Win a pair of Stuart Weitzman heels, pictured on the book cover of Quick, Before the Music Stops!
To celebrate the launch of Quick, Before the Music Stops: How Ballroom Dancing Saved My Life, the debut memoir from Town & Country Beauty Director Janet Carlson, Broadway Books partnered with Stuart Weitzman to run a Sweepstakes, in which three lucky winners will win the Stuart Weitzman Fever style heels pictured on the book jacket.
Visit www.quickbeforethemusicstops.com to enter the sweepstakes and for more information about this inspiring memoir of renewal and self discovery that explores the magic of ballroom dancing and its power to bring grace, balance, and passion into everyday life.
Eleanor Coppola shares her extraordinary life as an artist, filmmaker, wife, and mother in a book that captures the glamour and grit of Hollywood and reveals the private tragedies and joys that tested and strengthened her over the past twenty years.
Eleanor Coppola often refers to the contradictions within herself, these oppositions are an ongoing theme in her life. Discuss how you see this theme play out throughout Notes on a Life. What sort of contradictory characteristics have you encountered in your own experiences?
Discuss the various locations to which Eleanor travels with Francis and what effect these settings have on her existence and emotional state. How does filming on location in foreign lands differ from her life at home in Napa Valley? What role does cultural heritage play in shaping the lives of the Coppola family?
How does Eleanor react to being thrust into the spotlight when her documentary, Hearts of Darkness, receives critical acclaim? How does this compare to her later artistic endeavors? What does this imply about the nature of fame?
In a nod to Orion’s chapter-opening cocktail recipes, Celestial Seasonings is holding a QUEEN OF THE ROAD Iced Tea Drink Recipe Contest. Get creative with your own tea recipe, and visit www.celestialseasoningsbookclub.com to enter for a chance to win cash prizes and a signed copy of the book.
And, be sure to visit Orion’s blog to see some great pictures from her day of events at their headquarters, and her website for some hilarious video travelogues, podcasts, and more!
This summer, trade the Boeing 747 for armchair travel and journey to China, Mexico, Europe, and beyond with our authors. Our wide variety of titles include essays, memoirs and novels.
Visit broadwaybooks.com/abroad to watch videos, view photographs, and read blog posts featuring the books.
In The Unlikely Lavender Queen, journalist Jeannie Ralston shares the story of how she went from being a single, driven New York City career woman to a married lavender farmer living in rural Texas. Describing her transition from city mouse to country mouse, and recalling the hilarity and poignancy it brought, Ralston touches upon many themes including self-worth, identity, reconciling big-city dreams with small-town ideals, and the competing interests that sometimes complicate a marriage.
The book opens with two quotations, one from Henri Matisse and the other from Alice Walker. Discuss what each means in the context of Jeannie Ralston’s story. Why do you think she chose these particular quotes?
In the Prologue, Ralston describes her maiden morning as a farmer, and juxtaposes it with a memory of her life in New York: “I recalled one of the last times I was out at this hour, years earlier. It was on the other side of sleep, right after a New Year’s Eve party, as I was stumbling through SoHo with my then-fiancé.” Have you ever had moments when your current life seems at odds with your past? How does it make you feel? Do you long for the past, or have you “moved on?”
Before reading The Unlikely Lavender Queen, did you know anything about botanical farming? What did you learn? Do you think you could be a farmer like Ralston?
A no-holds-barred memoir from the primary architect of hip hop and one of the culture’s most revered music icons — both the tale of his life and legacy and a testament to dogged determination. More on the book here. Be sure to also visit grandmasterflash.com.
In a funny, thought-provoking first-person account, a young Christian woman describes the challenges of keeping one’s faith while looking for romance in the big city. Here are some questions for discussion.
While Anna “knows in her head” that marriage shouldn’t be the basis of her purpose in life, she can’t seem to find an alternate source of identity. Do you think that it is possible to change this ourselves? Or does the change have to happen to us? What do you tend to most find your identity in (relationships, work, family, etc.)?
In the book, Anna admits that she thinks heaven sounds kind of lame. What do you think heaven will be like — is it someplace you would genuinely like to be? What do you think has shaped your ideas of heaven?
One thing Anna struggles with throughout the book is a tendency to fragment herself and share only certain parts with other people — which she sees as bad. Do you agree that this is unhealthy? How have you seen this tendency — for good or bad — in your own life or that of friends? (more…)
A Freewheelin’ Time is Suze Rotolo’s firsthand, eyewitness, participant-observer account of the immensely creative and fertile years of the 1960s, just before the circus was in full swing and Bob Dylan became the anointed ringmaster. Check out the media links below:
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A Freewheelin’ Time is Suze Rotolo’s firsthand, eyewitness, participant-observer account of the immensely creative and fertile years of the 1960s, just before the circus was in full swing and Bob Dylan became the anointed ringmaster. Check out the media links below:
