Synopses & Reviews
He's that regular guy from Astoria, Queens, who left his heart in San Francisco. He's the postwar heartthrob who inspired hundreds of young girls to wear black outside St. Patrick's Cathedral on his wedding day. He's the darling of the MTV generation who made music history when, at the age of 68, he won the coveted Grammy Award(R) for Album of the Year. He's the consummate artist known worldwide for his paintings. He's Tony Bennett, whose star shines brighter than ever as he enters his fifth decade of performing. Now, for the first time, this legend shares his amazing life story -- in a voice that's pure Tony Bennett: warm, resonant, and unforgettable.Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it, praised The New York Times. Since his appearance with the Red Hot Chili Peppers of the 1993 MTV Video Awards, and the addition of his seminal video, Steppin' Out, to the MTV playlist, Bennett has become the hottest -- and coolest -- pop-culture icon for today's younger listeners, while remaining beloved by their parents and grandparents. An astonishing four generations have experienced the Tony Bennett magic -- the mesmerizing spell of a singer in love with singing, who embraces his audience with a soulful serenity communicated by both the man and his music.Honored with countless awards, including eight Grammys, and with more than ninety albums to his credit (more than thirty million sold for the Columbia label alone), no other recording artist has attained Bennett's stature -- or garnered the half-century of memories shared in The Good Life. From Sinatra, Judy Garland and Ella Fitzgerald, to k.d. lang and Elvis Costello, Bennett shares his unique takes on the most fascinating talents of our time. Here is the story of his lifelong love affair with art, music, and performing -- from his childhood in Depression-era Queens, where opera and Billie Holiday flowed freely; to his stint as a singing waiter; to soaking up the New York jazz scene in the 1940s. With crisp wit and firmly grounded emotion, Bennett captures the people and places that shaped his sublime performances. The dozens of hits he introduced to the great American songbook, including Because of You, Rags to Riches, Cold, Cold Heart, and his signature song, I Left My Heart in Son Francisco, remain a legacy of truth and beauty for the classic art of intimate singing.In this wonderfully revealing self-portrait, we get to know Tony Bennett as he really is: an unpretentious and thoughtful human being. His key to success is consistency: His constant dedication in his pursuit of excellence has never wavered, despite the trials and tribulations one can encounter when placing integrity above all else. Through all of his personal and artistic challenges, he has remained, in his own words, a humanist whose Zen-like philosophy of life is an inspiration for all ages. Like the fascinating story he shares in The Good Life, Tony Bennett is one of a kind, an American treasure, an enduring artist seasoned with experience and self-knowledge, and a true class act.
Review
Peter Kessler former host of "Academy Life" and "Golf Talk Live" and the Golf Channel I've never seen a book on finding your best golf swing quite like this one, and I've read them all. Harry Hurt III exposes his unique golf wounds without shame. He understands through brutal playing failures that our collective golf dreams are the triumph of hope over experience. In his deeply researched and knowing book...Harry helps minimize our ultimate pain by streamlining the learning process. There are hundreds of ways to learn to play. Harry cuts to the chase and identifies the best ones and the best one for you. Harry doesn't want you to abandon your golf dreams -- he wants to help you make them come true.
Synopsis
Talk to any and all golfers, be they Tour professionals or once-a-month country clubbers, and you'll hear that they want to improve their game in some way. But up until now, most expert books on golf instruction have focused only on the approach advocated by a particular teaching pro or famous player; the authors usually talk about "the golf swing" or "the putting stroke" as if there is only one way to do it --
their way. With
How to Learn Golf, the first comprehensive guide to contemporary golf instruction, Harry Hurt III will help you become a better golfer by identifying what type of player you
really are, and which of the several leading methods are right for you and your golfing goals.
Based on Hurt's sessions with all of America's top ten instructors, this book helps you choose between the two main types of golf instruction available -- error correction, which offers a quick fix for a specific swing flaw, and swing development, where the focus is on building the swing from top to bottom. Hurt provides illuminating detail on the most effective approaches to improving each aspect of your golf game: putting, the full swing, the short game, and the all-important mental game.
Hurt also includes a biographical listing of the best golf instructors nationwide and where their expertise lies, so you can determine who may be best suited to your needs. And if you've never sought an instructor before or you've had problems communicating with yours, there are two handy worksheets: eighteen questions you should ask your teaching pro and eighteen questions your pro should ask you.
From beginners and high handicappers to scratch players and Tiger Woods wannabes, golfers of all skill levels looking to take the next step to improving their games need only look to How to Learn Golf.
About the Author
Harry Hurt III, a journalist and bestselling author, was a top junior and college golfer. After giving up golf for twenty-five years to concentrate on his writing career, at age forty-three he launched a comeback, which he chronicles in Chasing the Dream: A Mid-Life Quest for Fame and Fortune on the Pro Golf Circuit. Editor at large of T&L Golf, he is also the author of Texas Rich, For All Mankind, and Lost Tycoon. He lives with his wife and son in Sag Harbor, New York.
Table of Contents