Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present

( 8 )
Hardcover
$22.56
BN.com price
$24.00 List Price (Save 6%)
Marketplace (New and Used)
from
$0.99
$24.00 List Price (Save 96%)
Usually ships within 1-2 business days
All (37)  
Used (21)  
New (16)  
Close
Sort by
Page 1 of 4
Showing 1 – 10 of 37 (4 pages)
$0.99
(Save 96%)
Azulio VA
Seller since 2008

Feedback rating:

(626)

Condition:

New — never opened or used in original packaging.

Like New — packaging may have been opened. A "Like New" item is suitable to give as a gift.

Very Good — may have minor signs of wear on packaging but item works perfectly and has no damage.

Good — item is in good condition but packaging may have signs of shelf wear/aging or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Acceptable — item is in working order but may show signs of wear such as scratches or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Used — An item that has been opened and may show signs of wear. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Refurbished — A used item that has been renewed or updated and verified to be in proper working condition. Not necessarily completed by the original manufacturer.

New
2009 Hardcover New

Ships from: San Antonio, TX

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 96%)
justice book company ok
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(1182)

Condition: Very Good
2009 Hard cover Very good in very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 331 p. Audience: General/trade. Book is in very good shape.

Ships from: mustang, OK

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 96%)
Ebooksweb
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(1556)

Condition: New
11/12/2009 Hardcover None New 0547134657 Ships Within 24 Hours. Tracking Number available for all USA orders. Excellent Customer Service. Upto 15 Days 100% Money Back Gurantee. ... Try Our Fast! ! ! ! Shipping With Tracking Number. Read more Show Less

Ships from: Bensalem, PA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 96%)
Urbookstore1
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(276)

Condition: New
Hardcover New 0547134657.

Ships from: Philadelphia, PA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 96%)
Vitalbooks PA
Seller since 2012

Feedback rating:

(3)

Condition: New
Hardcover New 0547134657.

Ships from: Southampton, PA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 96%)
BookHouse COM LLC
Seller since 2011

Feedback rating:

(222)

Condition: New
Hardcover New 0547134657 FROM A COMPANY YOU TRUST, HUGE SELECTION. RELIABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! ! HASSLE FREE RETURN POLICY, SATISFACTION GURANTEED****

Ships from: Philadelphia, PA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$0.99
(Save 96%)
BookShop4U
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(359)

Condition: New
11/12/2009 Hardcover None New 0547134657.

Ships from: Philadelphia, PA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 92%)
New Chapter Recycling
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(2580)

Condition: Good

Ships from: Lakewood, WA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 92%)
Free State Books
Seller since 2012

Feedback rating:

(617)

Condition: Very Good
Book shows a small amount of wear - very good condition! Free State Books. Never settle for less.

Ships from: Halethorpe, MD

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 92%)
AtlantaBookCompany
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(7693)

Condition: Good
Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the ... Atlanta Book Company. Our mailers are 100% recyclable. Read more Show Less

Ships from: Atlanta, GA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
Page 1 of 4
Showing 1 – 10 of 37 (4 pages)
Close
Sort by
NOOK Book (eBook)
$10.16
BN.com price
$14.95 List Price (Save 32%)

Available on NOOK devices and apps

  • Nook Devices
  • NOOK
  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • Tablet/Phone
  • NOOK for iPad
  • NOOK for iPhone
  • NOOK for Android
  • NOOK for Android (Tablet)
  • NOOK Kids for iPad
  • PC/Mac
  • NOOK Study
  • NOOK for PC
  • NOOK for Mac

Need a NOOK? Explore Now

More About This Book

Overview

In TINSEL, Hank Stuever turns his unerring eye for the idiosyncrasies of modern life to Frisco, Texas, a suburb at once all-American and completely itself, to tell the story of the nation’s most over-the-top celebration: Christmas. 

 

Stuever starts the narrative as so many start the Christmas season: standing in line with the people waiting to purchase flat-screen TVs on Black Friday. From there he follows three of Frisco's true holiday believers as they navigate through the Nativity and all its attendant crises. Tammie Parnell, an eternally optimistic suburban mom, is the proprietor of "Two Elves with a Twist," a company that decorates other people's big houses for Christmas. Jeff and Bridgette Trykoski own that house every town has: the one with the visible-from-space, most awe-inspiring Christmas lights. And single mother Caroll Cavazos just hopes that the life-affirming moments of Christmas might overcome the struggles of the rest of the year. Stuever's portraits of this happy, megachurchy, shopariffic community are at once humane, heartfelt, revealing – and very funny.

 

TINSEL is a compelling tale of our half-trillion-dollar holiday, measuring what we we've become against the ancient rituals of what we've always been.

  • Hank Stuever
    Hank Stuever

Editorial Reviews

Bryan Burrough
This is the consummate "Young Writer Discovers Middle America" book (or rediscovers, given that Stuever appears to be from Oklahoma, poor guy). By and large Stuever pulls it off, in part because he eschews (most) condescension and embraces these happy, bustling Christianized Texans for what they really are, not what he thinks they ought to be.
—The Washington Post
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
From The Critics
Stuever, a Washington Post staff writer and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, has appeared on The View, The Today Show and NPR with his incisive commentaries. Following Off Ramp, he returns for another heartland safari, this time to observe Christmas celebrations in Frisco, Tex. He explains: “This book takes place over three holiday seasons (2006, 2007 and 2008) among three unrelated families who live in a new megaworld north of Dallas, a place that often seemed to have surrendered its identity to the shopper within.” His seasonal survey begins with Tammie Parnell, who runs a business decorating other people's homes. In the chapter “There Glows the Neighborhood,” he describes the “Trykoski lights,” a house decorated with 50,000 lights, and traces this holiday history back to 2004 when Carson Williams scored a million-plus Internet hits after synchronizing 16,000 lights to music. Stuever watches the 1.1 million-square-foot Stonebriar Centre mall being decorated at midnight. While single mom Caroll Cavazos shops with her family at Best Buy, the author has an epiphany (“I see it as Caroll sees it. Real lives are being lived here”), and later he goes with her to church and a potluck dinner gift-swap. With impeccable research and solid reporting, Stuever has written the gift book that keeps on giving—Christmas consumerism wrapped together with traditional family values. (Nov. 12)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780547134659
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • Publication date: 11/12/2009
  • Pages: 352
  • Sales rank: 753,968
  • Product dimensions: 5.80 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

HANK STUEVER is an award-winning pop-culture writer for the Washington Post 's style section. He is the author of Off Ramp, an essay collection, and has appeared on Today, The View, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and National Public Radio.

Table of Contents

Best Buy (A Prologue) 1

Fake Is Okay Here

1 Target 11

2 Town & Kountry 17

3 It's Bazaar 36

4 There Glows the Neighborhood 42

5 Anthropologie 64

6 Christmas Caroll 78

7 Unto Us 91

The Gap (A Slide Show) 105

Manger Babies, Angel Trees & Tiny Tims

8 Mary, Did You Know? 115

9 Restoration Hardware 135

10 Poverty Barn 149

11 The Neediest 164

12 The Total Moment 178

13 Hallmark 199

Creche

14 Things Remembered 211

15 The Pageant 227

16 Wrapping 239

American Greetings (An Interlude) 257

Half Off

17 Wal-Mart 263

18 The Epiphany Party 278

Baby, Please Come Home

19 The Container Store 287

20 Hot Topic 296

Circuit City (Some Endings) 300

Acknowledgments 317

Sources, Bibliography, and Some Other Stocking Stuffers 321

Customer Reviews
Average Rating 4
( 8 )

Rating Distribution

  • ( 3 )
  • ( 3 )
  • ( 2 )
  • ( 0 )
  • ( 0 )
If you've bought this product, tell the world how you liked it.
Write a Review
Sort by: Showing all of 8 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 30, 2009

    What have we done to Christmas?

    Hank Stuever follows the lives of 3 families through the Christmas Season. He has chosen totally different personalities and lifestyles to follow. He examines the "marketing" of Christmas and how far we have strayed from the original meaning of Christmas. Mr. Stuever, at the same time, is very witty and there are many amusing paragraphs in this book. It is enjoyable to read, but, at the same time, challenges us to rethink the ways in which our own family celebrate the holidays.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 27, 2009

    Hank Stuever exposes the reality of Christmas excesses in the ever-larger north Texas retail Mecca of Frisco!

    All right. I admit to a certain point of view, as a transplant to Dallas from the Midwest so many years ago that I'm flirting with being considered a native Texan. Early on, it's the surface that seems to matter more here. The biggest, newest, shiniest of everything. The Mary Kay effect. The cosmetic surgery. The largest, tallest buildings outlined in lights or argon gas. Never mind the shiny car is leased, not owned; the faces have been altered temporarily or permanently under the cover of big hair; that big imposing structure is laden with asbestos in addition to monumental debt. So it is not so shocking to read the most memorable, and probably the truest, observation of Tammie Parnell, the home decorator in Tinsel, "Fake is OK here."

    The author spent much of three Christmas seasons embedded with three Frisco families to study the behavior, beliefs, traditions and habits of Friscans during the holidays. There is Tammie, the transformer of McMansions into holiday splendor for roughly $1,000 for a day's work; the Trykosis, whose household is illuminated with tens of thousands of lights and viewed by thousands of passengers in idling SUVs, not to mention YouTube viewers around the country; and Caroll, the single mom who finds hope and inspiration in the preaching of her megachurch pastor.

    I laughed out loud through many of the passages in this book, all the while feeling a kind of sadness for the desperation so many exhibit in their quest for an ideal holiday season to match their perfect lives, raising children who don't experience the denial of any material good or positive reinforcement while in the womb of their parents' homes.

    The author tells these stories as a reporter would, through observations and the words of the people he has selected to study. The conclusions and judgements you form when reading Tinsel will be entirely yours. He reports, and you decide. Along the way, you'll find it hard to resist the author's constant wit and charm.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted November 17, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Pulling the curtain back on Frisco

    I'm not done reading this book yet but it's been a funny and interesting read. Being a Frisco resident myself and a former Celebration Covenant church goer, I kinda knew alot about Frisco's strange ideological pull between worshiping all things material and being good Christians. Frisco is a great place to live. Mr. Stuever as an outsider looking in gets the same vibe I get being a resident here. Sometimes I just gotta shake my head. I think a lot of us Frisco residents will see ourselves in this book but I'm not so sure how many of us will admit it.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted December 29, 2011

    Highly recommended

    Another lefty fascinated by the conspicuous consumption and religious faith of Texans!

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 22, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted September 4, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 19, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 19, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 8 Customer Reviews
If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)
500 character limit