Entertainment Books

I was pleased to discover that Edie's Miami Beach apartment was in a luxury complex (Harbour House) right on the beach! These condos are selling for around half a million dollars! Her condo had a large pool and the beach just beyond-it looks like it was perfect for grabbing "a couple days on the beach". Also fun was to see Edie all decked out in New York city after her move there and all manner of tidbits that fans will enjoy. It looks as though Edie lived the good life after Grey Gardens (did Jackie help?) Thanks for the book Walter!

Loved it! A very interesting memoir for any Grey Gardens fan. The watercolor illustrations are beautiful, I would love to be able to purchase a print of one. As any GG fan has realized, anyone who knew Edie loved her. Walter, so glad you did not sell her letters on ebay! A wonderful book.

Reading about a years long relationship through letters and conversations is a very good way to get to know someone. Edith Beale and Walter Newkirk clearly had a special friendship that continued through her last years. The photos and insight gave me a special appreciation for her personality. A good read.

WORTH WAITING FOR. CHUCKED FULL OF NEW PICTURES AND TIDBITS THAT WE NEVER READ BEFORE. THE PICTURES OF THE ACTUALL LETTERS HAND WRITTEN BY LITTLE EDIE WERE JUST A WONDERFUL SURPRISE AND DELIGHT. IF YOU ARE A GREY GARDENS FAN, OR FANATIC LIKE ME YOU MUST OWN THIS WONDERFUL TREASURE. SCRAPBOOK IS THE PERFECT WORD. THAT IS WHAT MAKES IT SO UNIQUE AND INTERESTING.

i just loved Memorabealeia,it was nice to get another glimpse of the fabulous Little Edie

Great stuff. Floyd is such a winner, looking forward to seeing him race again. It's an alarming shame the trial process is such a sham.

The book was an eye opener to the world of drug testing - good reading too

One of the best books I've read recently, it was very well written. I believe Floyd was falsely accused, in part because of things he said or did before or even during the race. I feel it was a way to get back or get even with him. Sad but true that sometimes happens. We know Dr. Arnie Baker and feel that if he backs Floyd, Floyd must be innocent. I will be passing this book along to friends so they might reach their own conclusion.

This book is a great read, and clearly sets forth what you won't hear in the news. He did not fail the drug test, and the USADA should be ashamed of themselves -- I can't believe my tax dollars supported the USADA garbage.

This is Floyd Landis, exhorting his legal defense team to let it all hang out on the Internet in what became known as the Wiki defense. Trash talking Mennonite listening to Metallica while plotting to destroy his opponents, Landis comes across as a conflicted and none too sympathetic character.

This isn't to say, however, that the book isn't a good read. For anybody who follows cycling it's a page turner regardless of how you feel about the author and his self righteous efforts to vindicate himself.

There are three main parts to the narrative - Landis' childhood and early mountain bike racing years, his career as a professional road racer culminating with the 2006 Tour de France win, and his battle with authorities in the aftermath of being accused of doping. These parts flow together and complement one another as a convincing portrait of the champion (?) emerges.

Along the way Landis provides a compelling explanation for his remarkable performance in Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour. It's about tactics, teamwork, training, and single minded focus on the readings of a PowerTap meter. Putting it all together it makes sense, and you find yourself thinking, "He just might have done it".

There are also interesting perspectives on teammate Lance Armstrong, the group dynamics of the peleton, and the pageantry and flawed grandeur of the Tour de France.

Cycling aficionados will want to read this book, in spite of its self serving PR perspective.

Purchased this book for my son who is interested in learning game programming. The book had a cd which was suppose to be all inclusive, but we ran into problems. Could not find examples it talked about in Chapter 4. Think there are items missing that we should have. The book does not spell out if you have to go to the website and download the development kit.

My son is not to happy with the book. I have a degree in computer science and I'm not happy with the book either. It's simple, if the book says go and get this file from this directory then it should be there.

This is an outstanding overview of Garage Games' Torque Game Engine. Any aspiring game maker needs to have a copy of this book for reference. Torque allows rapid proto-typing of game ideas, supplying all the foundation for rendering, animation, sound, networking, scripting, all for both the PC and Macintosh. My own teenagers (pictured on the cover, CD, and page 31 :-) use a $25 copy of Milkshape 3D, and put their own models, sometimes with their own rigged, animated skeletons, right into a $100 copy of Torque, and play their own games.

After you've hooked your wannabe game makers with Torque for Teens, send them over to the perfect followup book:

3D Game Programming All in One, Second Edition

Torque has quickly become the number one game development and design harness for nearly all high school and college level game theory, development, application, and graphic design classes.

I am a professor who teaches game design and I can't tell you how great this book is. If your a teen or new to Torque this book will clarify some of the mystery surrounding the Torque engine. It's clean and well thought out.

I highly recommend it over the other Torque books (If your a beginner).

This book does what it does very well.....

While the book is good for very early beginners to the Torque Game Engine, I think it does not delve deep enough into the engine itself and I believe other things should have been covered to make it more interesting not only to teens, but to everyone.

Basically the entire book, (besides a few chapters), is the same exact tutorial you can download for FREE from Garage Games, just with some nicer game assets.

It's a good book for those who have already tried the tutorial from Garage Games and want to try to do a little more without buying the engine. This is the most up to date book when it comes to learning about the Torque Game Engine.

I purchased this book with the hopes and intentions of using it as a home-school resource for our programming course. It is not bad in a general way, and was very good as a friendly introductory to Torque and as a business totorial for young entrepreneurs. It covers a business model and organization of your resources such as what jobs need to be defined within your dev-team etc. It covers (at great length - a bit too much actually) several games out there that are either built with Torque or by the makers of Torque - and how they were generally designed (as examples). There are even a few resources that were interesting to play with.

Unfortunately, that was about all it did. It seems to fail to really delve into the "guts" as I had hoped, and to illuminate the "exciting" world of 3D game creation from a Teenage Game Developer Newbie standpoint - particularly the easily distracted from "business model" speeches type (i.e. MOST kids). I guess I was wanting something that read like a friend showing you "cool stuff" and leading you into a place where suddenly the kids would look up and say "DAD! Check this out - I just realized what I did! This is way COOL!"

Three of my kids read the book now, all three were not engaged very long - all seemed to loose interest at the business model part and did not regain it at the examples section as I had hoped.

The other Torque books I have so far (Finney's, most notably) are very good and very deep - but not "friendly" enough to engage my teenagers in an enjoyable and fascinating way (well, except for one, but he is a bit "different" and also the yougest) - hence the "fun" becomes "school-WORK". I will try the one from Maurina next and hope for it to be the answer I am looking for.

This is the best book I could find that had party planning and entertaining tips, tricks, recipes, decorations etc. Not only is this a gorgeous book to look at, but it really contains some useful and fun info inside!

The book is divided into 3 celebration sections: Annual Celebrations (holidays), Occasional Celebrations (shower, BBQ, Birthday) and Anytime Celebrations (Cheese Party, Dinner Party & Dessert Party). What is awesome about this book is that it takes you through the ENTIRE planning process from when to send out invites and also an example of an invite, to the seating charts, decoration ideas, when to start preparing for the party in days prior, a sample menu and recipes for the party, even games for the party. They even go into detail such as which kind of utensils or platters you might need/want, how much to make for a crowd of a certain size, etitquette questions and even clean up and wrap up suggestions. I don't think there's anything this book has not thought of or included! I love it, and my sister borrows it every chance she gets.

My favorite part about this book is that there are SIMPLE and EASY tips for those of us who aren't professionals or naturals at entertaining (yet)! There's actually recipes I could make and not pull my hair out, as well as party favors, invites, decorations I could see myself using. That is a rare find when often many books go to the other side with way too elaborate planning ideas. Not to mention, the 4 color pictures in this book are gorgeous and the instructions/tips included are easy to understand. This is a great book for anyone who likes to entertain, or who would like to make entertaining simpler, easier and their parties a bit more unique and fun!

This book is so fun! You will get tons of easy and creative party ideas from this book! Highly reccomended!

I love this book. I actually purchased this one and the magazine as a gift. I intend on purchasing several more down the road as gifts.

I bought this book for my daughter for a Christmas present and she said it was exactly what she wanted.

This is a great book full of clever, easy party ideas. Every detail is covered, from invitation design to seating arrangements to games and entertainment ideas. The recipes are simple yet sophisticated. Can't wait to use it!

This book is fantastic! It has a lot of useful information in it, and it's excellent for preparing you for an audition. I had an audition for Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and after reading this book, I went in there feeling totally prepared, and guess what? I nailed the audition! I got 2 callbacks and now I'm in the show.
This book tells you everything you need to know. From song choice and preparation, to what to wear and how to present yourself. A definite "Must" for all those who wish to get in to Musical Theatre.

I am not too impressed with this book, nor its author, Donald Oliver, with whom I had the "priviledge" of taking a series of his classes. His book, and consequently, his methods, are far too rigid; the guidelines in the book are presented to the reader as if they are the ONLY way to do an audition, and if you don't do it HIS way, you are wrong. He even provides a list of songs NOT to sing. However, I believe that a successful audition is not about following a set of rules, but rather what works for each actor. A song might be overdone, but if one can do it, and do it well, then, by all means, do the song. Additionally, Donald Oliver is a pompous, arrogent man, who "name drops" to try to impress his students, and believes that his way is the only way. Do not buy into the "rules" of this book. If you must read this book, only use it as a reference. I recommed the book "NEXT" by Steven M. Alper instead.

Donald Oliver does a brilliant job of covering all the audtioning basics in this entertaining, yet informative book. Oliver uses witty and often hysterical anecdotes to describe the neccessity of preparation, confidence, and common sense for an audition. Everything from headshots and resumes, to callbacks and casting agents is covered in a timely and humorous fashion. Oliver does a particulary fine job of describing the best types of audition songs and where to find them. Several helpful Appendices (located in the back of the book) give helpful information; lists of places to find sheet music and performing-arts texts, as well as a list of the most overdone audition songs. This is a must-have book for every actor seeking employment.

I am a musical theatre major at the University of Oklahoma, and I purchased this book for a class on auditions. I found however it was a much better read than a standard text book. Mr. Oliver presents a large amount of very useful tips and techniques while keeping the book very "readable". The stories he recalls from his experience provide an insight into the art of auditioning, and they prove quite amusing for anyone who has been through the ringer of an audition on any scale. The book clips along quickly and by the time you are finished you are sure to have a smile on your face and many useable pieces of information in your head.

Good in-depth biography of one of Hollywood's most misunderstood bad boys. McQueen broke the mold on action heroes being the forerunner of most of the gendre today. His influence on such stars as Chuck Norris, Arnold, and Slyvester Stallone is undeniable. He raised the bar when it came to acting, action and salary. Always demanding more of himself as well as others.

The best bet you have is to read Neile McQueen's book My Husband My Friend. I'm halfway done with this book "McQueen the Biography" and I must say it is rehashing the story you get first hand from Steve's first wife. Overall the writer is very impressed with his own ad libbing of Steve-like phrases. It comes off reading almost like a script for a Steve McQueen bio drama movie, not a really factual biography. My advice is to skip it. Go with Neile.

McQueen: The Biography is an excellent read for fans trying to learn more about McQueen's life. One of the biggest movie stars of all time and loved by fans all over the world, this book tells everything you need to know about his life. It covers everything from his movie career, covering all 28 films he starred in, his role on Wanted: Dead or Alive, his troubled childhood, and also his struggle to survive everyday life. As a child, McQueen often had to fend for himself which impacted him greatly for the rest of his life.

I highly recommend this book for someone trying to learn more about Steve McQueen. Not many people know how much money he gave to charities over the course of his career, all of it anonymously too. The book also covers all three of his marriages which tends to show the darker side of his life. As well, fans of McQueen won't be disappointed since there is plenty here about all his movies, including The Great Escape, Bullitt, The Getaway, and Papillon and all his other classics. My only problem with the book, and this is nitpicking, is Sandford's writing style. The man does not know how to use a comma, and I often found myself reading sentences repeatedly to try and figure out what he meant. Either way, this is a great buy. For an excellent biography about Steve McQueen, check out McQueen: The Biography!

I found the first few chapters of this book really holdling my attention, but as his career became more solid it all seemed less interesting. I guess it's the early McQueen that is most enjoyable to read about - the way he establishd his "cool" and muscled his way through the film industry to become a major star. The aging of the actor and his diminishing roles and vigor caused me to lose interest and simply didn't feel like finishing it.

If I could give this biography four and a half stars, I would. It is full of facts and anecdotes, and it appears to be (almost) exhaustive. But it's like an over-stuffed fruitcake. It is sometimes hard to enjoy. Christopher Sandford, it must be said, is no prose stylist. He writes like a hack. But he is thorough and does his homework. While repetitive about his basic thesis, he is probably right.

Sanford pushes the line that Terence Steven McQueen's life-long obsession was to avoid being, and being seen as, a "candyass". Since acting is all but intrinsically a "candyass" profession (think: men in face-paint and tights), McQueen tried to make sure that what he did was authentic and gritty enough to rise above that. His point was that acting could be something that real men did. And I think we all have to agree that McQueen proved his point. He was brilliant at faking being real. Today, watching his films, the other actors often look like they are on stage. McQueen looks totally natural.

But all the while (because he had contempt for the movie business? because he had a nagging fear about what he did for a living?) he rode dirt-bikes, raced cars in competition, did his own stunt work (when they would let him), drank, smoked, did all sorts of drugs, and had sex with hundreds upon hundreds of actresses, extras, fans, hangers-on, hippies... anyone who was female and who had a "bubble-ass". While he was married, of course. He hated the studios and men in suits in general, and enjoyed squeezing as much money out of them as possible. Because, again, making "bread" was a man thing. His obsession was to be taken seriously by other real men. He valued his award from the Stuntmen's Association more than any acting award. He did weights all the time. He never cooked. He trained as a black-belt in karate. He sought the approval of mechanics and drivers and martial arts experts. Tough guys. And he was obsessed with making it big, like a real provider, alpha-male type.

Like any typical macho superstar, he beat his first wife Neile Adams when he discovered that she had eventually had an affair with Maximilian Schell. His second wife, Ali McGraw, whom he started sleeping with on the set of "The Getaway", while she was still married, became/was an "alcoholic/male dependent" (p. 451). His third wife, Barbara Minty, who could easily be mistaken for MacGraw, became little short of a hausfrau.

Everybody knows, I am sure, about the billing war over whose name went first -- McQueen's or Paul Newman's - in the publicity for "The Towering Inferno" in 1974. What this biography makes clear is that McQueen's first billing -- at a lower height -- was the culmination of a lifelong pissing match (entirely, it seems, one-sided) with Paul Newman to be top man. McQueen was obsessively competitive. I honestly cannot recall any passage in this book where he is quoted as complimenting another living actor's work, other than James Dean, who died young. Great stuntmen, yes. Car drivers, yes. Friends of his who acted in his films, yes. But other major actors? No. Not Newman, not Yul Brynner, not Brando (McQueen painted "The Mild One" on one of his Triumph motorcycles). No one.

In spite of his colossal egoism-cum-paranoia, or at least, in any case, the McQueen legend has only gone from strength to strength since his death in 1980, aged 50, from cancer. His major films are now considered classics -- are now cult -- and he is considered to be the best thing in them. I speak here of, at least, "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "The Great Escape" (1963), "The Cinncinnati Kid" (1965), "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968), "Bullitt" (1968), and "The Getaway" (1972). Some of his other, more intimate films are also being rediscovered, especially "Junior Bonner" (1972) and "Tom Horn" (1980).

Perhaps because he is dead and we can go back to the screen legend, Steve McQueen has become the Ultimate Man's-Man -- an embodiment of cool toughness. He beats Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman in that department, and is an inspiration in some sense to contemporary bad-boy, wanna-be-authentic, f***-Hollywood types like Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn. I think McQueen would be happy about that. But this biography does provide us with a wealth of detail about the juvenile-delinquent-Marine-turned-multi-millionaire-tough-guy-actor that lies behind the Tag Heuer watch and Ford car advertisements.

If this biography is to be faulted in terms of content (apart from repetition), it is, in the end, for its account of the films. Sandford fares a bit better with "Bullitt" than with the rest. But this book never departs from being about McQueen to being about his films. For film analysis, consult other books. Also, and this is a much smaller point, perhaps even a matter of taste, there is little interest shown in McQueen's cars or motorcycles. Given how much McQueen himself was interested in them, and given how much interest his fans generally have in them, this is a bit of a let-down. Finally, and it is not clear at all if this is Sandford's fault, the book is remarkably thin on good photos. There is one single small pic, occupying a third of a page, from "Bullitt". And that's it. There isn't a single pic of him in or near a sportscar, for example. No pic of his beautiful green Jag XK-SS. It looks like, for pictures, and for cars, you will have to search elsewhere.

Taking Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes as a starting point this book wanders through the foundations of American music investigating some shadowy folk byways.

While the metaphor (actual towns populated by the characters in the songs) is a little overwrought the overall effect of the book is powerful.

I found it particularly exciting to see links to other musicians I like such as Nick Cave and Kirstin Hersh.

Greil Marcus Should Marry Bob Dylan...he's already written a long love-letter. True there are a lot of interesting musical relationships brought out in the author's discussion, but the details of the Basement Tapes are just not there. Marcus' approach is that of an ethno-musicologist, and one who is too close to his subject. Personally, the bias from the start of the book and the torturous prose were very hard to stomach. I can not recommend this book to anyone, and it will keep me away from anything else by Greil Marcus again. I only wish I could have been warned before I bought it.

Greil Marcus has somehow parlayed his college degree in the obsolete "myth-symbol" school of American Studies into a career as a philosopher of American music. In the process, he has conjured up some of the worst books ever published on rock and roll. Marcus confuses "myth" with the LSD-fuelled '60s fan dreams of musicians as shamans, elves and hobbits. Imagine Jim Morrison, Marc Bolan & Robert Plant attempting to be critics while still on the Kool Aid that produced "Prophets Seers and Sages, The Angels of the Ages", "Stairway to Heaven" and Morrison's ideas about rock concerts as Dionysian rites. Marcus fashioned "Mystery Train", his first sycophantic journey into over-stimulated ego-crazed fan-boy fantasy. Then, after spending too many nights rolling joints on the sleeves of John Wesley Harding and trying to figure out which one was Quinn The Eskimo, Marcus encountered Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and completely lost his mind. In this horrible re-issue of "Invisible Republic" Marcus treats early American folk artists like Dock Boggs and Robert Johnson as if they were mythical beings rather than men. He then tries to turn Dylan's Basement Tapes into a natural successor to the "mystery school" of these artists. Mere words cannot express the mediocrity of Marcus's meditations. Please, if you have any soul, avoid this book. But dont let Marcus's mind-rot put you off Dock Boggs and Harry Smith's Anthology and Dylan's Basement Tapes -- Marcus does have good taste in music, he just doesn't have anything worth saying to say about it.

I like Greil's approach, which worked so much better in the recent "Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan At The Crossroads", of honing in on small detail to produce something profound. Maybe this book can be considered practice for the latter, because it simply didn't work here. I welcome experimental writing, but in this case the wash of minute detail combined with nonlinearity produced confusion rather than clarity. I'm afraid for me the insights are Greil's alone rather than universal. To his credit though, in the same way I'd rather see an ambitious indie movie that fails than a Hollywood blockbuster, reading this is worth a shot. I may try again some time.

(this is the updated verion of Marcus' "Invisible Republic")

In 1965, Bob Dylan played Newport with an electric band. Playing songs from the groundbreaking "Highway 61 Revisited", Dylan-- in one of the finest performances of his career-- was roundly booed by the audience and condemned by critics.

Why?

Greil Marcus' fascinating book starts with this question: why were audiences so hostile to Dylan's new material and style? Marcus' thesis is that Dylan on Highway 61 rediscovered the folk music that America had forgotten, a folk music which had been co-opted by the '30s (and subsequent) Left, a music which was much older and much, much weirder than the work of Woody Guthrie and other late '50s exemplars of the folk tradition. Audiences were in for a shock when Dylan's surreal imagery and often apolitical but weirdly resonant lyrics replaced his plainer earlier folk tunes and protest songs.

The book's former title is an allusion to Ralph Ellison's novel "The Invisible Man," whose protagonist is invisible to his fellow Americans because they choose not to see him. In the same way, the very, very weird music of Dock Boggs, Mississippi John Hurt and many others, documented with loving care by Harry Smith, the compiler of the seminal "The Anthology of American Folk Music," was invisible to mainstream audiences during the 1950s and '60s, just as the history they documented was invisible to the majority of its time. It is a countercultural history in song of the U.S., including everything from slave narratives, love ballads, ancient blues, mythical re-tellings of political events, etc. This music is much richer and more complex than the mid-twentieth century folk music familiar to Dylan fans.

Marcus illuminates the connections between Dylan's mid-60s work and the "The Anthology of American Folk Music" and shows how Dylan's leap forward-- into surrealism, wild juxtaposition, historical allusion, electric instrumentation and only elliptical allusions to politics-- was also a leap backward into the Anthology's traditions.

This is one of those books whose ideas make the head spin. Marcus writes clearly but manages to keep the imagination running on overdrive. Like Pynchon, Levi-Strauss, Murakami and Dylan himself, the work is as much a set of ideas as an invitation to connect the many dots. As well as a fascianting tour through the work of Dylan, the Band and the Anthology, this is partly an alternative history of the U.S. and a pretty incisive reminder that folk music, as Dylan once said "is pure mystery."

The author "GoldenGirl" is a current popular disc jockey from Philly. She talks about her encounters with New Edition, Tank, DMX, Lil Kim, Jermaine Dupri, and Jim Jones. There are parts of the book that will leave you with your mouth wide open in shock of what she reveals about familiar stars. There are certain parts of the book that are sure to have you laughing incessantly. Enjoy!

The book was ok but I was expecting alot more gossip. It was mostly interviews and two sexuals experiance as well as a fantasy. I was just expecting to hear about more celebrity sex tales. Not interviews.

Highly disappointed in this book. The cover is the best thing about the book. The whole book to sum it up, could have been written on one page. They stretch chapters out and make the book seem longer, when it clearly is not. Most of the stuff in her book is not new , The Video Vixen has already told what she is trying to put out there. She goes into detail about her fantasizing about Lil Kim in one chapter. Her book is just a attempt to make money. Buyers please dont spend money, I will give you my copy, thats how bad the book is.

Goldengirl was straight to the point with no holds bar. I enjoyed this book and read it in no time flat, cause it was only 87 pages. :( The book covered her relationship with Ralph Tresvant. How she had a crush on Bobby Brown, all kind of stuff from Janet Jackson, Ice T and Coco to Lil Kim and much more. Ladied and Gents get ready cause this book is going to blow your mind.