Personal Odyssey, A

Saturday, July 26th, 2008 by Book Guy | No Comments »

"Offered a job simply because he was a black man, he turned it down and said why. Despite this
righteousness, he has retained a sense of humor.Sowell admits to having had plenty of enemies, but enough
friends to save him. This memoir should multiply the latter. Jeff Riggenbachrenders the narrative vividly."
–AudioFile

Here is the gritty, powerful story of Thomas Sowell’s life-long education in the school of hard knocks, a journey
that took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a career as a controversial writer, teacher, and
economist in government and private industry. It is also the story of the dramatically changing times in which
this personal odyssey took place. The vignettes of the people and places that made impressions on Sowell at
various stages of his life range from the poor and powerless to the mighty and the wealthy, from a home for
homeless boys to the White House. More than a story of the life of Sowell himself, this is also about the people
who gave him their help, their support, and their loyalty, as well as those who demonized him and knifed him in
the back. It is a study not just of one life, but also of life in general, with all its exhilaration and pain of constant
striving and deserved success.

Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc
Author: Thomas Sowell
Narrator: Jeff Riggenbach
ISBN: 0-7861-2144-0
Normal Price: $49.95
Download Price: $23.95 Find out more…

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Tags: Author Thomas, Black Man, Blackstone, Controversial Writer, Deserved Success, Exhilaration, Harlem, Homeless Boys, Ivy League, Jeff Riggenbach, Memoir, Narrator, Personal Odyssey, Private Industry, Quot, Righteousness, School Of Hard Knocks, Sense Of Humor, Thomas Sowell, Vignettes

Every Mother Is a Daughter

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 by Book Guy | No Comments »

Every Mother Is a Daughter
The Neverending Quest for Success, Inner Peace and a Really Clean Kitchen
"Readers will appreciate the honesty between the pairThe mother-daughter duo triumph
over hectic schedules and physical distance through their love of writing and travelThis is a treasure for
any generation."Publishers Weekly

Oh no, I’m turning into my mother! Every woman is familiar with the poignant, funny, baffling, or horrifying
echoes that resonate at that moment when she first hears her own mother’s voice coming out of her mouth.
But this moment of recognition is more than ironic: it’s at the root of how we see ourselves, and how we
plot and follow the arc that goes from childhood to motherhood.

Together, Perri Klass and her mother, Sheila Solomon Klass, cover more than seven decades of daughterhood
and motherhood. And although they grew up in dramatically different circumstances, they find that their lives
have been shaped in strangely similar ways. In Every Mother is a Daughter, Perri and Sheila tell their
mother-daughter story, looking honestly at their own lives and at each other, with different perspectives, unique
voices, and powerful insight, in the first co-written mother-daughter memoir.

Perri Klass is an award-winning author of several books and a practicing pediatrician. She is the medical director of the national program Reach Out and Read, dedicated to promoting literacy as part of pediatric primary care. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sheila Solomon Klass is a professor of English at the City University of New York and the author of several books.
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc
Author: Perri Klass and Sheila Solomon Klass
Narrator: Anna Fields and Carrington MacDuffie
ISBN: 0-7861-5387-3
Normal Price: $34.95
Download Price: $23.95

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Tags: Blackstone, Cambridge Massachusetts, Carrington, Different Perspectives, Echoes, Hectic Schedules, Inner Peace, Macduffie, Medical Director, Memoir, More Than Seven Decades, Mother Daughter, Motherhood, Narrator, Neverending Quest, Pediatric Primary Care, Pediatrician, Perri Klass, Publishers Weekly, Sheila Solomon Klass

Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, The: A Memoir

Saturday, June 21st, 2008 by Book Guy | No Comments »

Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, The: A Memoir
Bill Bryson’s hilarious memoir of growing up in middle America in the Fifties - complete, unabridged and read by the author.

 Born in 1951 in the middle of the United States - Des Moines. Iowa - Bill Bryson is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for twenty-four carat memoir gold.

Like millions of his generation, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around the house wearing a jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel round his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing evildoers (in his head) as The Thunderbolt Kid .

Using his old fantasy life as a springboard, Bill Bryson recreates the life of his family in the 1950’s in all its transcendent normality. In a period that saw the inexorable rise of television, the opening of Disneyland, the testing of the atomic bomb and the explosion of choice in everything from food to cars, Bill Bryson’s days followed in reassuringly cosy succession, enlivened by modest triumphs and disasters.

Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, The Thunderbolt Kid is full of Bill Bryson’s inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, and this unabridged recording contains every single amusing anecdote and amazing fact. Nothing is left out, so you can enjoy the whole book in its entirety, read by Bill Bryson himself.

Publisher: BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Author: Bill Bryson
Narrator: Bill Bryson
ISBN: 1405626100
Download Price: $27.49

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Tags: America In The Fifties, American Childhood, Amusing Anecdote, Atomic Bomb, Author Bill Bryson, Bill Bryson, Carat, Disneyland, Evildoers, Inexorable Rise, Inimitable, Memoir, Middle America, Moines Iowa, Narrator, Normality, Rich Fantasy Life, Springboard, Tall Buildings, Triumphs

Judge Raises Constitutional Issue in R.I. Gay Divorce Case - ABC News

Friday, June 13th, 2008 by Book Guy | No Comments »

Judge Raises Constitutional Issue in R.I. Gay Divorce Case - ABC News
Cassandra Ormiston is surrounded by books and a typewriter in her Providence, R.I., home Wednesday, Cassandra Ormiston is surrounded by books and a typewriter in her Providence, R.I., home Wednesday, April 9, 2008. Ormiston married Margaret
Source: www.abcnews.go.com

Books: The Ingredients of Family Life - Washington Post
Sometimes it’s a good idea to read a book twice. The first time I read “Feed the Hungry,” I think I was possessed by the evil spirit of the competitive cook: Why would anyone want to include a recipe for bechamel sauce in a memoir? What was the point
Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Posted in Some Comic Relief | No Comments »
Tags: Abc News, April, Cassandra, Constitutional Issue, Divorce Case, Evil Spirit, Gay Divorce, Gay News, Memoir, Ormiston, Point Source, Providence, Recipe For Bechamel Sauce, Typewriter, Washington Post

Angela’s Ashes

Sunday, May 25th, 2008 by Book Guy | No Comments »

When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

People everywhere brag or whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years. Above all we were wet…’

So begins Frank McCourt’s stunning memoir of his childhood in Ireland and America, a recollection in Ireland and America, a recollection of unvarnished truth and no self pity, of grinding poverty and indomitable spirit that will live in the memory long after the tracks have ended.

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Author: Frank McCourt
Narrator: Frank McCourt
ISBN: 000715982x
Download Price: $13.25 Continue…

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Tags: Angela S Ashes, Author Frank Mccourt, Frank Mccourt, Indomitable Spirit, Ireland, Irish Catholic Childhood, Irish Version, Memoir, Memory, Miserable Childhood, Miserable Irish Childhood, Narrator, Poverty, Priests, Publishers, Recollection, Self Pity, Terrible Things, Truth, Woes