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Defining Style

Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
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NonfictionHumor

Surviving cancer with your individuality intact

Review by bookpagedev

It’s hard to imagine laughing out loud while reading a book called The Cancer Monologue Project (MacAdam/Cage, $22, ISBN 1931561222). But, the fact is, I laughed many times. Of course, humor isn’t the only emotion expressed in this remarkable volume. Lust, fear, stoicism, doubt, disappointment and exaltation are all here and expressed so remarkably well, it’s hard to believe that almost all the writers are amateurs.

The project represents a compilation of writings by men and women whose sole common thread was a diagnosis of cancer. With the assistance of acting/writing coaches Tanya Taylor and Pamela Thompson, each participant developed a piece of autobiographical writing based on their experience with cancer and then read the work in a public appearance. Taylor and Thompson compiled the 30 pieces in the book, which includes passages like these:

  • The next morning I met the doctor. He was the bastard child of H. Ross Perot and George H.W. Bush. After the biopsy he looked at me and said, Becca, it’s real important that nothing penetrate your vagina for the next eight weeks. Ya hear me? (Rebecca Dixon)
  • I had cancer of the sphincter muscle. Sphincter . . . It really rolls off the tongue so delicately, doesn’t it? Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have a cancer that affected a part of the body that we’re more used to talking about. (Blythe Jane Richfield)
  • Cancer has also shut up my inner critic. I finally have the courage and words to talk back to it as fiercely as it talks to me: ÔShut up! So I’m not doing it your way perfectly I’m doin’ it! If it’s not perfect I’ll try again.’ (Judi Jaquez) Every piece is as different as the person who wrote it: complex, subtle, fierce, funny, alarming, silly. And that, no doubt, is part of the triumph we share with each writer a zesty individuality that shines through despite the numbing, humiliating experience of cancer treatments. Rosemary Zibart writes from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

    • It's hard to imagine laughing out loud while reading a book called The Cancer Monologue Project (MacAdam/Cage, $22, ISBN 1931561222). But, the fact is, I laughed many times. Of course, humor isn't the only emotion expressed in this remarkable volume. Lust, fear, stoicism, doubt, disappointment…
    Memoir

    An Irish writer’s transformation

    Review by Anne Bartlett

    When Irish people get old, writer Nuala O'Faolain tells us, the government waives the fee for their required television licenses. The assumption is that they're going to spend the rest of their lives quietly at home, watching younger folks do more exciting things on the telly. But when people in the United States get old, she notes, they "go for cosmetic surgery, reconstruct their teeth and bleach them white, exfoliate their skin, tan it, laser their failing eyesight, wear toupees, diet savagely."

    O'Faolain, author of the best-selling memoir Are You Somebody? and the novel My Dream of You, is very much an Irishwoman strong, tough-minded and funny, even while being fully aware of life's tragedies. But in late middle age, she's also become a sort of semi-American, both geographically and spiritually. She has transformed herself since she turned 55, and she lets us in on the experience in her second memoir, Almost There: The Onward Journey of a Dublin Woman.

    In Are You Somebody?, O'Faolain told of growing up in a large family with an alcoholic, resentful mother and a celebrity-journalist father who was never around when he was needed. She survived both that and a slightly wild youth to become a well-known columnist for the Irish Times and maintain a long, stable relationship with another woman.

    But all was not well when she wrote her first book. She and her lover had just split up, she had no children, and she had nothing much to show for her life except ephemeral newspaper clippings. O'Faolain was in a serious depression.

    AYS, as she calls her first memoir, started out as an introduction to a collection of columns. But as a book, it became the catalyst for her reconstruction. Its success allowed her to move away from Ireland and journalism to a new career, a new country and the possibility, however fragile, of a new love.

    As she candidly shows in Almost There, O'Faolain's re-invention hasn't been a painless process. She fell into a long affair with an older man that provided useful source material for My Dream of You, but held her back emotionally. And we cringe as she describes her self-destructive inner turmoil over another relationship. But the overall message of the new book is one of hope: It's never too late to become a better person. "The person that was me who moved slowly around in that silence is now dead,'' writes O'Faolain. "And I'm glad she is."

    Anne Bartlett is a journalist who lives in South Florida.

    When Irish people get old, writer Nuala O'Faolain tells us, the government waives the fee for their required television licenses. The assumption is that they're going to spend the rest of their lives quietly at home, watching younger folks do more exciting things on the…

    NonfictionTrue Crime

    Cashing in with stolen loot

    Review by bookpagedev

    On a cold day in February 1981, erstwhile longshoreman Joey Coyle and a couple of his South Philadelphia buddies set out to score some drugs. They couldn’t locate the dealer, but on their way home the trio came upon a large yellow container lying in the street, which contained two bags filled with unmarked $100 bills totaling $1.2 million. Flabbergasted and excited, Coyle picked up the money, placed it in the car and began to hatch a half-baked scheme to write his own rags-to-riches story. His two friends were skeptical, but they said nothing as Coyle immediately sought out an old pal of his late father, who allegedly brought in a Mob-connected accomplice to launder a substantial portion of the loot. Promising financial ease for all and dreaming of long-overdue medical care for his ailing mother, Coyle noted for a demeanor that could veer from rather endearing to out-and-out pathetic swore his cohorts to secrecy.

    Almost hilariously, apparently spurred on by his newfound self-importance, he then set out to blab to others about his sudden good fortune. What Coyle didn’t know was that the money he found had fallen out of the back of a Purolator armored car that had been making routine rounds only minutes before he found the container, and that the Philadelphia police were hunting high and low for the substantial cash. By the end of a week, Coyle had stashed piles of dough hither and yon, gambled in Atlantic City, dined in high style, bought expensive clothes, doled out cash gifts (sometimes to complete strangers) and planned a getaway trip to Mexico, before being nabbed in the nick of time by the FBI at New York’s Kennedy International Airport.

    Best-selling author Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down), formerly a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, offers a stark journalistic account of this thoroughly unlikely chain of events a story that takes on the air of a The Three Stooges episode, though the comedy of errors aspect is leavened by Coyle’s annoying, delusionary belief that the money should be his by some cockamamie fatalistic fiat. His penchant for waving around a .44 Magnum often makes the tale more worrisome than whimsical. However, the subsequent trial contains many humorous and ironic elements, as earnest prosecutors are thwarted by both judge and jury, who can’t bring themselves to be anything but sympathetic toward the plight of the poor Philly lad who stumbled onto a king’s ransom, the vast majority of which was eventually recovered.

    The coda to this story is particularly grim: three weeks before the 1993 opening of Money for Nothing, a Disney-produced film based on the actual events, Joey Coyle took his own life. Bowden’s spare reportorial style makes for a quick, compelling read and a solid entry in the true-crime genre.

    Martin Brady is a freelance writer in Nashville.

     

    On a cold day in February 1981, erstwhile longshoreman Joey Coyle and a couple of his South Philadelphia buddies set out to score some drugs. They couldn't locate the dealer, but on their way home the trio came upon a large yellow container lying…

    Memoir

    Memoir from a political maverick

    Review by bookpagedev

    If Arizona Sen. John McCain is using his new memoir Worth the Fighting For to position himself for another run for the presidency, then he is either the dumbest or the foxiest campaigner in the race. Arguing for the former point is the fact that he readily sometimes gleefully admits to being ambitious, impatient, impulsive, politically mercurial and, under certain circumstances, deceptive. Of course, in publicly confessing to such shortcomings, he deftly denies his opponents the opportunity to dramatically spring these charges on him.

    Unlike most political biographies, which tend to run to high seriousness, this one is sprinkled with gossip, candor and self-effacing humor. McCain makes it clear that his political stance is more instinctive than intellectual, and that it grows not only from his military upbringing and experience (of which he says relatively little) but also from his concept of what it means to be principled and heroic. McCain details here how he became acquainted with high-roller Charles Keating, forming a cozy relationship that would ultimately land him among the notorious Keating Five accused of influence-peddling after the flamboyant entrepreneur’s savings-and-loan empire went bust. It may have been this grueling and career-endangering incident as well as his own growing behind-the-scene awareness of how American politics work that caused McCain to join with fellow senator Russell Feingold in an effort to regulate campaign financing.

    Some of McCain’s most revealing stories are about his short-lived campaign for president. He admits to attempting to deceive the voters of South Carolina by taking an equivocal stand on the state’s display of the Confederate flag, a position he later renounced.

    In summarizing himself, McCain quotes a conservative critic who wrote, Politics is so personal for McCain. It’s all a matter of honor and integrity. That’s the sum total of his politics. To this assertion, McCain responds, If that’s the worst that can be said about my public career, I’ll take it, with appreciation.

    If Arizona Sen. John McCain is using his new memoir Worth the Fighting For to position himself for another run for the presidency, then he is either the dumbest or the foxiest campaigner in the race. Arguing for the former point is the fact…
    Religion & Spirituality

    The shared father of three faiths

    Review by Amy Lee

    Bruce Feiler, the best-selling author of Walking the Bible, journeyed across time and place through three continents, five countries and four war zones to read, study and interview religious leaders and scholars in search of the man from whom much of the world's population claims to be descended. The result is Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths, a compelling look at the common origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

    According to the biblical account in Genesis, God changed Abraham's name from Abram because he was "made the father of many nations." Taking his name seriously, Abraham initiated a religious legacy that now encompasses 12 million Jews, two billion Christians and one billion Muslims. Feiler sought out the ancient patriarch to recover and understand the man scholars say is "difficult to interpret." Feiler's book, however, is not. The combination of travelogue, historical research and spiritual journey might seem weighty, but the author's style makes Abraham an intriguing pleasure to read. Feiler adroitly humanizes his subject, who might have remained a flat abstract lost between the pages of ancient documents. He paints a multilayered portrait of a figure who struggles, yet participates in an interactive partnership with God.

    Feiler argues that modern world events can be linked directly to Abraham's sons, with the Judeo-Christian nations descending from Isaac and the Arab nations from Ishmael. In trying to discern if the world's three monotheistic religions could ever get along, Feiler discovered that "[E]very clue in Judaism led to some desert hideaway in Christianity, led to some palm tree in Islam, under which was some spring yes! that suddenly cleared up some tangle described on the front page of that morning's paper."

    Ultimately, Feiler concludes that both sons received a blessing. So will the readers of Abraham.

    Bruce Feiler, the best-selling author of Walking the Bible, journeyed across time and place through three continents, five countries and four war zones to read, study and interview religious leaders and scholars in search of the man from whom much of the world's population claims…

    Religion & SpiritualityParentingLifestylesHealth & FitnessFamily & Relationships

    Holiday treats for the women in your life

    Review by Rebecca Denton

    Let's be honest. For many women, the holiday season isn't entirely joyful. They spend untold hours shopping, baking, cleaning and traveling like madwomen, and they deserve a little reward. We've selected an array of books designed to give your mother, wife, sister or best friend a respite from the hectic holidays. Covering everything from beauty advice to the miracle of birth, these gift selections aim to refresh mind, body and spirit and not a moment too soon.

    When was the last time you really savored a cup of coffee, or paused to listen to a songbird? For most women, it's been awhile, and Sarah Ban Breathnach is out to change that. During the 1980s, Ban Breathnach lost her senses literally. A ceiling panel fell on her head in a restaurant, leaving her extremely sensitive to touch and sound, and unable to taste or smell for months. Bedridden and disoriented, she was struck by a profound yearning for simple pleasures, such as the taste of a ripe peach or the smell of freshly washed clothes. After she recovered, Ban Breathnach compiled her thoughts in her best-selling Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, and Something More, among others. In the same vein comes her new release, Romancing the Ordinary, a guide to rediscovering the mystery and surprise in everyday life. This inspirational litany of recipes, rituals, decorating hints, fashion and gardening tips is intended to reinvigorate body and soul. With chapters designed to be read in increments throughout the year, Ban Breathnach invites female readers to join her on a journey to renew their sense of wonder and bask in ordinary delights.

    Beauty knows no bounds, including age. That's the theme of makeup guru Bobbi Brown's new book, Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution: A Guide to a Lifetime of Beauty. Written with Sally Wadyka, Brown's guide takes a practical look at the changing face of beauty. Each chapter focuses on a different stage of life and outlines the shifts women should make in their beauty routines through the years. This down-to-earth reference encourages women to celebrate their looks at any age and gives them the know-how to get started from choosing the right makeup brushes to selecting a flattering hair color. Brown's book also includes a section on beauty and health tips for pregnant women, for those going through chemotherapy, and for those considering plastic surgery. It presents interviews with women about self-image and a section on makeovers. A chapter full of grooming tips for men rounds out the mix. With a warm, inclusive tone and more than 300 glossy, color photographs, Beauty Evolution redefines beauty and celebrates it across the generations.

    Supermodel Christy Turlington may be rich and gorgeous, but she's also a thoughtful, spiritual woman dedicated to living a balanced existence. In Living Yoga: Creating a Life Practice, the cover girl and serious yoga student presents the basics of the practice, interspersed with reflections and anecdotes about her ongoing journey toward personal discovery. In straightforward prose, Turlington tells how her dedication to the ancient art has helped her weather difficult times, including her father's death from lung cancer. She describes the benefits of meditation, clears up some common misunderstandings about yoga and explains the philosophy behind different poses. Complete with a history of yoga, an overview of different styles, an extensive glossary of terms and a resource directory, this elegantly illustrated book is ideal for beginners or advanced practitioners looking for some inner equilibrium.

    If you're searching for the perfect gift to bestow on expectant mothers, look no further than From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfoldsby Alexander Tsiaras, with text by Barry Werth. This lavishly designed book combines stunning visual art with medical science to present a child's development in the womb as never seen before. Scientific visualization software, designed and patented by Tsiaras, presents the developing baby from new angles and in luminous images "painted" by Tsiaras on the computer. The accompanying text explains how a child's life begins, starting with the basics. It also includes information about heredity, DNA, infertility and more all written in an engaging, light style. Absorbing from a scientific as well as an artistic perspective, From Conception to Birth is the kind of book that parents-to-be will consult in wonderment throughout the pregnancy and beyond.

    And finally, in a delightfully small package comes a tribute to that most feminine of carrying cases the purse. Who would have thought that so much could be inferred, stated and communicated about the purses, pocketbooks and handbags in which nearly every woman carries her necessities, conveniences and other mysterious paraphernalia? In Handbags: The Power of the Purse author Anna Johnson examines the evolution of the purse, from the era when it brought independence to women (who previously relied on men to carry items for them), to today's functional and fashionable trends.

    Purses of all shapes, sizes and materials announce the carrier's character and status from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's chunky "trusty companion" to Grace Kelly's elegant Hermes Haute Courroies bag. Most women aren't content to own just one or two purses; there must be choices fit for work and play, fun and function, day and evening. With more than 900 color photographs, Handbags aims to capture every imaginable variety of the purse, from beaded to brocaded, from dainty to downright dorky. This wallet-sized selection would make an ideal stocking stuffer for the fashion-conscious lady on your list.

    Let's be honest. For many women, the holiday season isn't entirely joyful. They spend untold hours shopping, baking, cleaning and traveling like madwomen, and they deserve a little reward. We've selected an array of books designed to give your mother, wife, sister or best…

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