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> <channel><title>California Literary Review &#187; Biography</title> <atom:link href="http://calitreview.com/category/topics/biography/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><link>http://calitreview.com</link> <description>An arts and culture magazine.</description> <lastBuildDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:12:32 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1</generator> <item><title>Book Review: George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis</title><link>http://calitreview.com/23163</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/23163#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:46:06 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Peter Bridges</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[American History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cold War]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twentieth century]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=23163</guid> <description><![CDATA[George Frost Kennan was one of the most influential of all American diplomats, as well as an historian and writer who won two National Book Awards and two Pulitzer Prizes.  It was Kennan who, first in his “long telegram” sent from the American embassy at Moscow in February 1946, and then in his anonymous “X” article in <em>Foreign Affairs</em> the following year, laid out for policy-makers, and then for the American public, the true nature of Stalinism and Soviet policy at a time when some still took a benevolent view of our wartime Soviet ally.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/23163/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith</title><link>http://calitreview.com/22440</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/22440#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:18:30 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ed Voves</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Art]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Van Gogh]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=22440</guid> <description><![CDATA[For an artist who vied with Rembrandt in painting self-portraits, van Gogh seldom allowed himself to be photographed. The one surviving photo, from his days at Goupil’s, shows a scowling, tousled haired young man with troubled, searching eyes. It is the face of a man destined to be a prophet or a lunatic.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/22440/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Verdi and/or Wagner: Two Men, Two Worlds, Two Centuries by Peter Conrad</title><link>http://calitreview.com/21921</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/21921#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:00:21 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ed Voves</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Italy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Opera]]></category> <category><![CDATA[classical music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Giuseppe Verdi]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nineteenth century]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Richard Wagner]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=21921</guid> <description><![CDATA[Perhaps, the best way of approaching Conrad’s book is to regard it primarily as a meditation on creativity. As with opera itself, where passion and empathy lead, intellectual appreciation will follow. The key insight of this fine book is easy enough to grasp. In an age of strutting nationalism, both Verdi and Wagner gave the world music that ultimately transcends the limits of borders or political ideology, regardless of how subsequent regimes used it.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/21921/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>3</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin</title><link>http://calitreview.com/21230</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/21230#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:00:29 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Elinor Teele</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Great Britain]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Charles Dickens]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nineteenth century]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=21230</guid> <description><![CDATA[The happiness was not to last. More Scrooge than Bob Cratchit in some respects, he was not particularly fond of his sons. Charley, his eldest, he deemed to be suffering from a “lassitude of character” and he did not see much hope for the others. He worried they might metamorphose into his father or his brothers, relying on him for handouts. And he was becoming thoroughly sick of Catherine.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/21230/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Blue Nights by Joan Didion</title><link>http://calitreview.com/19795</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/19795#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:00:55 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Elinor Teele</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blue Nights]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Joan Didion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[memoir]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=19795</guid> <description><![CDATA[We learn that Quintana Roo was adopted, a beautiful precocious girl with hair “bleached by the beach sun” and an unearthly adult sensibility. At the age of 5, she called the state psychiatric facility to “find out what she needed to do if she was going crazy;” soon after, she called Twentieth-Century Fox to “find out what she needed to do to be a star.”]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/19795/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream and Five Acres in Maine by Lou Ureneck</title><link>http://calitreview.com/21136</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/21136#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:00:48 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Chris Malcomb</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[memoir]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=21136</guid> <description><![CDATA[In September 2007, Lou Ureneck, a 56-year-old journalism professor at Boston University, was hospitalized for atrial fibrillation, the exclamation point following a decade-long tailspin that included divorce, his mother’s death, financial failure, deepening depression, and a withering sense of purpose or connection. The week-long stay at Massachusetts General underscored what he’d already begun to realize: he needed to change.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/21136/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark by Brian Kellow</title><link>http://calitreview.com/20948</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/20948#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:00:10 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Elinor Teele</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pauline Kael]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=20948</guid> <description><![CDATA[So if she wasn’t pleasant, what was Pauline Kael? She was earthy; she was tough; she was not afraid of sex, drugs or Woody Allen. Cigarettes and bourbon were her loyal companions. The East Coast establishment and prissy editors her enemies. As Jerry Lewis said, she was a “dirty old broad.” But he also called her “the most qualified critic in the world. “ Both, I think, she would have perceived as compliments.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/20948/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Virginia Woolf  by Alexandra Harris</title><link>http://calitreview.com/20370</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/20370#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:00:52 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ed Voves</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Books]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Great Britain]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Virginia Woolf]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=20370</guid> <description><![CDATA[Woolf spent much of her life trying to free herself from the grasp of the past, specifically the Victorian milieu of her childhood. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was the editor of the prestigious <em>Dictionary of National Biography</em> and a personification of the Victorian <em>pater familias</em>. Woolf both loved and rebelled against him. She suffered a severe nervous breakdown following his death in 1904. Yet it was not until her father died, that she was able to liberate her emotions to the point where she could begin a serious career as a writer.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/20370/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: From Splendor to Revolution: The Romanov Women, 1847-1928 by Julie P. Gelardi</title><link>http://calitreview.com/14792</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/14792#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:26:50 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ed Voves</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nineteenth century]]></category> <category><![CDATA[twentieth century]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=14792</guid> <description><![CDATA[Following this betrayal, the Romanov dynasty was swept off the stage of history. Many of the family were arrested by the Bolsheviks and executed, some with a degree of cruelty and incompetence that beggars belief. Marie Feodorovna and Marie Pavlovna were evacuated to safety, but the lives of both women were blighted by the near extermination of the Romanov family.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/14792/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>A Watchful Eye On&#8230; Winston Churchill</title><link>http://calitreview.com/14602</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/14602#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:46:09 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Dan Fields</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Great Britain]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Historical Fiction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Military]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Television]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The Fourth Wall]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Academy Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[biopics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Max Hastings]]></category> <category><![CDATA[movie biopic]]></category> <category><![CDATA[movies biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Movies Drama]]></category> <category><![CDATA[movies historical]]></category> <category><![CDATA[movies history]]></category> <category><![CDATA[movies war]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Oscars]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Quentin Tarantino]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Steven Spielberg]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The King's Speech]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Tom Hooper]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Winston Churchill]]></category> <category><![CDATA[World War II]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=14602</guid> <description><![CDATA[Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, known best as the wartime Prime Minister, held in his distinguished career a number of other high positions, including Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty. Renowned as an orator and statesman, he enjoys a permanent place in Western history. The adventure and controversy pervading his professional life seem ripe for an enterprising screenwriter to pick.
]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/14602/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>The Weekly Listicle: Ballad Of The Soldier</title><link>http://calitreview.com/13701</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/13701#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:32:05 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Dan Fields</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Best Movies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Espionage]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Germany]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Great Britain]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Historical Fiction]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Military]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mystery]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Southeast Asia]]></category> <category><![CDATA[The Fourth Wall]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=13701</guid> <description><![CDATA[This weekend, Peter Weir graces us with <em>The Way Back</em>, a tale of daring escape by prisoners of war. In due fashion this week's Listicle salutes the soldier in film. From comedy to adventure to stark, sobering drama, soldiers have faced a great deal on the movie screen.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/13701/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Tom Russell: American Primitive Man</title><link>http://calitreview.com/13088</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/13088#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:00:33 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Dan Fields</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Art]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Canada]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mexico]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Performing Arts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Westerns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[country music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cowboy music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[folk music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Ian Tyson]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Iris DeMent]]></category> <category><![CDATA[live music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Marty Robbins]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Ramblin' Jack Elliott]]></category> <category><![CDATA[recording artist]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Texas music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Tom Russell]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=13088</guid> <description><![CDATA[Every Tom Russell song has something to say about the human heart. In each voice he invokes there are universal echoes of love, doubt, weakness, fear, restlessness and faith. The figure of the wanderer – whether soldier, cowboy, nomad, pioneer, outcast or pilgrim – passes again and again through his work.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/13088/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell</title><link>http://calitreview.com/12584</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/12584#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:30:06 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ed Voves</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[France]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Philosophy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blaise Pascal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Descartes]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Montaigne]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Renaissance]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Rousseau]]></category> <category><![CDATA[William Shakespeare]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=12584</guid> <description><![CDATA[Born nearly five hundred years ago, Montaigne was one of the last great thinkers of the Renaissance. He can also stake a claim to be the first recognizable writer of modern times. Montaigne's <em>Essays</em> are stocked with insights of such relevance, inspiration and humanity that they might well have been written yesterday - or tomorrow.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/12584/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: All By My Selves: Walter, Peanut, Achmed, and Me by Jeff Dunham</title><link>http://calitreview.com/12449</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/12449#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:03:48 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ryan Van Cleave</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[comedy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jeff Dunham]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ventriloquism]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=12449</guid> <description><![CDATA[Jeff Dunham’s YouTube videos have been seen over 400 million times, his comedy DVDs have sold more than six million copies, and he’s been one of the top touring comedians for the past two years. Here’s the good thing–Dunham’s book comes across a lot like his audience-pleasing live shows.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/12449/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow</title><link>http://calitreview.com/12067</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/12067#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 08 Oct 2010 17:35:59 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ed Voves</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[American History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[American Revolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[eighteenth century]]></category> <category><![CDATA[George Washington]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=12067</guid> <description><![CDATA[Nevertheless, it is a considerable shock to read indictments of Washington in the letters of Patriot leaders such John Adams, Dr. Benjamin Rush and even Thomas Jefferson. Though some of these remarks were valid criticisms of specific decisions on the part of Washington, the reality of his wartime situation stands in marked contrast to the adulation later heaped upon him. As Abraham Lincoln would experience during the Civil War, Washington was frequently distrusted and damned during his lifetime, often by political colleagues and fellow officers who should have known better.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/12067/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Chords of Strength by David Archuleta</title><link>http://calitreview.com/10081</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/10081#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:41:39 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ryan Van Cleave</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[American Idol]]></category> <category><![CDATA[David Archuleta]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=10081</guid> <description><![CDATA[It's no surprise that David has musical talent in his DNA. His father is a jazz trumpet player, his mother is a gifted singer, his grandmother sang in TV commercials and acted in a few movies (and was known in Utah as "the little lady with the big voice") and his grandfather sang in a barbershop quartet. Talk about stacking the genetic deck!]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/10081/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>23</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Unbillable Hours: A True Story by Ian Graham</title><link>http://calitreview.com/9519</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/9519#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:46:45 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>David Lida</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Hispanic American]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[True Crime]]></category> <category><![CDATA[death penalty]]></category> <category><![CDATA[law]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=9519</guid> <description><![CDATA[It was an appeal on behalf of Mario Rocha, a Los Angeleno of Mexican descent, who in 1996, at the age of sixteen, had been convicted of the murder of another Latino youth, the result of a shooting that had occurred at a backyard house party. Rocha was given two consecutive life sentences, although he was in fact innocent.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/9519/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Cleopatra: A Biography by Duane W. Roller</title><link>http://calitreview.com/8965</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/8965#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 10 May 2010 15:01:47 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Elinor Teele</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Egypt]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[ancient history]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Ancient Rome]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cleopatra]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=8965</guid> <description><![CDATA[Pity Duane W. Roller, author of <em>Cleopatra: A Biography</em>. I can just imagine the initial conversation at the Oxford University Press: "We want you to write a biography of Cleopatra, sensuous queen of the Egyptians, famed figure of ancient history." "Excellent, as Professor Emeritus of Greek and Latin at The Ohio State University, I'd be thrilled to delve into a world of intrigue and shifting political sands." "Good. But no sex, please, we're British." ]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/8965/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro</title><link>http://calitreview.com/8815</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/8815#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 03 May 2010 14:14:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ed Voves</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Theatre]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[William Shakespeare]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=8815</guid> <description><![CDATA[Beginning around 1800, the hunt started to find the “real” Shakespeare, the noble visionary who had exalted the spiritual struggles of humankind and celebrated the comedy of errors of our daily lives. In this engaging and well-researched book, James Shapiro charts the course of this pursuit of truth and beauty, arriving at conclusions that reflect both his insightful scholarship and common sense. Amassing an unassailable body of evidence, Shapiro proves that William Shakespeare of Stratford did indeed write the plays and poems credited to him, but not always as a solitary creative genius.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/8815/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>15</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of a Marriage, a Trial, and a Self-Made Woman by Chloë Schama</title><link>http://calitreview.com/8661</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/8661#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:08:59 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Elinor Teele</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Great Britain]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sex]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nineteenth century]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Victorian era]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=8661</guid> <description><![CDATA[A secret affair. A scandalous sex-filled trial. A tell-all novel. If it’s any consolation to Tiger Woods and Jesse James, they’re not the first to be stripped down to their Jockeys on a worldwide scale. Welcome, William Charles Yelverton, Victorian seducer. ]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/8661/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen by Jimmy McDonough</title><link>http://calitreview.com/8476</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/8476#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:21:05 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>David Lida</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[country music]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Tammy Wynette]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=8476</guid> <description><![CDATA[In the Nashville of the 1960s, songs were typically recorded in an hour or less and mistakes were kept in because they made the sound more “human.” Fussing over them any longer than that was considered “burning the beans.” After concerts, fees were paid in cash in shopping bags. In the course of recounting Wynette’s life, McDonough describes a cast of characters that no novelist could have invented without being accused of stretching the borders of believability.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/8476/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: Jesus: A Biography from a Believer by Paul Johnson</title><link>http://calitreview.com/8307</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/8307#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:03:46 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ed Voves</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Christianity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jesus]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=8307</guid> <description><![CDATA[Jesus of Nazareth started to preach and heal the sick when he “was beginning about the age of thirty years,” according to St. Luke’s Gospel. Of his early life during the first decades of the 1st Century, almost nothing is known. His ministry to the poor and troubled inhabitants of Galilee, Samaria and Judea lasted a mere three years. Then, after arousing the suspicion and anger of the ruling elite, he was crucified, died and was buried. In one of the strangest twists of human history, what should have been the end of the story was just the start.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/8307/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>3</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Book Review: I Don&#8217;t Care About Your Band by Julie Klausner</title><link>http://calitreview.com/7150</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/7150#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:26:42 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Julia Rhodes</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sex]]></category> <category><![CDATA[comedy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[dating]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Julie Klausner]]></category> <category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=7150</guid> <description><![CDATA[If the book were a movie, it would be rated R; the author’s got a dirty mouth (or pen, if you prefer) and hormones out the wazoo, and this book is not your mom’s dating guide. But for modern women it’s a refreshing and smart reassurance that they’re not alone in their woes.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/7150/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Michelangelo: A Tormented Life by Antonio Forcellino</title><link>http://calitreview.com/6269</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/6269#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:13:15 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Judith Harris</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Art]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Michelangelo]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Renaissance]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=6269</guid> <description><![CDATA[Before dawn on the morning of February 18 a group of Florentines entered the church stealthily and stole Michelangelo’s body, which they concealed on a farm cart. Upon arrival of the corpse three days later in Florence, thousands of citizens turned out spontaneously, dressed in workmen’s and artists’ smocks like those Michelangelo himself wore. Many wept as they accompanied the bier in an improvised procession through the dark streets. No such a procession, as if for a saint, had ever been seen there before.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/6269/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Churchill by Paul Johnson</title><link>http://calitreview.com/5636</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/5636#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:46:59 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Julia Braun Kessler</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Great Britain]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Franklin Roosevelt]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Winston Churchill]]></category> <category><![CDATA[World War I]]></category> <category><![CDATA[World War II]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=5636</guid> <description><![CDATA[And Johnson reminds us of the memorable words he spoke after France capitulated: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’” Here the biographer also observes,  “So the first true victory Britain won in the war was the victory of oratory and symbolism.  Churchill was responsible for both.”]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/5636/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Messenger: The Legacy of Mattie J.T. Stepanek and Heartsongs by Jeni Stepanek</title><link>http://calitreview.com/5406</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/5406#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:53:45 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Ryan Van Cleave</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Disability]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=5406</guid> <description><![CDATA[He explains it in his journals as “Whatever it is that a person needs or wants, they understand why that matters, and that is the unfolding of their Heartsong . . . And as we learn in almost every religion or philosophy of goodness, it is in giving that we receive. In sharing our Heartsong with others, it goes out into the world, and somehow, circles back to us.”]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/5406/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>5</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>In My Father&#8217;s Shadow by Chris Welles Feder</title><link>http://calitreview.com/5301</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/5301#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:29:57 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Rochelle Jewel Shapiro</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Orson Welles]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=5301</guid> <description><![CDATA[Orson had become so famous for his villainous role as Harry Lime in <em>The Third Man</em> that the moment he appeared in public, somebody whipped out an instrument and began playing the theme song. When an organ-grinder began playing the theme while Chris and Orson were crossing Piccadilly Circus, Orson had had it with London. His driver took them way out in the country to picnic in an isolated spot surrounded by hedges. A man on a bicycle saw them, stopped short, and suddenly whipped out his harmonica to play <em>The Third Man</em> theme song.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/5301/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Abraham Lincoln: A Life by Michael Burlingame</title><link>http://calitreview.com/5017</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/5017#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:06:12 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Peter Bridges</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Abraham Lincoln]]></category> <category><![CDATA[American History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[civil war]]></category> <category><![CDATA[nineteenth century]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=5017</guid> <description><![CDATA[Never perhaps has there been such a masterful account of the man’s failures—and successes—in this country’s most taxing job. Look what Burlingame says he did in just his first hundred days in office: “…he raised and supplied an army, sent it into battle, held the Border States in the Union, helped thwart Confederate attempts to win European diplomatic recognition, declared a blockade, asserted leadership over his cabinet, dealt effectively with Congress, averted a potential crisis with Great Britain, and eloquently articulated the nature and purpose of the war.”]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/5017/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>4</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys: Professionals Writing on Life, Love, Money, and Sex</title><link>http://calitreview.com/5000</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/5000#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:24:43 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>John R. Guthrie</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Non-Fiction Reviews]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sex]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Sociology]]></category> <category><![CDATA[prostitution]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=5000</guid> <description><![CDATA[And those <em>names</em>: JenniferBlowdryer, Sinnamon Love. Sebastian Horsely, a male prostitute, of course. Horsely advocates the trade as follows; “The difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex money always costs less.” ]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/5000/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Movie Review: Julie &amp; Julia</title><link>http://calitreview.com/4444</link> <comments>http://calitreview.com/4444#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:06:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Julia Rhodes</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Biography]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Food]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Movies]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Movies & TV]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Amy Adams]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Chris Messina]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cooking]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Julia Child]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Meryl Streep]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Nora Ephron]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Stanley Tucci]]></category> <guid
isPermaLink="false">http://calitreview.com/?p=4444</guid> <description><![CDATA[In the last scene of the film, Julie says to Eric, “She saved me.” Eric responds, “You saved yourself.”  This, more than anything, is truly significant: feminine strength and passion are a force to be reckoned with—and balancing personal aspirations with blissful relationships is more than possible: it’s worth the struggle. <em>Julie &#038; Julia</em> is a valentine to female independence, an ode to striving for what you truly enjoy.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://calitreview.com/4444/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>6</slash:comments> </item> </channel> </rss>
