Customer Reviews

Close To You: The Story of Richard & Karen Carpenter

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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.

"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.

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

This is a book written by a Carpenter's fan for Carpenter's fans. Yes, it is not a biography, but it narrates how Karen and Richard struggled to make every single song a hit!. Do you want to know how many concerts the Carpenters did?. Where at?. When?. Well, you will find it all within the "Carpentermania" section of this book. I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it to any Carpenter's fan.

The subtitle of this book should be "The Story of the Music of Karen and Richard Carpenter." The book does not tell the story of their lives, as the title suggests. It is obviously written by a fan who has done a lot of fact gathering from fan clubs, magazines, and album covers. Garcia goes into agonizing detail on the chart history of many Carpenters songs, and no detail on the real lives and circumstances in the lives of the Carpenters. The writing is amaturish. It would be considered an excellent school report, although he describes the sound of an alto flute as "picturesque" (you can't paint a picture of a sound). Garcia has also provided a lot of facts, in list form -- every song, album, concert, and public appearance made by (the) Carpenters. The illustrations included in this book however, are lovely.

Overall, this was a very disappointing read.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a very flattering book about seventies icons Karen andRichard Carpenter. I recommend it highly. Theportraits in the book are worth the price of the book alone.