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Bookish Quotes
"Books are one of the few things men cherish deeply. And the better the man the more easily will he part with his most cherished possessions."
The Beaufort Diaries
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The Beaufort Diaries
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This book is in a Controlled Release!
12 journalers for this copy...
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My review on The Wannabe Literati:What do you get when a lone polar bear hitchhikes his way to LA, stars in a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, becomes famous, dates a model, decides to write a script and direct his own movie, dabbles in Kabbalah and Scientology, moves to New York, becomes an alcoholic and a drug addict, and finally redeems himself on an off-broadway one-man show? You get T Cooper's The Beaufort Diaries, a hilarious inside look at being a celebrity from the point of view of someone who just doesn't belong. When arctic polar bear Beaufort accidentally floats astray from his mother during a hunting trip and finds himself drifting towards America, he decides to make his way to Hollywood, where he bumps into Leo DiCaprio and subsequently lands the star role in an upcoming psychological thriller-slash-legal drama-slash-buddy flick about global warming. The movie's a hit, Beaufort becomes rich and famous - and everything pretty much goes downhill from there. He lives in a mansion on Hollywood Hills, dates the model Svava, has Ashton and Demi as Kabbalah mentors, and tries his hand at writing and directing his own film, so aptly titled Bear, which subsequently tanks, leaving Beaufort jobless, penniless, and without real friends (except for good old buddy Leo). The Beaufort Diaries is an easy read with less than a hundred pages. And while some people say they would have wanted the story to have gone further, longer, probably developed into a novel, I have better appreciation for Beaufort's story as a short one, as fleeting as his career. That, and the fact that Alex Petrowsky's mixed media illustrations are more than enough to make up for the briefness of the story. His drawings have minimal colors yet are quite vivid. Petrowsky did a really good sketch of Leo's face, too. Short, concise, and charming, The Beaufort Diaries portrays the difficulties of being a one-hit wonder, of fame, and of the superficial things that make up a celebrity. |
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This book has company: The Beaufort Diaries book ring (with a twist!)Basically, this book will be released as a book ring, but it won't be travelling alone - for every stop it makes, included is a surprise book from the previous reader, that the recipient can either read and pass on again, or keep and replace with a new surprise book. Here's the forum post for this ring. Hardbound, 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches / 9.9 oz (280.66g) The Book Ring list: madpocky - Philippines (international shipping) Simson-Shilitoe - France (international shipping) souram - Switzerland (international shipping) Bloedengel - Belgium (Europe/UK/international shipping) <-- it's here! JemmaJ - UK (international shipping) disneyfreaksam - UK (international shipping) marijketje - Netherlands (EU shipping) VictoriaWagtail - Sweden (international shipping) Nakipa - Portugal (international shipping) minesayn - USA (US/Canada/international shipping) mssaver - USA (US/Canada/international shipping) izzy5000 - USA (US/Canada shipping) kally93 - Canada (Canada/US shipping) ... and then back to me! :) 1. Make a quick journal entry when you receive the book. 2. Read and send on within four weeks - or make a journal entry to let us know how you're getting on if you need longer. 3. Make a journal entry when you've finished. 4. Use the cheapest method of shipping available. 5. Enjoy reading the book! :) Please leave a postcard from your country as a sort of travel journal for the book ring! |
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Released 1 yr ago (2/2/2011 UTC) at Given to the next BookCrosser on the list, Bookring -- Controlled Releases CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
This bookring is off to a start: on it's way to madpocky in the Philippines together with a surprise RABCK!
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Released 1 yr ago (4/4/2011 UTC) at a fellow bookcrosser, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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I found this unexpected package from the Philippines in today`s mail.First I was a little bit unsure before opening the package. But when I checked up all presumptions it remind me of this special bookring. A BIG THANK YOU, madpocky, for posting, the surprise book and the picture-postcard showing this special and colourful Jeepney which sweeten my day! And A BIG THANK YOU, akosikulot, for organizing this bookring. Oh, and the delay doesn`t matter. I had to read 7 other bookrings over the last 4 weeks. So it was a welcome delay. |
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Book Review by Cindy Widner, Fri., July 2, 2010:http://www.austinchronicle.com/books/2010-07-02/1046555/ An original, humane, and deeply funny novella about a polar bear making it big in L.A. T Cooper does the kind of thing that drives other writers mad: He takes the bones of stories told many times, in many ways, and shapes them into something singular and breathtaking. The Beaufort Diaries, his latest, might stake out new territory in some superficial way, but Cooper is still taking inspiration from some awfully common sources – climate change, Hollywood clichés, and the combination of the two – and shaping it into something few writers, or imaginations, could deliver. Like his breakthrough novel, Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes, this slimmer, more whimsical volume is at heart an immigration story, one in which the dislocation is as much psychic as it is geographic. Named after the sea from which his mother launches him southward, Beaufort is a polar bear who makes his way to L.A., hustles as a busboy until Leonardo DiCaprio plucks him to co-star in eco-buddy pic Separation of Oil and State, and tumbles onward through the typical backwash of sudden public success. The work here is subtler than it sounds: In Beaufort, Cooper inhabits entirely the voice of an outsider who is both shrewd and sensitive. He can have his heart broken by the shallowest of supermodels or naively take a dip at a Hollywood pool party before being told no one actually swims at those; he can also relate deceptively sublime details that read as innocent discoveries and cut to the bone. The Beaufort Diaries is being characterized as a "graphic novel," though in truth it's a novella with integral accompanying artwork that enhances its gentle absurdism. Alex Petroswky's drawings take advantage of a polar bear's natural look of befuddlement, which is easy to mistake for gentleness; in this case, Beaufort's deadpan observations manifest the ursine killer instincts underlying a hapless demeanor. At the same time, Petrowsky's use of the drawings in photo collages underlines the constancy of Beaufort's displacement and differentness. There also exists an animated short directed by Petrowsky and voiced by David Duchovny (www.t-cooper.com), but Cooper's nearly flawless prose is the meat of this work: It's as if the author challenged himself to test his talents with a scenario that in less able hands would almost necessarily lapse into cliché and cheap satire. Instead, Cooper makes it original, humane, and deeply funny. Posting to "souram" in Switzerland as soon as I get an address. |
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Released 12 mos ago (5/31/2011 UTC) at Rülzheim, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Released 11 mos ago (6/14/2011 UTC) at Genève, Genève Switzerland CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Released 11 mos ago (6/24/2011 UTC) at Turnhout, Antwerpen / Anvers Belgium CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Released 8 mos ago (9/9/2011 UTC) at Warminster, Wiltshire United Kingdom CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Released 6 mos ago (11/8/2011 UTC) at Bagarmossen, Stockholm Sweden CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Released 6 mos ago (11/28/2011 UTC) at Chicago, Illinois USA CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Released 5 mos ago (12/10/2011 UTC) at Evanston, Illinois USA CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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Released 4 mos ago (1/21/2012 UTC) at Fort Collins, Colorado USA CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
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