Gregory Books

As Eve sits in a jail cell, she wonders how her magic failed to warn her. Instead her visitor, Matthew Prithcard, simply stole her ability to speak. Once Matthew left, Eve decides to write to her extraordinary visitor, whom she has fallen for in a blink of an eye, explaining herself and her family.

Eve is the oldest of seven children sired by different fathers. Her mother Victory used her abilities to see the future to attain first prize in a cereal contest. To the chagrin of their new neighbors, Victory and her seven children move into a brand new house in a classy part of town. Instead of trying to fit in, the family enjoyed shocking their staid neighbors. However, this only made things turn ugly as their biased neighbors think the worse of Victory and her horde. Eve has her own child, a teenage boy who has been in trouble with the law and now lives somewhere on the streets. With her trial about to begin, Eve hopes Matthew will be more tolerant than most of the Londoners she has met.

THE CORNFLAKE HOUSE is a delightfully, offbeat tale about a family that emphasizes its differences from the norm even as that causes problems of distrust and hatred. The characters are mostly eccentric, but in a convincing way. The story line is entertaining as readers relish the various oddities of Victory and her children. Dr. Covey embraces that tolerance is okay but not enough. Acceptance and taking pleasure from our differences leads to fulfillment. In her debut novel, Deborah Gregory provides that message in an enjoyable tale.

Harriet Klausner

Written in a first-person narrative, Eve is the oldest of 7 children and the daughter of a exceptional woman, Victory, Eve tells the story of The Cornflake House children. Fathered by different men and raised by a single mother, Eve describes a non conventional family whose various talents are always at odd with the rest of society. Eve narrates this story from her berth in prison ~~ where she was accused of arson and of murdering her mother. How she got there and what happens after the court case are what makes this novel so unique. I can't tell you too much ~~ only pick up this book and read for yourself!

I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a first-person narration ~~ but this one beats all. Gregory writes very vividly and with imagery ~~ and she never lets you forget the plotline of the story. She keeps switching back and forth from Eve's childhood to adulthood, but the switch is done so gently as if she is a master storyteller. She is a master storyteller ~~ one of the best I've encountered in a long time. Since this is her debut novel ~~ I am anxious to read what else she has written.

If you are looking for a story about family ties ~~ I highly recommend this book. Eve will share with you her story and she won't disappoint.

5-8-02

This book in particular is probably the most interesting of de Mille's volumes for the general reader. It tells the story of her growing up in Hollywood, with some fascinating looks at her uncle C. B. de Mille and early film making, and her difficult struggle to get into dance. In addition, her writing is very charming and professional. You'll probably like this book even if you have no interest in dance.

But it is much more than history. It is a story of people and how several strong minded people, especially Mr. Bodenwein, shaped the paper into a community institution and made a difference. It is a story of the survival of The Day as an independent institution as it weaved its way through the Depression, two world wars, the death of Mr. Bodenwein, disinherited heirs, the paper's subsequent bureaucracy, the machine politics of this very ethnic town, the Internal Revenue Service and its reinvention as a modern institution.

Greg Stone, a native son, made New London come alive through his many anecdotes and opinions. And importantly, The Day (its writers, its management and directors) deserves accolades for enabling Greg Strong to write this book. No wonder it is the paper of record for New London and the surrounding county. As a former Day paperboy and New London native who reads theday.com from his desk in Los Angeles, thank you.

Sometimes you approach a book with great anticipation, and at other times, with an equally great apprehension. I approached THE DAY PAPER, by Gregory N. Stone, with both of those two mind sets in full operational mode. I was eager to read it, because the history of any daily paper that has been around for almost 120 years has the potential to be interesting. In addition, as a regular reader of The Day, and someone with a particular interest in the history of the area it covers, I had a built-in bias towards the subject. But there were good reasons to be skeptical, too. A history that's published by the same paper it chronicles? It didn't sound promising. What kind of objectivity could I expect? I braced myself for what might well turn out to be an eyeball-glazing puff piece. Well, I need not have worried. THE DAY PAPER is not only a good book, it is a sensationally good book. Gregory N. Stone has somehow managed to distill in its pages the whole multifaceted story of The Day and the community it serves in a way that literally pulls the reader along. There are surprises on every page. Gossip. Jokes. Wry insights. Even the occasional tug at the heartstrings, for the sentimentally inclined. Most significantly, there is no pandering, no glossing over of the more embarrassing details, nothing to slow down the pace or cause the reader to wonder what "really happened." The credit for this wonderful book (and I mean that--it really is wonderful) must go to its author, who has somehow found a way to piece together an extraordinarily diverse saga covering thousands of lives, hundreds upon hundreds of incidents, occurring over a century and more, and to give it a shape and a dynamic that impels the reader to want to know what happens next... and next... and next. The author has certain advantages going for him, and he has made good use of them all. First, he has been blessed with publishers who had the wisdom and taste to keep out of his way. As Stone describes it in his introduction, he was instructed to tell the story of the paper "warts and all," and he has done just that. Second, he has a subject that is compact enough to be seen whole, rather than piecemeal. He is able to treat the New London area and its newspaper intimately, so that the reader can follow a remarkably coherent story of the city and The Day as together they pursue their combined destiny from the post-Civil War era to the present. The third advantage Stone has going for him is that he has a hero, an extraordinary, almost legendary hero, the remarkable Theodore Bodenwein, whose rags-to-riches biography and lifelong commitment to New London gives the story its thrust, its moral center, and finally, its remarkable resonance. Bodenwein, who ran the paper for almost fifty years, from 1891 until 1939, was a newspaperman of remarkable ambition and brains, who grasped to a degree few others matched, the symbiotic relationship between a newspaper and its community. Like the more famous immigrant publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, he had a strong sense of public responsibility, and felt obliged to serve those to whom he sold newspapers. Bodenwein died in 1939, having fought innumerable battles to improve the city and to outsmart competitors (in 1900 there were three dailies in New London), but he was determined that his newspaper would not die with him. By the terms of his will, he made The Day as close to immortal as human ingenuity and the laws of inheritance could devise. Essentially, he disinherited his heirs, and locked the newspaper's ownership in a trust, so that it might always be able to protect itself from being gobbled up by some predatory chain. As Gregory Stone makes clear, Bodenwein's legacy is still very much alive, and a remains a cornerstone of the newspaper's culture. But as he also makes clear, his hero was a human being, not a plaster saint. Bodenwein led a full life, and Stone lets us in on a lot of interesting details, including his roving eye, his various real estate schemes, certain personal pecadillos, and the alacrity with which he was able to switch political affiliations when it suited his purposes. What does the book cover? Just about everything. It begins, in the style of Citizen Kane, with the death of the press baron Theodore Bodenwein, then flashes back to his arrival, as a five year old immigrant from Dusseldorf, to the little city of New London. Stone paints a beguiling picture of what it must have been like in the 1870s, when local boosters were already promoting New London's healthy climate, deep water harbor, railroad connections and strategic location as the perfect combination of factors for the metropolis of the future. (Sound familiar?) I was particularly taken by the description of Bertie LaFranc, the star attraction at Lawrence Hall, who billed herself as a "pedestrienne," and entertained local audiences by walking fifty miles in less than twelve hours along a course within the hall that had been marked out by a surveyor. (Apparently, it didn't take a whole lot to attract a crowd in New London in those days.) Stone's story continues at a rollicking clip, chronicling the ups and downs of New London and The Day, identifying seemingly unconnected events, and tracing the way things grow and change. We see how an apparently insignificant U.S. Navy coaling station, established after the Civil War, gradually grew into the most important submarine base in the world; we witness the launching, in 1904, of the world's largest ship, the Minnesota, at the Groton shipyard, which eventually metamorphosed into Electric Boat; we see how the advent of electrical power led to the development of trolleys, which in turn enabled The Day to expand circulation; how the founding of Connecticut College and the Coast Guard Academy improved the city's academic profile (while simultaneously playing hob with the tax base)....

The book takes place in the Baltimore area, and anyone who reads it and lives in Baltimore, will find themselves visualizing locations in the book. If you don't live here in Baltimore, it is still a GREAT read. I admire the way that Greg Yawman has been able to capture the essence of the Baltimore culture on paper.

Greg Yawman offers the reader an interesting, fast paced storyline that is "peppered" with vivid descriptions offering the reader a "spicy" treat that is savored like a good steak coooked on a grill and a glass of cold beer on a warm summer evening.

If you have not read this book, you are missing a truly enjoyable experience.

Yawman has captured the imaginations of us all, by leading us through his story with a stripper from Baltimore's Block, as the heroine we all would like to "feel"....... for. Greg gives you the opinion he has personally lived through many experiences from "The Block", leaving us to wonder if the dancer is really a fictional character or a memory from his misinterpreted past.

Greg may lose some readers with his use of some odd words, such as, sycophant and subterfuge, but as long as you have a dictionary handy, you can raise your beefy arm and give it a big thumbs up!