Entertainment Books

I have almost all the major raw books and this is one of the best. The recipes are delicious.

This book is packed with great info. It contains information on a variety of topics concerning the raw food diet and our food supply. It's an easy read and highly informational. More than half of the book is dedicated to recipes and food preparation such as sprouting, making seed and nut milks, dehydration, etc. There is also a listing of restaurants, stores and suppliers where you can find products. This is my favorite raw food publication to date. Eat Raw and live longer, stronger, and smarter!

This collection of Love in recipe form is THE one book that I use all the time for "everyday" Raw Foods meal prep.

One recipe that I know by heart now is the "Toona" spread for a "gardenburger-type" spread on cucumbers or crackers or as a side for a salad. In fact, dehydrated this spread itself makes the tastiest crackers.

Rhio's book is delightful and the recipes taste great. There is a lot more information in addition to just recipies too.

What more is there to say?

Ah, one more thing. Sergie and Valya Boutenko have just also released a recipe book that I have yet to see. I am looking forward to that one too.

Whatever you decide, any Raw Recipe Book is better than none. They all have something new and fresh to offer.
Take care, eat well.

This is a wonderful raw book... lots of recipes and they taste great! If you're into raw... you'll like it. If you haven't tried it... you will be amazed how great you feel eating this way... and how good you look!

This is my favorite live foods recipe book. It's a great book for people new to raw foods and those of us who've been traveling this path (or trying to) for some time. I use it as both a reference and a recipe book. "Hooked on Raw," Nomi Shannon's "Raw Gourmet," and Frederic Patenaude's "The Sunfood Cuisine" are the three best out there (see below). I have most of the major raw foods recipe books, and I rarely open any but these three anymore. Mostly I eat simple fruits and prepare soups or salads, but these books are perfect for company meals and pot luck suppers...and the occasional elaborate meal.

Rhio talks about several transitions to raw foods, including her own, as well as presents different sides of many of the controversies within the raw foods movement -- all without being dogmatic. Her premise is that we all must choose what is right for ourselves based on our own educated opinions and knowledge of our bodies.

After presenting background, the book then goes into discussions about sprouting and food prep equipment.

This book is unusual in that most of the recipes are for main courses. This has been lacking in raw foods books until now. But Rhio also provides salad/dressing, soup/sauce, and dessert recipes, as well as some "unusual food info" and recipes for cosmetics. There is also a small section of pictures. I only wish there were a better index: the only recipe index is by Rhio's recipe name, not by main ingredient or common name.

Still, the best book out there. Other great ones are: Nomi Shannon's "Raw Gourmet" (lots of salads/soups/dressings and good info for new and seasoned raw foodists) and Frederic Patenaude's "The Sunfood Cuisine," although it reads like a continuous, annoying ad for Nature's First Law products. Cherie Soria's "Angel Foods" is wonderful, too, although there are lots of cooked recipes in there along with the raw ones and it's sometimes hard for a new raw foodist to tell which is which. Juliano's "Raw" is unique, creative, and interesting but far too rich and overdone for every day...maybe even for special occasions without some tone-down (or reduced nuts/seeds/oils/sweeteners).

If you're looking for excellent information on transitioning to live foods (with a few recipes), sticking with it, and/or getting healthier in mind/body/spirit, I highly recommend Paul Nison's books, although -- just a warning -- they are best for their interviews of long-time raw foodists, as the boxing and "lost in a castle" analogies and writing are childish. Also excellent is Gabriel Cousens' "Conscious Eating" for raw food/general vegetarian diet/spirituality/health information. For those of you who have been on this path for a while, Fred Patenaude's "Raw Secrets" is the best book out there!

I remember Kaye Ballard from The Mothers In Law, in which she starred with Eve Arden, and from the Doris Day Show - however, she had a complete career before this that I was never aware of. It seems as if Kaye has known all of the big stars, and told about some of them - she also is a character that you walk away from admiring for following her own path, and not worrying excessively about 'her career" but just being happy to continue working, doing what she loved doing - I never got to meet Ann Sothern - I hope to meet Kaye Ballard someday - who is still active and having fun!

Loved it. Wish she had written more, could read her stories forever!!!! She is too funny...

Kaye Ballard's name is well known in show business: she's performed in burlesque, nightclubs, big bands, and stage and here provides a memoir packed with anecdotes from her career. Her upbeat memoir comes packed with anecdotes from her 50-year career and will prove a real treat for any familiar with either Kaye Ballard's career or the world of stage and TV.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I recently read Ms. Ballard's memoir in 10 days while I was staying with my parents as my mother recovered from knee replacement surgery. It was the perfect book to read during this time--very funny and light--but also an honest, heartfelt tale. If you don't know who Kaye Ballard is, well, you should. She's a wonderful comic actress who's starred in films (The Ritz), on TV (Cinderella, The Doris Day Show, The Mothers-in-Law) and on stage (The Golden Apple, Carnival, The Pirates of Penzance, Follies). I saw her perform back in the '90s in a small cabaret called Toulouse in Chicago (now sadly closed). It was a horrible snowy night--and my friends and I were the only ones who braved the elements to see her show. And so Ms. Ballard--being the classy, talented dame that she is--performed for us. We all LOVED her--and you will LOVE her book. The lady knows how to write an honest, entertaining account of her fascinating life. So sit back, relax and let Kaye tell you all about her legendary 60-year career. You'll have a wonderful time--I know I did.

I enjoyed reading this book very much - it gave real insight into the life of a single woman in show business. Kaye is a fantastic personality and very honest in this book about her career and friendshiips. She is a real lady with a great sense of humor. Nice photos too of some old favorites when they were younger. I would definitely buy this book again. A+

What a joy this book is. Our family fought over who could have the book until we got smarter and bought more copies, one for each person in the family (5 total). Maybe Pat's book did help make us smarter!

My husband,daughter and I had a lot of fun working out these word games. It's a really fun book that challenges your mind in many different ways. As I read some of the word games I was amazed at how incredible Pat Battaglia's imagination is to come up with the questions. I highly recommend this book.

but Pat Battaglia is! Another fun and engaging puzzle book by the master.

The puzzles in this book are great. However, I liked the author's book Are You Smart, or What? better because, besides puzzles, it has lots of fun stuff including outrageous intelligent quotients.

Once again Pat has me and my family laughing out loud as we team up to solve the riddles in this book. Some of the word plays are simple and the grade school cousins join in, sometimes even my latin-schooled father scratches his head. You'll love this one!

a great visual journey into john lennon's life with plenty of intimate photographs

All I can say is that this book is the best I've ever owned on any member of the Beatles. Jammed full of pictures and a detailed bio, this book is everything that you need to know about John Lennon's life, work, and social standings. I give it an A++++. Forwarded by Yoko Ono.

The perfect coffee-table book for fans of John Lennon and his music. Lots of lovely photos and illustrations, plus commentary from Lennon & those closest to him. Includes a very useful chronology & dscography. Highly recommended, as is the film upon which it is based.

i bought this book after seeing the rave reviews it got, thinking it was a real reading book. turned out to be a HUGE, glossy pictorial account..... but it's just as good probably better. awesome rare photos and quotes by the man and friends, and packed full of priceless memories. get it.

This is really a great book. It gave me allot of facts. Not just about the working John but also the person John Lennon. The picuters are big and very well taken. It's pictures we have seen before from the Beatles time. But also pictures from his personal life with his sons and wives. It's a wonderful book and a great tribution to John. I loved it.

i need strategies & secret

I know that Imperialism 2 is a great game, and I want to make this cheaper, I bought a "internet cracked cd" that includes the game, so I played and liked it.when I saw the help issue (within-
the game),I saw the manual,and I asked myself what the heck is that manual.And so I wrote here and found out.

aleady out of words,
xxxxx!

I'm one of those people who buys every strategy guide for every game I have worth playing. The guide for Imperialism II is one of the very best I've read. It contains very helpful advice on sound strategies covering each aspect of the game and has a very helpful section outlining research options. Highly recommended.

I was pleasantly surprised by the information content, analysis, and true strategic content in the strategy guide. At a time when few strategy guides for war and strategy games are worth buying, this is a strong exception.

I was pleasantly surprised by the information content, analysis, and true strategic content in the strategy guide. At a time when few strategy guides for war and strategy games are worth buying, this is a strong exception.

I found the book to be a great information resource into her life and career start. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the out of order details, found to much jumping forward then back, or back then forward, but other than that, I thought is was a great book and I still love jenny in a big way, she is the greatest.

When my boyfriend gave me this book as a joke for my birthday, I didn't find it very amusing! You see, up to this point, I was one of the hopefully few "Jenny-haters" out there. But I decided to give the book the benefit of the doubt and give it a whirl, and I have to say that I was more than just pleasently surprised! Jenny McCarthy is not only very down-to-earth, but she's witty, hilarious, and quite frankly...normal! It was so refreshing to read that she isn't perfect after all - that she had acne, and stretch marks, and bad hair days, and bozo boyfriends. This book flys by, and I really didn't want to put it down. I am so glad I decided to read this book, not only because it was 100% entertainment, but because it gave me a chance to meet the "real" Jenny McCarthy. I loved it!

It tells us secrets about Jenny never evealed before.It's a little costly but well worth it.

The title should tell it all: Jen X. It should read Jen O because she is a negative interger. Take away those breasts, and she is just another annoying self serving celebrity with little talent. This book is a must read for airheads, retards, mutants and crackheads. Enjoy!

I think the book was one of the greatest books i have ever read. i could realate so much to her. she is my like idol and i was so happy when i found out she had a book coming out. i bought it the very first day i saw it at the mall. one day i hope i can meet her but i know that will never happen but all in all the book was really good~! i think everyone needs to buy this book and see just how much she is like anyone of us!!! well if your out there jenny mccarthy i just wanna say hi and maybe i will be lucky enough to see you one day! i love you! you are so cool! well people i have said enough, now you need to go get the book that i am raving about!please buy it! it will make me happy! well cya people! hope you read this jenny!!!! from: Your biggest fan in the world!!!!jenny h

Dustin Beall Smith's first collection is by turns tender and searing, a memoir in linked essays written in blood with razor blades by a man who's life is both a cautionary tale and a triumphant one. Smith's stories take readers through two failed marriages, buckets of booze, dicey encounters with film stars and producers, Indian sweat lodges, and snapping turtles. When living on the edge doesn't satisfy Smith's peak-experience addiction, he finds perfectly good airplanes to jump off of. I'm being facetious, but not purely. The metaphors supplied by skydiving and sweat lodges work splendidly here. More than anything else what comes through these pages is a portrait of a man searching for his soul in all the wrong--or anyway the least obvious--places: on the wings of airplanes and at the bottoms of bottles. The pages of this slim volume hold more pain and loss than those of many a fat book James Frey's faux memoir springs to mind). But they also hold heaps of redemption, for as the writing aptly demonstrates, Smith has emerged from his losses with a ruthless eye for self-scrutiny and an analytic grasp that would make Freud blush. The cautionary tale is that of a reckless, thrill-seeking boozer; the triumph is that of a brilliant writer. KEY GRIP gripped me from page one and wouldn't let go.

Rare is the book with such a perfect title. And look at the cover: A skydiver plummets head-first toward earth, his palms turned upward as if toward heaven, except he's upside down, so they're turned upward toward the earth below him. That's an actual photo of the author. And then there's the divining rod wiggling its way toward something hidden and sought, and it may well be the author's hands gripping it at the fork.

That pretty much sums up the book, but you're not going to know why unless you read it. There's a skydiver plummeting head-first down the drain, and when he pulls his ripcord, a divining rod pops out, and pretty soon, by the grace and miracle of the human spirit, he's on the trail of something hidden and mysterious. Does he find it? Apparently so. Does he tell us what it is? No. But how could he? What he finds is too big for words. But maybe you can use this book as your own divining rod. There really is something out there, behind the bushes and between the lines, and aren't we all upside-down skydivers palms up in confusion, our only hope a ripcord? Answer: Maybe. Frankenstein on the Cusp of Something

Dustin Beale Smith's stunning new book of essays, Key Grip, will cut you, perhaps deeply, and do it while you are enjoying yourself, so thoroughly immersed in Smith's magnificently simple, straightforward prose, that you won't know what hit you. You may feel, in the words of the "young director, James Mangold" asking "Sly Stallone" to tone down his "sadness" in the early scenes of Cop Land (shot in 1997, Dusty Smith, Dolly Grip) " . . . lugubrious."

" . . . what you're really feeling right now is . . . lugubrious." (p. 102)

Say you're a writer. Unless you're a writer who really has made it, you may indeed feel a bit gloomy from time to time, struggling as you do to find an audience of more than one or two lovers and friends, especially if you've settled for the hollow gratification of the barroom rake who wants to live the writer's life, but never quite gets an actual career off the ground. In that case, Dusty may be too honest for you. The prospect of having someone truly eminent, like Annie Leibovitz, the photographer, come rushing up to you in your mid-fifties to gush about how much your work has meant to her, and you let her go on, knowing " . . . she'd confused you with someone who actually was talented and famous," may force you to ask, "(t)o what end, and for what purpose, have you lived this preposterous, imposterish life?" (p. 154)

"To what end . . .?"

Whatever answer you give yourself--reassuring or comfortless--you'll end up doing it with a smile when you get to the end of this book. No matter how badly you think you've failed to live up to whatever vision you started out with when you were young, you'll see that there is hope for you yet. Much hope, because in the end you may find that "(f)or an instant--and an instant is all you need--you know what you are going to be when you grow up." (p. 155)

In "Starting from the Bottom Again," the first in Smith's series of loosely connected essays, he leaves his home in New York City and his work in the film business with an enigmatic Lokota Souix from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, whom he calls "Arturo Has No Past," and arrives four days later at a ". . . a hand-lettered sign that read(s) END OF THE ROAD," He is fifty-seven years old, and at the END OF THE ROAD his life takes an irreversible turn. This is the home of "Mike Little Boy," Arturo's father, a ". . . toothless, weather-beaten Indian . . ." (p. 20), who is also a Medicine Man, where Smith, with no special preparation or planning, has come for ". . . a prayer ritual called hanblecheya, which translates as `crying for a dream' and is popularly known as a vision quest." (p. 3)

The spirit of Dusty's story might be summed up by Mike Little Boy's warning. Dusty is skeptical because of the dilapidated condition of the prefab house and the junk-strewn yard and because Mike will only agree to let him do part of the hanblecheya. Smith expects to "go up the hill" for the entire four-day ritual after coming all this way, and Mike will only let him do a day--sun up to sun down.

"It's different than what you read in books," said Mike. "A lotta guys can't even stay up that hill for two hours--even Indians. They start to see things. When you come to me, it's not like up in Bear Butte where they tell any white guy who comes along, `Okay, do four days, take water with you, whatever you want, you wanna be Black Elk, we'll make you Black Elk.' That's not the way I do things." (p. 22)

Smith's experience erases all his assumptions of who he is or was meant to be and transforms him, not into a shaman or a guru, but into an even more candid explorer of the hardy and the foolhardy sides of his life . . . into a writer of great wit and generosity. Nothing is like "what you read in books" (or see in the movies). When you, the writer (actor, seeker, sky diver, key grip, etc.), return from your own vision quest are you really transformed, or is everything still the same? The answer is, apparently, both. Will you, as a struggling artist, ever finish your "crying for a dream?" Yes and no.

Suppose you are a writer (actor, seeker, sky diver, key grip, etc.) of stature, who truly has made it . . . what of your dream? Well, perhaps I can ask one of my famous friends--among whom I may soon count Smith. I suspect, however, knowing that for the most part, the major difference between a true star and, say, someone like myself (or Smith, in his own words) is the audience, not the heart of the man or woman--at least among the people Smith describes.

Take his meeting with Susan Sarandon on the set of Compromising Positions.
"It is a fine summer day in East Hampton, new York, in 1984. Susan is sitting in the driver's seat of a car rigged with lights and cameras and diffusion frames. My crew is attaching the car to the tow vehicle, getting us ready to head out on back roads for a running shot. I knock on the driver's-side window to give Susan instructions about what not to do while we are on the road--don't use the brakes, let the car steer itself--but for some reason Susan moves over and beckons me to sit down next to her. I open the door, slide in beside her, and close the door behind me. The commotion outside suddenly sounds far away. Some of the guys take their tools and move away from the car. Susan sidles closer to me, hooks her arm in mine, then rests her head on my shoulder. She is four months pregnant with her first child and has decided not to marry the child's father. My second wife has recently discovered she cannot have children. Susan and I know these things about each other, but neither of us says a word. My left hand clutches the steering wheel, my right foot presses the gas pedal. For one long hallucinatory moment, we drive off into the sunset together." (pp. 102-03)

Key Grip has to be one of the finest collections of personal/lyric essays in print today.

It's a rare gift to write an essay collection that keeps you reading from the first page to the last. Dustin Beall Smith has that gift. This is not a book about the film industry (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY missed the point!), rather it is about the thing we'd rather not discuss in American culture, failure. In thirteen essays that move backward in time, Smith looks at failure from every possible angle--in work, family, and spiritual questing--and, instead of instilling doom, he uses humor, honesty, and humility to prove that redemption is possible should one decide to tackle failure head-on. Smith's narratives are edgy, insightful, and focused. He takes you from the sublime (the thin separation between this world and the world to come) to the tragic (the killing of a turtle) to the ridiculous (standing drunk and naked outside a locked hotel room door in Georgia) without missing a beat. This is a spot-on exposé, not of movie stars and their ilk, but of what James Baldwin called "the price of the ticket," where the ticket is what it means to be a man in America.
Buy and read this book: you won't regret it for a second.

Dustin Beall Smith pulls us down to the briny deep of fear, uncertainty and doubt about our personal authenticity.

From the beginning to the end, he sets off a profound introspection about the basic premises that underlie the formation of identity. Smith forces us to ask: "Do I know who I am and what I believe? Is it a false or manufactured self? How do I know it's authentic? Have I really experienced any authentic rites of passage that have shaped my identity? Have I lived a life of success by association, not of my own making? What have I DONE of any real consequence?

Unsparingly, Smith confronts us with his own most excruciatingly painful struggles---plunging us into a self-examination of our own deepest self-deceptions---very scary stuff.

We are forced to ask ourselves: How am I to actually ENGAGE in life? By one well-chosen life pursuit, all the way through? By a variety of pursuits, until I find the ONE that liberates my authentic self? Or a series of well-chosen pursuits valued in and of themselves as a more complete reflection of my authentic self? And, what, now, if I have never actually engaged in a real life pursuit?

Incredibly, Smith nurses us through this nightmarish soul-searching with fond, tender affection, mixed with world-weary good humor.

If you follow him down to the darkest depths of KEY GRIP, you may discover a rare form of emancipation.

This is a useful book for any author who wants to understand the many important issues and details in a publishing contract. As a literary agent I want my clients to be as knowledgable as possible in all aspects of their careers. For those that are interested in understanding every contract clause and detail, I recommend Kirsch's book wholeheartedly.

Please understand, though, that this is an incredibly detailed, expert look at every clause in a publishing contract, which an agent negotiates on an author's behalf. If the nuances of legal language aren't of interest and you would rather just get an overview of key contract issues, I'd recommend Michael Larsen's "Literary Agents: What They Do, How They Do It, and How to Find and Work with the Right One for You" instead, or one of the other books on the business of publishing.

If you've ever received a book contract from a general publisher, it can be a frightening experience. I know firsthand because I have a number of these contracts in my files--which I have negotiated and ultimately signed (and the book was publisihed). Also I know how it feels to be the editor negotiating with the writer or the literary agent, since I'm an acquisitions editor for a book publisher.

Jonathan Kirsch takes the mystery out of the legalese in this comprehensive title about book contracts. Every author, editor and literary agent needs this book to increase their knowledge base about book contracts.

The best way I can think of to describe the value of Kirsch's Guide to the Book Contract is to quote from my own book Successful Nonfiction.

"The contract you receive from your publisher may be in two colors and printed on fancy paper but it is not chiseled in stone. Only new authors sign and return a publisher's first offer. You may make changes to the contract and return it-that is a "counter offer". The contract may go back and forth until someone "accepts it."

"I took a distressing telephone call from an author who had just received a contract from a large New York publisher. There were a total of 21 items in the contract she didn't like or didn't understand. After discussing some of them, I suggested she call her editor and have a discussion. Better communication was certainly required here.

She called back two days later, both astonished and delighted. When she asked about the first paragraph in question, the editor said, "that's okay; you can have it." She got what she wanted on the next paragraph in question too. On one other paragraph that concerned her, the editor said something like, "Well, that sounds like this but in the book trade it really means that; so it isn't a big issue."

The result: she got 19 out of the 21 things she asked for. So contract discussions do not mean pulling the wool over the eyes of your publisher. This was a win-win negotiation.

"Take the contract to a book attorney (not just any attorney, not a contract attorney and not a media attorney). When it comes to literary properties and money, you need professional help. And make a counter offer." Kirsch's book will help you understand the publisher's contract.

Jonathan Kirsch is a well-known book critic and book attorney in Los Angeles.

As the author of 113 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles, I highly recommend this book to writers and publishers everywhere. DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com.

This book shows you a sample contract then breaks it down and explains every little piece. There are many alternative clauses too, showing you how to retain different rights and territories, handle secondary rights like audio and movie, and so on.
Even if you have an agent representing you, you would want to understand everything in your contract before you sign it.
My copy of this book is annotated from one end to the other, with folded corners, underlining and pen scribble highlighting the bits I consider most important. Bring on that contract...

Excellent for writing Author/Publisher contracts from the perspective of the Publisher. Explains each clause in the sample contracts, gives many many variations, and helps protect the publisher from many events that (in my experience) other lawyers/books did not include in their contracts.

Highly recommended, probably the only book you need to check your lawyer's work or probably even write your own contract from scratch.

If you are an opera fan, you will probably enjoy a lot of the behind the scenes anecdotes in this book. Most interesting for me were the parts that discuss working with high-maintenance divas and conductors (especially Karajan). There is also a very disturbing section about a stalker who followed Nilsson around the world for 9 years.

There are also many paragraphs of the form "In 19xx I performed such-and-such opera in such-and-such theatre alongside so-and-so who was a wonderful singer and so-and-so who was really good on stage etc etc." These get kind of boring --- except in those cases when the performers played practical jokes on each other. Because of the boring parts, I found it a little hard to motivate myself to read through the whole book, but there are a lot of good stories in there.

Nilsson fans will also appreciate the discography. She was an awesome singer.

This autobiography by Birgit Nilsson was originally published in Swedish in 1995 and in German two years later. This 2007 English translation of the German edition is by Doris Jung Popper, an American who was herself a former Wagnerian singer in Europe. It is for the most part in graceful, witty and seamless prose which catches the informal and down-to-earth way Nilsson spoke. We are taken from Nilsson's life as a farm girl in Sweden through her discovery locally, her schooling in Stockholm, her first breakthrough there and then internationally and her acclaim as the greatest Wagnerian soprano since Kirsten Flagstad. We get backstage stories about performances in New York, Milan, Stockholm, Vienna, London and, of course, Bayreuth. We read about her long happy marriage to Bertil Niklasson, a veterinarian. She shares funny and warm stories about her colleagues, not sparing those with whom she crossed swords -- most notably Rudolf Bing and, much more so, Herbert von Karajan, for whom she is particularly disdainful while admitting that he could draw magnificent music from his performers. She relates the details of her having to deal with her stalker, Miss N., a story well-known in opera circles but which may come as a surprise to some readers. One senses that Nilsson withholds some details in the interest of sparing the feelings of some opera world luminaries who are still with us. This reflects positively on her genuine concern for the feelings of others but might disappoint those who are looking for 'dirt.' There is a discography and a detailed chart outlining events in her life, as well as a compendious index. As well, there are over 60 black-and-white photographs from all periods of her life.

Warmly recommended.

Scott Morrison

This is a wonderfully entertaining read about a thoroughly gracious and unexpectedly humorous lady. I knew that she reportedly had a lively sense of humor, and this book chronicles that fact. It is especially nice to know that this book was not "ghost written," but was just translated from the Swedish.

At last an English translation of this wonderful biography. It is written by Ms. Nilsson herself - no ghost writer here. It is translated from the German edition, not the Swedish one. It also exists a Danish translation. In both the German and English translations some short episodes are deleted. The original Swedish version also exists as a talking book, with Ms. Nilsson herself speaking. The book is filled with lots of interesting details from one of the most spectacular careers ever on the international opera scene. Behind every word you can feel the sympathy and warmth of a really great but also earthbound star with great intelligence and - a great hearth. When famous film director Ingmar Bergman read these memoirs he tells in an interview that he had never laughed so much and so often when reading a memoir before. That says a lot. A must for all opera fans.

I was never privileged to meet or know Madame Nilsson personally, but her memoir, _La Nilsson: My Life in Opera_ makes me wish I could! She was a bright spot in the world and her death in late 2005 was a huge loss. I have certainly been an admirer of both her singing and of the woman herself for many years. I do own her earlier book, _My Memoirs In Picures_, which is largely a wonderful collection of photographs from her life and career, and whetted my appetite to know more about her. If you can find a copy, I recommend that book as strongly as I recommend this longer memoir.

That appetite has been mostly--if not completely--satisfied by La Nilsson, an easy, accessible and "can't-put-it-down" fascinating account of her life. This book is just what I would expect of Birgit Nilsson, unpretentious, friendly and conversational in tone, but awe-inspiring in terms of her artistry and long career; her great accumulation of knowledge and experience, and about comic moments onstage and off that made me laugh out loud. Some of the funniest of these deal with language barriers, and the difficulties of correctly interpreting foreign musical terms that were misheard, or misunderstood. She is never mean in spirit, although she doesn't sugarcoat her personal difficulties with von Karajan, and sometimes with Karl Bohm, and Rudolf Bing. But in all cases, she writes in detail about what she admired about them, too. She gave as good as she got in the area of verbal self-defense.

She writes warmly about all her many long-time friends and colleagues on the operatic stage, most notably Wolfgang Windgassen, Set Svanholm, Jon Vickers, Astrid Varnay, Leonie Rysanek, and Hans Hotter. She was a trouper through some harrowing experiences, and while she did not put up with a lack of professional consideration from anyone, she did not just wilfully indulge in "temperamental diva" behavior. No wonder so many of her colleagues loved and respected her!

Madame Nilsson also writes about her parents and her beloved husband, Bertil Niklasson, with great warmth, although she doesn't gloss over some of her frustrations with both parents during her childhood and adolescence. The twelve years she had to deal with her stalker, Miss N. filled me with sympathetic dismay, as I had no idea Madame Nilsson had had to endure that persistent, threatening intrusion into her life.

I highly recommend this memoir to any admirer of Madame Nilsson's in particular and of any interested opera fan in general for the insight into the career of one of the great singers of the 20th century in her own, very witty words.

Melissa Houle

This book is filled with GREAT information for anyone interested in working with various 'toys' for Linux. I was privileged in being part of a class presented by Tom Weeks in regards to MythTV (he assisted with the chapter in the book) and it is great information!

If you are interested in getting the latest information for various additions to your Linux box, then this is a must-have. If you are even interested in any extra features you can configure on your Linux box then you will not be disappointed!

WARNING: Your pocket book might suffer after reading this book from all the new hardware you want to buy!

You can make really useful things based on the Linux OS, and this book makes it easy! Highly recommended!

Readers of this book will find it VERY well written. It appeals to everyone, from those more proficient in Linux, to those (like myself) who are still learning. I'd highly recommend this book!

This book clearly explains the details needed to accomplish all projects.

I recently saw Tom Weeks do a Myth TV presentation where you can build your own Linux based PVR, which is covered in his chapter written in this book. This is a great resource for the computer hobbyist, amateur or enthusiast of gadget-lover! Easy to follow and fun to read!