5 comments about One Lifetime Is Not Enough.

1. This is one of those books that you're embarrassed to be seen reading, buying, or checking out of the library. Zsa Zsa has written the most egotistical book I've ever read! Some of it is SO hard to believe, such as the little chapter about the priest who wanted to break his vows for one night of passion with Ms. Gabor (to make it even more incredible, her husband allegedly encouraged her to accept, telling her that it was his fantasy to see her with a priest). But this book was great entertainment, like a saucy bit out of the National Enquirer. Despite the fact that it may have lowered my IQ a few points, it was worth the hours it took to read it. Great pictures, too, of the young Zsa Zsa, who was a great beauty back in the days.



2. A possible rejected title for Zsa Zsa Gabor's autobiography: "All The Men I Slept With, And All The Gems They Bought Me." Gabor's biography "One Life is Not Enough" is as full of dishing as a kitchen sink, but after a while her gossipy revelations become boring instead of entertaining.

   Born to a rich Hungarian family, Zsa Zsa Gabor first got married at the age of fifteen, but left her husband after the death of her lover, Turkish leader Ataturk. Eight more marriages came after that, including George Sanders, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, and Conrad Hilton (yes, from THAT Hilton family). Not to mention a small army of lovers that included Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Frank Sinatra, and more.

   Gossipy memoirs are always a fun guilty pleasure, the sort of thing to tuck inside a weekly news magazine at lunch. Gabor reveals plenty of sexy details (including making out with Greta Garbo) that are above and beyond even what tabloids usually print, and she does in it a very straightforward, matter-of-fact manner.

   Unfortunately, her exploits start to get annoying. The word "diamond" is used constantly (we get it, Zsa Zsa -- you love diamonds), and there is little of Gabor's life except who she slept with and why. There isn't a great deal about her daughter or family... except when ex-hubby George Sanders married her sister Magda. Some of her stories are questionable -- like Sanders wanting to watch Gabor bed a Catholic priest, or Gabor sleeping with Sinatra to make him leave her apartment. And others raise weird questions (if she's so amazingly sexy, why did her husbands keep cheating?).

   Gabor gushes ad nauseam about her assorted lovers and husbands, few of which are actually around much. Initially, since her first lover was a god-king, it's an interesting tale. But when she gets to Hollywood, these guys mostly start to blur together. What's more, Gabor certainly was telling the truth when she said she liked being around men more than women -- her descriptions of women like Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly and any other beautiful heterosexual actress are pretty catty, to say the least.

   Zsa Zsa Gabor's autobiography starts off as a delicious gossipfest, but eventually deteriorates into a listing of the men she slept with and/or married. "One Life is Not Enough" is way more than enough.




3. I love Zsa Zsa's autobiography! I never read a whole biography in my life without falling asleep, but in this book I coulden't put it down. It was so interesting from start to finish! I am a huge fan of Zsa Zsa now from after reading this incredible book. She has been through so much drama. I hope you find my great review helpful:) ~THIS REVIEW IS DEDICATED TO ZSA ZSA GABOR!~
   ~Always Lorraine~



4. This autobiography of Zsa Zsa Gabor is great. I never usually read books but this one I coulden't put down. It is so interesting on how her life turned out to be! She shares her deep secrets in this whole book. I dont know why anyone woulden't like this book! THIS ONE'S FOR YOU ZSA ZSA! ~Always Lorraine~



5. Zsa Zsa Gabor's "One Lifetime Is Not Enough," is a terrific read. Zsa Zsa Gabor and co-author Wendy Leigh, provide an entertaining, fun, fast-paced book about the glamorous life of the charming, beautiful, spirited, witty, celebrated Zsa Zsa Gabor. I loved it and wish it had been much, much longer!

5 comments about Down Came the Rain: MY JOURNEY THROUGH POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION.

1. This book is so well written, that I would suggest it to anyone who is thinking of having children, or anyone who suspects that they may be suffering from postpartum depression. At first, Brooke just WANTS a child so much. When she finally gets the child, she starts to go through the depression. To add to her sadness, her father dies soon after she has her daughter. She then starts to have divided feelings about her child. She also starts to resent having her freedom greatly compromised. (Even to the point of having a death wish.) Sadly, her mother and others threw 'generic advice' at her, and this nearly drove her to suicide. We can sympathize when she says: "I was a healthy minded and capable woman who simply shouldn't have had a child." It is interesting that when she started to work again, and when she was able to express her honest feelings to objective friends, she really started to sound much better. She also places demands on our sympathy when she points out her flaw: "I had put so much time, effort, and emotion into getting pregnant that I had not really considered how my life might change once I actually had the baby." She also raises a really important issue: "I know families are never perfect, and I am learning to let go of wishing they were." She underlines that 1 in 10 women go through postpartum depression, and that if you suspect you have it, you must seek help. She also says that it is: 'NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF.' She also points out that: "Above all, IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU DON'T LOVE YOUR CHILD." Not only is this book beautifully written, but it is full of vital information. Also, Brooke shows that while we have weaknesses, it IS possible to rise above them.



2. No matter how many other women I speak with who have experienced PPD, I am still relieved to know that I wasn't the only one. I always want to hear their story. I was able to identify with so many aspects of Brooke's depression: guilt, confusion, exhaustion, delusions, but still her experience was uniquely hers. I appreciate the fact that although she is a celebrity, she appears approachable and normal and is a great spokesperson for this condition. I was happy to see that she came out her depression with promising results. This was a really good book.



3. Five stars for this book. I experienced everything Brooke Shields described in her book almost 24 years ago with the birth of my first child. No one (family or doctors) knew what was wrong with me. Of course, I didn't know what was wrong with me since I had wanted a baby so badly and had been fine until the birth of my child. The feelings of despair and regret began in the hospital and almost immediately after giving birth. It was the most confusing period of my life because no one understood. I believe this book is very valuable to all women suffering from this devastating and, at times, unexpected illness.



4. Describes Post Partum Depression
   
   WARNING! Depression hurts and those who do suffer depression may not enjoy this because the main content is her struggle downward. The majority of this book is on the downward trending patterns. This is not happy reading. Do not read this if you just had a baby; do not gift this book to a person who you think has post partum depression and you just want them to "see" that depression is treatable. This is definitely NON-pregnancy reading.
   
   If you have never been able to explain the magnitude and self loathing of depression, Brooke has done it for you. She spends a lot of time describing the slippery slope of feeling out of sorts and not very excited into feeling your absolute and unexplainable worst. In the audio version she reads the story herself and it really does get across the stymied feelings of those around her who could not understand what was going on. She should be on top of the world. Instead she felt it was on top of her.
   
   She documents her way through the maze of depression and page after page you keep saying to yourself "And the Doctor was not on to this???". I think that is part of the point of her writing this, normal healthy people can get very serious depression and the people around them do not know how to react and they do not put depression into the mix. They just work around the equation hoping that this will pass. In her case it was never going to pass on its own.
   
   She covers the awful trip back to herself and how as a person she was as perplexed at how to "feel better" as those around her were to have her be better. This is at times a story you want to speed up and skip over more and more of the exhaustive recounting. Again that is the point of the story- depression is an exhaustive journey.
   
   We recommend the audio more that the written word because it has Brook telling her own story and you can feel her emotions as she tells her story. We also recommend that you buy this discounted because it is not a body work that you keep in your collection unless this topic is related to your field. For the average reader: this is a read and pass it along to another book or an ah-ha! reading to explain something that you may have already have gone through. RICH CHICKS specializes in independent reviews to help you invest in the right product for your dollar. We have left many reviews all over this site.



5. This is a great, informative book that I just finished reading, eight months pregnant. I can agree with the reviewer who suggests it may not be good reading for someone who is in the midst of post partum depression, but in that case perhaps a supportive friend or family member can read it and help the suffering mom get the help she needs. Granted, Brook's case was extreme, and perhaps (as suggested by another reviewer) was closer to post traumatic stress syndrome when you consider all the things in the few years and weeks that led up to this point in her life; so I don't think most women need to fear this extreme type of PPD happening to them. But, I think it's good to know how bad it CAN get and where to get help - there's a list of resources in the back of the book.
   
   As for the negative reviews blasting Brook for her celebrity, don't let that determine whether you buy this book. Those are cheap shots, as if celebrities aren't allowed to be human (I mean, come on, the criticism for her having a nurse clean her off in the hospital, suggesting she's some diva for not doing it herself - she almost died after her emergency c-section! how inhumanly insensitive can you be?). I did not find the book to be self-glorifying in the least. Quite the opposite, in fact. She was real and put deeply personal stuff in this book for the benefit of women who may suffer the same or similar things, at the risk of getting exactly the type of criticism that some have put forth. Bravo to her.

No comments about En Bellas Artes.

5 comments about Family Heart Thea Memoir of Our Son's Coming Out.

1. Upon finding out our 18-year old son was gay, my immediate thought was terror for his safety, having come out right around the time of Matthew Shepard's murder. While reading this book and learning about Bobby and Scottie, it really dawned on me as to how hard it must have been for my son growing up knowing he was gay. I am so thankful that nothing ever happened to him and that we were able to deal with it as a family. I called my son and apologized for not addressing that issue immediately and he confirmed that it was very difficult, but he knew that we would never reject him for any reason, he just knew it would be not be easy for us and he wanted to avoid causing us any pain. I think the typical parental reaction upon hearing that their child is gay is that they will be hurt physically, the loss of a dream for their lives, and how it will affect their own lives. I'm ashamed that I didn't think about my son's feelings before my own. This book really opened my eyes. My husband I have been attending PFLAG meetings for about 10 months now and plan to continue. Initially I was there to receive help from others but now I can actually help others. I'm so glad there are people like Robb Forman Dew out there.



2. Powerful and moving. More evidence of how heterosexism and homophobia hurt EVERYONE.



3. One of life's most painful (and unjustifiable) tragedies is a parent's total and absolute rejection of their gay or bisexual child solely on grounds of sexual orientation, and little of substantive value has been written on the psychological and social dynamics (many dysfunctional) that collide to rip a family soul to shreds. What literature does exist is usually in the form of some self-help advice that is admirable in intent but unlikely for practical application. "The Family Heart ..." is one of the few published works that doesn't go into scholarly psychoanalyzing about the implications when a gay child comes out to his parents. Instead, its author, Robb Forman Dew, shares with refreshing and candid honesty one family's reaction when its son came out. Its welcome candor rests in the dismantling the parental feeling that they "failed" their gay child, the fallacy of keeping the family "secret" and, all too frequently, the "why" for the total loss of parental love because of some prejudicial homophobia that also serves to send the gay child into self-exile, shame and self-loathing. Any family who has endured or is going through problems accepting their gay child can benefit from one family's actual experience and, as important, how it managed to embrace its child as a total product of more than his sexual orientation. In the end, "The Family Heart ..." empowers the parent of the gay child to say, "My child's gay. Big whoop!" With that conclusion, we finally get the idea that the "problem" with homosexuality isn't homosexuality: it's homophobia! And that, reader, is another form of prejudice and ignorance that serves only to inflict pain, degredation and isolation.



4. I found the book to be more a look into the priviledged life than a look into parents dealing with a gay son. The dialogue between parents and son were wonderful to read, but unfortunately, there was very little of it. The book begins with Steve, the Dews' 19 y.o. son, coming home to Massachusetts for the summer after his second year at Yale. After a few days at home, he comes out to his mother when she asks if he's dated any girls at school. His mother comforts him and tells him she still loves him. Later that night, she tells her husband, and he rushes to comfort Steve, also telling him that he will love him no matter what. Throughout the rest of the book, the author discusses the summer, Steve coming out to his younger brother, how the family deals with homophobia from schools and supposed friends, and their eventual involvement with PFLAG. As a lesbian, I was really looking forward to reading this book to get a glimpse of what my parents might have gone through when I first came out. Some of the dialogue ran true for me, but for the most part, I couldn't relate to the author's life enough to enjoy the book. Mostly I just couldn't relate to the family's lifestyle. The two sons both went to private schools and only saw their parents every few months. Then, during the summer when Steve came out, he was only home for a few weeks before the family drove down to VA to his brother's graduation. After the graduation, the brothers went off to Mexico for a Spanish-language immersion program for 6 weeks, leaving directly from D.C. While I appreciate Steve's mother writing a book about her son's homosexuality, the book was primarily about the author since her son was never around. When she said she was shocked that he was gay, I slapped my head thinking "Of course she didn't know! She never even saw him day to day, growing into a young adult!" I ended up feeling like it would have been a much more interesting book if the author actually spent more time with her son or if the book had been written by Steve's younger brother.



5. This book should be required reading for all parents and all adolescents. It brings home with shocking clarity what are real family values.

5 comments about Second Sight.

1. Judith Orloff has a deep mystical current running through this enchanting autobiography. She writes with candor and insight into the intuitive nature we all possess and -if we are wise- whose counsel we heed. Offering a guidebook, life story, and adventure -all in one book, this is highly recommended reading for anyone who feels the tug of spiritual awakening to our mystical potential. I used this book while teaching my college class and students all loved it! Well-written, credible, and delightful!



2. This is a incredible book. You will feel like you've met a new friend in Judith. This book shows that the physic is not a taboo but a beautiful spirtual experience. Everyone who reads this book will be grateful they did.



3. It's like I can take a deep breath and relax now. Someone once asked me "How do you feel when you enter a room where there's a lot of fighting and anger?" My immediate response was: "I recoil and want to run out of there." I thought everybody felt this way. Granted we all feel things up to a certain level, but the notion that I feel more than most never occurred to me. Doesn't everyone? I thought. Learning I was not alone in my experiences was a huge relief and revelation to me. When I read Dr. Orloff's book I felt I had found me. I now knew who I was and could now just simply enjoy what once seemed like a curse. Feeling everything like I have been up to date without understanding it is "crazy making." I now realized no, it's a blessing, I have been given a whole 'nother level of awareness and depth. It is powerful. Hearing Dr. Orloff explain it through sharing her life- it blew the barn doors open. She talks openly about all her experiences as well as how she deeply respects her gifts and how she has combined these with traditional methodologies. Yes, there is a feeling of "safety" that she has credentials when reading this, but for me the true safety comes in how Dr. Orloff has chosen to use her gifts and live her life. She deeply respects what she has and is grateful for it. She does not misuse what she has and adds seriousness and credibility to her spiritual gifts.
   
   I bought a copy of this book for my sister as she feels things on the hyper-sensitive scale as I. My sister gets massive migraines and has been taking medication to manage this. After reading Dr. Orloff's story and learned how she went through a phase of medicating herself to "escape" until she new what to do with what she had been given, I related this to my sister. She opened up to me and told me more things that she had experienced as a child. I now hope that my sister will be able to understand herself an accept and enjoy these gifts she has been given.
   
   As far as I'm concerned Dr. Orloff is opening doors for people and allowing everyone to relax as well as respect a whole arena of the human experience that typically gets shunned, and until very recently even went punished. And the biggest tragedy of all is that these gifts have gone unused, denied and ignored by many and dismissed as sillyness or even crazyness of some kind. With this openess and understanding of what is really going on many can now not waste what they have been blessed with and can live incredibly rich, powerful lives. There's nothing to reject or push away. In fact, this is cause for celebration. Thank you for sharing your story, Dr. Orloff.



4. I have been reading many different books dealing with healing, spiritual growth and energy medicine. Most have a variety of resources to offer and to guide you. In her book, Judith goes beyond techniques. She reveals the difficulties of growing up with a spiritual gift. And what makes her story so different from others is that Judith tells not only the beautiful side of what such a gift can give you, but also the challenges and the incredible responsibility that is imbedded in having psychic abilities.
   
   Judith's book gives you her own story in a clear, passionate and courageous way. She is a pioneer in revealing what most people may not understand; and even reject in an academic and professional setting. It is not easy in such a setting to advance your career and serve others in a meaningful way acknowledging that you have psychic abilities. Judith has been able to do that and has found a way to show others that is possible to have a career without ignoring or rejecting your psychic abilities.
   
   In a time, that many are trying to ¨have psychic abilities ¨ it is a blessing to find someone who shows that those gifts must be developed with a purpose different than just being special or have some power. As she correctly points out those abilities must be embedded in a deep connection with the divine within each of us.



5. Second Sight was recommended to me by a friend who knew of my interest in the psychic, and I am so happy she did...I could not put this book down, looking forward to sitting quietly each morning to read the next chapter in Ms. Orloff's life. A must read for anyone interested in the spiritual, psychic, or healing abilities. With this book, Ms. Orloff has inspired me to reach out and explore a long desired interest in my own psychic abilities and it's spiritual connection. Highly recommended!

1 comments about Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning: How Do I Love Thee? (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought) (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought).

1. "How Do I Love Thee?" was a romantic true love story. In the book, Robert Browning gave Elizabeth "Ba" Barret the courage to love and live life. Ba was an invalid who lived with a widowed, controlling father of seven children. Although, Ba was his pride and joy, he kept her captive through her illness. Ba's poetry caused Robert Browning to fall in love with her and wish to meet her. The two poets' friendship blossomed through their letters; after they met face to face it soon became love. Soon Ba's father was the only thing standing in the way of their true happiness.

   The book begins with a curious statement which holds your attention through the first few chapters. "How Do I Love Thee?" becomes very interesting after Ba and Robert finally meet face to face. The author's incorporation of the love poems of Elizabeth Barret Browning and Robert Browning was terrific addition to the story. The end was disappointing, but the book as a whole was a fantastic true love story of two amazing poets.

5 comments about Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography.

1. I had read a book about Ingrid Bergman by Charlotte Chandler and thought that the book about Joan Crawford would be the same. It was not, it was much worse.
   
   From the title I thought that Charlotte Chandler would a least touch on the abuse that Christina Crawford detailed in Mommy Dearest. Instead the readers are given quotes from Myra Loy who said that she did not want children because of Christina and Christopher Crawford, as well as quotes by one of the twins Joan adopted in 1947 saying that there was no abuse in the Crawford household.
   
   One other thing that the author did not do was research. When writing about Joan Crawford's birth she listed 1908 as the year of her birth when there is evidence that she was born in 1905 and Christina Crawford says Anna (Joan's mother) told her that she was born in 1904.
   
   If you want to know more about Joan Crawford, do not waste your time or money on this book.



2. Any sympathetic biographer of Joan Crawford has to overcome a reader's initial repugnance for the "Joan Crawford" presented in Christina Crawford's autobiography. I admire this author for trying to even the balance, as it were, on Joan Crawford's complex character.
   
   I liked the fact that this biography "talks" to the reader, apparently in Joan Crawford's own words. And while the author is sympathetic to Joan, I never got the impression that anything that passed between Joan Crawford and Ms. Chandler, as reported here by Ms. Chandler, was in any way false, or was said in order to perpetuate a cover-up of Ms. Crawford's "true" character.
   
   From this biography it is easy to see that Lucille LeSeuer, aka Joan Crawford, came from the bottom up. She was an exceptionally strong woman who, with basically no support system from childhood onward, re-invented herself and achieved stardom in Hollywood.
   
   Maybe she wasn't the most nuturing, understanding, warm & cuddly Mother she could be -- I still can't make up my mind that she was a physically abusive one -- but she herself was the receipient of a hard and unloved girlhood, which couldn't have prepared her for being a mother herself.
   
   If it went somewhat wrong between JC and her children (and I think "somewhat" is the right term, because her younger children seemingly have no complaints), it seems appropriate to place the blame on JC's own childhood, which left her emotionally unable to establish strong, continuously loving relationships with anyone but her adoring (and distant) fans.
   
   And one other thing I took away from this biography is, how refreshing to read about a woman who came up from nothing, with sheer hard work, guts and determination.



3. Joan Crawford remains a star! Her claim to fame is awesome. Such a strong woman who used everything she had to get the life she got. Nothing wrong with living as she did. I absolutely loved her. The beauty! The image! The lady! The star! She was all that and more. The Vincent Sherman quotes in the book are priceless. He gave a great candid view of the often media crafted public Joan Crawford. That alone makes this a great read.



4. I like to read biographies. But this one did not give me a picture of what the real Crawford was like. How she wanted to be seen, yes. Crawford's interviews with the author of course put her in the light she wants to be seen in - selfless and generous. For the most part, anyone who spoke about Joan only had good to say, except of course Bette Davis. Crawford would not admit to a "feud" but said she tried numerous times to make friends, but Bette would have none of it. Crawford has nothing but harsh words for her brother, but she criticizes no one in the movie business. She shared that she and Otto Preminger ("nobody liked poor Otto")had the same sense of humor (which must be none). She also said she would not take out the garbage without getting dressed up as "Joan Crawford" first.
   
   Here are the weird parts (to me): Her first three marriages just strangely peter out. The husbands don't know what's wrong (although Fairbanks admits he cheated on her, but said she didn't act like she knew). They would ask her questions, but she would ignore them, and just wouldn't answer, as if that was a normal response between a husband and wife (later her son did the same thing to her, but she didn't see the connection). While married to Fairbanks, she got a cottage by the ocean. When he asked for the phone number, she said she preferred to keep it private. I mean, how do you say that to your own husband? This is a woman who did not discuss problems or feelings. But apparently Fairbanks and Tone stayed on good terms with her, down the road anyway. (Joan invited Tone to leave her house.) Terry's after effects aren't mentioned. No mention of beatings, drinking, etc.
   
   Also, how did her looks change so radically? In her childhood photos, she has faint eyebrows and thin lips. The photo taken around the time she arrived in Hollywood (according the the author) shows her with narrow lips and eyebrows which slant downwards (they look real). However, as time goes on, her eyebrows, still thin, have a high arch. These could be completely drawn on, you can't really tell from the pictures in the book, but on the one on the cover, they look genuine. Her lips become fuller, that could always be makeup, but it's strange how they have completely changed shape . Later her eyebrows become even thicker, but still very arched. These look real too. Even later, her eyebrows become black caterpillars, very rounded and super black, not arched up and away. Her lips are even thicker. Her makeup got more and more clownish. What's up with all that? I kept looking from picture to picture trying to figure it out. The author makes no note of it. Just that Joan said she wore a size four shoe and everybody said how tiny she was, with a big head and shoulders. At least in her autobiography, Lana Turner tells how she lost her eyebrows (they shaved them off every day for a film, and they never grew back), so they always had to be drawn on. Therefore, they looked different in different pictures. Crawford doesn't even look like the same person as she develops.
   
   With dates, the author is vague and explicit as she pleases. When Joan enters grade school (year not given), she is three years behind the other students because she has never been enrolled in school. When she graduates from the school she's attending, according to the year, she would be fourteen. She then begins high school, graduating a year later (?). So at fifteen she's on her own, and before she's seventeen, she been asked to Hollywood. According to Fairbanks, he's 19 and Joan is a few years older than he, when they begin their romance. A few pages later, Joan tells the author that they were both in their "late teens." The author makes no note of the discrepancy.
   
   In at least one movie synopsis, the author is inaccurate. In "The Best of Everything" Gregg does not end up happy in her personal or professional life. I also don't remember certain things she says Veda said in "Mildred Pierce" but I'll have to watch the video again. Most of the movies, I've never seen, so I don't know if their summaries are correct. I didn't really like them being sandwiched in between the writing either. Some of them I skipped as I wasn't interested - they all seemed to be about a girl having to decide between two men.
   
   The book is pro-Crawford rather than pro-truth. It just isn't realistic that Joan was that wonderful with nary a bad trait. Where's the proof that she paid for this hospital room (for the poor employees)for forty years? Just because somebody said she said she was going to? Her oldest children Christina and Chris were just willful, spiteful and refused to accept her love...or maybe they just didn't want to eat raw meat.
   
   But there are hints. On their honeymoon night she screams at Douglas Fairbanks to pick up his socks. Later he says he never saw her lose her temper so Christina's book could not be true. One of the younger children, talks mainly about all the chores she and her twin had to do, and while she says their life was wonderful, she doesn't really give any examples. Well, Joan did pick her up from school one time when she was injured - but why is that so remarkable? Isn't that what a mother normally does?



5. Not the Girl Next Door is not the book we Crawford fans wanted, which is a pity because Charlotte Chandler has never before let me down. Her book on Bette Davis was astonishingly good! What happened with Crawford? Don't know. All I could think of was that she had this one new angle--that Crawford wasn't so bad--and she had to hold on to it despite all evidence to the contrary. She was able to interview a reclusive Crafword daughter, one who had never spoken before to the press, and their conclusions were that a) Christopher was evil, and b) Christina encouraged his weird behavior and alienated a loving, devoted Joan.
   
   I agree with the other reviewer who was tempted to review the hairdo in the author photograph in this book. You can't see it from here, can you, but maybe there's a Charlotte Chandler dot.com in which she displays her magnificent, Jeff Koonslike hair that occupies most of the photo space like a headdress by Carmen Miranda. She looks like a playing card, but not in a bad way, that hair makes one feel very affectionate towards her, plus it looks as though she could smuggle small cats and dogs in it, so it gives her some compassionate cachet.
   
   The book comes alive in a lengthy description of the fairytale romance between Crawford and the young Douglas Fairbanks Jr, their attraction for each other and the thrill of being "young Hollywood" in the shadow of the two older players, her in-laws. Fairbanks' memories in old age of his "salad days" are warm and genial, but then the book grows faint and spotty and we never get an idea of who Franchot Tone was, Philip Terry and Pepsi Cola Guy blur in a haze. If this wonderful and gracious Joan is who she really was, then give me back my monster!

No comments about The Village Doctor (Reminiscence S.).

1 comments about Queen Victoria: Library Edition.

1. Knowing little about Queen Victoria, I was looking for a good biography. In "Queen Victoria" I hit the jackpot! This book strikes just the right balance between revealing the life of the private woman, wife, widow and mother and the Queen of her people, while giving the reader an insight into the public affairs of her time.

   Victoria's life can be divided into four segments. The first is her youth during which she grew up with her mother after the death of her father. During this segment of her life, she was protected by her mother to the intense irritation of her uncle, King William IV. During this period, Victoria and her mother enjoyed a close relationship which was to terminate after Victoria's accession to the throne..

   The second era of her life can be described as the Albert era. Although I greatly enjoyed the TV movie, "Victoria and Albert", I understood it much more after this movie. Albert, Victoria's first cousin and consort, is the one who really emerges as the star of the book. Although reluctant to marry Victoria, she clearly fell head over heels for him. After their wedding, Albert became Victoria's trusted confident and advisor, to the point of becoming the defacto monarch. Always "The Foreigner", Albert won the trust and admiration of British politicians, industrialists, commercial and social leaders. In domestic relations, Albert helped bring about a reconcillation between Victoria and her mother. As a businessman who reorganized Victoria's estates to multiply their return or a statesman molding Britain's foreign policy, Albert was superb. An example of the importance of his influence is found in his last diplomatic intervention during the Trent Affair. The Trent Affair was an incident in which the Trent, a British flag vessel, was stopped and searched by a ship of the United States Navy, which removed two Confederate agents. An incendiary protest was toned down by Albert to one which would lead to a peaceful solution, rather than to war. If Albert had died a month earlier, the United States may have either lost the South or won Canada.

   The third segment of Victoria's life is her tragic widowhood. Totally dependent on Albert during his life, Victoria was devastated by his death. For years thereafter she almost totally withdrew from her royal duties, despite the efforts of her ministers to lure her back into public life.

   During the fourth segment of her life, Victoria returned to public life as the mother of her country and grandmother of Europe. Emerging to the adulation of her people, Victoria resumed her rides through London, her tours of the Kingdom and the entertainment of her royal relations. During this period a major portion of her diplomacy was involved with her irritating grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

   This book certainly portrays Victoria as a Queen unlike those with which we are familiar. Not mere figureheads, Victoria and Albert were actively involved in public affairs. Among their surprising topics were dynastic relations and stipends for her children.

   In this book we also get a glimpse at some of the political figures who Victoria loved and hated.

   All things considered, this book is an excellent introduction to a most unique lady.

5 comments about Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History.

1. It is my pleasure to invite you to read this book. Inheriting the Trade is about Tom's journey with his relatives as they documented the story of their ancestors being the largest group of slave traders in America. Their experience is told in the recently released movie: Traces of the Trade.
   
   This book stopped me in my tracks and invited me to ask questions and see new truths about myself.
   It is not just the story of one family, but of an entire world and all of us in it.
   
   Be ready to take your time when you read this and listen to the questions that surface in your heart. Answer them honestly and you will learn about more than slavery in the past, you will discover your own position and how it is influenced by privilege, your own and others still today.
   
   I highly recommend this book.



2. Learning about your family's slave trading empire must be hard to stomach, and the members of the family who undertook to study the facts deserve credit for facing up to it. Too bad they didn't hire a qualified historian to write their story. Inheriting the Trade reminds me of those self-indulgent, melodramatic "encounter groups" that were so popular in the 1970's. Let's beat up on each other for things we never did, just for being who we are. And along the way, let's read endless descriptions about the participants' clothing, jobs, hair color, and denial. And let's ignore the fact that people of all races have been enslaved at one time or another, by one culture or another.
   Slavery is deplorable, but an avalanche of angst is useless and a waste of energy that could better be expended on finding solutions to the problems that separate the races in 2008. What did the deWolfs gain from the evils perpetrated by their ancestors? Well, among their apparently endless "privileges" is the right to write a book and make a TV program.



3. Like Traces of the Trade, the authors lack the courage to jump in, and like the stink of Zen, grasping their pride and privilege, it all looks like new age capitalists creating a new ego of "nice people" with wayward ancestors, standing firmly on the high-ground on a very un-level playing field.
   Resting in wealth and capitalistic venture, what is so sad is the lack of courage to jump in the freezing water and suffer the death of their egos.
   Without taking a vow of poverty, these fat cats will always look like Zen priests in there pretty robes, in a world of immense suffering and pain as children are incested, burned, and beaten by their parents, also children of parents generations later. Where is the commitment?
   And they sell books...



4. I looked forward to reading "Inheriting the Trade" by Thomas Norman DeWolf when I first heard it mentioned on National Public Radio. I ordered it with high expectations, (maybe unrealistically high), hoping it would match up favorably to Edward Ball's revelatory "Slaves in the Family."
   
   Sadly, this book under-performs. By his own admission, Thomas Norman DeWolf is no historian. While one need not be a historian to write about this compelling subject, DeWolf frequently presents a cluttered and annoying mix of historical fact with personal opinion. While it is no a crime to interpret history in one's own way, the mush of blended facts and opinion DeWolf presents becomes increasingly frustrating to the careful reader. A trained historian would support his opinions with a critical analysis of facts, building conclusions one brick at a time.
   
   The DeWolf Family of Bristol, Rhode Island is a family of prominence and privilege, with a national reputation.
   
   While most of the "Family of Ten," who travel the historical journey with the author come from the more privileged side of the family, with backgrounds of wealth, status and Ivy-League education, Thomas Norman DeWolf himself comes from the less privileged side of the family. He lives in a county in Oregon with a mimimal percentage of black people, a state with one of the lowest percentages of black people. His presentation of himself is as a man laden with personal guilt for not mixing with black people, for not having had a black person as a business colleague, for not having a black person as a friend, for not understanding black people.
   
   From this perspective, he opines that all whites have "complicity" for what has gone on between the races through decades and centuries of American history. He rails against the founding fathers and he condemns the first five presidents who hail from Virginia (since they were slaveholders for parts of their lives). DeWolf does not present the controversy and struggle to end "the peculiar institution." He does not seem to know much American history. He claims that he and whites generally have "amnesia" about slavery, about the slave trade and about race issues. Where has he been hiding? His high school and university education must have been sorely lacking. Does he not know how many people, black and white, north and south, for decades and centuries worked to end the maritime slave trade, for the abolition of slavery, for equal rights in society? Did he "forget" how many Americans strove to end the practice long before it finally did end?
   
   DeWolf is on much more solid ground when he delves into the history of the 18th and 19th century maritime slave trade and the specific role played by certain DeWolf Family ancestors. These relatives are presented in a well-done genealogical chart at the front of the book which the wise reader will frequently refer back to. These were the ones who were involved in the maritime slave trade when it was still legal and who continued in it after 1808, when it became illegal. The best parts of "Inheriting the Trade" are in this portion of the book and these parts compare with the best historical documentation in "Slaves in the Family." Unfortunately, there is much less here than I would have liked to learn about the DeWolf family members as they continued in the illegal slave trade--such as how they got away with it, who assisted them, identifying complicit political figures who looked the other way or may have been paid-off.
   
   On the Cuban leg of his trip with the "Family of Ten," the family visits a sugar mill museum. Perhaps the most insidious of all the DeWolf ancestors who engaged in the illegal maritime slave trade was the one who established several plantations (coffee and later sugar) after fleeing Rhode Island for Cuba. Again the guilt emotion in the author is paramount: Thomas DeWolf feels "white man's guilt" when he notes the mark of a Buffalo, New York manufacturer on a 19th Century sugar mill press.
   
   DeWolf does understand that slavery was above all, an economic institution. He makes it quite clear that the maritime slave trade was extremely lucrative and that is why the more notorious members of his family continued to engage in it, even after it was made illegal.
   
   A few other points are important to remember: It was Africans who sold other Africans into slavery. Lots of people, not just whites "share the blame" for the slave trade. It is estimated that from 5 to 10 percent of slaves in 18th and 19th century America were owned by black people who could afford them; some of these "black" owners were the mixed-race offspring of black and white people, who understood the peculiar insitution quite well. After all, slavery was above all else, an economic institution.
   
   Many historians believe that that was why it took so long and was so difficult to end. Let's also not forget that it took a four-year long Civil War, an Emancipation Proclamation and three constitutional amendments. Let's also not forget that something pretty close to slavery continues today in the Sudan and that there is effectively, chattel ownership of people from certain tribes in some of the former Portugese colonies in sub-Saharan Africa.
   
   "Inheriting the Trade," is admirable for it its message of compassion. Unfortunately, DeWolf's guilt trip that he wants to lay on the whole of the white race gets in the way of finding effective solutions to problems. America needs to focus on class issues more than race issues. Poverty is much more a function of class and education than it is of race. America is an increasingly diverse country, home to people with origins from all over. Issues like reparations (to whom? from whom?) only serve to drive wedges between people. The past cannot be undone--only the future changed.
   
   
   
   



5. Most people who have taken the time to review Thomas DeWolf's "Inheriting The Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave Trading Dynasty in U.S. History" give this book extremely high marks. Reviewer Linda Pagliuco begs to differ. She deemed the book worthy of a mere two stars and opined that the book "reminds me of those self-indulgent, melodramatic "encounter groups" that were so popular in the 1970's. Let's beat up on each other for things we never did, just for being who we are." This is a fair point but I cannot dismiss this story altogether. Rather, I applaud the DeWolf family for participating in this ambitious project with the goal of discovering for themselves the horrible truths surrounding how the family fortune was made. In documenting the group's emotional journey from Bristol RI to West Africa and then back to Cuba, Thomas Dewolf offers his readers unique insights into how the nasty business of the Triangle Trade was conducted. Even though I have read a couple of other books on the slave trade I found that "Inheriting The Trade" presents this sordid tale of human misery from a very intimate perspective that I simply have not found anywhere else.
   They called themselves the "Family of Ten". The members of the DeWolf family who participated in this project hailed from points all over the nation. Author Thomas Dewolf resides in Bend, OR and had never met any of the family members before. The group met for the very first time in Bristol, RI in July 2001 at the behest of Katrina Browne and over the next several weeks would embark on an adventure that would change them all forever. One of the objectives of the project was to produce a documentary film about the experience they were all about to share. Over the next few weeks the group would retrace the exact path of the Triangle Trade. Being a native Rhode Islander I was stunned to learn that more than half of all the slave trade voyages made from North America during this period originated from our tiny state. The book chronicles the group's trip to Ghana on the west coast of Africa where the slave trade thrived for so many years. The description of the conditions that these African men and women were forced to endure while waiting to be transported to Cuba and other destinations in the West can only be described as heartbreaking. Meanwhile, the same can be said for the deplorable conditions on the ships as well. While there was a pretty significant mortality rate amongst both the slaves and the ships crews it is truly amazing that more people did not die on these voyages. From Ghana the group moved on to the island of Cuba where they visited the locations of some of the DeWolf family plantations. Not much remains but all found it to be a very emotional experience.
   Although it took several years to complete the documentary film "Traces of the Trade: A Story From The Deep North" was finally released in 2006. Although I have not yet seen it myself I have been told that it a very powerful film.
   At the end of the day I thought that on balance "Inheriting The Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy As The largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History" was a very worthwhile project. Perhaps because I hail from the Ocean State this one managed to hold my attention most of the time. But like reviewer Linda Pagliuco I could have done with a bit less of the group therapy. The story of the slave trade is powerful enough in its own right. If you know little or nothing about the topic at hand then "Inheriting The Trade" would not be a bad place to start.