Book Description
On The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors:
"A well-written biography."-New York Times
On Stanwyck: The Life and Times of Barbara Stanwyck:
"Madsen's admirably researched, insightful portrait of her aloof nature . . . reveals she was always torn between her wish to give of herself and her need to be in control."-Christian Science Monitor
On Chanel: A Woman of Her Own:
"Fascinating . . . . Takes the reader behind the coromandel veneers of Chanel's life."-New York Times Book Review
"Carefully knits together the complex pattern of Chanel's complicated existence. It's not an easy task."-Toronto Globe and Mail
On Gloria and Joe:
"Axel Madsen finally gives the public a fascinating chronicle of the romance that could have ruined more than two careers."-Dallas Morning News
On Cousteau:
"Both critical and understanding. And it is exceptionally readable. Readers are well advised to take the plunge."-Chicago Tribune
On Malraux:
"Will stand as the best of more than a dozen books about Malraux in print."-Kansas City Star
Download Description
A riveting biography of John Jacob Astor, the first American multinational entrepreneur
Customer Reviews:
JOHN ASTOR.......2007-05-30
AN INTERESTING BOOK, BUT VERY LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HUGE AMOUNT OF WORTH GENERATED BY THE REAL ESTATE OWNED BY THE ASTOR FAMILY AND THE CRATION OF THE WALDORF ASTORIA ONE OF THE FAMILY MOST FAMOUS LANDMARKS. IT DID GIVE A LOT OF INSIGHT TO AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE IN THE EARLY 1800'S WHEN JAMES MADISON AND JAMES MONROE WERE PRESIDENTS.
Very Interesting........2004-02-14
John Jacob Astor led the life most people do not even dare to dream about. He was a serial entrepreneur at a time when most of the world was composed of farmers. He was so successful at his businesses that when he died he controlled one-fifteenth of all personal wealth in the United States! Among many other things it is safe to say he was a very driven man.
Born in relative poverty in Germany, he immigrated to the United States via England, arriving just after the Revolutionary War ended. Marrying the daughter of the woman who ran his boarding house in New York, his business career moves from the importing of musical instruments to the exporting of furs. So successful is he in the fur business that he is able to finance the establishment of the first American fort in Oregon and supports this effort with his own ships via Cape Horn. Returning east overland, his employees discover the route that subsequently becomes the Oregon Trail!
This is a swashbuckler of a story which spans not just the North American Continent but the global economy as it existed in his day as well. Besides furs, he traded tea, seal skins, opium and assorted other commodities through global wars and economic recession on a scale to match the great trading houses of England, the British East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company. He was a man who took huge business risks. A key focus of the book is naturally the fur trade, the dominant wealth generator of its time. This was his first truly big score, one that he engaged in for over 20 years and the primary venture through which he amasses the fortune that provided the investment capital for all the endeavors which would follow.
Alex Madsen does an excellent job of fitting Astor within the economic and political time period in which he lived. I have found information here on the fur trade I have found nowhere else. This is a very well researched book; one that not only reports on the biography of the life lived but the history of the time as well. There is a lot to appreciate here. It is a book well worth the time.
This book was good, at best.......2002-04-24
I bought this book to learn about Astor and how he made his fortunes. The book goes into almost too much depth in regards to the fortune made in fur trading and shipping. Out of the 25 chapters, 23 were discussing nearly every detail of Astor, his men, indians, and his competition in regards to trading and shipping. In chapter 23, the author finally gets to where he claims Astor made his largest fortune, real estate. Since that is where he made the bulk of his fortune, then why did the author only devote one chapter to this topic? Most people who buy this book will do so to learn how Astor made his fortune, that is not explained well enough. I have to give the author credit, though, he did uncover many details that the other Astor biographers failed to see.
Excellent history of fur trade, little of Real Estate........2001-12-21
Madsen takes the reader through an interesting account of the early fur trade and the opening of the American West. There are interesting anecdotes from Astor's deaings with historical and political figures of the time. However, if you are looking for information on his later business dealings and the development of Astor into New York's largest property owner and landlord then you will be disappointed. Nine tenths of his book is devoted to the development of the American Fur Company and the travials of those who forged through the wild countryside on Astors behalf. There is nothing in this book about how he dealt with tenants, advertised properties, developed systems of management for properties, financing, leverage, nothing.
So buy it for an interesting histort of the time but don't buy it if your looking for information on how one of the great Real Estate investors of his time developed and managed his system of success.
Nobody is Home in Madsen's new Biography.......2001-11-24
Perhaps I should not write a review of this book as I did not finish it. I found the subject--Astor, who he was, what he did, and how and why he did it--very interesting, but Madsen's treatment an example of biography at its worst. Why? Because we are presented with the data of Astor's life, but where is Astor? There is virtually nothing communicated as to what type of person he was, WHY he was so ambitious, what he felt and thought about the various activities he undertook, his successes, relative failures, etc. In many instances of course the available data of his life do not necessarily communicate the subjective life of the psyche, only the objective actions. But it is the very task of a biographer--in my view the most vital task--to artfully connect the various "dots" of data so as to reveal the subjective life within, the drama of the mind and heart reacting to events as the events unfold. You don't get that here.
Book Description
Bill Parcells was living in self-imposed exile from the National Football League sidelines. The Tuna had earned living-legend status after coaching the Giants, Patriots, and Jets from the skid-row district of the NFL and transforming those teams into champions. The final weeks of the 2002 season found Parcells working as an analyst at the ESPN studios. His heart aching, Parcells was like a televangelist with no cripples to heal. The Tuna urgently yearned for another lost cause.
In Dallas, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones -- described by author Mike Shropshire as "a man involved in a heroic struggle to overcome what had been diagnosed as a terminal face-lift" -- was suffering through sleepless nights. Although his once-proud pro football powerhouse traveled beneath a banner that read "America's Team," it had suffered three straight 5#150;11 seasons. This team was so sick, it had bedsores.
After a clandestine meeting aboard Jones's private jet, parked at a New Jersey airport, Parcells agreed to abandon his East Coast roots and travel south to restore life to the Cowboys. The Tuna and Jones needed each other in the worst kind of way, so a shotgun wedding was performed. The pundits of the national media joined hands and shouted, "Parcells and Jones can't stand each other! They're too set in their ways! It'll never work!"
As usual, the pundits were wrong. With Parcells the ultimate motivator and so-called Jock Whisperer applying his craft, Dallas rolled to a 10#150;6 regular-season record and shocked the NFL by making the playoffs. When the Tuna Went Down to Texas details the saga of how this unlikely partnership of men "too brittle for tango lessons, but not yet blind enough for assisted living" amazed the sports world and serves as absolute proof that while the truth is not always stranger than fiction, it's usually a lot funnier.
Download Description
"E-Book Extra: Parcells in a Nutshell
Bill Parcells was living in self-imposed exile from the National Football League sidelines. The Tuna had earned living-legend status after coaching the Giants, Patriots, and Jets from the skid-row district of the NFL and transforming those teams into champions. The final weeks of the 2002 season found Parcells working as an analyst at the ESPN studios. His heart aching, Parcells was like a televangelist with no cripples to heal. The Tuna urgently yearned for another lost cause.
In Dallas, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones -- described by author Mike Shropshire as ""a man involved in a heroic struggle to overcome what had been diagnosed as a terminal face-lift"" -- was suffering through sleepless nights. Although his once-proud pro football powerhouse traveled beneath a banner that read ""America's Team,"" it had suffered three straight 5-11 seasons. This team was so sick, it had bedsores.
After a clandestine meeting aboard Jones's private jet, parked at a New Jersey airport, Parcells agreed to abandon his East Coast roots and travel south to restore life to the Cowboys. The Tuna and Jones needed each other in the worst kind of way, so a shotgun wedding was performed. The pundits of the national media joined hands and shouted, ""Parcells and Jones can't stand each other! They're too set in their ways! It'll never work!""
As usual, the pundits were wrong. With Parcells the ultimate motivator and so-called Jock Whisperer applying his craft, Dallas rolled to a 10-6 regular-season record and shocked the NFL by making the playoffs.
When the Tuna Went Down to Texas details the saga of how this unlikely partnership of men ""too brittle for tango lessons, but not yet blind enough for assisted living"" amazed the sports world and serves as absolute proof that while the truth is not always stranger than fiction, it's usually a lot funnier.
"
Customer Reviews:
A fumble.......2005-06-25
This book has too many problems to be inducted into the Ring of Honor. Here are just a few. First, this book has unacceptable factual errors(see A. Keller's review). Second the author believes the season opener will make or break the season. The 1993 Dallas Cowboys(one of the top three teams of all time) lost their first two games of the season. Equally as great, the 1981 San Francisco 49ers lost their opener. The author must believe that Jerry Jones died at the Alamo. I don't see what he had to gain by criticizing Randy Galloway's(a frequent Jones critic) choice in the 1972 presidential election. Horrible foul.
Very Entertaining.......2005-01-15
Being from New York and now living in Dallas I was glad when the Cowboys hired Bill Parcells. I knew he was a good coach and it made following the Cowboys, after three 5-11 seasons, a little bit more compelling. I had read and enjoyed Shropshire's Seasons in Hell (about the original Texas Rangers) and when this book came out I decided to give it a try. I hoped this book would be as good and I wasn't disappointed.
I think it is possibly the most entertaining sports book I have read. Parts of it are laugh out load hilarious. It is not "ground breaking" as Moneyball or Ball Four but it makes no pretensions to be. If you are a purist looking for an in depth scholarly study of the nuances of football coaching strategy, or a play by play recap of the 2003-2004 season there are probably better, more boring, books out there.
Read this book if you are a fan of football, Bill Parcells, the Cowboys or you want to have a good laugh. There are a lot of good behind the scenes stories about players, coaches, and owners here that you didn't read in the newspaper. The writing style is unique and if you read Seasons in Hell you know what I mean. I think it's a better read than Seasons because the subject matter is more topical.
Interesting Subject, Horrible Writing.......2004-11-19
Let me preface this review by stating that I'm as die-hard a Dallas Cowboys fan as you'll ever meet on this Earth. I have read just about everything ever written about the Cowboys and their various coaches over the years. So naturally, I was very excited when I saw this book in the bookstore and immediately bought it. By the time I finished reading it three days later, I was very disappointed.
The author seems to be trying way too hard to sound like a good writer. His sentences are way too flowery, and he always goes for the 38-word description rather than the 3-word description. For example, in the chapter discussing the Cowboys' exciting overtime win against the Giants on Monday Night Football, rather than giving us a one-paragraph introduction briefly describing the emergence of MNF and then immediately segueing into a description of this particular MNF game, the author rambles on for 8 pages giving us way more detail on the early days of MNF than we could ever want. I was reading the book because I wanted to read about the 2003 Dallas Cowboys and Bill Parcells, not because I wanted a history lesson regarding how MNF came to be.
The author also makes a great deal of factual mistakes in the book that any die-hard fan (or maybe just one as obsessive about the Cowboys as I am) would pick up. For example, the writer informs his readers that the Cowboys of the 1990s won Super Bowls 29, 30, and 32, when in fact they won Super Bowls 27, 28, and 30. Also, he describes how Terrell Owens danced on the star at Texas Stadium, then came back the very next year to torch Dwayne Goodrich for the game-winning touchdown, when in fact Dallas got revenge on Owens the year after he danced on the star, beating the 49ers handily and holding Owens scoreless. The now-infamous "Campo-Coslet decide to punt, Dwayne Goodrich and Tony Dixon get torched" game was TWO year after the star incident, NOT the very next year. The Dallas Cowboys and all their fans took great pride in getting their revenge on Terrell Owens the year after the star incident, and this author denies that it even happened.
In general, the book is a collection of some "behind-the-scenes" stories that anyone who closely follows the Cowboys would already know, excerpts lifted from a MUCH better Bill Parcells book ("The Final Season"), and some all-too-brief recaps of the games played last year buried amongst pages and pages of trivial crap that the author threw in to make his writing sound more flowery.
Overall, this book is about two things that interest me greatly (the Dallas Cowboys and Bill Parcells), but this author manages to sap all the life out of it and write a book that is tedious for even the most die-hard fan. Where is the insider information? The information in this book could be obtained simply by going to the Cowboys' website. Where are all the witty Parcells coach-speak quips? Parcells is FAMOUS for hilarious remarks. Where are they? The only thing saving this book from a one-star or ZERO-star rating is that it's about the Dallas Cowboys. A better author would have produced a MUCH better book. I got the feeling that this author wrote this book without ever having an actual conversation with Bill Parcells. If you're a Bill Parcells fan, you'll prefer to read "The Final Season." It is actually written BY Bill Parcells and contains more of his wit and his wealth of football knowledge than this book does.
This book deserved a better author.
Humorous look at the building and rebuilding of a franchise.......2004-09-17
Reading is often a solitary and silent pastime. Occasionally the solitude may be interrupted by a desire to share a humorous line with someone within earshot. Sometimes, the reader laughing out loud can break the silence generally present when reading. While reading WHEN THE TUNA WENT DOWN TO TEXAS: How Bill Parcells Led the Cowboys Back to the Promised Land, by Mike Shropshire, this reader had numerous moments of laughing out loud and savoring classic comments by the author in hopes of remembering those lines for future use.
In the mid-90s the Dallas Cowboys were a football juggernaut, destroying opponents on a weekly basis. Dynasties end for many reasons. To some degree the Cowboys' reign ended because new rules were put in place that limited the ability of franchises to string championship seasons together. Salary caps and free agency, now an essential part of the NFL player agreement, make it far more difficult for a team to build and maintain the foundation of players that allow a team to continually repeat winning seasons. But free agency and salary caps were not the only reasons for the downfall of the Cowboys. Several cracks in the foundation of the empire were self-inflicted. The story of the Cowboys' road to mediocrity began with a star player and two precious little hookers.
The star player was wide receiver Michael Irvin, whose liaison with working girls led to a felony drug possession charge. Even a celebrity such as Irvin faced danger in the Texas criminal justice system. As a former prosecutor in Dallas observed to Shropshire, "I don't really know the facts of this particular case, but if the prosecution can get a couple of Lutherans on the jury, then Irvin will get a maximum sentence." The criminal prosecution destroyed the franchise. Former Green Bay Packer star Jerry Kramer observed, "Whenever I see the Cowboys on TV, I don't know who to root for --- the defense or the prosecution. No, this will never be America's Team, if it is then woe for America."
The man in charge of the Cowboys during their trip from the top of the heap to the bottom was Jerry Jones, an Arkansas businessman described by many as coming across "like the banjo picker in Deliverance." Shropshire interviewed Jones for Sports Illustrated immediately after the purchase of the franchise and the two men shared grudging respect. Jones was actively involved in every aspect of running the Cowboys. If allowed by the NFL he would have considered coaching the team, but that wish was not to be approved. Instead, he hired coaches that he could control. As long as the Cowboys had great talent, total control was successful. But as the talent level of America's team declined, the need for an outstanding coach grew. Before the Parcells era would commence, Jones hired Dave Campo. As Shropshire observes, "the Dave Campo regime shortly became a living-color illustration of what happens when the Peter Principle collides head-on with Murphy's Law. Since Campo was universally hailed as a 'nice guy,' he could also serve as exhibit A to the Leo Durocher doctrine --- the one that mandates where nice guys will inevitably finish." After a losing season in 2002, Dave Campo was fired.
Enter Bill Parcells. Football fans were stunned. Sports Illustrated voiced the opinion of the country: "Are You Kidding Me?" But it was no joke. Jones gave Parcells full and free reign to run the team, and the future Hall of Fame inductee did not disappoint his owner. WHEN THE TUNA WENT DOWN TO TEXAS gives the football fanatic an outline for building or rebuilding a franchise. Start with a head coach who remembers every crucial play that cost him a game during his coaching career as well as the assistant coach who designed and called the play. When the opportunity presents itself, hire that innovative assistant coach for your new team. Next, find a few quality players as a foundation for the team. Parcells believed strongly in the "80-20" theory that goes with any successful organization. Under that rule, the 20 percent of the workforce that's the most talented always generates 80 percent of the positive results. For the woeful Cowboys, even that 20 percent was a difficult task.
Parcells persevered. Somehow he led the Cowboys to the playoffs in that first year. Shropshire chronicles the season, some games in detail, others in passing. Fanatical fans may find WHEN THE TUNA WENT DOWN TO TEXAS light on statistics and fantasy football minutiae. Most fans will enjoy this book for what it is: an irreverent and humorous look at the game of football and three of its icons --- a franchise, an owner and the Tuna.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
Funny and Revealing--"The Jock Whisperer" and the Cowboys.......2004-09-10
I live in Dallas, and I've followed the Cowboys for many, many years. I'm a big fan--and I loved reading this book. Why? Because it tells the truth, and even though the truth sometimes hurts, in this book it only hurts when your sides are aching from laughing so much. Shropshire, who is just about the funniest sports writer around--Don Imus called his earlier book Seasons in Hell "the single funniest sports book I have ever read"--doesn't pull any punches here. He lives in Dallas too, and he knows these guys. He gives us juicy behind-the-scenes anecdotes (how he got these I'll never know--must have had a mole in the Cowboys' locker room) as well as all the standard stuff, and Shropshire's style makes it a great read. AND FUNNY--if you can read the last sentence in this book (it's X-rated) and not smile and want to read the rest, you're a stronger man than I.
Book Description
In 21 separate interviews Angela Baldassarre sheds light on what motivates film-makers in their work. Some of the film-makers interviewed: Roberto Benigni, Al Pacino, Bernardo Bertolucci, Gabriele Salvatores, Nanni Moretti, Stanley Tucci.
Customer Reviews:
Delightful and Inspiring! Molto Bello!.......2005-03-23
I loved reading her book about filmmakers with Italian heritage in their blood. And many of them are actually born and bred in Italy, and some of the conversaziones (interviews) were conducted in Italian and translated back into English by Baldassare. This book is titled in a funny way and it's not a terribly applicable title, which is probably one of the reasons it failed to do well on its initial run, because "great" or "poor" these are men of honor, and not dictators. Anyone who's been on a set on any of Steve Buscemi's films will know right away, he's a gentleman from the inside out, from the toes up as my grandfather used to say. Never a harsh word, nor a Fascist leaning, the opposite of what you think of as a dictator.
The surprise is learning that the aggravating Roberto Benigni has a thoughtful and reserved side to him. Of course, Ms. Baldassarre interviewed Benigni before he made PINOCCHIO, and perhaps the fame hadn't hit him yet. Remember him jumping up and down trying to look into Sophia Loren's cleavage the night he won the Oscar? Pathetic! And yet in this interview it's apparent he's familiar with Kierkegaard and Sartre and a dozen other philosophers. I did not realize that Franco Brusati wrote the screenplay for one of my favorite movies, Zeffirelli's ROMEO AND JULIET.
It was interesting to find out also that Don Coscarelli, the American auteur who made the PHANTASM movies, came from Libya like Moammar Gaddafi.
Now, there's a dictator for you!
But, why no women?
The Benign Dictator.......2000-02-14
At the recent launch of film critic Angela Baldassarre's The Great Dictators: Interviews with Filmmakers of Italian Descent Baldassarre gave heartfelt thanks to her parents for supporting her in pursuing a career in the precarious profession of freelance journalism, who never doubted her even when she was 19, "working in a bar and as a terrible private detective." The place erupted in laughter. The moment was indicative of Baldassarre's seamless blending of genuine emotion with playful humour. Her interviewing style in The Great Dictators comes across as insightful, provocative, and sensitive, both in timing and in the enlightened sense of the word. No doubt The Great Dictators will come to be well thumbed by film students. The cast of 20-odd directors (significantly?, there are no female subjects) is mouth-watering: Bernardo Bertolucci, Anthony Minghella, Al Pacino, Steve Buscemi and Dario Argento among others. It must have taken a sleuth of genius to compile a list like this! But the beauty of this collection is that anyone vaguely interested in understanding the human condition, outside at all of grappling with the technical niceties of filmmaking or listening in on in-house anecdotes, will be enchanted with the thoughts that unfold within. Italians have a wonderfully enlightened and expressive approach to studying the human heart, and their filmmakers are among their most articulate exponents of this enquiry. In a discussion with director and sometime scriptwriter Richard LaGravanese about his film Living Out Loud (1998) LaGravanese explains that he chose a female character for the lead role because he felt he could take a female lead more places creatively because a male "rarely gets angry." To which Baldassarre inquires, "You don't think that men get angry too?" LaGravanese's response is intriguing: "No, I think they express it in a different way. I think that men are deeply angry, they just don't know it. They're not as connected emotionally, and they have fewer outlets available to them than women. We've got to face it, we're not that well-rounded." Beautiful and measured metaphors spill off the pages. At one stage, Gabriele Salvatores - "who has never been married" - explains the reasoning behind his recent transition from theatre to film: "Theatre is like a marriage," he explains. "You have to keep rekindling the passion through long relationships. Cinema, on the other hand, is passion: brief, condensed. You gamble it all in a shorter period of time. "And in this particular moment in my life," he smiles coyly, "I'm less disposed towards marriage." Baldassarre introduces each interview with a subjective reflection or some background information. The intro piece for one of her interviews with Bertolucci (her favourite "living" director) is charming: "Few of us ever get the opportunity to meet a childhood idol. Not that I was exactly a child when I first discovered Bernardo Bertolucci, but at thirteen, having gone to see The Conformist with my junior-high class in Italy, I felt that I was being reborn into a new world. A world not just of images and sounds - which are typical of most films I'd seen until then - but of astounding thoughts and passion." But Baldassarre's gift as an interviewer is that she remains invisible as much as possible. The light never strays from her stars once the action begins - she interjects only at appropriate moments to tease the narrative along. The luck of her actors is that they had such a benign dictator to direct them.
The Benign Dictator.......2000-02-14
At the recent launch of film critic Angela Baldassarre's The Great Dictators: Interviews with Filmmakers of Italian Descent Baldassarre gave heartfelt thanks to her parents for supporting her in pursuing a career in the precarious profession of freelance journalism, who never doubted her even when she was 19, "working in a bar and as a terrible private detective." The place erupted in laughter. The moment was indicative of Baldassarre's seamless blending of genuine emotion with playful humour. Her interviewing style in The Great Dictators comes across as insightful, provocative, and sensitive, both in timing and in the enlightened sense of the word. No doubt The Great Dictators will come to be well thumbed by film students. The cast of 20-odd directors (significantly?, there are no female subjects) is mouth-watering: Bernardo Bertolucci, Anthony Minghella, Al Pacino, Steve Buscemi and Dario Argento among others. It must have taken a sleuth of genius to compile a list like this! But the beauty of this collection is that anyone vaguely interested in understanding the human condition, outside at all of grappling with the technical niceties of filmmaking or listening in on in-house anecdotes, will be enchanted with the thoughts that unfold within. Italians have a wonderfully enlightened and expressive approach to studying the human heart, and their filmmakers are among their most articulate exponents of this enquiry. In a discussion with director and sometime scriptwriter Richard LaGravanese about his film Living Out Loud (1998) LaGravanese explains that he chose a female character for the lead role because he felt he could take a female lead more places creatively because a male "rarely gets angry." To which Baldassarre inquires, "You don't think that men get angry too?" LaGravanese's response is intriguing: "No, I think they express it in a different way. I think that men are deeply angry, they just don't know it. They're not as connected emotionally, and they have fewer outlets available to them than women. We've got to face it, we're not that well-rounded." Beautiful and measured metaphors spill off the pages. At one stage, Gabriele Salvatores - "who has never been married" - explains the reasoning behind his recent transition from theatre to film: "Theatre is like a marriage," he explains. "You have to keep rekindling the passion through long relationships. Cinema, on the other hand, is passion: brief, condensed. You gamble it all in a shorter period of time. "And in this particular moment in my life," he smiles coyly, "I'm less disposed towards marriage." Baldassarre introduces each interview with a subjective reflection or some background information. The intro piece for one of her interviews with Bertolucci (her favourite "living" director) is charming: "Few of us ever get the opportunity to meet a childhood idol. Not that I was exactly a child when I first discovered Bernardo Bertolucci, but at thirteen, having gone to see The Conformist with my junior-high class in Italy, I felt that I was being reborn into a new world. A world not just of images and sounds - which are typical of most films I'd seen until then - but of astounding thoughts and passion." But Baldassarre's gift as an interviewer is that she remains invisible as much as possible. The light never strays from her stars once the action begins - she interjects only at appropriate moments to tease the narrative along. The luck of her actors is that they had such a benign dictator to direct them.
Average customer rating:
- Not a Reference Work
- Charming, brief guide to the classics...
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Great Italian Films
Jerry Vermilye
Manufacturer: Citadel
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ASIN: 0806514809 |
Amazon.com
Italy's great films are as rich and surprising as life, full of humor, tragedy, tenderness, passion, cruelty, and love. Great Italian Films is a superior introduction to the Italian cinema, acquainting the reader with major directors such as De Sica, Rossellini, Monicelli, Fellini, Antonioni, and Visconti. The volume's scores of gorgeous photographs and stills make very clear why Silvana Mangano, Marcello Mastroianni, Giulietta Masina, Anna Magnani, Alain Delon, and so many other of Italy's bigger-than-life stars became international sensations. The films discussed here include such classics as The Bicycle Thief, La Strada, L'Avventura, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and The Night of the Shooting Stars. The book also gives detailed information about a number of lesser-known but equally remarkable films.
Customer Reviews:
Not a Reference Work.......2006-09-29
Authors of non-fiction books who don't provide an index should be taken out and shot. Jerry Vermilye deserves no better. Great Italian Films may be useful as a coffee table decoration, but that's about all. Look elsewhere if you're seeking rich analysis.
Charming, brief guide to the classics..........2001-01-14
Great Italian Films is a fun guide to classic Italian films. Plot summaries and abbreviated lists of credits, and usually more than one photo per film make an affectionate tribute to Italian cinema and many of its biggest stars. I own a copy of this book and many others on Italian cinema and individual directors. It's a great coffee table book for film nights with your friends. For those looking for more in depth studies, I recommend searching for titles by Millicent Marcus, Mira Liehm, and Peter Bondanella (Bondanella's Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present (3rd ed., 2001), is the standard, excellent survey in the field).
Average customer rating:
- Exquisite coffee-table reference on Italy's cult auteur
- Once Upon On A Leone
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Sergio Leone: The Great Italian Dream of Legendary America
Oreste De Fornari
Manufacturer: Gremese
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 8873010946 |
Book Description
The great American Western would never be the same after Italian director Sergio Leone's spaghetti-western revolution.
Customer Reviews:
Exquisite coffee-table reference on Italy's cult auteur.......2001-11-26
This fine book is an essential library addition to any fan of the late great Sergio Leone, Italy's supremely gifted-yet oft-maligned cult director. Jammed with gorgeous color and b&w photos, informative and often humorous interviews and back stories, De Fornari has put together a fine tribute/filmography that any Leone devotee, like myself, would treasure.
Once Upon On A Leone.......2000-12-07
Sergio Leone directed my favorite Western film - Once Upon a Time in the West with Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda and Claudia Cardinale! Great behind the scenes book on the director and his many films (Once Upon A Time in America, Clint Eastwood Man with No Name Triology). Offering insight from his crew, cast and associates! Great pictures and text! And insight from the director himself. Though this price is quite steep! One of the best films books that I have read!
Average customer rating:
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Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England
Diane Kelsey McColley
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0521593638 |
Book Description
This study explores the relationship between the poetic language of Donne, Herbert, Milton and other British poets of the seventeenth century, and the choral music and part-songs of composers including Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, Weelkes, and Tomkins. McColley combines close readings of particular poems and musical compositions with engagement in historical controversy about the significance of the arts, their relation to politics, and the reliability of language.
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Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England. (book review): An article from: Yearbook of English Studies
Edward Doughtie
Manufacturer: Modern Humanities Research Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B0008JD2PI
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Yearbook of English Studies, published by Modern Humanities Research Association on January 1, 2000. The length of the article is 918 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England. (book review)
Author: Edward Doughtie
Publication:
Yearbook of English Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2000
Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
Page: 295
Article Type: Book Review
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Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England.(Review) : An article from: Notes
James A. Winn
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
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ASIN: B00098TZ5Y
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on June 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1063 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England.(Review)
Author: James A. Winn
Publication:
Notes (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1999
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 55
Issue: 4
Page: 904(3)
Article Type: Book Review
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Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England.(Review) : An article from: Renaissance Quarterly
Elise Bickford Jorgens
Manufacturer: Renaissance Society of America
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ASIN: B00099IXRY
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Renaissance Quarterly, published by Renaissance Society of America on September 22, 1999. The length of the article is 1358 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England.(Review)
Author: Elise Bickford Jorgens
Publication:
Renaissance Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1999
Publisher: Renaissance Society of America
Volume: 52
Issue: 3
Page: 930
Article Type: Book Review
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Sip & Solve: Hard Crosswords (Sip & Solve Series)
Matt Gaffney
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Sit & Solve Commuter Hard Crosswords (Sit & Solve Series)
ASIN: 140272988X |
Book Description
You are a good person. You are one of the 84 million Americans who volunteer with a charity. You are part of a national donor pool that contributes nearly $200 billion to good causes every year. But you wonder: Why don't your efforts seem to make a difference?
Fifteen years ago, Robert Egger asked himself this same question as he reluctantly climbed aboard a food service truck for a night of volunteering to help serve meals to the homeless. He wondered why there were still people waiting in line for soup in this day and age. Where were the drug counselors, the job trainers, and the support team to help these men and women get off the streets? Why were volunteers buying supplies from grocery stores when restaurants were throwing away unused fresh food every night? Why had politicians, citizens, and local businesses allowed charity to become an end in itself? Why wasn't there an efficient way to solve the problem?
Robert knew there had to be a better way. In 1989, he started the D.C. Central Kitchen by collecting unused food from local restaurants, caterers, and hotels and bringing it back to a central location where hot, nutritious meals were prepared and distributed to agencies around the city. Since then, the D.C. Central Kitchen has been named one of President Bush Sr.'s Thousand Points of Light and has become one of the most respected and emulated nonprofit agencies in the world, producing and distributing more than 4,000 meals a day. Its highly successful 12-week job-training program equips former homeless transients and drug addicts with culinary and life skills to gain employment in the restaurant business.
In Begging for Change, Robert Egger looks back on his experience and exposes the startling lack of logic, waste, and ineffectiveness he has encountered during his years in the nonprofit sector, and calls for reform of this $800 billion industry from the inside out. In his entertaining and inimitable way, he weaves stories from his days in music, when he encountered legends such as Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, and Iggy Pop, together with stories from his experiences in the hunger movement -- and recently as volunteer interim director to help clean up the beleaguered United Way National Capital Area. He asks for nonprofits to be more innovative and results-driven, for corporate and nonprofit leaders to be more focused and responsible, and for citizens who contribute their time and money to be smarter and more demanding of nonprofits and what they provide in return. Robert's appeal to common sense will resonate with readers who are tired of hearing the same nonprofit fund-raising appeals and pity-based messages. Instead of asking the "who" and "what" of giving, he leads the way in asking the "how" and "why" in order to move beyond our 19th-century concept of charity, and usher in a 21st-century model of change and reform for nonprofits.
Enlightening and provocative, engaging and moving, this book is essential reading for nonprofit managers, corporate leaders, and, most of all, any citizen who has ever cared enough to give of themselves to a worthy cause.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful depiction of fundraising today.......2007-08-23
Great book! Has a wonderful history of fundraising element to it that I was not expecting. It really is fantastic to feel as if the work you are doing for a non-profit is really making a difference, doing things Egger's way will get you there.
Good Background and Ideas!.......2006-03-16
Eighty-four Americans volunteer with a charity, and $200 billion is contributed every year. "Begging for Change" summarizes Robert Egger looking back on his experiences (first running successful night clubs, then a non-profit kitchen and training program) and offering his critique of the $800 billion non-profit world in general.
A key Egger point is that non-profits need to ask: "Are you perpetuating a cycle of need and dependency?" Today charity is governed by innumerable individuals and their egos, many of which are "business-as-usual" career do-gooders who've never run their own company. Many duplicate each others' services and fight each other for funding. They talk of how many were fed or sheltered, but not about how many got out of dependency.
There now are more than 1.5 million non-profits, and their latest evolution is to "realize" that they have to pay those at the top well to attract good people. Thus, in D.C. there are about 25,000 non-profits, requiring over $1.5 billion just for CEO and executive director salaries! Yet, over 70% have revenues less than $500,000/year, and neither government nor Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" act to make those that are ineffective go away. Many should.
In addition, there is the needless complexity added by multiple funding sources and their frequent "strings." One non-profit gets its $20 million from 161 sources - think of all the attention required to mind all those masters!
Egger started a training program for cooks, food-handlers, and servers - thus, both offering them a "hand-up" (instead of just a "hand-out") and substantially reducing the need for full-time assistants. Many fail, but many more succeed; even a substantial number of those that fail initially (drug tests, absences) reform, come back, and later complete the program.
Another important Egger point is that companies interested in helping the poor should first focus on paying their own employees well enough so that they can succeed, rather than paying them so little that they cannot succeed and then wondering how to help others that are downtrodden.
Another Egger innovation was to realize that local catering services were always being leaned on by non-profits to provide deeply discounted services. Egger offered to take that business over with his staff in training - and thus relieved them of a burden while providing his trainees with an important opportunity to demonstrate their talents first-hand to society's higher-ups. He also briefly illustrates examples where organizations provide for-profit services while focusing on hiring those with checkered or limited backgrounds.
Egger points out that the aging Baby Boom will soon provide a test of our social services as they move into old age and increasingly require more services.
Finally, Egger suggests that "more" is not always "better." For example, if his organization held a fund-raiser to renovate or acquire new facilities, that would deplete resources available in the community for other needy organizations.
Egger's examples of systems thinking and sacrifice by those at the top (Egger took only a $50,000 salary while heading the D.C. United Fund) should be taken to heart by all non-profits (especially the Red Cross) and the government (with its many overlapping and conflicting programs).
No idea what he's talking about .......2006-01-25
Egger dismisses the work of fundraising revolutionaries like Dan Pallotta without really understanding what Pallotta was about. With Egger's "vision" non-profits would stay small, pay their workers miserly wages, and the next generation of fundraisers would be wise to look for better paying work. Pathetic lack of fundraising innovation.
Intelligent, inspiring, and practical.......2005-12-11
As a person inexperienced with community foundations or nonprofit organizations and now on a foundation committee, I found Mr. Egger's book to be colorful, amusing, down to earth and imminently practical. To think that someone in the seemingly shallow entertainment business could turn around and use his knowledge to change nonprofits and foundations into dynamic enterprises with enthusiastic participants at all levels is exremely inspiring.
Chock full of facts and logic.......2005-12-01
Egger's book is an excellent combination of facts, cause-effect logic and practical suggestions on how to make charity much more life-changing for the recipients. As a Hurricane Katrina victim, I know first hand how little meaningful help comes from big not-for-profits and government. The system is crying for reform. Eggers has an approach that works better than many current ones. People in positions of authority need to listen and change behaviors.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from City Limits, published by City Limits Community Information Service, Inc. on July 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1031 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Groupthink: good management makes better nonprofits--but does it make a better world?(City Lit)(Book Review)
Author: Gordon Mayer
Publication:
City Limits (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 2004
Publisher: City Limits Community Information Service, Inc.
Volume: 29
Issue: 7
Page: 35(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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