MY WAY OF LIFE

Rating:
Summary: Peanut Butter and Bacon? Must Be Joan!
Review: A friend who works at a stuffy private library loaned this to me, and it kept me in stitches for literally weeks. From recipes for peanut butter-and-bacon hors d'oeuvres to hilariously self-serving anecdotes about throwing parties, raising children and satisfying your man, it's equal parts Hints from Heloise and "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"!

Rating:
Summary: Christine should have read this book.
Review: A must for any Joan Crawford fan. Recipes, beauty secrets, tips on how to keep a husband happy - all delivered with a heavy dose of Joan's incredibly pretentious philosophy on life. Joan devotes several chapters to her apparent adoration of fabric and worship of clothes. She informs us how to store them, how to pack them... and why never, never should one use wire coat hangers.

Rating:
Summary: Christine should have read this book.
Review: A must for any Joan Crawford fan. Recipes, beauty secrets, tips on how to keep a husband happy - all delivered with a heavy dose of Joan's incredibly pretentious philosophy on life. Joan devotes several chapters to her apparent adoration of fabric and worship of clothes. She informs us how to store them, how to pack them... and why never, never should one use wire coat hangers.

Rating:
Summary: Charming!
Review: A wonderful book from a Grand Lady and Wonderful actress. So Witty , charming and informative by one the great ladies from a bygone era. I found this work by Miss Crawford intertaining and warm as she shares her secrets for cooking, entertaining, relationships and much more. I felt like I was in the company of a dear old friend. Thank you Joan not only for this book but, for many hours of delightful entertainment. You are and always will be number one in my book.

Rating:
Summary: a full-throttle plunge into dementia!
Review: from the first page of this book, joan crawford sucks you into this twisted world of warped dinner parties and bizarre egg rituals for the perfect hair conditioner. some times i laughed out loud, while other times i thought, "hey, what a good idea!" a must read for any one teetering on the edge of insanity

Rating:
Summary: an absolute treasure!!!
Review: I always wondered how to instruct my maid to pack the sleeves of my Chanel suits for travel. Of course, Joan comes to the rescue. I was thrilled to find this book at a used book sale. I treasure it, and refer to it often, especially if I'm feeling a little too picky about my housekeeping. For me, it's a portrait of Joan trying desperately to keep her star burning bright. No one ever did it like her. No one ever will again.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Lady and a Great Way Of Life
Review: I loved the book almost as much as I loved Joan Crawford. It tells of a way of life that is regrettably long gone, but not forgotten. I refer to it often, and her receipe for meatloaf if by far the BEST I have ever found. That alone is worth the price of the book, and there are many more. Great party tips too. Thanks Joan for a great book, a great career, and those wonderful movies we never tire of watching. I wish there were more good books out there about Joan, instead of all the trash which I never believed anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Crazy Crawford Antics
Review: I loved this book it was a real hoot! I think that this book reflects the attitude torward women of that era. Joan was and still is an Icon of the 20th Century and people still want to know about her! That says something about the stars of yesterday....they have all the stars of today beat!

Rating:
Summary: My Way of Life. Amazingly Impressive
Review: Joan Crawford's book is clearly stating the importance of priority to one's life. This is a great book and I recommend it to both women and men who want to grasp the principle of holding their own grounds as they progress towards in life. Joan Crawford teaches how to value time for oneself and others, the importance of making things everyday activities convenient and the ultimate challenge of being able to present the right athmosphere for his/her partner.
The Desiderata part is also beautiful, I'm very impressed with this work.

Rating:
Summary: My Way or the Highway: Inside Joan Crawford
Review: You will probably have to get this out-of-print classic either at an estate sale, or steal it off a friend's bookshelf, (as Crawford herself surely would have done), because there's absolutely no way that anyone who's ever read it would DREAM of selling it. Here is the late period Joan Crawford in all her tacky, Keane Kids-loving splendor; wife, mother, tycoon, ACTRESS, dressmaker....you get the idea. And as she lets you know on every page, she's a busy BUSY bee, so don't waste her time. Buy the book or get out!
Crawford tries to let her (shellacked) hair down, but is out of touch with her targeted, "over the garden fence" audience. She's forever telling her housewife reader to "do without some little luxury" (like bread, perhaps?) to save up for something nice...such as a full length, three-sided mirror for her dressing room, a bartender and maid for her dinner party, or suit jackets lined in the same pattern of silk as her blouse. (The only blouse, it seems, that ever goes with that particular suit. Daunting.) Here's my favorite, worthless tip, this one on buying a new dress: "When you're ready to say yes to a purchase, wrap it up, pay for it - but don't go home until you're sure you have exactly the right accessories. You should be ready to emerge in your new ensemble the next day!" Thanks, Joan. We'll manage.
Joan also wants us to know what a dedicated actress she is/was. "At times I've deliberately gained weight," she muses. "I did for [comeback role] Mildred Pierce because I thought it suited the part." (Yeah, right!) And if a scene "goes wrong" in rehearsal, (as it does on page 121), she's willing to improvise if everyone will just stand back and get out of her way. "I've got it," she insists. "Let's shoot, let's get it on film, because I may never be able to recapture that one brief second again." Whenever you're ready, Miss Crawford.
Joan also rhapsodizes over how devoted third husband Alfred Steel was. (You'll have to look elsewhere for recountings of the drunken brawls and blackened eyes.) Why, Alfred Steele doesn't even need Joan Crawford to be movie star glamorous for him; all that mumbo-jumbo witchcraft just gets in the way! After a wave knocks Joan over on a Jamaican beach, Alfred cups her bare, tanned face in his hands as saltwater streams off them, sighing, "You're the most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life." ("I knew then what he loved in me," she remembers. "That was his private Joan.") The question I put to the court is: So why did she ever wear makeup again? (And believe me, there's a long chapter devoted to makeup.)
I could go on and on, but the truth is that I'd rather be reading MY WAY OF LIFE than talking about it. It's my own, private Joan.