Book Description
The story of a remarkable woman's rise out of the foster-care system to attain the American dream—and of the unlikely series of women who lifted her up in marvelous and distinctive ways
Born as a ward of the state of Maine—the child of an unmarried Yankee blueblood mother and an unknown black father—Victoria Rowell beat the odds. Unlike so many other children who fall through the cracks of our overburdened foster-care system, her experience was nothing short of miraculous, thanks to several extraordinary women who stepped forward to love, nurture, guide, teach, and challenge her to become the accomplished actress, philanthropist, and mother that she is today.
Rowell spent her first weeks of life as a boarder infant before being placed with a Caucasian foster family. Although her stay lasted for only two years, at this critical stage Rowell was given a foundation of love by the first of what would be an amazing array of women, each of whom presented herself for different purposes at every dramatic turn of Rowell's life.
In this deeply touching memoir, Rowell pays tribute to her personal champions: the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, mentors, teachers, and sisters who each have fascinating stories to tell. Among them are Agatha Armstead, Rowell's longest-term foster mother, a black Bostonian on whose rural Maine farm Rowell's fire to reach for greatness was lit; Esther Brooks, a Paris-trained prima ballerina, Rowell's first mentor at the Cambridge School of Ballet; Rosa Turner, a Boston inner-city fosterer who taught Rowell lessons of independence; Sylvia Silverman, a mother and teacher whose home in a well-kept middle-class suburban neighborhood prepared Rowell for her transition out of foster care and into New York City's wild worlds of ballet and acting and adulthood.
In spite of support from individuals and agencies, Rowell nonetheless carried the burden of loneliness and anxiety, common to most foster children, particularly those "orphans of the living" who are never adopted. Heroically overcoming those obstacles, Rowell also reaches a moment when she can embrace her biological mother, Dorothy, and, most important, accept herself.
Ultimately, The Women Who Raised Me is a story that belongs to each of us as it shines a glowing light on the transformational power of mentoring, love, art, and womanhood.
Customer Reviews:
Review.......2007-09-07
This was a well written book. The author gives a heartfelt account of her life in foster care. She begins her story as a small child in rural Maine and concludes as an adult actress in Hollywood. This is a great book that deals with foster care, mental illness, achievements, and adversity in a young woman's life.
Wanted more of an autobiography.......2007-08-16
I know the title says the women who raised me, but I really wanted to read more about how she got into acting, what it was like to be on the young and the restless and work with dick van dyke. She spends many chapters about her ballet years, but doesnt mention what it was like to get into tv acting, which is really her career, not ballet. She is known for being a TV star. She did a great deal of research into her families/friends - I think too much. I had to skip many many pages because it got boring. She mentions her marriage, but never talks about getting divorced. I never knew if she married Wynton or not, had to look it up on the net. She doesn't get into her relationships with men much or her children. I got the impression Wynton was raising her son? but who knows. She seems very multi talented though and it was great that she put so much time into writing a book in addition to her other charities/career.
Intriguing,surprising insights about foucs & tenacity.......2007-08-10
This is an exceptionally touching journey through the life of a foster child that was exposed to a number of phenomenal women.
All their lives were woven together beautifully by the author [Rowell]and revealed that despite backgrounds that were so different, these women all exhibited determined, giving spirits through their own talents.
A must read!!
The Women Who Raised Me.......2007-07-28
A very touching story , well written and informative. So sad at times. I loved that there were pictures of these incredible women to put faces on the heroes! Inspiring too, that with love and guidance, our children can thrive in difficult life situations.
As a grandmother to a mixed race child, very distubing also, that we still have so far to go in the US.
A wonderful book.......2007-07-01
I could not put down Ms. Rowell's life journey. I knew very little about her, only that she was an actress in a soap opera. She is an incredibly strong woman. I have great admiration for her. She could so easily have turned her back on her painful past and distanced herself from orphans; but she chose not to. She embraces her birth mother and all who assisted her.
Average customer rating:
- good history of plots and stars
- A truly in-depth look at NBC's long running show.
- It's an interesting, informative, trivial book.
|
Days of Our Lives: A Complete History of the Long-Running Soap Opera
Maureen Russell
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
 General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Soap Operas
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Movie Tie-Ins
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Art Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Nonfiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Reference Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Like Sands Through The Hourglass
-
Days of Our Lives: The Complete Family Album
-
All The Days Of My Life (So Far)
-
Days of Our Lives: A Tour Through Salem
-
Days of Our Lives: Love Songs
ASIN: 0786401125 |
Book Description
On November 8, 1965, Days of Our Lives debuted on NBC. Through extensive research, including the first-ever examination of the show's archives, and interviews with cast members, writers, producers and production personnel, the show's history is told here. This reference work provides a complete cast list from the show's debut through 1994, as well as the most comprehensive storyline of the show ever available.
Customer Reviews:
good history of plots and stars.......2007-01-10
This book is a must have for all you newer Days fans who want to know what happened up to 1995. Also it has family trees and history of the making of the show. It helps explain Patch"s history in the story line and so much more on dozens of other people. Makes you feel like an expert on the whole show.It starts at the very beginning and had to end at 1995, but maybe some one will write part 2 for the years 1996 to 2007, I hope.
A truly in-depth look at NBC's long running show........1999-03-16
A must for any fan who longs for a return to the enticing storytelling that was once the hallmark of daytime drama. Amazing photos, unbelievable detail... well worth every penny.
It's an interesting, informative, trivial book........1999-02-19
I liked how this book was divided into about 6 chapters. The book explanins about how the show was first started, how the fans have always supported it, and the whole storyline. I have only been watching Days for about 2 years, so when I read the storyline, it was really confusing, but I am trying to follow it. It doesn't have any color pictures, and the pictures it does have are mostly of the older families on Days. This book does, however, give you a good background, and it doesn't really leave anything out dealing with information. It also has family trees in the back so you can be sure about the Days generations. You can learn some real trivia from this book. If you want history, and trivia, get this book. It will soon become one of your most treasured posesions.
This book should be well worth your money when you begin reading it.
Book Description
Behind Procter & Gamble's wholesome image is a control-obsessed company so paranoid that Wall Street analysts, employees, and the chairman himself refer to it as "the Kremlin." P&G's wealth and power ensure that it gets what it wants, from tax breaks to the eager services of Washington lobbyists.
In this explosive expose, Wall Street Journal reporter Alecia Swasy tells the chilling story of life within P&G.
Wonderfully readable, impeccably researched, Soap Opera is a sobering look at the price of success in American business.
Customer Reviews:
"A Thoroughly Nasty Business Concern".......2004-03-09
The following statement, from the preface to C. S. Lewis's "The Screw Tape Letters" could serve as a trenchant summary of all that Ms. Swasy has to say about Procter & Gamble:
"The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern."
Something is Rotten in Cincinnati.......2004-03-09
The kind of writing you would expect from a writer at the Wall Street Journal, the best written and edited newspaper in America. This book tells it all, and you need to read it: Something is rotten in Cincinnati.
Why people hate big business.......2003-12-12
"Soap Opera" recounts what one hopes to be, though perhaps optimistically, a particularly bad period in the history of one of America's largest corporations, Procter & Gamble in the '80s and early '90s, when led by succeeding CEOs John Smale and Ed Artzt, the company ran afoul of environmental laws, consumer safety, common sense, and basic human decency in truly arrogant fashion. To read the story comprehensively laid out by Alecia Swasy is to gape in astonishment at the true measure of human depravity in search of the holy buck.
Does Swasy have it in for P&G? Yeah, but so would you if you were a journalist and your subject was breaking the law to trample on your rights while you tried to do your job. Things got so out of hand as P&G launched telephone record investigations and had ex-employees brought to Cincinnati police stations to explain why they were talking to a reporter, that the ensuing coverage sparked a national outcry. Pundits and cartoonists weighed in about the KGB tactics of people who make laundry detergent and toothpaste. When finally brought to heel by indignant shareholders, CEO Artzt shrugged and called it a mistake. "The only thing he regretted," Swasy writes, "was getting caught."
Swasy was clearly embittered by her experience, and when her narrative flies into polemical flourishes, as in the Epilogue ("[Critics] refuse to buy the Ivory-pure image so carefully cultivated by P&G's years of marketing. We should all do the same"), the book is poorer for it. She does a great job describing, through the voices of mostly anonymous insiders, the noxious work environment of P&G for its employees (and you don't have to be a "Proctoid" to relate to the Dilbert-in-the-Death-Star picture she paints), then editorializes on how P&G advertising nurtures enduring cultural "myths" about a woman's place being in the home. Frankly, this latter angle comes up lame. P&G advertising reflected the culture for years, it sold product, and it has been adjusted to fit contemporary mores, as Swasy notes (just not enough for her liking.) I don't know whether it's so awful the role of the female was once rather more rigidly defined than it is now, but dumping much of the blame on P&G's doorstep seems excessive. Marketing to lesbian soccer Moms in the 1940s would probably have not helped P&G achieve its present level of success.
Where Swasy's book is strongest is the account of Rely, the tampon whose ingredients could cause toxic shock, and were directly responsible for the deaths of several women in 1979-80. Despite the accumulation of evidence, P&G went forward with its marketing. As recounted in a chapter of the book "Guerrilla Marketing") that should be required reading in corporate ethics classes, CEO Smale even planned to roll out a deodorant version of Rely while his underlings worked to silence researchers (mostly successfully) with generous grant money. The chapter is particularly good when it recounts how one trial lawyer and a bereaved husband he represented forced P&G to pay ridiculously low damages and put needed heat on the effort to establish P&G's culpability. Never mind, though. Swasy reveals later on that P&G's lab boys were concurrently doping out how to add the same toxic chemical to diapers.
There are other good chapters on P&G's arrogant practices overseas, its inept handling of domestic retailers (not just the small fry but WalMart, too!), and its stranglehold on a Florida community living around a river P&G polluted. Sometimes, as with the Florida case, Swasy seems too eager to embrace anything the critics dish out, and her noting the death of the P&G snack food Pringles [as of the book's publication in 1994] appears in retrospect to have been premature.
But overall, "Soap Opera" is a solid addition to business journalism. Books like this one only make you look a little deeper than your coupon stash in thinking about what products you buy. And that's a good thing.
Horrendous Company.......2003-09-16
I always thought that P&G was a horrible company because they refuse to stop animal testing, but after reading this book I am certain that P&G is a horrendous company.
P&G started out as a small company, giving people steady employment even through the Great Depression. The people who worked there felt that they were respected and believed they had a job for life. Unfortunately that wasn't to be. Working at P&G soon became a nightmare for a lot of people, especially women and minorities. Women were discouraged from wearing skirts, even during off hours because management wanted them to avoid showing skin. Employees actually had to get their hair cut when their boss thought it was a bit long. No personal items were allowed at your desk and one former worker was even scolded for "not walking fast enough"
P&G was and still is notorious for its blatant sexist ads. Women were made to feel guilty if her family's clothes weren't white or the dishes weren't sparkling. In the 70's, P&G introduced Rely tampons, made of super absorbent fibers. What they failed to tell people, was that they were made with cancer causing agents. At one point P&G was receiving 177 complaints a month, but still did nothing. Women were dying from Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) but P&G still assured people that their products were safe. Even knowing this, P&G continued their plan to support Rely and build its share to leadership status.
P&G doesn't seem to care who it hurts, just as long as their products are dominating the market.
Are they all doing the same practice?.......2002-05-30
Since our life is short, one way to learn and to know more is reading other people's life and company's history. I find big firms building image, brand and products in order to get people's money. Therefore, they all have to protect image and recoup the investment. SO that is the ultimate goal, build the name, compete in the market, get the money, grow the business, make sure the numbers look great--if ends justify means, people and companies will keep doing this. It is no different from what famous people or politicians do . This shouldn't surprise anyone. We see it everyday but rarely that someone will actually write it down without getting sued. It would be interesting to read more about other big firms to see if they are the same.
I like the Chinese saying that, 'if you don't want people to know, just don't do it'.
It's a good reading,
Book Description
The perfect gift for the soap fan, from an award-winning daytime television insider with tongue planted firmly in cheek
Everyone knows soaps aren't real life. Or are they? Just in time for gift-giving season, here is You Know Your Life Is a Soap Opera If . . . Fast, funny, and far from implausible, this charming little book shares all the truisms soap fans will recognize from their favorite storylines -- and from life. Things like:
--Everybody has secrets. Everybody else knows them.
--Be kind to strangers. They are likely to be your family.
--No former spouse ever really dies.
--Never talk to yourself -- some scheming bitch will overhear and use it against you.
--If you marry for money again and again, it won't buy you happiness -- but you will have a great wardrobe.
--Don't reject a man because he's evil -- he could develop into a (smoldering, enigmatic, and/or brooding) romantic hero.
--You'd be robbing yourself of the full courtroom experience if you were not threatened with contempt at least once.
--Okay, the church burned down, the cake exploded, and your father was arrested for embezzlement while walking you down the aisle . . . Stop crying like this is the only wedding you're ever going to have.
Filled with knowing asides and the affection that comes with an intimate knowledge of the genre, it's sure to top soap opera fans' wish list.
Customer Reviews:
Right On The Mark.......2007-06-02
This book is dead on to what life must be like living in Pine Valley, Port Charles or any of the other mythical towns on the soaps.
I have been watching ABC soaps for 30 years and this book personifies the lives of the soap characters. Party of the fun of this book is trying to figure out which show/character is being discussed
Def. a funny summer read!
Wonderful suprise!.......2007-05-08
Received this book as a gift and really didn't expect too much based on the cover. What a suprise! Very funny and well-written observations of life based on classic soap-opera cliches. Even a non-soap fan could laugh along with this book.
Book Description
Entertainment-Education and Social Change introduces readers to entertainment-education (E-E) literature from multiple perspectives. This distinctive collection covers the history of entertainment-education, its applications in the United States and throughout the world, the multiple communication theories that bear on E-E, and a range of research methods for studying the effects of E-E interventions. The editors include commentary and insights from prominent E-E theoreticians, practitioners, activists, and researchers, representing a wide range of nationalities and theoretical orientations.
Examples of effective E-E designs and applications, as well as an agenda for future E-E initiatives and campaigns, make this work a useful volume for scholars, educators, and practitioners in entertainment media studies, behavior change communications, public health, psychology, social work, and other arenas concerned with strategies for social change. It will be an invaluable resource book for members of governmental and non-profit agencies, public health and development professionals, and social activists.
Average customer rating:
|
Good Times, Bad Times: Soap Operas and Society in Western Europe
Hugh O'Donnell
Manufacturer: Leicester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Popular Culture
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
History & Criticism
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Soap Operas
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
1970's
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
| Dance
| General
| Reference
| Theater
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Art Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside History Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Reference Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0718500458 |
Average customer rating:
|
Soap Fans: Pursuing Pleasure and Making Meaning in Everyday Life
C. Lee Harrington , and
Denise D. Bielby
Manufacturer: Temple University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Soap Operas
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Media Studies
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Situations
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Reference Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 1566393299 |
Book Description
Do soap opera fans deserve their reputation as lonely people, hopeless losers, or bored housewives? No, according to C. Lee Harrington and Denise D. Bielby. These authors—soap fans themselves—argue that soap fans are normal individuals who translate their soap watching into a broad range of public and private experience. People who cut across all categories of age, gender, race, ethnicity, income, education, and ideology incorporate a love of the soaps into their day-to-day leisure activities.
Interviews with soap opera viewers, actors, writers, producers, directors, the daytime press, and fan club staff members reveal fascinating details about the inside world of fandom and the multitude of outlets for fan expression—clubs, newsletters, electronic bulletin boards, and public events. Numerous examples illustrate the pleasure fans derive from critiquing characters, speculating on plot twists, and swapping memorabilia.
Examining the experiences that shape fan culture, Harrington and Bielby analyze the narrative structure and various aspects of the production of the soaps. Their examination reveals that the "meaning" of soaps is complex, individualized, and not simply a reflection of the narrative content of the stories. The authors show fans who actively contemplate what it means to be a fan, and who adjust their level of involvement accordingly.
Customer Reviews:
Gotta read.......1999-12-27
This book was great and I can't wait to read it again
A *MUST* READ FOR ANY FAN OF "THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS".......1999-10-02
As a huge fan of the Y&R from its inception, I was very entharalled and delighted with this book. It is a *MUST* read for any fan of this show. Not only does it take you down memory lane, but it refreshes the memory of many story lines.
I thought it was a great and informative book........1999-01-13
This book told of the trials and tribulations of the characters of the past. It helped new viewers to catch up on the events of the past, while taking life long watchers on a trip down memory lane. Great Job!!
Average customer rating:
|
Dark Shadows Episode Guide (Dark Shadows Fan Club)
Dark Shadows Fan Club
Manufacturer: Dark Shadows Fan Club
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Soap Operas
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
1950's & 1960's
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Art Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0317056220 |
Book Description
Episode guide for the original gothic television soap opera from the 1960s "Dark Shadows" with the character Barnabas Collins.
Average customer rating:
- I loved this!
- Great Book!
- Such a disappointment
- Entertaining Read...
- SO much better than expected.....
|
Soapsuds: A Novel
Finola Hughes , and
Digby Diehl
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Comic
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Soap Operas
| Shows
| Television
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Oakdale Confidential
-
Carpool Guy
-
The Perfect Manhattan: A Novel
-
Mine Are Spectacular!: A Novel
-
WASHINGTONIENNE, THE
ASIN: 0345470826
Release Date: 2005-06-14 |
Book Description
Passion, power, sex, betrayal, and seduction–it’s all in a day’s work.
Having escaped to Hollywood after catching her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, London stage actress Kate McPhee is offered a gig on the popular daytime television series Live for Tomorrow. As Devon Merrick–police detective, car crash victim, and love interest for at least two men–she knows all the secrets and sins pulsating in fictional Hope Canyon. But the real drama is off the set, where the soap is indeed slippery.
Enter Meredith Contini, the show’s power-wielding diva. Meredith has two rules: Know your place and Stay in it. Kate broke both on day one, which is why she suddenly found her character switching sexual orientation. That brilliant solution came from Daphne del Valle, the show’s barking-mad obsessive/compulsive producer, who drives herself and her actors to enthrall the audience. (“Sell the hurt. Sell the rage. Sell the hunger. Sell the looooooove.”)
As gay detective Devon Merrick, Kate is a smash. The show is a hit. Kate’s private life seems to be becoming something of a drama itself. Especially since everybody thinks she really is gay, which is a problem since she thinks the best cure for her real-life broken heart is to get a man into her bed. But who? Kirk, her sexy, tan, and talented leading man, is boffing Meredith. There’s Matt, the magician who makes her tea, but will her fourteen-hour days keep them from the promise of tangled sheets? And there’s Wyatt, her handsome new co-star, who Kate believes is the great love of her life. Except that he’s married, and his
wife, Christine, is Kate’s new makeup artist and the one sane friend she has made in Los Angeles.
As the line between television and reality blurs with increasing speed, tension tightens and passions surge. Does Wyatt want Kate as much as she wants him? Will Christine find out? Will Kate lose her new friend? Will Meredith finally have Kate fired? Will Kate ever get to “come out” as heterosexual on the set? Are her steamy kiss scenes fated to be only with beautiful women?
Emmy Award—winning actress Finola Hughes whips up a frothy, scathingly funny novel worthy of any afternoon time slot in this delicious romp that takes readers through the twists, turns, and dish that drive the madness that is daytime television.
Customer Reviews:
I loved this!.......2006-12-02
Bravo! Soapsuds was such a delight. It is so much fun to read a book about soap operas. It has so many cliches about soap operas. Everything from the hunks that are required to take their shirts off to the constant recastings!
My favorite parts are when the diva of the show, Meredith Contini, is around. She represents many of the divas that have been on their shows form many years, for example, Susan Lucci or Deidre Hall. The scenes in which she is hysterical about her character being aged is a laugh riot. It reminded me of rumors about Susan Lucci and Sarah Michelle Gellar not getting along because AMC (All My Children) gave Erica a teenage daughter.
Great Book!.......2006-11-28
This book is so funny! I loved the book so much that I bought it on Audio CD also which is narrated by Finola Hughes. If you watch soaps you will love this book. Even if you do not watch soaps you'll love it because this book is well written, light, engaging and funny!
Such a disappointment.......2006-07-14
Oh my how I really wanted to like this book. I am a person that with a good storyline and great writing I could read a book in a day's time; it took me over a month to get through this book and I was on vacation for a week!!
I found it very difficult to follow and to keep track of the players when we are constantly waffling back and forth between real names and stage names. And I feel there were too many characters to keep track of but I guess that's just the way with a soap opera.
I also found the story to be quite depressing. I felt bad for the lead character but then she's going to turn around and do the exact same thing to her best friend?
Maybe I was not taking the book in the light it was intended, maybe I missed the boat but this one sank as far as I'm concerned.
Entertaining Read..........2006-03-07
Soapsuds is an entertaining book which is basically about life on a soap opera. The main character; Kate, is on Live For Tomorrow dealing with all sorts of interesting people. She moved to LA after finding her boyfriend and best friend together. She's desperately trying to get over that and move on with her life. The book reminded me a lot of the movie Soapdish because it dealt with one main person and the main characters interactions with the other people on the show. I felt that at some times there were too many people in the story which made it hard to follow. Also, I wasn't crazy about the ending because I felt that it wasn't really thought out. Even though, it was an entertaining escape from reality.
SO much better than expected............2005-11-16
I picked up the audiobook of Soapsuds expection to be amused, but nothing more. I was really pleasantly surprised, this book is surprisingly funny and well-written. The story centers on Kate McPhee, a Bristish stage dancer and actress who takes a job on an American soap opera, Live For Tomorrow (just like the author, Finnoula Hughes). The result is part fish-out-of-water story, part coming of age tale. It truly doesn't have much of a plot, but following Kate's experience is still vastly entertaining. Sometimes the Alice in Wonderland references get tiresome, but that is the basic theme of the book.
The first day at work, Kat's impressive acting skills earn her attention of the show's over-the-top alpha female producer, Daphne, but also the show's resident diva, Merideth Contini. The resemblance between Meredith and Hughes' real-life former co-star Susan Lucci is uncanny, and even the characters have similar names- Regina Abel and Erica Kane. (Get it- Cain and Abel?) The detestable Merideth's jealousy and divalike tantrums get Kate's character, Detective Devon Marrick, switching sexual preference straight away. But the change makes newcomer Kate more popular than ever, and leads to a big level of fame for her that she has a tough time getting used to.
Throughout the book, we go through Kate's friendships with other cast members, as well as her relatioonships with men- or rather, the barely-there relationships that can exist when she works 12+ hours a day. She had her heart broken by her ex in London, and he eventually shakes her up further by showing up in LA. There is also a magician, a writer with 4 dogs, and finally, a married co-star who Kate falls for, who happens to be married to her best friend. The rest of the book is just a dishy behind-the scenes look at the soap opera world, but it is fascinating, and comes from someone who knows her stuff. The characters have surprising warmth and depth, and Kate is a very likeable and actually relatable. The narrator of the audiobook is fantastic, and is wonderful at doing vioces. Overall, a great listen.
Books:
- The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir
- Time Warp Trio: South Pole or Bust (an Egg) (I Can Read Book 3)
- Too Much Tuscan Sun: Confessions of a Chianti Tour Guide (Insiders' Guides)
- Total Television: Revised Edition (Total Television)
- Ultimate Disney Trivia Book 3, The (Ultimate Disney Trivia Book)
- Until the Twelfth of Never: The Deadly Divorce of Dan & Betty Broderick
- Video Engineering (McGraw-Hill Video/audio Engineering)
- Video Scrambling & Descrambling, Second Edition: for Satellite & Cable TV
- Web Services Platform Architecture: SOAP, WSDL, WS-Policy, WS-Addressing, WS-BPEL, WS-Reliable Messaging, and More
- What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001, in Words, Pictures, and Video
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Histology for Pathologists
- Childhood Language Disorders in Context: Infancy through Adolescence
- Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories
- The Master Swing Trader: Tools and Techniques to Profit from Outstanding Short-Term Trading Opportun
- Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future
- Back Roads
- A Year in Provence
- Accounts Demystified: How to Understand Financial Accounting and Analysis
- The Samaritan's Dilemma: The Political Economy of Development Aid
- Vuelo del cisne
Friends: A Love Story
When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race
My First Five Husbands..And the Ones Who Got Away
I Got Your Back: A Father and Son Keep it Real About Love, Fatherhood, Family, and Friendship
From the Heart: Seven Rules to Live By
