Julia Roberts Books

Alas poor science books. Forever to be doomed to the non-fiction section of the library where, occasionally, a student will pull one out to help with their school's science project. I've always found children's scientific picture books to be especially depressing little creations. More often than not they're drawn or illustrated in such a way that their messages go out of date, even as their science remains correct. Fortunately for us all, I don't think this will be the fate of "I Face the Wind". True, it's trendy. But it is also such a nice little compilation of facts and experiments that I hope it doesn't disappear too quickly in the unused library shelves for all time.

The book begins with a "Note to the Reader". That reader, as it happens, is actually the adult who will be reading this book with their child. The note implores "readers" to allow their children to first read about the experiments and then find their own results before moving on in the book. This might get a little tedious if the experiments were vast complicated affairs. Fortunately, author Vicki Cobb has limited experiment materials to those objects people already have around their house(tape, wire hangers, etc.). No experiment is dangerous and none of them require adult supervision in any way.

The book is sort of an Intro. to Science for younger children. Kids will enjoy the bright colorful illustrations. Each scene takes place across a pure white background, occasionally dotted by a window or a tree. The pictures will certainly date in 5 to 10 years down the road, but if you want something that will make your kids interested in science NOW, then this is the book for you. And hey, it won the Robert F. Sibert Honor in 2004! If you're brave enough to take a chance introducing your kids to a little well wrought non-fiction, this here's a good starter book for them to consider.

This book is a great introduction to the concept that air is a real thing even though it can't be seen. It has easy experiments that anyone could do at home. The illustrations give life to the experiments and the information. The story does an excellent job of introducing the idea of air as a real thing even though kids can't see it. It touches on the science of molecules. I would recommend this book for preschool clear through elementary. It would be a great starting off point for discussing gases and I would consider it a very early flirtation with chemistry.

Hard to put down. Very informative about Julia Roberts life and movie career. If there is anything you want to know about her, this is the book for you. It is also current and up to date on this superstar.

Fans of the Pretty Woman will find this modern day fairy tale very inspiring: the small town girl has become Hollywood's most durable superstar, the one and only superstar of the nineties...This book provides great info and behind the scenes looks at Julia Roberts...It's like a huge article that covers everything from Julia's birth to the making of Erin Brockovich.

Although I have always been mezmorized by Julia Roberts, I now hold an understanding of the REAL Julia Fiona Roberts. 'America's Pretty Woman'... a very deserving title given to a very incredible woman. The secondary title, I feel, should be '...from rags to ritches and then some'. If you are a true fan of Julia Roberts this book will enhance your perception of her. Julia is very deserving of the fame she now entertains and I can see what makes her step away from her spotlight time and time again. This book is a must have in a Julia collection.

Very uplifting. Although the biography is "unauthorized," you get a feel of what life has been like for Julia. Her personality captures your interest and inspires you to do whatever it is you've always wanted to do. Knowing how she started out in Acting gives you hope and makes you love her even more.

THis is a great book about the early fine wine industry in California. The TV show "Falcon Crest" pales when compared to the real life story of the Mondavis. This book was a best-seller for a reason. Read it an enjoy.

This book was disappointing, if only because with decent editing it would have been much more enjoyable to read. The author appeared to write this as a series of stories, rather than a single work of non-fiction, as evidenced by her insistence on re-identifying many major players and events throughout the story. And like many authors these days, tightening up the book by 75 pages or so would have trimmed the fat yet left the full flavor of a compelling saga.

Have only read one half of story as it was so long and drug out for so many pages that it became tiring and we had to put it down and will readdress it at a later date. So much turmoil in a family. So Sad

The author is to be commended for making this story so fascinating to read. What a treacherous family!

This is a great book to read if you have interest in the Mondavi wine business. My interest was piqued after a recent trip to the Napa/Sonoma wine region and visiting the Opus Winery, amongst others. Mondavi is a legend in the California wine business and after reading Robert Mondavi's book entitled Harvests of Joy: How the Good Life Became Great Business I was further drawn to learn more about the family story. In Harvests of Joy: How the Good Life Became Great Business Robert Mondavi tells his side of the story but in this meticulously researched book the big picture is further explained and goes deep into the demise of the wine empire. The ins and outs of the busines, complete with sordid stories, success and faillures, makes this book an epic tale of a family in turmoil. The conflicts between the elder brothers, the Robert Mondavi heir brothers, Michael and Timothy is given an impartial reporting that is refreshing. The book does focus primarily on the fall of the Mondavi empire but it is done in such a way that the background information on the rise of the empire puts everything into perspective. The contributions to the wine industry cannot be denied and the author acknowledges the innovations and techniques the Mondavi family brought to making wine, as well as making Caifornia wine world renowned and mass consumed. The expansion of the business to other parts of the world is quite interesting. It is a tragic story in the end as big business takes over the Mondavi name but not before many years of drama, which Julia Flynn Siler so eloquently describes. If you are interested in the Mondavi story this book is without question the one to read. The book has two sets of pictures that put faces on the characters in this real life soap opera. It is a very satisfying read that leaves you thirsting for more every time you stop reading it. Check it out, highly recommended, especially if you are a wine enthusiast or a person involved in business.

Really, It did. When I started reading this book I was teetering on the edge. For years I had followed the beliefs and practices as promoted by Rick Warren...White North American Evangelicalism. After years of obsessive prayer, bible study, and "worship" with shoddy church music, I was burnt out, unhappy, and hungry for something deeper.

Price, in his paradoxically humble yet arrogant, ferocious, and sardonic style, dismantled the edifice that the Evangelical church had tried to build in my mind. While doing so he also introduced me to some of the teachings of the Stoics, Buddhists, reflections from the venerable Eric Hoffer, author of the "True Believer," and Berger and Luckmann's "The social construction of reality."

Rather than a cut and dry polemic then, Price pulled together a wide variety of religious and philosophical literature and traditions, and used them to interpret, criticize, or contrast the evangelical beliefs of Rick Warren. I find this eclectic and literate polemical style to be very interesting and personally rewarding.

What most reviewers have not pointed out is that this book is Price's reflections and reactions to each of the 40 chapters found in the Purpose Driven Life. Since Rick Warren revisits the same issues and beliefs in different chapters, Price must return to the same number issues, like the nature of mass movements or the nature of God, for example.

This approach may prove too repetitive for some people, but, for me I found it to be almost meditative. After all, meditation is often derived from the repetition of a thought, chant, or breathing pattern.

Every chapter is short, usually a page or two, and can be read in a matter of minutes. So, again, in a way then, Price's book was almost devotional or meditative for me.

While Price may be harsh at times, his piercing words set me free and pushed me over the edge into a strange new place of existence, far more exciting and fulfilling than my life under the single vision of a protestant denomination. Were it not for Price, I might not have taken that existential plunge.

For that, I grateful to him; and I encourage people who are questioning their Evangelical faith to read this book. If you don't fall into this group, or don't have much interest in religious criticism, you might want to pass this book up, it probably will not be relevant to you.

Excellent thoughtful book. Price wrote this as a counter to book called The Purpose Driven Life that is apparently a bestseller in the USA. I have no knowledge of that book but found that Price does an excellent job showing that biblical fundamentalism is simply unsustainable. More challenging for me was Price's careful and reasoned argument for the value of insights from religious traditions. Price is intellectually honest and generous but perhaps a little to respectful of Christian tradition. Nevertheless this is an excellent read.

A very good rebuttal of "The Purpose Driven Life". A fairly easy read with some humor, but written at an intellectual level that is, for me, sometimes a challenge.

For those of us who use reason and logic as a basis for understanding our world, this is very reinforcing. He has helped me understand that there is a wide body of thinking that supports my own point of view.

Having read Warren' Purpose Driven Life" and now this, I fail to understand how anyone can compare the two. Warren gives us a purpose for existing - to be the slaves of a perverted supernatural being, pleasing Him and His every whim. Price's chapter by chapter rebuttal is genius. He takes us out of the slave category and shows what we are really capable of dreaming and doing as free creatures on a supernatural free world. He does an exceptional job rebutting each of Warren's points. Human potential can only be fully cultivated when we take personal responsibility and initiative. Price should have probably published this with a better know Company and with a bit more publicity. It should be read by all those who read Warren's book.

I enjoyed this book I have read," The Purpose Driven Life" and was a fundamentalist Christian for a time. I thought Mr.Price was kind in his objections to the points made in Rick Warren's book except maybe in a few places but over all it wasn't your bashing Christianity book. The author hasn't given up on God completely just alot of the extreme ideas. I think what he had to say in this book was worth thinking about. I know I like a book when I start highlighting almost every page. This book is good for non-believers and for believers who have an open mind.

Not one you would read again. A lot of writers can blend multiple storylines together nicely, this is an exception. Too confusing and while realistic, nothing new. Save your pennies.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this book but at times it became difficult to keep track of who was who! All of the husbands, exes, and kids started to just kind of meld together! The story was an interesting look into divorce, the world of step families and the effects on the children. I very much enjoyed the character of Lupe and found her to be funny and realistic. Not my favorite book in the world but entertaining none the less.

As several previous reviewers have done a masterful job of it, I will not attempt to summarize "I'm Not Julia Roberts". Rather, I will just say what I told the author in an email to her after I finished the book (in just a little more than 24 hours). I loved it. It was a deeply satisfying read in all the ways that I consider a book satisfying. I love Ruby's writing style and voice. It's a well-crafted, brilliantly told and highly engaging story - not an easy accomplishment given the complicated ties among all the families. Her insight into the complexities of relationships across multiple age-groups and genders rings true. She nails them all with great accuracy, humor and compassion. Wonderful book!

I was hooked on "I'm Not Julia Roberts" the minute I read the jacket cover: "...the bio mom gets cancer and DIES in that idiotic movie ('Stepmom'). Who here is going to get that lucky?" Did she really write that? I want more!

And Laura Ruby delivers. Her characters are funny, sarcastic, bitchy and touching, each flawed and totally human. I couldn't get enough of the new stepmother Lu Klein, seemingly in over her head, who speaks with humor , honesty and wit. Beatrix, the bio-mom, whom we should hate out of loyalty to our new best friend Lu, gets a fair shake with her own story of trying to cope the best that she can. Laura Ruby's clever, unique and honest writing made me think, made me feel and best of all, made me laugh out loud.

The children and teenagers in Ruby's book speak with voices we've all overheard in malls, complaining, in fast food kiosks, complaining, and at school functions, complaining. They are the voices of other people's children, sometimes the voices of our own, and they are so real we are shocked that someone, Laura Ruby, has finally heard them and recorded them in her book. Because we've never read dialog like Ruby's before. Children in books are too often furniture in the backdrop, unlikely little mutated monsters of the author's imagination, bearing no resemblance to those very real children we deal with every day.

To read Ruby's dialog and to enjoy her amusing prose are the reasons to enjoy her. Her book is more of a collection of short stories loosely bound together than a novel. Each of her characters is so complete and idiosyncratic that you regret when Ruby hip-hops to another. Read each chapter as if you are reading one short story, and your enjoyment will increase. Ruby is bitingly funny as she deals with the confusing disaster of divorce and remarriage, and how it affects children as well as parents over years of coping and ugly compromise. The book does have a sort of a happy ending. The children grow up.

This is a very good biography on Julia. Packed with tons of info and good pictures. If you're a fan of Roberts, this is the book for you. Definitely worth it!

When I read this book I realized that her life was very complicated. Julia's father died at an early age, when she was about 9. Her only brother Eric, did not get along and still does not talk with their mother.

Her mother remarried a man who abused them, especially Eric. There is one sister, Lisa and they have a step sister Nancy, (Motes). Neither of them were interviewed for this book.

Eric Roberts was interviewed and expressed his anger about his mother.

Julia seemed to be looking for a father figure, with many of her relationships being with actors.

If you are a fan of Julia's, I would recommend this book.

Hopefully, her happiness will last with her present husband.

Good luck and best wishes to you, Julia.

Beginning with the birth of her father James Spada is writing about the life and career of Julia and her family. This is indeed very interesting to read - and it is written in a very gripping way, but it is irritating, that this all happens without an official agreement of Julia herself. The main emphasis of this book is on Julia's private life and the sources the author names for this are persons who surround Julia or would like to do so - Julia herself didn't seem to be ready to contribute to this book with statements from her behalf. This is the biggest drawback of this book and one should blame that on the author. Because, what gives him the right to write detailed things even about Julia's love life, when he never has spoken to herself? Only the fact that the book became very extended (almost 500 pages) leaves space enough for Julia's work in movies - the things we actually love her for. Less private stuff (and so something which is none of ones business!!!) would have been better! Merely the stories that tell something about Julia as a human being are interesting. For instance when she saved a car driver, who met with an accident, or the story when she danced with a fan in sort of a pub... These stories are wonderful to read, because they show, what a great and normal woman Julia has kept to be over all times - in spite of all the trouble with paparazzi and with authors who feel they have the right to write even books about her, without having talked to her a single once. Summary: just still recommendable, but you're left with a very bad taste after reading...

This book is highly enjoyable and a page turner if you are intrigued by Julia Roberts. It starts at the beginning growing up in a family separated with anger and distrust. It goes on to show her moving out of Georgia and living with her brother Eric and sister Lisa in New York. It talks of how she broke into acting and fame. It really gets into her relationships with men and her interactions with male co-stars. After reading this book I have a somewhat different view of the actor. I used to wish I had her life and envied her tremendously. It seems like she has difficulties with men, possibly falling in love with love and when it begins to get deep and intimacy is the next step forward, things start to get rough. It seems like anger and distrust keep coming up in her life and at least in her relationships with men. It does not really go into many female friendships, touching on Susan Sarandon and her sister Lisa. The author does a good job of tieing his research together to make a cohesive picture of Julia. He had a little bit of help, from private sources and her brother who send emails of info to him. It is interesting to me as to why she and her brother are still estranged. It seems as if something big must have happened to create such a chasm. It also seems as if Julia has followed her mothers and Eric's abandonment of each other on in her own life, I think this is sad. I see her as an open, say what's on your mind person, yet this may be because she is a hot commodity and can do this without as many repercussions as some of us have to contend with. If she was getting shunned for this behavior, and maybe she has, I don't know if it would be so quick to happen. It seems like an exciting life but with addiction of some kind having to be there is it really being enjoyed as completely. Is love being enjoyed completely if both partners can speak the truth without fear of some form of abandonment. Oh well, I had alot of thoughts come up from reading it and am grateful. I am glad I read the book. I do not feel the envy that I had once felt and see Julia as much more human, which I would think the author would want you to walk away with.

Lisa Nary

As a typical movie fan, I had to idea what was behind the appealing, beguiling screen presence of Julia Roberts. I only saw the incandescant smile and the undeniable charm of this young actress. James Spada has done his homework and he uses multiple sources to put together the story of this complex, often insecure woman. In the early part of the book, the reader learns that Julia's parents created and directed a children's theater in Atlanta, Georgia. They were some of the first people to cross the color line, and their clients included the four children of Martin Luther King. Julia's father was charismatic, but troubled, and ran the gamut from charming to abusive. Her mother had her own problems and was unfaithful to her husband. Julia and her estranged brother seem to hold divergent opinions about their parents, but clearly this was a dysfunctional family. Spada chronicles Julia's school days, during which she considered herself an ugly duckling. He follows her during the lean early years of her acting career and traces her meteoric rise from a walk-on part in "Firehouse" in the mid-80's to her first big break in "Mystic Pizza" in 1988 and "Steel Magnolias" in 1989. During this time Julia began the pattern of pursuing men, falling in love with them, and then leaving them which repeated itself countless times in her life. The book continues through the 2003 release of the "Mona Lisa Smile" and the projected 2004 sequel to "Ocean's Eleven". Although there is no evidence that Spada spoke directly to Roberts, he manages to assemble a lot of information which he shares with the reader. This book shows all sides of Roberts, some which support her charming on-screen persona and some which are a lot less charming. Kudos to him for a job well done.

Although it is a rare segment of the human population who could claim to find scientific statistics "enjoyable", Robert McCall has somehow managed to take some of the pain out of what is generally deemed a horrifying experience. I thank Mr. McCall and the hands-on approach of his book for enabling me to make it through Stats this time with a passing grade!

Although it is a rare segment of the human population who could claim to find scientific statistics "enjoyable", Robert McCall has somehow managed to take some of the pain out of what is generally deemed a horrifying experience. I thank Mr. McCall and the hands-on approach of his book for enabling me to make it through Stats this time with a passing grade! It would have gotten the full five stars if it weren't for the rediculous price...

Es el mejor diccionario de términos geológicos.