Kathleen Turner Books

Great! I really enjoyed reading the third Calamity Jayne book. Reminds me of Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich.

Tressa Jayne, news reporter determined to get a good story, and her journalistic partner Shelby Lynne are persistent at trying to interview famous hometown author, Elizabeth Courtney Howard. They hear that Mrs. Howard is home for a few days. Unfortunately, the author is reclusive and eccentric - but will she give in and give them the interview? The journalistic duo go to great and desparate lengths to get an interview.

Meanwhile, Tressa Jayne's grandmother moves in with her. There are lots of activities and adventures in the book. I really like Tressa Jayne and her cool grandmother.

The book is a bit drawn out. And there are elements in it I do not like. Also, I was disappointed because there was not much (or any) "Halloween Fun" in the form of pumpkins, orange cookies, etc. I would not consider this book a cozy.

But most of all, the book was good. It was very well written; the writing style was cute; and the plot was good.

Grandville Gazette tyro reporter Tressa "Calamity" Jayne feels she needs to stop making the news (see CALAMITY JANE and CALAMITY JANE RIDES AGAIN) instead of reporting the news. She vows to follow insipid events to keep out of trouble and avoid psychos, lunatics, and cops.

Tressa interviews 6 foot 2 inch sarcastic homecoming queen candidate Shelby Lynne, who challenges Calamity to obtain an interview with reclusive New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Courtney Howard. The writer quietly has arrived in Iowa. Tressa accepts the gauntlet deciding to interview the author as the young journalist assumes no trouble can come of that. However, the writer goes to incredible lengths to elude the obstinate Tressa starting with staying at haunted Holloway Hall. However the intrepid reporter with the towering female student taunting her soon gets involved with the strange events at Holloway Hall.

The third Calamity Jayne tale is an amusing lighthearted mystery with a touch of the paranormal. Readers will enjoy the antics of the heroine who wants to cover fluff, but from the opening face to upper torso battle between the two sarcastic female warriors until the final showdown at Holloway Hall, calamity follows every step Tressa takes. Readers will just have fun with Kathleen Bacus' humorous romp.

Harriet Klausner

Great fun read. Written much like the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, and like the Plum series, if you are looking for a definitive ending, keep searching. While the romance is there, it doesn't have the traditional romantic ending. The story is a mystery first and romance second.

Local author and store clerk Tressa Jayne Turner is concerned with all the things going wrong at her family's ice cream booth at the Iowa State Fair. First her cousin who was to dish out ice cream has gone missing. Second the food concession has come under assault from a horde of invading cockroaches and angry patrons ready to switch loyalty to the soft competitor.

Tressa knows someone is sabotaging her Uncle Frank's concession stand, but who and why is not readily available nor why her cousin seems to have vanished. Determined as ever, Tressa assumes the ice cream sales business has turned cutthroat so she begins sleuthing looking critically at her Uncle's rivals. Meanwhile her nemesis "Ranger Rick Townsend seems more interested this time with her sister than interfering (her thoughts) than helping (his thoughts) as they did in her recent escapade (see CALAMITY JANE). Of course state trooper P.D. Dawkins tells Tressa to not make any inquiries, but what's a girl to do when she finds the cop a hunk, her cousin, and the business melting away; simple investigate Calamity Jane style.

This is a fun lighthearted mystery starring an amiable heroine who finds ways to dive head first into trouble and make problems that much worse as she adds chaos to a chaotic situation. The story line is fast-paced as Tressa comes to the rescue of Uncle Frank, who pleads with his calamitous niece to not get involved as he ahs enough problems. The relationship with Ranger Rick takes another spin as the twenty-three year old Jayne seems to have a new love interest and so does he. Fans of humorous romps will enjoy CALAMITY JANE RIDES AGAIN.

Harriet Klausner

Condition was superb, the book had no damage whatsoever. The book arrived a few days before it was expected, so I was able to start it earlier than expected. Overall I am 100% satisfied with the product and would purchase from this seller again.

This is quite an adventure story, well worth reading. I first read this one when I was in the sixth grade, and after re-reading it at age 53 I still liked it. That is not always true when one visits the books one liked as a lad.

This is the story of three Englishmen who, following the dictates of the family legend of one of them, set out to Central Africa to find the lost land of Imperial Kor. What they find is an isolated tribe ruled by an immortal, supernaturally beautiful woman. More would be telling, but this is a good yarn that most readers will enjoy.

Haggard's writing style is a product of his time, and is somewhat dense and archaic by modern standards, but is not bad for all that. He has some of the dialog in the novel use Old English phraseology which was archaic even in his day, and it made some of the novel somewhat hard to read, at least for me. But these are minor quibbles; this is a fine novel that will hold the interest of most readers.

H. Rider Haggard is probably best-known for his "King Solomon's Mines" and his great hero, Allan Quatermain. "She" follows a similar tack to that of "Mines" - a Victorian tale of "darkest Africa" involving an ancient civilization. But "She" is not merely a great adventure story - it is also a darkly intriguing romance and a firghtening horror tale as well.

In "She," a brutish-looking individual - a scholar by trade - is mysteriously given charge of the only son of his good friend, who soon dies, leaving detailed instructions for the boy's schooling and strange artifacts to eb revealed to the boy when he comes of age. When the boy reaches maturity, the two pour over his inheritance, and discover that they must travel deep into Africa to discover his destiny. Upon arriving, and taking a harrowing journey down a jungle river, they arrive in the last vestiges of a great and ancient civilization that existed long before the Egyptians - a civilization morbidly fascinated with death and immortality. Ruling this crumbling world is Ayesha (pronounced As-sha), "She Who Must Be Obeyed," a betwitching, otherworldly, imperious beauty thousands of years old. She at once appreciates the scholar's great intellect, but finds herself drawn to his ward, who she believes is her long-lost lover, dead these long millennia. However, Ayesha's plans to make the young heir her king set in motion a chain of events leading to one of the most terrifying climaxes in the history of English literature.

"She" is a fascinating read and, truly, the final chapters literally kept my hair on end and sent a shiver down my spine. Haggard is adept at scintilating description and creates an atmosphere of anxious, doomed darkness over the entire thing - from the first, we know that thi story cannot end well, and Haggard never fails to ratchet up the stark gloom of the work. Ayesha is a perfectly drawn character - a woman who rules cruelly, a goddess without care for the mortals who serve her. Her power is absolute, and yet there is a theatrical vulnerability about her that makes her one of the most captivatign characters you'll read of. Certainly, this book is not without its faults - the first chapter or two are actually quite difficult to get through, dealing, as they do with some very abstruse exposition. However, once you're over that hurdle, you'll have a great adventure story you simply won't be able to put down. Enjoy!

Once you start reading this book, you will realize that you are all lost and craving for woman like SHE. Story is amazing. I think Rider Haggard will always be remembered for this book than his Alan Quatermain novels. When I completed reading this book, my heart was heavy. Then I made a mistake of reading the next part which was such a let down!!

She is an immortal super powered ruler with a touch of the Doctor Doom complex about her. Old enough to predate the calendar, she presides over an underground civilisation and lost city.

A conflict develops between her and the on of a man she has encountered in the past. When She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed is not, she gets a tad on the grumpy side.

Our family (5-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son) has enjoyed several of these Rabbit Ears collections while on the road. The stories are long enough, but not so long that attention wanders, and the music is lovely, too.

I was disappointed for two reasons: first too much background music made it difficult to hear the reader; secondly, the writers changed the story. Why try to "improve" upon a classic like the Three Little Pigs??

This is not your traditional crochet book. Pauline Turner paints a picture of how she was/is inspired to design and create innovative free form crochet. It is Pauline thinking on paper about her history leading to her status as the "guru" of crochet. The photos are great. If your passion is crochet or free form crochet at its best get this book. If your looking for structured patterns or instructions skip it. I found the book inspirational, motivational and insightful into the process of creativity.

The sonnet is one among the many forms of poetry. It is a difficult form of verse with a FIXED rhyme scheme. The other trivia about writing it is that the verse should be 14 lines long. 154 sonnets written by Shakespeare have been read/recorded in this collection. There are actually two cd's in the box - the first cd contains sonnets 1 through 75 and the second, sonnets 76 through 154. The accompanying book of sonnets is a plus - it saves our time spent in scurrying to locate the sonnet being read next, since all the sonnets are in one place, in the order that they are being read. The book also has two indexes of the sonnets: 1. Track number / First line of sonnet/ Artist and 2. First line of sonnet / Track number / Artist

Since the rhyming scheme is fixed (abab bcbd cdcd ee), listening to them all at a time can sometimes make it sound monotonous, but that issue has been fixed in this audio book, by varying the tone, voice, and reader. When it comes to reading The Bard's works on an audio CD, who can do it better than experienced and well known thespians and theatre personalities who have made a mark in their own style? Here is the list of personalities who have read the sonnets for us:
1. Gerry Bammon
2. Roberta Bella
3. Claire Bloom
4. Lindsay Crouse
5. Ossie Davis
6. Ruby Dee
7. Brian Dennehy
8. Denise Dumont
9. Jill Gascoin
10. Amy Irving
11. Anne Jackson
12. Jordan Lage
13. Brian Stokes Mitchell
14. Alfred Molina
15. Al Pacino
16. Natasha Richardson
17. Patric Stewart
18. Allyson Tucker
19. Kathleen Turner (who, along with Charline Spektor, is also the producer for this audio-collection)
20. Eli Wallach
21. Fritz Weaver

Some of the sonnets have been rendered by more than one person, and both of them have been published in this cd, since both of them are good to listen. There was no point in time while I listened to the CD that I felt bored. In fact, some of them have been rendered so well that I wanted to listen to them again, just for the rendition.

For those who are interested in Shakespeare, this is an important addition to their collection. Some of the sonnets therein are well known ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments.../If this be error and upon me proved/I never writ, nor no man ever loved"), and there are so many others to be read for the first time. Some of them bring vivid imagery, even if they are unknown ("Thus in his cheek the map of days outworn"), whereas others have wonderful metaphors ("So are you to my thoughts as food to life,/or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;"). Almost all of them are treasure houses of wisdom (remember, Shakespeare was 45 when they were published, and he had lived life then).

Now, coming to majors who have to read the sonnets for their academic purposes - it is well known that it helps if we can quote lines from the sonnets amidst our theory answers; to that end, listening to the cd before, after or while reading the sonnet in print helps memorizing the lesson easier - this is my experience.

Here is a fantastic audio-book that reminds me why I was so entranced by literature while I was studying. A good gift for literature oriented people to add to their collection.

I am a big fan of Kathleen Turner's, and enjoyed reading this. Has a few nice pictures in the book as well. It pretty much sums up Kathleens movies.

Tressa Jayne Turner cordially invites you to join her as she heads west for the nuptuals of her grandma to Ranger Rick's Grandpa Joe. She knows there'll be trouble going in, if for no other reason than the happy couple is a recipe for trouble in and of themselves. Not only that, but her sister has chronic air sickness, Rick's nephew is the child from you know where and won't leave her alone, and there's Rick himself who confuses her just by existing. She doesn't need a mystery to solve, but sure enough, when she buys a fertility statue as a wedding gift, Tressa Jayne finds herself up to her neck in alligators as she and her soon to be step-nephew embark on a crazy quest for treasure and try to stay a step ahead of the relic hunter also chasing it and them.

*** Screwball comedy and mystery blend in this unpredictable, slightly campy story. Tressa makes a good narrator as she brings readers along on her wild ride. If you need a mindless laugh, then this is for you. ***


Amanda Killgore

I think that this is the best one yet. There is a better follow up to the relationship between Tressa & Ranger Rick. By the end of this book you're frustrated with them, but happy with where they're heading. The plot is pretty good and it's the first time Tressa seems to be the obvious best of the family lot. It's a good read and buy.

Tressa "Calamity" Jayne's crazy grandma is taking the family with her so that they can attend her wedding to the grandfather of Jayne's maybe boyfriend Rick. They are heading to Flagstaff, Arizona. On the trek, Jayne knows she needs to find the right present for her beloved wacko relative and thinks she has succeeded with "Kookamunga" an ugly fertility figurine that reminds her of granny.

However, someone else wants Kookamunga and is trying to steal it. Jayne will do anything to insure granny gets what she deserves so no thief will get away with Kookamunga as far as she is concerned. At the same time, Jayne and her horde of invading relatives including her pain in the butt sarcastic preadolescent nephew begin a treasure hunt while Rick is hot and cold in his affections towards her.

The latest lighthearted Calamity Jayne caper is an amusing thriller as the heroine is overdosing with to too much family. The treasure hunt is fun to follow as Jayne and ilk seem to land in one problem after another. Although her nephew comes across as a brat irritating readers as much as Jayne, fans of the series will enjoy her latest adventures as she and the clan invade the Grand Canyon State.

Harriet Klausner

...it's just written that way. Gag! For one vulgar, obnoxious read this is the book for you! Learn all about Kathleen's beauty, talent, political bent, etc.etc. She says that if she was a woman in Morocco, she'd be an activist. Oh, really? Like to see how that'd work out. And BTW, how come she gets all bent out of shape when Strom Thurmond called her "honey" when she "honeys" and "babies" us all through this book?

This book was such an enjoyable read. I felt like I really got to know Kathleen Turner, almost as if she came into my living room for coffee and spilled it all (and I don't mean the coffee!). As a dramatic writer and actress, I really appreciate the insight into her approach to her roles that this book provides and I admire her obvious devotion to her craft. She is truly a great actress who can make the transition from film to stage and back again. I only wish I could have seen her as Marha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf. You can be sure that I'll do my best to see her next stage role after reading this book. Thank you, Kathleen.

I LIKE TURNER AS AN ACTRESS, BUT THOUGHT HER BOOK COULD HAVE BEEN MORE EXCITING - WHEN WRITING A MEMOIR, TELL IT ALL. WAS SOMEWHAT DISAPPOINTED IN THAT SHE FEELS, TO ME AT LEAST, TO BE EGOTISTICAL.

This book is not gossipy but brutally honest not only about some of her costars but of herself. Now she's not afraid to toot her own horn either but it also shows a slightly humble side of her. I think it would be a great read for a young aspiring actress or anyone battling Rheumatoid Arthritis. Overall it's well written and entertaining if you enjoy Kathleen Turner and theater it's a must read.

I have just experienced the most uncomfortable weekend slogging through this tripe of a book. I was quite disappointed because I used to quite admire Kathleen Turner for her ballsy, strong female image. Now, I think she is a self-involved, angry alcoholic with TERRIBLY low self-esteem.

The first irritation was her penchant for calling me, the reader, "honey" or "babe". Ms. Turner, I guarantee you I am NEITHER YOUR HONEY NOR YOUR BABE. Never will be either, thank goodness.

She would speak of herself and her actions as if she was a brand: "I Turnered it." Ugh, I wanted to read about her as a human being, not her as a made up corporation.

On page 91 of my copy: "Michael (Douglas) always says nice things about me...as well he should." Get OVER yourself!

On page 98: Her husband (poor guy stuck it out for 20 years longer than any sane man should have) confronts her on his embarrassment about a movie she is in. Her response: "...but we're going to get this straight right now that you cannot tell me what I can and cannot do in my work." Compromise, working as a team? Compassion and support of your partner's feelings? Nope! Not when you are married to the Turner brand!

Page 118: Nicholas Cage sued her for remarks she wrote on this page and rightfully so. I noticed that she was fond of saying how much she disliked this and that person and Mr. Cage is not the only person she slandered in this book. But I found it deliciously ironic that she writes: 'For years, whenever I saw Nic he would apologize again. I'd say, "Look, I'm way over it. It's okay now." ' Obviously, she is so "over it" that she brings it up in her autobiography and gets sued so now SHE must apologize to HIM in every further printing of this book, and on national TV. Payback!

Being a strong woman is all well and good, but being a compassionate, open hearted, forgiving woman is much better. That is a person I want to read a book about.

Overall, I just felt her tone and approach showed not the strength she wanted to, but the self-centered desperation that she is truly full of.

I simply can't stand this book. But now, I TRULY UTTERLY despise Ms. Kathleen Turner.

Turnerize that.