California Books

This item was purchased as a gift and as such I will never read it but it was a book that the recepient really wanted.

Travilla became a Hollywood star thanks in large part to his client Marilyn Monroe, gaining fame for his design of her costumes - but his art graced many familiar forms, and Hollywood Costume Design By Travilla provides an excellent display of his original sketches and creations. Monroe fans and Hollywood fans alike will relish this display, lavish with color reproductions of Travilla's art.

This book is so well written! Very entertaining info on the man, the industry & the personalities. Tons & tons of great photos & sketches!

This is another well-designed, well-presented book from Schiffer, known for its volumes appealing to collectors of various types of memorabilia. (I also own _Harrison Fisher: Defining The American Beauty_ and Kristina Harris' _Victorian and Edwardian Fashion for Women_ from the same publisher, both high-quality paperbacks.) Travilla may not be as instantly recognizable a name as Edith Head, Adrian or Helen Rose in the field of movie costume design, but his costumes are very definitely ones the viewer will remember. That sexy white dress Marilyn Monroe wore in her most iconic scene, in "The Seven Year Itch"? That's a Travilla design, and his sketch for the outfit graces the dust jacket of the book. The book is full of artwork, much of it in full-page format; photographs, both color and black-and-white, and sketches of notable designs. Travilla's most famous (and, judging from his remarks, his favorite) client, was Marilyn Monroe, but he designed outfits for many other actresses - and a few actors - from the 1940's through the 1980's, starting with Ann Sheridan (whom he became so close to that he nicknamed her "Aunt Annie") and going on to Emma Samms. This book isn't cheap new or used, but take that as a sign of its quality and desirability and do make the investment if you're interested in this field!

I really enjoyed this cookbook and all of its stories. I've tried a couple of the recipes (including the turkey for Thanksgiving) and they were as easy as promised. I'm glad I bought it and now I'm going to buy some for gifts.

It's about time that Hollywood's best celebrity caterer wrote a book. His food has been fabulous everytime I have had the opportunity to savor it. With these concise recipes, even a "room service only" musician like me can attempt to rehearse some of his world class cusine at home.

Great recipes and wonderful stories about Nick Grippo's experiences in Hollywood catering for celebrities. He answers the questions I'd ask, such as what did he make, who did he make it for, and what was the experience REALLY like. The book is fun to read and I received it as a gift recently. The photos of the food are just beautiful, the candid shots with the stars are fun and informal and there is not a stuffy tone to the book, which is why I like it. It was also quite candid and revealing -almost as if Nick is "Everyman" in an apron. The layout was most unusual. It's quite a beautiful and deliscious book and gave me a few insights into Hollywood, along with a lot of laughs and a few tears when i read it..

This book is a culinary tour de force that features a variety of tastes that will whet anyone's pallet! A must read as well as a must use. I highly recommend this book to anyone whose interest reach beyond the den of their house. Enjoy-I did!

While Harry Medved is clearly a movie maven, it isn't necessary for you to be one in order to appreciate what his great guidebook has to offer. For folks who live in California, there will be lots of those "oh yeah, I remember that" moments when Medved explains where a particular scene in a movie was filmed, like the carousel scene in "The Sting" for example (Santa Monica Pier.) But Medved goes far beyond the beaten track, recalling scenes from "Grapes of Wrath" on the Needles Bridge, and even making a stop north of Santa Barbara to El Capitan State Beach for "The Frisco Kid." The many places that are discussed are generally interesting in and of themselves, Hollywood aside. I certainly wasn't familiar with all the films mentioned here, especially the older ones, but the descriptions of the various destination points, supported by hand drawn maps and photographs, have piqued my interest to get out and explore some of the more obscure and overlooked spots around our state.

This book is thoroughly researched and also a fun read! Even if you live in Timbuktu and have no intention of visiting these movie locations, the trivia and backstories about the films and cast & crew are interesting and funny! I strongly recommend this both for film fans and anyone living in or planning to visit So Cal as an off-beat reference source and tour book.

Great book for people interested in movie lore and making a trip to LA or who live there and like to make day trips. Lots of information and the organization of the material makes it very user friendly, and easy to find again when you are driving or trying to show a friend.

I bought it for my husband who is a history buff and he loved it! In California our history is limited sometimes, but this opened up Southern California for him.

Armchair movie aficionados beware! Leave your remote control behind and visit hundreds of famous movie locations in person! This one-of-a-kind travel guide (very few authors can claim that) is the result of exhaustive research covering hundreds of film shooting sites and is a must have for anyone who loves movies and the great outdoors. I liked this book so much, I bought TWO copies - one to keep clean and one whose margins are already filling up with notes as I visit the places featured. Get this book and go touch Hollywood history in person!

This book is well worth the price for just the flyers alone. It is thick and large and in full exploding rock and roll color!! Many good Los Angeles bands are featured (Janes Addiction), and a few that never broke big but are still around (Rebel Rebel), and that is what makes this book the bomb. A Box Set CD and DVD companion will be out in 2005, featuring all the bands in the book. This book lets everyone in on the lifestyle that was the Sunset Strip during that time the 80's to 1990. I'm sorry I hadn't thought of the Idea first!!!

Great Pictures of some of the great forgotten bands of the 80s. This book is a must for people who lived or was in a band through the era and for people who would love to know more on those underground Glam Sleaze Bands. Well worth it.

You would be better off going to Metal-Sludge for this one! They sell it for same price, and you don'thave to get it special ordered. Try out Jizzy Pearl's books too! They are great!

I knew this book would be cool, but after opening it I really felt like I was living on The Sunset Strip all over again... I had to get my husband to go in my storage and bust out my Guns and Roses T-Shirt and my studded belt....
Anna

this is a fun guide to the wonderful city of Pasadena and the territory around it--excellent advice and comments about a city full of history, beauty and community

Hometown Pasadena: The Insider's Guide Writer Colleen Dunn Bates, a friendly Pasadena woman nearing 50, thought she had a good idea: to put together an upscale guidebook about her city -- a kind of travel book for people who live there. And given the intensely local focus of the project, rather than dealing with a big New York publisher, she decided to publish it herself, producing it out of her den and delivering it to stores from the back of her car.

Almost a year later, "Hometown Pasadena" has not only sold 10,000 copies, it has also turned into a small empire: Local bookstores, both chain and independent, Costco and even a hair salon now carry it, and Bates is branching out to other cities.

Bates' formula for the books is simple: "It's about how to really live in a place, and be in a place, and understand a place, even if you've lived there for 20 years," she said recently. "I've never seen anything like it. My model was to not have it look like a Fodor's guide."

Bates' book taps into the growing desire to conduct the business of one's life as locally as possible, in an era of crazy traffic, expensive gas and worries about the effect of a sprawling lifestyle on global warming. As Sara Nelson, editor of Publishers Weekly, noted, books about local topics and niche themes are thriving nationwide, helped in part by digital technology that makes it easier to self-publish books with a professional look.

"I think people are interested in themselves. As everything gets more global, the local stuff seems quaint and personal," she said.

"Hometown Pasadena" features well-illustrated sections on eating and drinking, cultural offerings, and where to take the kids, as well as less-typical features: several pages on the Metro Gold Line, a chapter on public and private gardens, and page-long interviews with key local players, such as architectural historian Robert Winter and Pasadena Playhouse artistic director Sheldon Epps. Bates and her four co-authors also know enough to treat the city as the bull's-eye of a cluster of communities that includes Sierra Madre, Eagle Rock and most of the San Gabriel Valley.

Bates' decision to publish on her own press comes from her experience with the New York publishing world, beginning in the early '80s when she edited a series of French-originated guidebooks for Simon & Schuster...
By handling "Hometown Pasadena" herself, she was able to use local talent not only in its creation but in its sales and promotion. One of her co-authors, Sandy Gillis, has kept the book supplied at her hairdresser.

Even more surprising, Bates has gotten the book into a Pasadena Barnes and Noble, despite the difficulty of small presses reaching the chains.

Bates also handles her press' non-bookstore distribution, which for months meant hauling boxes of books into her Subaru and driving them around town.

"I did it all," she said, "and have the chiropractic bills to prove it."

Some of the secret lies in Pasadena itself, the author believes.

"It's a very literary community, very educated," Bates said. "We have, outside of Powell's, the healthiest independent bookstore on the West Coast. There's educational institutions and culture and art and architecture. And food, and neighborhood identity. It has everything that makes for a complete community: There's a 'there' here."

Either way, it takes the right balance of size, cultural sophistication and local roots -- and possibly insularity -- for a city to be right for one of her books, Bates said. San Diego, for example, is too large and sprawling.
"Pasadena has a healthy self-image," she conceded. "It's in love with itself, and that helps."

Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times

I was surprised by this complete guide. It was so well written and amusing that I found myself reading it for fun! I thought I knew this town, but I learned so much about it's history, places I've never been etc.. I'm giving it as Christmas presents to my partners at work. I think they'll love it and it's great o have on the shelf for guests. X Chris

LA/So Calif travel books have always given this gem of a city only a cursory glance. It's about time Pasadena got its own book! This glossy new guidebook is chock full of everything Pasadena; it is beautifully detailed and highly entertaining. I am a Pasadena native who thoroughly enjoyed reading about my favorite haunts and discovering new spots to explore. Highly recommnend this for visitors or ex-Pasadenans who want to reminisce about their beloved hometown.

The title says it all: not only does this book tell you what a movie technically is made of (differences between film stocks, sound recording techniques, etc), it also tells you how the movie is shot (lighting, lenses, special effects, etc) but finally it also tells the deeper meaning of certain shots or sequences. Especially that last part is very interesting: with examples from Citizen Kane, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and many others, the author explains how the composition of the picture, movements and sound can communicate concepts like mood, emotion and relationships.

How Movies Work is an excellent introduction to the process and techniques of filmmaking. For any aspiring filmmaker or movie buff, it will introduce all of the intricacies from pre-production to post-production. Usually, the author's style is clear and comprehensible for the layman; however, there are moments when the text is burdened by the minutiae of the trade: trying to comprehend the definitions of film developing and editing practices is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, these moments are few and far between, and any dutiful reader will leave the book with a valuable wealth of knowledge regarding filmmaking.

What is disappointing, however, is that the book deliberately sidelines even a cursory overview of what the author terms "film theory." Admittedly, Kawin does not disguise the fact that he presents a bare-bones overview of the specific, concrete details regarding filmmaking, but a few pages on the psychological and abstract components of film theory would surely have supplemented the book nicely. Kawin argues that the most in depth analysis of film construction cannot be accomplished without a thorough knowledge of the production process, which is certainly true. While his book elaborately details the production process, it may not satisfy those who are interested in the theoretical constructs that deconstruct cinema.

As a final note, the illustrations are almost always beneficial. The text is, however, considerably dated. Films before 1986 are not included. The text discusses nothing about digital photography and very little about computer-generated imagery. Personally, however, in the age of DVD extra features, there is already a superfluity of this information easily located in the world of cinema, and the text does not suffer considerably from its absence.

You must buy this book if you want to find out how movies work, i.e., how they enrich our cultural experience and how they are made. Kawin's textbook is pleasantly readable by anyone interested in the cinema. It contains a wealth of information from film appreciation to film production (including explanations of various special effects!) to film studies. Every aspect of the cinema is clearly explained and illustrated with examples, and the book contains many still photographs, 96 of which are in color.

I think this is exactly how a "how-to" book should be written. I only wish it had been updated to reflect advances in the 1990s -- this book was first published in 1987 and reprinted in 1992.

Kawin is by far one of the brightest minds in film literature and theory today. His text brings the background of film to light and stresses the importance of all aspects of the cinema. This text is an excellent resource for any student of the cinema.

I'm interested in buying foreclosure properties. I've read many books on buying foreclosures but none gave me a better understanding of the whole foreclosure process. Mr. Jensen has a clear, concise writing style that does not leave out the details.
As somewhat of a novice in real estate, I hate the books that are written in a manner that seems to assume you have as much experience as the person writing the book and proceeds to leave out the details that could get a plan of action going. Mr. Jensen assumes nothing, it's all there.
I would hands-down recommend this book to anyone who is facing foreclosure or, like me, just wants a better understanding of the process.
Good job Mr. Jensen.

After reading this book I was not only able to help myself, but have helped a countless number of others. This book is a must read for anyone facing forclosure, or is upsidedown on their mortgage.
Don Viggiano, Rancho Cucamonga, calif.

This is the only book I could find that presents all the foreclosure options -- and it is written in a way that is easy to understand. No other book presents so much information in such an easy-to-use format. You can find remedies for your specific situation in minutes. I think it is a must for anyone who is facing foreclosure or for professionals who advise people on how to stop foreclosure and/or lower their mortgage payments.

Anyone facing foreclosure will find more than enough information in here to deal with it effectively while maintaining their dignity. The author looks at this subject from practical, legal and emotional viewpoints. They are all accurate and very helpful. The author's compassion for people and this subject is obvious.

This book would not even be needed if California (also known as...Kalifornia, and PDRK...The Free Peoples Democratic Republic of Kalifornia.) did not have such a hard time with the phrase "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED." I just could never understand the concept of "gun control." Since law-abiding citizens police themselves, and criminals ignore the law, why bother? John Lotts book "More Guns, Less Crime", is a very good read. And it shows the disinginous argument of gun control. Which boils down to people control, not crime control.

Gun laws are such a mess, even the most conscientious citizen will have trouble figuring out what is legal and what isn't. In addition, the subject is so culturally polarized, it is impossible for those with a strong opinion on the subject to give a clear answer to common questions. Enter this great book. Too bad it's not available for the other 49 states...

If you live in California and own a gun, this book is as necessary as a first-aid kit and a fire extinguisher in your home.

The author uses common everyday English to explain the web of firearms laws in California. It is complete with examples and court cases that define the current legal condition in the state. This is a very easy book to read and is a must for every gun owner whether you're a firearms expert or considering buying a firearm for self-defense. I bought 10 of these books for friends and family last Christmas.

This is an excellent book about a Sacramento woman who did away with many people and written by a reporter that really got to know her and wrote an exceptional book on her. Gave away my first copy to someone else and then bought myself another copy. . . .

This is the story of the notorious Sacramento Black Widow killer who preyed upon the aged and the invalid in the 80s. Dorothea Puente used the weakness of our social net to exploit the less fortunate while stealing their social security checks. Running an illegal boarding house for invalids, she was able to maintain the illusion of respectability because the Social Welfare bureaucracy was simply to overworked to root her out. Although some did try to bring her to the attention of authorities when her charges continued to cash their checks even after they disappeared. Dorothea, a petty con woman turned mass killer, simply killed them and planted them in her well groomed garden, all without even batting an eye. Her cold blooded grandmotherly persona even allowed her to escape the police and flee to LA as the cops were digging up her yard. She simply walked away, escorted though the gawking public by the very police who were investigating her. While it is true that she was not a serial killer per say (since her killings were not sexually motivated) she still gives lie to the myth that women are less willing to kill to men. Her selfishness dominated her so completely she was unable to feel remorse, indeed, when caught red handed; she still tried to play the injured party and attempted to bask in the limelight. She worried continually about who would own the rights to her story and complained about all sorts of imagined slights, never once acknowledging guilt for her crimes.

One thing that I come away with is that Dorthea Dix said the elderly people died of natural causes . She said she didn't kill anyone. It's a thought. She's guilty of hiding the deaths & cashing their checks.

Great book about one of the most notorious female mass murderers in American history. Human Harvest is like two books in one -- the fascinating story of the woman who killed the people she was caring for, and buried them in her yard, and an indictment of our Social Security Administration, who continued to blindly send the killer the victim's checks long after they had been killed.

OK, so the author is my dad! It doesn't change the fact that any fans of the true crime genre will be fascinated by the story of the old woman who killed and buried those who were supposed to be in here care.

I finished reading David Fine's excellent book Imagining Los Angeles: A City In Fiction at just before 2 am this morning. I was reading in bed in my 1923 bungalow in Whittier, California. It was a quiet night. No winds blowing; even the neighborhood dogs were asleep. It was too humid and Fine's wonderful analysis of Los Angeles fiction had my mind going a mile a minute. I thought about going for a drive; maybe listen to a little late-night radio, but I knew my wife would worry if she woke up and found me gone. I finally got to sleep, knowing I'd have to type up this report as soon as I got out of bed this morning.

Fine's book is not encyclopedic; if you are looking for a complete listing of SoCal fiction, you'll need to look elsewhere. Imagining Los Angeles is an overview - an introduction, a history with examples - of fiction set in the Los Angeles metro area. The first chapter gives you a little background on the area. Then Fine takes the reader on a literary journey from booster fiction, through fiction in the 20's, hard-boiled fiction, tough-guy detectives, the Hollywood novel and finishes with more ethnically oriented fiction and Los Angeles as a setting for disaster. The book is serious - probably not a summer beach read - but it also kept me in rapt attention and didn't read like the textbook Professor Fine could have turned it into. In my opinion, this book should appeal to a wide audience - from the serious literary student to the pop culture buff looking for a little backstory.

A lady just walked into my office (actually, my three legged female mutt just hopped into the 1980 guesthouse behind the bungalow) looking for my attention, so I better end this report now.

Sincerely Submitted, agnostictrickster 13 August 2001

"Fine's research is extensive and thorough, his observations shrewd and penetrating, and his command of the political, social, and cultural matrix profound. A major contribution."--D. W. Madden, California State University, Sacramento--CHOICE, January 2001

This is a terrific book, that rare academic work that is both entertaining and instructive. Having grown up in L.A., but no longer living there now, I truly enjoyed revisiting the city of my childhood and young adulthood via all the stories and authors Fine discusses. Fine's writing style is clear and blessedly free of academic jargon. His treatment of a wide variety of books and ideas is nothing short of a tour-de-force. "Imagining Los Angeles" does exactly what good literary scholarship should do: shine fresh light on books and their authors and make readers eager to discover the books for themselves! (I've just placed a mega-order for several of the titles Fine discusses... )

"A short course in the essential literature of Los Angeles. . . . so full of punch and energy, so mercifully free of the impenetrable jargon that afflicts much scholarly and critical writing. Best of all, Fine sent me back to my old favorites with a fresh perspective, and he added a dozen titles to my own reading list."-Jonathan Kirsch, The Los Angeles Times