the Book Brothel

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 218 pages, 2006

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I’ve seen, and loved, quite a few of Grant’s movies, such as To Catch a Thief and The Philadelphia Story, and Grant himself was usually the biggest draw.

Synopsis: He made dozens of movies in thirty-plus years of acting, starring with some of the most beautiful women in the world, and no matter the circumstances, Cary Grant always looked impeccable, somehow both a sex symbol and a gentleman. In Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style, Torregrossa, a fashion journalist, presents us with an unusual biography, one that focuses on Grant’s development of his classic style with the backdrop being his movies and personal life. Features a foreword by Giorgio Armani and an afterword by Michael Kors.

(more…)

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in mass market July 2007), 548 pages (plus an additional 24 pages of b&w photos), 2006

Rating: 10/10

Reason for Reading: A little Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, maybe? A little movie called Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, mm? I’m a big fan.

Synopsis: She’s been called everything from the most beautiful woman in the world; to the last great movie star; to unrepeatable things best left to the tabloids; to an ambassador to AIDS awareness; but through it all, she’s always been Elizabeth Taylor. This biography takes the reader through her mother’s determination to break her into Hollywood, the numerous men in her life, the films she’s made, the jewels she’s worn, all in an attempt to sort through all that’s been written about her in order to find out just what makes Elizabeth Taylor tick.

(more…)

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 341 pages, 2002

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I found a hardcover copy up for offer in the bargain section of an on-line site, and remembered how popular it had been when I worked at a bookstore, so I thought I’d see what the fuss was about. Better late than never, right?

Synopsis: Loaded (renamed Smokescreen in later editions) is the story of Allen Long, a marijuana smuggler that operated mainly between Columbia and the United States in the 1970s. He starts off making a documentary about smuggling, but quickly realizes that the things he wants the most - wild adventures, the best drugs, and money in such quantities that it’s weighed, not counted - are much easier to get if he becomes a smuggler. But what becomes of a man that’s always on the prowl for more of everything?

(more…)

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 239 pages, 2006

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: From first-flip I could tell this book had a huge ‘wow’ factor.

Synopsis: What do women in their 20s and 30s think about themselves? How do they view the world? How is life different for them than it was for their mothers and grandmothers? How does the place they live impact all of their opinions? Imagining Ourselves is a diverse collection of essays, poems, and artwork from young women all across the globe which attempts to answer these questions and many more.

(more…)

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 364 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I had no idea until I saw this book that Carolyn Keene was a pseudonym, so curiosity made me pick up Girl Sleuth to see who was behind a series I often read when I was younger.

Synopsis: While the name ‘Carolyn Keene’ is synonymous with mysteries and Nancy Drew to millions of people, females especially, there is no Carolyn Keene, and there never was. Instead, journey with Rehak into the worlds of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Mildred Wirt Benson, the women that began writing the smash hit series seventy-five years ago. Through careful guidance, fiery competition, and exuberant-if-not-fantastic writing, these women molded Nancy Drew not just into a detective, but a cultural icon that symbolized female independence to generation after generation of young readers.

= (more…)

href="http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316169048/qid=1118070192/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_

by Charlotte Gordon" />

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 337 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I have a weakness for biographies about authors.

Synopsis: Mistress Bradstreet is a biography of Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan

that moved to America with her family at the age of eighteen, just a decade after the

Pilgrims first arrived in the early 17th century. Her experiences in the New World - marriage, starting a family, and trying to establish a Puritan community without

the corruptions that ran rampant in England - were the topics she focused on in her poetry. Through her bravery (women

were often punished for overstepping their boundaries and not showing the submission that

was expected of proper religious women - including venturing it’s the ‘man’s world’ of

writing) and her talent, Anne Bradstreet strove through a number of obstacles to become America’s first established poet.

(more…)

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 212 pages, 2002

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: I’ve read a handful of Dickens’s novels, but I read them sheerly for enjoyment, without concern for his influence on the world of writing; and I knew next-to-nothing about him as a person. The Penguin Lives series is nice for brief and somewhat general knowledge about people you’re interested in, but not interested enough that you would want to wade through 700 pages of detail aimed at die-hard fans.

Synopsis: This book is a look at the life of Charles Dickens, largely in relation to the novels he wrote. Along with connecting his plots to his life, Smiley offers criticisms of Dickens’s novels (her own as well as those of other reviewers).

(more…)

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 304 pages, 2002

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: The title of the book gave me a giggle a few years ago when I was working at a bookstore. It took the library a while to get a copy, however.

Synopsis: Burroughs gives his readers an open view into his teenage years and the very bizarre life he leads after his wannabe-poet-mother dumps him into a new home so she can concentrate on her writing. But not just any home, the home of her psychiatrist, Dr Finch, who has the odd propensity to let patients move in at random and add to his already chaotic family. To the usual teenage traumas, Burroughs adds (amongst other things) a family that predicts the future by feces, a pedophile, and a man that applauds the initiative shown in kids that literally bring down the ceiling.

(more…)

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 343 pages, 2003

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: A buzz book.

Synopsis: In Reading Lolita, Nafisi chronicles her life in Iran as a university professor during a time of war and repression. In order to have a chance to speak more freely about English literature, she starts up a small discussion group with seven of her female students, which quickly moves from books to a more personal look at how reading affects them and their lives in an atmosphere where their thoughts must be hidden from the public eye.

(more…)

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 306 pages, 2004

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I’ve had a couple of Armstrong’s books on my to-be-read list for a while now, but I somehow ended up reading this brand-new one first. And, I won’t lie to you, it looked much less intimidating than the 500 pages of A History of God.

Synopsis: This is an autobiography that focuses on Armstrong’s life when she left her convent after seven years, at the age of 23. She expresses her confusion, disoriention and fear of the ‘real world’ after being a secluded nun, battles depression and seizures, and tries to come to terms with her changing ideas of God. Armstrong maps the long journey driven by both love for and hatred of religion that brought her to writing her popular books on a wide variety of religions.

(more…)