Product Description
Chapters: Steve Ballmer, Charles Coughlin, Christine Lahti, Billy Pierce, Kevin Nash, Kristen Bell, Steve Morrison, Elizabeth Berkley, Dita Von Teese, Jeffrey Sachs, Jason Varitek, Pat Lafontaine, Gary Peters, Sanjay Gupta, Shane Battier, Alexi Lalas, Archie Mccardell, Meryl Davis, Emily Samuelson, David Spade, Elmore Leonard, Sheila Young, Joe Knollenberg, Daniel L. Doctoroff, John A. Trese, Mike York, Elizabeth Reaser, Carolyn Warmus, Peter Vanderkaay, Jay Gibbons, Brent Johnson, Becky Baeling, David Hahn, Karl W. Richter, Bill Virdon, Craig Owens, Justin Bartha, William Messner-Loebs, Dan Dickerson, Anita Cochran, Levi T. Griffin, James Lee, Earl Wilson, L. Brooks Patterson, Raymond Plouhar, Judd Bankert, Melrose Bickerstaff, Andy Chapman, Richard Ritter, Nathan Gerbe, Barbara Lewis, Bill Flemming, Jack Van Impe, Tim Gleason, Rachel Andresen, Tom Gillis, Paul Davis, William Dufty, Mary Jackson, Amy Alkon, Lisa Brown, Paul Stookey, Murray Van Wagoner, Mike Binder, Matt Lentz, Mike Bouchard, Eric Ghiaciuc, Andy Levin, Jim Carr, Keith Famie, Pro, Craig Deroche, Frances Dodge, Owen Nacker, Greg Lalas, Scott Spiegel, Clarence Black, Fred Goss, Brian Keselowski, Dan Gilbert, Andy Meisner, Crystal Hayes, Jay Abel Hubbell, John Heffron, Kelly Best, Gerald S. Mcgowan, John Rakolta, Clarence Dayton Hillman, Ruth Johnson, Keith O'neil, Byron G. Stout, Gemara Williams, Kevin Price, Krikor Arman, Jean Prahm, Douglas Harold Fox, Andrew Good, Suzy Mccoppin, Alex Vanderkaay, Mark Campbell, Matt Robinson, Ron Teachworth, Brian Brennan, Alec Martinez, Rex Cawley, Aric Morris, Jerry York, George Hiles, Meg Oliver, Jim Ballantine, Joseph T. Copeland, James E. Church, Justin Detter, Patricia Godchaux, Mara Macdonald, Andy Thorn, Tom Tracy, Arthur G. Elliott, Jr., Scott Kowalkowski, Rob Globke, William Wallace Phelps, Conrad Hilberry, John Shasky, Corey Elkins, Kyle Brown, Chip Dunham, Nicole Blaszczyk, Gary Gilbert, Scott Christopher, Bob Joh...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=911362 ... Read more

Product Description
In three haunting monologues, a married couple reflects on their lives as players in the game of international business.This deeply moving story is a devastating tour de force of humor, tragedy, and penetrating insight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Three Hotels Worth Checking Into
Three Hotels was originally commissioned as a production for public television.In its present form, it translates wonderfully to a tape-recorded performance. L.A. Theatre Works comes through once again with a selection of material that translates nicely to aural presentation.The piece could not be more capably brought to life than it is here with the actors who garnered acclaim in 1993's New York production. While the work itself had its detractors, Ron Rifkin and Christine Lahti were almost universally applauded for their acting.With this performance, they certainly repeat the need for superlatives and kudos.

The play consists of three monologues delivered in three different hotel rooms.The first monologue introduces Kenneth Hoyle, an executive in a company which profitably sells powdered milk formula to impoverished foreign nations.One of Ken's professional specialties is traveling the world in order to fire the workers who have been deemed by headquarters to be "dead wood." While he regrets the devastation his company's product has brought to Africa, he goes on doing his job.Monologue Two is delivered by Barbara, Ken's wife. (Is it coincidence that the appellations could be shortened to Ken and Barbie?)A woman who is no longer loyal to the company, Barbara weaves in and out of a speech she has recently delivered to the wives of young executives. Intended to be a helpful briefing about the hazards of foreign service, the talk turns from survival tips to a caustically honest and touching account of grief over her murdered child, a marriage ruined by loneliness and a spouse corrupted by corporate pressures.At the time of the third monologue (a letter dictated to his senile mother), Ken has returned to the inn where he and Barbara spent their honeymoon. As he waits in hope that his wife will come to him, he reflects on what he has lost.Delivering a sad rendition of a Yiddish lullaby, he comes to mourn the death of his son. With its focus on establishing both the businessman's character and his corporation's shady marketing of baby formula, I found the first monologue to be tough going.Although babies were being malnourished as a result of the company's actions, I felt detached from the piece.However, the exposition of Monologue One establishes the necessary foundation for the marvelous payoff of Monologues Two and Three.While continuing to address the inherent corruption and dehumanization of the business world, the piece takes on a more human dimension.Barbara and Kenneth, a couple of Peace Corps visionaries once dedicated to making the world a better place, become real people who may have lost each other as they lost their son and their ideals.Over the course of the short listen (just over an hour), the grief becomes genuine. Persist and persevere. I think you will be rewarded. ... Read more

Product Description
Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski knows from the start that Consuelo Alvarado's baby is trouble.  Consuelo is sixteen.  Diabetic.  And the daughter of a friend.  When she goes into labor too early, even V.I.'s wild drive to get her to the hospital can't save either Consuelo or her child.  Soon V.I. is investigating possible malpractice at the emergency room--and falling for a doctor who works there.  Mixing business and love is always bad medicine, but V.I. finds herself listening to her heart, not her head.  And when a brutal murder and the violent destruction of a women's clinic put her at the center of a very dirty conspiracy, justice may be the only remedy for a hurt that cuts deep...and chills right to the bone....


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Paretsky
This is Sara Paretsky at her best - and her best is very very good.

Ruined by gratuitous political sub-plot
Paretsky writes her usual solid story, but this book was ruined for me by a gratuitous and rabidly pro-abortion subplot.A pro-life group was depicted as patent and unalloyed evil, while its individual members were characterized as overweight, fanatic dullards.This just didn't work.

This subplot, which adds nothing material to the story, drops this book 2 stars in my rating system.

Entertaining
While it is clear that Paretsky used the story to pontificate around the abortion issue, the story was not (in my opinion) held hostage by her views.Of course, she must have known that those who hold opposing views might be somewhat derailed by her machinations.Apparently she felt it was a risk worth taking.For my part, the story was entertaining and amusing.There were sufficeint plot twists and turns, a romantic interlude, loveable yet annoying characters... all the stuff that makes us enjoy V.I.This is what I call hot-fudge-sundae fiction.I read it for its entertainment value--not intellectual nutrition.YUM!

Politics over Plotting
I have read all of the Sara Paretsky mysteries, and think this is the weakest of the group.She maintains her writerly skill, but the plot in this novel feels like it was devised to make a political point about women's access to health care and particularly to abortion.In the process, she takes pot shots at her political opponents by making the characters of those who disagree with her unidimensional, manipulative, and unlikeable.The novel does have suspenseful elements, but not enough, and I just didn't buy the story.If you want to read all the books in the series, this is readable. If you're picking the best, go with Hard Time or Tunnel Vision.

Bitter Medicine a Bit Sugary
Good storyline but characters sometimes difficult to discern. Story a little choppy; not as tight as it could be;somewhat maudlin but still it holds the interest until you discover whodunit ... Read more

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Woman's and fashion style issue with articles and interviews with Lauren Hutton, Christine Lahti and Designer Carolina Herrera ... Read more