A Book
Written by Desi Arnaz
Narrated by Juan Pablo Di Pace
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Desi Arnaz’s incredible life story—in his own words.
Desi Arnaz’s memoir tells the story of how a kid from Cuba hit the big time in the United States. It’s all here—the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the lucky breaks, and the heartbreaking failures.
Desi Arnaz
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz ye de Acha the Third was born in Santiago, Cuba on March 2, 1917. His father was the mayor of Santiago. The 1933 revolution led by Fulgencio Batista had landed his father in jail and stripped the family of its wealth, property and power. His father was released because of the intercession of U.S. officials who believed him to be neutral during the revolt. The family fled to Miami, Florida. One of Desi's first jobs in America consisted of cleaning canary cages. However, after forming his own small band of musicians, he was hired by Xavier Cugat, the "king" of Latin music. Desi soon left Cugat, formed his own Latin band and literally launched the conga craze in America. he was cast in the Broadway play "Too Many Girls", resulting in his being brought to Hollywood to make the film version of the play. It was on the set of Too Many Girls (1940) that he and Lucille Ball met. They soon married and approximately ten years later formed Desilu Productions and began the I Love Lucy (1951) shows. Desi and Lucille had two children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.. At the end of the I Love Lucy (1951) run (including the The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957)) the two divorced. Desi later wrote an autobiography entitled "A Book." In 1986 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and died on December 2, 1986.
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Reviews for A Book
66 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love love love this. I read Lucille Balls memior first which is good. This was so funny and real though! Inlold many many times. She was the funny actor on the show but he was the brains behind most of it.
I have a whole new respect for Desi.
Without his amazing drive and talent and love for Lucy our world would be so different.2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love this book And Desi Arnaz was so hilarious. This book was an unexpected treat.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was a great book to listen to while driving.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a great bookLoved every second of it especially the narrator
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book. So many details about Desi's life I was not aware of.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5very good book written by Desi Arnaz about his life.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5My name is book and I'll tell you the story of my life. This little guy is probably getting judged unfairly; judged based on the shelf I found him on in the library, which was in the adult non-fiction section. Based on that shelf, this book was juvenile and cloyingly written. But if this had been shelved appropriately, for young readers, I'd say it's a fun book with solid information about the history of books, starting from oral tradition. The eye-catching illustrations add visual interest and the interspersed quotes and poetry about books could send those kids in new reading directions. So, if you know of a young bibliophile in the making and you see this book, it might be worth a look.