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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsPoker Face: A Girlhood among Gamblersby Katherine Lederer
Staff Pick
Katy Lederer, little sister to world-class poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke, provides thoughtful insight in this lively memoir of family dysfunction and high stakes poker. This book is for any fan of well-written memoirs or No-Limit Texas Hold'em. Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Katy Lederer grew up on the bucolic campus of an exclusive East Coast boarding school where her father taught English, her mother retreated into crosswords and scotch, and her much older siblings played "grown-up" games like gin rummy and chess. But Katy faced much more than the typical trials of childhood. Within the confines of the Lederer household an unlikely transformation was brewing, one that would turn this darkly intellectual and game-happy group into a family of professional gamblers.
Poker Face is Katy Lederer's perceptive account of her family's lively history. From the long kitchen table where her mother played what seemed an endless game of solitaire, to the seedy New York bars where her brother first learned to play poker, to the glamorous Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, where her sister and brother wager hundreds of thousands of dollars a night at the tables, Lederer takes us on a tragicomic journey through a world where intelligence and deceit are used equally as currency. Not since Mary McCarthy's Memories of a Catholic Girlhood has a writer cast such a witty and astringently analytic eye on the demands of growing up. An unflinching exploration of trust and betrayal, competition, suspicion, and unconventional familial love, Poker Face is a testament to the human spirit's inventiveness when faced with unusually difficult odds. Review:"Like James McManus' recent Positively Fifth Street, about the World Series of Poker, this offbeat memoir will attract both gamblers and literary types." Mary Frances Wilkens, Booklist Review:"Centered on dead-on perceptions of the swirling needs, poses and cruelties of her family, Lederer's debut memoir is less Positively Fifth Street than an alienated New England version of The Liar's Club, and ends up with some of the best of both." Publishers Weekly Review:"A slim but poetic volume that concerns itself less with the mechanics of the game than with the game's effect on one unusual family....Lederer has provided readers with a beautifully crafted book that handles the complexities of gambling and family ties with poetry and grace." San Diego Union-Tribune Review:"A sad, funny, always fascinating tale with no villains or scores to settle, and Lederer tells it in the clear prose of a born raconteur." Newsday Review:"It's difficult to explain why this book is so compelling, but it's probably because the Lederer family is so quirky and yet portrayed here in such a loving manner." Library Journal Review:"Lederer's meditation on family and chance is finely written....Compact and well-executed." Kirkus Reviews Review:"For an intriguing fly-on-the-wall peek into the grimy, glitzy world of high-stakes professional gambling, with its colorful characters, lingo and razor-edged lifestyle, Poker Face can't be beat." BookPage Synopsis:Within the confines of Lederer takes readers inside her childhood home where an unlikely transformation was brewing — one that would turn this darkly intellectual and game-happy group into a family of professional gamblers.
About the AuthorKaty Lederer is the author of a poetry collection, Winter Sex. A past resident of Berkeley, Las Vegas, and Iowa City, she currently lives in New York, where she works for a proprietary trading firm. From the Hardcover edition. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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