailments and unpredictable rages that inflicted terrible damage upon his son. The memoir's deep, shocking, emotional impact comes when Nuland, a student at Yale medical school, discovers by reading a textbook that his father's physical symptoms all indicated that he was suffering his whole adult life from tertiary syphilis. The shock of this discovery-which Meyer's doctors knew, but never told him-doesn't lead to an easy resolution. "In America" the author writes, "Meyer Nudelman was a man with no past," and by the end of the book readers realize that his dreams of a happier future were also impossible. Written with enormous empathy, yet without a hint of sentimentality, Nuland's memoir is both heartbreaking and breathtaking. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: Conspicuously absent from Nuland's How We Die, a National Book Award winner in 1994, the author's father dominates this new memoir. In contrast to the graceful How We Die, this book appears conflicted, crowded, and emotion-laden, with Nuland allowing readers no distance from his discomfiting exploration of his relationship with his father, Meyer. Nuland describes his father's troubles as an immigrant from Bessarabia (between Russia and Romania) who struggled with unfulfilling, low-wage work and the early death of his wife and first son. He brings his father's voice to life by reproducing his heavily accented English and occasional use of Yiddish. The journey recounted is a personal and painful one, and Nuland's attempt is not to universalize this experience but to come to terms with it for his own understanding. Raw, personal autobiographies easily find their way to readers, and this book by Nuland, a departure from some of his better-known works, will attract a different audience. Larger public libraries will want to add this to their collections. Audrey Snowden, GSLIS (student), Simmons Coll., Boston Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Exposing Mys