Book Review: Betty White's Pearls of Wisdom by Patty Sullivan

Betty White’s Pearls of Wisdom
by Patty Sullivan (Biography White)

This book’s author, Patty Sullivan, is the wife of blind singer and motivational speaker Tom Sullivan (a fixture on TV talk shows of the 1970s and 1980s). Before Patty and Tom were even married, when Tom was singing in a Cape Cod bar, actress Betty White and her husband Allen Ludden (who were both appearing in a play nearby) saw Sullivan’s musical act and befriended the young couple. From this point in their lives and beyond, Patty and Tom became a close part of Betty’s life, especially after Allen passed away. Over the years, Betty became Gram III to Patty and Tom’s two children, and they often spent the holidays together as a family, either at Patty and Tom’s home in the Los Angeles area, or the oceanside home in Carmel, CA that Betty and Allen had had constructed before his passing.

 

This book is Patty’s recollections of the more-than-fifty years relationship she had with Betty White, and the “Pearls of Wisdom” she acquired from watching how Betty lived her life. A large percentage of her recollections deal with Betty’s love for the animal kingdom and the environment. Patty also goes into a lot of detail of how everyone around Betty coped with her aging in the last 15-20 years of her life.

 

Pearls of Wisdom had a lot of great moments and memories but also became a tad repetitive. None-the-less, to see through the eyes of someone who was so close to Betty was invaluable, as are the large number of full-color photos used to illustrated this book. Anyone who loves animals, or who loved watching Betty throughout her superstar career on television should definitely enjoy this one.

 

(If you enjoy this, Betty wrote several books herself, all of the following of which are available through the libraries: Pet-Love: How Pets Take Care of Us (1983), Betty White In Person (1987), Here We Go Again: My Life in Television (1995), If You Ask Me (and Of Course You Won’t) (2011) and Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo (2011).

 

Mentioned within Pearls of Wisdom are three books she co-authored with Tom Sullivan, The Leading Lady: Dinah’s Story (1991), Together: A Novel of Shared Vision (2008) and Alive Day: A Story of Love and Loyalty (2009). The latter two novels are available in electronic formats, but the libraries don’t own The Leading Lady — you can order it through our InterLibrary Loan service for only a very small fee.

 

In 1971-72, Betty hosted a TV series, The Pet Set, for 39 episodes. All 39 episodes of this series are available through the libraries’ Hoopla Digital service, though each episode is a separate check-out and you are limited to 4 Hoopla check-outs per month.)

 

( Wikipedia entry for Betty White ) | ( publisher’s official Patty Sullivan author web page)

 

See Charlotte M.’s review of If You Ask Me (and, Of Course, You Won’t!) by Betty White in the January 2012 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood by Melissa Wagner and Max Dalton

Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
written by Melissa Wagner with art by Max Dalton (158.1 Wag)

This compact little hardback book gathers together quotes by Fred Rogers and memories of his iconic Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood children’s series, under a variety of thematic chapters, including “You Are Special”, “Be a Helper”, “All Kinds of Feelings Are Okay”, “Don’t Forget the Fun”, “We Are All Neighbors” and more. Much like previous “All I Need to Know I Learned…” books by other authors, the main lessons are distilled into their most simplistic aphorisms, but the heart of how Mister Rogers addressed sensitive issues is still effectively captured.

I enjoyed revisiting the memories of growing up with Mister Rogers Neighborhood, which this book brought up for me, a child of the late 1960s/early 1970s. For anyone who didn’t grow up with Mister Rogers, this book may not hit its mark. My only real complaint was that I wasn’t a particular fan of the art throughout the book. Other readers may not have an issue with that, so if you’re looking for some good life lessons as doled out by Mister Rogers, give this one a try.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the films Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood on DVD, or The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King or I’m Proud of You: My Friendship With Fred Rogers by Tim Madigan, and the various DVDs in the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood series owned by the libraries.] [ publisher’s page for Melissa Wagner ]

See Scott C’s review of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, here on BookGuide in April 2020
See Scott C’s review of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, here on BookGuide in November 2018
See Scott C’s review of The World According to Mister Rogers, here on BookGuide in June 2017

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Murder, She Said - The Quotable Miss Marple by Agatha Christie

Murder, She Said
based on works by Agatha Christie (823 Chr)

This is a charming little collection of quotations of lines from the Miss Marple novels and short stories by Agatha Christie, a companion volume to the similar Little Grey Cells: The Quotable Poirot, which highlighted the character of Hercule Poirot, her other great detective. Though there are far fewer Marple novels and stories than Poirot, the editors of this collection still manage to assemble a surprisingly thought-provoking selection — broken down into a variety of categories addressing relationships, motive, and Marple’s views on herself. This should appeal to anyone who’s a Christie fan, or even just the casual mystery reader who wants some more insight into one of the most recognizable sleuths in this literary genre.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Little Grey Cells: The Quotable Poirot and Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories, both by Agatha Christie.]

[ official Murder She Said page on the official Agatha Christie web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Little Grey Cells: The Quotable Poirot

Little Grey Cells: The Quotable Poirot
by Agatha Christie [823 Chr]

This marvelous little hardback book is a pocket-sized collection of Hercule Poirot “quotations”, taken from the 33 novels and more than 50 short stories written by Agatha Christie that featured her famous Belgian detective. Throughout his career, Poirot was well known for solving his cases by exploring the human psychology of both the victims and perpetrators of crimes. Unlike, say, Sherlock Holmes, who was far more intrigued by the physical evidence that could lead to the solution of a crime, Poirot loved to explore the mental processes and motives that would lead to a criminal act. As he says in “The King of Clubs”, “In the little grey cells of the brain lies the solution of every mystery.”

This collection of quotes is broken up into thematic chapters, including “Human Nature”, “The English”, “Symmetry & Order” (so, so important to Poirot), “Detective Work”, “Truth & Lies”, “Food & Drink”, and “My Dear Hastings”, just to name a few. Within each chapter, each quote — some are very short and others are a paragraph or more in length — gets its own separate page, complete with reference to the novel or short story it original appeared in. At the end of the book are two “extras” — an afterword pulled from Christie’s papers, in which she explains the Love/Hate relationship she developed with Poirot over decades of writing his adventures, and an appendix identifying every Poirot novel and short story.

Special Event: Don’t miss “The Mystery of Agatha Christie”, a special 90-minute presentation at the Gere Branch Library on Sunday, September 30th, 2018, 2:00-3:30 p.m. — a celebration of all things “Christie”, covering the author and her life (including her mysterious 11-day disappearance), her entire body of written work, and the stage, screen and television adaptations of her stories. Then, join fellow theater-goers in attending the play Black Coffee, starring Hercule Poirot, at the Lincoln Community Playhouse in late October 2018.

“It is sometimes difficult for a dog to find a scent, but once he has fount it, nothing on earth will make him leave it! That is if he is a good dog! And I, Hercule Poirot, am a very good dog!” — from the short story, “The Chocolate Box” (it also appears in the play “Black Coffee”). [Note: I found it helpful to imagine David Suchet, TV’s most famous Poirot, reading all the quotes in this book!]

[ official Little Grey Cells web site ] | [ official Agatha Christie web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed

Brave Enough
by Cheryl Strayed [808.882 Str] 

Strayed’s autobiographical book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail was one of my top five favorite reads the year it came out (2012). In Brave Enough, Strayed has some introductory remarks about how she’s collected inspirational quotes from other people’s writings over the years, and how important some of those have because to her — helping her to get past rough patches in her life. For this collection, she has pulled quotes and passages from her own past writings, after friends, colleagues and readers told her that she and her writings were inspirational to them.

The quotes/passages she shares in this small collection range from one-sentence pithy statements, to multi-paragraph explorations of various concepts. Strayed’s writings can be, shall we say, rather salty….so if you’ve got issues with moderately doses of what most people would consider profanity, this collection probably isn’t for you. But if you don’t mind four-letter-words scattered liberally through her self-quotes, Strayed has a lot of very thoughtful things to say. By the time I was done reading this, I had copied several of her statements out that had an impact on me, including “To love and be loved. That is the meaning of life.”, “Put yourself in the way of beauty”, “Trust your gut. Forgive yourself. Be grafteful”, and “Don’t own other people’s crap!”.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Strayed’s other books, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, and Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life From Dear Sugar.]

[ official Brave Enough page on the official Cheryl Strayed web site ]

Read Tracy T.’s reviews of Cheryl Strayed’s book Wild, from May 2016
Read Scott C.’s review of the movie adaptation of Wild starring Reese Witherspoon, from June 2016

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

The Fifty Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years by Edward Gross and Mark Altman

Our final Star Trek review in Star Trek's 50th anniversary month!

 

The Fifty Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years
by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman [ On Order ] 

 This is the first in a two-volume set of interview collections, released in conjunction with Star Trek’s 50th anniversary in 2016. Editors Gross and Altman are long-time journalists, specializing in pop culture, who have each written extensively on Star Trek for a variety of publications over the past several decades. They combine quotes from past interviews with dozens of new interviews with ANYone associated with the production of Star Trek over the years — from the actors, writers, producers and network television executives, down to “best boys”, “grips”, public relations staff, significant fans, and many more. This book looks at the origins of the creation of Trek, through the movies featuring the original series cast, to the period just before the premiere of Star Trek the Next Generation. There are interviews snippets from 203 different people in this book — there’s actually an index at the front of the book, identifying who they all are with little biographies! The tone of most of the interview portions is pleasant and supportive of the positive impact Star Trek has had, but there are a few people with less-than-stellar things to say about the process of making Trek, and the people involved behind-the-scenes. While some of those harsh statements make me wince a little, as an unabashed fan of the Star Trek franchise, I also appreciate that the editors did not attempt to whitewash the commentary to only include “positive” and “upbeat” opinions.

I have found the reading of this to be a real pleasure — my only real complaint is that I wish the editors clearly identified the original time/date of the interviews each quote comes from. In the case of several of quotes from several cast members who are no longer with us (DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Majel Barrett, etc.), it would have been nice to have had just a little note to say “from a 1997 interview with…”. Otherwise, I highly recommend this volume to anyone who considers themselves a true Trekkie/Trekker/Treknologist, and I look forward to getting the second volume, covering The Next Generation up to today’s reboot movies, which is due out in early September 2016.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Star Trek Interview Book, edited by Allan Asherman] [ The Fifty Year Mission entry at Memory Alpha ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!