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Charmian Carr played eldest von Trapp daughter Liesl in the mega-successful film version of The Sound of Music, and judging from her earnest memoir, the story's sentimental wholesomeness rubbed off on her permanently. It's a "great movie," she avers, acknowledging that the critics thought otherwise; she was "honored" to be part of it, and her onscreen siblings became her lifelong friends. Carr's reasonably interesting chronicle of shooting the film is interspersed with personal narratives by people who love it: a nine-year-old boy who found comforting parallels between the distant but ultimately loving Captain von Trapp and his own recently deceased father; a girl who got the video for Christmas just after her brother had surgery; and so on. The author tempers all that sweetness and light with frank accounts of her parents' divorce, her mother's alcoholism, and later conflicts with the studio over financial remuneration for promoting the movie. Adult costars Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews come across as consummate professionals less enthralled by the experience than their youthful supporting cast. But in general the book is determinedly upbeat and definitely not for the cynical. Those who share Carr's rapturous regard for The Sound of Music and even those who don't but are willing to be touched by sincere emotion will enjoy her stroll down memory lane. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
The magic of The Sound of Music lives on in the minds and hearts of everyone it has touched. Now, Charmian Carr, who in 1965 captivated moviegoers as Liesl Sixteen Going on Seventeen von Trapp, tells what it was like to be a part of the film that has become a cultural phenomenon. It's all here: from how she got the role (and why she almost didn't) to romances on the set and wild nights in Salzburg; from the near-disaster during the gazebo dance to her relationships-then and now-with her six celluloid siblings. Charmian offers stories from fans and friends and a treasury of photographs. And she reveals why she left acting, what she learned when she met the real von Trapp children; and how The Sound of Music has helped her get through stormy times in her own life.
Forever Liesl celebrates the spirit of the movie and what it stands for: family love, romance, inspiration, nostalgia, and the joy and power of music.
Customer Reviews:
Forever Liesl: Forever wonderful!.......2007-09-23
I received this book a few weeks ago and devoured it in the space of a few hours. For anyone who is as big a loser about The Sound Of Music as I am, there is no better way to nerd out than this :) I loved reading about Chris Plummer's acerbic wit and sarcasm, Julie Andrews' incredible professionalism, and anecdotes about all the "Von Trapp" children. Charmian's life story is quite sad at times, and about as far from the sweet and saccharine world of TSOM as it gets, but her stories about meeting the real Von Trapps and her experiences filming the movie are fantastic. I also found it interesting that she worked for Michael Jackson - she's had an interesting life! The letter from Nick Hammond is very sweet and touching, and it's clear she's very close to her celluloid siblings and greatly valued the experience of filming The Sound Of Music. Interesting fact - at the time of writing, she'd seen the movie a total of only nine times!
Captivating Reminiscence - Personal and Professional.......2007-04-22
A personal book like this really depends on the appeal of the author herself - and here one hits the jackpot. Charmian Carr is so charming, sensitive, and modest that you can't help loving her through the book.
I had no idea the book would be this enjoyable.
This is a wonderful tale with five interwoven threads:
i) what it was like for a 21 year old working for a doctor in the San Fernando Valley - and who'd never done any professional acting, dancing or singing - to work on a movie that would gain the highest box office of all time and become a phenomenon around the world - wonderful details and anecdotes of the making of the movie, the comparison of the story with the history,
ii) the experiences of others working on the movie, as Ms. Carr truly put a lot of work into this book, reaching out to everyone to ask about their experiences, their anecdotes;
iii) AMAZING stories told by people around the world who've been affected by the movie over the years;
iv) the experiences of the cast since the making of the movie - those playing the von Trapp children stayed very much in each other's lives over the years; and
what I found most affecting:
v) the highly dramatic and in many ways quite tragic story of Charmian Carr's own growing up - particularly the story of her show business mother and father, as well as that of her sisters (you probably know beautiful younger sister Darleen from so many television series and mini-series) and their children.
What a great book - it's impossible to put down - and so acutely sensitive, so warm, so candid, so funny.
Forever Liesl Sound of Music book.......2007-01-09
I liked this book. Like many others I love the Sound of Music. This book is written with a positive spin on everything, so it seems a little contrived. She emphasizes the ongoing relationship between the actors that played the kids in the movie. I would have loved to have known more detail about the experiences in Austria and more of the background of the movie production. If you like the movie, you will like this book.
Even if you haven't seen the movie...........2006-09-02
OK, I confess! I'm probably one of the few people in the US who hasn't seen The Sound of Music (at least never beyond the first commercial when it's shown on TV). Being a perennial grouch, I've convinced myself that it's probably going to be tedious and corny. Nevertheless, I found this book delightful reading. My partner bought it for me when we were in Stowe, VT, on a hiking trip (they've got an entire Gift Shoppe there devoted to von Trapp stuff!), and I finished it pretty much in one sitting. Ms. Carr gives us a lot of insight into how movies are made; she sounds like an intelligent and perceptive person, and one who didn't get corrupted by her contact with Hollywood. Her account explains many of the reasons why people enjoy this movie.... maybe I'll give it another try next time it's on!
Sound of Music from Charmian Carr's (Liesel's) Perspective.......2006-06-30
A good, quick read. Interesting insight into the making of the movie from a young lady who had never acted before the making of the Sound of Music.
A good portion of the book is captured in the new 40th Edition of the Sound of Music (DVD) released in 2005.
Very enjoyable reading.
Product Description
2 Books: 1) Forever Liesl: A Memoir of The Sound of Music (2000 Ed.) / 2) The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (Dell 1960 Ed.) (Unboxed Set of Books by Different Authors), in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one package to
save on shipping costs.
Book Description
Abundant, newly discovered sources shatter long-held beliefs
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 revealed, among many other things, a hidden wealth of archival documents relating to the imprisonment and eventual murder of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their children. Emanating from sources both within and close to the Imperial Family as well as from their captors and executioners, these often-controversial materials have enabled a new and comprehensive examination of one the pivotal events of the twentieth century and the many controversies that surround it.
Based on a careful analysis of more than 500 of these previously unpublished documents, along with numerous newly discovered photos, The Fate of the Romanovs makes compelling revisions to many long-held beliefs about the Romanovs' final months and moments. This powerful account includes:
- Surprising evidence that Anastasia may, indeed, have survived
- Diary entries made by Nicholas and Alexandra during their captivity
- Revelations of how the Romanovs were betrayed by trusted servants
- A reconstruction of daily life among the prisoners at Ipatiev House
- Strong evidence that the Romanovs were not brutalized by their captors
- Statements from admitted participants in the murders
Customer Reviews:
An exciting read.......2007-09-26
For anyone with an historical interest in the last Tsar this book is a must read. The historical analysis is well done and up to date (excepting the recent find of Alexei and Maria's grave sites). The work is well documented with footnotes and sources, but at the same time it is thoroughly enjoyable to read. Although there are some different approaches to the Romanov tragedy, I did not find it so "revisionist" as it proclaims, except perhaps to put a more human side to the captors of the family and the somewhat lack of responsibilty Lenin had for the murders. It stays on my library shelves as a great reference to the events described and explained.
Disappointing.......2007-06-23
Very well but selectively researched. I was disappointed by the obvious sympathies to a group of people that comitted the most henous act of genocide in history.
Over bloated and irrelevant in places. Don't bother.
Russian (Imperial) History.......2007-05-31
I'm a history buff and am learning details about post World War I that I never knew.
Didn't like it.......2007-05-10
Book based on "Ifs", "Could have happened", "Must have happened", "Can't be trusted", an so on, but no definite facts. Really, based on no facts at all. I've got the impression that the authors want to show a "loving" Lenin, stating that he wasn't involved in the massacre of the whole family, failing to explain from which documents they arrive to such conclusion. I highly regret having bought the book. It is not serious at all.
Fate of the Romanovs.......2007-03-09
An excellent historical review It gives you all the politacal information needed to see why this tragedy happened.
Average customer rating:
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Fate of the Romanovs
Manufacturer: WILEY JOHN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H957SY |
Book Description
The sequel to the bestselling Science of Discworld.
The acclaimed Science of Discworld centered around an original Pratchett story about the Wizards of Discworld. In it, they accidentally witness the creation and evolution of our universe in a plot interwoven with a Cohen & Stewart non-fiction narrative about Big Science. In The Globe, the same structure applies, only this time the themes are Human Science: History, Origins of Language, Archaeology, Anthropology, Evolutionary Psychology and, overall, the importance of Story to our culture (and of course to all Pratchett fans). There is a well-known theory that there are only seven stories known to man. The Elves of Discworld have discovered an eighth – a story of awesome power – which they play out on Roundworld (Earth) in their attempt to defeat the Witches of Discworld.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
The second Science of Discworld book, as the title suggests, narrows its focus. While the first took a lot at the cosmological and astronomical overview, this one changes to a focus on the actual planet, and how it formed and developed. This means in both a discworld sense, and the actual real world science behind our planet, in this simplified form.
Hmmmm.......2007-06-28
I thought this was one of the supplemental materials. It is, but in the form of a story.
Not quite one or the other, but still worth reading.......2007-05-30
A short but entertaining Discworld story alternating with entertaining science writing. Both sides of this book are a bit light, but it's still a good read. Would make pretty good supplementary reading for a science course. Of special interest to parents, teachers, and students.
Homo Narrans Explained.......2007-03-05
The goal, I suppose, is to make science more attractive to readers. The approach is for Terry Pratchett to write a chapter and then for Stewart and Cohen to write a chapter explicating science principles out of Pratchett's story. The science in this case is sociology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics and, heaven help us, sociobiology. You'll note those are soft sciences.
Pratchett's premise is that the evil Elves have invaded Roundworld, using it to their nasty ends. It's up to the wizard faculty of Unseen University, aided by Hex, the Discworld's equivalent of a computer, to save the day. After several false starts, one of them resulting in the memorable Shell Midden People, the Wizards hit on a way to save the day: instead of Arthur J. Nightingale being Roundworld's greatest playwright, they'll slide in a ringer named William Shakespeare. It's not Pratchett's most inspired effort, but it does have its moments.
But Practhett's far better than Stewart and Cohen. Their premise is that, while there may not be any narrativium on Roundworld, it is stories that make us human; that instead of Homo sapiens we should be called Homo narrans. That without the spark of story, the stories we invent about ourselves and the world around us, we wouldn't be any better off than the Shell Midden People.
None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who has read "Hogfather," which does a much better job of making this point. But then Stewart and Cohen are constrained by Roundworld science, and Pratchett gets to use the Discworld.
For those of us familiar with the canon works, the near omnipotence of Hex is a little disturbing. For those of us familiar with literature, despite Stewart's and Cohen's contention, there are other important authors than Shakespeare. On the other hand, the correspondence between the power of narrative on the Discworld and the role of story-telling in our culture is well-developed. But that's unsurprising. Pratchett's Discworld has always a funhouse mirror of our world. He uses that funhouse mirror of to make points about our world. Which leaves Stewart and Cohen, in this case, in the unenviable position of explaining to the audience how the magician does his tricks.
I applaud any effort to increase the reach of science, to make it accessible, interesting and attractive. The effort here isn't wholly successful, and the science is soft, but still the book is worth the read.
The emergence of the storytelling ape.......2006-10-12
Try enlivening a party with this question: "What's on your mind?" When the babble has become truly raucous, ask another: "How did it get in there?" This book is about those questions, how we came to consider them, and how we've tried to learn to understand them. Interleaving a fantasy story with analyses of scientific thinking about thinking carries certain risks. In the hands of this trio, however, the balance is successfully achieved. Don't be deceived by the name of Terry Pratchett as lead author of this volume. There are wonderful touches of humour in this book, but the basic theme is a serious question: "Who are we, and how did we get to be this way?"
This book repeats a technique used in The Science of Discworld I - two stories in parallel. Discworld is a mirror of Roundworld. The wizards used the computer Hex to construct Roundworld in SoD I. They were shocked at the many differences. Shape was only a beginning. They were confronted with the many ways in which life evolved on Roundworld. They were also forced to reflect on how illogical it seemed for living things to struggle for survival, only to be snuffed out by natural forces. In this sequel, the most advanced life form is going to be confronted with an extinction threat noted in the first book. How to deal with it? It turns out that the best solution is to ally with a great evil force.
Humanity has a strange and illogical heritage, this book tells us. As our forebears learned to cope with changing conditions on the African savannah [or on lake shores or even in the sea] they learned to stand upright, to grasp tools, and to think. This has always seemed like a long, continuous progression of small improvements over time - a process in the best Darwinian gradualist sense. This trio of authors reminds us that this picture is false for humans. After a good start, our ancestors simply halted in place, keeping social, mental and technological progress at bay. The "pause" went on for a hundred millennia. At some point about fifty thousand years ago, all that changed. We went from the "standing ape" to become "the storytelling ape". Thinking and speaking resulted in story-telling.
In trying to understand ourselves and our surroundings, Pratchett and his colleagues see humans as inventing stories for explanations of nature's mysteries. Magic, allied with the element "narrativium", runs the Discworld. On the Roundworld, magic has to be invented. Narratives are the means to bring it about and spread it around. Every human society forges its own stories which are imparted to children as "Make-A-Human Kits". Each society creates explanations which become legends which become religions as one example. While we might dispute whether we've "progressed" argue the authors, there's no question that once the process started, humans changed rapidly resulting in what we see around us today. This "advance", they argue, was not inevitable. While we may not yet understand what prompted this change, we can list alternatives and reject the impossible or implausible. That's why the Discworld parallel story comprises part of this book. It teaches you how to recognise the difference.
To long-standing Discworld fans, this book will be a serious challenge. Unlike the "laugh per page" of Pratchett's other works, he and his colleagues confront the most serious of issues: "where do we come from?" and "where are we going?". Cohen and Stewart, who have dealt these questions elsewhere, and Terry Pratchett, who posits them with every book, have produced a significant contribution in attempting an answer. The use of the parallel story line offers great opportunities for the reader to "step outside the box" and consider life and beliefs from a detached view. Pratchett has long confronted us with ourselves. Adding Cohen and Stewart's scientific and cognitive abilities to his imagination results in a compelling and informative read. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Book Description
This insightful examination of the history and extinction of one of Australia's most enduring folkloric beasts--the thylacine, (or Tasmanian tiger)-- challenges conventional theories. It argues that rural politicians, ineffective political action by scientists, and a deeper intellectual prejudice about the inferiority of marsupials actually resulted in the extinction of this once proud species. Hb ISBN (2000):0-521-78219-8
Customer Reviews:
a book that does what the title says.......2002-05-15
i write this recommendation to emphasise to potential readers that this is a very worthy study of the extinction of the Thylacine. whilst true that this book will not inspire hope that this most unique of creatures survives, it does unravel the reasoning behind it's rapid fall into extinction. Paddle offers a gentle introduction to the species' biology and ecology, aswell as a history in captivity, but it is his research of bounty records and contemperary accounts that sets this work above others. scientific maybe, but well planned, researched and written, and the twist he brings in regarding the reason for the bounty is worthy of an agatha christie novel! an excellent piece of work and well suited to conservation biologists, natural historians and anyone with an interest in the twentieth century's greatest loss.
Controversial Theories Versus Accepted Logic.......2001-03-19
Robert Paddle's controversial book, The Last Tasmanian Tiger, attempts to overturn most previously accepted anecdotal reasoning on a subject that is fast becoming popular world wide. Paddle has rather recklessly thrown caution to the wind in his sometimes dangerous dismantilling of sound anecdotal evidence, replacing it with his own logic, which is in many cases sadly wide of the mark. The Last Tasmanian Tiger could prove to be a dangerous book in the wrong hands, for it could lead astray those tender souls genuinely seeking information of this unique creature. Being pro-scientific as it is, Paddle's book is written in a style that can be hard to decipher for us mere mortals. But, all this aside, Paddle has done a tremendous ammount of research in assembling his book, some of it ground breaking, and from this point alone it makes worthwhile reading. The Last Tasmanian Tiger is definitely not suitable for the novice thylacine enthusiast.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by University of British Columbia on June 22, 2002. The length of the article is 606 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
Author: Richard Scaglion
Publication:
Pacific Affairs (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2002
Publisher: University of British Columbia
Volume: 75
Issue: 2
Page: 338(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Australian Studies, published by University of Queensland Press on June 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1226 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Last Tasmanian Tiger: The History and Extinction of the Thylacine.(Review)
Author: Tim Bowden
Publication:
Journal of Australian Studies (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2001
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Page: 174
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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The Sound of Music: The Making of America's Favorite Movie
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
Yesterday Today and Forever
The Sound of Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Special Edition)
The World of the Trapp Family
