Book Description
Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography explores the life and career of one of Hollywood's great dames. She was a leading film personality for more than fifty years, from her beginnings as a dancer in silent films of the 1920s, to her portrayals of working-class shop girls in the Depression thirties, to her Oscar-winning performances in classic films such as Mildred Pierce.
Crawford's legacy has become somewhat tarnished in the wake of her daughter Christina's unkind memoir, Mommie Dearest, which turned her into a national joke. Today, many picture Crawford only as a wire hanger-wielding shrew rather than the personification of Hollywood glamour.
This new biography of Crawford sets the record straight, going beyond the gossip to find the truth about the legendary actress. The authors knew Crawford well and conducted scores of interviews with her and many of her friends and co-stars, including Frank Capra, George Cukor, Nicholas Ray, and Sidney Greenstreet.
Far from a whitewash—Crawford was indeed a colorful and difficult character—Joan Crawford corrects the many misconceptions and myths that abound and tells the story of one of Hollywood's most influential stars, complete with on-set anecdotes and other movie lore. Through extensive interviews, in-depth analysis, and evaluation of her films and performances—both successes and failures—Lawrence J. Quirk and William Schoell present Crawford's story as both an appreciation and a reevaluation of her extraordinary life and career.
Customer Reviews:
"Essentially" useless.......2006-11-21
Given Joan Crawford's active love life, up-and-down stardom and the occasional classic movie, one would expect that a really good, entertaining biography could be written about her.
Well, this isn't it. Lawrence J. Quirk and William Schoell trip over their own feet, as they desperately try to convince the reading public that Crawford was some kind of Hollywood saint. "Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography" is less interested in Crawford's actual life, than in worshiping at her altar.
Crawford was born to an impoverished family, who rejected her at a young age when she was caught sleeping with her stepfather. She veered off into showbiz, becoming a notable starlet and marrying into Hollywood royalty. She also survived the transition from silent movies to talkies, which most stars didn't.
As as her marriages failed, she continued notching famous lovers (including Clark Gable) on her bedpost, as she rapidly ascended to megastardom. Even into old age, she continued making intriguing (and sometimes wretched) movies, and adopted four children to provide her with unconditional love.
Courtesy of her daughter Christina Crawford, there's still a lot of confusion about what kind of person Joan Crawford really was, especially since so many accounts differ. Was she really a mentally-ill harpy? Was she an essentially nice if needy person? Or was she an arrogant master of PR?
Sadly, "The Essential Biography" won't tell you. Quirk and Schoell dismiss all negative rumors about Crawford, because... well, because they're negative. Instead, Crawford is painted as a supersaint -- a perfect mother, the best actress ever, always classy, intelligent, and with high standards (but heaven forbid she be a snob). All her performances were flawless.
And if she ever did anything wrong... well, it was ALWAYS someone else's fault. If anyone criticized her, they are dismissed as has-beens and ingrates. If a director criticized her professionally, then he is basically called a hack. Other actors -- especially the legendary Bette Davis -- are thoroughly roasted, while Joan's own catty remarks and personal problems -- alcoholism, OCD, and sleeping with her stepdad -- are ignored.
In fact, it's completely impossible to find a moment of honesty in here. Schoell and Quirk are so hell-bent on painting Crawford as a sexual plaster saint that objectivity is thrown out the window. No new information is provided, except the authors' gushing recountings of long-ago interviews.
Fortunately the book is well-written, and has some lovely career photographs of some of Joan's best movies, as well as detailed plot descriptions of most of the better-known films, as well as the obscure ones (like "Our Dancing Daughters"). But after a hundred or so pages, the constant worship of Crawford becomes wearying.
"Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography" will be a good read for those who already think that Crawford can do no wrong. For the rest of us, it's just a 270-page recounting of two men's megacrushes. Nauseating.
Horrible Book.......2006-07-06
This is the worst biography ive ever had the misfortune of reading.It provides no real insight into Joans character and is loaded(too much ) with detailed plot summaries and key scenes of ALL HER MOVIES(over 70).A brief plot symnopsis and maybe a note of key scenes of her LANDMARK MOVIES instead of all her movies would of been appropiate.There's no sense of actually getting deeper into Joan Crawford as a person.All it was was she drank out her fith of vodlka(100th proof) and carried on a affair with so and so then a LOOONG summary of her next film.
Essential Filmography.......2006-02-21
If you are looking for an in-depth biography on Joan Crawford's life and that alone, this book is not for you. Rather than rehashing her life's story, as has been reported in several other books, the authors of this book made this more of a filmography - - dissecting Crawford's movies and the stages in her personal and professional lives when she made them.
I considered it fascinating reading - - starting with her early silent movie roles, as Lucille LeSueur, to her breakout role as Diana in Our Dancing Daughters, to her many shopgirl roles at MGM. During this period, the authors point out that Crawford herself was first living her "fairy tale" marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Her roles shifted slightly with the disintegration of that marriage, and her subsequent marriage to Franchot Tone, a more "serious" stage and film actor. MGM's reluctance to put her in serious roles, led her to the title of Box Office Poison and to the Warner's lot, where her "women's movies" coincided with the landmark of her fourth decade. As she aged, her films became more serious, more dramatic, more "female in trouble", until she fell into the horror movie cycle, a fate shared with Bette Davis.
For the most part, I thought this was a fascinating look at the incomparable Crawford. Nothing too earth shattering revealed here. Just a fresh, new look at her movies and the timing with which they were made.
A bonus for Crawford fans.
disgusting!.......2006-02-05
this book in my opinion is trash, i read a couple chapters and i had to wash my eyes, alot of un-truths here, the "author" claims that crawford walked in on bette davis perfoming fellatio on her husband franchot tone??? disgusting- avoid this lying filth!
Boring.......2005-12-14
I was very interested in the true life of Joan Crawford after seeing "Mommy Dearest". This book starts off well, but then quickly goes downhill. Describing in detail about each of her movies- such as who co-starred or what the idea of each movie was. I didn't order the book to get a movie review and that's about all it is.
Average customer rating:
- a pleasing hip-hop surprise
- MML breaks it down
- great read !
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Scars Of The Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises
Miles Marshall Lewis
Manufacturer: Akashic Books
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ASIN: 1888451718 |
Book Description
"Lewis has composed an observant and urban B-boy's rites of passage . . . a hiphop bildungsroman told in prose full of buoyancy and bounce."-Greg Tate, author of Flyboy in the Buttermilk
Scars of the Soul is a confessional, stylistic account (in the Joan Didion tradition) of coming-of-age in the Bronx alongside the birth and evolution of hip-hop culture.
Miles Marshall Lewis was born in the Bronx in 1970 and currently lives in Manhattan. He is a former editor of Vibe and XXL, and his work has been published in The Nation, The Source, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Essence and other magazines. He holds a B.A. in sociology from Morehouse College and studied at the Fordham University School of Law.
Customer Reviews:
a pleasing hip-hop surprise.......2004-10-27
Scars is great on several different levels. First, it's one of the first hip-hop memoirs (certain not to be the last). It reminded me of last year's Random Family but told from the perspective of Miles Marshall Lewis, a Bronx-born "bohemian B-boy" (his words) who also happens to have a Sociology degree. Any readers interested in books that chart what the young black man in America goes through will dig this, the same as Black Boy, Makes Me Wanna Holler, Finding Fish, Manchild in the Promised Land, etc. Hip-hop was bound to produce its own and here it is. Straight outta da Bronx, Miles Marshall Lewis sprung out of the same place and time as hip-hop did and he lays out the correlations well.
Then, it reminds me of the plot to "Brown Sugar" as well: a XXL magazine editor (MML was once one, like Sanaa Lathan's character) gets fed up with hip-hop (aren't we all?) and writes a book about it. Scars is that book. As music journalism, Lewis digs a little deeper than the magazines he's known for writing for by taking KRS-One's popular "I am hip-hop" perspective and injecting personal tidbits of Bronx flashbacks.
Finally, his few insights on spirituality (the "Soul" in the title is no accident) and independent thinking are also noteworthy, above and beyond hip-hop. Scars was a good one. I expected maybe yet another "hip-hop rules! take us seriously!" book, and was pleasantly surprised.
MML breaks it down.......2004-10-14
Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises is divided in two: Memory Lanes and Gun Hill Roads (Part I), and The Def of Hip-Hop (Part II). In Part I, author Miles Marshall Lewis takes a hip-hop Slouching Towards Bethlehem approach, explaining his own life in terms of hip-hop culture. Before breaking down his dad's addiction to cocaine and heroin in "The Suckerpunch of My Childhood Files," Lewis alludes to the fact that the fathers of Nas and Jay-Z both struggled with coke and heroin, and that a greater understanding of MCs and men of the hip-hop generation in general can be reached when we understand the fathers' influence (a brilliant observation).
Like Woody Allen in Zelig, Lewis seems to be present at many key moments of the golden age of hip-hop: waving his hands in the air at the Krush Groove X-Mas Party concert; dancing in a Doug E. Fresh video; smoking herb with Erykah Badu in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; signing the Hip-Hop Declaration of Peace at the United Nations alongside hip-hop's pioneers. These details were fascinating to me, particularly because 1) my first hip-hop album was Doggystyle by Snoop Dogg, 2) I'm white, and 3) I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, nowhere near the birthplace of hip-hop. Scars is highbrow, researched, and really quite witty.
great read !.......2004-10-01
In movie-pitch terms, this 1st book by Miles Marshall Lewis is a cross betweeen Antwoine Fisher's Finding Fish and Charlie Ahearn's Yes Yes Y'all, with a little Best American Essays flavor. Lewis's details about his dad's bout with heroin, his birds-eye view of hip-hop bubbling outside the South Bronx neighborhoods he grew up in, and the book's "hip-hop is dead" thesis make for an engaging and often hilarious reading experience. If that little kid from The Boondocks cartoon grows up to become a music journalist, he'll be Miles Marshall Lewis. Strongly recommended for those who feel like hip-hop has gone down the toilet and wonder what happened, as well as people who dig memoirs like Richard Wright's Black Boy.
Customer Reviews:
Moms take note!!.......2007-05-14
If you're a mom of a toddler, preschooler, or elementary age child, get a subscription to the magazine Family Fun, and then get this book as well as "My Great Idea" put out by that magazine. Soooo many wonderful and creative ideas for those of us who are a bit challenged when faced with playing with a youngster!
A very well thought out book.......2005-04-27
This book is amazing. It's beautifully designed and it is extremely well organized. I can instantly find the kind of activity that I am looking for (backyard activity, craft to do at the kitchen table, etc.) It's also easy to zero in on age-appropriate ideas, too. I have purchased a lot of activity books over the years, but this is definitely one of the very best.
The BEST Family/Kids activity book ever!.......2005-01-30
This book is worth its weight in gold! There are activities, games, ideas, etc. suitable for any occasion. I have a son and a daughter, am a boy scout and a girl scout leader, entertain numerous neighborhood children and bring crafts into my children's classrooms often. A great deal of the activities I do comes from this book alone. I have a full time career also, so I don't always have a lot of time to plan and this book makes it possible. Even if I don't follow an idea exactly, I receive inspiration for other activities/crafts and always find a use for any type of container, paper roll, rocks, pinecones, etc. So if you want a book that not only has great craft ideas but also ideas for groups, games, things to keep your kids entertained while they're waiting for dinner; then this is your book! Have fun and enjoy!
I love this book!.......2004-01-11
I bought this book, as well as the FamilyFun Craft book. It is a great book with great ideas for a wide range of ages. There are so many good ideas, its hard to know which to do first! I also liked that it is spiral-bound, it makes it easier to look at the projects.
another great FamilyFun book..........2003-06-27
I think I have all of the FamilyFun books now and Boredom Busters is just as great as the others. By using common items found around the house kids can find lots of fun things to make and do. I highly recommend all of the FamilyFun books and magazine as well. Neither you or your kids will be disappointed.
Book Description
Jam-packed with 200 captivating games, this brightly illustrated collection will make sure that no kid ever whines "I'm bored!" again. Even better, these are zippy, energy-burning activities--not the typical quiet indoor fare. Youngsters will have a blast with scavenger hunts, ball games guaranteed not to break anything, and even a nose-pushing popcorn race. They can test their reflexes with Footsieball (volleyball played with a balloon and one foot) or Hallway Alligator (try to get past the alligator without getting munched). Most of the activities need only minimal set-up time and supplies found around the house. Game variations are included to multiply the fun.
Customer Reviews:
Don't pass this one up!.......2006-03-01
After teaching in elementary classrooms for over 15 years, I thought I had seen and read it all when it comes to games. And to be quite honest, I was typically pretty disapointed........until a friend showed me this one. All the games have simple rules, require minimal materials (all of which can be easily found around even the most minimally equiped house) and are downright fun for all ages! These games address all the common buzz-words we teachers look for, such as developmentally appropriate, mulit-aged and sensory stimulation and integration. And Gunter hasn't forgotten about all the common buzz-words kids look for like laughing, giggling, silly and fun, fun, fun. Buy this book and you will be the best parent/teacher/scout leader/care provider/group facilitator on the block!
Book Description
Organized around seasonal times (First Snowfall, April Fool's Day), pivotal celebrations (first lost tooth, first haircut), and silly (or at least less serious) celebrations (Backwards Day, National Popcorn Day, Dr. Seuss's Birthday), this book helps moms turn everyday doldrums into delightful moments to share with their children.
Book Description
Never be bored!
Boredom Busters will help you beat the rainy-day blues. This easy-to-follow book is full of great boredom-busting ideas with step-by-step explanations that show you how to use Post-it® Notes to make puppets, bookmarks, decorations, origami figures and much more. And, with no scissors and no glue, cleanup couldn't be easier!
Have fun creating more than 20 cool projects with Post-it® Notes.
- Crazy characters
- Origami
- Puppets
- Paper planes
- Bookmarks
- Mobiles
- Funny faces
Average customer rating:
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Mudpies Book of Boredom Busters
Nancy Blakey
Manufacturer: Tricycle Press
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Binding: Paperback
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The Mudpies Activity Book: Recipes for Invention
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Go Outside: Over 130 Activities for Outdoor Adventures
ASIN: 1883672864 |
Customer Reviews:
Great Resource.......2002-05-02
I would rate this book a low five or a high four. The reason is that the drawers are big and cluttery and sometimes the fonts they use are big and cluttery and that makes it hard for me to concentrate on the page and read the activity. Having said that though- this is an excellent book.
The ideas are easy to impliment, usually using around the house supplies. Some of them are messy and some of them are not. There is a wide range of activities that will appeal to a wide range of youngsters, cooking, music, mobiles, bugs and more are included in here.
The books says it is directed towards 6- 12 years old. I'd say this is about right. However, some of the activities would be too simple for six year olds and might work well in a kindergarten classroom.
Enjoy
Product Description
Contains 600 crafts, games and activities for every day of the year. From the experts at Family Fun Magazine.
Average customer rating:
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200 Boredom Busters (Quick & Easy Activity Book)
Paul Scott
Manufacturer: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd
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ASIN: 0751358916 |
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52 ways to Boredom Busters for Kids (52 Ways)
Lynn Gordon
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books Llc (Juv)
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ASIN: 0811862194 |
Book Description
Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance explores Fischer Black’s intellectual journey from Harvard to the offices of ADL, from the University of Chicago to MIT, and then to Goldman Sachs. Years of research and interviews with Black’s business and academic associates, as well as family and friends, are distilled into a scholarly yet personal story of the formation and development of the extraordinary mind and unique character of this unassuming renegade. This poignant book tells the story of one man’s intellectual adventure at the very center of modern finance. It is a story about the birth of quantitative finance and financial engineering. It is also the story about the continuing human quest to defeat the "dark forces of time and ignorance," as John Maynard Keynes famously put it.
Download Description
This vignette-based business biography captures the essence of an extraordinary man and a giant in the world of finance. After years of research and cooperation from nearly all of Black's associates, family members, and friends, author Mehrling explains the ground-breaking impact Fischer Black had on money, finance, and the world markets. You'll follow Black from his undergraduate studies in physics, mathematics, and computer programming to one of the most elite of firms on Wall Street, where he developed quantitative models that are still widely used today. Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance demystifies this genius and provides an engaging look at a man whose life's work encapsulates modern financial theory. Order your copy today.
Customer Reviews:
A Loner who drove Financial Change.......2007-07-15
Revolutions spring from unlikely sources.
Fischer Black was an unlikely revolutionary. He thought like no one else. While teaching, his colleagues attacked problems with formulas and models. Fischer Black did not. He opted to explore them from as many different angles as he could conceive. Once solved, he generated a formula. Solving problems this way, Black found he avoided formula-dictated thinking ruts.
His teaching style was bizarre. He got bored teaching regurgitated knowledge. In his view regular lectures were a waste of time. He developed an engaging teaching style by asking 50 open-ended questions. Combined with his insistence that students learn the language of finance, this interaction gave air to brilliant minds. Black cherry-picked great ideas. His students loved the vibrant seminars.
Fischer Black became famous for what he cared less about: the Black-Scholes option model. Options were just a passing interest. He cared more about Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) developed by Jack Traynor. He sought to apply it to economics.
He failed to leave a legacy in traditional economics. Fischer Black had degrees in physics and mathematics but no formal training in economics. In academia, he became recognized as forward-thinking in finance, but out of his depth in economics.
Robert Rubin, then the managing partner of Goldman Sachs, said it best when he sold his partners on the idea of hiring the academic Black.
"We will learn from Fischer," he is quoted by the author as saying, "and he will learn from us."
Fischer was egoless. He took rebuttals in stride. Open to change, he was an unapologetic believer in free markets. His unorthodox style sparked a revolution in the business of finance. His innovative thinking drove finance to the forefront of the science of economics.
Perry Mehrling has written a brilliant biography about a brilliant man.
A Guidebook to Thinking Outside of the Proverbial Box..........2006-07-28
Fischer Black's life and somewhat rebellious style of thinking are taken under the lens in Fischer Black and The Revolutionary Idea of Finance. Clearly written for those interested in economics and finance, the author illuminates the personalities, relationships and debates that drove Fischer Black toward his famous contribution to options theory. It interestingly highlights the important role Fischer Black's understanding of Jack Treynor's Capital Asset Pricing Model played in shaping his views of the investment universe and in developing the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model.
Why not 5/5? While the author only indirectly points to Fischer Black's controversial insights and revolutionary attitude as a potential cause, we are left to speculate about the reason why he was not awarded the Nobel Prize. It would have made the story line more interesting to see this unfortunate outcome addressed.
A Masterful Biography.......2006-07-27
Fischer Black was not only a revolutionary thinker, he was an eccentrically original human being. Professor Mehrling's biography is a clear, concise account of the development of modern finance, and also a richly detailed portait of a complex man.
Outstanding scholarship wrapped in a 'John Nash-like' story.......2006-04-25
The author has done a very good job on two fronts. One, he has dissected a complex area of corporate finance and made it readable to someone with a decent grasp of business. Considering the complexity of CAPM, and how far it stretched conventional wisdom, that alone would be good for 4 stars. However, Fischer Black was an extraordinary person, moving between academia and the practice of devising new financial instruments for Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs with an aplomb few could match.
If you enjoyed this book, then I heartily recommend Peter Bernstein's Capital Ideas as well.
Black used as a vehicle for a broader theory.......2006-02-03
This is a study of the recent history of finance economics, disguised as a biography. Not that there's anything wrong with that....
The revolutionary idea that Perry Mehrling has chiefly in mind in the title of this book is the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). Mr. Mehrling argues in a nutshell that for Fischer Black, the options formula that would make him famous and that would win two collaborators a Nobel Prize in economics in 1997 was but one application of this model.
A key theme of the book is that at least two "revolutions" have contended for mastery in the worlds of finance and economics, and that for a time in the 1960s the two revolutions, CAPM on the one hand and the efficient-markets hypothesis (EMH) on the other, appeared to be but two arrows in the same quiver. Only over time did it become clear that a choice might be required. Black opted for sticking with CAPM and reasoning from there, and Mehrlig approves of this choice, contending that Black was ahead of his time and that economics today is still struggling to catch up with some of the other inferences he drew from CAPM, in business cycle theory in particular.
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