Fatal Charms and Other Tales of Today

Book Description

"The Boswell of the blue bloods."--San  Francisco Examiner.

"One of the snappiest  writers around."--Liz Smith, New York  Daily News.

From the author of the  best-selling People Like Us and  The Two Mrs. Grenviles comes this  unvarnished look at the gilded world of the real-life  rich and famous. Here are the highly colorful and  highly provocative look at the gilded world of the  real-life rich of famous. Here are the highly  colorful and highly provocative close-up interviews  Dominick Dunne has written for Vanity  Fair. In them, Dunne tells all about  today's creme de la creme as only as insider can tell  it. Here is his engaging profile of the  everlasting regal Elizabeth Taylor; a bizarre encounter with  Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos exiled in Hawaii; a  revealing, behind-the-scenes portrait of the great  poseur Claus von Bulow; an inquiry into the squalid  life and mysterious death of Alfred Bloomingdale's  mistress, Vicki Morgan; Dunne's moving account of  his daughter's violent death and the man who got  away with her murder; as well as revealing glimpses  of Ivan Boesky, Ava Gardner, Diane Keaton, Gloria  Vanderbilt, Candy and Aaron Spelling, and  others-plus a look inside the exclusive Mortimer's  restaurant and the real Palm Beach. Sassy and stirring,  candid and controversial, Fatal  Charms is a startling expose of charm-in all its  guises-both fatal and benign.

Fatal Charms and Other Tales of Today/The Mansions of Limbo (Omnibus)

Average customer rating:

Not his best work...
An All-Night Page Turner!
Addicted to the Pages
Truly engaging read

Fatal Charms and Other Tales of Today/The Mansions of Limbo (Omnibus)
Dominick Dunne
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 034543059X
Release Date: 1999-03-09

Book Description

Dominick Dunne has met them all--stars and slugs, criminals and victims, the innocent and the hideously guilty--and now his two provocative collections of Vanity Fair portraits are in one irresistible volume. From posh Park Avenue duplexes to the extravagant mansions of Beverly Hills, from tasteful London town houses to the wild excesses of million-dollar European retreats, here are the movers and shakers--and the people who pretend to be.

Among colorful profiles and revealing glimpses of Elizabeth Taylor, Claus von Bülow, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Aaron Spelling, discover who dumped an heiress the night before the wedding to run off with the best man . . . what happens when the ex-husband of a movie legend becomes president . . . why a beautiful singer fell in with the mob . . . and, in Dunne's most personal story, how a lying murderer and a limelight-loving judge denied justice to his family after his daughter's life was brutally destroyed.

Filled with pathos and wit, insight and sass, this candid, controversial volume gives you an extraordinary peek into the rarefied world of the rich, the royal, and the ruined. For Dunne is the man who knows all their secrets--and now those secrets are out.

Customer Reviews:

Not his best work..........2002-12-22

Dunne is a fantastic and fun writer. This collection gets bogged down however. Many of the stories are dated and the updates are not recent. Many of the stories are reprinted in the far superior colleciton, Justice. Still, parts of this book, particularly the Gloria Vanderbilt story, stand out. If you like Dunne, I would start with Justice and move backwards. It is fun to read many of his stories do have something of a timeless quality. I was frustrated with parts of book which seemed dated and dull. Ahh..what do I know. Dunne is still great.

An All-Night Page Turner!.......2001-08-22

It's had been quite some time since I'd picked-up a book I couldn't put down, but this one ended the drought! It made me an instant Dominick Dunne fan and wishing that he'd continue the saga for the Bradley family in future novels. If you have ever been intrigued by the lifestyles of the rich and infamous, or the larger than life experiences of the Kennedy's, then click on the order button and prepare to curl up with this unforgettable story!

Addicted to the Pages.......2001-07-26

When I picked up Mr. Dunne's novel for my book collection of his amazing works, it was another week of neglecting my duties as a Mother to my starving children. Thank goodness for the microwave! I am a Vanity Fair subscriber and always will be due to Mr. Dunne's genius writing. Mrs. Litras.

Truly engaging read.......2000-08-02

I have enjoyed Dominick Dunne's novels (novels in disguise!), but this book has left me wishing I had been a Vanity Fair subscriber. I never realized what I had been missing, although I might have not read anything else in that magazine. I almost didn't order it, because I was disappointed with his previous work-The Way We Lived Then-which was exactly what he said it was, the recollections of a well-known name dropper, all names and not much content. However-this book is wonderful-and probably more so the recollections of a name dropper. Incredible true stories of the rich and famous, and maybe some not so famous, all intensely interesting. A number of the essays involve crime-beginning with his description of the trial of the man who killed his daughter, and including pieces on the Mendez brothers, O.J. Simpson, Claus Von Bulow, and more, told as only an "insider" could. Yet not all of the tales are crime related, so if you're looking for tabloid-style, tell all stories, this probably isn't the book for you. He tells the tales of high society with a touch of class, and I can't imagine that he has made many enemies, and probably remains in good favor with most of the people he has included in these pages. I finished the book wanting to go back and re-read several of my favorite stories, and wishing there was a sequel I could now continue with. Enjoy-I read it in 2 days.

Average customer rating:

Fatal Charms and Other Tales of Today

Manufacturer: Crown Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKH4ES

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Fatal Charms, and Other Tales of Today
Dominick DUNNE
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RJOMIU

Average customer rating:

FATAL CHARMS AND OTHER TALES OF TODAY

Manufacturer: Crown Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H1ZYO4

Average customer rating:

Fatal Charms and Other Tales of Today
Dominick Dunne
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000XLZH4K

Amazon.com

It sounds like a pilot for a new Fox network live broadcast: a self-searching Manhattan kayak salesman teams up with a rowdy Australian male model to circumnavigate Australia by kayak. Thankfully, though, chest beating and contrived conflict are absent in Eric Stiller's true account of his attempt to kayak the 10,000 miles around Australia with Aussie Tony Brown. What we get instead is a look at the tedium, death-defying stamina, and hilarious blunderings of two men with little experience to prepare them for their chosen expedition. "The Australian coastline is a nightmare of tightly coiled inlets and rocky coves and sheer rock cliff faces and bays as huge and forbidding as Saharan deserts," Stiller muses while he kicks off his training with Brown by paddling around Manhattan. Raised in a family that sells Klepper kayaks, the German-made folding expedition kayaks known for their resilience in violent conditions, Stiller is an expert on the technical details of the equipment. He is not, he admits, accustomed to spending more than three months in a 17-foot-long kayak with anyone, much less Brown, a natural athlete filled with joie de vivre whose navigational strategy is simply, "Just keep Australia on your left, mate."

The curious pair encounters an impressive variety of harrowing sea conditions. The first month is a daily battle against capsizing during beach landings amid Australia's legendary skyscraper-high waves. Marathon paddling sessions through maddening back-eddies rip open their hands and scrape their torsos. The inhospitable Tasman Sea is rife with deadly creatures, including crocodiles, sharks, and sea wasps, a toxic jellyfish with tentacles several meters long. At one point the two must cross the Gulf of Carpenteria, the most arduous leg of the trip, requiring seven days on the water with no land in sight. For all their travails, however, there is relief in the form of friendly hosts (nearly everyone they meet is happy to have a smelly kayak team at the dinner table), striking scenery, wild nights in isolated cities, and the personal reckoning that comes with an effort of this magnitude. --Lolly Merrell

Book Description

The challenge? Paddle a kayak around Australia. As Eric Stiller and Tony Brown would discover, the attempt would be a fascinating, maddening, and at times hilarious crawl. Swamped by high waves and rain, hampered by faulty technology, blown off course, baked by a broiling sun it, would be the most demanding emotional and physical challenge either had ever attempted.

Customer Reviews:

Too bad........2007-06-15

I wished they could have finished the trip, but it kind of seemed like they wanted it for the wrong reasons. Don't get me wrong they accomplished quite a feat and I"m not trying to take away from that. It's just that Eric and Tony seemed to grow up rich and be given all the oppurtunites in life, so when presented with severe obstacles they had a hard time dealing with them. It seemed more like an extended vacation rather then an expedition. Maybe, I"m just a little biased after reading Paddle to the Amazon and discovering all they went through. Still, this book isn't as bad as some say, it's good read, and you get a good sense of thier journey, it just could have been better.

Yawn... pass on this one.......2006-11-17

I struggled through 106 pages before I gave up on it altogether. The book held every potential of a great adventure but sorely lacked in its characters - the whining and vain Stiller coupled with a boorish Tony made for a literary flop. Their trip was doomed from the beginning, the two seemed to be in a state of constant bickering - where was the camaderie? The whole thing begged for credibility and substance. Sorry - just couldn't take it. Save your money and buy Chris Duff's 'Southern Exposure'.

Pales against Paul Caffyn's Book.......2006-01-28

Caffyn's "Dreamtime Voyage" is the best on kayaking around Australia. It is more of a 5 star book. And his NZ book "Obscured by Waves" is back in print!

a depressing account of a great achievement.......2005-04-20

I got this one for my birthday and started reading it with great enthusiasm. Few people have attempted to circumnavigate Australia in a kayak and except of Paul Caffyn no one succeeded so far. Therefore, Eric Stiller (the author) and Tony Brown (his paddle partner) are in good company with their failed attempt to complete the circumnavigation. This book is Eric's account of five months of paddling over 3500 miles from Sydney along Oz's east and north coasts to Darwin.

Paddling almost half the way around Australia in a Klepper foldable boat in five months is a great adventure. It must have been quite an amazing journey along one of the worlds most beatiful shorelines. However, there is hardly any of this aspect in the book. Instead you'll get bored of Eric's dwelling in endless complaints about his sore butt, the always higher-than-expected swell, and his ever ongoing struggles with Tony. The only thing more disappointing than Eric's whining about all the evil surrounding him is the stretch of lousy b/w pictures (on all of which the water is as flat as a mirror, so there must have been a couple of good days at least).

The title refers to Tony's rejection of Eric's request to buy charts for the trip. Instead, he recommends, to simply "keep Oz on the left". I would not want to go on a week-long trip with a guy as naive as that. Tony's naive attitude and Erics subordination to Tony's moods borders on stupidity more often than not. Day after day the two get up too late to make their distance in daylight, they have to make a dangerous landing at some beach they can hardly see in the dark, they find some food and exhaustedly fall asleep, which makes them get up too late the next morning and so on. They once take off in a storm out of a "cabin-fever" mood and almost die that day, triggering a coast guard search. A long list of misjudgements and rants of self-pity later, the duo almost get themselves killed in the gulf of carpentaria and, to the big relief of the reader, give up their journey shortly thereafter.

Eric does not seem to really enjoy any of this whole trip - everything always seems to be worse than expected. He doesn't seem to live the journey, he seems to long for it to end before it even started. The book reads as if all this was pushed onto him, and this way it ends up to be a depressing account of quite a tremendous achievement. Unfortunately, Eric does not seem to understand anything of what has happened. Instead of writing a pity-party of a book like this, he should fall down on his knees and thank his god for the fact, that he pulled his sorry butt out of this alive.

If you've got adventure in your blood... you'll LOVE IT!.......2005-01-17

If you ever catch yourself sitting in your office and daydreaming of abandoning everything to embark on something really big and stupid then this is the book for you. Once I started i couldn't put it down. I agree that the writing style has something to be desired, although in a way i think it adds to the book. Remember the author is a kayak salesmen not a professional writer. Bottom line is I can't remember the last time i read a book that really inspired me to do something. Those of you with any adventure in your blood will surely be planning your next outdoor excursion by the time you finish this book, and just maybe you'll try something bigger and stupider than you ever thought yourself capable of...

Keep Australia on Your Left: A True Story of an Attempt to Circumnavigate Austraila by Kayak

Average customer rating:

Keep Australia on Your Left: A True Story of an Attempt to Circumnavigate Austraila by Kayak
Eric Stiller
Manufacturer: Forge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Insightful, focused case studies of screen performance from diverse directors with a range of contemporary styles and approaches.

Average customer rating:

Break through tough levels

This book is great!

I think it was a great book.

I think it was a great book.

This book helped me out a lot

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
Steve Honeywell
Manufacturer: Prima Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Command & Conquer | Strategy Guides | Games & Strategy Guides | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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Command & Conquer: Renegade: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

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Command & Conquer Red Alert 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

Command and Conquer Red Alert, Strategy Guide for PC Cd-Rom Version

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Advanced Strategies (Prima's Official Strategy Guide)

ASIN: 0761518568
Release Date: 1999-08-25

Book Description

Tactics for multiplayer and AI play
Complete strategy for every NOD and GDI mission
Side-by-side comparison of all forces
In-depth resource management and building tactics
Reach your full Tiberium yield potential
Complete mission tree!

Customer Reviews:

Break through tough levels.......2007-05-19

This was a huge help to me to get through some tough levels that I was really stuck on. It is not so much a "cheat" as a walkthrough of what is going to happen. I only gave the book four stars because I thought it could have gone over actual in game controls more thoroughly.

This book is great!.......2000-12-01

It includes instructions on how to beat the individual missions, tips for playing the AI, differences between Nod and GDI. A great book for a great game! A definite buy!

I think it was a great book........1999-11-04

This book helped me beat Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun. It helped because I was stuck on the last GDI mission and the sixth Nod mission. The book helped me beat these missions so that I can go on.

I think it was a great book........1999-11-04

This book helped me beat Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun. It helped because I was stuck on the last GDI mission and the sixth Nod mission. The book helped me beat these missions so that I can go on.

This book helped me out a lot.......1999-10-27

This is a really good book i don't think that i cold have beaten the game without this book it tells u all about the units and what to do in each of the missions

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Advanced Strategies (Prima's Official Strategy Guide)

Average customer rating:

This can be a great book......
An awesome guide
A Great Strategy Guide

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Advanced Strategies (Prima's Official Strategy Guide)
Jason Young
Manufacturer: Prima Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0761526358
Release Date: 2000-03-24

Book Description

Thought you could conquer Kane?

• Base-building tactics to blow away the competition
• Walkthroughs of all GDI and Nod Missions
• World-dominating multiplayer tactics
• Exclusive interview with Tiberian Sun producer, Rade Stojsavljevic
• Tips for maximizing your economy
• Covers Tiberian Sun™ and Firestorm™ missions

Customer Reviews:

This can be a great book.............2001-08-12

This can be a great book if you use the tips and stratageys correctly! That means"Do not follow the tips blindly! Modify them so your playing style will work well with the tips! Not the other way around!". Also if you hate being talked through a misson, avoid this book! Also somtimes your own strategys are better than the ones in this book! I Made it to the last NOD misson with only cosulting the book in 1 or 2 missons. So be carful if you buy this and use it right!

An awesome guide.......2000-05-03

I got stuck in one of the Nod mission and it was until I got this awesome guide did I manage to pass through it.I rated it 5 stars because it has extremely detailed walkthrough for all of the missions.This guide is a must for all those C&C fans out there!

A Great Strategy Guide.......2000-04-12

This is a great guide. It has a compleat walkthrough of Tiberian Sun and Firestorm. The missons stategies help alot, plus they are perfect when you get stuck. The stategies for multiplayer are excellent. It got a 4 star rating because the walkthrough of the Tiberian Sun Missons are identical to the first guide.

Average customer rating:

Disappointing

Utterly disappointing

Excellent Advice!! A Must Have!!

Visionary

Fundamental

Bookkeeping & Tax Preparation: Start & Build a Prosperous Bookkeeping, Tax, & Financial Services Business
Gordon P. Lewis
Manufacturer: Acton Circle Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Public Finance | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Bookkeeping | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Starting and Building Your Own Accounting Business, Third Edition

Getting Started in Tax Consulting

Start & Run a Bookkeeping Business

How to Open your own In-Home Bookkeeping Service 2nd Edition

How to Maximize Fees in Professional Service Firms

ASIN: 0963937170

Book Description

All the techniques and information for turning a flair for figures into a highly profitable, well-rounded financial services career.

The book considers the advantages and disadvantages of self-employment, looks closely at entrepreneurship, reviews the nuts and bolts and costs of start up, presents the legal requirements, and tells how to acquire adequate computer equipment to do the job right. To build a solid client base, it tells how to analyze cities and towns for bookkeeping service, whether to start fresh or buy a going concern. It tells how much to charge and how to collect and manage the money. Once under way the author discusses work habits that don't run your life, hiring and training employees, diversifying into profitable sidelines, and building a comfortable retirement.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2006-02-17

I read this book but the author goes heavily into tax accounting rather than bookkeeping services. If you hate working with taxes and want to learning about starting a home based bookkeepping service for clients, and let their tax accountant do the taxes, don't buy this book. It's not helpful.

Utterly disappointing.......2004-11-04

After reading the reviews for this book, I was anxious to start reading it right away. Unfortunately,I returned the book the same day I received it. I am in the process of starting a bookkeeping business out of my home and Mr. Lewis's book did not help at all. As I skimmed the book I quickly realized that he prefers tax accounting and a commercial office environment. If you are looking for an overview for setting up shop as a tax accountant, with employees, in an office this book will be perfect.
If you want particulars on starting a home based bookkeeping business keep looking.

Excellent Advice!! A Must Have!!.......2004-09-08

This is an excellent book for anyone looking "to take the plunge" and establish their own tax and bookkeeping practice. The author gives great advice that is difficult to obtain from other established professionals. Mr. Lewis writes candidly on points such as how to fairly deal with problem clients and which clients to look for. There are also a couple good chapters about market research and the most practical ways to promote your tax business. Although technology has changed quite a bit since the book was written, you get a slight idea of the tools required of the profession. All in all an excellent book. Although most underlying principals haven't changed, I would love to see a second edition that discusses recent technology advances.

They do not cover most of this material in a university accounting class and this book should be a prerequisite for those looking to enter the profession. This book is a must read for the beginner and a nice reference for those of us whose practices are still in its infancy.

Highly recommended!! Well done Gordon!!

Visionary.......2003-10-18

This book not only gives practical advice on how to start and run a business, but more importantly includes the ethical basis for decision-making. I wish more professionals understood the value and long-term advantage of honesty, compassion and competency. This book reads easily and impacts longterm.

Fundamental.......2001-07-22

The book may well apply for beginning many administrative type businesses, not just bookkeeping services. Extremely fundamental in presentation. It is not written for enlightened professional accountants wishing to expand their bookkeeping services.

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