Comprar Con Nosotros

For those Kindle readers who, like me, read for entertainment, scanning the book reviews in People magazine is good way to check out new people-related books - celebrity bios, popular novels, absorbing nonfiction - just hitting bookstore shelves. Featured in the September 5th issue of People:

Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman, by Patricia Bosworth. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Print Length: 608 p. BIOGRAPHY. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). People's slant: "...extraordinary biography...more than 500 pages - and not one is wasted..." Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $19.14. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"As actress, activist, businesswoman, wife, and mother, Jane Fonda has pushed herself to the limit, attempting to please all, excel in every arena, be everything. We’ve read her version of her controversial life, yet nothing can prepare us for this genuinely revelatory account of Jane’s engrossing, sometimes shocking journey. Supplemented by the psychiatric records of her suicidal, bipolar mother, Fonda’s FBI file, and interviews with her intimates, this perceptive portrait strips away hype and the subject’s own mythmaking. Patricia Bosworth shows us what a toll Jane’s quest to excel (and please her demanding father, Henry) exacted and sheds light on truths she’s glossed over: her rejection of her mother before her suicide; the death threats and self-doubts of her antiwar crusade; her second husband Tom Hayden’s habit of putting her down while spending her fortune; the emotional downfall that led her to stop acting and marry Ted Turner. Lee Strasberg once said that Jane had 'panic in her eyes,' and it is this wounded but so familiar woman - human yet still heroic, the embodiment of a generation’s conflicts and triumphs - whom Bosworth captures so utterly and definitively." - Publisher.

The Leftovers, by Tom Perrotta. St. Martin's Press, 2011. Print Length: 368 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (25 reviews). People's slant: "An engrossing read." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $13.90. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"What if - whoosh, right now, with no explanation - a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down? That’s what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened - not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children. Kevin Garvey, Mapleton’s new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin’s own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin’s teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet A student she used to be. Kevin wants to help her, but he’s distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy..." - Publisher.

It's All About the Dress: What I Learned in Forty Years About Men, Women, Sex, and Fashion, by Vicky Tiel. St. Martin's Press, 2011. Print Length: 336 p. MEMOIR. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (2 reviews). People's slant: "Tiel peppers her saucy memoir with girlie advice and recipes for the likes of [Elizabeth] Taylor's caviar 'sandwiches.' Dig in." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $17.81. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Vicky Tiel started as an 'it' girl of the 1960s and has had a four decade career designing clothes that make real women look fabulous. Her sexy, fresh hot pants and miniskirts were used by Woody Allen in his first movie, What’s New, Pussycat?, her classic design inspired the red dress that transformed Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and her creations are worn today by stars such as Halle Berry and Kim Kardashian. Tiel’s own life has been dance-the-night-away fun, from her earliest days flunking out of Parsons to design on her own, to starting a chic boutique with best friend Mia Fonssagrives in Paris, from marrying MGM’s top make-up man to becoming Elizabeth Taylor’s dear friend and part of her longtime entourage. Tiel forged her own path, and picked up some distinctive and hard-earned lessons from the rich, famous and celebrated along the way. In It's All About the Dress, you’ll get a glimpse of what it’s like to be Hollywood royalty..." - Publisher.

Briefly Mentioned: Books for Parents as Their Kids Go Back to School

The End of Molasses Classes, by Ron Clark. Touchstone, 2011. Print Length: 352 p. NONFICTION. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (15 reviews). Kindle edition $10.99; Hardcover $13.59 Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"I often say I am a schoolteacher with the heart of a parent. I’ve made it my mission to make a difference in the lives of all of our children. I have traveled throughout our country, visiting schools in all 50 states, seeking out remarkable teachers who inspire our children to greatness. Sadly, I have also witnessed classrooms that seemed sapped of all energy, filled with students struggling to stay awake and teachers in desperate need of inspiration. These 'Molasses Classes' broke my heart. I had to do something! I decided to leave my classroom in East Harlem, New York, and devote my time to this audacious dream: to create a revolution in our country, starting from the ground up. I am proud to say that dream - the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, is now a reality... This book is filled with the magic, the successes, the heartbreaks, the mistakes, and the triumphs that are the Ron Clark Academy. These are the 101 most successful strategies we have used to help uplift our children and enliven our classrooms. My hope is that you will find ideas here that will help you ignite a passion for learning in your children - and together we can get the molasses out of all our children’s classes." - Publisher.

The Good School: How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education They Deserve, by Peg Tyre. Henry Holt, 2011. Print Length: 256 p. NONFICTION. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.46. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"We all know that the quality of education served up to our children in U.S. schools ranges from outstanding to shockingly inadequate. How can parents tell the difference? And how do they make sure their kids get what's best? ...the scary truth is that evaluating a school based on test scores and college admissions data is like selecting a car based on the color of its paint. Synthesizing cutting-edge research and firsthand reporting, Peg Tyre offers parents far smarter and more sophisticated ways to assess a classroom and decide if the school and the teacher have the right stuff. Passionate and persuasive, The Good School empowers parents to make sense of headlines; constructively engage teachers, administrators, and school boards; and figure out the best option for their child - be that a local public school, a magnet program, a charter school, homeschooling, parochial, or private." - Publisher.

Lunch Wars: How to Start a School Food Revolution and Win the Battle for Our Children's Health, by Amy Kalafa. Tarcher, 2011. Print Length: 384 p. NONFICTION. Amazon customer rating: 1 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $11.71. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.



"The average kid will eat 4,000 school lunches between kindergarten and twelfth grade. But what exactly are kids eating in school lunchrooms around the country? Many parents don't quite know what their children are eating - or where it came from. As award-winning filmmaker and nutritionist Amy Kalafa discovered in researching her documentary film Two Angry Moms: Fighting for the Health of America's Children, these days it's pretty rare to find a piece of fresh fruit in your average school lunchroom amid all the chips, french fries, Pop-Tarts, chicken nuggets, and soda that's being served. But what, if anything, can parents do about it? ...this empowering book arms parents with the specific information and tools they need to get unhealthy - even dangerous - food out of their children's school cafeteria and to hold their schools and local and national governments accountable for ensuring that their growing children are served healthy meals at school..." - Publisher.
_______________________

Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.


see more Historic LOL