Amazon.com: Close To You: The Story of Richard & Karen Carpenter (9780964410701): Ronald Garcia, Chris Tassin, Dennis Grieco: Books

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6 Reviews

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4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love the Carpenters music and I love this book!, November 7, 1999

By A Customer

This is a book that I really enjoyed reading. I've been a Carpenters fan since the 70s and I really appreciate another viewpoint of this famous brother and sister team. The author finally gives credit where credit is due. Because Karen and Richard were great talents, who were totally devoted to making their music perfect. I also enjoyed reading and learning new things about the Carpenters that the Ray Coleman biography didn't cover.

Example. This book gives Karen's solo album a positive review over some of the unfair criticism made by others. I am so happy that this is written down for everyone to see it. Karen would have loved this very much. Another example. When I first started buying the CDs in the mid 80s, I noticed that some of the songs sounded different. This book confirms it, thanks in part to the author's vast knowledge of the Carpenters recordings.

I think fans and the newer fans would enjoy this book very much. Karen was a real person who was a lot of fun to be around and sincere without being phony. The same is true for Richard. He knew what worked for Karen and they were a team.

I've enjoyed reading and re-reading this book and I think you will too.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent well-researched biography about the Carpenters., November 30, 1998

By	Bennett Turk (Albany, New York) - See all my reviews

"Close to You...The Story of Richard and Karen Carpenter" by Ronald Garcia, is a well written, easily read book on the Carpenters. There is a great deal of information, not found elsewhere, and there are some lovely portraits of Richard and Karen that are suitable for framing. The Carpenters were a very underrated musical family and I think books like this one will remind people just how talented Richard and Karen were as a team, and what a tremendous loss to the world Karen's death from anorexia nervosa was.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Salute to the Carpenters., August 28, 1997

By A Customer

This was a book I couldn't put down once I started reading it. The author takes uson a roller coaster of a ride from Karen and Richard's beginnings in the music industry to the sad and untimely death of one of the great female vocalists in recorded history. I found this book so much more easier to read than the authorized biography, which weighs the reader down with Karen and Richard's love interests and Karen's insane battle with anorexia. I would have to say "Close to You" is the definitive Carpenters biography