Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.6
EAN num: 9781585360772
ISBN number: 1585360775
Label: Gale Group
Manufacturer: Gale Group
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 184
Printing Date: 2001-09
Publishing house: Gale Group
Sale Popularity Level: 315881
Studio: Gale Group
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Product Description:
Sharon Randall is a syndicated columnist for over 400 newspapers. In this book she gives readers pages of inspiration, laughter, tears, and joy. Randalls unmistakably authentic and intimate style vaults her to a plateau few can match as she shares stories of her flawed and familiar clan that are full of people and places youve known, or wish you had.
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Rated by buyers -
Crying while smiling, I have laid the book down in an effort to delay turning the last page. Whenever that happens (and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to hold off more than a few minutes), the end of _Birdbaths and Paper Cranes_ will come too soon. I'll spend the meantime finding a newspaper to subscribe to that carries Sharon Randall's column. Having found her, I can't imagine doing without her.
Rated by buyers -
This book is a guarantee to make you reminisce and cry and laugh along with Sharon Randall as she writes of her life. It is beautifully written, short and direct ~~ always having her short stories end with a rememberable last line that leaves you thinking more.
I found this languishing on my bookshelf after borrowing it from my mom last year. I needed something "lighter" to read after my spree of historical fiction. I thought this one was rather a slim volume and I can surprise my mom by returning it this weekend. But it was a surprise to me! For such a small volume, this woman writes with a punch ~~ a punch to the soul. She shouts, cajoles and whispers to your memories and soul with grace and humor. Just like a mom and wife, daughter and sister and granddaughter. I only wish I had a bigger box of kleenexes nearby. I also couldn't put the book down after reading the foreword by her son.
Now that I know why my local newspaper carry her column, I will be reading her work again and again. She speaks to the mother and wife inside of me. She makes me sit and remember who I was long before I have gotten to this part of my journey. She talks as if you're sitting subsequent to her with a cup of tea and you both are just gabbing away ~~ only her stories serve to remind you that life is short and it is even more precious than we all realize. This is a book that should be shared, not hoarded in dusty libraries or in the back of the bookcase. This is a book that everyone should give to their loved ones ~~ male or female. It speaks to all of us.
I just love writers like Sharon Randall ~~ they really speak and it is up to us to really listen ~~ with our ears and our hearts.
1-28-04
Rated by buyers -
This is an outstanding collection of newspaper columns. Homespun and heartfelt, these stories touched me on many levels. Sharon Randall is a gifted writer and a fine storyteller. She has a magical sense of putting it all together, bringing each topic full circle. No matter the subject-something as light as her daughter's tea parties, as funny as her blind brother's adventure in driving, and as sad and poignant as her husband's battle with cancer, she left me with a feeling of warmth-and more often than not, a smile.
I read the beautiful piece, "The Paper Cranes," to my young daughters and their friends and they listened very intently. It led to a question and answer session about the Atomic Bomb and the end of World War II, and then a fascination with origami and the symbolism of 1,000 paper cranes. It was a lot to take away from one small story.
This is a book I'll keep on my shelf and I know I'll refer to it from time to time when I'm looking for a friend with whom I wish to share a thought or feeling. Meanwhile, as a former newspaper columnist (in the San Francisco Bay area) I'll recommend it to everyone as classic material of the genre. Looking forward to the subsequent book.
Submitted by the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life," Mc Kenna Publishing Group
Rated by buyers -
I could not put this book down until I had devoured every word! My only regret is that this is her one and only book! How I hope to see another soon! "Birdbaths and Paper Cranes" is not only humorous, poignant, thought-provoking and, at times, heartbreakingly sad, but it is a quick easy read, with lessons from her life that will enrich yours!
Rated by buyers -
Each individual passes through his single experience of being human, encountering his existential moments one by one, and studying with fascination, appreciation, and wonder those with whom he is meant to involve himself as mate, parent, friend, or any of those other myriad encounters that are often altered by events(birth, marriage, suicide, divorce, career, and death), and by myriad emotions (jealousy, resentment, love, sorrow, hurt, commitment, and grief). So it is with Sharon Randall who has described all those existential moments, those events, and the emotions accompanying the days of her life in BIRDBATHS AND PAPER CRANES. This book is a boon to any parent who is not paying enough attention, not creating a record of each child's life, any spouse who is taking a marriage for granted, any individual who assumes that life will proceed unaltered and unchanged, not through stupidity, but just because that is the "way we are." This book is a wake up call for each of us to pay attention, live it well and fully, and above all, create a record for our genealogy, more precious than gold. Sharon Randall shows us how. She demonstrates through a series of her columns "Bay Window" collated from "The Monterrey Herald" that her life is a special experience, lived sensuously and lovingly, and, somehow, gives the reader pause to ponder the special moments of his life and ask himself: AM I REALLY PAYING ATTENTION?
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