Edie: Girl on Fire

Book Description

Model, film star, socialite, friend, lover, addict, Edie Sedgwick was the first "it" girl of the Andy Warhol Factory scene and later muse to Bob Dylan. The arc of Edie's life traced the rise and fall of the 1960s from idyllic experimentation to dissolute recklessness. After being toasted by the whole of New York City, Edie died alone of a drug overdose in California at the age of 28. David Weisman (with John Palmer) filmed Edie for the last five years of her life in his cult film Ciao! Manhattan. When he recently uncovered lost footage of Edie, David was inspired to create Edie: Girl on Fire, a book and a documentary film that explores Edie's true story. He and coauthor Melissa Painter have tracked down and interviewed many of Edie Sedgwick's surviving intimates, including Danny Fields, Baby Jane Holzer, and Ultra Violet. They also unearthed hundreds of never-before-published photos portraits, professional ad shoots, and heartbreaking snapshots of the girl who won New York's heart and nearly burned down the Chelsea hotel. The book also features a CD with Edie's last interview ever, a riveting account of a rollercoaster life. Sure to be seen as a rebuttal to Hollywood's highly fictionalized film Factory Girl (coming this fall), Edie: Girl on Fire creates an insightful and startling portrait of a woman that nobody quite knew.

Customer Reviews:

Superstar Edie!.......2007-05-13

I adored it...full of photo's I'd never seen before of Edie...new quotes, etc. Really gave me insight into her whole vibe & electricity. major fun! and it comes with a great CD with an interview.

The Girl Is On Fire.......2007-04-23

Edie: Girl On Fire is chalked full of rare pictures and new commentary from the people who knew Edie the best, her husband, friends & family. The co-author of the book, David Weisman, not only shares never-before-seen pictures of Edie but, also marvels at the Edie obsession some 36 years after her death. Weisman & Painter do an excellent job of portraying the real Edie through pictures & stories shared by Edie's family & friends. They don't romanticize Edie as being an victim. In fact, they show that Edie was just like the rest of us. A flawed human being who was trying to find a place in the world during a turbulent time period. Edie's flaws are not glossed over or explained away. Instead, they show what a disturbed and lost young woman she was. Weisman himself knew Edie personally for years. Weisman saw Edie at her zenith and watched her fall apart and ultimately lose her life because of her own addictions & obsessions.

One of the best parts of the book is the pictures. After years of seeing the same Edie pictures over & over, there are finally pages & pages of glorious "new" pictures including scrapped "Life" magazine photoshoots and newspapers covering one of the many fires that Edie started at various hotels due to her speed usage. Another awesome part is the cd of audio interviews Edie conducted towards the end of her life for what would be her last movie "Ciao! Manhattan!" (made by co-author Weisman). Edie talks about her many drug trips and her time at the Factory. She's candid, well spoken and heartbreaking. When listening to this cd of Edie's voice and looking at the pictures, you almost want the ending to change. You want Edie to pull through all this garbage and rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Just like any story, the ending never changes and there's really no happily ever after.

Edie: Girl on Fire Review.......2007-03-25

The book is filled with many great photos of Edie. Many I've never seen before. The text if fine, mostly quotes from many different people. I think I would have given this book a 5 if it contained more of a narrative type of text vs. many quotes.

Edie: Girl on Fire.......2007-03-21

This book is excellent. The pictures really tell the story of
Edie Sedgwick, '60's Warhol groupie, actress, model who lived a "roller coaster" life. Comments by those who knew her make the tale of her life
interesting & real.

Edie:Girl on Fire!.......2007-03-18

Hot coffee table book with lots of rare Edie interviews & photos! A must for all Edie fans & a great companion to the Ciao Manhattan DVD! Brilliant!

Average customer rating:

If I could I'd give zero stars
Garbage
Garbage
Too Many Factual Errors Plus An Annoying Ending
Skip it!

Such a Pretty, Pretty Girl: A Novel
Winston Groom
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375501614
Release Date: 1999-02-22

Amazon.com

Apparently satiated with the gentle, homespun charms of Forrest Gump, Winston Groom enters the decidedly more menacing realm of blackmail, revenge, and torture in Such a Pretty, Pretty Girl. Readers expecting guileless and unequivocal protagonists may find themselves shocked by Groom's purview; readers looking for stylish suspense, enigmatic players, and voice-over commentary like "No trap is as deadly as the one you set for yourself" may find themselves unable to put the book down.

The girl is Los Angeles TV news anchor Delia Jamison, a still ravishing fortysomething who has strenuously and repeatedly exercised her right to leave suitors bitterly heartbroken. Oblique, seductive, and often blunt to a fault, it seems that she has begun receiving lewd and vaguely threatening letters from--she postulates--a jilted ex. Enter another former beau, Oscar-winning screenwriter Johnny Lightfoot, who fortuitously bumps into her and is captivated all over again--not only by her beauty, but also by the mystery of her tormentor. When she presents Johnny with a list of suspects (i.e., past conquests), he resolves to unmask the letter writer.

Audacious almost to the breaking point, Such a Pretty, Pretty Girl is nonetheless good fun--literary candy rife with cat-and-mouse interrogations, neon clues, and campy misdirection. Though the story becomes increasingly implausible, it also starts to mirror its vacuous heroine: as the men who are ineluctably captive to Delia's beauty know, it's nearly impossible to look away. --Ben Guterson

Book Description

Delia Jamison is a gorgeous woman of a certain age and at the pinnacle of her career as anchor of a network news show in Los Angeles. But she is being blackmailed by someone she is certain is one of her former lovers. Terrified to go to the police for fear the story will leak and cause a scandal, Delia's at her wit's end when she accidentally runs into none other than one of those former lovers, Johnny Lightfoot, whom she hasn't seen in nearly twenty years. Johnny is now an Academy Award-winning screenwriter living in New York and L.A. who feels the old emotional attraction for Delia rising again. Even though she's recently married, Delia mysteriously seems to encourage Johnny's interest.

Since she won't go to the police, Johnny agrees to help her find the culprit, which means she has to produce a list of the suspects. And what a list it is: moguls on the New York Stock Exchange, fancy lawyers, a stellar Ivy League professor--even a United States senator. As Johnny's investigation delves deeper into Delia's past, it exposes more than he ever wanted to know; meanwhile, the blackmailer rachets up his dangerous game. As the story moves to its frightening climax, Johnny Lightfoot finds himself entangled in a web of deceit and savage sexual violence that makes him wonder if he ever really knew Delia at all.

Customer Reviews:

If I could I'd give zero stars.......2006-03-01

As many have already said, this book is just plain bad. Right from the beginning it was a big bore. Not a page-turner for me. I stopped reading about a quarter of the way through. So happy I didn't pay for it (library)!!

Garbage.......2001-04-17

This book is not worth reading, not worth carrying home from the store, and not worth the money I paid. How could anyone enjoy a book without a single likeable character.

Garbage.......2001-04-17

This book is not worth reading, not worth carrying home from the store, and not worth the money I paid. How could anyone enjoy a book without a single likeable character.

Too Many Factual Errors Plus An Annoying Ending.......2000-07-12

This book contains some simple factual errors that make one doubt the concentration of both author and editor. For example, on page 131 the arithmetic is all wrong. The original payment to the service was $180 per hour and Delia got $60 of that. The subsequent direct payments to Delia's post office box were $50 per hour, which is certainly not 3 times $60 as stated. Seems she actually gave herself a cut in pay, which might also be appropriate for the author/editor. The suspense of waiting until the end of the book for revelation of 'what Delia did' kept me interested through some rather repetitious and boring episodes. However - there was no revelation! The secret was never revealed to the poor sucker reading the book. I was annoyed by this at the time, and still am a day later. I can only be grateful that I got this book from the library and didn't spend any money on it.

Skip it!.......1999-10-21

As I love a good suspense novel, I bought this book based on the jacket synopsis and was deeply disappointed when I finished reading it. I found all of the characters completely unlikeable and underdeveloped, and towards the end I didn't care WHO was blackmailing Delia. I also found it completely unbelievable that every man Johnny spoke with during his investigation had no problem immediately opening up to him about Delia. It's implausible that each would share intimate details to a complete stranger who thinks they may be a blackmailer! I, too, found the movie character/actor references annoying. Finally, I was perturbed that the author chose not to reveal Delia's secret sexual "tricks" after going on and on about them throughout the book (couldn't think of anything spicy enough?) In all, I found this book to be boring and not quite the page-turner I was hoping for. If you want a real sexual, suspenseful, who-done-it, check out Romeo by Elise Title.

On Her Trail: My Mother, Nancy Dickerson, TV News' First Woman Star

Average customer rating:

Insight into Hidden Washington
A Balanced Book
One never knows----
Moving account of the evolving relationship of mother and son, with some "West Wing"-style 60s and 70s political insights
A Lovely and Rich Book.

On Her Trail: My Mother, Nancy Dickerson, TV News' First Woman Star
John Dickerson
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743287835

Book Description

Before Barbara Walters, before Katie Couric, there was Nancy Dickerson. The first female member of the Washington TV news corps, Nancy was the only woman covering many of the most iconic events of the sixties. She was the first reporter to speak to President Kennedy after his inauguration and she was on the Mall with Martin Luther King Jr. during the march on Washington; she had dinner with LBJ the night after Kennedy was assassinated and got late-night calls from President Nixon. Ambitious, beautiful and smart, she dated senators and congressmen and got advice and accolades from Edward R. Murrow. She was one of President Johnson's favorite reporters, and he often greeted her on-camera with a familiar "Hello, Nancy." In the '60s Nancy and her husband Wyatt Dickerson were Washington's golden couple, and the capital's power brokers coveted invitations to swank dinners at their estate on the Potomac.

Growing up in the shadow of Nancy's fame, John Dickerson rarely saw his mother. This frank memoir -- part remembrance, part discovery -- describes a freewheeling childhood in which Nancy Dickerson was rarely around unless John was in trouble or she was throwing a party for the president and John was instructed to check the coats. By the time John was old enough to know what the news was, his mother was no longer in the national spotlight and he didn't see why she should be. He thought she was a liar and a phony. When he was fourteen, his parents divorced, and he moved in with his father.

As an adult, John found himself in Washington, a reporter covering her old beat. A long-delayed connection between mother and son began, only to be cut short by Nancy's death in 1997. In her journals, letters and yellowed newspaper clippings, John discovered the woman he never knew -- an icon in television history whose achievement was the result of her relentless determination to reinvent herself and excel. On Her Trail is a fascinating picture of the early days of television and of Washington society at its most high powered, and charts a son's honest and wry search for the mother he came to admire and love.

Customer Reviews:

Insight into Hidden Washington.......2007-07-26

"On Her Trail" is a great read if you have an interest in any of the following: The balance of career and family, The evolution of television network news, The personal insecurity of the famous, Washington high society, LBJ, Women trying to enter the work force in the 50's and 60's, Mother-and-son relationships, Edward R. Murrow and Eric Sevareid, The art of planning dinner parties for the rich and powerful, or The early televising of America's political conventions. John Dickerson's masterful book on his mother Nancy Dickerson, is a hybrid, two-thirds biography (her story), and one-third autobiography (his story of knowing and discovering his mom).

John was born, as he writes, at the beginning of the decline of his mother's career and fame at NBC News. He artfully interweaves a bit of his early life with his mom, especially his discovery of his mother's world, and over time, his gradual realization of the way his mother worked and operated, a subject he knew little about until his research began in earnest after her death in 1997. He discovered in Nancy Dickerson's huge collection of papers many things he had no previous inkling of: Photographs of his mom with Jackie Kennedy, a photo of Nancy dancing with President Johnson, and notes to her from very famous people from an era that is now history. He had no idea growing up that his mom was a regular on the Today Show. He discovered fun little tidbits everywhere, like the story the campaign trail, when Lyndon Johnson visited Nancy late at night in her hotel room in his pajamas for perhaps more than just conversation. (The situation ended before anything happened, and after Lady Bird sent Bill Moyers down the hall to fetch her husband.) This book is filled with stories and insight, and allows the reader to learn more about how Washington operates, how the news business functioned and functions, and how a son gets to really know his mom after she is gone.

A Balanced Book.......2007-05-22

John Dickerson's kind and honest account of his mother, Nancy Dickerson, makes a fine read. His book is no "Mommie Dearest." He exposes the hypocrisy of the male dominated Washington media world of the sixties and seventies when men and women were held to vastly different standards. Dickerson, like his mother, is smart and knows he is not likely to be "a perfect parent." His mature sense of humor informs, entertains and forgives. This is a "must-read" for working parents who know how difficult it is to have a job and kids.

One never knows----.......2007-03-19

One never knows what goes on behind the scenes with famous people. Having lived in Dickerson's neighborhood and gone to her beauty salon, I could appreciate this young man's disinchantment with his early years. For my friends and I it was a quick, interesting read.

Moving account of the evolving relationship of mother and son, with some "West Wing"-style 60s and 70s political insights .......2007-03-10

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on many levels. As someone who is catching up on my history of politics while paying closer attention to the present-day administration and world events, I loved the bits of history woven into this wonderful, messy, realistic story of a son's relationship with a famous, influential mother. As a mother of young sons who has struggled with the issues of work and raising a family, hearing a son's point of view was particularly compelling.

John doesn't give any easy answers to the modern conundrum of how to balance work and family, nor does he place the responsibility solely on women; he makes it an issue for all parents, male and female. As he says near the end of the book: "Our story should not be mined for any confirmation about whether a woman should choose work or family. Those aren't the lessons I was looking for. I have tried to figure out my role as a person and a parent, figure out how to get the balance right between achieving something durable in the public realm and doing something important and genuine in the private one. How do I avoid the anxiety, indecision and regret of getting the mix wrong? I don't see that task any differently for my wife just because she's a woman who works and is a mother.... [We] have a better chance of balance than Mom did, in part because of what Mom and other women did to allow women the choice to shape a broader identity."

No mother would want her child to take the path John did to find peace with his mother, but as a woman I can appreciate the agony of the choices Nancy Dickerson had to make between doing something she absolutely loved and needed for self-fulfillment, and taking care of the people she loved. There are no easy answers here for how to strike that balance, but it does make a case for every person's right to make a difference in the world, in a way that he or she chooses. Hopefully the decisions are less painful for all involved now than they were 30 years ago because we have more options and more social acceptance of broader life roles.

Read the book for the insider's look at politics in the 60s and 70s, for a great story of a teenager who rebels against his mother and then finds his way back to her, and for a look at a strong lady who did a lot of good in both small and large ways.

A Lovely and Rich Book. .......2007-03-09

I'm reading some of these reviews and seeing that some "got the book", while others did not. I think enough of these reviews will tell you "what the book is about", so I'll just be short and sweet about my take on this book.

It's a compelling and lovely account of Nancy Dickerson's rise to fame and ultimate gain of respect as a news woman. On top of it, it certainly outlines the somewhat selfish relationship between a mother and a son - perhaps on both sides. Selfishness among parents and children is ever so common in families. Then we seem to grow up or grow out of it. John does a tremendous job allowing readers to feel how he felt both as an adult and a child, while allowing readers to feel like they are in the room while visiting some pretty exciting places in "old" high society Washington.

The book brings to life the many hardships women had in the 50's and 60's about choosing to work, and then being taken seriously in the workplace. Her personal involvement with top politicians and Hollywood may have been instrumental in times of not being taken seriously, but who knew this more than her? She certainly knew what she was up against. It's a beautiful story of Nancy's personal rise and fall, of not only her career but her marriage and her health. And most of all, it's a transforming account of John Dickerson's love and respect for a woman he chose not know while growing up, began to understand once he was grown up, and sort of yearned for when it was a little to late. You can never get time back.

I agree with Al Franken's review when he says you may hate John Dickerson by page 40, but don't be discouraged, by page 47 you'll do an about face and by the last chapter you see a man who respects, appreciates, understands and misses his mother dearly. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder

Average customer rating:

Can't put this book down
The Truth Shall Set You Laughing
Unexpected
Beyond bathroom literature
Total Garbage

Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder
Bill O'Reilly
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0767913817
Release Date: 2004-02-10

Amazon.com

What goes on behind the news is the news in Bill O'Reilly's first novel, Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Murder and Television. The engaging thriller centers around a string of murders being carried out in almost ritualistic fashion against the major players of Global News Network (GNN) and miscellaneous others involved in the television news industry. First it's a loutish White House correspondent who gets it with a silver spoon in Martha's Vineyard. Next comes a vice president of the network. As the list grows, so does the pressure on police to stop the killer before he strikes again. Enter Tommy O'Malley, a touch New York detective who has his own ideas about how to keep the streets clean. His work--and life--is complicated by the persistence of a charming young reporter named Ashley Van Buren. In her "Crimetime" column, she dishes a full serving of innuendo and speculation to an audience hungry for just such fare. O'Malley looks like a terrific source to her, and he has to admit she looks pretty good herself.

The real story in Those Who Trespass, however, is that "the way it is," as Walter Cronkite would have said, is not a very nice way at all. O'Reilly, a veteran of Fox and an Emmy winner himself, reveals the skullduggery that goes on under the anchor desk and on the other side of the camera: correspondents "bigfooting" others' stories, young climbers doing anything to secure the anchor seat, and ratings outfits fixing the game to suit themselves. Once you've read this, you will understand the part of the news that's not fit to print.

Book Description

From the mega-bestselling author of The O’Reilly Factor, The No Spin Zone, and Who’s Looking Out for You?, a mystery thriller about the fast-paced and ruthless world of TV journalism.

With three consecutive number one bestsellers, Bill O’Reilly has proved that he’s the king of the nonfiction list. With Those Who Trespass, he extends his bestselling domain to fiction, giving readers a novel that’s an exciting look into the no-holds-barred world of television news.

One by one, high-level executives and correspondents are being murdered. Soon it becomes clear that the killings are linked, the work of a bitter former newsman exacting revenge on those who derailed his career. Tommy O’Malley, a tough but warmhearted New York City detective, is assigned to crack the widening, high-profile murder cases, but encounters competition from a beautiful and tenacious tabloid reporter, Ashley Van Buren. As the story unfolds, Tommy and Ashley quickly discover they’ve got much more in common than a knack for solving crimes.

Those Who Trespass combines suspense, action, psychodrama, and romance with a fascinating glimpse into the harsh realities behind the delivery of our daily dose of television news--a picture only Bill O’Reilly could bring to life.

Download Description

From the mega-bestselling author of The O'Reilly Factor, The No Spin Zone, and Who's Looking Out for You?, a mystery thriller about the fast-paced and ruthless world of TV journalism.

With three consecutive number one bestsellers, Bill O'Reilly has proved that he's the king of the nonfiction list. With Those Who Trespass, he extends his bestselling domain to fiction, giving readers a novel that's an exciting look into the no-holds-barred world of television news.

One by one, high-level executives and correspondents are being murdered. Soon it becomes clear that the killings are linked, the work of a bitter former newsman exacting revenge on those who derailed his career. Tommy O'Malley, a tough but warmhearted New York City detective, is assigned to crack the widening, high-profile murder cases, but encounters competition from a beautiful and tenacious tabloid reporter, Ashley Van Buren. As the story unfolds, Tommy and Ashley quickly discover the've got much more in common than a knack for solving crimes.

Those Who Trespass combines suspense, action, psychodrama, and romance with a fascinating glimpse into the harsh realities behind the delivery of our daily dose of television news -- a picture only Bill O'Reilly could bring to life.

"As real and exciting as the streets of New York City. A mystery thriller that only one of New York's finest could solve."
   WILLIAM BRATTON, FORMER NYC POLICE COMMISSIONER

"Want to know how knives are sharpened and competitors sabotaged inside those outwardly urbane TV newsrooms? O'Reilly knows it all, and tells you. Electrifying stuff."
   ARTHUR HALEY, AUTHOR OF AIRPORT HOTEL AND DETECTIVE

"A speed-read thriller that unmasks the cutthroat world of television news. So real you'll forget it's fiction."
   VINCENT BUGLIOSI, AUTHOR OF OUTRAGE AND HELTER SKELTER

Customer Reviews:

Can't put this book down.......2007-08-01

Would never read a murder mystery, but I read this one! It is more real than fiction and a fascinating story. You won't be disappointed. Great story line.

The Truth Shall Set You Laughing.......2007-05-04

When I read Al Franken refer to this book of Bill O'Reilly's, I laughed, almost not believing it could be true. Upon finding that it is, I laugh more; the truth, this time, is a joke: the absurdity of O'Reilly's reality, which could be called O'Reiallity (a parallel universe, we must assume), is enough to fill a head with happy sounds.

Unexpected.......2007-02-18

Well, I should have listened to the majority of the reviews posted on Amazon about this book. It was terrible. To me, the worst parts were the terrible language and explicit descriptions of sexual encounters. The sex was unexpected; this is supposedly a suspense book, so sex isn't really needed. But beyond the offensive content, the book just wasn't written well. The story never really grabs your attention, and the characters are dry and stereotypical. To conclude, take the advice of most reviewers and skip this book. O'Reilly's a smart man, but he needs to stick with news and leave fiction to the experts!

Beyond bathroom literature.......2006-12-27

This may actually be the worst book ever written. There's really not much more to say about it. It's just that bad.

Total Garbage.......2006-09-07

Wow. I wish there was a way to give this steaming heap a rating of NO stars. O'Reilly is good at what he does and he should stick to it. Fiction is clearly not his strong suit. His characters were cardboard cutouts, his dialogue stilted and ludicris, his situations cliched and riddled with stereotypes, and his schizophrenic writing veers betweeen pompous moralizing and salacious hyperventilation. Reading it made me wonder just how sharp this guy's mind really is. If this trash is any indication of O'Reilly's true worldview, he's a sick, sad man indeed.

Reading Sex and the City (Reading Contemporary Television)

Average customer rating:

Critical perspectives--thoughtful and personal
loved it....
I know this much is true ... Candace Bushnell - you saved my single life
I Miss the Girls, I mean, er..Women

Reading Sex and the City (Reading Contemporary Television)

Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1850434239

Book Description

HBO's award-winning, hit series Sex and the City has changed the face of television. This entertaining celebration of the life and times of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha looks at the show as a departure for series television-discussing its position in an increasingly com-plex television landscape. The book ex-plores, among many other issues: -Female fandom and fan culture -Fashion and fashion journalism -Male archetypes and the search for Mr. Right -Third wave feminism -Sex and the single girl -Sex and the citizen. Also included: -A full episode guide -Reports from the Sex and the City Manhattan guided tour -A map of Sex and the City's New York. Reading Sex and the City offers die-hard and casual readers alike new ways of looking at the show, the characters, and modern television.

Customer Reviews:

Critical perspectives--thoughtful and personal.......2006-10-31

The essays in this volume cover the first five years of the six-year run of the HBO original series Sex and the City. The first four sections of the book are comprised of scholarly articles on the subjects of (1) Sex, Sexuality, and Relationships, (2) Socio-Sexual Identities, (3) Fashion and Cultural Identities, and (4) Narrative, Genre, and Intertextuality. The fifth section contains mostly brief personal essays about the authors' appreciation of the show, and as such is the weakest in the book. I especially enjoyed Susan Zieger's essay, "Sex and the Citizen in Sex and the City's New York" in which she discusses one of the dilemma's facing third wave feminists, the conflict between identity politics and "do it yourself" citizenship. In it she observes "DIY citizenship is a consumer fantasy which always encounters the reality principle of identity politics." Mandy Merck's "Sexuality in the City" was also noteworthy. She engagingly addresses the often-discussed issue of whether Sex and the City is the product (and projection) of gay men's imagination (i.e., the producers) or an authentic depiction of contemporary women (noting that most of the episodes were penned by women).

There's a lot of good stuff in these essays. While readers need to be fairly familiar with the series, its characters, and plotlines to get the most out of this collection, anyone with an interest in media or culture studies will be able to appreciate what the authors have to say. The book is indexed and has an excellent bibliography. Another fine volume in the Reading Contemporary Television series.

loved it...........2006-10-25

this book is great! it tells you everything about every sex and the citian, every episode, the actors/actresses, trivia, glossary (you'll have to read the book to find out what i mean by gloss.), and much, much more. if you love sex and the city, you'll love this book.

I know this much is true ... Candace Bushnell - you saved my single life.......2006-07-04

Every woman should say "I'll take Manhattan" ... and then do so in her own way....

Enjoyable read and commentary on the single in the city life...for men and women alike. Sex and the City was a God-send for many women during its six-year run. Once upon a time women were brainwashed to believe that they were incomplete without marriage and motherhood. How many an aspiring career women felt she needed to take a break to find a husband and produce babies? Well ... we'll fast forward to a few years later (quoting Alanis Morrissette) .... and urban trends unfold to reveal that Cosmopolitan had it right. Love is for the Harlequin novels because like Avril Lavigne sang "five years from now she sits and home, feeding the baby she's all alone. She turns on TV and guess who she sees ... Sk8tr Boi rockin up MTV"... in the confines of a white picket fence prison. Oh hail Candace ... your Sex and the City tales spawned an entire collective discourse in pop culture's commerical HBO land ... of a rebel feminist yell not seen since the days of Madonna circa Like a Virgin..... with one clear cut anthem - Live it Up Ladies On Your Own Terms! The only baggage you need is a Gucci bag. All a wedding is - is a production - and the bride and groom get to play stars for one day. Why not be a star every day by taking on the world and a big bite out of the Big Apple.

Post-Script: All the people that I knew who got married at 25 and dissappeared from sight ... resurfaced about 3 to 5 years later divorced and some with kids. Those who once felt sorry for the single and solo now yearn for the very freedom that they lost on their wedding day. Thanks to Carrie and her pals! You saved our single lives! Go Candace - bring on more women heroines in the Sex and the City Empire. No Desperate Housewives need apply!

Here is a more personal account of how the ladies in my life see the very empowering impact of Sex and the City in their lives:

There was a young woman who was plump, plain, and finding her way in the world living alone in the big city far from family ....who only wanted to find a boyfriend to validate her. Years passed and she saw all the "love" go to the pretty cheerleader types, mostly blue-eyed blondes, ravishing redheads, or foxy brunnetts. Then a show came on the air called "Sex and the City" and something took root in the psyche. During the six years it was on the air the young lass found her personal heroine in Carrie Bradshaw and her lady pals. And so a transformation began which had a snowball effect... resulting in a quiet miracle - the young woman loved her life exactly as it was! She stopped desiring marriage and motherhood because she never wanted it at all! Who needs a cell mate and sleep deprivation - not me! It was society's rulebook and not hers! And she stopped apologizing for it. She celebrated it! And all the boys who never looked at her - well, they ended up divorced and telling everyone to avoid their mistake. A mistake they now can't take back. And as for all the girls who batted their eyelashes and won the roses ... let's just say Desperate Housewives and the suburban anorexia of their lives didn't live up to the wedding cake promise.

I Miss the Girls, I mean, er..Women.......2005-08-11

Being a critical media scholar and (Yes,fan of the show) this collection of insightful essays is a media scholar and/or feminist scholar dream come true. If you are looking for deep "dishy" style of gossip behind the show you will be sadly disappointed. "Sex and the City" is a show that will go down (no pun intended) for letting women reveal and talk about love, sex and relationships in a honest true fashion, regardless of how you feel about the characters and their "impossible" lifestyles. I always marvel at how this show often broke ground by often crossing gender and cultural guidelines within its audience base. I am intrigued by how universal the show is and how it makes me a little mad that some people want to dismiss it as a silly women/gay show.

Split into five parts the book touches on sex and relationships, the social and cultural impact of the show, female identification, narrative text and intertextuality within the show, and of course fashion. The last essays being a great deal of fun as they look at the famous "Sex and the City" tour in NYC, fandom and the intersection of being a scholar and bridging fan base gap as well. Editors Kim Akass and Janet McCabe should be applaud for their thought-provoking and meaningful work, I would quickly snatch (again no pun) any critical reader that these ladies do on any series. A critical celebration of "Six feet Under" has already been published this spring. I am "dying" to read that one. (ok, bad pun intended!)

Average customer rating:

Sweet and romantic, but predictable, and a bit superficial!
Very disappointing
A Fun Read
cute but predictable
A-Mazing Book

Pushing 30
Whitney Gaskell
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0553382241
Release Date: 2003-09-30

Book Description

“The one thing you should know about me is this: I’m the consummate Good Girl. . .”

Ellie Winters is dependable and loyal and has a near-phobic aversion to conflict. But as her thirtieth birthday looms ever closer, she starts to feel like she’s lost the instruction manual to her life. She has just broken up with her boring boyfriend, despises her job, and is the last of her high school friends to remain single. Worse, her dysfunctional family is driving her nuts, and she’s somehow become enslaved to her demanding pet pug Sally, who she suspects is the reincarnation of Pol Pot.

One night, after a botched attempt to color her hair at home, Ellie rushes to the drugstore for emergency bleach, Sally in tow. Sally is accosted by a smitten canine admirer . . . but it’s the dog’s owner who captures Ellie’s attention. Television news anchor Ted Langston is witty, intriguing, and sexy. The only catch? He’s twice her age--and the only man on the planet who isn’t interested in dating a younger woman. And no one, from Ellie’s best friends to Ted’s ex-wife, wants to see them get together.

Download Description

"The one thing you should know about me is this: I'm the consummate Good Girl..."

Ellie Winters is dependable and loyal and has a near-phobic aversion to conflict. But as her thirtieth birthday looms ever closer, she starts to feel like she's lost the instruction manual to her life. She has just broken up with her boring boyfriend, despises her job, and is the last of her high school friends to remain single. Worse, her dysfunctional family is driving her nuts, and she's somehow become enslaved to her demanding pet pug Sally, who she suspects is the reincarnation of Pol Pot.

One night, after a botched attempt to color her hair at home, Ellie rushes to the drugstore for emergency bleach, Sally in tow. Sally is accosted by a smitten canine admirer... but it's the dog's owner who captures Ellie's attention. Television news anchor Ted Langston is witty, intriguing, and sexy. The only catch? He's twice her age -- and the only man on the planet who isn't interested in dating a younger woman. And no one, from Ellie's best friends to Ted's ex-wife, wants to see them get together.

"A sprightly debut... a delightful romantic comedy heroine!"
   PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Customer Reviews:

Sweet and romantic, but predictable, and a bit superficial!.......2007-02-08

I purchased the book because I am an unmarried litigator "pushing 30," so the theme of the story is so appealing. But, although this a definitely a feel good story, it is not as good as I thought that it would be. The story is clear, fun, and sweet, and the romantic scenes are written in a very tender and touching manner. But the real motivations of the characters aren't there. There really has to be so much more to say about two people with a 23 year age difference falling in love, and with Elli's conflict-aversion. My preference, as a reader, would be for a story that digs deeper into those issues. I almost stopped reading at the beginning because the writing seemed to superficial, but the story got a lot better, and I wanted to spend all day reading it to see how it turned out. I agree with some other reviewers that the story is not completely wrapped up at the end, but I still liked it, and rooted for the unlikely lovers.

Very disappointing.......2006-11-09

This book could have been written by a high school student-- the plot was *totally* predictable, the characters underdeveloped and stereotyped, the dialogue lame. It also had a pretentious quality that was hard to stomach. Very unsatisfying, even for a light beach read.

A Fun Read.......2006-06-29

From the first page the book drew me in and I read it in one sitting. The characters were well written and came to life on the pages. I loved Ellie & Ted's first date, it was laugh out loud funny and so well written. Add the dysfunctional family, friends & enemies, and a pug named Sally and you have a fabulous book that has me searching out Whitney Gaskell's other books.

cute but predictable.......2006-04-11

This book was typical of the genre, but still fun to read. I loved her take on the May-December romance, and also liked the relationship Ellie had with her brother (written very realistically). One thing that got me was how does a blonding kit turn light brown hair pink? My hairstylist friend harped on that bit for days on end. Fact checking is your friend you know. Also, why didn't Ellie's law office nemesis not get her comeuppance? If you're going to paint such an evil antagonist, the reader usually wants to see them get what's coming to them.

Still, not a bad way to pass a rainy day or two.

A-Mazing Book.......2006-01-26

I found this book accidentally while I was looking for another novel to read and I ended up getting both and regretting that purchase and loving this one! It really pulls you into all of her emotions and you feel almost protective of her because she reminds you of yourself, and the things you wish you could do to the people who have wronged you in life. I felt bad when she felt bad, I laughed when she joked, I cried when she was hurt and I cheered when she FINALLY stood up for herself! I recommend this book to anyone out there who feels they are the "Consummate Good Girl".

Revenge of the Cootie Girls: A Robin Hudson Mystery

Average customer rating:

More memoir than mystery
Good writing style, less than stellar plot line...
Revenge of the Cootie Girls: A Robin Hudson Mystery
Too much crammed in
Okay, but not as good as earlier ones

Revenge of the Cootie Girls: A Robin Hudson Mystery
Sparkle Hayter
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670869406

Book Description

Now executive producer of Special Reports, Robin Hudson is feeling (relatively) settled. Okay, she's bored. In an effort to feel useful, she has taken under her wing a new intern, wide-eyed small-town girl Kathy Loblaws, and invited her along on a Girls' Night Out. It's Halloween, and Kathy doesn't show--but telephones from a strange man's closet. Aided by her pals, Robin must track down her errant charge through one long night of murder and mayhem, costumes and concealed weapons, men who are not what they seem (are they ever?), and unsettling dj vu. For Robin slowly comes to realize that the search for her missing intern is really a deadly trip into the past, fueled by an old curse. Sparkle Hayter's rapidly growing cult of fans will relish the return of Robin Hudson, her smart mouth, her wild hair, and her motley collection of insane girlfriends. Hayter, who has defined the screwball mystery genre, has one of the freshest voices in mystery writing today. * Hayter's first novel, What's A Girl Gotta Do?, won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for best first mystery. Nice Girls Finish Last was nominated for best novel
* The Last ManlyMan, Hayter's new mystery, will be published by William Morrow in Spring 1998

Customer Reviews:

More memoir than mystery.......2007-03-28

This book is the least "mystery"-like of the Robin Hudson series and was a little hard to get through. I read all the books in the Robin Hudson series while waiting for the next Stephanie Plum book to be released -- I was looking for something with the humor, romance, sexual tension and mystery of the Plum series. Of all the books in the Robin Hudson series, the first one (What's A Girl Gotta Do?) comes the closest to capturing those elements. The other Robin Hudson books are lacking in the romance and sexual tension areas. All of them are funny, with some zany characters or situations. This one has some of the more memorable laugh-out-loud scenes!

Good writing style, less than stellar plot line..........2004-07-02

Back to some amateur female detective genre... This time it's Revenge Of The Cootie Girls by Sparkle Hayter. I picked up some of her work earlier and liked it, so I thought I'd keep reading. In this case, it's a good thing this wasn't the first book of hers that I read. It might have been the last. This one just didn't click for me.

Robin Hudson, now an executive producer for the studio she works at, is ready for a Girls Night Out event on Halloween. She invites her best friends as well as an intern who works for her. When the intern doesn't show up at the appointed meeting place, Hudson gets a little concerned. She ends up stumbling onto what appears to be some sort of charity event where her intern is going from place to place, and is then given a clue for the next location. Since the questions are about Hudson, she thinks it's some sort of benefit. But the clues get more bizarre, the locations more risky, and additional people start showing up who don't quite look like they're into "charitable events". Hudson thinks it's all part of something put on by an old school chum (a fellow "cootie girl"), but even that gets complicated. The story works up to a life or death showdown at the end.

I'll give the book an average rating as I like Hayter's writing style and imagery. For story and plot, it'd be a lot lower. The story line is muddled and doesn't move much, and far too much time is spent reexaming Hudson's years as a school outcast. At the end, I'm not quite sure who was doing what, much less why. I sincerely hope for better stuff to come, as I still have a couple more of her books to get to...

Revenge of the Cootie Girls: A Robin Hudson Mystery.......2003-10-20

Very disappointed in this book...

It really started off well... But then the mystery part of it completely dropped off and turned into a life story about Robin Hudson rather then a Robin Hudson Mystery...

It's a good read, but definitally not a very good mystery...

Too much crammed in.......2001-08-12

The reminiscences of adolescent rivalries, the Manhattan scene, some of the jokes, the contrasts with the Midwest and the reflections on female bonding were all good in their way. She throws in a mystery based on a Halloween treasure hunt and the whole thing becomes too complex. She strives hard to make her characters zany and eccentric and the plot takes arbitrary twists and turns as she and her friends follow the treasure hunt clues. The descriptions of bizarre costumes are a running gag which becomes repetitious. I bought this and "What's a Girl Gotta Do" (not read yet) after having read "Nice Girls Finish Last" which was easier to understand.

Okay, but not as good as earlier ones.......2000-09-06

Books like this are hard to rate. While it wasn't bad, it wasn't as good as Ms. Hayter's first Robin Hudson mystery, "What's a Girl Gotta Do?" Yes, there were moments of humor, some really good, but all too often I found myself wondering just what in the world was going on. The first part of the story moved right along and was on par with Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" series. But then I found myself distracted by lengthy narrations into the history of the Cootie Girls and I lost the train of the plot.

Although the story line was one of revenge, I wasn't quite sure against whom. Was Robin the target, or just a pawn in a bigger plot? And, why? By the time I reached the end, my head was spinning and I was worn out from the convolutions the story took to try and figure it all out. I didn't feel the secondary characters added enough substance to the story, none of them evoked much sympathy from me, and seemed to be included just so Robin would have someone to talk to.

Book Description

Xena, Buffy, Lara Croft. WWF, The Sopranos, Witchblade, La Femme Nikita. The women of pop culture are center stage and as tough as ever. Action Chicks is a groundbreaking collection high-lighting the heroines we've grown to worship-and their impact on society. What can they tell us about women in 2003? How does popular culture depict women? Do the characters escape traditional gender role expectations? Or do they adhere to sexual, racial, ethnic, and class stereotypes? The essays in Action Chicks provide fans with a new look at their favorite icons and their relationship to the popular media machine.

Customer Reviews:

A very weak book.......2007-01-27

Personally I really didn't care for this book. To me it focused on the downside of the most popular, strong women charactrs such as Lara Croft, Wonder Woman, etc.
In Chapter 1 it talks about the character Lara Croft. Yes we know the character was designed by men and primarily for men but I bet more females started playing video games when they had such a strong kickass woman character. I know I did. Yes she has a thin waist, big boobs and she's pretty. I won't even get into the white arguement. I don't think her character would be so popular w/ men and women alike if she was 200 pounds, no boobs, and she wasn't pretty. Sexy thin women sell that's all there is to it! It might not be right but it's reality in this day and age.Men play for an entirely different reason than women.
Chapter 2 pretty much stays in th same vein now this time it's the character Barbwire, comic book character Lady Rawhide and Wonder Woman.
They must be Domanitrixs cause they dress in black leather or carry a whip or lasso. Give me a break.
Chapter 3 does have some merits it talks about girl action figures. How they started becoming more visible.
Chapter 6 made a good point why exactly did Max from Dark Angel, Buffy, & Xena all die around a two month period.
Chapter 9 about female friendhip in Xena and Buffy.
All in all I was expecting better!!!Just go to your local library if you still want to read it. Don't waste your money on this one.

A profoundly disappointing collection on an otherwise fascinating subject.......2006-06-07

When Susan Faludi published BACKLASH in 1991, one of her chapters was devoted to the regressive representations of women in TV and film. There was even the hint of resignation that this was not a temporary blip, but perhaps a permanent or long term situation. Luckily and in part thanks to Faludi calling attention to the backlash, instead we saw in popular culture an explosion of images of strong women. In TV alone we have seen the emergence of such characters as Dana Scully, Xena, Buffy Summers, Aeryn Sun, Sydney Bristow, Max Guevera, Kathryn Janeway, and Veronica Mars, not to mention those Gilmore girls. Even shows not specifically centered on strong women have them as a matter of course, such as Kate Austen on LOST or Samantha Carter on STARGATE SG-1. Indeed, a chasm seems to separate our situation and Faludi's in 1991.

Given the richness of the subject, it is simply shocking how weak this collection of essays is. All anthologies are uneven, but this one contains a higher proportion of weak or simply awful essays than most. I don't have a confident explanation for why these essays are on the whole so weak, though they do share some common characteristics. Let me highlight a couple of these. I do want to add, however, that there are a couple of very good essays, in particular Renny Christopher's marvelously insightful essay on Aeryn Sun in FARSCAPE as well as the essay by the volume's editor on female action figures. But most of the essays are deeply flawed. Let me explain my problems with them.

One very obvious problem with several of the essays is that they either misread the shows that they discuss or almost intentionally misrepresent their content. For instance, one essay guilty of this is Sharon Ross's essay about female friendship in BUFFY and XENA. Most of what she says is unquestionably true about XENA and if the essay had been merely about that show would have been one of the stronger additions to the collection. But it is a terrible reading of BUFFY. She reads BUFFY as largely concerned with the kind of discussion and reevaluation of matters that she views as uniquely true of female friendship. If you read the essay without having seen the show, you would imagine that Willow was nearly the co-lead character of the show, instead of a member of an ensemble cast. In point of fact, BUFFY is most decidedly not a show about female friendship. In fact, excluding Willow, Buffy is actually more heterosocial in her relationships. In fact, Willow aside, Buffy relates more easily to men than to women. Apart from Willow, all her closest friends and confidantes are men, including Giles, Xander, Angel, and Spike. Her relations with women are almost always uneasy and conflicted, including her mother, Faith, Dawn, Cordelia, and Anya. Moreover, even including Willow there is never a point in the series where she primarily or exclusively goes to Willow for advice instead of Xander or Giles. To read BUFFY as primarily as a show about female friendship is a travesty. Ross also states that the show is at its "most effective when" it "offer[s] stories of the primary female friends resisting men's attempts to keep them apart." She then cites several shows as examples, including "I Robot, You Jane," "The 'I' in Team," and "Yoko." These are not bad episodes, but they are far, far from the show at its most effective and none would make any reasonable list of, say, the top twenty-five or thirty episodes of the show's 144. In other words, only by distorting BUFFY to a remarkable and untenable degree can it be made to be a show about female friendship. There is no question that there is a strong female friendship as one of many major constituent parts of the show, but it is hardly privileged in the way that Ross states.

Another example is Sara Crosby's essay on three supposed instances of suicidal self-sacrifice among TV action heroines due to the forceful suppression of strong female heroes by structures of patriarchy: Max at the end of Season One of DARK ANGEL, Buffy at the end of Season Five of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and Xena in her show's series finale. I won't argue with the Xena part, because that is fairly accurate, but the characterization of Max and Buffy's deaths is utterly baffling. First, Crosby characterizes Max's death as a suicide, which is absurd, unless being shot by one's clone, over which one maintains utterly no control and therefore no agency, counts as a suicide. Agency and not similar DNA (and the DNA is only similar and not exact, since one of the themes of the show in Season Two--and it would have been THE theme of Season Three had it not been canceled--was Max's genetic uniqueness, which would have enabled her to save the world from annihilation) is acknowledged in every day language as determinative of suicide. But Crosby barely hints at the radical departure from normal language use she is making. It also isn't clear what structures of patriarchy she is talking about in DARK ANGEL. In fact, Manticore, which is the entity that kills Max, is totalitarian, not patriarchal. Unless one can generate a convincing essentialist definition of totalitarian as patriarchal this is not at all the same thing. There is in fact a remarkable disregard for gender at Manticore and one of Max's more striking traits, despite being played by a very beautiful woman, is that she has never been feminized. We could debate the fact that Jessica Alba is beautiful, but the brute fact of prime time television is that we will never, ever have an unlovely young person playing a lead role in such a show. Similarly, in talking of Buffy's death at the end of Season Five, it is impossible to identify the structures of patriarchy. Interestingly she never mentions the fact that the Big Bad of Season Five is a goddess except in passing. Buffy sacrifices herself to close the hell portal to save her sister and her friends because of some supernatural rules. Are the rules patriarchal? If not, it is difficult to see how her death becomes gendered. In other words, the entire essay is a colossal stretch.

The fundamental problem with these two and several other essays is that the writers do not seem to understand the different from actual society and a television series. A TV series may reflect society in the way it is conceived, but it does not actually contain that society. In fact, most of the TV series of the past fifteen years with strong female leads actually imagine a society that is different from the actual one. In our real society, there truly are systems of patriarchy that repress women and attempt to relegate them in lessened roles. But that system may not be replicated in a TV series. In fact, there is a gender utopianism in many of these shows. If one watches BUFFY or FARSCAPE or VERONICA MARS one will be struck by how rarely the ability of these women to take care of themselves is questioned by the males around them. As Renny Christopher points out in her brilliant final essay of the volume on FARSCAPE (an essay that alone justifies the purchase price), FARSCAPE is a representation of a world in which patriarchy does not exist. The Peacekeepers may be ruthless and totalitarian and authoritarian, but he makes no distinctions based on gender. But what is true of FARSCAPE is largely true of these other shows. The writers try to make the shows about issues that are really excluded by the show. Now, one might argue with how realistic the shows are by excluding or minimizing patriarchal structures (they aren't realistic, but that is because they are utopian: they are trying to show us a world that ought to be, a world in which women are allowed to be as strong as men), but you can't escape the fact that they are fictional worlds. In BUFFY a man does not react with shock if Buffy kills a demon with her bare hands in front of a male as in "The Prom." I haven't rewatched all of BUFFY in a year, but the only moment I can recall when someone was shocked that she could do what she did despite being female was the beginning of "The Gift," when a boy she has saved from a vampire asks her how she "did that." "It's what I do," she replies. "But you're just a girl." But even here the point is that an unrealistic burden has been placed upon her, causing her to feel the weight of the world on her shoulders, leading her to answer, "That's what I keep telling myself." But this is the exception. Normally no one acts shocked if she clears the Bronze of vampires in "Welcome to the Hellmouth, Pt. 2" or overcomes a large gang of demons in "Anne."

I guess what I'm objecting to is an overall intellectual clumsiness in these essays. As a grad student I read countless bad essays along the lines of the ones here and I think at least many of them are a result of the "publish or perish" mentality dominating American higher education. And there is a push if you are in gender studies to take some of the central assumptions and apply them to a wide range of subject matter. It is as if they strive to understand their discipline first, and then only half-heartedly study that towards which they apply it. One example of intellectual sloppiness can be found throughout the first essay in the collection, Claudia Herbst's essay on Lara Croft. Throughout she makes one generalization after another about the actual mental or psychological states of gamers that could only actually be validated by statistical analyses of actual gamers. A large number of her "proofs" are actually anecdotes from postings on boards on the Internet. A good example can be found in this passage: Writing of Lara she says, "Men may interpret her toughness and her tiny waist as sexy. Many women find her figure disturbing and respond negatively to the nature-defying design of her body. Perhaps what women are responding to . . . " (p. 35). These are incredibly loose hinges upon which to build an argument. "Men may." Do they are do they not? And where is the polling data that indicates which. "Many women find . . . " Again, how many women, and where is the polling data. Two very dubious suppositions, but then after constructing these straw men and women she goes on to speculate "Perhaps what women are responding to . . . " She hasn't established any real women do so respond, let alone that women in general do. Yet the entire essay is built up on weak links such as that.

Not all the essays are bad. Though I question whether Sherrie Inness has done a good job as an editor, her introduction and her essay are both good. Jeffrey Brown's essay on BARB WIRE was interesting, though he hasn't made me want to see it. Charlene Tung's essay on LA FEMME NIKITA did, however, make me want to give that series a shot. So also with David Greven's essay on WITCHBLADE (currently unavailable on DVD), though I am suspicious of his depiction of the lead as a lesbian hero (it doesn't quite pass the smell test, though perhaps I am wrong). Dawn Henecken's essay on Chyna might be OK. I just have less than no interest in either Chyna or the world of fake wrestling, so it was a tough essay for me to get through. Marilyn Yaquinto's essay on women in gangster films was fun.

All in all, however, I cannot recommend the collection. Apart from Renny Christopher's very fine essay, I don't think there is much that one interested in the subject can't live without.

The challenge to patriarchal power.......2006-02-16

"Action Chicks" by Sherrie A. Inness (editor) is an outstanding collection of essays about depictions of tough women in popular culture. The ten contributors are drawn from the ranks of academia and write with considerable skill, originality and insight. The consistently high-quality analyses succeed in helping the reader gain a greater understanding of the myriad ways by which strong women are represented and evaluated in the media within the context of real-world social change. The articles are presented in a sophisticated yet entertaining manner, making for superb reading for anyone interested in an intelligent examination of pop culture and gender.

Ms. Inness' Introduction, "New Images of Tough Women" discusses how strong women have always existed within American culture but have proliferated in recent years in tandem with second-wave feminism and greater career opportunities for women. The action heroine's muscular body signifies the real-life challenge posed to patriarchal power structures; perhaps not surprisingly, female aggressiveness has subsequently been perceived by audiences as both a desirable and threatening development. For these reasons, Ms. Inness contends that the representation of the action heroine as a leading cultural symbol marks her as a subject who is worthy of serious study and reflection.

The book is divided into two sections.

Part I is about the "Changing Images of the Female Action Hero". Claudia Herbst's "Lara's Lethal and Loaded Mission" discusses the eroticized violence embodied by Lara Croft and the video game 'Tomb Raider' to contend that her obedience to male fantasy and control ultimately cannot serve to empower women. Jeffrey A. Brown's "The Bad Girls of Action Film and Comic Books" explores depictions of gender role trangressions in well-known movies such as "G.I. Jane". Ms. Inness' "Tough Female Action Figues in the Toy Store" discovers that toymakers' relatively conservative representations of strong women as expressed through female action figures has lagged behind the progress women have made in the real world. Charlene Tung's "Gender, Race and Sexuality in 'La Femme Nikita'" finds that while Nikita rebuts notions of female passivity and asserts her own independence, Nikita's "Westernized and white heteronormative superiority" serves to reinforce the TV show's restrictive notion of white female privilege and Western imperialism. David Greven's "Defiant Women, Decadent Men, Objects of Power and 'Witchblade'" discusses how Sarah's constrained aggression and opposition to homosexual and lesbian power ironically positions her as a Terminator-like figure in service to patriarchy. Sara Crosby's "Female Heroes Snapped into Sacrificial Heroines" suggests that strong female characters such as Xena the Warrior Princess have traditionally been self-actualized and then destroyed by their media creators in order to reclaim the liberatory political powers that otherwise might threaten the prevailing social order.

Part II is on the topic of "New Images of Toughness". Dawn Heinecken's "Gender, Transgression and the World Wrestling Federation's Chyna" is a fascinating study of how Chyna's muscularity heightened anxieties about homoeroticism and male privilege in the highly sexualized culture of the WWF. Marilyn Yaquinto's "Mamas, Molls and Mob Wives" surveys the gangster film genre and demonstrates how contemporary TV shows such as 'The Sopranos' have turned assumptions about the genre around by depicting women who in many ways are stronger than their male counterparts. Sharon Ross' "Female Friendship and Heroism in 'Xena' and 'Buffy'" contrasts the heroine's embrace of empathy and community with the traditional loner male hero to explain why Xena and Buffy can provide positive examples to young women. Renny Christopher's "'Farscape's' Inverted Sexual Dynamics" finds that the post-patriarchal world depicted in the TV show 'Farscape' suggests a possible "queer" universe wherein heterosexual and homosexual dynamics might mix freely to create a new and potentially liberatory world.

I highly recommend this exceptionally fun, provocative and enlightening book to everyone.

Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (Next Wave: New Directions in Womens Studies)

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Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (Next Wave: New Directions in Womens Studies)
Amy Villarejo , and Amy Villarejo
Manufacturer: Duke University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0822331926

Book Description

Integrating cinema studies, queer and feminist theory, and cultural studies, Villarejo illuminates the contexts within which the lesbian is rendered visible. Toward that end, she analyzes key portrayals of lesbians in public culture, particularly in documentary film. She considers a range of filmsâfrom documentaries about Cuba and lesbian pulp fiction to Exile Shanghai and The Brandon Teena Storyâand, in doing so, brings to light a nuanced economy of value and desire.

Average customer rating:

An exemplary family history
the hornes

The Hornes: An American Family
Gail Lumet Buckley , and Lena Horne
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1557835640

Book Description

An inspired, intimate history of musical legend Lena Horne and her family, written by Lena's daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley. More than a loving biography of a true show business legend, Lumet Buckley traces Lena's, as well as her own, roots as the latest in a long family line of America's Black elite.

Customer Reviews:

An exemplary family history.......2006-12-03

An absorbing trip through American history, courtesy of a family of vivid dreamers and high achievers. Gail Lumet Buckley had access to a remarkable family archive of scrapbooks, photographs and journals and does great justice to it, crafting a multigenerational portrait that is enlightening and highly readable. Although Buckley's mother, Lena Horne, is the most famous member of the family, the book makes it clear that she was only one of its noteworthy success stories. For anyone wanting to know more about what America was like for middle-class blacks in the Reconstruction and beyond, "The Hornes" is a wonderful place to begin.

the hornes.......2000-03-23

Fabulous insight into a family with ties to every important event in US History.

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