Improve your reading—Improve your life. Are you bored by best sellers you can’t remember a week later? Is your book group ready for more meaningful discussions? Have TV and movies got your brain on autopilot? Back to the Best Books explores 36 great works of literature, some that you know (Twain, Bronte) and some you might not (Undset, Cronin) that will bring you new insights about your own life. Inside you’ll find: • Jane Austen—Looking for love in all the wrong places • Betty Smith—Recession lessons from the depression • William Faulkner—Road trips and self-discovery • Anne Tyler—Putting the fun into dysfunctional • Charles Dickens—Changing the world one child at a time The perfect guide for book groups, students, and casual readers who are ready to take it up a notch! If you’re feeling the need to get your brain in gear, your relationships in order and your life on track, then it’s time to get Back to the Best Books.
Fragments is an event—an unforgettable book that will redefine one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century and that, nearly fifty years after her death, will definitively reveal Marilyn Monroe's humanity. Marilyn's image is so universal that we can't help but believe we know all there is to know of her. Every word and gesture made headlines and garnered controversy. Her serious gifts as an actor were sometimes eclipsed by her notoriety—and by the way the camera fell helplessly in love with her. Beyond the headlines—and the too-familiar stories of heartbreak and desolation—was a woman far more curious, searching, witty, and hopeful than the one the world got to know. Now, for the first time, readers can meet the private Marilyn and understand her in a way we never have before. Fragments is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts—notes to herself, letters, even poems—in Marilyn's own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos. Jotted in notebooks, typed on paper, or written on hotel letterhead, these texts reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft. They show a Marilyn Monroe unsparing in her analysis of her own life, but also playful, funny, and impossibly charming. The easy grace and deceptive lightness that made her performances indelible emerge on the page, as does the simmering tragedy that made her last appearances so affecting.
Fulfilling Marilyn Monroe's dream of putting together a picture book-autobiography, the author, a personal friend of Marilyn's, provides a fascinating glimpse into her life, in this stunning tribute to one of America's most beloved celebrities, who would have been seventy-five years old on June 1, 2001. Reprint.
Written at the height of her fame but not published until over a decade after her death, this autobiography of actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) poignantly recounts her childhood as an unwanted orphan, her early adolescence, her rise in the film industry from bit player to celebrity, and her marriage to Joe DiMaggio. In this intimate account of a very public life, she tells of her first (non-consensual) sexual experience, her romance with the Yankee Clipper, and her prescient vision of herself as "the kind of girl they found dead in the hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand." The Marilyn in these pages is a revelation: a gifted, intelligent, vulnerable woman who was far more complex than the unwitting sex siren she portrayed on screen. Lavishly illustrated with photos of Marilyn, this special book celebrates the life and career of an American icon—-from the unique perspective of the icon herself.
Marilyn Monroe's image is so universal that we can't help but believe that we know all there is to know of her. Every word and gesture made headlines and garnered controversy. Her serious gifts as an actor were sometimes eclipsed by her notoriety -- and the way the camera fell helplessly in love with her. But what of the other Marilyn? Beyond the headlines -- and the too-familiar stories of heartbreak and desolation -- was a woman far more curious, searching and hopeful than the one the world got to know. Even as Hollywood studios tried to mold and suppress her, Marilyn never lost her insight, her passion, and her humour. To confront the mounting difficulties of her life, she wrote. Now, for the first time, we can meet this private Marilyn and get to know her in a way we never have before. Fragments is an unprecedented collection of written artifacts -- notes to herself, letters, even poems -- in Marilyn's own handwriting, never before published, along with rarely seen intimate photos. These bits of text--jotted in notebooks, typed on paper or written on hotel letterhead -- reveal a woman who loved deeply and strove to perfect her craft. They show a Marilyn Monroe unsparing in her analysis of her own life, but also playful, funny and impossibly charming. The easy grace and deceptive lightness that made her performances so memorable emerge on the page, as does the simmering tragedy that made her last appearances so heartbreaking. Fragments is an event -- an unforgettable book that will redefine one of the greatest stars of the twentieth century and which, nearly fifty years after her death, will definitively reveal Marilyn Monroe's humanity.
Hollywood, c'est un endroit où l'on vous offre mille dollars d'un baiser et cinquante cents de votre âme. Je le sais, j'ai assez souvent refusé la première proposition et tenu bon pour les cinquante cents. " Marilyn Monroe, 1954 C'est en 1954 que l'agent de Marilyn, Charles Feldman, contacte Ben Hecht pour lui demander d'aider l'actrice à écrire ses mémoires. À 28 ans, elle a déjà tourné une vingtaine de films, dont ses premiers succès – Niagara et Les hommes préfèrent les blondes – et elle est lasse des inventions et potins des feuilles à scandales. Elle lui dicte les mots qu'il couche sur papier. Pour des raisons personnelles, elle ne poursuit pas ces séances de travail, mais confie le texte inachevé au photographe Milton Greene, son ami de toujours. Publiés aux États-Unis et en France en 1974, ces textes de jeunesse, intimes et bouleversants, politiques et féministes, sont une révélation. Qui était Marilyn Monroe ? Qui se cache derrière la pétillante blonde qui va mettre fin à ses jours à 36 ans, en pleine gloire ? Lire cette Confession inachevée, c'est se rapprocher d'elle, entendre sa voix bien reconnaissable dévoiler les deux faces de sa personnalité, les étapes de sa brève existence. D'abord Norma Jean, l'enfant dont la mère est internée, ballottée entre différentes familles d'accueil. La jeune fille crie son manque d'amour et son besoin constant d'attirer l'attention. Puis Marilyn, le sex-symbol qui côtoie et déteste Hollywood, avec ses ratés, ses dragueurs et ses escrocs, qui se heurte à la jalousie des femmes, mais reste lucide sur la tragédie de son milieu d'adoption.
A girl comes of age in the radical 1960s in this “beautifully written” novel by the groundbreaking author of The Women’s Room (Kate Mosse). It’s 1968 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jess Leighton, the daughter of a temperamental painter and a proto-feminist Harvard professor, is struggling to make sense of her world amid racial tensions, Vietnam War protests, anti-government rage, her own burgeoning sexuality, and bad relationships. With more options than her mother’s generation, but no role model for creating the life she desires, Jess experiments with sex and psychedelic drugs as she searches for happiness on her own terms. In the midst of joining and fleeing a commune, growing organic vegetables, and operating a sustainable restaurant, Jess grapples with the legacy of her mother’s generation while building a future for herself, and for the postmodern woman. “French’s meticulous and affecting tale of the forging of one woman’s conscience encompasses thoughtful portraits of ‘love children,’ from peace activists to members of unconventional families, and a forthright critique of the counterculture that puts today’s wars, struggles for equality, and environmental troubles into sharp perspective” (Booklist).
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