false 360227 0 0 1407655 1400063922 9781400063925 16 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183363069m/1407655.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183363069s/1407655.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1407655.Learning_to_Sing_Hearing_the_Music_in_Your_Life 3.58 80 American Idol runner up and self-proclaimed "nerdy, geeky, momma's boy" (and boy, does he love to talk about his momma), has written a strange hybrid of memoir, self-help and religious testimony--and in spite of it being so slight that it feels like it will float right out of your hands--he almost pulls it off. Learning to Sing is a book only his most rabid fans (and admittedly, there are millions of 'em) will be able to fully embrace. Anyone looking for American Idol dirt will have to go elsewhere, as Aiken always takes the high road, whether discussing his Idol experience (given surprisingly short shrift), the torment and damage done by the bullies of his youth, or his fractious, difficult relationship and ultimate estrangement from both his birth father and stepfather. When recounting the origin and progression of his true passion--teaching special needs children--his sincerity and dedication feels real and admirable. Towards the end of Learning to Sing, Aiken's writing teeters from subtly spiritual to zealously polemic, but surely there are worse things for young people (and some adults) to be exposed to than a wildly successful entertainer advising them to embrace their inner nerd, find and follow their passion and treat others with respect and kindness. We should all be so nerdy. --Terry Goodman]]> 491376 3.56 91 16 360227 3.46 112 23 2004 672160 0007172427 9780007172429 7 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177000644m/672160.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177000644s/672160.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/672160.Beauty_Before_Comfort 3.05 20
So writes Allison Glock at the start of her irresistible memoir of her maternal grandmother, Aneita Jean Blair, a woman who came of age during the Depression in a West Virginia factory town yet refused to succumb to the desperation that surrounded her. Instead, Aneita Jean rouged her cheeks and kicked up her heels and did her best to forget the realities of life in an insular community where your neighbors could be as unforgiving as the Appalachian landscape. Before it was all over, Aneita Jean would have seven marriage proposals and her share of the tragedies that befall small-town girls with bushels of suitors and bodies like Miss America, girls “who dare to see past the dusty perimeters of their lives.”

In lyrical and often breathtaking language, Glock travels back through time, assisted by a fistful of old photos and the piercing childhood memories of her grandmother, “a skinny, eager child with disobedient hair and bottomless longing.” Together they guide us through the cramped dankness of the pottery plants, the dense sweetness of the holler, and into the surging promise of the Ohio River, capturing not only the irrepressible vitality of Aneita Jean Blair, but also the rich ambiance of working-class West Virginia during the twenties, the Great Depression, and World War II. Expertly written, lovingly told, Beauty Before Comfort is stirring testimony to the vanished dreams, and powerful spirit, of an extraordinary person and place.]]> 360227 3.46 112 23 2003