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Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers
Alana Baranick , Jim Sheeler , and Stephen Miller Manufacturer: Marion Street Press, Inc. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1933338024 |
Book Description
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52 McGs: The Best Obituaries from Legendary New York Times Writer Robert McG. Thomas, Jr
Chris Calhoun Manufacturer: Citadel ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0806524685 |
Book Description
Among his devoted fans, his pieces were known simply as McGs. With a "genius for illuminating that sometimes ephemeral apogee in people's lives when they prove capable of generating a brightly burning spark" (Columbia Journalism Review), Robert McG. Thomas Jr. commemorated fascinating, unconventional lives with signature style and wit.The New York Times received countless letters over the years from readers moved to tears or laughter by a McG. Eschewing traditionally famous subjects, Thomas favored unsung heroes, eccentrics, and underachievers, including: Edward Lowe, the inventor of Kitty Litter ("Cat Owner's Best Friend"); Angelo Zuccotti, the bouncer at El Morocco ("Artist of the Velvet Rope"); and Kay Halle, a glamorous Cleveland department store heiress who received sixty-four marriage proposals ("An Intimate of Century's Giants"). In one of his classic obituaries, Thomas described Anton Rosenberg as a "storied sometime artist and occasional musician who embodied the Greenwich Village hipster ideal of 1950's cool to such a laid-back degree and with such determined detachment that he never amounted to much of anything." Thomas captured life's ironies and defining moments with elegance and a gift for making a sentence sing. He had an uncanny sense of the passion and personality that make each life unique, and the ability, as Joseph Epstein wrote, to "look beyond the facts and the rigid formula of the obit to touch on a deeper truth."
Compiled by Chris Calhoun, one of Thomas's most dedicated readers, and with a fittingly sharp introduction from acclaimed novelist and critic Thomas Mallon, 52 McGs. will win legions of new fans to the masterful writer who transformed the obituary into an art form.
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Among his devoted fans, his pieces were known simply as McGs. With a "genius for illuminating that sometimes ephemeral apogee in people's lives when they prove capable of generating a brightly burning spark" (Columbia Journalism Review), Robert McG. Thomas Jr. commemorated fascinating, unconventional lives with signature style and wit. The New York Times received countless letters over the years from readers moved to tears or laughter by a McG. Eschewing traditionally famous subjects, Thomas favored unsung heroes, eccentrics, and underachievers, including: Edward Lowe, the inventor of Kitty Litter ("Cat Owner's Best Friend"); Angelo Zuccotti, the bouncer at El Morocco ("Artist of the Velvet Rope"); and Kay Halle, a glamorous Cleveland department store heiress who received sixty-four marriage proposals ("An Intimate of Century's Giants"). In one of his classic obituaries, Thomas described Anton Rosenberg as a "storied sometime artist and occasional musician who embodied the Greenwich Village hipster ideal of 1950's cool to such a laid-back degree and with such determined detachment that he never amounted to much of anything." Thomas captured life's ironies and defining moments with elegance and a gift for making a sentence sing. He had an uncanny sense of the passion and personality that make each life unique, and the ability, as Joseph Epstein wrote, to "look beyond the facts and the rigid formula of the obit to touch on a deeper truth." Compiled by Chris Calhoun, one of Thomas's most dedicated readers, and with a fittingly sharp introduction from acclaimed novelist and critic Thomas Mallon, 52 McGs. will win legions of new fans to the masterful writer who transformed the obituary into an art form.Customer Reviews:
eclectic and witty.......2002-07-22
You can't go wrong with this one!.......2002-06-05
A fitting tribute.......2002-03-31
Recommended
The Last Word.......2002-03-02
Quirky, fascinationg compilation of obituaries.......2002-01-21
Thomas never got to put these pieces into book form. He died, but a fan of his work decided that his work should live on . . . and I'm glad this was the case . . . Thomas had the gift of being able to find something worth writing about--regardless of the subject . . . my only regret is that all obituaries in loca papers aren't as interesting . .. but as long as I don't come across mine, I won't complain!
There were several memorable passages; among them:
[in an obituary about Francine Katzenbogen] Her neighbors were
not amused that she planned to house 20 cats in a converted
two-story garage she had refurbished at a cost of $100,000. The
luxurious cat complex included tile floors, climbing towers,
scratching posts, skylights and cozy, low-lying window ledges
where the cats could stretch out and watch the world outside
their air-conditioned lair.
Not content to recognize a Brooklyn accent, Mr. Berger drew
on his broader knowledge of American speech and history to
develop a theory of just how the signature "Toidy-told Street"
evolved. It was, he theorized, a result of the close commercial
connections with the pre-Civil War South in which upper-class
southern speech, primarily from New Orleans and Charleston,
SC, was imported and hammered down to a lower-class
Brooklyneese.
A man given to gross exaggeration when simple embellishment
would suffice, Mr. McCartney also claimed to have visited every
state except Hawaii: His goats couldn't swim that far, he
explained, and if they could, they'd just end up eating the grass skirts off the hula dancers anyway.
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The Obituary Writer
Porter Shreve Manufacturer: Mariner Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0395981328 |
Amazon.com
In his delicate and hilarious first novel, Porter Shreve paints a fast-moving tale about the grungy, romantic allure of newspaper work and the muddled conspiracy of nature and nurture in a young man's maturation. The Obituary Writer's narrator, Gordie Hatch, has papers in his blood: his late father was a crackerjack reporter, his mother a journalism-school secretary. His environment reeks of his avocation, too, from the bundled newspapers in his garage to his comforter, which bears old headlines like TITANIC SINKS, SACCO AND VANZETTI GUILTY, and LINDBERGH BABY KIDNAPPED. By age 8, Gordie is fully ready to grab the newspaperman's baton, or, more bluntly, to get a paper route. ("I grew up with a heightened sense of my own importance, which my mother encouraged," he says. Not least because she seems to have delivered far more papers than he.) In 1989, when he moves straight from J School into an entry-level position at the hallowed St. Louis Independent, Gordie experiences an eternal, embryonic sense of belonging within its perfectly stereotypical nerve center, one that might have housed his father.Sometimes I'd swear I could sense him looking out through my eyes, a young reporter waiting for the flare in the sky that points to the great discovery. I'd stop at the rackety wire machines under the mural of Remington's Pony Express to scroll through the overnight news, then pick up a late edition from the stacks before taking the long, slow route to my desk.But Gordie knows he can't afford to move slowly. His beat, the obituary desk, is either a stepping stone for the gifted or a place to park damaged has-beens. When he makes three crucial judgment errors in succession, he is suddenly ensnared by a Southern femme fatale--who lures him into an exquisitely drawn world of highly un-newsworthy bank clerks, dog shows, and bumbling small-town artistes. A far cry from the collapse of European communism, which his luckier colleagues get to cover. Though the final third of The Obituary Writer veers into formulaic suspense-novel territory at times, Gordie always remains engagingly self-aware and the novel's denouement is well worth a bit of tough sledding. Will our hero realign himself with his destined path? How strong is fate, exactly? We cannot say, Gentle Reader. You must uncork this fine, funny novel for yourself. --Jean Lenihan
Book Description
Gordie Hatch is twenty-two, charmingly naive, and certain that his first job as a writer for the ST LOUIS INDEPENDENT'S obituary page will be a stepping stone to a crackerjack career in journalism. The year is 1989, and Gordie watches helplessly while dramatic events -- the very events that could be his lucky break -- unfold in the world around him. But nothing can prepare him for the call he gets from Alicia Whiting, a young widow with an accent he can't quite place. When Gordie agrees to meet Alicia, against his better judgment, his journalistic curiosity quickly turns into an obsessive search for the outrageous truth behind the Whiting family. Shot through with affectionate humor and surprising twists and turns, THE OBITUARY WRITER introduces an author of enormous talent and heart. Porter Shreve brings a deft touch to the moments that mark a young person's entrance into the world, and a sharp eye to the ways in which the lead story can be wonderfully, seductively misleading.Customer Reviews:
The Perils of Obtiuary Writing.......2007-06-30
Pretty good start but doesn't deliver.......2004-07-04
The Obituary Writer - Shreve.......2002-09-17
Its difficult to stress how wonderful this novel is. It has both humor and heart and left me speechless. Shreve is obviously a talent to watch. His characters were rich and well developed, the suspense subtle, and the end result was powerful. Not to be missed.
Love and Death: our favorite subjects!.......2002-05-23
An Almost Secret Find and Definitely An Excellent Read.......2001-04-30
Well, it turned out a couple people had caught Porter Shreve on NPR and others had seen good reviews so it wasn't quite the discovery that I'd hoped for. But in the end everyone liked the book a lot and we had a great debate about it, particularly over the ending, which totally caught me by surprise.
One of our book groupies is a big mystery reader (not the brightest candle when it comes to talking about literary fiction -- sorry J). She kept saying how she saw the twists and turns in the plot coming from a mile away, and at first I felt like maybe I was the obtuse one. But when we started to talk about the deeper stuff -- character development, psychological complexity, language -- J kind of clammed up. She's a plot junkie, and that apparently was all she'd been reading for.
I still think The Obituary Writer has a great plot, but maybe mystery readers will disagree. If you're a general book lover, though, someone who cares about character and emotional depth, this is a righteous read, either for a hot summer Sunday or a book group.
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'Grieving Indian' author dies.(Obituary) : An article from: Indian Life
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B000BJAWYE Release Date: 2005-09-22 |
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The Narrative of Amos Dresser: with Stone\'s letters from Natchez : an obituary notice of the writer, and two letters from Tallahassee, relating to the treatment of slaves
Amos Dresser Manufacturer: Cornell University Library ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1429729406 Release Date: 1836-01-01 |
Book Description
This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
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Obituary Addresses on the Occasion of the Death of the Hon. William R. King
Various Writers Manufacturer: Robert Armstrong ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000T69G14 |
Product Description
'Obituary Addresses on the Occasion of the Death of the Hon. William R. King, of Alabama, Vice-President of the United States: Delivered in the Senate and House of Representatives, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, Eight and Ninth December, 1853.'' Washington: Robert Armstrong: 1854.
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Books make summer forever.(from the editor-in-chief)(Editorial)(Obituary) : An article from: Black Issues Book Review
William E. Cox Manufacturer: Thomson Gale ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B000AQB17A Release Date: 2005-08-04 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Black Issues Book Review, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2005. The length of the article is 532 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Builders of Canada series: David Thompson & Pierre Berton.(Obituary) : An article from: The Loyalist Gazette
Elizabeth Richardson Manufacturer: United Empire Loyalists' Association ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B000ALRP7A Release Date: 2007-02-21 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Loyalist Gazette, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2005. The length of the article is 1321 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Captain Len Morgan: 1923-2005.(TRIBUTE TO A LEGEND)(Obituary): An article from: Airpower
Mike Machat Manufacturer: Republic Press, Inc. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B000ALS740 Release Date: 2005-07-25 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Airpower, published by Republic Press, Inc. on July 1, 2005. The length of the article is 692 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Colin St John Wilson (1922-2007).(Obituary): An article from: The Architectural Review
Peter Carolin Manufacturer: Thomson Gale ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B000WCWSI8 Release Date: 2007-09-20 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Architectural Review, published by Thomson Gale on August 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1115 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Tiffany Twisted (Cheek)
Alison Tyler Manufacturer: Virgin Cheek ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0352340398 Release Date: 2006-07-11 |
Book Description
When exclusive party planner Tiffany Mitchell wakes up in her boyfriends body, she thinks shes having a bad dream. But no amount of espresso can wake her from the growing nightmare of being trapped in Kurts six-foot tall figure, and locked into his disorganised life. Due to this off-handed wish made over a magic candle, not only is Tiffany imprisoned inside her boyfriends body, but Kurt is also struggling inside her own. Only time, a bit of New Orleans voodoo, and a growing mutual understanding and appreciation for one anothers strengths and weaknesses, can break the spell that traps the two.Customer Reviews:
Fabulous Gender Bender Fun!.......2007-01-11
Easy read simple story.......2007-01-06
A little different than her normal stories...........2006-11-07
A humorous, touching, and adult spin on a theme.......2006-11-04
Loved it!.......2006-10-13
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Tiffany Twisted: Exposed, Unraveled, Rewritten
Tiffany Twist Manufacturer: Expert Pub Inc ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1931945179 |
Book Description
What can happen when someone trusts too much?TIFFANY TWISTED is a compelling psychological journey from lost innocence to the ensuing battles with the enemies of the mind. A journey which, in its end, propels us forwardout of darkness and into light.
Pg. 1 I thought about bringing a gun over there. Not just some little pistol, I had a statement to make. And a statement like this required one of those big shotguns. One that would bring hell itself into the eyes of it's beholder.
Pg. 17 Who would know that sexual abuse would be like a contagious, infectious disease, leaking itself into every cell of my body, spreading itself through every day, week, and year of my life, affecting my thoughts, my decisions, and actions
Pg. 67 I don't know if my dad cried, but his pain must have run deep. We were Daddy's girls, and he must've known she was going to take us away away from the truest love that ever existed in my life, away, through the gates of hell
pg. 89 This woman walked up with a small feast for the pain that resided in my soul. She fed him, and she paved a portion of the path within me to help Death find his way
pg. 93 But she didn't want to stand out anymore. She wanted to keep temptation far from her. So she gained weight tried to look like "fools gold" and be passed over by men. Keep them from wanting her
Pg. 137 It is very uncomfortable to be set free from pain when it's been with you for so long. I found a sort of comfort living in the pain because I knew it so well
Pg. 148 We control the perception of our story and it's answers in our own mind. We choose to give a situation strength or a certain person power
Customer Reviews:
Reader review from www.tiffanytwisted.com.......2004-12-11
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