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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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Biography

Elvis fans love him tender, love him true

Review by Julie Hale

Those hips, those lips, that baby face: of course, we're talking about Elvis. August 16 marks the 25th anniversary of his much-mythologized demise. Since that unforgettable day in 1977, the King has continued to cause a sensation, generating as much attention in death as he did in life. And that's saying a lot for the hillbilly hipster who once kissed so many girls he got calluses on his mouth. A good boy and a bad man, a gentleman and a lady-killer, Elvis pouted and snarled, sang like an angel and danced like a demon. By the end of his brief life, he'd been enthroned on the top tier of rock-n-roll royalty and permanently absorbed into the national consciousness. As with all things connected to the King, a frenzy of activity has occurred in the publishing world to commemorate his purported passing. Unless you're one of the rare few who've spotted Elvis in a Burger King, check out the following titles to make sure his legend lives on.

If Elvis was an industry, then his target market was, of course, teenaged girls. Who else could be persuaded to purchase Hound Dog Orange non-smear lipstick? In The Girls' Guide to Elvis, Kim Adelman compiles all the juiciest, need-to-know info about the Hunk O' Burning Love. The creator of GirlsGuidetoElvis.com, the popular Web site, Adelman has produced a kitschy handbook filled with gossip, timelines and delicious trivia. Illustrated with retro graphics and rare photos, this fast, fun read covers the following Elvis-oriented categories:

Hair: Those sensational sideburns, that glorious pompadour . . . Believe it or not, his locks were brown, not black. According to Girls' Guide, in the early years, Elvis used a pomade that darkened his crown, which was later dyed black on a regular basis. (Compare his coif to Priscilla's: though it may have been challenged by her formidable bouffant, his was undoubtedly the dominant do. What hair, what a pair!) Girls' Guide checks in with Elvis' stylist, Larry Geller, who did his hair for 13 years and fixed it for the last time when the King was lying in his coffin. See Geller's account of the postmortem primping for proof that Elvis really is dead. Really.

Girls: A hobby. Elvis dated notables and nobodies, and had a special place in his heart for chorus babes. Natalie Wood and Ann-Margret were two of the dolls who appeared on his arm before he met Priscilla in Germany in 1959. She was 14; he was 24. Two years later she was living in Memphis.

Food: Naughty, naughty. Elvis's love for peach pie and fried okra resulted in split pants onstage. It also led him to experiment with freaky fad diets, one of which believe it or not required him to be injected with the urine of a pregnant woman. Girls' Guide includes the Teddy Bear's favorite recipes and examines the health problems that resulted, in part, from his hearty appetite.

Sex: That little three-letter word . . . Sorry, we can't divulge details here!

And finally, the Girls' Guide quotes from fans ("Tom Jones is Jesus Christ, but Elvis is God Almighty") are also fab.

An outstanding visual memorial, Elvis: A Celebration traces the arc of the King's career, depicting the bright beginning, the dark ending and all the drama that came between. With more than 600 photographs, as well as material from the official Elvis archive in Memphis, this weighty volume is a one-of-a-kind testament to the appeal of the rocker who gyrated his way to superstardom. Classic pictures of the 1950s Sun Records sessions feature bandmates Scotty Moore and Bill Black, while film stills of the '60s illustrate the movies we love to hate. All the incarnations of the star are represented here: cowboy Elvis, G.I. Elvis, Hawaiian Elvis, Elvis as wholesome country boy and sophisticated city slicker, as father, husband and son.

Close-ups of his costumes from the '70s show the shades and capes, sequins and fringe that made the singer such a model of sartorial splendor. Many of his ensembles from the Aloha "eagle" outfit to the famous sundial suit, a gold and white creation emblazoned with an Aztec calendar design that was the last he would wear onstage weighed at least 25 pounds.

Here's a new way to get your hands on Elvis: Villard's interactive title The Elvis Treasures is full of souvenirs and unique memorabilia that can be removed and perused by the reader. The singer's story is told through reproductions of documents and collectible items like letters, press releases and film scripts, along with illustrations from the Graceland archives. Pull-out posters for Jailhouse Rock and King Creole, a steamy love note sent to Miss Anita Wood, Elvis' gal in Memphis during his time in the Army ("I can't explain to you how I crave you and desire your lips," wrote the Hound Dog), as well as reproductions of tickets, telegrams and postcards, make this a mini-museum dedicated to the ultimate heartthrob.

With text by music journalist Robert Gordon, an Elvis expert and author of The King on the Road, the volume offers a comprehensive look at the life and music of the man who put Mississippi on the map for reasons that had nothing to do with race. Combining a fascinating narrative with clever visuals, this ingenious book is accompanied by Elvis Speaks, a 60-minute audio CD of interviews with the King. It all comes in a sturdy, handsome gift box. Perfect for fans who prefer to experience Elvis in 3-D.

Those hips, those lips, that baby face: of course, we're talking about Elvis. August 16 marks the 25th anniversary of his much-mythologized demise. Since that unforgettable day in 1977, the King has continued to cause a sensation, generating as much attention in death as he…

NonfictionHumor

A cowboy’s wry poke at the West

Review by bookpagedev

<B>A cowboy’s wry poke at the West</B> Many are familiar with Baxter Black’s homespun humor from his frequent commentary on National Public Radio, where he’s billed as a cowboy poet and former large animal veterinarian." Now Black’s funny, folksy anecdotes can be enjoyed in his new book, <B>Horseshoes, Cowsocks ∧ Duckfeet.</B> This collection of columns from NPR and print sources lampoons and celebrates rural life with dry, understated humor. Among the many yarns Black spins are comical accounts of rodeo mishaps, amusing efforts to wake a tranquilized bull before an auction and the bemused reaction of cowboys to Western catalogs aimed at urban dwellers. In fact, the culture clash between urban folk and rugged range riders is a subject Black visits more than once. He also celebrates good dogs, good dances and good doctors, and wonders if the West is vanishing.

In the tradition of great American humorists like Mark Twain and Will Rogers, Black writes with great intelligence and warm wit, choosing his words tenderly, yet efficiently. He may poke fun at economists and impulsive cowhands, but his satire is gentle, not at all harsh. Still, all is not laughter like many essayists, Black turns sober attention to the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, finding comfort in the fact that American farmers were feeding Afghanistan even as our troops were missing Christmas due to the fighting.

If some of the stories ring a bell, the reader can consult a handy reference of NPR air dates in the back. Black also thoughtfully includes a glossary of cowhand terms. The text is sprinkled with illustrations that complement his descriptions of unruly horses and dignified farmers.

<B>Horseshoes, Cowsocks ∧ Duckfeet</B> is a book that all readers will enjoy, whether city dweller or ranch hand. Black’s collection of wry anecdotes, essays and verse is thought-provoking, heartwarming and thoroughly entertaining. <I>Gregory Harris is a writer, editor and technology consultant in Indianapolis.</I>

<B>A cowboy's wry poke at the West</B> Many are familiar with Baxter Black's homespun humor from his frequent commentary on National Public Radio, where he's billed as a cowboy poet and former large animal veterinarian." Now Black's funny, folksy anecdotes can be enjoyed in his…

History

The rebellious roots of Jesse James

Review by bookpagedev

In Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, writer/historian T.J. Stiles has produced what must be considered the definitive James biography of this generation. Unlike previous authors who emphasized James as the daring train and bank robber, Stiles seeks to understand the world of rural western Missouri, into which Jesse Woodson James was born in 1847. His family lived in a section of the state later dubbed Little Dixie” where slaves constituted fully 25 percent of the population. At age three Jesse suffered the loss of his father, a Baptist preacher who died in California during the Gold Rush. Jesse’s widowed mother, the six-foot-tall Zerelda Cole James, imbued in her sons, Jesse and his brother Frank, a passionate devotion to slavery, the Southern cause and, eventually, secession.

When war came in 1861, Frank James, 18 years of age, volunteered to fight for the Confederacy. Because he was only 15, Jesse was prevented from joining his brother. As Stiles makes clear, a turning point in the life of the James family occurred in 1863, when pro-Union state militiamen, in search of Frank, stormed the family farm, took Zerelda into custody and forced her to sign an oath of loyalty to the United States. An enraged Jesse immediately joined other Confederate bushwhackers in guerrilla actions against their pro-Union neighbors. In short order they looted stores, killed an abolitionist minister and wreaked terror and mayhem in Clay County and beyond.

Outraged by such Union atrocities” as the Emancipation Proclamation, James and his comrades refused to surrender and acknowledge Confederate defeat in 1865. Chaos continued to ravage Missouri in the postwar years, when retribution hung in the air,” and neighbors persisted in settling scores with neighbors. War had torn apart the state’s political landscape, and new factions and parties sought favor. As Stiles demonstrates, Jesse James was among those who attempted to influence the course of state politics. Although ever the outlaw, robbing banks and railroads from Iowa to Kentucky, James was motivated by politics, as well as plunder. He sent intensely partisan and articulate letters to newspapers in which he condemned Republicans and deplored the Radical Reconstruction of the South. All the while, the American public devoured stories of James’ narrow escapes and epic adventures. By 1882, when he was gunned down in St. Joseph, Missouri, he was a figure as publicized as the president.” As gracefully written as a novel, and convincingly argued throughout, this is biography at its finest. Dr. Thomas Appleton is professor of history and associate director of the Center for Kentucky History and Politics at Eastern Kentucky University.

In Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, writer/historian T.J. Stiles has produced what must be considered the definitive James biography of this generation. Unlike previous authors who emphasized James as the daring train and bank robber, Stiles seeks to understand the world of…
Pop CultureArts & Culture

The paradox of race

Review by bookpagedev

In American Skin: Pop Culture, Big Business and the End of White America, former Wall Street Journal columnist Leon E. Wynter (Crown, $25, 288 pages, ISBN 0609604899) makes a cogent case that consumer culture has radically changed the terms of racial discussion in America. Our identity is now transracial, based more on our spending habits than on our skin color. Part cultural history, part business history, American Skin outlines the major cultural events that have shaped American life and with great historiographic skill traces the changes in marketing that followed those events.

From the famous Mean Joe Green Coca-Cola commercial to the introduction of Revlon’s Colorstyle line, Wynter argues that advertising has subtly changed the way we view ourselves as Americans. The melting pot “into which generations of European American identities are said to have dissolved, is bubbling again,” Wynter writes, and the flame firing that brew is big business. This is a fascinating book with a hopeful message about the interaction of democracy and the marketplace.

In American Skin: Pop Culture, Big Business and the End of White America, former Wall Street Journal columnist Leon E. Wynter (Crown, $25, 288 pages, ISBN 0609604899) makes a cogent case that consumer culture has radically changed the terms of racial discussion in America. Our…
Nonfiction

A moving tribute to the nation’s heroes

Review by Edward Morris

"In an America where the job of inflating the reputations of people with negligible larger social value has become a major growth industry," David Halberstam observes in his new book Firehouse, "firemen do what they do because they love doing it, not because they want the plaudits of outsiders. Instead, what they want most is the respect of their peers." Firehouse is the veteran reporter's quick-moving account of the lives and sudden deaths at the World Trade Center of 13 men from the Engine 40, Ladder 35 station. It also chronicles the story of the group's lone but badly injured survivor.

In their gratitude for the heroism and sacrifice displayed following the September 11 terrorist attack, Americans have made so much of the New York firefighters that one may reasonably wonder if there is anything left to be said. Halberstam shows there is. His special contribution is to anatomize the culture that incubated and nourished these remarkable public servants. After giving a brief history of the station, Halberstam takes the reader inside to see how the doomed unit functioned and how the men got along with each other personally. Although most of them were from New York's tightly knit ethnic enclaves, they were still a wonderfully diverse lot. Physically powerful, strongly opinionated Bruce Gary could be counted on to put newcomers ("probies") to the test and coin all the necessary nicknames. Steve Mercado, who did dead-on impressions of his buddies, was funny enough, they thought, to be a professional comedian. Kevin Shea, the survivor, a fireman's son, did part-time work as a children's entertainer, sometimes dressing up as Barney or Big Bird. To the degree it can be traced in the still-lingering chaos of that hellish day, Halberstam relates what each of these fireman was doing when the Towers collapsed. He explains how the wives and parents heard the news of the disaster and the ways they acclimated themselves to the fact that their husbands and sons were dead. He visits the memorial services to witness and convey the solemn sights and sounds.

Halberstam, who lives only three and a half blocks from Engine 40, Ladder 35, says he had often passed by the firehouse, admiring "however distantly" the men who worked there. In this book, he enables us to admire them up close.

 

Edward Morris reviews from Nashville.

"In an America where the job of inflating the reputations of people with negligible larger social value has become a major growth industry," David Halberstam observes in his new book Firehouse, "firemen do what they do because they love doing it, not because they…

Business & Finance

Cures for the post-tax hangover

Review by Sharon Secor

We have now entered what some call spring but what many think of as the post-tax hangover season. The trauma of April 15 has passed, and either you received a refund and have already spent it, or you have begun to worry about paying your next quarterly installment to the IRS. Like many others, I've made my annual vow to save (I'll never be cash-poor again!) only to be flummoxed by an inability to stop the money-spending cycle.

If you're searching for some fortitude, this month's bounty of books looks at wealth accumulation from a variety of perspectives. They cover all the bases, from big picture approaches to wealth to practical guides for making your money grow.

How the rich get their way

Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich by Kevin Phillips is one of the most interesting and provocative books of the season. This rich and intriguing history of money and politics hypothesizes that power and money represent one of the world's enduring covert partnerships, and that, even today, government support critically underpins success for both finance and technology. In this must-read book, Phillips, a well-known political analyst and author, documents the fascinating evidence that American wealth has fed itself by influencing government policies at the expense of the middle and lower classes. He deftly details the rise of the wealthiest American families and corporations, and shows how they continue to accumulate wealth and power, while the income of most American families stagnates and their confidence in the political process erodes. Wealth and Democracy is a timely and intellectually challenging book. The Enron disaster, the Microsoft trials, the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2000 presidential race, funded by soft-money, lend Phillips' arguments their most recent documentation. In the end, Phillips spells out a gloomy prognosis for both the power of our democracy and the future of American economic growth if political power continues to be equated with wealth.

It's your money

The Great 401(k) Hoax: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Family and Your Future by William Wolman and Anne Colamosca is both eye-opening and incredibly topical. The authors argue that the term 401(k) seems to contain . . . the promise that the average American family, neither rich nor poor but middle-class, could stake a claim for its share in the prosperity created by the technological wonders that energized the American economy in the 1990s. In fact, they say, the rise of the 401(k) is an unparalleled fraud designed to protect American corporations and undermine their commitments to employee retirement plans. The 401(k) represents an implicit promise to middle class Americans that they can live off the income that they receive from stock ownership, just like the rich do. It is a promise that is impossible to fulfill. It is the great 401(k) hoax. With candor and intelligence, Colamosca and Wolman present a compelling argument for their hoax theory and present a practical set of investing rules for middle-class Americans. Using a combination of no-load index funds and diversification, the authors present a common sense approach to making the best financial sense of your retirement money.

A practical approach

The New IRAs and How to Make Them Work For You by Neil Downing is a primer for the individual investor. With new laws added every year, IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) have changed a great deal. Several years ago, only the self-employed and those with no retirement plan at work could contribute to an IRA; now housewives, part-time employees and even children can fund IRAs. Changes have also created IRA lookalikes such as the Educational IRA, the Roth IRA, SEPs and SIMPLE plans. The New IRAs offers simple but well-explained approaches to choosing IRA vehicles, explains who qualifies for an IRA and offers straightforward and practical advice on managing your investment from the first deposit to the last withdrawal.

One of the most misunderstood areas in setting up a retirement account involves choosing a Roth versus a traditional IRA. In some of the best language I've read, Downing devotes several chapters to simplifying and demystifying the choice between the two IRA vehicles.

Penny pinching

Get Clark Smart: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rich from America's Money-Saving Expert offers savvy, penny-pinching advice from the Atlanta money-saving radio guru, Clark Howard. You'll love the no-nonsense, consumer-empowering advice on how to turn the fine art of penny-pinching into money in the bank. Ever laugh at your grandmother for saying, Don't buy anything you have to dry-clean? That's great advice says Clark. Dry-cleaning is expensive and often unnecessary for many clothes. You can also save money by buying jewelry at wholesalers and using free or low-cost Internet access sites. This compilation of right-as-rain advice ranges from the typical (how to save money on a car purchase) to unexpected cost-cutting tips on insurance and travel.

Get Clark Smart isn't a guide on how to become wealthy; it's a way to keep more of the money you earn and spend it on the things you enjoy most, so you can feel rich even if you aren't.

Sharon H. Secor is a writer based in Minneapolis.

We have now entered what some call spring but what many think of as the post-tax hangover season. The trauma of April 15 has passed, and either you received a refund and have already spent it, or you have begun to worry about paying your…

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