Figler, a long-time collector who’s written about his passion in mainstream and niche publications, provides a handy guide for what’s become a vocation for some and an avocation for many.
Beyond popular categories like baseball cards and other sports memorabilia, the author also delves into more esoteric areas like bobbleheads and thimbles. The book is full of sage counsel for beginning collectors, such as “You never, ever want to put your collectibles in an attic or basement,” where heat or dampness will eventually destroy them. Quirky anecdotes abound, such as the story behind the gum that comes in packs of baseball cards; it’s pink, the author writes, because that’s the only type of food coloring the first manufacturer happened to have on hand. Figler spices up the common sense advice he dishes out with fascinating factoids. Who knew that a set of Ty Cobb’s dentures sold for $7,475, or that two sticks of bubble gum once chewed by Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Luis Gonzalez fetched $10,000? The author also lays out clear instructions for making the tough decisions that most beginning collectors face: choosing what to collect from an infinite universe of stuff, figuring out the value of particular items and where and how to buy them, and sorting out tomorrow’s collectibles from today’s clutter. Each chapter ends with a helpful review of the main points covered, although it would have been even better if Figler had appended an index to help readers more easily locate information about particular collecting interests. The text is littered with bad puns, such as “Be prepared to play hardball … for the hardball.” Sometimes he compounds this sin by telegraphing his foul plays on words with a parenthetical “(pun intended).” By the end of this slim volume, some readers may wish Figler had lost his penchant for punning in this otherwise clear, colorful and useful primer for collectors. A breezy but thorough introduction to the pleasures and perils of collecting.
Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-1461077435
Page Count: 178
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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