Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2006-09-28
Dewey code: 335.83092
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.43
Review Living My Life (Penguin Classics) / Penguin Classics:
Edition: Reissue
Publication date: 1986-11
Dewey code: 959.70438
RRP: £4.03
Price: £11.95
Review Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There / Berkley Pub Group (Mm):
Publication date: 1983-05
Dewey code: 629.13092
Price: £10.42
Review West with the Night / North Point Press:
Creator: Dale Peterson
Publication date: 2001-08-15
Dewey code: 590.92
RRP: £17.95
Price: £7.95
Review Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters: the Later Years / Houghton Mifflin (Trade):
Creator: James Stenning
Publication date: 2004-03-31
RRP: £7.50
Price: £7.12
Review Man into Woman: The First Sex Change / Blue Boat Books Ltd:
Publication date: 2005-06-09
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £16.99
Price: £18.49
Review A Woman in Berlin / Virago Press Ltd:
Edition: First Edition
Publication date: 2001-11-06
RRP: £18.00
Price: £0.01
Review Madonna / Michael O'Mara Books, London:It seems fitting that Andrew Morton, the Prince of Biography, should finally write Madonna, a biography of the Queen of Celebrity. Having completed biographies such as Diana: Her True Story, Monica's Story, and Posh and Becks, Morton has now turned his attention to "desperately seeking Madonna". Morton's biography is as much a study of celebrity as of Madonna herself. There is very little new here, besides some new photographs of Madonna before and after her arrival in New York in the 1970s, and suggestions that she suffered physical abuse at the hands of her stepmother. Otherwise, Morton is diligent but unsurprising in tracking down Madonna's old lovers and mentors, and offering a hurried, downbeat assessment of the future of Madonna's marriage to Guy Ritchie. Morton's central fascination is with Madonna's chameleon celebrity, "a cultural bloodhound always on the scent of the fresh, the cool and the credible". For Morton she is "the girl who wanted to rule the world but not change it", whose "appeal lies in the fact that she can be presented as the ultimate girl-next-door", "an embodiment of the radical sexual and social changes in modern America over the last 20 years". Morton's biographies are always readable, but in Madonna his subject seems to have overwhelmed him. -Jerry Brotton.
Edition: Reprint
Publication date: 2007-08
Dewey code: 941.0860922
RRP: £4.21
Price: £1.70
Review Posh & Becks / Simon & Schuster Export:Andrew Morton, infamous for his exposé biographies of Diana, Princess of Wales and Monica Lewinsky, turns his steely gaze toward the champagne-tinted world of Mr and Mrs Beckham. Be warned-he does not like what he sees. As he has made his name in the world of the high-profile, headline-grabbing exposé, Morton's fans expect a certain edge to his writing. The antithesis of the current trend for syrupy "so-then-I" works, the biographer is known for pulling no punches in his quest for a page-turning, titillating read. Certainly the research here is thorough (although fans will notice it is not exhaustive). The facts, which are not obviously tampered with, form the framework for the narrative. although it is not the facts per se which will make this book a talking point. Already the subject of a courtroom battle and sturdy pre-hearing settlement, Posh & Becks is basically one man's interpretation of the motives of the millennium's golden couple. [+]While seeming to harbour certain affections for David Beckham, who is depicted as a long-suffering under-the-thumb kind of bloke, Morton returns to familiar black widow territory when he paints his portrait of Victoria. The writer's great skill, for better or worse, is his ability to colour a portrayal through editing the story he is here to tell. By his pen, Victoria Beckham is in parts controlling, intelligent, needy, narcissistic and entrepreneurial. Having (albeit only as part of the Spice Girls) surrounded herself with media professionals who guide her well, be it in publicity, marketing or whatever, Victoria is chided for being power-hungry, where Morton would (perhaps?) deal a man astute instead. Character witnesses are produced, of course, to back up his case, but it is his choice of anti-Posh testimonies, rather than what they actually say, which is most telling. As Andrew Morton seems to be so shocked by the goings on in the industry which is entertainment, perhaps he should write an exposé of the business as a whole. In doing that, however, he would not be able to use the name of a superstar beside his own in order to sell his product. In the meantime, Madonna Louise Ciccone had better watch out. Apparently the drafts are already underway. -Helen Lamont.
Publication date: 2001-06-01
Dewey code: 915.10459
RRP: £19.95
Price: £10.23
Review Where the Pavement Ends: One Women's Bicycle Trip Through Mongolia, China and Vietnam / Mountaineers Books:
Authors
- Dorothee Soelle
- Joe H. Kirchberger
Publication date: 2007-01-30
Dewey code: 220.92082
RRP: £16.99
Price: £11.21
Review Great Women of the Bible: In Art and Literature / Augsburg Fortress:
Publication date: 2006-11-30
Dewey code: 194
RRP: £15.99
Price: £8.59
Review Simone Weil (Outstanding Christian Thinkers) / Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.:
Publication date: 1992-02-27
Dewey code: 796.6082
Price: £5.99
Review How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflections of an Influential 19th Century Woman / Fair Oaks Publishing, US:
Publication date: 2006-10-09
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £8.99
Price: £4.04
Review No One Wants You: A Memoir of a Child Forced into Prostitution / Merlin Publishing:
Publication date: 2004-03
Dewey code: 364.152309794985
RRP: £4.70
Price: £1.41
Review Deadly American Beauty (St. Martin's True Crime Library) / St. Martin's Press:
Edition: Reprint
Publication date: 2007-06-05
Dewey code: 936.204092
Price: £10.39
Review Boudica: The Life of Britain's Legendary Warrior Queen / Overlook Press:
Publication date: 2000-10-01
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £9.95
Price: £123.84
Review I Was for Sale: Confessions of a Bondage Model / Creation Books:
Edition: illustrated edition
Publication date: 2006-04-13
Dewey code: 306.768092
RRP: £11.99
Price: £5.81
Review The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male / Seal Press (CA):
Publication date: 2002-08-29
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.99
Review Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking Around America / Virago Press Ltd:
Publication date: 2000-10-31
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £10.09
Price: £5.65
Review Happily Ever After: The Drew Barrymore Story / Ballantine Books:
Authors
- Joyce Grenfell
- Virginia Graham
Publication date: 1997-09-04
Dewey code: 791.092
RRP: £20.00
Price: £138.95
Review Joyce and Ginnie: The Letters of Joyce Grenfell and Virginia Graham / Hodder & Stoughton Ltd:
| Models & Brands:
Living My Life (Penguin Classics), Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There, West with the Night, Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters: the Later Years, Man into Woman: The First Sex Change, A Woman in Berlin, Madonna, Posh & Becks, Where the Pavement Ends: One Women's Bicycle Trip Through Mongolia, China and Vietnam, Great Women of the Bible: In Art and Literature, Simone Weil (Outstanding Christian Thinkers), How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflections of an Influential 19th Century Woman, No One Wants You: A Memoir of a Child Forced into Prostitution, Deadly American Beauty (St. Martin's True Crime Library), Boudica: The Life of Britain's Legendary Warrior Queen, I Was for Sale: Confessions of a Bondage Model, The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male, Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking Around America, Happily Ever After: The Drew Barrymore Story, Joyce and Ginnie: The Letters of Joyce Grenfell and Virginia Graham |
