You will have hours of entertaining escapist reading!
I don't normally read "showbiz" books, but bought this on an impulse, as it had so many great photographs. What was such a nice surprise is that Peter Marshall and his co-author Adrienne Armstrong, are excellent writers. They make the reader feel like he is sitting in a cozy bar with Peter, drink in hand, listening to wonderful tales about the making, and eventual breaking of Hollywood Squares.
Peter is refreshingly honest, delightfully candid, yet never disrespectful when discussing the celebrities and contestants who appeared on the show over the years.
An added bonus is the CD that comes with the book.
I'm a new Peter Marshall fan, who hopes he and his partner write again. Soon.

... is a phrase Peter Marshall admits he would have loved to hear on his hit television show "The Hollywood Squares". That fact, and a thousand others, come in a new and downright funny book, "Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square", written by Peter Marshall and Adrienne Armstrong.

Part memoir, part fond walk down memory lane, "Backstage" provides insights to the creation and hosting of one of America's all time successful games. Peter Marshall recants many stories, some of which he told on the E! True Hollywood Story of the "Squares" and others are brand new.

He starts off with a quick summation of his early career, and how he was offered the emcee job of a lifetime. Then he delves in to all the people behind the scenes that were important to the show. The book starts running when he reminisces about all the stars we grew to love over the years: Paul Lynde, Wally Cox, Rose Marie. While each section of the star could have been longer, he sheds some light on each one admirably.

Throughout the book, Peter comes across very polite and respectful. It's almost his persona on the Squares. He allowed the stars to shine by taking a somewhat backseat approach to hosting, yet you realize after watching it he was the glue that kept them together. In this book, he is the mere storyteller, and showcases everyone else.

What's more fantastic about this book is the CD that accompanies it. From an album entitled "Zingers from the Hollywood Squares" that was released in the 70's, this CD holds some of the Squares funniest one liners. That alone is worth the cost of the book. I had the album as a kid, and listened to it constantly, and to this day, recalled many of the jokes still!

This book was a long time coming, and needed. For many people, The Hollywood Squares wasn't a showcase for has beens, but a welcome comedic relief during some of our nation's most turbulant times. Thanks to Peter Marshall for writing this, and bringing back all the laughter!

"Backstage with the Original Hollywood Squares" is written by Peter Marshall himself, and he couldn't have made it any better. Firstly, it is very touching, because we get it first-hand from him as he looks back on his years with those great friends of his, all those celebrity panelists, and at times it's quite sad. Second, it's hilarious, because he complies so many of the best quotes, jokes, and one-liners that made the original Hollywood Squares as good as it was. Third, there is so much information here that any fan of the show needs this book! Peter gives you the inside scoop on his own life and the lives of the panelists. There is a HUGE list of every panelist who EVER appeared on the show. Peter tells you things you would never guess just by watching the show. He tells you who his favorites and least favorites were. He gives accounts of the various trips taken by the HS family, including a particularly disastrous Christmas vacation to Jamaica. He decribes the romances that blossomed on the show, the funny letters they received, and how it all finally ended. This book answers pretty much any question about the original Hollywood Squares that we're capable of asking it as fans. It's not one of those short, cheap, all-black-and-white books that hardly tell you anything. It's a 200-page total recount of the show's life. Good reading!

Alex Grey is quite probably the greatest artist alive today.

With that said, back to the book at hand. Sacred Mirrors is probably the book most people who want to get an idea of Grey's art should buy first. I find it slightly more accessible than Transfigurations, and it does not demand any knowledge of Grey's previous work. For those unfamiliar with his work, he paints almost all of the systems of the body in a transparent fashion, layered on top of each other. In his paintings you will see bones, nerves, blood vessels, chakras, and auras all at once. It can be overwhelming, but careful study of the paintings can make you see ordinary processes like kissing in a whole new way. And if you keep looking deeply at his paintings, things will keep revealing themselves. He also paints deities, from Avalokiteshvara to Jesus, with loving detail. This is definitely a great coffee-table book (and so much more!) for anyone interested in how transcendental theories of energy would manifest themselves visually. Grey's book also makes delightful entertainment for any kind of trip. Overall a sound buy for almost anyone who gets that feeling, sometimes, that there may be things going on in our physical reality that we just can't percieve. Grey can see them, and he has shared them with us.

I like many people, became intrested in this artist after the release of Tool's latest album Lateralus, i am very glad that i did, the art that i discovered is some of the most thought provoking art that i have ever seen, He truly brings new beauty to the human body in all of its forms. The book is also filled a detailed Bio and descriptons and the stories behind the sacred mirrors as well as several other paintings by Alex in the same vein. For those looking to broaden their horizons in art, this book is an excellent choice..........

This is the most amazing art book. In the central part of the book, Alex Grey presents the human being layer by layer. Starting with the skeleton, he adds the nervous & circulatory systems, the viscera, the musculature, and finally the skin. Materialist would stop there. But Alex Grey has the eyes of a mystic, and continues to depict the etheric & energetic components of humanity, right up to the Void of pure consciousness. He also includes deities from east & west, showing that they too "mirror" what we are in our depths. Many of the later frames are suitable as objects of meditation. The most talented energy-healer I know seems to know everything about people just by looking at them, and she says what she sees is what Alex Grey paints. This book contains art that can put a person in touch with her deepest and noblest possibilities. This book is nothing less than a gift to the human race!

The Ganz twins were able to capture all the different feelings that twins feel - from a special oneness to feelings of jealousy - and they did it beautifully. Finally there is a book out there just for us (the twins of the world) about us. And, best of all, it was written by twins!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading and re-reading this book. The bond and special relationship between twins is felt as you read the individual stories. These stories were extremely well-written and they generated both tears and laughter as I read each of them. The book provides an informative and entertaining insight into the world of twins. The photography was equally superb. This is a beautiful "table top" book. All ages will enjoy it.

THIS IS AN AMAZING BOOK I GOT A LOT OF INFORMATION AND SIMILIAR THING THAT I HAD NO IDEA OTHER TWINS FELT LIKE EMOTIONAL AND NON EMOTIONAL THINGS . THIS IS A GREAT BOOK FOR ALLL AGES IT INSPIRES PEOPLE TO LOOK AT THE INDIVIDUALITY OF A TWIN!

Whatever I might write about this book will hardly convey how wonderful it is. It is an ace in ALL categories, illustrations are beautiful and fun, story is lovley, clever, sweet and original, kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it; parents love it. What more can you ask. Buy it, and I am sure you will want to pass it on to all your friends' kids too so that they won't miss out. We have all Julias books and NONE disappoint.

This is a great book for K and 1st graders. The story is written in rhyming fashion and is very thought provoking and it gives lots of chances to guess what happens next. It follows a path and then returns to a ending that make you smile. Kids will love it. Illustrations are well done. Very Imaginative.

This is a wonderful and engaging book to have in a classroom library. You can teach various writing and reading concepts such as: inferences, dialogue, patterns, punctuation and rhyme. Kids simply love it and are eager to participate in the reading.

This well printed, well bound, book contains stunningly beautiful and provocative spiritual imagery that resonates with the truth within us. But anyone who has seen Mr. Grey's work before has come to expect this from him.

The real treat is that the pages contain an incredible amount of intensely interesting background information (and tons of photos!) on Alex's early works, as well as insightful commentaries by Albert Hoffmann, Stephen Larsen, Donald Kuspit, and Ken Wilber.

I have to say... I bought my copy at a higher price directly from Alex Grey's website (...). It showed up a few days after ordering, smelling of freshly printed ink, nicely wrapped and (best of all!) signed by Alex Grey.

While it is true that Alex Grey's most recent book celebrates the Journey within all of us, it also offers the reader the opportunity to be subtly transformed by the power of the imagery and lyrical writing contained within - something that we can all benefit from during these disturbing days and into the uncertain ones to come.

For this reader, the most exciting aspect of this book is the announcement of Alex Grey's plan to build a Chapel to house the Sacred Mirrors.

I have no doubt that this Chapel will be one of the wonders of our age.

May God Bless Alex, Allyson, and Zena Grey and give them all the strength, luck, and power to support each other into the distant years to come.

- G.F.

Transfigurations continues the exploration begun in Alex Grey's first book Sacred Mirrors, revealing an ongoing dialogue between body and soul as depicted in his art. The nature of personal identity is revealed in a series of full-page color reproductions and some black and white images providing paintings blending science and mysticism. A beautiful, unusual work.

If you liked sacred mirrors this book is the next step up. Opening to the first part of the book shows Alexs' earlier works and performances which seem strange compared to recent works. However it takes you through his lifes works and shows a very logical progression for the artist. His art progresses from a dark macabre form to a magnificant, spirtual art with bright exuberant colors. With the turn of every page I felt myself slowly filling with spiritual happiness until the end of the book when I felt overcome with spiritual energy and immediately upon closing the book I went into a meditative state and had the most wonderful experience. A must have for any Alex Grey fan or any believer in the sacred purposes of art.

Kurt Busiek has crafted an excellent superhero storyline in Confession. Astro City has, and continues to be the best pure superhero comic out,and Confession is the highpoint of the series. The story is completely told through the eyes of the Confessors sidekick, the Altar Boy. The fact that Busiek pulls off this narrative without seeming derivative is one thing, but the most impressive part is the quality of the story itself, and the shocking secret that the Confessor hides, adds to the drama. Throw in some mysterious religious imagery, and you get a solid enjoyable story to read. While it isnt as shocking or hilarious as Preacher, its an excellently written, beautifully drawn story, in the mold of classic comic book storytelling.

In the follow up to "Life in the Big City", Kurt Busiek hits the mark once again in the fictional world of Astro City, where he brings the "costumes" to a place every bit the equal to Metropolis or Gotham City.

The story revolves around a Batman and Robin-type team of the Confessor(to whom Busiek gives both Rorshach-like angst and a new twist on the "Dark Knight" mold) and his new side-kick, Altar Boy. The same sense of wonder at these costumed super-beings that permeated "Marvels" is in full effect here. There are bible-thumping heroes, an X-men-like supergroup, a superhero-phobic Mayor hell bent on registering all costumed crusaders(a la the X-men again) and requisite Alien Invaders (summoned in the previous graphic novel). There's a nice balance between continuity (the unsolved Hill murders, Altar Boy's revealing apprenticeship with the Confessor, the Aliens) and stand-alone randomness here(the final, doesn't-quite-fit-here Hangman time story).

You don't have to read the first one to follow along, but if you have, its all the richer. I love this series. The first two have been flawless. I also love the Inhumans, Planetary and the Watchmen as other examples of excellent, character-driven graphic novels.

Kurt Busiek's "Astro City," while infrequent, is still hands-down the best comic book in recent memory, and possibly the best superhero series ever written. Busiek has created an entire universe with the feel and flavor of everything good about Marvel and DC's superheroes, yet injected them with his own flavor. He's got twists that make archetypes a little different than you'd expect -- sometimes a little more human, sometimes a little less, always something you wouldn't have thought of yourself but that leaves you slapping your forehead and going, "of COURSE!"

"Confessions" is the second Astro City collection, and the first extended storyline. (The first trade paperback, "Life in the Big City," was a collection of single-issue stories, this is one story over six chapters). Brian Kinney has come to Astro City in the hopes of becoming a superhero, a wish that seems on its way to fulfillment when the mysterious Confessor takes him under his wing. But the city is troubled at the moment. A serial killer terrorizes the people of Shadow Hill. Public sentiment is turning against superheroes. And Brian's mentor is not at all what he appears to be.

For all of the great work Busiek has done, this book is easily my favorite. It's everything that makes "Astro City" great -- classic archetypes twisted around, lots of mysteries, a logical but unexpected point of view... it is superhero storytelling at its finest.

This book also contains the short "The Nearness of You," which -- I'm sorry, Alan Moore fans -- gets my vote for finest single issue comic book story ever. It is tender, heartbreaking and wholly uplifting all at the same time. I still get teary-eyed when I read it.

"Astro City" is set to finally return to comic book shelves. If you haven't read it before, get books like this for a primer, then jump on-board!

'Medea' by Euripedes is a classic and powerful Greek tragedy that broke all the rules of that time period. Euripedes takes two great figures in Medea and Jason, and uses Iconoclastic techniques brilliantly to make Jason seem stupid and Medea seem like a murderer. It is especially interesting because of the story that you need to understand outside of the play. You will need to know who the gods are and how Medea and Jason got together. Medea is a powerful sorceress, which is a major point in this play. The imagery of the death scenes were VIVIDLY scripted and the gods, who are supposed to represent all that is good and rightous, are also mocked and bashed by Euripedes. Overall, Euripedes defied all and created a tragic masterpiece, I will definately recommend you to read this. Thank you.

This is one of those remarkable plays that feels like it was written just last week. Medea is the daughter of the evil King Aeetes in Colchis -- on the remote, eastern side of the Black Sea. She assists Jason in slaying the serpent that guarded the golden fleece, and fell deeply in love with him. (See Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica for a fuller treatment of the love episode at Colchis). She even killed her brother, Absrytus, on their way back to Greece.

Medea has one problem, however. Aside from the fact she is a witch, she is a barbarian, a non-Greek. The Greeks used the word "barbaros" to refer to all people who weren't Greek, because if they didn't speak Greek, it just sounded like "bar bar bar" to the Greeks.

So after Jason and Medea settle in together back in Greece, his homeland, he decides that his interests (and Medea's) are better served if he marries the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. Medea gets jealous, poisons the woman, and then kills her two children in revenge.

Medea is an absolutely riveting character, whose tragic problems are those of all woman who have left their homes and families to follow men to foreign lands, only to be scorned by them in the end. The speeches of Jason and Medea are remarkable point-counterpoint presentations which reflect the deep influence of the sophists of Euripides' day. Medea sounds, at times, like a proto-feminist. She is one of the most enduring dramatic creations of all times, revealing with each line the remarkable genius of Euripides, the most modern of the three great Greek tragedians

Every time there is a horrific story in the news about a mother murdering her children, the classic tragedy "Medea" by Euripides is mentioned. However, a close reading of the actual play shows that the point Euripides is trying to make in this drama is not about infanticide, but rather about the way "foreigners" are treated in Greece (this is best seen in the odes of the Chorus of Corinthian Women). The other key component of the play is the psychology of Medea and the way in which she constructs events to help convince herself to do the unspeakable deed and kill the two sons she has borne Jason. There is a very real sense in which Jason is the true villain of the piece and I do not think there is a comparable example in the extant Greek tragedies remain wherein a major mythological hero is made to look as bad as Euripides does in this play.

Another important thing to remember in reading "Medea" is that the basic elements of the story were already known to the Athenian audience that would be watching the play. Consequently, when the fact that Medea is going to kill her children is not a surprise what becomes important are the motivations the playwright presents in telling this version of the story. The audience remembers the story of the Quest for the Golden Fleece and how Medea betrayed her family and her native land to help Jason. In some versions of the story Medea goes so far as to kill her brother, chop up his body, and throw it into the sea so their father, the King of Colchis, must stop his pursuit of the Argo to retrieve the body of his son. However, as a foreigner Medea is not allowed to a true wife to Jason, and when he has the opportunity to improve his fortune by marrying the princess of Corinth, Medea and everything she had done for him are quickly forgotten.

To add insult to injury, Jason assures Medea that his sons will be well treated at the court while the King of Corinth, worried that the sorceress will seek vengeance, banishes her from the land. After securing sanctuary in Athens (certainly an ironic choice given this is where the play is being performed), Medea constructs a rather complex plan. Having coated a cloak with poison, she has her children deliver it to the princess; not only will the princess die when she puts on the cloak (and her father along with her), the complicity of the children in the crime will give her an excuse to justify killing in order to literally save them from the wrath of the Corinthians.

This raises an interest questions: Could Medea have taken the children with her to her exile in Athens? On the one hand I want to answer that obviously, yes, she can; there is certainly room in her dragon-drawn chariot. But given her status as a foreigner, if Jason goes to Athens and demands the return of his children, would he not then have a claim that Medea could not contest? More importantly, is not Medea's ultimate vengeance on Jason that she will hurt him by taking away everything he holds dear, namely his children and his princess bride?

In the final line of the play the Chorus laments: "Many things beyond expectation do the gods fulfill. That which was expected has not been accomplished; for that which was unexpected has god found the way. Such was the end of this story." This last line has also found its way into the conclusion of other dramas by Euripides ("Alcestis," "Bacchae" and "Andromache"), but I have always found it to fit the ending of "Medea" best, so I suspect that is where it originally came from and ended up being appended to those other plays sometime during the last several thousand years. However, the statement is rather disingenuous because one of the rather standard approaches in a play by Euripides is that his characters often deserve their fate. In a very real sense, Euripides provides justification for Medea's monstrous crime and his implicit argument to the Athenian audience is that the punishment fits the crime. However, Athenians would never give up their air of superiority; at least not until foreigners such as the Macedonians and the Romans conquered the self-professed cradle of democracy.

i loved the alex books so much i've read the whole series 4 times . tessa duder wrote the books so well and i recommend it to anyone who likes a book that gets you totally absorbed . the characters are so real , you'd never know they were fictional it's the same with the whole overal stroy .It really is one of the best series i will ever read." nil bastardio carborundum" quote Alex .hahaha.Alex is such a strong character so full of emotion, so inspiring .I wish she was real so i could meet her . Tom and all are the same . the book has a sort of moral and gives you the view from all sides [as in characters]. truly the best.***********yet it's sad how so many people look up to her and can't see she needs company or some sort of friendship . in the book when she describes Tom as being larger then life , i guess it describes her to and thats why they suit so much .i love it

I loved this book! It is an excellent read and is well written. The story is beautiful and the characters are believable. It's a story an girl can relate to, no matter their age. The emotions and trials of Alex are very real; it's hard to put it down until you're done! I recomend this book to anyone. Not only does it talk about growing up a teenage girl, but it describes things such as the personal struggles of competiting in a way that is different and refreshingly honest. Buy this book today!

This is a great book for any young, female swimmer, or any one who knows the sport. It not only dealt with the issues of working hard for what you want, but also the good and bad times of growing up and finding out who you are. This book really motivated me to try my best in anything I try. I dont think I will ever get sick of this book( I've read it three times already).I also wish there were more books that dealt with young love the way Tessa Duder did. It was not distastefull in any way,it was very innocent and moving. So my congratulations out to Tessa Duder on a wonderful, inspiring book.**********10 star

This book was extremely well written. I could see the characters as I read. The life of the lead character was one to which most of us could relate and was interesting enough to hold ones attention until the very last word. The poetry was powerful and at times erotic. The book was hard to put down and I was sad when I was finished. I kept rereading the last page. I look forward to the second book from Mr. Hairston and some more of that poetry.

This book was the best book i have ever read.
It had great appeal on his experience with life.The love scene
was exciting to read about.The words just jumped at me and grabbed me into that adventure of life experiences that Eric took.He was learning as he went along,He also let his emotions take the best of him in some instances.The only thing that I can say is that this book was great also exciting.

This wonderful book was a joy to read. Alex definitely has a way with words and it will be no surprise before a major publisher snatches him up. The brother in the book however was a sex fiend *lol* but I loved the poetry and I loved how the character initially found himself.

I have many interesting books at home on my coffee table ;however none of them get as many humorous comments as ,Alex Kanakaris, Signs of Intelligent Life on the Internet.It's a fun read!

This is an entertaining book. Just like its subject matter - it's fun to browse through. It is full of thought provoking, inspiring and witty ideas.

Mr. Kanakaris has a great take on the internet world. Very funny! So many great ideas and insights into the internet industry in such a small book! A 5 star book!!