A Christmas Story - Jean Shepherd (Audiobook, M4B)

It's never easy to adapt a holiday classic, especially one that's best known now as a movie rather than as an assortment of radio addresses. This production, however, does an admirable job, using sound effects, mellow Christmas music and Cavett's wry, relaxed narration to draw out the down-home charm of Depression-era Indiana. Listeners will feel almost as if they're standing next to Ralphie Parker as he waits anxiously in line at Goldblatt's department store to ask "the Man, the Connection, Santa Claus himself" for a Red Ryder BB gun. 

If at Faust You Don't Succeed

Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming is the story of a great Millennial contest between the forces of Good and Evil, both vying for control of the universe for the next thousand years. 

The demon Mephistopheles is in charge of the new contest, with the Archangel Michael back at his post. Standing in for humanity is the wily Dr. Johann Faust, brilliant alchemist, philosopher, and insufferable prig.

Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today's Cluttered Marketplace

The former creative director and co-CEO of Barneys joins forces with a celebrated twenty-eight-year-old marketing maverick to teach readers how to break through the clutter and achieve a relevant point of difference in this entertaining and imminently readable book.

In the mid-70s, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. Born Standing Up is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away".
At age 10 Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory.
Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times: the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 60s, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the 70s.

 

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