100 Ways to Beat the Blues [Hardcover]

Tanya Tucker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2005

""This book is like a good song; it will reach so many people right where they live." ----Tanya Tucker"

How do you beat the blues? We all have moments in life when we're down, lonely, or just plain sad. It's part of being human. Just as everyone is different, everyone has a unique way of beating the blues.

For anyone who needs a bit of inspiration, a smile, or a friendly pat on the back, Tanya Tucker and ninety-nine friends offer this heartwarming collection of their personal recipes for beating the blues. Whether through family, friends, nature, music, or maybe even a little Jack Daniel's (as Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner recommended), the collected voices in this timeless book remind us of all the happiness and joy life has to offer. President George H. W. Bush yells at the television. Loretta Lynn makes herself a fried bologna sandwich. Sir Arthur C. Clarke explores the infinite universe of fractals. NASCAR's Geoff Bodine cleans the house. Seventy celebrities such as Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Orbach, and Garth Brooks and thirty ordinary folks such as a farmer, a private detective, a doctor, and a retired gospel radio-show host share what lifts their spirits and puts them back in the game of life. From George Jones's practical "Around the Farm Blues" to "Weird Al" Yankovic's funny "The Warm Weather Blues" to Cathie Pelletier's soulful "The Sunday Blues," "100 Ways to Beat the Blues" is an inspiring guide to finding happiness no matter what the blues may bring.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Country star Tucker gathers the tried-and-true techniques for beating passing fits of depression from a passel of her friends, peers and family. Each comes in at a few paragraphs measuring a page or two, and all have a comradely sense of having been down and lived to tell about it. Garth Brooks talks of dialing down his career in order to lift himself up; Brenda Lee finds that "offering a helping hand to another will lift you up faster than anything"; Nashville bootmaker Rodney Ammons notes, "[I]t's against the law for the blues to follow you up on your mother's front porch!" Plenty of other celebs--from Loretta Lynn and Kris Kristofferson to former president George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara--check in, but what they say is less important than the sense of a burden shared and repeatedly overcome. As Kristofferson says, "I don't beat the blues; the blues beats me./ Daily./ Like a drum." Despite a great deal of self-help lite, the cumulative effect is substantive. (Mar. 15)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Tanya Tucker was born in Seminole, Texas, and achieved international fame at the age of thirteen when her first single, "Delta Dawn," soared to the top of the charts. Considered to be one of the great song stylists, she has become one of music's most beloved icons. Her recording catalog includes more than a hundred solo and compilation albums; she has been honored with the highest awards country music can offer and has received numerous awards for her work outside music. When she is not on tour she is at her Tennessee farm with her three children: Presley, Grayson, and Layla, as well as assorted dogs, cats, and horses. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Fireside; First Edition edition (March 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743270185
• ISBN-13: 978-0743270182
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,483,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mighty Fine Gift, April 1, 2005

By 

Joanna Beth Tweedy (Springfield, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 100 Ways to Beat the Blues (Hardcover)

Having already given several copies of this book to family and friends, I will undoubtedly be giving several more, spreading the gift this collection offers. It includes pieces poignant, lush, hilarious, hypnotic, both timely and timeless, as well as a handful that are just plain fun. Among my favorites are the ones that weave traces of grace across one's reckoning, like Paul Sylbert's "The Jack Daniel's Blues," Cathie Pelletier's "The Sunday Blues," and "The Map-Crease Blues" by David Logan.

The blues pulse through us all, and this book captures magnificently their rhythm, the individual works offering collectively a broad range of perspectives and generating a connection among a variety of writers and readers. As a result, reading the collection effects a fine and mighty cadence as personal measures beat, for a space of time, in exquisite accord. There is a harmonious beat-of-heart to be found in 100 Ways to Beat the Blues, and it is a gift to all who share in it.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read by any measure., March 31, 2005

By 

sw37 - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Ways to Beat the Blues (Hardcover)

Sometimes funny, sometimes contemplative and introspective... you'll appreciate this book. It's interesting to delve into the minds of people you've read about for years by reading their own thoughts in their own words. And C. Ritzo (below) is right... the quality and value of the non-celebrity writers' perspectives are at least as satisfying as those of the big names.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine Collection; Some Great Suggestions, March 10, 2005

By 

Ted L Nancy (Thousand Oaks, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 100 Ways to Beat the Blues (Hardcover)

Tanya offers a wide assortment of great ideas to beat the blues. My favorite was by some guy named Brad Christensen who has a very interesting and rewarding hobby: Hilarious reverse scams against those Nigerian spammers who offer us 20 percent of the millions they don't have. He feeds them all sorts of bizarre tales and sends them on wild goose chases. Good work, Tanya and Brad!