If I Only Knew Then...: Learning from Our Mistakes | 
 enlarge | Creator: Charles Grodin
Publisher: Springboard Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy Used: $0.25
You Save: $24.74 (99%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 252809
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 0446581151
Dewey Decimal Number: 920.073
EAN: 9780446581158
ASIN: 0446581151
Publication Date: November 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
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Product Description
Writer, activist, and actor Charles Grodin delivers a fascinating collection of more than eighty intimate and revealing stories from friends and colleagues in the worlds of entertainment, sports, journalism, politics, and business-inspiring, entertaining, and heartfelt accounts of mistakes they've made and the lessons they learned.
Carol Burnett writes about an ill-fated meeting with Cary Grant. Rosie O'Donnell remembers her inability to express her love for a close girlfriend. Senator Orrin Hatch regrets voting against Martin Luther King Day. Goldie Hawn considers her last day on Laugh-In...and that's just the beginning!
Alan Alda overprepares for an interview. Ben Stiller wonders whether he should have stayed in school. Kenneth Cole gets mixed up during an important speech. Lily Tomlin reconsiders a wardrobe choice. And what do Shirley MacLaine and Paul Newman regret? You'll have to read to find out.
IF I ONLY KNEW THEN... is that rare book that could change your life. We aren't always aware we're making mistakes. These wonderful stories offer insights that could keep us from erring in the future. Don't make the mistake of not reading this book!
All of Mr. Grodin's proceeds from this book will be donated to HELP USA, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to empower the homeless and others in need to become and remain self-reliant.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Good enough for chairty, I guess. April 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Everyone can look back on their life and describe a significant mistake they've made and the lesson they learned from it. But how many of you would be willing to write it down and have the world read about it?
Charles Grodin found over eighty people to contribute to his collection of essays in If I Only Knew Then..., and the net profits from book sales go to HELP USA, a not-for-profit organization. HELP USA's mission is to empower the homeless and others in need to become self-reliant, an excellent cause in this reader's book.
Many of the contributors are celebrities such as Alan Alda, Carol Burnett and Ben Stiller. Others are accomplished and well-known people in the industries of politics, business and Hollywood.
Sally Kellerman (Hot Lips from the movie M*A*S*H) learned what happens when you play hard-to-get with Marlon Brando. Judge Judy got a lesson in how to gain respect as a woman. Senator Orrin Hatch regrets voting against the Martin Luther King holiday.
Some of the essays are entertaining, the lessons poignant and universal. Others seemed to have missed the point, or were turned in like last-minute homework assignments, perhaps out of guilt or obligation to Grodin.
One lost lesson in particular comes from Leonard Nimoy, who still bristles over the memory of inappropriately naming his book I Am Not Spock. He declares that he is still unconvinced he was wrong. He writes, "Live and learn," but did he?
This book feels like it was put together more for the sake of HELP USA than for the readers. If I Only Knew Then... hits and misses. The "hits" are moving and, at times, heartbreaking. If you do decide to purchase this book and read selectively, do not miss the stories by Barbara Feldon (from TV's Get Smart) or Sheldon Schultz. Their lessons anchor the book, providing meat and meaning.
The misses, however, are a tad boring and blowhardy. It's like when you're mingling at a party and some clueless guy sidles up and chimes in within seconds as if he's with the program already and rather misses the point, contributing little, while you make excuses to escape what was, just a minute ago, a lively conversation.
Maybe we're not meant to take anything substantive away from some of these stories. Or maybe, if the authors are neither famous nor literary pros, we aren't that interested. If the little boy next door is selling magazine subscriptions to buy uniforms for the school band, should you subscribe to three or four periodicals, including Tedious Times and Pointless Monthly in order to support a good cause because you also get Entertainment Weekly out of it? Well, that's up to you.
Reviewed by Margaret Andrews for Curled Up With A Good Book
If Only I Knew Then..... February 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was an enjoyable book and a quick read. It was interesting to read what notable people felt were learning experiences for them and why they thought so.
 Grodin's book good advice for a good cause December 28, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Charles Grodin has assembled eclectic information from many interesting people - much of which is valuable - and gives his proceeds to a very worthy cause. Great gift item.
 Much ado about nothing December 28, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Yawn. A few of the chapters were interesting, otherwise not a great read. Glad to hear proceeds go to charity.
Great Book December 25, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you can admit that you are not perfect (yet), and want an instruction book for life, this it it. Buy it. Read it. Learn from it.
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