Brown Books

I found a story, quote, or fact to inspire me for every occasion in this wonderfully empowering book, which would be the perfect gift for any female at any age. I found it helpful for setting goals and kicking the occasional case of the blues. For a while, I read a snippet every morning upon awakening--it certainly gave me a "can do" attitude! Hmm . . .I should go back to that habit.

I absolutely, whole-heartedly recommend this book--one of my very favorites!

. . .A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping- stone to greatness," says Oprah Winfrey. That quote alone has me hooked to this book; and it's only one of the many phenomenal others in this great page turner. Page after page of the book is filled with inspiration and great words to live by and selections from the coolest females around.

I would recommend this book for any age. From the first to the last page, the lessons shared are a great addition to helping girls figure out how to strive for greatness no matter who they are or how they see themselves. If you decide to read this great book, you might want to also try one of the other four in the collection for fun. The other titles are: The Girls' Book of Wisdom, The Girls' Book of Love, The Girls' Book of Friendship, and The Girls' Guide to Life. So get over to your local bookstore, library, or online to get your copy!

I got lost in this book! Very inspiring!

This book signifies every success story that serves as an inspiration to all teenagers. It helps adolescents battle their fears and finally guides them on the road to confidence. By listing stories and providing quotes about success, teens who read the book, can identify themselves with the people they read about and aspire to become like them. It is a success in itself!

A superb book, indeed!

(...)

Delicious, delightful, delectable!

I'll admit I picked this because of the title, GOING NOWHERE FASTER. Aren't there times when we all feel that way?

Stan Smith has more problems than you can shake a stick at. One problem is his name - "Stan." Who names their kid Stan? But then his parents aren't exactly your normal, run-of-the-mill parents. They are another one of his problems. His dad is a crazy inventor and his mother is an over 6-foot-tall Amazon vegan who attempts to run an organic food market.

Another sore spot in Stan's life is Prarash, his mother's smelly yoga and meditation partner, who practically lives with them. There's also Chopper, the family dog who produces more "gas" than the oil fields of Kuwait. The only normal one in the family is Stan's little sister, Olivia. She's the one bright spot in his existence.

Stan should be thinking about college, but instead is working a dead-end job at Happy Video. It at least gives him the chance to watch endless videos in an attempt to prepare for what he hopes is a future in writing movie scripts. In the meantime, he is stuck riding his ten-speed, helping out in the family business, and hoping for a chance to date the girl of his dreams, Ellen.

As if Stan doesn't have enough problems, he believes he has a stalker. The victim of high school taunting and bullying, he was threatened by Ellen's ex, Chad Chilton. Now the evidence is mounting and points to Chad as the probable driver of the speeding car that almost ran Stan off the road one dark night, as well as the twisted mind that left a mutilated Barbie doll on Stan's steps. These acts of terror, plus slashed bike tires and vandalism at the Happy Video store, are sending waves of fear through the frustrated Stan.

Sean Beaudoin uses witty dialogue and hilarious descriptions to grab readers and get them cheering for poor Stan. The first person style helps readers understand Stan's above-average intelligence and his passion for movies and scriptwriting. This is definitely one I found difficult to put down once I started reading.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

Going Nowhere Faster
by, Sean Beaudoin

Little, Brown
2007, 300pp
ISBN 0-316-01415

Going Nowhere Faster, by Sean Beaudoin is an excellent book. Its theme is about growing up and finding out who you are. The main character's, Stan, best friend is the most popular kid in his grade. Stan falls in love with a girl who will kiss anyone, any where. She just happens to kiss Stan's best friend, while she is on a date with Stan. These are only a few of the many problems that Stan run's into, while on the journey of growing up.

This is a funny, yet touching book. After you get to know the characters, they are easier to understand, but, despite that, there are still unexpected twists. I think this is a great book, and I highly recommend it.

*ANB*

Going Nowhere Faster
by, Sean Beaudon

Little,Brown
2007, 300p
ISBN 0-316-01415

Going Nowhere Faster, by Sean Beaudon is an excellent book. Its theme is about growing up and finding out who you are. The main character's, Stan, best friend is the most popular kid in his grade. Stan falls in love with a girl who will kiss anyone, any where. She just happens to kiss Stan's best friend, while she is on a date with Stan. These are only a few of the many problems that Stan run's into, while on the journey of growing up.

This is a funny, yet touching book. After you get to know the characters, they are easier to understand, but, despite that, there are still unexpected twists. I think this is a great book, and I highly recommend it.


A.N.B.

stan smith makes weird lists, has a weird house, a weird mom and a weird dad. it's no wonder stan himself is weird. i look up to stan's mom and wish i could be her with all of her convictions.
the characters in this book are well written from the main to the peripheral and you can't help but love them.
the mystery element in this book is shockingly funny. it makes fun of stereotypes while being a stereotype. i laughed out loud and i'll be recommending it to everyone.

1) Stan is hilarious and truly going nowhere faster than anyone I know.
2) Stan's precise descriptions of Ellen make her oh so edible.
3) It's amazing how in touch Beaudoin is with his adolescence.
4) Does there really need to be a 4 when the next step is buying this book?

This is one of the greatest of all Baseball Books. It is an unforgettable book. I first owned a paperback copy waaaaaaay back in 1975 when I was in the Sixth grade!!!
Those that have read this masterpiece will NEVER forget it,I guarantee it.
It is not only a book about Baseball or Baseball cards but about LIFE and about the America we wish to remember.
Buy it! You won't be dissapointed.
And...Goodnight Sibby Sisti,wherever you are......

I received the book as a Christmas present in 1973. I love, loved, and will love baseball. I was at Yankee Stadium when Mantle hit his 500th HR.
I watched the Yankees go from a dynasty to the cellar. I was at the double-header in June 1970 when Bobby Murcer hit 4 consecutive home runs.
($1.75 for general admission). From the first word to the last, this is a great book. I lost the original, found a soft-cover version which proceeded to fall apart, and then found a hard-cover that I have surrounded by barbed-wire and rabid pit bulls. I recognized many of the players, never heard of quite a few, but it didn't matter. If you are a baseball fan, new or old, buy the book.

Here's a little time travel for you. I first got my hands on this book when I was a little baseball-loving kid, back in 1974. This book scared the hell out of me back then.

Thirty years later it turned up again, and this time it blew my mind. It's one of the most creative, touching, thoughtful, mildly mean-spirited works of literature I've ever come across (And I read books for a living.)

Here's the backstory on the book. It's the early 1970's in Boston, and two witty, profound, slightly geeky local bookstore employees decide to rummage through their childhood baseball-card collections and write a book about their love of the game. Please note: this book **isn't** about baseball or even about baseball cards (here I'm citing the authors in their preface), it's a book about childhood as recalled through the prism of baseball cards.

This book isn't for everyone. It's for grown-up men who loved baseball as boys, weren't very good at it (as the authors admit about themselves), and were probably picked near the end in gym class when teams were being chosen.

This book is probably best (and most mind-blowing) for people who grew up during the late 1950's and early 1960's, as the authors did. But the generations of childhood baseball fans ever since will also find great pleasure in this entirely irreverent and clever book.

"GOOD NIGHT, SIBBI SISTI, WHEREVER YOU ARE." When I read this line in the book back in 1974, it gave me the willies. Now I just grin.

I received this as a Christmas gift one year and was initially disappointed. I had only heard of a few of the guys that were showed on the cards and I set it aside, figuring on sticking it up on my bookshelf with the other boring books that I had and never bothered with. Several days after Christmas we went on the annual family gift return, a day I truly hated. In desperation I grabbed this book off of my pile and took my accustomed place in the back of the station wagon. For the rest of that day and night the only time I put the book down was to eat, and then only briefly. This is a completely irreverent look at baseball as a whole, and the thing that really sealed the deal for me was the card of Whammy Douglas and the comments made by the author. I tried to get my dad to read it because I figured he would get more out of it than I did, (I'm 41 and consider myself to be on the trailing edge of those who might "get it",) but he wasn't interested. Maybe I'll try again. This book might have a limited range of interest, but if you have fond memories of baseball in the 50's and 60's, I think you'll fall right into that range.

Each of us occasionally has experiences that are so vivid that they make immediate and permanent imprints upon the memory. For example, I can still remember my excited first day of kindergarten, as well as my first glimpse of Three Rivers stadium, as our family car approached it along the jumbled, congested streets of the North Side.

Believe it or not, I can similarly remember my first experiences reading this book, as though they were yesterday. I was in grad school in California, and a friend was visiting me with this book in tow. As he spread out a sleeping bag and nodded off to sleep, I curled up with his magnificent book. I can still picture that entire scene, my old apartment as it was then, and even one particular page on which I lingered in fascination (the Joe Fornieles profile.) The feeling of reading it was that electric, that hyper-engaging.

A book has got to be good if reading it is remembered as a formative experience.

Let me try another way to explain how much I loved this book. When I couldn't find this book anywhere (it being out of print), I directed a nationwide book search to try to find it for me. They did, a flawless hardback edition that I still treasure, and still maintain in carefully guarded, pristine condition. Mind you, I was a starving grad student when I did this, and could hardly afford such luxuries.

As you can see from the other reviews below, this book takes that type of hold on those who love it.

There are three major sections in this book; one covering the sensory atmosphere of a 1950s suburban childhood, one on the baseball card industry as it existed in 1973, and one a series of profiles of players as depicted on samples from the authors' baseball card collection. The first and third of these are the great ones.

I adore the opening chapter, which brought childhood back to me even though I didn't grow up in the same era as the authors. But some things are universal I guess, including the way that childhood memories exist as scraps and floating debris of the odd popular cultures through which we guide our children.

Boyd and Harris's childhood world will be recognizable to anyone who grew up in America -- a world of advertising jingles, cap guns, yo-yos, Pez, and of course, baseball cards. A time cycle in which the kids learn to break down the interminable flow of their school year according to the changing weather, the holidays and favorite activities of each mini-season. And even those of us whose childhoods weren't so innocent nevertheless cling to those small fragments of memory of a time when we had no responsibilities and the world was a fascinating and wondrous place. I once wrote a newspaper review of this book in which I referred to this opening chapter as Marcel Proust in Levittown, and I think it still fits.

But the real core of the book is the "Profiles" section. This is a procession of baseball cards, one after another, two per page, each of which triggers a particular set of memories from the authors. Many of these, if not most, are really funny. But others are poignant.

Not all of the little capsule profiles are about the players themselves. Sometimes the authors take the opportunity to laugh over the baseball card itself -- a goofy pose, a bad airbrushing job, an inexplicable caption, an ill-considered description on the back.

It's an exquisite feeling, thumbing through their card collection with them. You feel the pang of reverence for the Ted Williams card. You snicker over Choo-Choo Coleman and the lousy catchers collected by the New York Mets. You ponder how it could be that Charlie Smith was traded straight up for Roger Maris. You nod knowingly over the author's continual confusion of Mike de la Hoz and Bob del Greco.

The visual design of the book is central to its power, which is why I particularly treasure my hardback edition. One page of umpire cards has a colored backround on which is stamped,simply, "Boo, Boo, Boo, Boo. . ." A page with the cards of Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente contains no commentary, just a respectful black background (each had recently passed at the time of the book's original publication.)

Somehow it all seems to mean something, even without seeming to try to mean anything. And therein lies the book's genius.

I know of no other baseball book like this one. It defies categorization, and despite my poor effort above, it really defies description. Buy it, hide it, shut the door and turn out the world, savor it, ponder it, laugh at it, love it.

Have a good time. It's meant to be fun, you know. Let's play two.

The Rita Mae Brown book, High Hearts was a thrilling read from cover to cover. It was a look back in time to a woman who goes to war, the Civil War as a man, so that she can be with her new husband. More than a romance, but with more substance than an adventure tale, I could read this book over and over. I never knew about the phenomenon this book was based on, but apparently, there were several women who did in fact, pass for men, in order to go to war. Not complicated, or hard to follow, this book is enjoyable with some thought provoking aspects as well.

One of the best written by Rita Mae Brown. Gives a different perspective on the Civil War. Should be more like it showing the losers side.I highly recommend this book. I have given it as gifts to friends.

This book is very unusual for Rita Mae Brown and I consider it her best work! It's all in one: A love story, a history book (American Civial War & Slavery), a feminist novel, funny, serious, ironic, and critical of society. The reader experiences the war through the eyes of captivating characters you just have to fall in love with!

One of the BEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN!!!! Shared this with my 12 year old son and my spouse, my 8 year old daughter, I would like to introduce,soon an another positive female role model. A great book to even interest( and introduce) HOMOPHOBES who cannot be asked to view another great book, Rubyfruit Jungle.TRy the book... you will LOVE IT!!! Love, war, decision based on love and respect. I wore out 2 copies already. One of my top 5 for a desert island. Enjoy the book.

There were uncounted women who cut their hair, lowered their voices and took up arms on both sides of The Civil War. Rita Mae Brown does a wonderful job crafting a fictional story using this truth as her premise. The characters are richly drawn (I actually preferred the evolution of Geneva's mother, Lutie, to Geneva herself), and the story layered and interesting.

Geneva can't bear to be away from her husband when he enlists as soon as the guns fire on Fort Sumter. She joins him as a soldier, and learns some unpleasant truths about him and about war. She finds that she has a talent for fighting and that she and her husband aren't as compatible as they might have been had they not rejected their "traditional" roles.

Rita Mae Brown's interesting Foreword and endnotes provide context and explanation for her literary choices, and greatly enrich the experience. I give this book four stars instead of five because at the end, there are several characters whose final stories are only alluded to, as in, "this happened, but that's a story for another day." I wanted to know what happened for these folks, and this abrupt ending felt like laziness, as if Miss Brown just didn't feel like writing any further. Unfortunate, as it left a bad taste after the novel had been so interesting up to that point.

I love this book. Positive and sweet. A favorite already! Beautiful art, quality pages, I absolutely recommend this book.

Wish there were more books like this one! A hug for the whole world, even the parts that look scary or weird, what a concept!

This book is adorable. I love the poetic meter and the illustrations, while spare, are great, too. I love the cool blue sky he paints when Jules finds himeself at the North Pole and the picture of the lion hiding in the tall grasses. I think it would make a great Valentine's Day gift for a child or an adult. The themes of loving nature and those close to us can be appreciated by folks of all ages.

My 3-year-old niece is learning to read and her mom reads to her a lot. I saw this cute book with a little kitten and decided to get it for her. She enjoys both the story and pictures. I'd recommend it for toddlers.

I don't like cats, and I don't write reviews. But I love this book so much, I've come out of my shell. I had searched far and wide for a special "very first" book to give to my baby - one that I could inscribe "with love from Mommy" inside. It's hard to find a childrens' book with a warmhearted message that is not written with corniness and excessive cheese. I didn't hold much hope that this one would be any different, but OH MAN! By the time I got to the end, my eyes were a little misty! Not corny, not cheesy, the message is simple yet very touching. My older daughter was standing next to me in the bookstore with her finger in her nose, nagging me to take her to the Outer Space books, and I crouched down next to her and gave her a big hug!

My 6 year old is a beginning reader! He is so enjoying this book. He will read it and then read it again. It is a perfect read for him and his facination with bugs!

I acquired this book for my 2-year-old who is fascinated by bugs, especially butterflies. The text is coherent and written in a way a early reader would talk. Some of the Step 1 type books do not impress me, but this one does.

This is a great book for young readers who are just connecting the idea of words having meaning. They are predictable & have good picture context clues. My son loves it & recognized the author from another favorite bedtime story.

Few words per page. Children can reread this story without having yet the ability to decode. Provides early readers with success. Appropriate for English Language Learners of all ages.

This book is a great first book. In fact, it is the first book my son read. *sniff* I'm so proud. :-)

The sentences are short and the pictures hint at what the words may be. I would recommend this to all parents who are helping their children learn to read.

"Joke Stew" contains a wonderful variety of jokes, covering a great variety of topics and types of humor. There are a few with adult humour, but there seems to be nothing nasty or insulting or immoral or politically prejudiced (e.g., some other joke books starting off on page one with "Abortion" kinda kills the mood). "Joke Stew" is light hearted fun.

This book is a must have for aspiring comics and comedy lovers alike. Brown's book is a tool that inspires as well as guides those interested in the art of joke writing. The book includes a wide range of talent from legendary comics like Bill Cosby to the up and coming comedic stars of tomorrow. If nothing else the book allows the reader the opportunity to learn what makes these neurotic people tick.

Joke Stew is a great way for a reader to get in touch with his or her favorite stand-up comedians. It's a lot of fun to read over and over again as you try and remember your favorite jokes. Same recipe as Joke Soup, but with all new comedians and quotes. Great Book!!!

I have copies of both JOKE SOUP and JOKE STEW. I actually bought several copies of both to have on hand as gifts for any and all occasions. You'll find an amazing amount of comics and their funniest material in these books. Whether you're a stand-up comic yourself or you need to give a speech for any occasion, you'll find Judy's books invaluable as inspiration in writing your own funny jokes.

Joke Stew is fantastic! It's a lot of fun to have on your coffee table. You can pick it up and browse for hilarious observations on any subject (great for when you need a funny quote to begin speeches and presentations).

This book is essential reading for anyone seeking the truth about the Titanic.

We recently delved into Titanic literature, starting with the testimony from the stateside investigation. That led to a quest for more information because there were so many unanswered questions. After reading quite a few books, The Last Log of the Titanic finally arrived in the mail. And what a wonderful book!!!

David G. Brown carefully and exactly solves the mysteries involved in how and why the Titanic sank. It is all explained with a knowledge of navigation and engineering.

Read this book with an open mind and an attention to details. If you throw out all your pre-conceived notions from other books, the films, the TV specials etc., and really read what Brown is telling you, you cannot possibly have any doubts about what happened.

The only controversy caused by this book will be brought on by those who will defend their earlier positions on the foundering of this floating hotel.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

I admit that the Titanic movie of 1997 made a big change in my Titanic collecting - mainly before that time I had only about 5 books. One of the books I had was an original from 1912 that was produced due to the fact that there was no radio, Internet or CNN to blast the news into your daily lives. Only the newspapers carried the story and people wanted to know more.

Needless to say, the movie got a lot of people interested in the subject (as it always seems to do whenever a new movie gets produced) Due to this interest all sorts of books got re-published and published for the first time. I started to collect and read and read and read.

I was always interested in the many points of debate that continue on and on, but this book seemed to make so much sense because it aligned with those things that I had read and had questions about but that never really got answered.

There were several reports of iceberg sightings, before the ship hit. There was a report that the alarm bell was rung three times, not three sounds but three different times for three different icebergs. Why did Murdock keep going when they entered the ice field? All the other reasons didn't quite hold up. This author gives forth a logical answer.

The idea that the iceberg grazed along the side of the ship didn't really seem to answer how the ship could go down so fast, the author of this book explains how the ship could have hit. Not only does his explanation make sense but it aligns with the other eye witness accounts of that night.

The list goes on. I can only say that it is well worth the read, and I currently have 58 Titanic related books and have talked and talked to other historians who have their theories.

This is a really good book.

Chris, Founder, McVitamins

I have watched movies and read several books about the Titanic disaster; but, without doubt this is the very, very best I've seen. This book explains in great detail, how things happened. It is written in an easy to read style. It presents numerous references and direct quotes throughout the book, as well as written testimony presented at the official enquires, so it is clearly not simply the author's spectulation. This was one book I could not put down. It answers important questions, such as "Did the nearby frieghter Californian, see Titanic's distress signals; and, if so, why didn't they come to aid the striken liner?", "Were the engines placed in "FULL ASTERN" immediatley when the iceberg was sighted?", "Why were some of the lifeboats only half filled with passengers?", "Would it have been better if the Titanic hit the iceberg head-on instead of side-swiping it?" and "Was the Titanic excessively (and carelessly) speeding to New York in attempt to set a record?" Every page was a pleasure! I just cannot give it enough praise. You won't be sorry if you buy this book.

This is a really good book, but not for Titanic novices (read "A Night to Remember" and its sequal for that). It's a shame the book has such a speculative and rather silly title because it may put-off some of it's intended readership - Titanic buffs.

Refreshingly, rather than rehashing tired old stories, Brown keeps his book narrow and focussed. Drawing from the original statements made for both the American and British official enquiries and his own expertise in ship handling and dynamics, he manages to make a radical yet convincing arguments.

Like some of the other reviewers here, I too had trouble with some of the conclusions. Swerving around icebergs at 21+ knots in an unstabilised hull would have surely caused the odd spilt drink and more to observant passengers. Likewise, I believe the hull did split near the surface, but not on it. But in the context of the book's major conclusions, this is just minor nit-picking!

Highly recommended - crackpot theories on the Titanic sinking are so common it is a real pleasure to find original ideas that are so convincing.

I first read this book in 2000 and found it to be one of the more plausible explanations of the damage suffered by TITANIC when she hit the berg, as well as what happened afterward. Captain Brown has brought what is so lacking in many TITANIC books into LAST LOG OF THE TITANIC--actual shiphandling experience.

Captain Brown had also produced an eminently readable text, one which I think most people will have little trouble understanding.

I cannot reccommend LAST LOG OF THE TITANIC too highly to everyone, TITANIC buff or not.

Maxine Brown has created a masterpiece about the history, and characters involved in the making of Country Music. Her story is honest and heartbreaking at times. She has bumped into just about everyone who has had anything to do with the industry. She's smart, funny, honest and in some cases, unforgiving of those that have crossed her in the business. And, rightly so. Just the insight into the beginning career of Elvis Presley is worth the read. She toured with this shy kid who would become king. She gave us a glimpse into what it was like to know him before all the fame. This woman had guts to stick it out in a business that could be very unkind to women in the early days. Her determination to carve herself out a place in the business of country music is witness to her drive. The Browns hold a very important place in the history of Country Music. They influenced an entire generation, and let us not forget, were one of the first crossover sensations. Not only did they create a fire here in the States, they took on Europe with huge success as well. They lived through the rough and tumble days in Nashville when a chosen few could make or break a career. There were also good guys, like Chet Atkins who believed in the Browns, and stood up to the big studio execs to ensure that their records were made with integridy. Maxine was there to see it all, and tell it through her amazing recall. This book is an important piece of history, and should be read by anyone who calls themselves a fan of country music.

I've been a fan of the Browns ever since I was a young child in the early 1960's and my mom bought a Browns album. In recent years, I continue to enjoy the sweet harmonies brought by this incredible brother/sisters singing team.

Maxine Brown writes a riveting story of what country music was like in the 1950's, when they got started. It was a brutal, unforgiving business at the time and the Browns had their share of unscrupulous businessmen. She also writes about the relationship the Browns had with other country music singers of the day, some who have become major legends.

Very honest & open by the Author/Singer Maxine Brown. Very interesting & revealing, especially about Elvis Presley & Jim Reeves. Very good book.

Maxine Brown was part of a family country band with her brother, Jim Ed and sister, Bonnie. Their most famous recording is that of Edith Piaf's `The Three Bells'.

She writes about her early family life growing up in rural south Arkansas during the Depression. Her journey in country music and the people with whom she traveled and the songs she wrote. The people she met and performed with such as Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Chet Atkins. Performing on the Louisiana Hayride, at The Grand Old Opry and touring Europe. Particularly touching was the story about Jim Reeves' tragic death. It bought a new reality to his life for me.

I particularly enjoyed her stories of their encounters with Elvis Presley and how he fell in love with Bonnie and asked her to marry him. She turned him down. One particular incident was at the time of his discharge from the army when he called a press conference and invited the Browns to attend. He asked Bonnie did she wait for him and she told him `no', she was married and expecting a baby. She must have known what would have been ahead.

I absolutely loved reading this book and did it in 3 days. I love country music and it is also takes a look at the background of some of the great American country performers and the people involved with their careers.

Here in Australia we only see the end result of some the greats and have no idea what life was like for budding country singers in America.

I found this book while listening to WSM America's Country Music Station broadcast live from The Grand Old Opry. There was a live interview with Maxine promoting the book.

Thank you Maxine, for the experience.

Kudos to Maxine Brown for her fascinating no-holds-barred look at the country music industry of the 1950's and 1960's. Maxine, along with sister Bonnie and brother Jim Ed, were legendary country group The Browns, who chalked a number of hits for fifteen years, notably THE THREE BELLS, one of the biggest hits in country music history and as well as a number one pop hit for them. The Browns were all but ready to throw in the towel when they scored that monster hit. Their RCA recordings were not producing major hits. The group earlier came to success on the small Fabor Records label founded by one Fabor Robinson. Like many vocalists on small labels during the era, according to Maxine, the Browns "never made a dime" on their hit LOOKING BACK TO SEE, needless to say she has harsh feelings for Robinson "probably the sorriest b****rd then infesting the industry." She recalls a string of horrors the Browns had to put up with due to the association, so much so Robert Cochran, in the book's introduction feels to need to note country musican historian Colin Escott found similar stories from other Robinson associates in his research. Maxine titles one of her chapters "We Get Screwed" and her tales of blackmail attempts to harassment are truly astonishing.

There's lots of good times too, from dozens of close friends in the industry from Elvis Presley to George Jones and their years as the leading country vocal group. The Browns were especially close to Jim Reeves, and like Reeves they suffered from some backlash in some country circles because of their pop hits. Maxine recalls a run-in she had with Little Jimmy Dickens at a country music function during the peak of the Browns' crossover success when Dickens strolled up to them and said "What are you doing here? You Ain't country." As you might have guessed Maxine is not the type to just stand there and take that, calling him a "sawed-off son of a b***ch" which broke into a cuss fest that led to Maxine and Dickens not being on speaking terms for years although she happily notes they have since made amends.

After the Browns disband in the late 1960's and brother Jim Ed becomes a popular male star, Maxine found it difficult to launch a solo career (I personally love her only solo album SUGAR CANE COUNTY) and is surprised how quickly the industry seems to have forgotten she was one third of the hottest group in country music. Happily, the Browns have frequently reunited for concerts since the late 1980's and still perform today.

LOOKING BACK TO SEE is a great read, loaded with rare photos. Maxine writes in a friendly, talkative style and as you might guess, is as blunt as someone having an intimate conversation. This is a fairly large book - 348 pages - for a country star autobiography. The University of Arkansas (Maxine's home state and where she still lives) published this book and did a fine job with it. It's clear a local press is the way to go for country music star's of the past who might not be able to attract New York publishers. This book is a must for anyone who loves country music during it's classic "Nashville Sound" era.