FullReviews Index - page 3
Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947- 1954
In Windblown World, Douglas Brinkley gathers a selection of journal entries from the most pivotal period of Jack Kerouac's life, beginning in 1947 when he was twenty-five years old and ending in 1954. Truly a self-portrait of the artist as a young man, these journals show Kerouac charting his own progress as a writer and struggling to perfect and finish his first novel, "The Town and the City," while forging crucial friendships with Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady.
Positively Fifth Street
In the spring of 2000. Harper's Magazine sent James McManus to Las Vegas to cover the World Series of Poker-- in particular, the mush-rooming progress of women in the $23 million event, and the murder of Ted Binion, the tournament's prodigal host, purportedly done in by a stripper and her boyfriend with a technique so outre it took a Manhattan pathologist to identify it.
Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin
By age 8 Bobby Darin knew he was doomed to die young. So he set out to become a showbiz legend by age 25. From his Grammy-winning smash hit "Mack the Knife" to his Oscar-nominated supporting role in Captain Newman, M.D., Darin left his mark on every aspect of show business that he touched. David Evanier's startling portrait hits the stands as the Kevin Spacey movie rekindles interest in the legendary singer.
It's Not Easy Bein' Me
Anybody can repeat a Rodney Dangerfield joke, but nobody can tell one like the man himself. That's because his humor, built on the premise that he "don't get no respect," is drawn from a life so hard that the only way to survive was to laugh at it -- though all the drugs and hookers certainly didn't hurt. In IT'S NOT EASY BEING ME, Rodney Dangerfield comes clean (even if he still works blue) about his brutal life and the unlikely triumph he made out of it.
The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons From A Life in Coaching
The Carolina Way is an excellent, easily read examination of leadership based on the lessons Smith learned and taught in 36 years of coaching basketball at the University of Kansas (under the legendary Phog Allen), the Air Force Academy and the University of North Carolina. The format is deceptively simple. Coach Smith writes (with the able assistance of John Kilgo) about a particular aspect of leadership as it relates to his coaching philosophy.