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| Author | Topic: Books |
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 Rose
Registered User
Registered:
9/28/2003
From:
NY
Fav. BP Song: No One Is Alone and Some People
Fav. BP Show: Gypsy
Fav. BP Character: Rose/The Witch
Fav. BP CD: Gypsy
| posted: 7/3/2004 at 11:09:18 PM ET
Your absolutely right it really is nobodys business except theirs I'm just a huge Kate Winslet fan.
"Oh no, you won't. No, not a chance. No arguements, shut up and dance."
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 7/4/2004 at 2:03:54 PM ET
I am so,so happy to see this board. And that it's being used.
I'm just about finished with Carol Channing's memoir (of sorts,as she calls it), Just Lucky I Guess. It is a scream,and *just* what I need. Oh,this lady is hysterical.
It's not a chronological autobiography. The only complaint I have is that I wish she included dates and gave some indication of the time period. It was unclear,in some parts,which Hello Dolly! company,tour,or revival she was talking about.
But that's a very minor complaint. She seems to love everybody and everything-but not above teasing them-until she goes into full-bitch mode in the Barbra Streisand chapter. Her chapter on Mary Martin is lovely and tragic,and her chapter on Ethel Merman,well..let me share some of it with you
(On Ethel volunteering at a hospital...just some background,since Channing doesn't give it. Ethel was very close to her parents,and when her parents were in the hospital,she volunteered in the gift shop and did some tasks similar to a candystriper's or a nurse's aide. Ethel always called herself a nurse,however. Her day to work was Thursday.)
"Now I ask you,if you were strung up in Roosevelt Hospital,wouldn't you dread Thursdays? I mean,this woman walks into your room with her little white nurse's band above her forehead and screams, 'Ah'm your nurse! Roll over.' Wouldn't you? Dread Thursdays?"
I can't type out the entire chapter,but there are other parts ("Maybe she doesn't like hits shows that she isn't in...") and the the story that follows the quote I just typed made me put down the book because I was laughing so hard.
And then,this part,when she describes seeing Ethel shortly before she died. Ethel had an incurable brain tumor,and it slowly took over her brain functions,until she couldn't even recognize herself when shown a tape of her on a show.
"Me: Ethel,who is your doctor?
Ethel: Ah-ee-ee-ah.
And after much trying,she opened her mouth and sang as clearly as she ever did.
Ethel: He was my father's doctor.
She could sing anything. If she sang it,she could enunciate perfectly. We celebrated discovering this miracle. I talked,and she sang around me;we sang separately,we sang together. Then she'd groan or wail loudly,and since her sould was normally on the enormous proportions of a Clytemnestra,she now became the most overtly sick,noisiest woman in the world. That was our Ethel...
I went from Ethel's hotel straight to my lawyer to make out a living will. No one should suffer like Ethel did...."
Then I had to put the book down because I was crying.
And since we're making recommendations...
My favorite fiction authors are Chaim Potok,Tracy Chevalier,and Sharon Kay Penman. Potok is most famous for The Chosen-a wonderful story about the rivalry and eventual friendship between a modern Orthodox son of a Zionist intellectual and a Chasidic son of a Lubavitch rebbe during and after World War II. It's set in Brooklyn.
Chevalier and Penman write historical fiction,which is my favorite genre.
As for nonfiction-if you're looking for entertainment memoirs,my favorites are Charlie Chaplin's (My Story) and Shirley Temple's (Black's),Child Star. Shirley Temple Black has been working on a second volume of her memoirs (the first does not cover her career with the United Nations and her victory over breast cancer). However,I do believe she's been somewhat ill,so I don't know. If I have to pick my favorite nonfiction book,it would have to be Helen and Teacher by Joseph P. Lash,which is in print again. An amazing,shocking (yet respectful) account of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy. If you only know of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy from The Miracle Worker and Keller's The Story of My Life (recently republished,with letters to and from Keller and Macy to various people,to mark the 100th anniversary of Helen Keller's birth),then you should read this.
Jenn,off to the backyard for barbeque ribs and hamburgers,and in a much better mood (sorry,everyone)
Jenn
| blazer
Registered User
Registered:
6/2/2004 | posted: 7/4/2004 at 2:10:24 PM ET
read anything by david sedaris. he is the funniest man alive and his books are very amusing.
I used to do drugs...I still do but I used to too.
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 7/4/2004 at 3:49:32 PM ET
Jenn, I agree about the Channing book, it can be so funny. The story you allude to, but don't tell (it's a little too outrageous for this board), had me laughing out loud too. The image of Ethel Merman barrelling down the aisle of an airliner, after a passenger took ill, loudly announcing "Let me through, I'm a nurse!"
And then the conversations among Carol, Ethel, and Ann Miller when they were filming a Love Boat episode--priceless!
|  Christine-NYC
Registered User
Registered:
3/23/2002
From:
New York City
Fav. BP Song: With So Little to be Sure Of
Fav. BP Show: Gypsy
Fav. BP Character: Marie (insert last name) lol There's a few
Fav. BP CD: Bernadette Peters Loves Rogers and Hammerstein
| posted: 7/5/2004 at 1:30:47 AM ET
until she goes into full-bitch mode in the Barbra Streisand chapter
lol Okay, see, now I really want to read Carol Channing's book, but I'm such a HUGE Barbra fan that I'm afraid I will never ever like Carol again if I read that chapter. I know she hates Barbra; but I don't like people that hate Barbra for such stupid things as getting a movie role they, themselves wanted or even deserved. 
The woman needs to get over it.
<3CMH<3
|  SunnyK
Registered User
Registered:
2/11/2004
From:
Bethel Township, PA | posted: 7/5/2004 at 10:16:41 AM ET
As I said earlier, I am a teacher (8th grade). I try to go between reading books that my students read and books that I would be interested in reading. I like to keep current with what my kids are into. Anyway, I thought I would share a series in the Young Adult genre that I throughly enjoyed. I highly recommend The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot to any middle school teacher or anyone who just wants to grab a fun, quick read.
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 7/5/2004 at 11:39:49 AM ET
If you're interested in Carol Channing, "Diary of a Mad Playwright" by James Kirkwood is a fascinating read. It's about his experiences trying to mount the show "Legends" with Channing and Mary Martin in the mid-eighties. Parts are funny and parts are heart-breaking. I haven't read it in years, but I'm thinking now that I'll go back and reread it.
| Rose
Registered User
Registered:
9/28/2003
From:
NY
Fav. BP Song: No One Is Alone and Some People
Fav. BP Show: Gypsy
Fav. BP Character: Rose/The Witch
Fav. BP CD: Gypsy
| posted: 7/5/2004 at 11:53:55 AM ET
The Princess Diaries is really funny. All Meg Cabot books are.
"Oh no, you won't. No, not a chance. No arguements, shut up and dance."
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 7/5/2004 at 12:35:29 PM ET
Christine-
Actually,she swings between anger and sadness that their friendship is over. I was not aware that they were friends before the movie,and that's the the thing that apparently hurts her the most-that her friend "went behind her back" (her story) and went after the role.
In the end,the movie was a failure,even Barbra admits that she was not right for the part,and Carol is the one most identified with Dolly Gallagher Levi,not Barbra. So I was a little taken aback,but if a friend did that to you/if you perceive that your friend went back behind your back and stole "your baby" (as she puts it,and that "My opinion of Streisand is completely warped."),then that has to doubly hurt. But,of course,I don't know the whole story,since I've never really read up about it. She never said how hard she went after the movie. If she expected to get it just because she played the part,that strikes me as being very naive,and she does not seem to be naive. Especially since this was not the first time in Hollywood (for someone strongly identified with a Broadway role to not get the movie role).
However,"She's unique. I can't stop admiring her." The chapter is very short-only a few pages (one of the shortest ones in the book).
Jenn
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 7/5/2004 at 12:58:45 PM ET
Before Dolly, Carol Channing was most famous as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and, of course, the film role went to Marilyn Monroe. I just don't think Channing was ever right for a Hollywood screen career, except perhaps in very small character parts like the one in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She's great on stage, but movies? No.
|  Skibabi1
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2004
From:
Texas | posted: 7/5/2004 at 10:07:39 PM ET
Karne - yes Ghost Light was what I was looking for - I had a sudden lapse of memory there for a second Thanks!
"You either got it or you ain't. And boys, I got it!"
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 7/6/2004 at 2:20:02 PM ET
Amanda-
Ghost Light is a great read. I wish Rich would write a second volume chronicling his term as the NYT drama critic,then as the NYT op-ed columnist,and then as the NYT associate editor . His theatre criticisms have been collected in a doorstopper of a book called Hot Seat. Entertaining reading,as he is a gifted writer,but more of a "browsing" book than anything,since it's such a long volume. It's not just reviews,since it contains his essays he wrote about the theatre as well (including his farewell essay).
I'm getting ready to leave for a trip to Tennessee,so I picked up a copy of Me and My Shadows at the library. I also got Judy Garland:The Secret Life of an American Legend by David Shipman. Has anyone read that one? The last Judy Garland book I read was the one written by Mel Torme,and that was many years ago.
Wasn't Liza Minnelli very upset with her sister over Me and My Shadows? I remember she was none too pleased. I saw Lorna Luft in the Guys and Dolls tour (as Adelaide-this was the tour based on the last revival),and thought she was splendid.
Jenn
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 7/6/2004 at 4:59:46 PM ET
I read the Shipman book when it came out and thought it was pretty good. At the time it seemed scurilous and shocking, but times have changed so quickly that it probably comes off as mild now. The other big, thick Judy book is Gerald Clarke's Get Happpy--also worth reading. Lorna's book was published during a period when she and Liza were estranged anyway (over Liza's resumed drinking). They later reconciled when Liza had encephalitis, then fell out again when she married Gest. Post-Gest, they're back on friendly terms for now. I don't know what Liza thought about the book though.
|  cuteoperaboi
Registered User
Registered:
1/3/2004
From:
Ohio | posted: 7/6/2004 at 5:34:23 PM ET
A bit of an older read but A DENSITY OF SOULS by Christopher Rice is great!!! And a more adult book by actor Alan Cummings called TOMMY'S TALE is actually quite good too.
"Take off your jacket!"--Joan Rivers to Bernadette
"TAKE OFF YOUR DRESS!!"--Bernadette's reply.
|  PA Fan
Registered User
Registered:
11/6/2003 | posted: 7/8/2004 at 7:47:21 PM ET
Finally adding my two cents. I'm more of a non-fiction & history reader but one of my all time (unrelated) favorites is "The Color of Water" by James McBride. A must read.
A while back when Kate and others did the Gypsy on-line chat she mentioned that she had read or was reading Middlesex. Haven't gotten to that one yet.
| ShubertGoddess
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2004
From:
NYC | posted: 7/17/2004 at 10:02:19 AM ET
***To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee (by far, my all time favorite book. If you have not read it yet, you must!)
*She's Come Undone ~ Wally Lamb
*Summer Sisters ~ Judy Blume (no, it's not one of her kids books haha)
*The Lovely Bones ~ Alice Sebold
*The Notebook ~ Nicholas Sparks
*Living at the Edge of the World: A teenager's survival in the tunnels of Grand Central ~ Tina S. and Jamie Pastor Blotnick
*Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl ~ Tracy Quan
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower ~ Stephen Chbosky
and for a fluffier read:
*Shopgirl ~ Steve Martin
*The Shopaholic Series: Confessions of a Shopaholic, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, Shopaholic Ties the Knot ~ Sophie Kinsella
*Can You Keep a Secret? ~ Sophie Kinsella
*Trading Up ~ Candace Bushnell
*4 Blondes ~ Candace Bushnell
*Wicked ~ Gregory Maguire
*The Dirty Girls Social Club ~ Alisa Valdes-Rodrigues
*Why Girls are Weird ~ Pamela Ribon
*Who You Know ~ Theresa Alan
Can you tell I read a lot? haha
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