Dunne Books

The title of my review, "Laurel and Hardy Beyond Double Talk" makes as much sense as Mr. Louvish's title. With that stated, I must declare that for the most part, I found his book quite educational and enjoyable. Some other reviewers issued complaints about it being too ponderous, or hard to follow. I found no basis for such criticism. In fact, I found the book challenging from the standpoint that its thoroughness kept me motivated in wanting to keep absorbing more and more information and details about these two comic masters.

It was sad to learn that there was so much unhappiness in their domestic lives. I had heard that rumor before, but Mr. Louvish documents the apparently awful experiences in their numerous respective marriages. Still, I was more interested in what was said about the two men as artists. For example, it fascinated me to learn that both Laurel and especially Hardy had made dozens and dozens of films years before they even met. It was also revealing to learn what a perfectionist Stan Laurel was in creating gags, and striving to improve his art while appearing seemingly non-artistic in the process. With the great Chaplin, for example, one is laughing at his fine comedy, but constantly aware that he is showing you art!

I think the narrated details in Stanley Jefferson, aka Laurel's years as a stage comic in England was difficult to track at times in this book. In defense of the author, it was probably hard to reconstruct much of that portion of the man's career. Having not read any of the other previous biographes of L & H, I cannot say whether or not this is comparatively a greater biography or not. I only know that I walked away knowing more about the team after completing my reading of the book.

Yes, I recommend this "Stan and Ollie" the book to anyone today wanting to learn more about this comedy team. Laurel and Hardy have stood the test of time and in my opinion, are simply the greatest comedy on film. I say this knowing that I also love the Marx Brothers, Three Stooges,Abbott and Costello and Hope and Crosby. Comedy purists keep in mind I am not counting Laurel and Hardy's movies after after "Saps at Sea!"

This book spurs a clear interest in their work. Unfortunately, many of their films are simply not available to see. Why this is the case is beyond me. We have umpteen zillion copies of "Friends," Adam Sandler, and Jack Black staring back at us on the DVD shelves, but not many Laurel and Hardy films. I hope Mr. Louvish's book will help stir up more interest in the team, so that pressure increases from fans demanding the retailing of more L & H films on DVD. Everyone is so divided on this side, or that side today, that it would be refreshing for all of us to see comic films that appeal to humanity in general. Laurel and Hardy literally made the world laugh.

By the time I was old enough to appreciate adult comedies shown on TV, i.e. in the late 50's, Oliver "Babe" Hardy was already dead (1957) and Stan Laurel was on the final downslope of his life. Yet, it was Laurel & Hardy, along with Abbott & Costello, that tickled my embryonic sense of humor before "graduating" to Red Skelton, Bob Hope, and Jackie Gleason.

Here, in STAN AND OLLIE: THE ROOTS OF COMEDY, author Simon Louvish draws from even more compulsively detailed books on the duo to yield a satisfyingly comprehensive overview of The Boys' professional lives, both solo and paired. I never thought of Stan and Ollie as being anything other than a team. Yet, the first eighteen chapters of this 40-chapter volume reveal that each had a successful career before being eternally cemented together in the 1927 silent movie, "Duck Soup". Each began life separated by the Atlantic, Stan being born in the north of England in 1890, and Oliver in Georgia of the American South in 1892. Before their fateful pairing by Hal Roach in Hollywood in 1927, Laurel worked his way up through the ranks of U.K. and U.S. vaudeville and U.S. film, while Hardy appeared in 200+ silents on his own beginning with "Outwitting Dad" (1914), a release coming from the then-booming Florida film industry. For both, it was a long and tortuous road to Tinseltown and destiny.

I need to stress that STAN AND OLLIE focuses on their professional lives. If you're looking for a detailed inside peek at their personal existences, look elsewhere. OK, sure, the reader learns, as narrative asides, that Ollie bet on the horses and Stan had a weakness for Yorkshire pudding, chocolate candies, and ocean sport fishing. Both enjoyed golf. And, moreover, both had rocky domestic lives with multiple, mostly failed marriages - Hardy totaling three wives in as many marriages, and Laurel amassing four wives in five marriages, plus one common-law relationship. But, I finished the narrative not really having a feel for the men behind their famous on-screen personae. This skewed exposition is exemplified by the choice of photos included in the text; there are virtually none of Stan and/or Ollie outside of stills from their screen roles. Weren't there pesky paparazzi in those days? There was one photo taken of Hardy towards the end of his life that I particularly wanted to see out of morbid curiosity. As Louvish describes it:

"In 1956 ... (Ollie) reduced his weight by 150 lbs ... The last photograph of Stan and Babe together, in 1956, shows a recognizable smiling Stan, but beside him stands a stranger, relatively trim, with flabby flesh replacing his double chins, thin silvery hair and a rictus of a smile."

My distinct impression was that, throughout the composition of STAN AND OLLIE, the author worked overtime to protect the image and memory of his heroes. That's fine, but it results in a somewhat one-dimensional piece, albeit otherwise excellent as far as it goes.

One rarely sees any of the old Laurel and Hardy movies on TV anymore. Maybe it's just because I don't stay up into the wee hours. STAN AND OLLIE compels me to re-visit their screen appearances on DVD rentals to remind myself of the laughter of childhood memory.

...whoosh, the style of this book is turgid and overstuffed with mixed metaphors (on the order of "They were the conduit for blossoms of comedy which were to explode in fiery mirth."), and there's far too much "Babe had terrible trouble, which will be explained in due course." I did like the subject, but the book was really irritating to read because of the style.

VERBOSITY, n. the employment of a superabundance of words; the use of more words than are necessary

This probably describes all this author's works. I had a terrible time wading through his bio on W.C. Fields and had to skip over most of it. I disposed of that book as soon as I was finished with it. When I got this book out of the library I had fogotten all about the author. But when I started reading "Stan and Ollie" I quickly looked at the cover and cried, "oh, no!." I made it through almost three chapters before giving up.

Yet, I am a person who loves to read how an author weaves words together. That is part of the pleasure of a book. But this author doesn't weave, he just pours! This book could be a third of its length and do its subjects far better justice

How does one do justice to two of the greatest comedy legends to have ever have graced the screen? A daunting task, but one that Simon Louvish (biographer of W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers) accomplishes with great aplomb and thoroughness. "Stan and Ollie" covers all bases as it explores the individual lives of the duo and the eventual pairing of two great screen comedians.

Louvish begins by examining the respective early life of Stanley Jefferson and Oliver Norvell Hardy. Born and raised in England, Stanley Jefferson was the son of a theatre owner and performer, whose children were destined for the stage. But his namesake would take his father's love of acting much farther than the stage and onto screen, a journey that took him half-way around the world to California at the dawn of the movie era. Meanwhile, in small town Georgia, Oliver Norvell Hardy was born, months after his father's death, raised by a mother who ran boarding houses, her perpetually chubby son a constant watcher of the guests. His love of movies hit its stride when he ran projections for the local movie house and decided to test his fortunes on the screen.

Each comic tried to make it on his own - Louvish devotes the first half of his biography to their early lives and the movies they made before they became a popular duo. Stanley's rise was perhaps a bit more difficult due to his theatre training (and his being pegged to impersonate his former roommate, Charlie Chaplin). "Babe" Hardy took easily to the ways of the screen, despite his bulk that haunted him his entire life, which was counteracted by a grace and ease that seemd contradictory to his size. These two very separate beginnings were inevitably paired up in Hollywood at the Hal Roach studio, where these vaudevillan trained actors somewhat reluctantly became Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, a disparate image of perfectly paired clowns.

Louvish traces the years and the films that Laurel and Hardy made together with Roach, intermingling the myriad marriage and divorce affairs that plagued each man, weaving in history of supporting players and screen moments as their story unfolds. He debunks some of the stories that have floated about these two, all the while recognizing that memory is not the strongest recorder of events years after the fact. The subtitle "The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy" refers not to any lurid details, but to the men behind the faces on the screen. Laurel and Hardy were screen personas, not the men who lived and breathed off-screen; while their real lives were sometimes mirrored by what they chose to enact, clowns cannot be funny all the time. Louvish does an admirable job of weaving the good with the bad, the tremendous success while at the pinnacle of their careers, and the sad, dwindling end that included forgettable movies and studio disputes.

"Stan and Ollie", while long and a sometimes wandering read, is a wonderful portrait of two men who were friends until the very end. It is amazing to consider their output of film, and to lament what has forever been lost of their early days and solo work. Louvish truly loves Laurel and Hardy but is able to paint them in an unbiased light, moles and all, revealing the minds behind two comedic geniuses who made it big for not being the brightest bulbs in the story. This book will make fans fall in love with Laurel and Hardy all over again.

This eminently readable book -- part Italian history, part personal journal -- dissects the economic and social constructs of the Southern part of Italy in an attempt to understand what it truly means to be Southern Italian and why Southern Italians have gotten such a bad rap in Italy and the U.S.

The author is proudly of Southern Italian descent, and it seems he has a bone to pick. I can certainly understand that -- I am of Southern Italian descent myself, and no stranger to the stereotypes that exist about "my people" -- the mafioso, the ignorant peasant, the shiftless ne'er do well.

The colorful anecdotes in this book do a good job of shattering those stereotypes. Statistics about organized crime and the actual activities of the Mafia seem to show that Italians are not the leaders of the crime world. The apparent "laziness" is actually a social custom, akin to the Mexican siesta, that carried over to the United States, where nobody understood that it was actually a good idea to rest from one's labors during the hottest part of the day.

As for the ignorant peasant claim, yes, the people of the South are not as formally educated as those of the North. But what they lack in book-learning, they make up for in common sense, hard physical work, and heart. They are people of high ideals and close families, and it was ideals (a desire to better their families' lot in life) as well as an unsympathetic government that sparked the mass migration from Southern Italy to the U.S. in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I have no reason to doubt this author's research; I certainly haven't done any of my own that disputes it. But I did get a distinct "bone-picking" feeling from this book that put me off a little bit. That feeling is the only reason why I didn't give the book five stars.

Overall, however, the book is pure Italy -- a love of life, and thankfulness for what it brings. As the author travels through Southern Italy, the people he meets and the stories he hears paint clear, enlightening pictures of this mysterious and misunderstood land.

I especially loved the (true) story "U Figlio di Giovanni," about a young man who discovers that his father is nothing short of a hero in his home village. I also loved the fact that the author finds his last name popping up all over Southern Italy during his travels. People respond to his name instantly: "That is a name from here. You have a face from here. You are our family." Doors and hearts open, purely on the basis of a familiar -- and therefore trusted and honored -- name.

This book is wonderful, engaging reading for anyone interested in Italian culture, Italian heritage, or searches for identity. It also evokes Italy very clearly, even for someone like me, who's only spent seven days there. I plan to read this book again!

Anyone who grew up with an Italian immigrant grandparent or great grandparent, will likely enjoy "Under the Southern Sun." The book explains why your grandfather may have talked little about the family he left behind in Italy or why your grandmother always called pasta "macaroni." Paolicelli aptly explores the culture and history of Southern Italy, the ancestral home of some 26 million Americans.

Bad and Facile must have gotten out of the wrong side of his bed. His tone is snide, his criticisms unfounded, and his inarticulate appraisal unhelpful to an inquiring reader. In 18 lines of text he gives not a single example of his many claims of factual inaccuracy. His "review" gives the impression of an embarassing rant . I do not know the author and have not read his other book, ( but I soon will) however I find author Paolicelli's lucid and fluid prose style reflective of his long career as a professional journalist and supportive of the claim of 3 years of preparation and travel in Italy, fully deserving of all the 4 star ratings on this page. I have given away extra copies to friends with a warm recommendation.

I liked "Dances with Luigi", and enjoyed the comments which revealed the author's misunderstandings because he sees everything through American eyes and viewpoints, believing them to be self-mocking and ironic. But this book is shoddy. He is a journalist, but quotes facts and figures without revealing, or it seems even checking, the source. (A bibliography doesn't do it!) When he quotes directly from one person, such as a historian with a cause, it can be accepted as hearsay, but to then base chapters on this hearsay, and not to check the facts, is bad journalism. He makes several elementary errors and he seems unable to understand the mentality of the people he is investigating, seeing them only through his distorted lens of "Southern Italian superhuman, rest of world evil". By the way, Mr P, what also really grates is your constant refences to "Allied" when you mean "American", and your haziness as to when WW2 began in the various countries. There are so many cases where he makes erroneous or sloppy statements, I feel this book was just dashed off quickly on the back of the last one, to boost his daughter's college fund. The problem is, like those dreadful fake patriotic spam emails that keep going around, his "facts" will be repeated by all those people who identify with the premise and have never set foot in Europe and fail to understand a world that isn't USA-centric. Shame on you Mr Paolicelli!

Bravo Mr. Paolicelli. You've penned another great, informative, unique book on Italy that too few will discover and savor.

If you want to learn about the other Italy, as well as its gift to the United States through generations of creative imigrants who brought not only their talents, but their values as well, this is the book for you.

Paolicelli's writing continues to be wonderful (as it was in Dances), his research thorough, and his point of view unprecedented. Those who have journeyed to Southern Italy will want to go back with a fresh set of eyes; those who haven't been will be changing their itinerary to include a southern swing.

After reading the first 2/3 of this book, I couldn't see why Kerrey admirers (like myself) were upset. In fact, a lot of the stories are the same ones in Kerrey's autobiography, "When I was a Young Man". I actually enjoyed it, until...
The last 1/3 turns venomous! It's full of a lot of personal attacks, not only on Kerrey, but on everyone who disagrees with the author's theory of what happened that night in Thanh Phong, or whomever gets in the way of Vistica releasing "his" story. (pg. 243 "[John Scanlon] preferred to call himself a 'strategic counselor', not a 'paid liar'.")
I had to shut the book a couple of times, because the story became less & less about the story, and more of the author boasting of his skillful reporting, or ability to see through "public relations countermeasures". (pg. 210 "...Kerrey was beginning to realize that he'd have to cooperate with me."). Ugh.
Even if I DIDN'T like Kerrey, it's doubtful I would've enjoyed the way this ended.
If you want to learn about Kerrey, a better choice would be "When I was a Young Man". If it's history you're after, you'd be better served to visit a museum than to read this biased, bitter piece.

IT WAS VERY RESEARCHED AND AN INTERESTING TOPIC
I HIGHLY RECOMEND IT TO OTHER READERS
I REALLY ENJOY IT
IT DESERVES 10 STARS

Vistica's book, 60 Minute II's reporting and the confession of one of Kerry's teammates make a very strong case against Kerry.
He was the commander at the time and was responsible for what his men did and did not do. His logic for making his decisions is horribily flawed; such as; he ordered the throat cutting of three small children because they might give away their location but he then orders the machingunning of twenty woman and children.(Note: the sound of the weapons firing definately gave their position away.) What is interesting the SEALs used up 75% of their ammo murdering non-combatants. This resounds of a panicked, uncontrolled unit--not highly trained Navy SEALs.

In a nation, sixty years after the fact, where we hunt down and imprison German and Ukrainian soldiers from WWII solely because they were GUARDS at a concentration camp--we allow OUR war cimminals not only to become senators--but American heros.

There is no doubt in this old soldier's mind Kerry is a war crimminal and should have his "highly questionable" Medal of Honor revoked--by the very Congress and nation he has disgraced! In addition, his Navy SEAL organization should officially shun him. We either are or are not an honorable nation.

I am a combat veteran having served with elite Special Forces A Teams and with MACV-SOG Command and Control North. As a combat peer of Kerry's--I hold him in the highest contempt. He is a disgrace to special operations personnel--past or present.

Donald E. Zlotnik, Major (Ret.)
Special Forces

Contrary to a couple of the other "amateur" reviews already posted on this book, I say that, given the unfolding of events in Iraq, particularly the atrocities of the American military against prisoners and the shame of immorality that those atrocities carry, that are only just now beginning to surface and be investigated, this is perhaps the most timely book one could read today. Vistica uses the events of February, 1969, in Vietnam to examine America's collective self-image and the guilt of not living up to that image when engaged in battlefield realities. I say if you read no other book this year, this month, you must read this one. In it you will find grave lessons for those who are involved in fighting and policing overseas, as well as for politicians who are sending them as our agents. What will be said thirty years from now about what the United States is doing today?

this book is nothing more than the author's opinion. He never supports any of his claims/conclusion with fact. All he has is the claims of one man, Gerhard Klann, who he says he believes because, unlike others, his story never changed. Maybe the reason his story never changed is because it is not true. The stories of other members of Kerrey's team did change - perhaps because in thinking back on that horrific night, new insights arose. Also is it possible that, as Kerrey admits, that there is some blockage of those events.

Vistica only mentions once (outside of quoting Kerrey) that Klann admittedly had a grudge again Kerrey because Kerrey got the medal of honor and Klann did not - despite that fact that Kerrey lobbied for that for his efforts in the Middle East. Why is that not pursued more? Perhaps because it does not fit with Vistica's preconceived plan to do a hatchet job on Kerrey.

Bottom line: you will like this book if you hate soldiers or hate Kerrey because it will support those predispositions. But if you are looking for a balanced, fact-filled story, this is most definitely NOT a book for you.

Future War would have been a great work of fiction. It's intriguing subject matter and there are some really entertaining scenarios that would keep you turning pages long into the night.

However. If you're in the market for a well-researched, factual account, you should probably look elsewhere, especially if you are, like myself, a relative new-comer to the whole non-lethal weapons field.

Col. Alexander gets some extraordinary things wrong. He uses Ruby Ridge as an example of law enforcement gone wrong and to point up the need for non-lethal alternatives to lethal force. No arguments there. But he must have been thinking of a different Ruby Ridge, because in this one, Kevin Harris doesn't survive. I found that interesting, seeing as how Kevin Harris ended up giving a report to the FBI and getting tried in a court of law after the standoff ended. Reports of his death in this book are greatly exaggerated.

Col. Alexander would also like us to believe that Tazers don't burn. Even in the Nineties, law enforcement was aware that Tazers burn the skin. Several court cases have included evidence of the burn patterns unique to different models of stun guns. He also seems to take great pleasure in claiming that they are never lethal, which is an interesting claim to make about something meant to deliver tens of thousands of volts of electricity into the human body. "Never" is a word that an ostensibly learned man should not have employed to describe such a weapon, even given the state of knowledge in the 90s.

I won't spend this space dissecting the plethora of other errors I've found. I just want to present a caution to anyone incautious enough to buy this book: before getting excited about any one claim, make sure you get the facts from another source. You can't trust this book to be right.

This is an excellent book covering all the weapons that are available to fight an enemy,now and in the near future.Of course,as the title suggests, it leans on non-lethal weapons.This is not a book of Si-Fi stuff because we have already seen the use of many of the weapons described,although many have been used in various degrees,locations and purposes.As the author shows,there are many forms of weapons that do not involve a projectile or explosives but nonetheless have huge impact in warfare.Elimination of supplies,exploitation of media,disruption of communications,just to name a few.Non-lethal weapons have the greatest effect when the enemy has little or no knowledge of the other sides capability or use involved.Breaking of the German and Japanese codes was an excellent example of this 50 years ago.There has never been any magic bullet nor any new weapon that lasted too long before the other side found a counter weapon;so the way to maintain superiority lies in the ability to keep ahead.The reason America has managed to keep ahead in this is the extremely high value it places on the safety and security of every one of its citizens.Above all else this is the number one responsibility of the government.
This book shows not only the types of weapons that are available but also the thought process that goes into deciding which best solves the threat involved.Reading this book will convince you why any nation which truly values it freedoms must spend the resources to maintain superiority in all forms of weapons. Being second best is not an option.

Future war is a brilliant look at the varied types and systems of Less, Less Than, and Non-Lethal technologies.(and the difference between the three)
Dr. Alexander is very creative and colorful when it comes to conceptualising situations that these technologies could be utilised, both in Law enforcment and military/peace keeping engagements, as well as pulling out actual cases and tests.

While heavily footnoted, the book avoids becoming too overly technical, but could possibly bog down a reader not familiar with some of the terminology. Unfortunatly the book also doesn't go into nearly enough technical detail as some might hope, and in some cases leaves the reader confused about certain devices and aspects.

Another aspect about this book is that it was written several years ago, and the technologies talked about are in a relativly rapidly advancing field. By today, some of the things mentioned have been phased or or dropped, and whole new one have cropped up.

But all things considered this is a good book, and a nice read, and makes a dandy reference.

As US/Allied forces this very day are engaging in military operations against Iraq, the emphasis is not only on victory but on the minimization of casualties, both military and civilian. This book discusses several approaches to the latter, via the use of "non-lethal" weapons, and some of these may in fact be employed in Operation Iraq Freedom. The discussion is fascinating, and one can only hope that future technological developments will make war less probable because of the ideas expoused by the author. In the foreword to the book, the author lets Tom Clancy remind the reader of the unique American viewpoint on warfare. Americans, because of the nature of the government in which they have chosen to create and participate, have always been reluctant to go to war. Every soldier is precious, indeed, human life is precious, and is not to be taken lightly. It is therefore not a surprise that precision-guided and non-lethal weapons have and are undergoing intense development in the last two decades in the United States. Hopefully this attitude will continue in this, the best of all centuries. The author seems confident that it will, and indeed we are fortunate to have individuals in the U.S. military who have his attitude and share his philosophy.

Some of the more interesting technological developments in non-lethal weaponry discussed in the book include: 1. Electromagnetic weapons: man-portable laser weapons, blinding weapons, isotropic radiator weapons, pulse weapons, stun guns. 2. Chemical non-lethal weapons: antimateriel chemical agents, superacids, pheromones. 3. Acoustic weapons, such as pulsed periodic stimulus, which causes perceptual disorientation in the individual.

This book has a pretty good introduction to the growing science and technology of non-lethal weapons. It should serve you well if you're looking for something to get you started on building your knowledge of this field. However, you will be disappointed if you are looking for in-depth details on specific systems and technology (these are in most cases still probably classified in any case). The book is still definitely worth reading, though.

The idea is good--critique every piece of work Streisand has ever done. But because the author is too much of a fan, going overboard in praising the subject, the result is uneven and ultimately unsuccessful.

The author tries to review everything Barbra has done and quickly jumps through Streisand's career by genre. The music chapter rushes by so fast that some albums only get a couple paragraphs. The movie chapter spends a little more time on each film but if readers aren't familiar with the film they will come away confused by what the author is talking about. There are also sections on concerts, TV, and politics. At no point is any background information given nor are there any inside stories. So, for example, even though the song "Evergreen" appears in a couple of the chapters, he never mentions the reported conflict over the writing credits for the song or the tension between Streisand and her credited "co-writer." Instead the author just praises the song. So what's missing is history and context.

The television chapter is incredibly incomplete. He doesn't even mention the famous Mike Douglas series, where Streisand co-hosted for one week, and skips Ed Sullivan as well! Instead he focuses on an obscure, short-lived TV show called "PM East" that Mike Wallace hosted and then Wallace's "60 Minutes" interview 30 years later. And the TV chapter doesn't even mention Babara Walters, with whom Streisand sat for four interviews over the decades!

Most helpful is the scorecard at the end of the book that goes through every piece of work and assigns them grades. The author is fair and right-on in calling out some mediocre work.

There are also plenty of footnotes in the back to add to the book credibility. But there is not a lot of information in this book and almost nothing new for readers familiar with Streisand. It's basically one long college term paper that gives an overview of everything Streisand has done--and term papers aren't all that interesting.

Great book better than "The way she is" which barbra didnt like according to her web site. It was a gift and wonderfully received. great details and bio.

Definitely not a book you can't put down. It is a polite and seemingly accurate description of Barbra's music recordings, films and television appearances. Author is very kind and considerate in writing of Barbra. Not a lot of personal accounts of Ms. Streisand as you might like to know but a good account of her career.

This book is NOT a biography; it is strictly a book reviewing & critiquing Barbra's work in theater, television, film, recordings, concerts, & politics.

The author makes some good observations and is generally fair in his assessments. I didn't agree with his views 100% of the time but it was fun to see what he did & did not like. It's easy to see what failed in hindsight however, Stantopietro does not gloat but rather laments what might have been with perhaps a little more thought or planning on Barbra's part.

Fun; a definite "must have" for true Barbra fans!

What a disappointment buying this book! The entire book is a compilation of one man's opinions of every album, song, movie, etc. of hers
Give me a break! He even hated "A Love like ours" and Guilty Pleasures"...
Nothing new to be learned from this book, save your money and borrow it from your local library and see if youwant it in your collection.

I am stunned at the great reviews I read for this book. I was expecting so much more. Instead, I found it disjointed as a story and the characters not particularly intriguing at all. I grew very weary of the saturation of alcohol, tobacco and foul language. Jane Austen would never have presented her characters in such a crude fashion. Being blindsided in the middle of the book with the "novel within a novel" twist and I felt like JR just woke up from another dream. Add to all this the obscure literary references sprinkled throughout and you've got, in Ms. Fenton, an author who, not only can't find an original idea, but she appears to have an ego to rival that of the Bingley sisters. The modernization of Pride & Prejudice should have ended with Bridget Jones. Vanity and Vexation is just another cheap attempt to capitalize on Jane Austen's name.

As to the claim that those of us who are giving an opinion on this book are not understanding that "this is not Austen and doesn't claim to be" so, therefore, are unqualified to use this analogy - all I can say is that if an author doesn't want to be compared to Jane Austen then they shouldn't rip off her stories and include the words "Pride & Prejudice" in the title.

Ms. Fenton's modern adaptation of P&P takes more than a few chapters to get into it, but once you do, the fun comes quickly. The lilt of the language took more concentrating than I anticipated for a novel I was reading in bed before retiring. The switch back and forth of the names (Mary Dance vs. Mary Hamilton and Nick Bevan vs. Llewellyn Bevan) threw me off for a couple of chapters. I must learn to read more closely even if it is late at night!!! Yet, the switch of Mary Dance being the tall, dark hero rather than "Mr. Darcy" was ingenuous. The fact that the film crew over which Mary is in charge is filming Pride and Prejudice gives this a nice twist. Having Sarah be equivalent to "Mr. Bennet" was not achieved until the final chapters, but, generally, you will enjoy the book. I could do without the "F" word in the love scenes, but that is a personal preference. I would not turn down reading the book purely on that note.

What a fun, sweet story with a modern and gender-bending twist. I loved the characters and was sad to see the book end. Very enjoyable-but don't expect P&P!

The writing is very crisp, funny, and often surprisingly romantic, making this a very worthwhile update of P&P. The characters are expertly fleshed out and the book never felt gimmicky to me, either. There's also a great deal of wit and intelligence in the writing, making this a book you'll want to savor rather than devour in one sitting. I loved Nick, warmed to Mary (as I was supposed to) and also enjoyed all the supporting characters. This is a light read, but it also has depth, so I didn't feel dissatisfied at the end.

THE POMPOUS HOLIER THAN THOU DRIBBLE OF SOME "CRITICAL" SUBMISSIONS IS MORE THAN I (I REPEAT, I) CAN BEAR IN SILENCE. THESE REVIEWERS COULD LEARN FROM MY PREVIOUS SENTENCE. IT IS NOT, DUCKY, ALWAYS ABOUT _YOU_. IF YOU DON'T LIKE "LIGHT AND FLUFFY" WHY DID YOU SELECT TO READ LIGHT AND FLUFFY -- JUST SO YOU COULD DUMP ON IT?!

"NONE OF THE NUANCE ONE FINDS IN JANE AUSTIN [SIC] WAS PRESENT IN THIS BOOK." DUH! DID YOU NOTICE IT'S NOT AUSTEN?! AND CERTAINLY DOES NOT PRETENT TO BE AUSTEN.

I BELIEVE A BOOK OR FILM _REVIEW_ SHOULD REPORT WHAT THE THING _IS_ AND NOT WHAT THE "REVIEWER" WANTS IT TO BE. IF THE THING IS NOT WHAT YOU EXPECTED, THEN YOU MISJUDGED YOUR CHOICE. THAT DOES NOT MAKE THE AUTHOR/CREATOR BAD OR WRONG.

I AM TIRED OF WHINEY WANNABE CRITICS-AT-LARGE AND I QUESTION NOT ONLY THEIR JUDGMENT BUT EVEN THEIR ABILITY TO R-E-A-D FORGAWDSAKE.

I PLACE A 5-STAR RATING BECAUSE I DON'T WANT THE BOOK TO SUFFER BECAUSE SOME OF THE "REVIEWERS" DESERVE NOT MORE THAN ONE STAR.

joyesb@pacbell.net

I was always a fan of the original Knight Rider tv series so I picked up an autographed copy of this book. It's very well written and quite entertaining. The Hoff's personality comes through and the book reads like he's talking with you. Very inspirational and highly recommended.

What can I say about David? It's all between those hardback bindings. He's funny, hardworking, serious, honest, hopeful, and determined. Most of all, he is, just like the rest of us, Human! He definitely pours his soul out to the reader in this book, and he isn't afraid of it, either. You definitely see it all here. His joy, his pain, his triumphs, his mistakes. When I saw him in Knight Rider, I thought he was on another plane, unreachable. Reading his own words gave him more of a down to earth persona for me. A real page-turner from start to finish!!!

I gave the Hoff autobiography as a Christmas gift, and the recipient of the gift loves it so much that she now sends out a quote of the day which she calls the "Daily David." There are so many great stories in that book that I can hardly contain myself!!!

I read this book for what it was intended to be, a person's own spin on the ups and downs of that person's life. And that is what I got. What bothered the dickens out of me, though, was that the book seemed to be edited by English editors for English (not American) readers. I got tired of reading "honour", "colour", and other such things. If the book was to be released in the UK, that would be fine. However, for US readers, please give us our own spellings and terminologies.

Seriously, I simply cannot conceive of anyone actually purchasing or reading this book. No one's life could possibly be that empty.

I'm not going to lie. My ideal summer reading is part trashy romance, part travelogue (cue the reel for Vicky Christina Barcelona). If that's also your literary cocktail of choice for beach side reading, "Sleeping Arrangements by Madeleine Wickham is a perfectly satisfying bet.

From the first page of "Sleeping Arrangements" you are drawn in by the strong-but-delicate heroine Chloe and her fab job as a wedding dress designer. Stellar supporting characters arrive in the form of the inscrutable Ice Queen Amanda, the wily villa owner Gerard, and the brilliantly cheeky nanny Jenna. As with Kinsella/Wickham's other novels, the strength and complexity of the characters, as well as a delicious finale ending, are what transcend her books from the confines of an otherwise predictable chick lit plot.

Add in the gorgeous descriptions of Spain (picturesque villa, lemon trees, oh yes), and the semi-predictable plot can be forgiven by a book that begins playfully and ends perfectly. Whatever you call her, the reigning goddess of Chick Lit has done it again!

In case you aren't aware, Madeleine Wickham is none other than the true identity of Sophie Kinsella, the author of the popular Shopaholic novels. Wickham uses her real name when she wants to write edgier chick lit (is there even such a thing?). In my experience, I've found that I don't like Wickham's novels as much as Kinsella's; the lack of character growth was a frustration in The Gatecrasher, and it seems that trend has continued in Sleeping Arrangements.

I did enjoy Sleeping Arrangements and found it to be quite amusing. The main character, Chloe, was an appealing character, and surprisingly, Amanda was more than she first appeared to be as well. Philip was a bit frustrating, but eventually grew into a better character. The real disappointment lied in Hugh. He was shallow and flighty, and I just flat out disliked him. I understood the nature of his past with Chloe, and why there was an attraction between them, but it really seemed like there was no reason for her to be attracted to the person he had become. I really just didn't like the character.

Besides that, the book is fine. It's nothing remarkable, but it's an enjoyable chick lit read that is mindlessly entertaining. Anyone will probably have fun reading it, but promptly forget about it as soon as they move on to their next book. Those of you who haven't read any of her work, stick with Sophie Kinsella. Remember Me? was funny, had a great storyline, and was thoroughly enjoyable - read that one instead of this!

I loved the other book. This one seemed like it was written on a deadline- plot line tried to be clever, but was not. I had high hopes!

This book was a little rough to start, had no idea what to expect, While I love all her writings... this one didn't seem like my style of reading...boy was I wrong! I couldn't put it down after chapter 2! Very Good!!

Each new release by Madeleine Wickham (or Sophie Kinsella, for that matter) excites me to no end. I have read nearly all of her novels and have never been disappointed. Although this one ends differently than I anticipated, I still had a hard time putting it down, just like all the others. Can't wait for the next one!

First of all, I should say that I am from Oklahoma and a HUGE Sooner fan. This book is probably the most poorly written book I have ever read. I have to say I was extremely disappointed. There are factual errors, misspellings, and actual typos. It made me wonder if anyone even edited this book.

Because it was written so poorly, it made me question other things about the book. Are some of the accusations he makes against the OU program accurate? Who knows. I know for a fact that some of the game stories and anecdotes that he tells are not true.

Basically, it was an interesting read because of my love for Sooner football. However, I wouldn't really recommend it based on the horrible writing, misspelling, and totally inaccurate stories.

I wish every football fan would read this book, but I am willing to bet that a majority of it's readership is full of people like me. Oklahomans who are fans and supporters of our Sooners. I have to admit, I doubt many Texas fans are going to rush out and buy this book, hell, they probably wouldn't read it if there was a free copy in the john, but they might use it for something else.

So right off the bat, I have to expose my bias on this book. How could I not love it? So it doesn't mean much for me to say things like, "Everybody will love this book, it speaks to all college football fans."

While this book does not hold universal appeal for all people, here is why I think it should. It has an underlying message that is positive and inspiring. A message that can be used by anyone, anywhere, and at anytime.

Being born and raised in Oklahoma, I of course became very familiar with the place and the people that live there. From an early age I began to realize that Oklahoma wasn't all that popular of a place. Even most of the kids I grew up with didn't have many good things to say about Oklahoma. They always wanted to be someplace else, and this always bothered me a great deal. In fact, that is one of the biggest problems my home state faces. Oklahoma isn't great enough to hold onto it's own people. I live in Southern California, which might as well be Hell to many OU fans after what the Trojans did to OU in the Orange Bowl. So even I became one of the traitors, in a way. I will always call Oklahoma home, I just live in Hermosa Beach. I'm an Okie, and proud of it.

I knew we didn't have any pro sports teams, no major cities that get mentioned in the same breath as "New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis, etc." Whenever the big news stations covered the weather, they never gave the weather in Oklahoma, we just kinda got looked over. After all, we are just the funny shaped flat state out in the middle of the country.

I very quickly realized that the only time my state popped up on national radar was when the University of Oklahoma's football team was involved. Of course, this became a source of pride for me and countless others. Oklahoma has no place comparing itself to other states in many ways, whether it be pro sports, big business, vacation hotspots, or just simply being a "popular" place to live and work. But when it comes to college football, we stand as proud as anyone, and we know that we deserve the right to do so.

What I didn't know as a kid, was that this was the plan all along. Years before I was born, the big wigs at OU and others around the state of Oklahoma wanted to use the University's football program as a source of pride for the state, and this was especially true when my home state was devastated by the depression and the great dust bowl.

The Sooners of Oklahoma at one time, won 47 straight football games, and this cemented their legacy as one of the all time greatest college football programs. The mission was truly accomplished, Oklahoma was on the map and everybody knew it.

This book covers a lot of ground in the history of OU football, all of it is exciting and interesting. I would think that anyone who is attracted to stories of victory, and overcoming great odds to succeed above all others, would love this book. It's not just about sports in my opinion. The reasons that Bud Wilkinson and his Sooner teams were so successful was because they displayed the attributes of champions. These attributes are universal to just about everything, business, family, sports, etc.

I am sure there will be some Negative Nancy's about this book, who can't help but bring up the numerous brushes with the law and the NCAA, that OU has had. All I have to say is, you're probably right, but if you're a fan of any major college football program and some of the not so major ones, then you have to right to criticize. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. That's what is said anyway.

I suggest you ignore all that stuff and focus on the inspiring message inside, don't let YOUR bias against Oklahoma, or it's University, or it's football team prevent you from enjoying a very fine tale of glory.

Maybe I knew too much of the story before I read it but there was more info about the players and coaches and the women they had than about football. I would have liked to read about the football games they won!!!

A great great football story, but disappointingly written. For starters, Jim Dent misses his audience. Recreated quotes reminisce made-for-grade school stories, yet hollow and stereotypical characters go on big-time drinking binges and grow 'harder than Chinese arithmetic' over the ladies. More disappointing is that one must read between the lines to discover what's most fascinating about 1940s/50s-era football - that the national champion was chosen BEFORE the bowl games (imagine THAT before BCS), that players played on both sides of the ball, that there were no designated field goal kickers, and heaps of other subtleties that have faded away as college football has 'grown.' Perhaps there was a rush to get this out while the 2000 Sooners team was STILL undefeated and national champions. It takes time to make a winner, I guess.

I try to read every college football book that I can get my hands on. I can honestly say that I have read few books written as poorly as this one. I was expecting much more considering the potential story lines involved in this subject. I simply did not enjoy this book because of the way it was written.

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (9/08)

A maniacal serial killer, aka the Cinema Slayer, is on the loose in Hollywood. The first three deaths draw attention to the legendary screen queen Osvanna Moore because they were affiliated with her production studio. Five-hundred-sixty-year-old, beautiful Osvanna, who also happens to be the vampire Chatelaine of Los Angeles, does not want this attention. Neither do some other very powerful vampires. When more bodies start piling up, and I mean that literally, it appears that Osvanna is being targeted. The vampires let her know that she has 48 hours to figure out who is doing the murders or they will have to take action against her.

Handsome Beverly Hills Detective Peter King is assigned to the case. He finds himself both drawn to Osvanna and suspicious of her. He knows that she is hiding something and he is determined to find out the truth. Little does he know how much he is about to discover about Osvanna and her kind.

I loved this book! It combines all of my favorite elements into a great novel; mystery, adventure, romance, sex, and the paranormal. An alternate history is created that has had vampires influencing our mundane world for centuries. These influences range from altering major historical events to allowing the secret vampires in Hollywood to give us false beliefs about vampirism. This made the book so much more fun because their powers are much greater than can be imagined, which also makes them harder to destroy.

Another positive aspect of the book was the inclusion of famous Hollywood actors as characters, including some of those who have passed on. Or who have supposedly passed on. This special touch brought forth the magical feeling of Tinsel town. It is very interesting to note that a beautiful Hollywood actress, who does not appear to be aging, is writing about a vampire actress who also is not aging. Hmmh, kind of makes me think, "What if?" Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott have formed a winning writing team with "Vampyres of Hollywood.". I truly hope that they continue to collaborate together.

*Vampyres of Hollywood* stands in homage to the B horror flicks for which its heroine Ovsanna Moore and its co-author Barbeau are famous. In the best hack cinema tradition, Barbeau and Scott drench the scenery with blood, innards and ichor, borrow from every source that can't run away fast enough, and finish with an outrageously over-the-top finale. It's not great literature, but as every B-movie fan knows, the mess is all part of the fun.

Ovsanna Moore is a five hundred year old Vampyre with an attachment to the film industry. She loves it so much, in fact, that she has faked her own death twice and now poses as her own granddaughter carrying on three generations of movie stardom. She's a one-woman version of the Barrymores. In the present day, Ovsanna runs a film company, Anticipation Studios, producing and usually starring in gory schlock horror films. As the novel begins, life is imitating Ovsanna's art: actors and other people connected to Ovsanna's film business are being found murdered in intensely gruesome ways (most of them being "found" in more than one spot). As the "Cinema Slayer" racks up a body count and terrorizes Tinseltown, world-weary Detective Peter King of the Beverly Hills P.D. pursues an investigation that quickly leads him to Ovsanna Moore's doorstep. He ends up learning more about the "underworld" of Hollywood than he ever dreamed might exist.

*Vampyres of Hollywood* owes a heavy debt to author Kim Newman (*Anno Dracula,* *The Bloody Red Baron*) and the fictional universe of Vampyres: The Masquerade and its "vampire clans." I also detected loud pounding echoes of the movies Death Becomes Her (1992), Fright Night (1985) and Quentin Tarantino's From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). There are a lot of clever in-jokes--Ovsanna seems to have known everyone who ever wrote literature or made movies even slightly related to vampires and had a front row seat for every major historical event. She even tells us something we didn't know about the real fate of Jack the Ripper. But all the explanatory asides by Ovsanna filling us in on Vampyres and her history become a bit tedious, and I found myself skimming chunks of digression to get back to the story.

If you're knowledgeable about vampires and movies, you'll enjoy collecting the trivia references and sly jokes. You probably won't want to read this one on your lunch break, but if you have a beach vacation coming up, *Vampyres of Hollywood* is lively, undemanding entertainment.

I wasn't expecting much when I bought this book at an airport bookstore. This is good, because "not much" is exactly what it delivered.

Starting with the "forget everything you know about vampires" cliche at the beginning, all the way up to the ridiculously cheesy "Eat THIS, [...]!" one-liner from the hero once the bad guy is killed (and lets not forget the tacked-on romantic relationship), this entire book feels like it's made up of ideas stolen from other more successful vampire novels and glued together with themes from failed summer blockbusters. If I hadn't been trapped at 30k feet with nothing else to do, I would have tossed this book after ten minutes.

The 'Vampyres of Hollywood' book was released by Adrienne Barbeau in July of 2008*, similarly spelled 'vampyres' and not 'vampires' and featuring an iconic (Marilyn Monroe) looking vampire on the front.

As many of you know, the album 'Between the Lines & Beyond the Static' was released in 2006, featuring one of the band's more definitive and popular tracks, 'The Vampyres of Hollywood,' featuring Sarah Parks on the violin.

It was a concept record about the meida. It also featured a track called, "Monroe - She Put a Spell on Me," and "The Things I Could Never Change," which also appears to coincide with the more horror/psychological aspects of the book.

The record's underlying theme was obsession, the glamorization of addiction and the propaganda of spin and how we, as people, interpret these messages [based on where we are in our lives]; the stage was old-Hollywood.

Regardless, the similarities between the book's imagery and metaphor are striking.

I will be looking into this futher.

[...]

For now, do a little research and YOU decide!

What I find interesting is the TITLE of the book which coincides with a song Released by a Maryland Band called "Vampyres of Hollywood" which even had a song called "Monroe" on it. Is this a coincidence, or has someone NOT given a band, Skitzo Calypso, credit for their hard earned work on their CD?

Just wondering....