1 comments about You Can Always Get What You Want.

1. I have found this book to be motivational, inspiring, and very practical.

   Aftert practicing some of the ideas, I have achieved success at work, in my social life as well as personal relationships.

   Now I have a better spirital understanding which allows me to relax and remain calm under stressful situations.

   Thank you Phil.

3 comments about Aaron Spelling: A Prime Time Life : An Autobiography.

1. Aaron Spelling claims he is a creative writer, but you wouldn't know it by reading this book. He quickly glides through his hit shows, bragging along the way about being the "first" to do many of the things in Hollywood (though often he is not correct about his claims). He uses superlatives throughout about his shows and claims 3 or 4 of them as his favorite or the one his is most proud of.
   
   Most distracting is that he includes in the book scripts from some of the shows--which feel like padding. He doesn't spill enough inside information on his life so he needs to make the book long enough to buy by including pages and pages of actual scripts from 90210, Dynasty, Charlie's Angels and others. Some film students may enjoy that, but for the average reader it is meaningless.
   
   He does tell a couple surprising stories of how he cheated others when he didn't have much money--but he never says he repaid those people once he got rich. He also doesn't go into his own wealth, other than to brag that he gives his wife lots of jewelry because he loves her so much.
   
   One thing that the reader does discover is that Spelling himself does not deserve the credit for many of his most famous shows--he merely helped get the show on the air or took someone else's idea and headed the company that produced it. The conclusion that the reader comes to is that this guy made a lot of money on shows that others created.
   
   There just isn't enough meaty material in this book. He is positive about everything he has done, everyone he has met and every show he has produced. Namely, the book is dull. And if he is such a great writer (which he brags about throughout the book), then why did he need a co-author for his own autobiography?????



2. Spelling gives a once-over-lightly review of his life and work. I have to admit I never watched his shows, at least not that I could recall - so I only had the book's description to rely on. After a while, it appears to be something of a stream of name-dropping. But then again - Spelling made most of the actors the household names that they and that their characters became, so I guess he's entitled.
   
   Spelling was basically a feel-good guy, at least that's the way he came across in the book. Nothing wrong with that, but because he really won't criticize or make any harsh observations about anyone he encountered (including types like Eisner and Orvitz) - that limits the depth of his observations and insights. Spelling obliquely observes that Hollywood is a tough town, but really doesn't tell us how tough it can be. Rather interestingly, he remarks that when one of his shows was cancelled - he would go home and spend a few days in bed with a bout of depression.
   
   The book is a worthwhile read if you want to get a sense of some of the history of television programming - Spelling produced something like 3,500 hours - by comparison, Dick Wolf's Law & Order, which seems to be everywhere - is only about 600 hours.
   
   I would have liked Spelling to be a bit more philosophical about what's involved in producing serial television, and his insights as to why his programs were such hits. But you won't find such insights in this book. About all he said in that regard is:
   > television is teamwork
   > hire the best writers you can and give them credit
   > look into the actor's eyes when you audition them - that will tell you who's good
   
   Since Spelling recently passed away, no telling if there is an update or additional biography in the works. I would hope so, and one that would give us more insights into the man, his times and his work.



3. Hi,
   
   I found Mr. Spelling's book entertaining, insightful and innovative because he candidly talks about his humble beginnings growing up in a poor neighborhood in Dallas, being taunted and teased mercilessly, and then discusses how hard he worked to get where he is today!
   
   As Candy Spelling, Mr. Spelling's wife and mother of Tori and Randy Spelling, argues in his book, they worked hard and deserve to live in a palatial estate. I couldn't agree more with her commentary. When you work hard, and do the right thing with the right attitude as Mr. Spelling has done, then you deserve to enjoy the fruits of your labor, so kudos goes to Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Spelling and their children for working hard and maintaining a strong work ethic.
   
   Anyone who is a fan of Mr. Spelling's work, will thoroughly enjoy this informative, entertaining and down-to-earth memoir.
   
   It's almost as if Mr. Spelling is in the room with you talking to you about his life.
   
   Very enjoyable! I give his autobiography the highest rating, which is 5 stars!
   
   Buy it, read it, and enjoy it because it's truly an excellent book to add to your library!

No comments about My East End.

No comments about William Henry Harrison (Young Patriots) (Young Patriots Series).

No comments about Helen Keller Facing Her Challenges/Challenging the World Read-Along (Another Great Achiever Read-Along Series).

No comments about It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

5 comments about Bound Feet & Western Dress.

1. This book was so interesting, I think I read it in less than two days. It shows the changes Asian women went through as history marched on. I had no other way of knowing any of this information, and it's so different from my own culture.



2. I found this book to be a compelling read. It does reveal, while the author is relating the life of her great aunt from China, a lot of interesting information related to the customs, traditions and mores of the old Chinese culture in the early twentieth century. Her great aunt was the first in old china to get divorced from her husband, after being abandoned by him .She was young, poorly educated, with two children, one of whom tragically died shortly after her divorce. She morphs from a poorly educated, dependent woman into a self-reliant,educated, successful woman, who eventually becomes a VP of the Shanghi Woman's Savings Bank and helps ensure it's survival, while Japan was invading Shanghi. Luckily, she leaves Shanghi a day before the Japanese take over and moves to Hong Kong. Eventually, she remarries in 1952 and then, after her second husband dies in 1972, she emigrates to the USA. When her great niece finds her name in books while she is studying Far East Culture while studying at Harvard University, she is amazed to find her great aunt's name listed and then decides to interview her, and thus the idea of the book emerges and is completed over many years. A truely unusual and compelling book to read for anyone interested in the Chinese culture, people and history. Quite a different read, inspiring and moving in many ways.



3. In the late 1990s, the Chinese-American Pang-Mei Natasha Chang wrote her first book entitled "Bound Feet and Western Dress," which accounts the life story of the author's great aunt, Chang Yu-i. The author was the first generation of the Chang family to be born in the United States. She wrote the book about her own search of Chinese identity in the American world and the tale of her great aunt's hard and interesting life.
   
   The book is broken into fifteen chapters, which describe the early life of Yu-i, the history of the Chang family, the life of the author herself, the lifestyle of women in China, the marriage and the divorce of Yu-i and Hsu Chih-mo, and the last years of Yu-i's life.
   
   One can understand the influence of modernity on the Chinese society and the Chinese women as one look at the author's great aunt as a traditional girl and her strength as a woman, why Chih-mo marry her, and the significance of their divorce in this book. "Bound Feet and Western Dress" is intriguing work and an enjoyable read.



4. Change can be a frightening affair, and looking back at change can be something that seems almost alien when beheld in the light of certain convictions. That seems to encapsulate the whole of the experience that Chang Yu-I talks about as she tries to explain something of who she is to her granddaughter, Pang-Mei, and it is one of the things that seemed to haunt me as a reader as I listened to Yu-I's tale. The chapters switch from Yu-I to Pang-Mei to give you and idea of how things have changed and to try to identify one person with the other, and I have to say that I found myself glued to the pages and not able to stop reading this book. At first I simply thought it was a story about a granddaughter wanting to explore her grandmother's life because she was the first person to have a Western-style divorce in China, and maybe that was her reason beginning the book. Still, the book goes well beyond that and touches on the dynamics of change and strength and how strong a person can be even when they think they are at their weakest.
   
   Honestly, I thought I could vicariously feel my heart cracking under the weight of some of Yu-I's confessions, amazed by some of the things she was able to tell her granddaughter.
   
   One of the best things about this tale is the detail that Yu-I goes into about China, and about the way things were seen in the past versus the way things became seen as war loomed on the horizon. Yu-I gives a great amount of detail about what it was like to be a child in a country like China, and she vividly recollects what its like to have one's feet bound and the reasons why this practice took place. All that breaking and rebreaking, the tying of the big toe over and over again; when I read this I cringed because it seemed so debilitating just to have a crescent-shape added to the foot. Furthering this are pictures in the book, showing what the feet actually look like when this happens - you can see the shriveled remains of feet that look almost mummified, and you can tell some of the extremes that went into making a foot look like that. Yu-I talks about the pain that's she, herself, experienced because of this practice, too; she tells her granddaughter about being three and having her mother try to bind her feet, and then talks about the torment of those moments and how it was her brother that made her stop this because he couldn't deal with her suffering. Yu-I goes on to tell of the pain that this caused her, too, with her always feeling as if she were ugly because she had "big feet" and "big feet" made a person almost untouchable when it comes to marriage. Still, she does marry the poet Hsu Chi-Mo and, for a time, she thinks this is perfect and learns the rites of being a wife. She cares for the mother-in-law, she takes care of the husband's family; basically she becomes a slave and thinks that this dedication is seem by her husband as love. It is only when she moves to a foreign country with her husband that she finds out what he is like and how she is alone, and when she understands that she is utterly abandoned she explains how it feels to want to die.
   
   There are other painful things in the book, too, things I can't disclose without messing up part of the tale, but I can say that when she is in Germany and loses something more dear to her than anything that this was devastating to read, making the book almost too heavy to pick up because its honesty was like a barb in the soul. I appreciated that, to be honest, and can say that I have read a lot of pieces of literature but that I have rarely encountered a person like Yu-I that both loves the world she lives in, understands the things that she has experienced, and even knows what forgiveness is like.
   While this normally would not be something I would recommend, it has my highest recommendation and the most humble form of respect I can give, thinking it an enduring read that really has something to say.
   I cannot give the book or the voice behind it enough praise.



5. Bound Feet and Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang is about a young girl who has a unique relationship with her great aunt, Chang Yu-i. She first meets her great aunt in 1874, at a family dinner. Chang Yu-i had just come to New York after having lived in China, and then Hong Kong. Several family members had come to these dinners in the past, but this was the first time Pang-Mei had met her great aunt. Pang-Mei explains how the family refers to Chang Yu-i as "half man" because of her strength and persistence. Pang-Mei grew closer to her great aunt as time passed, but she still knew very little about her. She first discovered some of Chang Yu-i's secrets while studying Chinese History at Harvard University. She learned that her great aunt had been married to a well-known romantic poet in China, as well as issued the first "real divorce" in Chinese History. After Pang-Mei learned of this, she asked Chang Yu-i about it at once. Her great aunt told her hundreds of stories about her life in China eventually unraveling over a long period of time. Pang-Mei and Chang Yu-i build a strong relationship together and learn about each other, as well as themselves. Pang-Mei comes to love and grasp the heritage she once tried to hide and Chang Yu-i understands herself better after having told her own stories. They are finally brought together even closer by a major phenomenon that takes place in the end.
   I found Bound Feet and Western Dress to be rather tedious. Personally, I find books that dives right into the plot to be the most enjoyable. Bound Feet and Western Dress eased slowly into the excitement. However, I found this book be written with great enthusiasm and detail. Pang-Mei Natasha Chang used delightful details that gave me a perfect picture of the context. On Page 9, Chang Yu-i tells her grand niece about the strict rules she grew up with, "Chinese paintings required admiration form above, Baba said, explaining that the perspective of Chinese paintings differed from Western ones. The best paintings were only hung when your grandfather, Eighth Brother, and I cleaned them, passing tiny feather dusters over the surface of the rice paper. Of all the children, you grandfather and I were the two that Baba allowed near his paintings, and her would hover behind us as we worked, explaining the genius behind a musty mountain landscape or historical portrait." This excerpt shows the details the author used to represent her great aunt's stories.
   The stories of Chang Yu-i told were also extremely touching. Not only did they paint a precise image in my mind of her life but were also genuine. For instance, when she was telling of her childhood and growing up with her large family her descriptions were beautifully written and conveyed. I loved hearing of her two favorite brothers personalities and what each of them gave her. I fully understood her thoughts and joy while talking about her brothers.
   Generally, I think Bound Feet and Western Dress is a thoughtful and well-written book. It is historical and educating as well as a good read. I would suggest it be read.

1 comments about Susan B. Anthony: Champion of Women¬s Rights, Library Edition.

1. Susan B. Anthony is an awesome book. If you like history then you should read this book. If you are a girl especially you would want to know who was the"Champion of Women's Rights." It gives you so much imformation.It gets you into what happen in her life, and how hard it would be to get a job back then. My recommendations for future readers is if you like history than this is the book for you.

4 comments about That Summer In Sicily: A Love Story.

1. This author can write! Her descriptions of people, environments, food and relationship are first class.
   
   Unlike the first three books that were memoirs of her travels and life with her husband, A Thousand Days in Venice, A Thousand Days in Tuscany, and The Lady in the Palazzo, this book is really Tosca Brazzi's story as told to Marlena.
   
   De Blasi descriptions of simple, everyday things are strong, such as: Unskilled, unshy hands pounded scales on the piano." I could hear the music and see that person working the keys.
   
   What an interesting story de Blasi tells because of her chance meeting with a woman, now in her mid 60s, while traveling with her husband, Italian born Fernando. Tosca, the nine-year-old daughter of a peasant under the last prince in Sicily, was given to the prince by her father in trade for a stallion. She was educated along with the prince's young children and as she grew, became their teacher. A priest who knew her in the beginning described her as having "splendid arrogance."
   
   At 18, Tosca became the mistress of Leo, the prince, now 36. When Leo disappeared mysteriously because his work for the people went against the local mafia, Tosco became an heiress. She carries on his work of modernizing some of culture. Sicily is like a major character in the book and we learn about many aspects of life there.
   
   The story today is of Tosca's role in helping women who are alone--many who come to the beautiful Villa Donnafugata (house of fleeing women) to live, and maybe to die.
   
   If you love good writing that is descriptive to the finest detail, read this book. In the first chapter she describes the ceiling of the dining room in the Villa: "Fragment of frescoed gods and goddesses--plump flanked and rolling eyes--hurtle across the high crumbling walls, giving chase up onto the great vault of the ceiling."
   
   The author has been a journalist, restaurant critic, and cookbook author. She took a trip to Italy, and there experienced a whirlwind love affair with a man and with Venice, inspiring her to write _A Thousand Days in Venice.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Not a memoir of de Blasi's life, but of Tosca's, however this is a good read you'll enjoy.



2. That Summer in Sicily is the fourth Marlena de Blasi book I have read. When I picked up the first one, A Thousand Days in Venice, I didn't take to it right away. I am a Texan who writes exactly the way I speak, and I am irritated by flowery prose. However, I am also a sensualist, in love with taste, aroma, color, texture and sound. These elements--these things that define a particular place--come alive for me in these books.
   
   Unlike her previous three memoirs, this story is not really about American Marlena and her Venetian husband. It is an almost unbelievable love story, a story about what it means to be Sicilian. As with most other adventures in her life, this one began with a writing assignment. Marlena was asked by a scholarly magazine to write a seminal piece on the interior regions of Sicily. Several people had already turned the job down, and soon she discovered why. Despite a meticulously drawn route and prearranged interview appointments, she was met at every turn with "misanthropic silences, closed doors and epic heat." Eventually she gave up.
   
   Marlena's husband had come along for the ride, and before wending their way down from the mountains, they decided to take a day or two to recover. Finally, a policeman responded to their numerous inquiries for a place to stay. "There is a woman called Tosca. Her place is Villa Donnafugata (house of fleeing woman), although there's no sign to tell you so."
   
   When they entered the gates they found what looked like a castle with sweeping gardens. In fact, it was nothing more than a hunting lodge, once belonging to the last Anjou prince in Sicily. Everywhere, they passed groups of women in long black dresses, laughing and singing as they went about their daily chores. A beautiful woman dressed in jodphurs and boots approached them. "I'm Tosca Brozzi. We'll be sitting down at one. I'll let you know later if there's room for you to stay."
   
   From one of the other women there, Marlena learned that Tosca had inherited the villa from the prince, whose ward she once was. Bit by bit, she had restored the place. For more than thirty years she had lived there with an assortment of villagers who had found themselves alone, and in need of other people. This sort of communal life helped them to stay well, to stay young. Babies were born there, some people died there. "We are all related by affection," they said. "We are part of one another's history. We are Sicilian." They grew and prepared their own food, cared for the animals and for each other. Though there was much work to be done, it seemed to be merely a diversion to fill the hours between meals. "We eat often and well here, signora," Marlena was told. It was a society she never would have believed could exist.
   
   "We never decide to stay but simply get caught up in the imperishable rituals and rhythms of the villa," wrote Marlena. One day Don Cosimo, a seventy-six year old priest, approached Marlena. He told her that he'd been the household's resident cleric and the prince's chauffeur when, fifty-six years previously, the prince had taken Tosca to live with him in the palace, a few hours drive from the lodge. "She was, even then, of that splendid arrogance. Leo claimed her when, I think, she was nine. Her beauty was already fearsome," he recalled. It was a common enough feudal custom, this sanctioned purloining of the children of one's peasants. Most people believed that the prince had requested Tosca. However, it was Tosca's father who'd offered her to the prince, in exchange for a stallion he coveted. And so Tosca was schooled by a French governess with the prince's daughters, tamed, formed, refined.
   
   Later, it was Tosca who approached Marlena. "I'd like to tell you a story, Chou," she said. "Oh, I don't mean right now, of course. But soon. It's a long story, you see... It might take a few days. A week... I want to try out my story on someone from another place. I want to tell it to you, leave it with you, I guess, knowing that you'll go away." And so it began, the unfolding of a saga that spanned decades. It is a story that explores the ravages of war, poverty, the origins of the Cosa Nostra, the responsibilities of wealth and privilege, the cost of defying rigid traditions, the meaning of love, and finding one's true place in the world. It is also a story of miracles.
   
   by Becky Lane
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. I have read and re-read A Thousand Days in Venice, A Thousand Days in Tuscany and The Lady in the Palazzo, so was delighted when That Summer in Sicily was released. It is another exquisitely-written, tender story of love and food in Italy. Di Blasi replaces the on-going love story of herself and Fernando with the stories of Tosca and the Last Prince and Tosca and The Widows. It is not only di Blasi's ability to create visual images with her words but more to evoke an atmosphere of timeless, genuine romance that draws one in. This is a woman totally seduced by food who can fall completely in love with an Italian man, whose idea of cuisine before they met was under-cooked pasta paired with over-cooked chicken breast and jarred sauce. This is a book in which to appreciate, understand and share the true joy of love. I can't wait for her next book.



4. I fell under Ms. de Blasi's spell with the trilogy (1000 Days In Venice, 1000 Days in Tuscany and The Lady In The Palazzo) and here is another book of delicate prose woven with insight and beauty. This type of writing probably isn't for everyone. One reviewer of a book she wrote was shocked that she could write about food without having step-by-step photos of preparations. How sad for that person that the whole purpose of her writing isn't about how to cook but how to enjoy cooking, how to enjoy the friends that will eat your food and how to enjoy life. This is a book by a writer who will transport you into another world - if you give her your time and hand.

2 comments about Ronnie.

1. I always found it fascinating to see and understand how greatness is achieved, be it in sports, art or in any other field of human performance.
   I mean it's great to watch and feel amazed at the display of perfection that some sportsmen are showing. But it's even greater to have their opinions, their inner struggles and comprehend the passions that form an intrinsic part of their performance.
   This is what I have been looking for in the book and it is what I found. But it is not all.
   The sparks of wildness that Ronnie sometimes shows at the snooker table, the often remembered sad story of his father's, his reported drug episodes and busts, along with his ever present passion for the game made me want to know more about him as a person, to hear his side of the story.
   Maybe the book does not deliver truths - it would be hard to do so-, but it definitely tackles profound themes like: what it takes to become a good professional, is it only talent, is strive for perfection beneficial in every respect, what are the easy cop-outs (smoking, drinking, eating, speeding) when facing difficult life situations, is it possible to reach an equilibrium between life and job.
   I think the book is ultimately a confessional therapy, it's about a man with a burden trying to uncover what has happened to him and how to deal with it. It reveals the humane, the regular side of the star.
   His book or his confession is a lot about people, his mother and father, friends, other snooker players. It is of course a biased account of them, it's full of care and praise for his loved ones, and somehow distant and cruel where his competititors are concerned. But the fact he does not look to hide how he is bothered by other players' mannerisms, which are only normal in every person, only underlines and reflects the unspoiled way of his account.



2. Ronnie is the greatest naturally gifted snooker player of all time .........He is an awesome and fantastic player and the only player that makes snooker look sexy !!! In his autibiography he takes a look behind the player Ronnie into the person Ronnie, he confesses about his depressed state , his obsession with snooker and the unfortunate incident about his dad..... ANY ronnie fan would LOVE it !!! And for those who r not into snooker u'd still like this book as it takes a inside look into the life on and off the table of the greatest snooker player of all time !!!!