Book Description
America's most beloved columnist shares 40 years of advice through letters to her daughter-with a new title and cover for the trade paperback edition. In this witty, wise, and intensely personal collection of letters to her daughter Margo, Ann Landers delivers her own unintentional memoir. The volume is both a moving portrait of a mother/daughter relationship and a keen social history of America between 1958 and 2001. Peppered with incisive information and gossip, Esther 'Eppie' Lederer (Landers's real name) offers insight on everything from marriage and divorce to growing up and growing old. Readers will delight in Landers' s signature practical wisdom and sharp eye for the absurd. As funny and loving as they are stern and ascerbic, these letters reveal the real woman behind the Ann Landers moniker-a spectacularly original writer, wife, and mother. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

mother love
I loved this book. Given to me as a present, I had no idea what to expect and began reading it with a sense of uncertainty. But within a dozen pages I was completely held and involved. It is poignant, funny, wise and deeply engrossing, and full of practical advice on love, marriage, divorce, motherhood, and growing older. At times I got the guilty (but delicious) feeling that I was reading a good friend's private correspondence - it is that intimate and that honest. Some say that letter writing is a dead art, a form of communication that was killed off by the telephone and, more recently, the brutal abruptness of e-mail. But here it is resurrected in all its former glory. Full of good gossip and insights about famous names in show business, politics, the media and literature. there were moments when I laughed out loud and, occasionally, wanted to weep. I was honestly sad when I reached the end - so I started all over again. Happily, as one does in all good letters, I still found new things to surprise me. Margo Howard tells us that "letters were my mother's art form," and this book confirms that gloriously. Ms. Howard is no slouch at letter writing either, answering her mother's missives with equal wit, insights, and humanity. Those for whom this will be their first taste of the wit and wisdom of Ann Landers - or Margo Howard, who has followed in her mother's footsteps as an agony aunt - have a treat in store.
... Read more

Book Description
"Getting advice from Ann Landers is like chatting with a neighbor across the back fence."          
--Los Angeles Times  
                    
In a career spanning nearly half a century, Ann Landers has counseled millions of people with her comforting words, wise advice, and no-nonsense answers to some of life's most sensitive, personal, and compelling questions. Now in The Best of Ann Landers, she has chosen her favorite letters from her beloved column. Tackling such diverse topics as marital infidelity, teenage sex, the death of a loved one, and homosexuality, Ann Landers never minces words. So whether she's extending a hand or hauling someone on the carpet--here are the best of the best!
                    

RECIPE FOR A ROTTEN KID          
SEX AND THE INTERNET          
HOW TO BEAT DEPRESSION          
BYLAWS FOR IN-LAWS          
THE OTHER WOMAN          
NO SEX MARRIAGES          
DEAD AT SEVENTEEN          
IS IT SAFE TO DO YOUR HOUSEWORK IN THE NUDE?          
HOMOSEXUALS, BORN NOT MADE          
AND MANY, MANY MORE!                      


"Her comments carry the ring of wisdom that comes only with age."          
--Entertainment Weekly ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Solid advice!
Item a little more worn than described, but is still in good shape.Prompt shipping.

Entertainment and solid education
I initially picked this book up at the library because I enjoy her column.I found myself wanting to mark pages due to all the resources she mentionsin the book. In fact, there were so many I decided it would be easier tojust buy the book. I was impressed by her ability to adapt to changes insociety without losing her sense of values. This one is a keeper. ... Read more

Book Description
In her first collection in more than a decade, the most trusted woman in North American shares her wisdom and sage advice. Ann Landers reprises the counsel and anecdotes that make her column such a popular newspaper feature, providing timeless yet amazingly contemporary questions and answers on topics from care of elderly parents to homosexuality to AIDS. She also includes many of the beloved essays and aphorisms that make her columns so heartwarming and memorable. Illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very Good Book... Ann Landers Was Awesome
I'm such a huge fan of Ann Landers! I read this book after her death, actually, but she continues to inspire me. A while before she died I started to cut out her newspaper columns and store them... But reading a book of them is better!
Very funny and extremely weird in some parts, and sad or gross or touching in others. I recommend it. It's entertainment!
As always, Ms. Landers gives her brilliant advice... And even if you don't always agree with what she says, it'll get you thinking. And that's something, isn't it?

Buy this book!
I admit it...I go straight for the Ann Landers column in the paper before anything else. This book is great to have around because you can enjoy Ann's column anytime you want. All the classics are in here too: Poems,tear-jerkers, and laughs galore. Every kind of ailment and family squabbleis commented on. Better than the Springer show. ha ha

I loaned my copy tomy retiree parents. They made the book last by reading one printed column aday. I couldn't be that patient. I liked it so much, I couldn't put it downand felt compelled to write notes in the side margins!I've never doneTHAT before or since buying this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I saw it and haven't been able to get. Pleas find it.
My husband like to collect all of her article out of the Washington Post, so i figure I would get the book and give to him for Xmas. a big surprise. No I haven't read it. A Coworker brought this book in to work the copy right was 1978 ... Read more

Book Description

For two generations of Americans, reading Ann Landers's daily column was as important as eating breakfast and as natural as brushing their teeth. For nearly fifty years an entire nation turned to this quick-witted, worldly-wise counselor for advice on everything from proper dinner etiquette to sex, yet few actually knew the real woman behind the byline.

Award-winning journalist Rick Kogan was Ann Landers's last editor and close friend, and in America's Mom he paints an intimate, affectionate, knowing, and deeply honest portrait of a remarkable woman whose real life story rivaled anything that appeared in the millions of letters she received and responded to during her long career.

Iowa-born Eppie Lederer was first hired by the Chicago Sun-Times to take over the daily advice column in 1955 -- and over the next half-century she helped shape the nation's social and sexual landscape. Already a fiercely independent housewife and political activist, she reinvented herself as "Ann Landers," went on to become America's beloved "surrogate mother," and was one of the country's most influential women. The friend and confidante of celebrities, journalists, and politicians, she composed columns that touched the lives of so many -- even as her own life was shaken by dramatic, often heartbreaking events.

Written with the enthusiastic support and coop-eration of Ann Landers's colleagues, admirers, and friends, Kogan's unforgettable memoir is a fascinating, full-bodied account of the triumphs, the wisdom, the courage, and the many trials of one of the twentieth century's most enduring icons -- her painful lifelong feud with her identical twin sister, "Dear Abby"; her outspokenness and stubborn refusal to shy away from even the most controversial topics; and the tragic breakup of her own thirty-six-year marriage when her husband abandoned her for another woman, an event that she bravely and openly shared with her millions of sympathetic fans. Here, too, is a wealth of touching, enlightening, and remarkable true stories shared by people from all walks of life who were profoundly affected by the good sense and guidance of Ann Landers. America's Mom is a moving tribute to a singular woman who has earned an eternal place in our culture . . . and our hearts.

Book Description
America's most beloved columnist shares 40 years of advice through letters to her only child, published here for the first time.In this witty, wise, and intensely personal collection of letters to her daughter Margo, Ann Landers delivers her own unintentional memoir. The volume is both a moving portrait of a mother/daughter relationship and a keen social history of America between 1958 and 2001. Peppered with incisive information and gossip, Esther "Eppie" Lederer (Landers' real name) offers insight on everything from marriage and divorce to growing up and growing old. A first-hand account of the myriad changes in attitudes and mores spanning the last half of the last century, readers will delight in Landers' signature practical wisdom and sharp eye for the absurd. As funny and loving as they are stern and acerbic, these letters reveal the real woman behind the Ann Landers moniker--a spectacularly original writer, wife, and mother. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Beautiful book but ...
Unless you worship Ann Landers for years and know her background to some degree, this book may be quite anecdotal and a gathered pieces of personal events.

A Wonderful Read
Growing up I regularly read Ann Landers' column. I can even remember my favorite ones --- the one with the meatloaf recipe and the one about how to hang a roll of toilet paper. Living in a small town in New Jersey, I got a new perspective on the world from letters signed by people with signatures like Desperate in Dallas and Confused in Cincinnati. Sometimes I would howl at what people were asking while other times I was shocked at the depths of the problems that people shared.

Reading the column each day I formed a picture of Landers. When she passed away in 2002, I read the tributes to her and realized this was the end of an era.

A LIFE IN LETTERS: Ann Landers Letters to Her Only Child showed me another side of Landers. For here were the letters that personally defined her ---- those she wrote to her daughter Margo over forty-four years. Broken up into four sections, the book tells the story of a close mother/daughter relationship. Here, again in her own words, we come to know Esther "Eppie" Lederer (Landers' real name).

Whether she was giving Margo advice, checking in to see how she was or lavishing praise, Landers wrote with the tone of a well-meaning friend. The excitement that Landers felt in sharing her life with Margo is touchingly evident. Many of her notes to Margo were hurried pieces while others were long and leisurely, but all were personal and laced with love.

Margo has said, "I loved putting this collection together. And strange as it may sound, reading them all, together, was an entirely different experience than seeing them one at a time. A LIFE IN LETTERS - even for me - is like watching two lives unfolding."

The book is punctuated with notes from Margo that give background to the letters. At one point in her introduction she was astounded to learn that her mom had saved all of her letters, just as she had saved her mom's. It's clear that this writing ---and their relationship --- meant a lot to them both.

Readers also get a look at another side of Landers. We see a woman who was politically active and had a strong business sense. She had access to the powerful and the famous because of who she was --- people such as Walter Cronkite, Hubert Humphery and Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. She also believed in many causes and supported them with her time and her opinions.

There is enough reference to the feud between Landers and her twin sister, who penned the Dear Abby column for years, to be honest, but Landers takes the high road and remains a real lady.

Right after Landers' death, I clipped her meatloaf recipe from the paper and made it. After closing Margo's book I vowed to write more letters to my sons. Last week I was passing my older son's room and saw a recent IM session between us printed and tacked onto the wall. Sure instant communication like that is wonderful, but the preservation of letters like those in this book reminds me how much history we lose when we do not write.

Whether you are a Landers fan or just relish the chance to voyeur a very special relationship as it grows over the years, A LIFE IN LETTERS is a wonderful read.

--- Reviewed by Carol Fitzgerald ... Read more

Product Description
The famous columnist offers advice on everyday problems in human relations, health, and general well-being, soliciting opinions from leading experts in the various areas of concern. ... Read more