http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/251564 en-US Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:57:50 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 6682511 Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:57:50 -0700
author: Steven Bach
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/09/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 9243931 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:36:08 -0700
author: Edward Gallafent
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
I don't know how he did it, but this writer got a book deal for a title that consists of plot synopses of every movie Astaire and Rogers made together or separately. It's all a little too self-evident to me, but the cover's nice.
]]> 4062076 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:34:55 -0700
author: Preston Sturges
name: Nancy
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 08/08/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
Finally! My favorite Sturges in screenplay form.
]]> 23959854 Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:32:29 -0700
author: Scott O'brien
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/26/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 28128354 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:42:10 -0700
author: Evelyn Keyes
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1977
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/23/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 28128315 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:41:30 -0700
author: Scott Eyman
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/23/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 22962405 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:26:49 -0700
author: Grace Dumelle
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/21/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 27867440 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:26:13 -0700
author: David Chierichetti
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 07/21/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 27738514 Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:45:03 -0700
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 07/19/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
Huxley skewers Hearst and Davies, probably well-earned but still rather vicious.
]]> 26325244 Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:44:04 -0700
author: Jane Scovell
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/19/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
An insightful look into the life of Oona O'Neill Chaplin. Her father may have been a genius, but he also was incredibly controlling and absent. Her marriage to Charlie Chaplin, 36 years her senior, makes a lot of sense in this light. It's particularly sad that she never really was able to make a life for herself after Chaplin died.
]]> 27717254 Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:35:58 -0700
author: Rose Franken
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/19/08
shelves: desert-island-essentials
review:

]]> 27717189 Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:35:11 -0700
author: Franken, Rose
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1958
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/19/08
shelves: desert-island-essentials
review:

]]> 8638442 Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:03:31 -0700
author: George R. Stewart
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1936
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/19/08
shelves: calamities
review:

]]> 26327831 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:49:30 -0700
author: 1975.Pn199 New York : Atheneum
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/04/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 26327719 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:46:59 -0700
author: Barbara Leaming
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/04/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 26325582 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:51:36 -0700
author: John Berendt
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 24960179 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:48:23 -0700
author: Christopher Anderson
name: Nancy
average rating: 2.80
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/04/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
Accuracy has never been Andersen's strong suit, but it's nice to see some in depth treatment of Hepburn's early life.
]]> 25148713 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:46:18 -0700
author: F. Lee Bailey
name: Nancy
average rating: 2.70
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/04/08
shelves: true-crime
review:

]]> 24192201 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:41:18 -0700
author: Daphne duMaurier
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 26264007 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:24:31 -0700
author: Ian McEwan
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 25218272 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:26:09 -0700
Here's another subtextual scolding/insight: "Perhaps reflecting the increased opportunities for upward mobility in the wedding industry since 1950, Franck [Martin Short] speaks in an indecipherable foreign accent – in contrast to the upper-crust dialect used by Leo G. Carroll in the original film." How about this idea instead: it was a movie, in fact, a comedy and Steve Martin and Martin Short were going for laughs instead of "reflecting the increased opportunities for upward mobility in the wedding industry."

The author cites shocking examples of cross-promotional movie advertising with great disapproval - it seems they used movies to sell products.

For those who still want to read a sociological take on weddings in America and actually have some fun doing it, I highly recommend Marcia Seligson's The Eternal Bliss Machine: America's Way of Wedding. Out of print, but well worth tracking down.
]]>
author: Katherine Jellison
name: Nancy
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 07/03/08
shelves:
review:
What a disappointment. The author's hectoring tone ruins what could have been a lively book. The section on weddings in movies is particularly tiresome, featuring plodding plot dissections of movies through what I suppose is some kind of pseudo-feminist lens. A sample from Father of the Bride, a delightful 1950 film: "A 20-year-old daughter, Kay, apparently does not have a job or go to school but instead largely spends her time pursuing leisure and consumer activities."

Here's another subtextual scolding/insight: "Perhaps reflecting the increased opportunities for upward mobility in the wedding industry since 1950, Franck [Martin Short] speaks in an indecipherable foreign accent – in contrast to the upper-crust dialect used by Leo G. Carroll in the original film." How about this idea instead: it was a movie, in fact, a comedy and Steve Martin and Martin Short were going for laughs instead of "reflecting the increased opportunities for upward mobility in the wedding industry."

The author cites shocking examples of cross-promotional movie advertising with great disapproval - it seems they used movies to sell products.

For those who still want to read a sociological take on weddings in America and actually have some fun doing it, I highly recommend Marcia Seligson's The Eternal Bliss Machine: America's Way of Wedding. Out of print, but well worth tracking down.

]]> 25920836 Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:21:09 -0700
author: Lou Miano
name: Nancy
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/30/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
Columbo's mysterious death now overshadows what was a successful career. Lou Miano does a better job than other Columbo authors, but it's still pretty thin gruel.
]]> 25920454 Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:19:01 -0700
"Some crooners belched romantic perfume but slyly alluded to a gamy climax, but Columbo celebrated the maddening energy of protracted foreplay." (p. 90)

That's just a sample; the book's loaded with more purple prose. Lou Miano's book is better but I think the definite Columbo biography yet to be been written. ]]>
author: Joseph Lanza
name: Nancy
average rating: 1.00
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 06/30/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
It's hard to find one's way through the overwritten prose in this disappointing biography. Here's a sample:

"Some crooners belched romantic perfume but slyly alluded to a gamy climax, but Columbo celebrated the maddening energy of protracted foreplay." (p. 90)

That's just a sample; the book's loaded with more purple prose. Lou Miano's book is better but I think the definite Columbo biography yet to be been written.
]]> 8305964 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:15:06 -0700
author: Nora Ephron
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves:
review:
Eh. Not Ephron's finest hour. Better off rereading Heartburn or her essay on the Pillsbury Bake-Off from Wallflower at the Orgy.
]]> 25266906 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:29:03 -0700
author: Joel L Harrison
name: Nancy
average rating: 1.00
book published: 1978
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
Not very well done, but virtually the only thing published on the murder of silent star Ramon Novarro. The print run must have been microscopic because copies are usually offered at several hundred dollars a piece. Borrow it from a library instead if you must read it.
]]> 25266412 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:23:39 -0700
author: E. J. Fleming
name: Nancy
average rating: 1.00
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
I had such hopes for this book since Strickling and Mannix fascinate me, but the author's conclusion is that Strickling never talked. We knew that already.
]]> 13438582 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:26:32 -0700
author: Norman Longmate
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves: world-war-ii
review:

]]> 4122250 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:26:04 -0700
author: Nathaniel Philbrick
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 24960147 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:25:41 -0700
After a while, I realized Lisick was making me anxious: either she's the most screwed-up person on the planet and really does need some help, or she was heightening reality in each of those chapters. But I think lumping in outright frauds like Sylvia Browne with people like Suze Orman is rather specious. I was amazed that she like Richard Simmons that much. In fact, it was the only chapter that really worked completely.



]]>
author: Beth Lisick
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/23/08
shelves:
review:
Fun but a bit of a disappointment. The concept of taking on a self-help program each month is brilliant. I was hoping for a humorous skewering a la Bryson, but instead the author just kind of wandered, trying not to pillory but also not taking any of it seriously.

After a while, I realized Lisick was making me anxious: either she's the most screwed-up person on the planet and really does need some help, or she was heightening reality in each of those chapters. But I think lumping in outright frauds like Sylvia Browne with people like Suze Orman is rather specious. I was amazed that she like Richard Simmons that much. In fact, it was the only chapter that really worked completely.




]]> 25148564 Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:50:08 -0700
author: Judith Levine
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/22/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 25033557 Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:46:06 -0700
author: Marc Eliot
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/21/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 24960187 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:06:30 -0700
author: Christopher Anderson
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1997
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 06/20/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
Total clip job. There are better Tracy-Hepburn books out there.
]]> 24385464 Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:52:58 -0700
author: Lauren Weisberger
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/12/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 24231889 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:02:59 -0700
author: Lynn Kear
name: Nancy
average rating: 2.67
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/11/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
Eh. Another "biography" that consists primarily of a recitation of film parts and lovers.
]]> 24231538 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:57:43 -0700
author: Kathleen Brady
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/11/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 24231438 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:57:03 -0700
author: Anne Baxter
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1983
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/11/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 24193065 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:19:21 -0700
author: H. Thomas Steele
name: Nancy
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 10405602 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:04:49 -0700
author: Daniel J. Solove
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 22962489 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:04:25 -0700 The Opposite Sex – Blondell asked June Allyson for the job!]]>
author: Matthew Kennedy
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/10/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
It was great to learn more about an underrated classic movie star, but the second half of the bio really trailed off and turned into a litany of the bit parts and tv roles Blondell took to make ends meet. But it was worth it for the dish about The Opposite Sex – Blondell asked June Allyson for the job!
]]> 24191511 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:59:57 -0700
author: Valeria Belletti
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 06/10/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 23959841 Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:30:09 -0700
author: Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
name: Nancy
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/07/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 23959792 Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:29:37 -0700
author: King Vidor
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/07/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 4060955 Wed, 28 May 2008 19:26:30 -0700
author: Sara Holmes Boutelle
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/28/08
shelves:
review:
First biography of influential California architect Julia Morgan is marred by inaccuracies but it's still the best biography available. Beautifully illustrated.
]]> 15020483 Mon, 26 May 2008 00:30:06 -0700
author: Randy Roberts
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/26/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:

]]> 11969984 Mon, 26 May 2008 00:27:44 -0700
author: Judith Freeman
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/26/08
shelves:
review:
There's probably a decent book in there somewhere, but the author's self-absorption and need to invade the biography got very old very fast.
]]> 15020555 Mon, 26 May 2008 00:25:58 -0700
author: Mary McCarthy
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1954
rating: 1
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/26/08
shelves: books-into-movies
review:

]]> 4062865 Mon, 26 May 2008 00:25:44 -0700
author: Jonathan Alter
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/26/08
shelves: white-house
review:

]]> 17281514 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:24:32 -0800
author: Simon Winchester
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 03/07/08
shelves: calamities
review:
The dustjacket is the best part.
]]> 12926951 Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:21:02 -0800
author: Frank MacShane
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 02/09/08
shelves: biographies, world-war-ii
review:
This was recently weeded from my library where it had not circulated in the nearly 25 years we'd owned it, which is sad because MacShane does a great job.
]]> 12947239 Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:20:34 -0800
author: Sloan Wilson
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 02/09/08
shelves: books-into-movies
review:
Eh. See the movie instead.
]]> 15019762 Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:19:23 -0800
I had never heard of this case until it popped up in the Wiki, so I requested this title from interlibrary loan and a library in Queensland sent it.

While the case itself is fascinating, I only wish I could say the same of the book. It seemed to me to be highly padded, probably because virtually nothing is known about the case since the day they disappeared in 1966. Instead, Whiticker offers lots of extraneous information about the geology and architecture of Adelaide, tedious detail about the lives of detectives on the case, and other cases of mysterious disappeanace or gruesome solved murders of children. What is missing is any sense of who these children were or what happened to their parents (other than the inevitable divorce) in the long years that have passed since their children disappeared.

Maybe there's enough information for a really good book on this true crime, but I know this book isn't it. ]]>
author: Whiticker, Alan
name: Nancy
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 02/09/08
shelves: true-crime
review:
Jane Nartare Beaumont (aged 9), Arnna Kathleen Beaumont (aged 7), and Grant Ellis Beaumont (aged 4) were three siblings who disappeared without a trace from a beach near Adelaide, South Australia in 1966. Known collectively as The Beaumont Children, their case resulted in the largest police investigation in Australian criminal history, and remains unsolved.

I had never heard of this case until it popped up in the Wiki, so I requested this title from interlibrary loan and a library in Queensland sent it.

While the case itself is fascinating, I only wish I could say the same of the book. It seemed to me to be highly padded, probably because virtually nothing is known about the case since the day they disappeared in 1966. Instead, Whiticker offers lots of extraneous information about the geology and architecture of Adelaide, tedious detail about the lives of detectives on the case, and other cases of mysterious disappeanace or gruesome solved murders of children. What is missing is any sense of who these children were or what happened to their parents (other than the inevitable divorce) in the long years that have passed since their children disappeared.

Maybe there's enough information for a really good book on this true crime, but I know this book isn't it.
]]> 13439137 Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:43:20 -0800
author: Pat Stacy
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1983
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 01/24/08
shelves: tinsels-hollywood
review:
Given my growing fondness for Wayne as an actor, I was searching for biographies of him and this one was available in my library. I can't say it lent much insight into him and the author seemed rather opportunistic. Is there something better on Wayne I could read?
]]> 9963728 Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:49:42 -0800
author: Lynn H. Nicholas
name: Nancy
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 01/19/08
shelves: world-war-ii
review:
Skillful and meticulous research and a riveting tale. Companion documentary also highly recommended.
]]> 12926804 Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:45:49 -0800
author: Ann Rule
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 01/19/08
shelves: true-crime
review:
The usual nicely done true crime effort from Ann Rule.
]]> 7679376 Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:44:40 -0800
author: Ed Sikov
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 01/19/08
shelves: biographies, tinsels-hollywood
review:
Very satisfying. Sikov adds to the Davis literature with nicely done gay deconstructions of her films and the stray anecdote that hasn't been published before.
]]> 12175631 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:08:59 -0800
author: Sue Grafton
name: Nancy
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 12/07
date added: 01/10/08
shelves:
review:
Eh. It gets three stars merely because Kinsey is back in Santa Teresa among Henry, Rosie, and the other regulars. Grafton does a good job with her sociopathic villain, but I have less and less enthusiasm for this series. She used to be able to deliver the wisecracks, but lately Grafton just seems cranky.
]]> 9221183 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:34:17 -0800