Tomato Nation Read-Along #11: Poll
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on July 18, 2011 – 8:37 AM12 Comments
The unsinkable David Grann returns to the poll yet again, along with Angela Chase; first-timers include Dolly Parton, Tim Gunn, and Judy Garland. How will we choose?
Let’s find out! Pick three that look fun; you’ve got all week.
Which book(s) would you read along with? (You can pick as many as 3.)
- Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business (Dolly Parton) / autobiography (20%, 121 Votes)
- Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work (Tim Gunn with Ada Calhoun) / self-help (18%, 112 Votes)
- The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (David Grann) / history (14%, 87 Votes)
- Dear Angela: Remembering "My So-Called Life" (ed. Byers and Lavery) / cultural studies (13%, 78 Votes)
- East Fifth Bliss (Douglas Light) / fiction (10%, 63 Votes)
- Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (Gerald Clarke) / biography (8%, 49 Votes)
- Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film (Peter Biskind) / film (6%, 37 Votes)
- It's Only a Movie: Films and Critics in American Culture (Raymond J. Haberski Jr.) / film/cultural studies (5%, 32 Votes)
- Can't You Get Along With Anyone?: A Writer's Memoir and a Tale of a Lost Surfer's Paradise (Allan C. Weisbecker) / memoir (3%, 21 Votes)
- The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President (Taylor Branch) / history (3%, 20 Votes)
Total Voters: 298
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Tags: books The TN Read-Along
Get Happy is aces, the Miramax one is OK, but Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes is a better telling of the same tale. I would certainly vote for Dolly!
One day that Amazon obsession will win out!
And I voted for the fiction with absolutely no knowledge of the plot or author, just to see what would happen.
I listened to the Lost City of Z on audiobooks and it was riveting. I could never have slogged through reading it, but it was an awesome book to listen to. I would recommend it to everyone
I had checked out the Amazon book but simply couldn’t slog through it (thanks for the word Retta, slog is it exactly). I reserved both Dolly and Tim from the library so I’m ready to go.
Tim Gunn’s book would be perfect for right now since Project Runway is about to come back.
Am I the only person who can only call him Tim Gunn? I feel like I always have to say his full name.
If that’s the same Gerald Clarke who wrote Truman Capote’s biography… Capote is fascinating, and good Lord, the last third of the book is an amazingly sad train wreck. So much so that I kept flipping back and forth, amazed at how much happened, pretty much all of it bad, between the Black & White Ball in November 1966 and Capote’s death in 1984.
@Jessica, if you never read the oral history — it’s the Plimpton — get it. I don’t think it got great reviews, but I liked it even more than the Clarke. The last bits with him and Johnny Carson’s ex-wife are so very sad.
I’m still holding out hope for Dear Angela after all these months of being on the poll, though I’ve read the Tim Gunn for my local book club and would be interested to see what this group thinks of it compared to the other.
I don’t know what you think about Peter Biskind as a writer, but to me, he can be a cheap-shot artist, and that’s certainly true with “Down and Dirty Pictures”; I spent half the book going, “Whatever you think of Billy Bob Thornton, he doesn’t deserve this.”
Is there any place to find the “Dear Angela” book at a price not prohibitive? On Amazon, it’s going no lower than $25 bucks or so; I find that a bit steep for a paperback.
Let’s worry about that if it finishes first, which doesn’t seem likely this time around.
@Jenn: He’s two-names TIm Gunn in my house, too. As in, “Expedia ads? Really, Tim Gunn??”
I’ve actually read Tim Gunn’s book (yes, both names always) and found it quite easy and fun to read. I’m afraid to say more about it, though, as if I’d be revealing a spoiler…
So, torn between a re-read of Tim Gunn and what I expect will be a nutritious confection (deeply satisfying, yet sweet) of Parton’s publication.