Our Picks Reviews

The Garth Factor
By Patsi Bale Cox
Hardcover, 335 pages $24.99

The unprecedented country music boom of the 1990s was largely the result of the impact of Garth Brooks, a transplanted Okie whose success in Nashville changed the game plan—and opened up the playing field—for every record company in town. This solid exploration of his superstardom is also an insider's glimpse into a music industry blissfully basking in Garth's white-hot glow while wondering just how to capture his brand of lightning in a bottle.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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My Turn
Tanya Tucker
CD ($17.98)

One of country's most distinctive female vocalists turns her talent loose—and flips the gender tables over—on this collection of classic tunes originally made famous by men. Tucker, who hasn't released a new studio album in seven years, makes a most welcome return putting her feminine stamp on Buck Owens' "Love's Gonna Live Here," Faron Young's "Wine Me Up," Don Gibson's "Oh, Lonesome Me" and nine other gentlemanly gems she'd spent a lifetime admiring, but never recording until now.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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Bert Sugar's Baseball Hall of Fame
By Burt Randolph Sugar ($35)
Hardcover, 272 pages

Sugar, a renowned sportscaster and sportswriter, takes you on a colorful tour of baseball's most sacred shrine with this handsome collection of more than 500 exclusive photos of exhibits, hallowed artifacts and historic moments. A special section spotlights the plaques of every inductee on display in the sport's equivalent of Mt. Olympus. Experience the magic of baseball's mecca of memories without ever leaving home!
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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John Wayne Westerns
DVD ($27.92)

Saddle up alongside John Wayne to ride herd over a crew of young greenhorns in "The Cowboys," hold down the frontier outpost called "Fort Apache," wander the wilderness in "The Searcher" or keep an army of gunmen at bay in "Rio Bravo." Part of a re-release collaboration by TV's Turner Classic Movies and Warner Home Video, it's enough dust, danger, drama and desperados for an all-day Duke-fest!
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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Tornado Hunter
By Stefan Bechtel with Tim Samaras
Hardcover, 272 pages ($24)

While most people take shelter from a storm, a handful of others try to get as close as possible—especially when it involves the most violent, freakish windstorms on Earth. The United States has more tornadoes than any place in the world, and "tornado hunters" are passionate in their quest to learn more about them. Come along for the windy ride with these wild tales of close encounters with funnel clouds, a look at the men who chase them and an explanation of what makes tornadoes so destructive, deadly...and fascinating.  
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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Live at the Meadowlands
Frank Sinatra
CD ($18.98)

One of Ol' Blue Eye's most sought-after live recordings, never commercially available until now, has finally been re-discovered, re-mastered and released by his estate. Taped in 1986 in front of a revved-up "homecoming" crowd inside New Jersey's legendary Meadowlands arena, it's a tuxedo-smooth, jazzy-snazzy swagger through "You Make Me Feel So Young," "New York, New York," "For Once in My Life," and 16 other tunes spanning a career that by then had stretched across four decades—a Sinatra smorgasbord!
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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American Originals
DVD ($99.95)

They're part of a new breed of hero-men whose "extreme," dangerous jobs have made them stars on reality TV. This muscular box practically oozes testosterone with 14 DVDs featuring the entire first seasons of the History Channel's "Ice Road Truckers," "Ax Men" and "Tougher in Alaska," plus eight episodes of "Dangerous Missions," which profiles rescue swimmers, hostage negotiators, U.S Marine Raiders and others who put their lives on the line for the greater good. As the tag line says, America's frontier never closed—it just got tougher.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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The Norman Lear Collection
DVD ($159.95)

What do "All in the Family," "Good Times," "The Jeffersons," "Maude," "One Day at a Time," "Sanford and Son" and "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" have in common? They were all created by legendary producer Norman Lear, whose master's touch broke new prime-time ground with controversial subjects, unforgettable characters and some of TV's most memorable moments of the '70s. This television treasure trove includes all first-season episodes of all seven of those Emmy-winning shows, plus six hours of interviews and featurettes, and the never-released "All in the Family" pilot. Those were the days, indeed.
—Neil Pond, American Profile

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