Richard Blanco Reads "One Day" at the 2013 Presidential Inauguration
I was really impressed with Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco and his original poem "One Day" which he wrote and read for the 2013 Presidential Inauguration. I heard an interview on NPR with him and was really impressed at how thoughtful, eloquent and receptive he is and all of this was made apparent in his beautiful poem.
I was really proud watching a fellow Latino read a poem at yesterday's inauguration. As a Latina studying English in undergrad, I always felt like the odd one out. There weren't many Latinos in my program (in fact I only remember seeing two in odd classes but they weren't English majors) and the school's Latino/a association would send me a letter every term/semester encouraging me not to drop out of school because that's what Latinos do. Those letters still anger me to this day. I wish I would have kept one. I would have framed it and put it up on my wall as I went on to graduate from both undergrad and grad schools. Against many odds, I am a Latina, who got two Liberal Arts degrees and pursued her love of arts and literature.
Reading a little more online about Richard Blanco, I found out that he is an Engineer and poet. I thought this was an interesting combination in which he employs two very different sides of his brain. It reminds me of my start in Zoology (I was really good at Biology, Science and Math) but my switch to English. I could identify with Blanco and I am very glad he was chosen to deliver the inaugural poem. I'll definitely be checking out Blanco's work in the future.
Weddings and Movie Stars
by Tony Nourmand and Graham Marsh
Hardcover, 287 pages
9780956648723
$79.95
Reel Art Press
April 2011
Find the book on:
Powells
Indiebound
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
This review originally appeared on my classic film blog Out of the Past.
Weddings and Movie Stars is a beautiful coffee table book available from the experts in quality photography books, Reel Art Press.
In June of last year, I attended Book Expo America, a big book industry trade show held every year in New York City. I saw a sign for a company called Reel Art Press, a small indie UK publisher I had never heard of. I thought I'd stop by their booth and check out the Kennedy coffee table book they had been advertising. When I arrived at their booth, I was pleasantly surprised to see multiple high quality classic film related coffee table books including one called Weddings and Movie Stars. I was about to get married in a few weeks and it just seemed like kismet that I found out about this publisher and the book. As soon as I got back home, I ordered the book and had so much fun reading it and looking at the wonderful photographs. Since one of my wedding's themes was Classic Hollywood, it was nice to own this.
Weddings and Movie Stars is a huge book! It is 11.75 inches wide and 13.75 inches tall and clocks in at about 7 pounds in weight (I measured it and weighed it myself). The quality photographs are a mixture of black and white and full color and they are gorgeous making this book total eye candy. The images are mostly from real life movie star weddings but also include on screen weddings. You'll see images from the Hollywood elite of the 1920s through to the 1970s with a few modern images. It ends with a somewhat odd tribute to The Graduate (1967) which I think they could have done without.
The photographs in this book are stunning. Some take up a single page or fill up a two page spread. Other pages have a couple images on one page. Basically what I am trying to say is that these are big luscious pictures that you will want to look at over and over again. Each photograph comes with captions which provide detail information about the couple and the wedding. There are lots of great anecdotes and stories as well as trivia bits about the designer of the gown, the circumstances of the wedding, and the inevitable quips about the various divorces that followed.
This book is $79.95 which is quite pricey but Weddings and Movie Stars is a collector's piece and worth the investment. This would make a really nice gift for a new bride especially one like myself who appreciates the style of the 20th century. It would also make for a great addition to anyone's coffee table. When storing it, lay it flat on its back or spine side down if you are putting in a book case, make sure it's spine side down. I made the mistake of putting the book on a book shelf sideways with the spine up and the heavy pages pulled at the spine ripping it a bit. It's a heavy book so make sure you take care of it!
They listed Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as getting married in 1930 when the correct year was 1940. Oops! Also there are several non-movie star weddings including all the members of the Beatles but for the most part it sticks to actors and actresses.
You may not find Weddings and Movie Stars at your local bookstore but you can find it online at various bookstores and for sale at Reel Art Press.
Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
Every year, I wake up on New Years day and set my next yearly reading challenge on Goodreads. I get so excited to do this and to think of all the books I'll be reading throughout the year. This year I set a challenge of 75. That was my challenge last year too but I had to drop it down to 60. Wedding planning, the actual wedding and honeymoon ate up a lot of potential reading time (although I did read two books during my honeymoon). This year I don't have any major things to plan, except for buying a house, so I hope I'll have more time to devote to reading.
I love following the reading challenge widget on Goodreads as the year progresses. It lets you know how far along you are and if you are ahead based on number of books set and time of year or if you are behind. Whenever I'm behind, it's good motivation to get reading and add some more books to the list. I'm so glad that Goodreads came up with this idea!
I have three chunksters from 2012 to finish which will count towards my 2013 list but otherwise it'll be all new books.
What's your reading challenge for 2013?
I love following the reading challenge widget on Goodreads as the year progresses. It lets you know how far along you are and if you are ahead based on number of books set and time of year or if you are behind. Whenever I'm behind, it's good motivation to get reading and add some more books to the list. I'm so glad that Goodreads came up with this idea!
I have three chunksters from 2012 to finish which will count towards my 2013 list but otherwise it'll be all new books.
What's your reading challenge for 2013?
Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home
by Various
9781413313222
Published by NOLO
2011 3rd Edition
*Note that a new 4th edition came out in December 2012. My review is of the 3rd edition from 2011.
Nolo is an online company of legal advisors who specialize in several things including real estate. Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home is the only book you should get if you are in this particular stage in life. This guide is comprehensive, thorough, easy to understand and laid out in a very useful way. It was a surprise to me how much information I gleamed from reading, how it stuck with me and how I never found myself overwhelmed with information.
The book is divided into 15 chapters. In the beginning of the book even shows you how the chapters flow in a manner that is reminiscent of the home buying process. The chart is called "Navigating the path to your first home" and here are the chapters/steps:
1 - Learn the Benefits
2 - Decide what you want
3 - Make a budget
4- Check out the market
5- Choose professionals
6/7 - Get a mortgage
8/9 - Find your house
10 - Negotiate a deal
11/12/13 - Inspect, insure, prepare to move
14 - Seal the Deal
15 - Settle in
Each chapter has different names than the above but those are the basic steps from beginning to end. The chapters are written each by different experts who specialize in the topic at hand. It begins with an introduction to the author, their credentials and their home buying experience. Then it proceeds by laying out all the information in a very thorough yet concise manner. There are breaks for Tips, "Check it Out" which references to outside sources for more information (some on Nolo.com, some elsewhere on the internet), little quizzes, fun trivia, quotes, and more. I particularly liked the regular feature "best thing we ever did" which gives personal insights to situations that were salvaged by some smart moves. These were very enlightening and provided some very useful tips. The book covers every possible scenario, good and bad, and how it should be handled.
The edition I read, while from 2011 was a little outdated, not in the real estate advice but in terms of technology. It had mentioned MySpace as a leading social network. This is quite an outdated error even in 2011. Also, the 3rd edition comes with a CD-ROM with forms and charts to download. The 4th edition directs users to download the same forms on Nolo.com and ditches the CD-ROM altogether. While I am still nostalgic for the days of CD-ROM, thanks to companies like Apple these will be completely obsolete soon. I also noticed that the book needs a good proofreader who can change all mentions of things listed "below" when they are really on the next page.
If you are buying a home for the first time, you need to get this book. It's really essential. I am in the unique position in that I am buying my first home yet helping my husband sell his current place, where we live now. The book doesn't give advice on how to sell and buy at the same time since this is exclusively for first time home buyers. I recommend pairing this book with several viewings of HGTV's show My First Place. I also recommend reading Nolo's book all the way through once then using it later as a resource. It good to absorb as much information as you can but no one will expect to you to memorize it, so that's when having this book on hand will prove useful.
2011 3rd Edition
*Note that a new 4th edition came out in December 2012. My review is of the 3rd edition from 2011.
"... you want to make sure you don't find just any house - you find the right house, at the right price, with the right loan. A house you're happy to stay in for a long time, no matter what the market does. To do that, you need a lot of information."
Nolo is an online company of legal advisors who specialize in several things including real estate. Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home is the only book you should get if you are in this particular stage in life. This guide is comprehensive, thorough, easy to understand and laid out in a very useful way. It was a surprise to me how much information I gleamed from reading, how it stuck with me and how I never found myself overwhelmed with information.
The book is divided into 15 chapters. In the beginning of the book even shows you how the chapters flow in a manner that is reminiscent of the home buying process. The chart is called "Navigating the path to your first home" and here are the chapters/steps:
1 - Learn the Benefits
2 - Decide what you want
3 - Make a budget
4- Check out the market
5- Choose professionals
6/7 - Get a mortgage
8/9 - Find your house
10 - Negotiate a deal
11/12/13 - Inspect, insure, prepare to move
14 - Seal the Deal
15 - Settle in
Each chapter has different names than the above but those are the basic steps from beginning to end. The chapters are written each by different experts who specialize in the topic at hand. It begins with an introduction to the author, their credentials and their home buying experience. Then it proceeds by laying out all the information in a very thorough yet concise manner. There are breaks for Tips, "Check it Out" which references to outside sources for more information (some on Nolo.com, some elsewhere on the internet), little quizzes, fun trivia, quotes, and more. I particularly liked the regular feature "best thing we ever did" which gives personal insights to situations that were salvaged by some smart moves. These were very enlightening and provided some very useful tips. The book covers every possible scenario, good and bad, and how it should be handled.
The edition I read, while from 2011 was a little outdated, not in the real estate advice but in terms of technology. It had mentioned MySpace as a leading social network. This is quite an outdated error even in 2011. Also, the 3rd edition comes with a CD-ROM with forms and charts to download. The 4th edition directs users to download the same forms on Nolo.com and ditches the CD-ROM altogether. While I am still nostalgic for the days of CD-ROM, thanks to companies like Apple these will be completely obsolete soon. I also noticed that the book needs a good proofreader who can change all mentions of things listed "below" when they are really on the next page.
If you are buying a home for the first time, you need to get this book. It's really essential. I am in the unique position in that I am buying my first home yet helping my husband sell his current place, where we live now. The book doesn't give advice on how to sell and buy at the same time since this is exclusively for first time home buyers. I recommend pairing this book with several viewings of HGTV's show My First Place. I also recommend reading Nolo's book all the way through once then using it later as a resource. It good to absorb as much information as you can but no one will expect to you to memorize it, so that's when having this book on hand will prove useful.
Publisher Giveaways on Goodreads
The Goodreads First Reads Giveaway program gives away thousands of books each year. Since anyone can just give away any book the list tends to be populated with a self-published stuff. Also,
a lot of very eager authors put up their books hoping for reviews.
Personally, I prefer to sign up for a giveaway that is run by a publisher or publicist. I feel like they are a neutral party because they understand that with good reviews there are bad reviews. They also won't be stalking you on Goodreads as an eager self-published author might. (No offense to all the lovely authors who do not exhibit this behavior!).
Goodreads doesn't provide any way to weed out the author/self-published from the traditional publisher giveaways. LibraryThing does a great job at that (Early Reviewers versus Member Giveaway). I really wanted to keep track of the publisher created giveaways so I created a list!
Note that some publishers might not have any giveaways open currently and the list includes past giveaways. Also some of the links below are to the company's publicist's giveaways and are not branded with the company name. I like to check this list regularly to see what's available for giveaway now and what's coming up.
WARNING: If you do participate in these giveaways, be prepared to review the book! Don't just enter to get a free book that you can put away on your bookshelves and let gather dust. These publishers want reviews and are willing to give you a free copy of a book in exchange for one. So make sure you review the book and prioritize reading it! Don't abuse the system.
I will update this list as I find more publishers to include.
[Updated 12/20/12]
Atria (Simon & Schuster)
Beacon Press
Berkley
Blue Rider Press
Candlewick Press
CBSD Library
Cedar Fort
Center Street
Counterpoint Press
Crown (Random House)
DC Comics
Doubleday (Random House)
Duke University Press
Egmont
Europa Editions
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux
Free Press
G.P. Putnam & Sons
Gallery Books
Gotham Avery
Grand Central #1
Grand Central #2
Grove Atlantic
Harper Audio
Harper Books
Harper Children's
Harper Perennial
Harper Teen
Henry Holt
It Books (Harper Collins)
Knopf (Random House)
Linden Press
Little Brown
Medallion Press
Melville House
Mulholland Books
New Harbringer Publications
Orbit Books
Penguin
Penguin Press
Penguin Teen
Permanent Press
Picador USA
Plume
Pocket Books
Princeton University Press
PublicAffairs
Quirk Books
Random House (Various Imprints)
Random House (Main Imprint)
Riverhead Books (Penguin)
Riverhead Trade (Penguin)
Scholastic
Scribner
Simon & Schuster
Simon Pulse
Soho Press
SourceBooks
St. Martin's Press #1 (MacMillan)
St. Martin's Press #2 (MacMillan)
St. Martin's Press #3 (MacMillan)
Thomas Nelson Fiction
TinHouse Books
Tor Books
Touchstone (Simon & Schuster)
Tundra Books
Unbridled Books
Viking Books
Vintage/Anchor (Random House)
Walnut Springs
Weldon Owen Publishing
William Morrow
W.W. Norton
Zest Books
The Disenchanted by Budd Schulberg
9780816679355
University of Minnesota Press
Originally Published 1950
"... a fugitive from the Twenties... you jokers went off on one long tear and left us to pay the check. And you don't seem to know yet that the party is over."
Budd Schulberg was a screenwriter known for his screenplay of the critically acclaimed film On the Waterfront (1954). Schulberg also wrote novels including The Disenchanted which was published in 1950 and recently reprinted by University of Minnesota Press. The novel is based on the experience Schulberg had working with the troubled genius F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Producer Walter Wanger hired Budd Schulberg to assist F. Scott Fitzgerald in writing a screenplay about the Winter Carnivals at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Schulberg was a recent alumni. The movie was to be Winter Carnival (1939). The whole experience made quite an impact on Schulberg that he decided to fictionalize the experience in The Disenchanted.
In the novel, Shep is a young writer in Hollywood who is still wet behind the ears and has just been assigned to work with the great T. Manley Halliday (known as just Manley Halliday) on the collegiate winter romance Love on Ice. Manley is a prestigious writer with numerous successful novels and screenplays to his credits. But by 1939, most of his books are out of print and he's hanging by a thread: the fleeting recognition of his name and illustrious career. Manley is working on a manuscript for his next great novel but he's in desperate need of money to buy him the time to finish it. So he reluctantly takes on working with Shep on Love on Ice and is officially hired by producer Victor Milgrim.
Manley is diabetic and has been on the wagon for a few years. He's been divorced for years from the love and scourge of his life Jere. His assistant and sort-of mistress Ann Loeb helps him daily and keeps him on the straight and narrow. When Manley boards the plane with Shep from L.A. to N.Y. and Shep pours the first glass from a bottle of champagne, it's all over. Manley goes on a bender and Shep assumes various roles of assistant, writer and parent to Manley. Shep struggles between the feelings of admiration for Manley's magnificent literary and movie successes and the shell of a man he sees before him. Throughout the novel we follow Manley and Shep on their crazy adventure to get Love on Ice written before they arrive on location for filming. There are also flashbacks in which we learn more about Manley's life. His early career, his love affair with the troubled Jere and the days just before he leaves L.A. on the trip.
The Disenchanted is a captivating novel about a doomed project between two writers at opposite ends of their careers. I highly recommend this novel to classic film fans especially those who love fiction. It's fun to spot the names of real actors, actresses and films as well as to figure out the reference made by fictionalized ones. I really loved the theme of old versus young as I think that is a conflict that is very relevant today especially with new technology making age gaps even bigger. Reading it was at some points a bit of a drag mostly because of Manley's antics. But I think what I was experiencing was a bit of the same emotion Shep was feeling towards Manley: frustration and disenchantment.
Read my more movie based review at my classic film blog Out of the Past.
Disclaimer: Thank you to the University of Minnesota Press for sending me this book to review!
Book Haul (1)
From top to bottom:
Young Man With a Horn by Dorothy Baker
I love the movie from 1950 which stars Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and Doris Day, all of whom are still alive today (as of December 2012). I wanted to try reading the novel for a few reasons. My love for the movie, the fact that it's one of the first jazz novels and the influence of women writers on Hollywood.
I want to read more early Twentieth Century fiction especially novels which were adapted into movies. I asked on Twitter which Raymond Chandler book I should read first and folks recommended Farewell, My Lovely.
I have been suffering from bad migraines for a couple of years now so I thought it would be good to learn more about them. Also, Eva from A Striped Armchair raves about Oliver Sacks so I thought I'd try out one of his books.
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