Amazon.com

84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic--but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin.

Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career. No doubt their letters would have continued, but in 1969, the firm's secretary informed her that Frank Doel had died. In the collection's penultimate entry, Helene Hanff urges a tourist friend, "If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much." ... Read more

Reviews (62)

letters make quick but powerful story of human relationships
March 8, 1999

This is a true story--that's always a plus for me--about correspondence between a New York booklover/writer and the staff of a used and antiquarian book shop in London. These business correspondents evolve over the years into members of a kind of extended family.

The book is rather amazing because it is a quick read yet packs a powerful emotional wallop. To enjoy this book, you have to be open to books that explore compassion, emotions, and human relationships in a non-glossy, realistic manner.

Normally, I'm a one-read guy. I read a book and pass it on. Yet, I've read 84 Charing Cross Road three times -- so far -- in spite of seeing the movie version three times as well.

I'd place 84 Charing Cross Road among my top five favorite books.

Rodney

A BEAUTIFUL, HEARTWARMING BOOK
Anyone who loves books will love this story about a vibrant New York lady's passion for collecting them, told in alternating letters of correspondence between the struggling author and a British antiquarian seller who supplied by mail the treasured secondhand books she could barely afford to buy. An amazing true story spanning twenty years, it was made into a memorable and moving film starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins, and is available on video.
Some editions of 84 Charing Cross Road come with the companion book The Duchess of Bloomsbury (or you can get it separately), a diary Ms Hanff kept when she visited London for the first time; but not until the original book had made her famous and she was finally able to afford the dream trip she had longed for. Also try to get her autobiography, Q's Legacy, or her book about New York, Apple of My Eye.
Sadly, Ms Hanff passed away recently, but her story will live on forever in the letters that touched the hearts of thousands.

Serendipity...84 Charing Cross Road Strikes Again!
This book is incredible. I laughed out loud and I felt her pain and sorrow. Helene Hanff is a fabulous writer. I went to England with her as she told her story. I received my copy of this book in a very ironic way. If I can become half the writer she is I will have succeeded!

A co-worker of mine went to see the play "84 Charing Cross Road" in London last week and someone had left a copy of the book on a shelf during interval on purpose. The label on the book said "On the run!! Help me readch new horizons! Look inside and check out www.Bookcrossing.com"

Oddly enough, I received this book that started in London in memory of Allistar with Bookcrossings.com and hundreds of copies are purchased and released in her name. I will be releasing the copy that I found soon and will purchase another copy on Amazon.com to release into the wild on her behalf.

If you are interested in buying a book and helping out Allistar with Bookcrossing.com just go there and join.

The book is that good; what can I say. Buy it and I promise it will become a part of your book collection that will be re-read over the years.

A delightful read!
Though I somehow just went a week without finishing any of the books I've been reading (thank you upcoming store inventory, *grumble*), I must say this little gem got me through some of the worst of it! This book is just beautiful.

It is, put far too simply, a collection of letters between an American lady of fabulous wit and sarcasm and a few people of Marks & Co., a British bookstore on 84, Charing Cross Road. The letters suck you right in - what Helen says, one cannot help but read, and the wonderfully phrased return letters from (mostly) Frank Doel always made me chuckle in a "Gosh, I remember living in England," way. This is a correspondance that covers two decades, and though I often felt like some of the letters were missing (there are replies to questions you never see asked), it was a delight to read this.

It's rare I enjoy a nonfiction book that isn't on one of the narrow topics I enjoy, and biographical correspondance isn't normally something I pay attention to. Still, this is fabulous, and I suggest you go grab a copy, a cuppa, and just enjoy!

'Nathan

For Every Book Lover
On October 5, 1949, a woman in New York sent a letter to a London bookstore she had read about in the Saturday Review of Literature. She was anxious to purchase a few out-of-print books, so she enclosed a list and money with her letter. She had no idea that she had ignited a relationship through letters that would last for 20 years.

Helene Hanff and Frank Doel enjoyed one of the most unusual relationships ever recorded in print. If you're a book lover, this is one book you must have. In less than 100 pages, you'll discover two people that embrace books with an intense passion. Touching, funny, and personal, 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD is a great way to spend an hour or two. ... Read more

Book Description

Frank McCourt's glorious childhood memoir, Angela's Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape.

And now we have 'Tis, the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank's incomparable voice -- his uncanny humor and his astonishing ear for dialogue -- that renders these experiences spellbinding.

When Frank returns to America in 1953, he works on the docks, always resisting what everyone tells him, that men and women who have dreamed and toiled for years to get to America should "stick to their own kind" once they arrive. Somehow, Frank knows that he should be getting an education, and though he left school at fourteen, he talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blonde, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teach -- and to write -- that Frank finds his place in the world. The same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured the hearts of readers in Angela's Ashes comes of age.

As Malcolm Jones said in his Newsweek review of Angela's Ashes, "It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best." Frank McCourt's 'Tis is one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is a masterpiece. ... Read more

Reviews (528)

Frank McCourt is a brave, brave man . . .
Writing a memoir invites accusations of myopia and self-indulgence. Writing a sequel begs comparison (with novelty often tipping the scales in favor of the first work). Along comes Frank McCourt who combines the two and manages to succeed admirably. Picking up where Angela's Ashes leaves off, 'Tis recounts young Frankie's impoverished early days in New York, his broadening stint in the Army, and his subsequent development from an unschooled laborer to a teacher of creative writing able to inspire others to make that same arduous climb.

McCourts narrative voice is a paradoxical wonder. Muscular prose and keen observation lay bare dire circumstances and woeful ignorance. Financial poverty stands in sharp contrast to an abundance of imagination and desire. Indeed, it is his driving hunger--both physical and metaphorical --that spurs him to read and write his way out of despair.

McCourt's style captivates with his underlying Irish lyricism and his overlay of poetic repetition. Young Frankie's incredulous tone reveals a touching, often frightening, lack of sophistication. It's a wonder the lad survives his youth. Ever so slowly, he trades that innocence for a college degree, a young wife, and teaching jobs that range from thankless and intimidating to purposeful and rewarding. Never stooping to sentimentality, McCourt evokes plenty of genuine emotion, a skill that serves his reading public as well as it must have served his students.

It is in the final quarter of the book that McCourt stumbles. His hard-won (and much described) sweetheart mutates quickly into a difficult wife, then fades to near obscurity. That they eventually divorce is no excuse for this disappearing act. McCourt needn't have trashed the ex-wife to expose his own grappling. His daughter, with whom he ends up on better terms, suffers similar abridgement, aging years in the space of two pages. Subtext (not to mention the character of the author) suggests a backing off due to pain and guilt but that's an inexcusable squeamishness in a memoir. This abbreviation and lack of candor give the reader a sense of having been rushed through important territory.

His relationship with his parents is drawn with a bit more detail but then it's generally easier to focus on others' failures than to examine your own. Case in point--McCourt spoke of the abysmal effects of his father's chronic alcoholism and admitted he saw himself making some of the same mistakes, yet his reactions seemed to stay on the surface. I kept hoping he'd make peace with his father's fallibilty even as he came to grips with his own but he retains his judgemental tone till the end, missing a valuable connection that might have shed some light on a man he regarded as something of a mystery.

Despite these deficiencies. McCourt's story vibrates with honest intensity and the great ache of anyone whose passion intially exceeds his eloquence. Whatever he turns his hand to next (surely this isn't the last we've heard of him), the lad with the bad eyes, the bad teeth, and the gnawing belly grew into a man with much to be proud of.

A really good book for different reasons than Angelas Ashes
I really enjoyed the book and was disappointed when I read a New York Times book reviewer who panned it for being too cynical and bitter. The innocence, openness and hope that came out of Angelas Ashes reflected the child and youth of Frank McCourt during the time about which he was writing. In 'Tis, Frank confronts the reality of adulthood on his own, in the multi-cultural, and multi-spectral world of NYC - as an immigrant Irishman, Paddy-off-the-boat. His humanity shows. He describes with a lot of humor but not too much rancor, his envy, bitterness, anger, a tendency toward irresponsibility, and occassionally confusion about life's travails as they came his way. He also doesn't lose his ability to laugh at himself and see the humor and humanity in the situations and adventures he describes. It was about Frank's real life as an adult. It was written in the same lyrical,humorous and extremely perceptive style as Angela's Ashes and was just as much fun to read. I STRONGLY recommend it.

AMAZING STORY
Sequel of "Angela's ashes", I was not disappointed a second. The book starts exactly when Angela's...finished. It's written with talent. We hear about what happen to the dad & mum afterwards(You can also learn more on Malachy's first book...Read it).
By the way you'll learn of anything happened to Frank in USA, his return to Europe (after war as a soldier) and in Ireland.
A life that could have finished in an Irish lane fortunately made it in USA successfully.

WE WANT MORE!
What a follow up. His life was so bad is was good and he tells it the way only Frank could. You practically fall in love with him and pray to God to send you back in time to meet up with him when he steps into America. It was a good ending to a good beginning.

Tis is a must read for everyone
I read Angela's Ashes at the suggestion of a very good friend, Louis it was his favorite book and I have say I could see why. When a friend at work saw me reading it she told me about the sequel "Tis a Memoir", I just had to get it and I have to say that when I did, I could not put it down! It is an excellent book, Frank McCourt has such an engaging way of keep his reader hooked! Superb! I love his sense of humor, his triumphs a wonderful and give us all hope, a must read for all ages! ... Read more

Book Description

Hailed by readers and critics across the country, this engrossing biography of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her own experiences: her childhood near Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution; a devastating accident at age eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children; her tempestuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera and intermittent love affairs with men as diverse as Isamu Noguchi and Leon Trotsky; her association with the Communist Party; her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture; and her dramatic love of spectacle.

Here is the tumultuous life of an extraordinary twentieth-century woman -- with illustrations as rich and haunting as her legend.

Reviews (21)

The Best Book on Frida Kahlo
One cannot live in the modern world without regularly encountering self-portrait images of the beautiful and tragic Frida Kahlo. Whether on coffee mugs, t-shirts, posters, or Mexican artifacts, Frida's exquisite face with its darkly joined eyebrows and beribboned hair is immediately familiar to most observers, even if they do not know who she was. Yet Frida Kahlo's popularity in the twentieth century can be wholly attributed to her brilliance. Unlike the work of most modern artists, almost all of her 200 paintings depict realist, surrealist, and primitive self-portraits symbolizing the concerns and agonies of her life. Hayden Herrera's fine biography is still, seventeen years after its publication, the champion text on one of the most important, original, and phenomenal painters of our time.

Frida was born in 1910 (the year the Mexican Revolution began)to a Mexican mother and German father in the same cobalt blue house in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico City, where she later worked and shared her life with the great muralist Diego Rivera. Ironically, it is the house where her life also ended. Today it is a museum, open to the public and still festooned with her beautiful collections of retablos, pottery, and Mexican folk art. Frida's life was consumed by pain as a result of suffering polio at age 6 and a bus/trolley collision as a teenager when, thrown from the bus, she was gored by a steel rail. Frida spent most years of her life bedridden and in body casts (which she also painted)after some 30 surgeries meant to alleviate her suffering. Throughout her life,and even while prone in a bed with a mirrored canopy, she painted herself because of the focus created by chronic pain and said, "I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone." Her self-portraits suggest deep meanings as her face is always encircled with images derived from her physical and psychological life. The paintings are vibrant and, typical of many of her women contemporaries' works, tiny.

Hayden Herrera's book presents a comprehensive life study of the great artist, incorporating photographs, diaries, letters, painting reproductions, eye witness accounts, and local history and politics in the most readable, enjoyable, intelligent work available. An art historian, Ms. Herrera is thoroughly knowledgeable and writes beautifully, as well. One will be as engrossed by this book as by any great novel. Her work convincingly recreates the scenes from Frida's life and populates them with important contemporaries Frida knew and loved, including Andre Breton, Leon Trotsky, Tina Modotti, Pablo Picasso, and, of course, her own Diego Rivera who called her the greatest painter of our time.

There isn't a more engaging biography available about Frida Kahlo (in second place is Herrera's other text, Frida Kahlo:The Paintings), and one need not be an art student to be enthralled by this work. Ms. Herrera's compassionate, energetic account will capture anyone who wonders just what Frida Kahlo was like--her inspirations, occupations, and truly vivacious approach to her one very painful and amazingly productive life.

Thanks to this book, I discovered Frida!
It was thanks to this wonderful book that I discovered Frida Kahlo, who is now my heroine. I have read many books about her, but this is absolutely the best one. It made me laugh - and weep, too, because I could really feel Frida`s pain in my own body...
Today I am probably Sweden`s biggest Frida - fan, and I drive everybody crazy talking about her all the time! Thanks to her, I have started to paint and draw a lot, I dare to wear crazy clothes - and I dare to be my self.
Thank you, Hayden Herrera, for writing such a great book...

Complete and Complex Like Frida
Hayden Herrera has written an excellent portrait of the great artist Frida Kahlo, complete in thought and tender in describing a woman well lived.

Frida Kahlo is the ultimate survivor and represents women for their strength, tenderness, fierceness and suffering compassion. She lived during a time when women had few rights, especially Mexican women, she faced the dreadfulness of the Mexican Revolution in her early years, a bout with polio, a horrible bus accident that attempted to cripple her for life, an often unfaithful husband, criticism of her dreams, activism, accused Communism and many exciting adventures in life. She lived a true artistic life and her paintings represent the complicated nature of her inner soul. She loved hard and fought often, for her rights, her dreams and her man. While bed-ridden and suffering in the severest of agony she taught herself to paint, her body encased in a huge white cast, she painted to survive and reached the other end with a unique perspective on art. Her life and home were surrounded with color, a rainbow that never needed the promise of something golden at the end. She danced her own rhythm and never stopped walking her own path. This is a woman to be admired!

Herrera does an excellent job as the biographer of this phenomenally complicated woman. Her research is thorough and her suggestions entirely believable. You will be transported back in time into the life of a controversial woman who deserves every ounce of recognition that Herrera has given us.

A thorough rendering of an artist's life
This biography is a complete, engaging 440-page effort of sheer reportage. Herrera, an art historian and curator, has also written a book on Kahlo's art, and books on Mary Frank and Matisse, and you can see evidence of her thoroughness on every page. The book traces Kahlo's life by setting up the lives of her parents (her father was an Austrian immigrant to Mexico) all the way to her death and funeral with great detail. As Herrera follows the path of Kahlo's life, she includes letters to and from Kahlo, Kahlo's journal excerpts (illustrations, words and poems) and explicates Kahlo's art as it becomes relevant to the storyline of her life, either because paintings were done around the time of narrative points or because they illustrate incidents or themes in Kahlo's life. There are two color-plate sections and two black-and-white photo/painting sections to which the reader may refer.

Frida's life is certainly compelling, and Herrera doesn't need to resort to emotional language or hyperbole to make her interesting -- and, thankfully, she doesn't. The narrative is quite matter-of-fact, and illustrated with the subjects' own words, one feels that one can get to know Frida, and her husband, Diego Rivera, pretty well, for being somewhat removed from them (at least I feel that way living in the twenty-first century in Arkansas). The book incorporates the commonly known facts of Frida's life -- her devastating tram accident as a high-schooler in which she was impaled on a shaft of metal handrail, her turbulent and deep connection with and TWO subsequent marriages to Diego Rivera, her Mexicanista loyalties and sensibilities, her affair with Trotsky, her personal flamboyance and her great talent -- with the over-arching idea of Frida's alegría -- or happiness, joy -- in the face of her many hardships. As one of her friends said, Frida was a woman who "lived dying." Her many health problems and her problematic and sometimes painful relationship with Rivera were great obstacles to her, but her flamboyant alegría appears throughout her life as a constant, a will to enjoy, to overcome.

I think what the book offers most is Frida's personality, explicated as carefully and well as the paintings, and the effort helps inform the viewer's assessment and response to her work. Using Kahlo's own words often, Herrera allows Frida to tell us herself her reactions to incidents, events, her successes, her health problems.

She writes to her dear friend and medical adviser, Dr. Eloesser, in the United States when she is struggling with the decision to amputate her increasingly problematic foot: "My dearest Doctorcito: [The doctors] are driving me crazy and making me desperate. What should I do? It is as if I am being turned into an idiot and I am very tired of this f---ing foot and I would like to be painting and not worrying about so many problems. But, it can't be helped, I have to be miserable until the situation is resolved..."

This passage is emblematic of Kahlo, mixing her crass language with her charming endearments to her friends, her concern for her health and her resignation to the situation, "it can't be helped..." She often curses, refers to her reader as "kid" and to money as "dough," in English.

Herrera points out points at which Kahlo is not completely forthcoming with truthful details, for instance her age, the length of time she spent hospitalized at various stages, and her changing view on whether she was a Surrealist painter or not. She also illustrates Kahlo's changes in terms of the political situation of the international Communist party, her views about Trotsky, and her public vs. private comments on Diego's never-ending philandering.

In a book on Kahlo, these life details are relevant to her art because her art is confessional and personal. She's a "Sylvia Plath" of painting and mines her life and emotions for subjects until the end. Not long before she died, she had resolved her priorities, telling a friend, "I only want three things in life: to live with Diego, to continue painting, and to belong to the Communist party."

The people around her were deeply important to Frida Kahlo, and to the end of her life, she adored her friends, wrote winning and charming, caring notes to them, and wanted them around her at the end. Her love of others plays itself out in her political beliefs; she toured the world as an artist, but she drew her subjects and methods from Mexicanista traditions, and popular as well as pre-Columbian culture. Her personal illustrations are appealing because of that understanding of others, and Herrera's sound biography renders Kahlo's work and life even more poignant and remarkable. It's a good book. I recommend it.

(I do wish that this book had Frida Kahlo's own art or a photo of her on the cover, rather than a photo of Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo.)

Frida Kahlo is Alive and Well
The greatest compliment one could offer a biographer is that she has brought to life her subject with honesty and insight. Well, I offer this compliment to Hayden Herrera. It is supreme understatement for me to observe that the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, was a complex person filled with great contradictions. Yet, through liberal use of Frida's letters coupled with Herrera's own insightful analysis of her painting, "Frida" brings this great artist to life for us to bask in her brilliance, energy and strength. "Frida" is one of the most remarkable, illuminating and fulfilling biographies I have ever read. I highly recommend this magnificent book. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Frida Kahlo's diary, like her art, is painted in breathtakingly vivid colors. It covers her tumultuous last decade and encompasses love letters, political musings on Communism, and resplendent paintings. The paintings, peopled with mythic figures, self-portraits, and monsters, articulate Kahlo's fantastic visions. One drawing melds a procession of crying faces onto an intertwined couple surrounded by body parts, only to dissolve into a mass of roots and dendrites.

In the introduction, Carlos Fuentes writes, "...a streetcar crashed into the fragile bus she was riding, broke her spinal column, her collarbone, her ribs, her pelvis.... The impact of the crash left Frida naked and bloodied, but covered with gold dust." Her paintings depict her bodily experience, from anguish to sensuality. Kahlo said, "I never painted dreams, I painted my own reality." This visionary ability earned her a place among the surrealists.

Kahlo's prose delves into the associations between images and words, feelings and thought. Her writings shed welcome light on her active intelligence and provide an outline of the events of her life. This Abradale edition features plates reproducing the pages of the diary, and essays by Carlos Fuentes and Sarah Lowe that place it in the context of Mexican art, politics, and history. It is a magical work that adds to an understanding not only of Kahlo's work, but of her interior world as well.--Madeline Crowley ... Read more

Reviews (6)

If unique is what you seek
I was put off by this book for a few years before I got around to reading it because of the odd nature of Frida's drawings and doodlings, inks spillls morfing into "art" and in general the seemingly difficult text to follow. All this changed upon a recent trip to Mexico, amongst the tranquil backdrop of Mismaloya and unforgetable sunsets in this tropical paradise I was able to whip through this book. The serenity of the place helped me get through Frida's chaos. After reading her own insights and feelings about life I wanted more. Her bizarre life, filled with more theatre and characters than a Fellini film, more physical and mental agony than most humans can endure is one that deserves her own thoughts, although at times they are convoluted. Whether she was under the influence(many of her last years she was doped to mask the pain) or not is irrevelant because the text is spellbinding with illustrations that captivate the imagination, taking the reader along a surrealistic journey as only Frida can. It is a grotesquely beautiful book, rich in imagery , both literally as well as illustrated in the unique style of Frida Kahlo, reflective of the pain and suffering she lived, both self inflicted and her own fate. It is quite simply, Frida in her own words. The book is a handsome collection of thoughts and drawings by one of the greatest Latin American artists of the twentieth century. The author takes the liberty of interpreting each page, giving her perspective concerning the thoughts of Frida in a very helpful manner. The first part of the book is the diary, in writting and print and as colorful and bold as Frida was, whereas the second part is the type written text of the Frida's hallucianatory ramblings and drawings. This proves to a beneficail companion to reading each page, first by Frida followed by the clearer typed "translation" in thesecond part of the book. Without the type written text some sections are nearly impossible to decipher. The various sketches are shown in their embyonic stages and would later become part of her major works are truly amazing. If you are a lover of the works of Frida Kahlo this is a fine book to add to your collection of Kahlo memorabilia. This book is a perfect companion to Hayden Herrera's definitive biography. Incidently, my desire for more of Frida in her own words (this one is in Spanish mostly)was quenched recently by finding a book entitled "Escritura" by Frida Kahlo that is series of poems, letters and notes selected by Raquel Tibol. I highly suggest reading both if you are a Kahlophile.

Intimate and hallucinatory
This very intimate book accomplishes what no bio can: show us inside Kahlo, via her own ramblings and disorganization and odd illustartions and ink spills and lines, and drawings, etc. It is a weird highway to the inner mind of the goddess of 20th century art.

With a movie in the works ..., Kahlo is sure to solidify her position as the top-of-the-art-food-chain Latin American artist of the century (Georgia O'Keefe considered her the best female artist of the 20th century) and make her iconic face even more famous.

Kahlo deserves this position because she painted honestly and brutally. She painted her memorable Jewish-Austrian-Spanish-Mexican face, single eyebrow and slim moustache in stark honesty; she had many lovers of both sexes (when such a course of sex exploits was practically unknown); she grabbed her Mexicanity with a fierce pride and ferocity that would not be in vogue until decades after her death (Kahlo was born in 1907 and died in 1954) and yet during her life she was just the wife of a very famous Mexican muralist and a champagne Communist who partied with the Fords and Rockefellers while marching with the workers down the wide avenues of Mexico City. It is thus ironic that it is Kahlo, whose astonishing life and unique paintings are now the subject of lawsuits between governments and collectors, has taken the limelight from her talented womanizer husband and is rightfully considered one of the best artists of the 20th century, period. This is a nice addition and a must read for Kahlophiles.

Hallucinatory and lovely
This book gives an interesting view of the person who was Frida Kahlo, in her own very personal words and images. It is a bit sad that something so private has been made rather accessible, but it is good for lovers of Kahlo's art. The book is inspiring; it is quite creatively stimulating with the lush, free images and round scrawls in many colours. The introduction by Carlos Fuentes is well-written, and I especially liked his description of seeing Frida Kahlo at a Wagner opera. The essay by Sarah Lowe is likewise good. The reproductions of the diary pages look very good and clear (though since I haven't seen the originals, I'm just assuming they are accurate), the size of the pages is large enough, and the colours are all very vivid. The commentary is in a separate section from the diary reproduction, which is nice because you can look uninterrupted at the diary part, and not have to worry about what it all means. It does make for a lot of flipping back and forth when reading the commentary and referring back to the diary page, even though the page discussed is reproduced in black and white (very small) in the commentary. The commentary is rather sparse, and not all the pages of the diary are discussed. All in all a fascinating read.

A Must Own for Frida Junkies
This is not a book that you read, per se. If you are looking for a biography or autobiography of Kahlo and want to find out about her life and times - this is Not the book.

If you already have a lot of knowledge of Kahlo then this diary is a fantastic addition. It provides you with an insight into her mind, dreams and pain. The beautiful color reproduction of her actual drawing and writing is accompanied by a type-set explanation of her words.

No scholar of Frida Kahlo should be without this amazing, gorgeous portfolio. It is inspiring on many levels.

Graphically rich!
If you are expecting a standard diary, full of descriptions of what happened today, who visited for breakfast, and what Frida had for dinner - then don't order this book. Frida's diary is an amazing combination of text and paintings. She writes random comments with little consideration of form. In fact, many of the things she writes are random lists of words, or letters to loves that are never sent, or even descriptions of fantastic events that never occur outside of her imagination. It's like a huge and colorful experiment in free writing and unconscious expression. Combine these words with the sketches, paintings, and drawing scattered about - sometimes on pages of their own, sometimes in the midst of words that are written around the edges of the artwork - and you have an incredible and extremely unique diary. Personally, I found it inspiring to read and have incorporated many of the elements into my own journal. (If you are looking for a way to break out of writers block, or artists block, I would seriously consider getting a copy of this book and mimicking the technique. It's very freeing and has a way of generating ideas.) ... Read more

Book Description

In this eagerly awaited autobiography, comedian and prime-time television star George Lopez tells the heartbreaking yet humorous story of his inspirational rise from dead-end kid in the Valley to giving a command performance before the president of the United States.

It is a rare story that touches us so deeply with its humor, sadness, and powerful message that it transcends the walls of race, culture, and class that divide us.

Why You Crying? is just such a story.

Abandoned by his migrant-worker father at the tender age of two months, deserted by a wild, mixed-up mother at the age of ten years, Lopez grew up angry, alone, teased, and tormented in California's San Fernando Valley, raised by grandparents who viewed love as a four-letter word.

Inspired by his idols, Freddie Prinze Sr. and Richard Pryor, Lopez sets out on a tumultuous twenty-year journey into the manic world of stand-up comedy -- trying to learn a skill nobody can teach; scoring one night and bombing the next; fighting anger, alcohol, depression, and doubt allwhile battling the barriers built to keep Chicanos from breaking through, especially on network TV.

Today, the George Lopez show is a prime-time hit on ABC and his sold-out stand-up performances attract thousands of fans of all ages, each drawn to the sidesplitting riffs mined from a life so sad it had to be funny. Why You Crying? takes an outsider from the San Fernando Valley to Warner Bros. studios to inside the Emmys to plush Pebble Beach and all the way to the halls of Harvard.

Along the way it's pure G. Lo -- raw, real, and, ultimately, uplifting. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Why you crying?
I thought this was the funniest book I have read in along time...I laughed, I cryed...and I related to sooo much. I felt so sorry for him...but he conquered in the end..just like me!!..the book is well worth the price..I cant describe how hilarious alot of this book is..he is a great comedian and story teller!!.

Mary

He is STILL G-LO on the Block!
George calls himself, the other Lopez, G-LO, the one you are not tired of. George Lopez, with about 20 years scouring for his place among the great comedians, has arrived!

"Why You Crying" gives a taste of his life, from the sad pathetic upbringing, comedy bits, strong influences, the enduring struggle and of course, the successful TV show.

The title, "Why You Crying" is a phrase developed from his grandmother, a person who with a severe lack of parental knowledge, belittled and shamed him! It is almost incomprehensible that a child can go from the frying pan - unabandoned by parents, to the fire - negative grandparents who didn't know that an expression of love and devotion is critical to life.

With no father, and an extremely pathetic unstable mother, at ten he went to live with his grandparents. And it is this sad life that is the backdrop for the show, except that his TV mother is based on the mental cruelty received from his real-life grandmother.

There are some great funny moments and you don't have to be Hispanic to understand a dysfunctional crazy family. George shares some bits from the comedy show and he painfully recalls his grandmother's mentally abusive behavior.

The two comedic influences were Freddie Prinze, Sr., from the "Chico and the Man" series in the 70s and one of the greatest comedians who told us what life is really about, Richard Pryor. Lopez talks fondly about a Long Beach, CA performance, "Richard Pryor Live" and I agree that it is the funniest live show ever!!

Lopez, like other great comedians, shares the struggle to the top, the comedy clubs, the road, the bombs, the rejection, depression, etc., etc. Any great artist and comedian can tell you the struggle to success and some can just tell you the struggle.

George dutifully and proudly then toots his own horn! We get a clear understanding how the show evolved and what it takes to come into our homes. He also gives us an idea what hosting the Latin Awards is to him, his arrival and how proud he is to be a Hispanic who has succeeded and he is admirable by the respect he lends to the nationality. ....MzRizz

Wonderful memoir
Maggie Sanchez,Communications,

I thoroughly enjoy a great memoir. 'Why You Cry' is an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable read. It has a mixture of sadness and reality like that of 'Nightmares Echo' and yet it also is comparable to 'Running With Scissors' which adds a light humorous affect in with its details of a hard life. If you like George Lopez, you will love this remarkable book.

Fascinating, Hard-Knock Memoir
I'm a memoir junkie and a comedy junkie--normally the two don't mix, but I found Lopez's story funny, honest, shocking and hearfelt. I hardly knew Lopez's TV work, but know I'm a fan. Just finished Rodney Dangerfield's book (he's a living god), and the two make a weird bookend--most successful comedians have really terrible childhoods. Oddly, another great memoir is about being a great Dad--the opposite of Lopez's and Dangerfield's parents--in "I Sleep At Red Lights: A True Story of Life After Triplets," by Bruce Stockler, a funny and riveting look at marriage, kids and deciding if success is still important.

GLO is not only funny, but inspirational as well!
I was so excited when I heard this book was coming out that I pre-ordered it and received it early. I read it in one day. I couldn't put the book down.

Before I read this book I was a fan. . .now, I'm not only a GLO fan but I also admire the guy. This book is filled with a lot of George Lopez skits that many have heard time and time again and know by memory. But you'll also find the man behind the jokes and punch lines. You'll find the insecure boy who learned to make the best of what was given to him as a child.

This book will make you laugh, cry and then laugh all over again. If you are a GLO fan, then you will love this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Willie Nelson says "Billy Joe Shaver may be the best songwriter alive today," and legions of fans agree that Billy Joe is the real deal. Many describe his songs as pure poetry. Shaver sings about a life that's been full of hard times, wild living, and a forty-year-long passion for his late wife Brenda. His songs are raw, honest, and so true that people hear the story of their own lives in his music. No wonder, then, that his songs have also been recorded by artists such Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, George Jones, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Patty Loveless, John Anderson, Tom T. Hall, the Allman Brothers, the Oak Ridge Boys, and Tex Ritter.In this compelling autobiography written with the assistance of Brad Reagan, Billy Joe Shaver looks back over a life that some might call a miracle of survival. His father abandoned the family before Billy Joe was born. Troubles in school and in the military turned him into a fighter, and a sawmill accident claimed two fingers and part of a third on his right hand. Yet his innate musical talent and the encouragement of an English teacher set him on the road to being a songwriter--and he never looked back. Shaver recounts his long struggle to break into the music business in Nashville and the success that came when Waylon Jennings recorded his songs on the 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes, which became a landmark of outlaw country music. Shaver movingly describes his own thirty-year, up-and-down career as a singer-songwriter in Nashville and Texas, his bouts with alcohol and drugs, his pleasure in touring with his son Eddy and their band Shaver during the 1990s, and the pain of losing Eddy, Brenda, and Billy Joe's mother all within the year 1999-2000.As full of life, heartbreak, and drama as any of Billy Joe Shaver's songs, Honky Tonk Hero is the story of a man who not only walked on the wild side and lived to tell about it, but also got it all down in songs that many people consider to be some of the finest country music ever written. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Lingers on the Mind
Honky Tonk Hero is a MUST read for everyone from hometown Waco Willies to East coast city dwellers and West coast surfers~all will relate to this heart warming personal story.Through incredibly well written vivid descriptions Shaver's narration comes alive. Drama, heartbreak, and family troubles are highlighted through downhome recollections bringing the reader into Shaver's heart, mind and soul.A moving story of his personal struggles, battles and talented accomplishments. So superbly written it will linger on the mind long after the last page is turned ...just like the melody of his songs linger in the heart after the last verse is sung! ... Read more

Book Description

A graphic genius of phantasmagorical originality, Lee Brown Coyes pictures are the visual expression not only of his own emotional turbulence, but also the turbulence of his times. ARTS UNKNOWN is the first biography/art book on Coye (-), a uniquely macabre and eccentric artist, and it will surprise many people unaware of his fine art, non-genre book illustrations, cartoons, and sculpture credentials. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

If You Read Only One Book.....
If you read only one book in your life, you HAVE to read this one. I read it several years ago and just recently read it again. I've read a lot of biographies, and this one is the most sincere and most entertaining one yet. This book shows just how much today's country singers should thank their lucky stars that Waylon Jennings EVER came along. You can tell how very much he loved Jessi and his kids. READ IT!!!!

Sure that Hank Done it This Way
The book details how Waylon became used but not used up through a series of exploits--many shameful. Extensive womanizing back when he truly was lonesome, ornery, and mean left many good-hearted women heartbroken. Waylon didn't have to reveal so much dirty linen from his past, but at least now we can be certain he had always been crazy but it kept him from going insane. He could and probably should have shown more regrets for some erstwhile indiscretions, but most likely his legacy will not forfeit the love of the common people because country's fans are loyal to a fault.

Even if he thought he was too dumb for New York City and too ugly for L.A., he and many of his contemporary honky tonk heroes have considerably more talent than most of those warmed over rockers played on country radio today. The autobiography conclusively proves that we may have lost the wolf, but the wolf's music will survive.

The tale of a survivor and an innovator
This book is as colorful as Waylon's best songs, with an earthy reality that you can smell, taste and feel in your gut. He didn't have an easy life and the contrast between the good times and the hard times is evident. The straightforward yet discriptive writing makes it easy to feel you were there when it happened. But it's never easy to bring about change, which is what his life has been all about. Some may think he brags too much but the truth is he has plenty to be proud of. I bought the book because I wanted to see how he described his time with Buddy Holly and the evolution of outlaw country and found it to be interesting, illuminating and at times, surprising. Along the way, I gained a whole new level of respect for Jessi and was reminded again how important it is for a man to have a strong woman.

It seems that all autobiographies drag at one point or another but that's just a minor issue here. If I could, I'd give this 4 and 1/2 stars, only because I'm stingy with my 5 star recommendations. My guess is that, if you like the man's music, you'll enjoy reading his story.

Good story turned to disappointing drivel
I enjoyed reading about Waylon's experiences and relationships until he got bogged down in the drugs of which he is so proud. Those chapters truly made for boring reading. He could have condensed the experience, acknowledged how much he hurt those who loved him, and then moved on. Instead, he seems to revel in reliving those painful details and doesn't regret his behavior. Jessi deserves more gratitude than he expresses toward her. The book was often disjointed and it was hard to follow the chronology of events. With the last half condensed into 2-3 chapters, it would have been a great story.

great storytelling!!!
I was very pleased to read this book, told by Waylon himself. He's long been one of my favorites. However, there was a little too much cursing for my taste, but then, that's only my opinion! ... Read more

Book Description

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was the founder of modern feminism -- in her time,the most famous woman in Europe and America. In this exciting new biography, Lyndall Gordon proposes that at each stage of a passionate and courageous life -- as teacher, writer, lover, and traveler -- Mary Woll-stonecraft was an original. She had advanced ideas on education, and her views on single motherhood, family responsibilities, working life, domestic affections, friendships, and sexual relationships now look astonishingly modern. She tested new ways a man and a woman might come to know each other and live together. "Imagination must lead the senses, not the senses the imagination," she told her American lover, Gilbert Imlay, and repeated to her husband, William Godwin.

Vindication is the first biography to show this remarkable woman at full strength and bring out the range as well as the reverberations of her genius in the following and subsequent generations. Here is the drama of Wollstonecraft's life as a governess in an aristocratic family in Ireland, as an independent writer in London, as an on-the-scene observer of the French Revolution, and as a daring traveler to Scandinavia on the trail of an unsolved crime. Although she died young, her spirit and unconventional ideas lived on in the lives of her daughter, Mary Shelley, and three other heirs who had to contend with a counter-revolutionary age. Vindication offers new evidence for the influence of early American political thought in England and demonstrates for the first time the profound effect of Mary Wollstonecraft's own writing, especially her Vindication of the Rights of Woman, on American figures of the day, among them John and Abigail Adams. This groundbreaking biography follows the colorful wheelings and dealings of young American adventurers like Joel Barlowand the elusive frontiersman Imlay, who sought their fortunes amid the tumultuous events of late-eighteenth-century Europe and whose clandestine service to the fledglingAmerican government is newly explored.

This is a brilliantly told story, moving on from the issue of rights to larger questions that still lie beyond us: What is woman's nature? What will she contribute to civilization? Lyndall Gordon mounts a spirited defense of Mary Wollstonecraft, whose previous biographers have often doubted her integrity, her stability, and the exhilarating experiment that was her life. Vindication probes these doubts, measures Wollstonecraft's life against her own strengths instead of the weakness that sometimes held her back, and reinterprets her for the twenty-first century.

Book Description

By age twelve, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East L.A. gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests, then watched with increasing fear as drugs, murder, suicide, and senseless acts of street crime claimed friends and family members. Before long Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and the power of words, and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation. Achieving success as an award-winning Chicano poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more -- until his young son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in Always Running, a vivid memoir that explores the motivations of gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that inevitably claim its participants. At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Always Running is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-earned lesson for the next generation. ... Read more

Reviews (139)

It's a five star book!
It has been said,"young people read nobles to learn about other people's life." This quote means that young peaple read in order to know how other peaple live through out the different generations and learn from it. It is indeed true, I as a young person like to read most of all to figure out how other people different from me lives and how they get along whith their issues in life and apply it to my self. I personally think this book it's one of it's kind. Always Running it's a piece of literature that basically reflects on a lot of young people, it tells the story of Luis as a gang member when he was young himself and how he feels now seeing his son on the same situation. This is something that gives a lot to think about, I mean to all of us teenagers that think that the thing we do now won't influence our future generation and that we wouldn't be affected by it. This book it's a great example on that and that's the reason why I rated it as a five star book!

Reality TV ain't got nothing on this!
On the Strength: If Rodriguez's memoir Always Running sounds raw and intense, that's because it is. A lucid, in your face account of a young man's journey from the darkest depths of barrio life-to a yearning soul, striving for the light that glimmers at the end of a tunnel. Chin (Rodriguez) a young vato loco from the mean streets of Los Angeles Califas, would do just about anything for his click, even commit murder. Living foul was all he knew, castigated by society, the revolving door from the hood' to correctional institutions swirled so fast and frequent it left young Chin feeling bitter and more hateful toward authority, and rival gangs. Drugs and violence would be his refuge-but eventually education and community involvement would become his salvation. Rodriguez delivers a compelling look at gang life, and what it takes to break free from its deadly shackles. What makes this book particularly appealing is the unique poetic voice, which combines English and Spanish, and a whole-lot-of Slanglish (no comprende? Don't trip, there's a phat glossary in the back of the book for those who do not understand the Latin lingo that is spread throughout). Rodriguez also takes you for a lyrical cruise through the Boulevard, "Fancy "shorts" danced on the asphalt with only the eyes and beany caps of the drivers visible through the windshield. Music blared out of a multitude of speakers as a river of headlights streamed toward the silhouette of downtown skyscrapers and back." Reality TV ain't got nothing on this! Always Running is a must read. Very highly recommended. -Michael Perry, OLM Entertainment Watch.

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE BOOK!!!!!!! MUST BE READ!!!!!!!!
As he was growing up, Rodriguez had a vivid lifestyle in which he had witnessed countless shootings, racism, beatings, and several other negatively hard crimes. At 12 years of age, he experienced some illusions of gangs and rascim. People would relate to this book in many different ways, as they were growing up too. I believe this book could get to your fealings, but when I started to read it, I was resenting against the people who were rioting.

A MUST READ BOOK!!!
It's about a lifestyle of a young child, growing up in the streets of Los Angeles, Luis J. Rodriguez writes about his vivid life, encountering racism, killings,cruicial beatings, and shootings. Moving around the areas of the Los Angeles he gets involve in gangs later on his life, learns that the gang life is not great. Turn his life into school. Write this book for his son so he won't make a mistake. Relates to people who are in gang activity and show that there is another way in life to succeed, Instead of living by a gun.

Nothing More Than a Glorified Ex-Gangbanger
I read this book about ten years ago for the first time. My son was being "courted" by a gang in our area and a fellow parent recommended it. It did not help.
Neither does it help to read that Rodriguez' son went back to prison after the publication of that book.
In my modest opinion, but is worth something nevertheless in a world where our Latino and Black youth are being killed and killing on the streets everyday--for all the hype I have heard about Luis Rodriguez--he is no more than a glorified ex-gangbanger who found an angle for self-promotion. As a parent I must ask myself, where was he when his own child needed him? ... Read more

Reviews (18)

The Real Deal!
When was the last time you laughed out loud while reading a book? (unfortunately for me, this book made me laugh out loud on the NYC subway) It's a hilarious slice of life from one of the rarest finds: a truly funny and brutally honest female comedienne. Chelsea Handler says (and does) everything you've always wanted to but would probably get fired for...Chelsea's exploits are one-of-a-kind and make Sex & The City's antics look unadventurous by comparison. This book is an absolute must-read for the summer!

Great book
I don't really want to give anything away, so I'll just say this girl is sooo funny. I'd give it 6 stars if I could.

STILL LAUGHING OUT LOUD
Couldn't put the book down!!
Reading Chelsea's HORIZONTAL accounts made me feel like I was hearing stories from my best friend over several cocktails.It was witty, clever and fun for anyone who has some sort of sense of humour.I cant even compare the book to anything I have ever read, but it is definetly good fun for all!!

Only read when wearing Depends!
I loved, loved, loved this book...or at least I lusted after it a whole lot!I was drawn in by Handler's hysterical antics and lighthearted humor.Although her escapades on the Tonight Show and Girls Behaving Badly seem daring, they are nothing compared to this book.I laughed from beginning to end, and I quickly became addicted to the book.If you are looking for a guilty pleasure, Chelsea's book will have you in confession after each chapter.(Good thing there were no priest stories included.) I hope she writes another one, and maybe, just maybe, if I meet her, I will get my own chapter.One can only dream!Sweet, smart and sexy!I loved it!As mentioned in my heading, wearing Depends keeps you safe and dry during the reading of this book.I only wish I would have thought of that ahead of time! Oops!

hilarious
I saw Chelsea on Jay Leno.She was hilarious but her book pushes the envelope.She is undoubtedly going to be one of the best comedians around.
My friends and I went on a wine tasting trip in Southern California and we couldn't stop talking about it the whole way there.It is funny because somone always gets soo drunk that they start crying but talking about this book just made us laugh and laugh and laugh. ... Read more

Book Description

Twenty-five years ago, a disillusioned young man set out on a walk across America. This is the book he wrote about that journey -- a classic account of the reawakening of his faith in himself and his country.

"I started out searching for myself and my country," Peter Jenkins writes, "and found both." In this timeless classic, Jenkins describes how disillusionment with society in the 1970s drove him out onto the road on a walk across America. His experiences remain as sharp and telling today as they were twenty-five years ago -- from the timeless secrets of life, learned from a mountain-dwelling hermit, to the stir he caused by staying with a black family in North Carolina, to his hours of intense labor in Southern mills. Many, many miles later, he learned lessons about his country and himself that resonate to this day -- and will inspire a new generation to get out, hit the road and explore.

Reviews (70)

This book is one that brings adventure into the heart of all
In his book, Peter Jenkins discusses his discontent with his life following college. He plans to leave the country, but in a last minute decision decides to take the advice of a friend and discover America. After some training for the adventure, he sets forth on his journey with his dog Cooper, who is his closest companion.

Jenkins first heads first (on foot) to the National Geographic office in Washington DC, where he obtains a camera. His experiences and adventures will be recorded for an article in the popular magazine.

From Washington, he starts south (destination unknown at this time). As he hikes through the mountains, he begins meeting all different types of people. His American journey takes him through a variety of places and introduces him to people of all backgrounds.

Following a tradgedy on a Farm in Tennessee, Peter's adventure becomes even more insightful as he attempts to discern life in general.

His walk takes him on many adventures, le! ! ads him to a religious experience, and introduces him to the woman that he eventually marries.

The book is truly sensational, and impossible to put down once you have begun to read it! A must-read, for sure!

Wonderful book, full of adventure and a spiritual journey
What a great book this is. Peter Jenkins in the 1970's walked across America and not only had interesting stories to tell, but also had his own spiritual journey to undertake. I first read this many years ago and it left a lasting impression upon me. Having recently re-read it, I still feel the journey he took and wish I too could take a journey such as his.

Maybe America was a tad more safe in the 1970's than it is today, but fortunately Peter only had a few incidents, that could also be because his trusting companion Cooper, a Siberian Husky also travelled with him many, many miles. From Peter's beginning travels in New England down the Atlantic states and across to Louisiana, he tells the reader his encounters as he faced them on the trails, roads, and forests, he also talks about his own self journey and inner strugle to find his "own path". His tales about the "Mountain Man" to his "adoption" by a black family is interesting and wonderful to read. He at last finds his "soul mate" and also what he is looking for. I love this book, and hopefully one day I would like to meet Peter Jenkins and let him know that his book made an impact upon me. I recommend this to anyone who would like to make a journey across America and get to know the people and land, also those who need a "spiritual journey" would find comfort in this book as well. Highly recommended!

Stumbled upon the book, could not put it down!
Absolutely one of the best reads that I've ever encountered. Of course, throughout this book, I continued to hopelessly imagine myself taking this journey along with Peter. Its just a down to earth, true speaking, journey across the eastern US. I wish I could have been there to experience it too. Great read!

A Schlock Across America
I would say that a worse book could not be produced, but I know that there's some hot-blooded hippy out there who is ten seconds away from jumping up from his pottery wheel to shout, "Hey! I'm gonna walk across America and WRITE ABOUT IT!" (Or, rather, since he's a hippy, "Hey, MAN! I'm gonna walk across America and WRITE ABOUT IT!") Nothing against hippies; most of them know how to write well. It's the hippies that don't who really annoy me, such as Mr. Peter "My Life Partner is an Alaskan Malamute" Jenkins. He even admits it! ". . . I was not a writer. I could barely spell my name" (p. 57). So, please tell us, Peaterr Jinkyns, why'd you do it? Do you enjoy lacing together poorly-worded images and emotions into a story that's actually PAINFUL to read? The whole book seems as if it were written like a high school student writes an English essay on "The Scarlet Letter" at 4 A.M. the day it's due. (Yes, that's right, I used a similie--something Peter Jenkins should never ever do again.) He should let his dog do the writing, instead. (Which he does, in some points. He's one of those people who thinks his dog can talk.)

This book got good reviews from other people because of it's optimistic outlook on our country, but I say don't listen to the optimists. They think that George W. Bush is a good president. It's the cynics who see the truth as it really is.

Don't get me wrong, I love this country and I'm very proud of it. In fact, I even wrote my own book about it. It's called "My Feet Hurt, America". Here's an excerpt:

"Today I started walking across this great country of ours, but half a mile out, I got tired and decided to go home and eat a Super-Sized BigMac combo meal with lots of ketchup. God bless the USA from sea to shining sea and the home of the brave. THE END"

MY POINT: I think it's great that people love this country so much that they want to walk across it and write books about it. But I do think people should learn to write first. So don't read this book, unless you want a story about a hippy-turned-Republican.

Termendous. Couldn't get enough.
One of the best, personal, diarys that I have ever encountered.
Peter Jennings has a way of explaining his adventures that puts you right along beside him with every step. I purchased this book because of its preview within its cover, and it was the best book that I think I have ever read. I can't wait to get the next one.." The walk west". I couldn't lay this book down. ... Read more

Amazon.com

We barely glimpse Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in this magisterial tome's first 75 pages, which are devoted to the revolutions wrought by the French people in politics and Immanuel Kant in philosophy. They must be understood, argues British scholar Nicholas Boyle in the second volume of a projected trilogy, because their impact transformed Goethe's life and art: "What had been a cultural quest, winding through the complex social certainties of the German ancien regime, became an interrogation of all levels of existence in an epoch of world-wide revolution and nascent Romanticism." Examining the period simplistically known as "Weimar classicism" (1790-1803), Boyle offers penetrating analyses of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Faust: Part I, and The Natural Daughter, the works through which Goethe developed his mature theme of renunciation, "the silence that acknowledges the absence from reality of the Ideal." But the author also limns with acuity Goethe's relations with other German intellectuals, in particular his intimate friendship with Friedrich von Schiller, and his less rarified activities, notably the common-law marriage to a woman who rooted him in everyday life. This is not a book for the light-minded or easily daunted reader, but those up to its challenges will revel in a thrilling blend of comprehensive biography and an epic intellectual history. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Multidimensional scholarship
Oof! Be prepared to read this book at a snail's pace or lightly many times over. I don't believe I have ever read anything quite like it: multidimensional scholarship raised to another level. Nearly two centuries separate Goethe from us, but this work throws a bridge across time.

A Very Big Book on Goethe
This book is undoubtedly the best book on Goethe available in English. Boyle's descriptions of Weimar and Jena bring the late 18th and early 19th century to life. After reading the book, I had a much better grasp on Goethe and his contemporaries. I recommend the book highly to anyone seriously interested in understanding German literature. My one complaint is that the book is almost too unwieldly to read in bed. It also took several months to digest. (But well worth the effort!) ... Read more

Book Description

As an artist and persona, Jim Morrison epitomized the late 1960s, bridging a burgeoning counterculture and popular culture, while acting out the iconoclastic rage, rampant libido, and spectacular flameout of a tumultuous era. The music he created with The Doors has sold over 50 million records worldwide—with over 13 million in the last decade alone, as their songs have been embraced by a new generation. But despite Morrison’s seminal importance, there has not yet been an authoritative biography that does justice to him and his creative legacy. Until now.

Stephen Davis, the preeminent rock biographer and author of the classic Led Zeppelin history Hammer of the Gods (over 600,000 copies sold inthree editions, and a #1 New York Times bestseller), has uncovered never-before-seen documents, conducted dozens of original interviews, and scoured Morrison’s unpublished journals and recordings to write the definitive biography of a misunderstood legend. Jim Morrison is packed with startling new revelations about every phase of his life and career, from his troubled youth in a strict military household to his blossoming as a rock icon among the avant-garde LA scene to his voracious drug abuse and secret sexual experiments. Davis also investigates one of the greatest mysteries in rock history—the circumstances surrounding Morrison’s mysterious and unsolved death—as he pieces together new evidence to tell the true and heartbreaking story of Morrison’s last tragic days in Paris.

Compelling and unforgettable, Jim Morrison is destined to become a classic. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Anticipation exceeds realization
Awaited over 6 months for this book to be published and was let down almost immediately. Almost all but 2 pictures have been published before and the story itself has already been covered by previous bios. Still, it's an ok read for the uninitiated, but for those who have read other Morrison bios, there is nothing new covered here--except maybe that the surviving Doors were not the best friends with Morrison that they now make themselves out to be. One glaring error was the author has Morrison arriving in Paris in June '71 when in fact he had been living there since March. Would've loved new info from post-Miami to July '71 and would've loved to have seen rare photos from that time.

Innacurate and embarrasing
This has got to be one of the most inacurate books out there.First off the man can't label pictures correctly.Did he not take the time or care enough to label them correct?.There is nothing new here maybe except for a few odds and ends.He is just basically going into things weve already read inother books,trying to put them into his own words and such.This is indeed embarrasing--for the author

Lizard on the Road
The book is worth reading in spite of the author's desperate need to paint an even darker side of Morrison.
The best parts are the anecdotes of many, many Doors concerts.
This is what keeps the book from being like all the rest and a good read.

It's worth reading.
Unlike the other reviewers, I liked this book. I have read many biographies about Jim, and in this one I learned a few things that I had not read (or heard) before. Of course there were a lot of rehashed stories, but to only include previously unknown facts would turn the book into a pamphlet. The author stated which stories were substantiated and which were not. It's too bad the Doors' lawyer Max Fink didn't write a book. That man knew a lot about Jim.

A tremendous disappointment
Perhaps with the mysterious cover and the grabbing editorial reviews, Stephen Davis thought that he would fool Morrison/Doors fans into believing that this would be THE book, THE final word on this enigmatic man's life and work. In my case at least, he was right.

This is nothing more than rehashed, oft told stories about Jim Morrison and his chaotic life, spliced with occasional, unsatisfying references to his private notebooks. You might as well buy "Wilderness" or "The American Night" for all the new information he gives us. Nothing that hasn't been written is revealed about his death in Paris. There are intimations that he was bisexual, but nothing solid. Davis even has balls enough to reference "Wild Child", the blatantly fictional account of Morrison's supposed "relationship" with groupie Linda Ashcroft. This book is some where between "No One Here Gets Out Alive" and "The Lost Diaries of Jim Morrison"--in other words, like these wastes of paper, it floats between fantasy and truth, melding one with the other. Don't bother. ... Read more

Book Desc