5 comments about Losing my Mind: An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimer's.

1. For those interested in this subject this book is an engaging and rewarding read. Some may find DeBaggio's anguish a bit excessive, but to me it was a genuine expression of his emotion, not buffered by what is 'proper'.



2. Mr. DeBaggio is so wonderful to have shared his experiences with diagnosis, physicians, others reactions, and his own struggle to understand and deal with what is happening to him. This book brought a new enlightenment to me, newly dealing with a family diagnosis. It is so easy to forget the person who is actually fighting with the disease when it affects so many in the family. His true account of what his feelings are throughout the months it took to write the book has given me more compassion for my mom and the ability to be angry at the disease as the culprit for all of the cruel things that are happening to all of us while we watch the progression. Thank you, Mr. DeBaggio, for opening my eyes to my mom's struggles.



3. 
   At one point in this sad autobiography the author states, "We are foolish, those of us who think we can escape the traps of aging." In Mr. Debaggio's case he found himself caught in one of those traps when he was 57 years old. Healthy and robust, with an optimistic look to the future he one day is told that he is a victim of early onset Alzheimer's disease. The author, who is a talented writer of books on gardening, decides to write a book describing his gradual mental deterioration.
   
   Losing My Mind shifts back and forth between comments on his present condition, excerpts from medical articles, and reminiscences on his past life. This is not an inspirational book. Mr. DeBaggio is depressed, frightened, and filled with despair over his future. Fortunately his writing skills are still intact enough that he can fluently describe his descent into the abyss.
   
   It is not the author alone who suffers. His wife is grief stricken that she is going to gradually lose her life's companion, and she feels totally frustrated in knowing that she can do nothing to help him. His grow son shares her grief, and also worries that he will eventually suffer the same illness.
   
   Increasingly he has to hunt for words to express himself. He raises herbs for a living, and begins to forget their names. He goes to a store to operate a copying machine, and finds he can't figure out how to operate this rather simple device. Writing this book helps him to hold on to our world. He spends a lot of time reminiscing about his childhood, because those memories still are clear in his mind.
   
   Mr. DeBaggio has received, as he puts it, a death sentence, and that thought remains constantly in mind. He courageously tackles each day one by one, but knows he is fighting a losing battle. I am an older person who has a deteriorating condition that gradually causes me increasing pain, so I have a glimmer of what he is going through. What will our status be next month, next year? It is interesting that he mentions that dealing with his diagnosis is one thing, but dealing with some of his well-wishers is often more difficult. There are the people who suggest that if he would just take some sort of sea weed or herbal medicine he would be restored to normal. Folks like that mean well, but their suggestions show a total lack of understanding of the forces at work in his physical condition, and, in a sense, diminish the seriousness of the problem (I've experienced the same thing).
   
   This book is remarkable. It gives us a view of the problems, thoughts and torment that are part of an Alzheimer's sufferer's life. It is anything but a joyous book. It is one that points out how close we live to the threat of ultimate disaster.



4. We can probably all relate to this title, however, this is a road map into the mind of Thomas DeBaggio, who was a professional herb grower and journalist, and how he dealt with his journey into Alzheimers disease. It wanders a bit, as the mind does with this disease, and your heart will go out to him struggling to be his own person.This disease robs you of your person.



5. This book was written by a gentleman with Alzheimer's disease. I had the privilege of hearing him read part of it in person. It is quite moving.

1 comments about Chicago Days Hoboken Nights.

1. Daniel Pinkwater is noteworthy in many respects, but what fascinates me most is the way in which he manages to be brilliant, moving, and profound without ever accentuating the negative. This autobiographical collection of brief, bite-size narratives (perfect for bedtime, the bathroom, or the ten-minute break at work) chronicles Pinkwater's development as an artist/writer, and gives the reader the opportunity to enjoy the world through the eyes of a funny, intelligent man who truly loves life. This is a non-fiction, non-children's book by a children's author.

No comments about First Finds.

No comments about Lester: The Autobiography of Lester Piggott.

1 comments about Lessons at the Halfway Point.

1. This is the PERFECT birthday gift for any of your friends, who are approaching the 40th birthday crisis, and are not sure whether they should be publicly partying this year or not! The funniest page of the book though is headed 'About the Author', a must read page - beautifully succinct.

No comments about Elie Wiesel: A Holocaust Survivor Cries Out for Peace (High Five Reading).

5 comments about Cleopatra.

1. When it comes to ancient history, Michael Grant is the greatest! I've read several of his other books and he never fails to amuse and inform. His book on Cleopatra is informative as well as entertaining. Cleopatra was a Greek Macedonian ruler of Egypt with a deep love for culture and powerful men. Her liaisons with Caesar and Antony are very well described, as are her achievements as queen. Mr. Grant is truly the greatest!



2. Cleopatra is a fascinating figure... renowned as a patron of arts and learning, a gifted linguist, and a canny politicians, she is too often remembered as a sex kitten. Grant cuts thru the myths, pro- and anti propaganda to deliver what is probably the best biography on Cleopatra. Writen by one of the marquee lights of classical history, the book is written in academic style, although for the most part it is highly readable. To be honest, I found the first preliminary chapters to be somewhat slow going, but once the story begins it takes off like a grand soap opera. Not as splashy as some other works on the great queen, this is *the* place to go for a detailed, comprehensive look at Cleopatra.



3. It's the splashiest period of all ancient history... a near Jerry Springer opera of lust, betrayal, and tawdry affairs. And yet, Michael Grant makes it about as dull as he possibly can.

   He presents a very factual and well-researched account, though I take exception to several of his assertions and theories, including the one where he asserts that Octavian wanted Cleopatra to commit suicide because he was afraid the Romans would want to free her as they did her sister Arsinoe. Arsinoe was just one random Egyptian princess who defied Julius Caesar. Cleopatra was the occidental temptress who had ensnared and ruined two of Rome's best men. She was probably the most vilified and hated of all Rome's enemies in history, for with Cleopatra, it was intensely personal. The very idea that the bloodthirsty Romans would have a sudden sentimental streak towards her is pretty laughable.

   But on the whole, his theories are soundly researched and well justified, even when I disagree with them. The book has some lovely portraits and a more in depth examination of Cleopatra's forebearers than is usually presented in her biographies. Moreover, he has an excellent perspective on the supposed 'inevitability' of Cleopatra's loss, and how the world may well have been different had things gone another way.

   It's a reasonable and scholarly work that makes a fine addition to my collection. If you're looking for something to move you, you may prefer Margaret George's "The Memoirs of Cleopatra".




4. I'm not a classicist as some of the other reviewers on this site appear to be, but as a layperson I can say that this book was pretty interesting. There are some boring parts, as others noted, but what biography does not have some boring parts? Here's what I found especially interesting:

   Grant gives readers a good idea about how most of the chronicles he consulted were written from one perspective or another and thus tended to be sentimentally biased in one direction or another. Grant points out significantly that as "Westerners" we have clung most closely to the "Occidental" version of matters, rather than anything leaning toward the other side, the "Orient." He points out consistently how ancient writers who disliked Cleopatra changed facts around to disparage her, while the opposite was true of those who liked her.

   The point being, it seems, that you have to take your history with a grain of salt (just as we do the news from the various modern media). Some reviewers seem to feel that Grant himself is slightly biased, in Cleopatra's favor, but as long as we're aware of it, we can perhaps discern the bias and read other viewpoints to get a well-rounded sense of what actually occurred.

   The other interesting point was how many people, mostly men presumably, died during these ancient wars. And how little their deaths accounted for anything. In other words, life was a lot cheaper then than today. In Cleopatra's time, only the top dogs had the sense of individual rights that most of us have today. Is that progress?

   Grant's book, of course, is thoroughly documented for those wishing to do further investigation.

   Diximus.




5. There are naturally times in this book when it reads like a soap opera, but this has got to be the most detailed, believable, and scholarly work on Cleopatra I have ever read. Such is the background Mr. Grant gives on her father Ptolemy Auletes, the Roman situation with Egypt, and the Ptolemaic Dynasty for the first half of the book I almost forgot who it was about.
   
   As with most ancient people little is known of Cleopatra's early life, but the author reconstructs it as best he can, and gives us a view into her world and her mind from her early years to her final days. Included, of course, are detailed retellings of her affairs with Caesar and Marcus Antonius, her fiasco of a marriage to her brother, and the common opinion of her held by the Romans, Egyptians, and even the Jews of her period.
   
   This book really repaints the stereotypical image of this fascinating, but indeed deadly woman. She was, of course, not an Egyptian but a Macedonian by birth and a Greek by language and upbringing, and was known not so much for her beauty as for a combination of her magnetic personality, her keen intelligence, and her large, bent nose; this final feature is depicted in all the few contemporary portraits of her.
   
   Overall this is an excellent and scholarly reference to the life of Cleopatra and the Egypt and Rome of her day, and is not at all dry but an absorbing read. Very highly recommended!

1 comments about What Do You Care What Other People Think? (Library Edition).

1. This follow on to Dr. Feynman's earlier book 'Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman!' is a series of tales on diverse subjects that interested Dr. Feynman.
   
   About half of them are concerned with the research into the explosion of the space shuttle 'Challenger' in 1986. This was an involved process mixing science, politics, and public relations. It also retells the tale of Dr. Feynman revealing the disaster's cause by a simple but elegant experiment of dropping a ring of rubber into a glass of cold water and pulling it out misshapen.
   
   Other tales include the story of his first wife Arlene dying in a hospital bed while he worked on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. Also moving is a tribute to his father who determined that he would be a scientist before he was born.
   
   Besides his career as one of the leading physicists of the twentieth century (Nobel Prize), Dr. Feynman excelled at a teacher, and played the bongo drums. His wide range of interests went far beyond the laboratory.

5 comments about Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration.

1. The latest testimony to the life of a gifted writer. Includes many historic pictures.



2. I've never read anything about or by Maya Angelou that I didn't love.
   This book is the feature on my bookshelf.... I need another copy to keep next to my nightstand!



3. I assumed that this book would include some of Maya Angelou's writings. It didn't. I enjoyed looking at the photos and reading about her, but I intended this as a gift to someone who had never read her writings.



4. A Glorious Celebration makes a wonderful coffee table book. Everyone who comes to my house gravitates to the book. Also makes a great gift for book lovers. May Angelou is just phenomenal in her writings. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.



5. This is indeed a glorious coffee table book. At present I've got a copy on my night table, on my kitchen counter, one in each of my bathrooms, and one for my patio table. The book store has ordered me a copy of the new water proof dust jacket so I can keep a copy down by the pool. I had been looking for a good picture book of my other favorite poets, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, and William Carlos Williams, but theirs were all out of print. I would keep my newest copy on my living room coffee table were it not for my copies of Hillary and Bill Clinton's autobiographies. This is really as extraordinary a book as one could wish for. Happy birthday, Maya. I hope to see you you at Barack's inauguration, again behind the podium, reciting another beautiful poem in that mellifluous voice.

1 comments about Stare Back and Smile (Isis Series).

1. Granted, the immeasurably-talented Miss Lumley will be forever associated with her inimitable "Absolutely Fabulous" boozehound, Patsy Stone ("...39, international beauty and fashion guru") -- but as much as we may adore Pats, Lumley's best-known role belies the fascinating and articulate woman behind the character.

   From her birth in India, through her modeling years in Swinging London, through an early small-screen career including virtually every British sitcom you've ever heard of, Lumley approaches both the adventure of world travel and the drudgery of trying to make it in the business with equal good humor, and a charming mix of eloquence and intimacy.

   Do not, however, expect a racy show-biz expose; while honest and earnest, Lumley is downright coy about romantic involvements (and quite tight-lipped about the birth of her son).

   And that, I am happy to report, is extremely refreshing.

   I haven't read the newer biography on Lumley, and I'm not terribly anxious to just yet; after all, Stare Back and Smile is straight from the source -- and I rather enjoy keeping an image of Joanna Lumley (not the actor, but the woman) in my mind just as she intended the reader to envision her.