Product Description
This great songbook is our matching folio to the highly acclaimed debut album by this new diva of Broadway musical theatre. It includes 14 songs written by some of today's most popular composers, such as Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John La Chiusa, Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel and Jenny Giering. Titles include: The Allure of Silence * Come to Jesus * Daybreak in Alabama * I Follow * A Lullaby * Song for a Dark Girl * Stars and the Moon * Tom * You Don't Know This Man * and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Best
I have known of Audra's music since she was 12.She not only has an outstanding voice, but she has the ability to capture and hold the audience. If you like the music of Broadway, you'll love this CD and all the others. ... Read more

Product Description
A Juilliard grad and multi-Tony Award winner, actress and soprano Audra McDonald has been compared to both Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland. Our matching folio to her second solo release features a bio and 14 tunes by Harold Arlen and contemporary composers such as Adam Guettel. Includes: Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home * Bill * Come Down from the Tree * How Glory Goes * I Won't Mind * Lay Down Your Head * The Man That Got Away * A Sleepin' Bee * Somewhere * When Did I Fall in Love * and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

fast shipping, brand new condition
they shipped it quickly and i got it with no problems

fantastic!
Songs like "How Glory Goes", and "I Hid My Love" are the main reasons I purchased this book; they are fabulous audition pieces because they aren't too familiar, so I'm really happy to finally have the the music. My only complaint is that these are two of the only songs here that don't have the chords written above the music. I usually play off the chord structure and just improvise what I play, (it's easier when you accompany yourself) so now I have the challenge of actually playing what's written while I sing. ^ . ^

Also, a few of the songs are transposed DOWN one half step to make them easier to play, it's no big deal but I mention this here because half-steps can be bigger than they appear, sometimes. ;-) hehe And the piano parts are not simple either, thank goodness, they are pretty faithful to the source for the most part.

Other than that, this book plays beautifully. There is an updated Bio for Audra at the beginning of the book with some really great info about what she is currently doing, or about to embark upon... ... Read more

Product Description
This CD recreates the remarkable program Audra sang for the American Songbook Series for Jazz at Lincoln Center. Our CD features vocal/piano arrangements for all 13 tunes bridging the work of upcoming and time-tested songwriters: Bein' Green * Damned Ladies * God Give Me Strength * My Heart * My Stupid Mouth * To a Child * Wonderful You * and more. ... Read more

Product Description

From Connie Briscoe, the New York Times bestselling author of Sisters & Lovers and Big Girls Don't Cry, comes a lyrical and moving tour de force that is her most daringly ambitious novel to date--a multigenerational story of slavery freedom, and the indestructible bonds of love and family witnessed through the lives of three unforgettable African-American women.

Shimmering with heartache and hope, A Long Way from Home recounts the joys, pain, and ultimate triumph of three generations: Susie; her daughter, Clara; and her granddaughter, Susan. Born and reared as house slaves on Montpelier, the Virginia plantation of President James Madison and his wife, Dolley Madison, they are united by love, by a fierce devotion to each other and their fellow slaves, and by a growing desire for freedom--a dream that will finally come to fruition for Susan at the end of the Civil War.

This hauntingly beautiful novel opens in the peaceful Piedmont area of Virginia. Trained as a house slave since childhood, Susie enjoys the privileges that her position as maid to Miss Dolley provides her and Clara. For Susie life holds no mystery, no promise beyond the boundaries of the plantation itself--a lesson she tries to impart to the dreamy Clara, who longs to control her own destiny despite her mother's frightening admonition: "You don't know a thing about freedom, 'cause I don't know anything about it. It takes money and know-how to live free. You don't just up and do it."

Life will change for both mother and daughter, though, with the death of James Madison and the departure of his wife for her town house, events that leave the estate in the hands of Dolley's profligate son, Todd. As a result of his neglectful stewardship, the plantation soon falls to a series of owners, each posing a new threat to Susie and Clara, and the other longtime Madison slaves with whom the two women have shared their entire lives.

Amidst these devastating changes, Clara grows into womanhood and becomes a mother herself, giving birth to two light-skinned daughters, Ellen and Susan. Yet the threat of separation that has shaped her life is soon a reality when her younger daughter, Susan, is sold to a wealthy businessman in Richmond. Susan must create a new life for herself in this bustling city, a life that will be filled with both terror and hope . And it is in Civil War-torn Richmond that she will find love and realize the long-held dream of her ancestors: freedom.

In A Long Way from Home, Connie Briscoe vividly recreates Southern life and the ambivalent, shifting relationships on both sides of the color divide, from the cruelty and insidious benevolence of white owners to the deep yearnings and complex emotions of the slaves themselves. This poignant, powerful story pays homage to the African-American experience and to the ancestors, both black and white, whose lives and histories are indelibly entwined with our own. Amazon.com Review
In Connie Briscoe's third novel, the connotations of home areanything but heartwarming. For an enslaved mother, daughter, andgrandmother, Montpelier plantation in Virginia is a living hell--and theproprietor, at least initially, is none other than President JamesMadison. A Long Way from Home opens during Madison's lifetime, whenSusie and her daughter Clara serve the First Couple as house slaves. Yeteven this regime seems civilized compared to the havoc unleashed byMadison's brutal stepson. As Clara fends off (and ultimately succumbs to)the sexual advances of one master after another, the author conjures up theentire world of the "peculiar institution."

It is Susie's granddaughter and namesake, Susan, who first leaves Montpelier. Not, of course, voluntarily: she is sold to a family living in Richmond. Chained in the back of adeparting wagon, she "clenched her teeth and stared at the sky. How darethe day be so clear, so beautiful, on this, the worst day of her life." Butas the Civil War erupts, Susan ponders the possibility of a more joyousliberation. As Briscoe makes clear, the prospect elicited a complex blendof emotions from many slaves--Susan, for example, has been lulled intoconsidering herself a part (if a diminished part) of her white master'sfamily. A Long Way from Home does occasionally fall back on the patformulas of the television miniseries, and Briscoe doesn't manage to quiteignite Susan's conflicted feelings about bondage and freedom. But Susan'spostwar travails do convey the reality that Reconstruction was not only apolitical process but also a painfully personal one. --Katherine Anderson ... Read more

Customer Reviews (46)

An Ok Read
This book was set during slavery and around the beginning and end of the Civil War. I have to say that I liked but also didn't like it if that makes sense lol.I have to be honest, the story moved to slow in certain parts so it took me several days to finish it other than that it was an ok read.I wouldn't say it was a keeper but it was definitely interesting story.It's about two sisters who are biracial that get separated because one of them is sold.They eventually find each other at the end of the Civil War.

Predictable
I was surprised but basically this is a Cinderella story. Good read. Informative.
Would recommend.

Suprisingly Good!
When I started reading this, I really thought I wasn't going to like it. Briscoe's overuse of the word "drat" and its derivatives turned me off so much and the use of proper English was just too much for my limited perceptions of slave life.Slaves certainly couldn't use proper English, could they?Anyway, as I continued to read, Briscoe's characters quickly weaved their way into my heart and mind and I couldn't stop reading.I had to know what was going to happen next and that, to me, is the mark of a good book.The lives of Susie, Clara, and Susan became so fascinating that I left my negativity behind and kept turning the pages.Briscoe has taken her family history, coupled with her vivid imagination, and created a novel that is a shining example of great talent.

Fantastic book that stays true to the heart
I remember reading this book at it's release in 1999 and it stuck to me for quite some time. I have thoroughly enjoyed Connie Briscoe previous books as well which were "Sisters and Lovers" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" but "A Long Way From Home" had touched me the most. This book was so entertaining I could not stop reading! It was a joy to read even though I felt heartache for the characters during their dark times.

This book brings us three generations of women whom are, first of all, survivors. They are strong, courageous and trapped in a nearly-hopeless situation. Overworked and sleep deprived, the women have to watch out for all kinds of hazards -- including the possibility of rape. Susie, a house slave, has to be very strict on her young daughter Clara; should Clara not please the owners with her work, she could be punished, sold or forced to work in the fields -- an even harsher life. Clara, in turn, continues this practice with her two daughters.

Briscoe writes about her own ancestors, using family stories handed down through the generations, research she's done, and an obvious love of the subject matter. She succeeds in weaving together a fascinating biography of sorts. It's a stirring account of the everyday lives of slaves in the South before and during the Civil War. Not many black authors write from a historical perspective. She also paid tribute to her ancestors by detailing the harshness and brutality that slaves often endured. A key point that was referenced in the book was the differences in mentality between the house slaves and the field hands.

"A Long Way From Home" is destined to be a "must" for Black History Month, but it is a wonderful read for anyone of any ethnic background. Of course, the Civil War brings on many changes, also documented in the book. When finally free, the former slaves still face many hardships, but their courage and tenacity wins out in the end. You'll go away with a better understanding of, and with new respect for, what the blacks in the South had to endure. Highly recommended.

Heart-warming book
I love reading books about the South. And, I'm a big history buff, so I really enjoy reading books that center around slavery and The Civil War era. This was really good. It was easy to read, and it completely held my attention from the time I started with the first page and when I finished reading the last page. The subject matter is quite a bit touchy, but if you can look past that and read the narrative you will undoubtedly enjoy the story. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Sam Peckinpah, William Saroyan, Phil Austin, Carson Palmer, Tom Seaver, Audra Mcdonald, Kirk Kerkorian, Harold E. Comstock, Josh Koscheck, Kevin Federline, Cruz Bustamante, Sid Haig, Lorenzo Neal, Deshawn Stevenson, Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., Murder of Brooke Wilberger, John Christy, Barry Mcguire, Dennis Pitta, Gary Soto, Ted Key, Bill Glasson, Ricky Manning, Bison Dele, Christopher Gorham, Rudi Bakhtiar, Tom Flores, Garrett Olson, Gary Jules, Jon R. Cavaiani, Farrah Franklin, Johnny Russell, Robin Lopez, Bill Vukovich, Frank Chance, List of People From Fresno, California, Jim Costa, Brian Turner, Justin Peelle, Peter Everwine, Daryle Lamonica, Atnaf Harris, Flex Wheeler, J. P. Manoux, Brook Lopez, Frank Thomas, Armen Alchian, Lawson Fusao Inada, Mike Springer, Lorraine Collett, Chris Bunch, Frankie Zoly Molnar, Warren Tufts, David Harris, Vern Mikkelsen, Tim Norris, Chynna Clugston, Joe M. Nishimoto, Matt Giordano, Steven Zaillian, Kelly Corcoran, Dick Contino, Mike Chabala, Mike Connors, Aaron Ruell, Richard H. Lehman, Kevin F. Mccready, Mike Masaoka, Hal Haig Prieste, Johnny Boyd, Than Merrill, Del Webb, Larry Levis, Timmy T, Sammy Lee, Kevin Chappell, Ickey Woods, Tom Terry, Jaime Komer, Dennis Morgan, Rick Baldwin, Scott Covington, Tre'von Willis, Roger Tatarian, Terry Cooney, James Porteous, Jenifer Alcorn, Ed Kezirian, Rod Lauren, Torraye Braggs, Clifton Smith, Kenneth L. Maddy, Sarah Uriarte Berry, Brianna Love, Mae Laborde, Millard Hampton, Ted Wills, Jim Landis, Mel Gray, Chris Jefferies, Steve Hosey, Les Richter, Adrian Williams-Strong, Anthony Ruiz, Mike Briggs, Rodney Leisle, Randy Williams, Nathan Christoffersen, John Hans Krebs, Stephen Spach, Bee Vang, Pete Dalena, Steven Anthony Lawrence, Hersh Lyons, David Peckinpah, Sally A. Faith, Mary Walker Phillips, Levon Kemalyan, Mike Penberthy, Bob Glazebrook, Jermaine Haley, Pat Howell, Baldassare Forestiere, David Sloan, Rodney Hannah, Vestee Jackson, Don Pa...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=27641 ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Black Collegian, published by iMinorities, Inc. on February 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1879 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: Enter Audra's Paradise.
Author: Katina R. Stapleton
Publication: The Black Collegian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2000
Publisher: iMinorities, Inc.
Volume: 30Issue: 2Page: 168

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
4 cassettes / 4 hours
Read by Audra McDonald

"Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer."
-The New York Times Book Review

A family from the United States goes to the remote Sierras in Mexico - the writer-to-be, Susannah; her sister, Magdalena; her father and mother.And there, amid an endangered band of mixed-race Blacks and Indians called the Mundo, they begin an encounter that will change them more than they could ever dream.

Moving back and forth in time, and among unforgettable characters and their stories, Walker crosses conventional borders of all kinds as she explores in this magical novel the ways in which a woman's denied sexuality leads to the loss of the much prized self, even as her family's past of lies and love is transformed.

By the Light of My Father's Smile explores the richness and coherence of alternative cultures' experience of sexuality as a celebration of life, of trust in Nature and the Spirit, even as it affirms the belief, as Walker says, "that it is the triumphant heart, not the conquered heart, that forgives.And that love is both timeless and beyond time."
Amazon.com Review
The Mundo are a new tribe, created by the intermingling of escaped Blackslaves and native Indians in the Mexican Sierras. Ineligible for academicfunding, a husband-and-wife team of African American anthropologists poseas Christian missionaries to secure sponsorship to live among the Mundo andstudy their culture. This soul-stifling deception underlies the familytragedy at the heart of Alice Walker's novel, her first in six years. Thefather, preaching the message of his puritanical Protestant sponsors, is"sucked into the black cloth" of Christianity and blinded to the Mundo'slife-affirming ways. When he discovers his daughter Magdalena's affair witha young Mundo, he beats her with a belt, thus estranging himself from bothher and the younger daughter, Susannah. The first of several narrative voicesto speak is his. Dead, he has become an "angel" who observes his daughtersfrom the "other side" and seeks to make amends for the pain he inflicted onthem in life.

It is the conceit of By the Light of My Father's Smile that angelshave complete access to the consciousness of the living beings theyobserve. One of the book's very first scenes involves the ebullientlovemaking of Susannah and her partner, Pauline, reported in sweaty detailby the angelic paternal voyeur. Highly explicit, this set piece is a kindof guerrilla assault on our sensibilities, preparing us to receiveWalker's urgent message--that sexuality and spirituality are inextricable,that denying one causes the other to atrophy as well. The blessings offathers are, according to this canon, essential to the sexual flowering andspiritual maturity of their female offspring. It is in the loss, theconferring, and the claiming of these blessings that the novel finds its narrative thrust.

By the Light of My Father's Smile is intended perhaps less as astory than as a parable presenting Walker's cosmology for the newmillennium--one that synthesizes ancient and modern wisdoms in a way that'sas artistically daring as it is politically correct: Sex is good,repression is evil. Dominant is bad, distaff is good. European culture isdead meat, the third world is wise, there is ongoing commerce between theliving and the dead, great orgasms shall set us free. Many readers willagree that a world built upon these precepts surely would be preferable tothe one we now inhabit. Here, as in previous fictions, Walker thestoryteller is spellbinding, Walker the preacher-theorist, less so.On theother hand, what other novelist risks so bravely or with such generosity, and seeks to give so much? With the proper mindset, Walker assures us, anyonecan become a member of the Mundo tribe. --Joyce Thompson ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

This book well move you
I love Alice Walker. She is an exceptional writer."By the Light of My Father's Smile" is as easy to read as "The Color Purple" and as inspirational as The "Temple of My Familiar." Her ideas about the spirituality of sexuality are so beautiful.

"By the Light of My Father's Smile" gathers up so much of women's history and experience, all previously ignored or misrepresented and takes this history/experience as an important given, uses it to explain our human quest to seek sexual and spiritual fulfillment, to know ourselves. Speaking so honestly about female sexual hurt, female sexual maiming, female sexual shaming within the family, within the father/daughter relationship and imagining a way to heal this experience was powerfully brave of Walker. I felt like I was is a long darkened and forbidden room now amazingly and lovingly explored, revealed. I felt such relief to read this attempt at restoring female sexuality to an altar of acceptance, respect, love, social esteem. It seemed almost possible to live in a society, a family that really could anticipate female sexuality with joy, freedom and respect on an equal footing with male sexual importance. But my awe and gratitude for the subject and Walker's attempt is still tempered by my real sense, in the reading of it, that it was not entirely successful. I'm not sure why. Some of the sexual imagery, the dominating type sexual play in some scenes seemed artificial, unreal. If it were real, it wouldn't be so undisturbing to the participants, it would raise issues, and it would be unsettling, not just accepted as part of their sexual bliss identity.

But over all, the story reads like a fable, a fairy tale, really and that is fine with me. It would be truly a shame for anyone to ignore to gift that Alice has given us through her vision. This book is exquisite to say the very least and the fact that is told from the point of view of a father looking down on his daughter is brilliant. Highly recommend especially for Walker fans.

A captivating book with many layers
I have read this book several times.The events are startling, the characters are fascinating and unexpected.The story is told from multiple viewpoints, which creates the effect of a flower opening for the reader. The themes of the book are universal: cultural differences, father-daughter relationships, sisters, death, afterlife, sexuality.It's all there! This is not a book for the uptight!For the open-minded only!

curiouslyvoyeuristic
I had a difficult time putting this book down.However, I'm not sure if it was well written or if I was curious to see what happened next-much like reading a tabloid.The storyline regarding the fictitious Mundo felt contrived, much like the rest of the book. It was also difficult to follow which character was speaking at a given time. This is not one of my favorite Alice Walker pieces.

Not for everyone!
Alice Walker is one of those writers whose work has the power to reach out and touch you when you need it most.This and I believe many of her other works are meant to be read at certain critical points in a specific persons life.Points when it is necessary to come to terms with a particular complex of issues.I thought it was telling when one reviewer said that the pre-occupation by some of the characters in this book with their personal traumas was unrealistic.Trauma is by its very nature pre-occupying.And what becomes lodged in an individual persons psyche as a result of the trauma they have experienced is typically unique to that individual (no one can judge the magnitude of pain in anothers heart).As a person who has been hurt reading the words of Alice Walker not only lets me know that another is serving as a witness to my pain it also shows me that there is joy waiting behind a door that I hadn't even realized existed.And it is in those moments that I feel truly blessed my her writing.Perhaps this and her other works are not perfect, in truth they are not.But in that moment when she has captured the pain in ones heart and soul, given it voice and a means to move forward who cares if it isn't the perfect novel?I guess those who haven't felt the coldness of a heart alone and bereft.For my part I say thank you Alice and keep writing, at least for me!

Alice challenged her style and won!
I just finished reading this book.I enjoyed reading
it.The writing style was not like The Color Purple.
I think Alice Walker stretched her creativity by leaping
into creating a somewhat existentialist and poetic work of art.
Tapesty comes to mind when I think of this book.An
intersting, well written read. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 570 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: Leonard Bernstein.(Leonard Bernstein: Wonderful Town)(Video recording review)
Author: Brian Cockburn
Publication: Notes (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 62Issue: 3Page: 790(2)

Article Type: Video recording review

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Sensible Sound, published by Sensible Sound on April 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1237 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 Broadway and cabaret scene.(Sound Recording Review) (sound recording review)
Publication: Sensible Sound (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2003
Publisher: Sensible Sound
Page: 73(2)

Article Type: Sound Recording Review

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