No comments about Animal Magnetism: At Home With Celebrities & Their Companions.

No comments about Elusive Rothschild: The Life of Victor, Third Baron.

1 comments about Rothschild Gardens.

1. A feast for the eye is The Rothschild Gardens by Miriam Rothschild, Kate Garton, and Lionel de Rothschild.

   With filial insight and love the granddaughter of the first Lord Rothschild presents a magnificently illustrated view of her family's private and public gardens yesterday and today.

No comments about Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Art of Century) (Art of Century).

No comments about The Autobiography of Henry Merrell: Industrial Missionary to the South.

5 comments about Day at a Time: An Indiana Girl's Sentimental Journey to Doris Day's Hollywood and Beond.

1. "What kind of book could rouse such heated reviews?" was my thought as I happened upon this book on Amazon. Doris Day is an icon in American celebrity history, and as such, has prompted many to write books about her. Why would one more book solicit such venom from some, and praise from others? Upon reading the book, I didn't find any dirty little secrets about Doris, and it seemed that Ms. Barothy was simply giving us a peek into her world as she moved from being just a fan to becoming Doris' assistant. The writing seems to come from a love and admiration Barothy had for Doris, and not an attempt to disclose closeted information. It's always a pleasure to go down memory lane back to a time where we felt more innocent and safe, and that was the feeling I got as I read this book. It was a step back in time for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed Mary Anne taking me to that place in my mind. I thank those of you who gave such scathing reviews because I would not have read this book had you not stirred my curiosity.



2. 
   5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Story, July 17, 2008
   By Margie Blumei (Atlantic City, NJ) - See all my reviews
   
   I just finished reading Day at a Time and thoroughly enjoyed it!
   
   While I've never had the privilege of meeting the beautiful and talented Doris Day, the next best thing was reading this fascinating memoir of someone who has! I found myself completely consumed in this compelling story of this young woman's dream to meet her idol.
   
   Day at a Time is filled with both cute antics and serious issues that the author experienced with Doris Day. A remarkable and loving bond developed between them and you will feel as though you were living this dream come true yourself!
   
   You will see how an earnest young woman makes her way to Hollywood and endears herself to her idol and how Doris reciprocates with admiration and seeks her assistance and ultimately her friendship. I was amazed how accessible Doris made herself to her fans. You will love it.



3. I have loved Doris Day since I was a little girl. So when I saw that a new book came out from someone who actually lived with Miss Day, I had to read it. I found it hard to believe some of the negative comments and they made me want to read the book even more just to see what all the complaining was about.
   
   I loved this book and have read it more than once. It gave me a sense of really knowing Doris on a personal level. I felt the author truly loved Doris and enjoyed being her right hand person. Doris Day is a very real person in this book and it makes me love her even more.



4. I am not sure why any publisher would have put this book out for anyone to read. The author is apparently a fan who once stalked Ms. Day. What I can not understand is why Ms. Day ever hired her. It smacks of utter betrayal by a close confidante who wanted revenge on her former employer after 30 some odd years. I agree with the people who thought this book was tabloid garbage, because that is what it is, and this sure shows alot of disrespect for a talented and beloved actress.



5. The entire synopsis of this book read like something straight out of a MGM vault; the author Mary Anne was a superfan, went to Hollywood and ended up living with her idol! Of course what formed was a loving friendship between Doris Day and Mary Anne.
   
   I know a lot of Doris Day's fans are slating the book and labeling it as 'an invasion of her privacy.' I didn't sense that anything was invaded. Doris penned her own autobiography 3 decades ago and went so far as to expose her 'persona' and her affair with a married man. I think the only thing Mary Anne exposes was that Doris had plastic surgery (and that is a bit obvious from photographs anyway) but apart from that what I sensed was an innocent bystander watching and picking up the pieces of her idols life.
   
   Some have said the author used a poison pen but if you read each sentence with an open mind you'll see that the original admiration and fan worship is still apparent to this day, it is more of a 'Doris done x,y and z oh no I can't believe she done it....this is why....' and there she is justifying Doris's sometimes lack of good sense or good intentions.
   
   It's a shame everything progressed as it did and one cannot help but wonder if another person had the final say, as we all know from Doris's own book and this one, that she was very impressionable and easily lead. Only the author really knows.
   
   This could have been made into a Mommy Dearest book but instead it reads like an A-Z of fan devotion and I liked it a lot.

1 comments about Red R Rendezvous.

1. I really loved this book because the writing put me into a city which I had never stepped foot: New Orleans. (And since Hurricane Katrina has wiped out much of NOLA this book can serve as part of its rich history.) The character development is superb; I really cared about each person, from the primary to secondary characters. The detail Ms. Crain gives to her beloved New Orleans paints an eloquent picture for the reader of the rich tradition of the French Quarter, the architecture and its unique people. Bill Holcomb, the book's main character, brings vitality into what is normally a depressing subject of the human excesses of addiction and its depressing toll on those whose loved ones -- even friends -- are affected. It's my personal opinion that RRR would make a great miniseries on one of the pay channels to fully explore the depths of each character without holding back the true feelings of those around them due of FCC censorship.

2 comments about The Person Who Changed My Life: Prominent Americans Recall Their Mentors.

1. A lot of interesting information about alot of our favorite public people. It makes us realize how important it is to take the time to input into the life of the young person that may cross our path in this life. You just never know who or what may come of it!



2. I have read both this book and that authored by Marlo Thomas. Compared to Thomas' offering, this one is shallow and poorly edited. Some of the contributors offered up not one, but multiple people who changed their lives. The net result is a rambling of thank-you's and very little depth...very much like an acceptance speech at the Academy Awards.

1 comments about Halle Berry: A Stormy Life.

1. Halle Maria Berry is one intriguing woman. Her story truly adds credence to the fact that looks aren't everything because her life has been quite a bumpy road, and she is often called the most beautiful woman in the world. Frank Sanello does a good job in telling us Berry's story; he includes very descriptive events and accounts of her life. One flaw of this book was the amount of times he mentioned Berry's beauty. Almost the entire world knows how good-looking Berry is, but he just brings it up one too many times. Put it this way; it's mentioned at least 20 times. Another flaw about the book is that a big Halle Berry fan would probably know most of the information in the book. For example, me. Although I was aware of many of the stories told, I also learned new things about her. Sanello got the vast majority of his infrormation from interviews and magazine articles.
   
   Halle Berry was born in Cleveland, OH to Jerome and Judith Berry. Berry had also been close to her mother, but never truly had a strong union with her father because he began abusing her older sister Heidi and their mother early on. He never abused Halle, but because of his abuse to the other members of her family, she stayed away from him. In this publication, we learn that Halle Berry will do anything to get what she wants for her career. Most of the movies she has been in, she had to beg, and do some very unlikely things to get her roles. For example, for her first movie, "Jungle Fever", director Spike Lee dismissed the idea of Berry being the crackhead. At first Berry begged and begged but Lee remained adament about not giving her the role. But, Berry didn't bathe for 10 days, removed all make-up and visited crack houses to truly get the essence of the life of a crackhead! We also learned about the flack Berry faced for not only starring in "Monster's Ball", but winning the Oscar for it!
   
   Berry's love life has been as difficult as her movie career. Her plethora of failed relatinships are talked about in great detail. One would think that a man would feel fortunate and privledged to have Miss Halle on their arm, and for a period of time they feel that way, but after awhile, the relationship spirals down. Perhaps the most mind-boggling aspect of this is her relationship with singer Eric Benet. There didn't seem to be a major problem in their relationship aside from the fact that he was "Mr. Halle Berry". But, after he married her, he became one of the biggest philanderers you'd ever want to see!
   
   This is an overall interesting read and made me respect Halle Berry even more. This book would be great for someone who would like to know how she got to where she is, and the struggles she faced upon getting there. She has, in a sense, lived a "stormy life".

5 comments about Natural Blonde.

1. This is a very entertaining book, full of interesting anecdotes about a wide range of people. Liz Smith is known as the gossip columnist who doesn't sling mud, and what a relief that is! In this age of tell-all tabloid journalism, she has remained a cut above and is all the more fascinating because of it. This is perfect reading that delivers one from the harsh realities of everyday life, but which is not at all escapist. Liz Smith has the gift of being in the right place at the right time with the right people and writing about it with graceful humor.



2. Oddly dull, considering the author makes her living by writing and that her writing is on gossip.
   
   I was surprised at how many times I thought to myself, "I guess you had to be there," in response to her narration of an allegedly wild and crazy party.
   
   I was amused when she noted how something or another she wrote created a "sensation." Perhaps they created a sensation among certain cliques in Manhattan or the Hamptons, but they didn't hit my radar screen. Just goes to show how each of us is the center of our own universe.
   
   Possibly the most irksome feature in the book was when she'd refer to "my friend so-and-so" [insert extremely interesting person's name here]in passing, without offering up any information about that person. Instead, she squandered many pages on the likes of the Trumps and others of that ilk.
   
   She kept my interest most when she described her childhood and young adulthood.



3. Liz Smith was gossip columnist par excellence but, no, she wasn't a natural blonde. The book is full of photos (half her life, she had dark hair) with the famous and infamous. She was the ultimate party girl in the early fifties in New York.
   
   She had a lovely mother but her two grandmothers looked like mine in Tennessee. Age was not good for women in the thirties, forties, and fifties unless they were rich and, though her father owned a farm and horses, they were not on the upper scale. She liked Tom Mix, the cowboy and never got over her desire to be a real cowgirl; kept his picture even through two marriages.
   
   Growing up in Texas, she had a lot of LBJ's 'bigger-than-thou' bravado. Seems to me I remember her at one of his press conferences but she claims the closest she got to doing a piece on the Johnson daughters for Cosmopolitan was a clandestine meeting at the St. Regis Hotel with Homer Busby, an aide to the president. She'd known him at the University of Texas where she was a journalism student. She says she was in her 'tart' dressing at the time, min-skirt and all.
   
   The photo display shows her with a plethora of important people always partying. She is shown with a young Barbara Walters, who describes her as "provacative without being vicious." She was not impressed with Sonny and Cher, put them down; guess they weren't "classy" enough. Sonny went on to become a Mayor.
   
   There are photos of her with Liberace, Truman Copote, and Bill Clinton. She had an active social life and was the Joan Rivers of her time. In 1976, she wrote a column for New York Daily News.
   
   A memoir is just that, memories we want people to know about us, and she furnishes a full plate. She sought a campy, bohemian life and had a ball fulfilling it on a large scale.



4. After reading this autobio, I feel I know little more about Liz than I would have from reading her resume. She chronologically recounts the passage of her life without revealing much about herself personally or emotionally. She gushes over most people. Most seem to like her too, but aside from her generous charity work, it's hard to understand why, since we don't learn much about her as a person. She conveniently elects not to reveal the names of those she wishes to protect, while having no qualms about publishing gossip about those she doesn't. The last portion of the book is marginally more interesting than the first.



5. Go. Go now and get this book. Lots of lovely yummy tidbits from a sweet-spirited, good writer. I'm not usually keen on memoirs, but not one page of the book bored me. A fabulous read and a great gift--for yourself.