5 comments about Growing Up.

1. My three favorite books about growing up, "My Dog Skip", "The Old Man and the Boy", and this book, "Growing Up" by Russell Baker, were all written by newspaper and magazine journalists with Southern roots. There must be some southern storytelling tradition that turns out writers of great memoirs. This is a charming book, full of love of family, humor, and growing up during the difficult history of the depression. I have read and re-read this book, and always find something to laugh about or something that touches me deeply. I expected the reviews of this book to be all five-star accolades, and I am shocked and alarmed by the several reviewers who found the book "boring" and "repetitive". I can't help but wonder what comprises excitement in such readers' lives.



2. WHen I first encountered "Growing Up" in 1983, I thought it was dull. Once I allowed myself to be patient, I realized how wrong I had been. When I allowed myself the time to read, "Growing Up" became a pleasure and a classic I have since read several times. Baker spent his early years in Virginia, in a time before modern communication. People in that time and place took their time telling a story, but good storytellers always get to a point. Those of us born after WWII have to learn not to expect instant gratification. A book like "Growing Up" teaches you that if you will let the storyteller tell his story, you will be caught up in his magic. Take the time to read "Growing Up" and I bet you will be sorry when you get to the end, hungering for more about Russell Baker and his family. Like all families, there is pain and anger, conflict and crisis, but at the core, in "Growing Up" and in the Baker family, there is deep love.



3. Wanting to have a little more insight into the life of someone living through the Great Depression (besides my father) I found this book "filled the bill". The book isn't exciting and doesn't really have a plot, but is more like a "day in the life" of a young man living in hard circumstances and being too young to understand the depth of the hardships. The author has an engaging writing style that kept me from putting the book down. I found I felt like I knew him and could feel his fears, embarassments,and his insecurities.



4. Note: Some immature Mormon has been slamming my reviews because I wrote some negative reviews of books attempting to defend the Book of Mormon.
   
   So your "helpful" votes are greatly appreciated. A shorter review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great book. I've just noted the general theme. Thanks
   
   Inside my paperback copy of Russell Baker's book, I wrote "Great Book!"
   This was in 1985, and I would rank this memoir as one of the best I have ever read.
   
   From his youth in rural Virginia through the Depression in Baltimore, the very best of America shines though in this charming autobiography. I laughed till I cried at Baker's description of living above his uncle's funeral parlor. Whenever families gathered, he provided shrimp, and so whenever the young Russell smelled shrimp, he knew there was a funeral.
   
   Mrs. Baker's determination to raise a good family after her husband's death was inspiring. My own father died when I was fifteen, so I could see my mother in her--even though my story was set in the 1960s, not the 1930s.
   
   Highly recommended. I would also highly recommend the "Autobiography of Malcolm X." A very powerful account of Malcolm X's life. I do not agree with his religion, but I was inspired at how he turned away from a life of crime and made a better man of himself. In the last few years of his life, he turned away from the racism against whites that he had earlier believed.
   
   The Autobiography of Malcolm X : As Told to Alex Haley
   The Autobiography of Malcom X



5. too long, boring, pointless.....if i wrote a book about coming of age, i would definitely have more action to report.

5 comments about Benjamin Franklin : An American Life.

1. It is enlightening how the spectrum at which Benjamin Franklin's contributions to America can hardly be contained in one book. A glimpse into his common sense, wisdom, and morality are organized with precision and passion through Walter Isaacson's masterpiece. I now better understand Franklin's connection with other fathers of our country and have a deeper desire to learn about them as well.
   
   Futhermore, I am impressed at the background of the author. His experience and education give me more respect for his work.



2. In "Benjamin Franklin," Walter Isaacson manages to chronicle the life of Franklin in a thorough, well-analyzed fashion, while simultaneously allowing the reader to draw many of his own conclusions from the research presented in the book.
   
   I was intrigued to read this book after reading David McCullough's "John Adams." It's certainly no secret that Adams and Franklin did not get along terribly well during the bulk of their interactions in Europe, and reading that book left me guessing that, in all likelihood, there was another side to the story.
   
   While at times it seemed that McCullough could be somewhat heavy-handed in his judgment toward Franklin, I felt that Isaacson did a good job presenting the most likely facts of the case and allowing the reader to determine the most likely manner in which the pieces fit together. He did certainly tend to err on the more sympathetic side of controversies surrounding Franklin, and was probably to generous in his judgment of Franklin's thoroughly practical and emotionless approach toward religion.
   
   One thing I appreciated about this book relative to most other colonial era biographies was the focus on the years prior to the revolution, which obviously encompassed the bulk of Franklin's life. Franklin's life leading up to the revolution seems to serve as a microcosm of the views of the colonies in the years between the French and Indian War and the Revolution.
   
   All in all, I heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in colonial America and the founding fathers.



3. Initially I imagined reading this book from time to time, knowing I would "eventually" complete it.
   
   Well, I was wrong. Isaacson's book is so engaging and Franklin so remarkable that I wasn't able to stop reading until the 84-year-old Franklin had come to the end of his life. If school books could be so appealing (and more teachers as captivated by history as Isaacson is by Franklin) - then soon we'd have a land full of knowledgeable history lovers. It would do a nation good.
   
   You also can learn more about Franklin's worldview on thinkwriter.blogspot.com. He was the right man at the right time in America's history. . . and I daresay readers will appreciate him on a whole new level after reading Isaacson's book. Enjoy - no matter how long it takes you!



4. I am a fan of narrative nonfiction history, so I was a bit offset when I started reading Benjamin Franklin. It's not really a narrative biography, but by the end of the first page, I didn't care.
   
   The book is well written by Walter Isaacson and it is about a fascinating man. I knew very little about Benjamin Franklin when I began this book. Not so now.
   
   Isaacson looks at the many facets of the man's life--printer, author, politician, diplomat, revolutionary, inventor, scientist. Franklin was a man who defined his time and defined America, as can be seen by the fact that's he's the only American who signed all 4 crucial documents in America's founding.
   
   Isaacson also looks at Franklin's faults and contradictions. Though Isaacson tries to figure out how they could exist in Franklin, he never quite manages to get inside Franklin's head.
   
   All in all, it was a very enjoyable read. I came away with a new appreciation of Franklin.



5. Benjamin Franklin's long and productive life has a special appeal to many people. As Isaacson suggests, perhaps he is the founder who appeals to so many people because he seems more accessible. There are several things I learned in this book that I had not really considered before, mainly his relationship with his family and the opinions others had of him in succeeding generations. As the author remarks, we picture him (somewhat inaccurately) as a spectacled, elderly man engaging in his kite experiment or we see him dispensing maxims about industry and frugality. In reality, there was much more to the man than these images would suggest.
   
   We sometimes stereotype famous individuals of the past as one-dimensional, but we are delighted and sometimes chagrined to learn that they are just as complex as we are. Franklin was no exception. We see in this book aspects of his relationships with people and his family that we would not normally come across in a brief glance of the man. He would, literally, be distant from his common law wife Deborah as his overseas trips would end up as years away from home. He would part ways with his son (illegitimate son) William over the independence debate. He would champion the cause of the artisan class and the middling sort, but just as easily associate with the powerful and the rich.
   
   His varied interests and life experiences certainly endear him to many people. Not many founders can claim to have done as many varied things as Franklin. He wasn't a skilled orator or debater, or as deep a political philosopher as other founders were, as the author touches on, but these are probably other examples of why he seems more accessible to people. He was both conservative and liberal on varied issues, but was generally more democratic than other founders. He was also a very tolerant man when it came to religious sects. He was a scientist who believed in practical inventions and solutions; he wasn't as caught up in the language or theories as other scientists were.
   
   I've left out much on his well known role during and after the American Revolution. This isn't to minimize his accomplishments in his profession or in the critical events of his day, in which he was often a key player. The author ably covers all of these important facets of Franklin's life. The numerous acquaintances with various people in this country and those in England and France, the flirtatious correspondences with some of his women admirers, and so forth are also ably covered here.
   
   Clearly, the author likes this middle class / populist appeal of Franklin's and tries to present him in such a light. This is a wonderfully written biography that sheds much light on the man.

5 comments about Moses a Man of Selfless Dedication.

1. Swindoll takes references to Moses from both the Old and New Testaments and weaves them together with observations and reflections into a relational, nonacademic read that gives the reader a grip on not just what Moses did, but on who Moses was as a person--and how he became that person by God's grooming. Through his conversational, anecdotal style, Swindoll invites the reader to personally take note of and apply divine principles as fleshed out by Moses--for ex, total surrender to God's will and timing, enablement for service, challenges of opposition from without and within, standing alone with God, passing on the baton, etc.



2. I have both this book and his study guide on Moses. I found these books to be instructional to me because God uses hard times of the school of experience to teach us things.
   "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" (Heb. 12:7, NIV)
   Further Paul says:
   "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest in righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Heb. 12:11, NIV)
   Moses was miraculously delivered from a genocide against the male Hebrew babies living in Egypt when they were slaves. Moses exprienced the best of Egyptian life as he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.
   But when Moses had felt sympathy for a fellow Hebrew who was being beaten by the cruel Egyptain slavedriver, he killed the man: and in so doing this the act backfired on him. He must have thought he was causing a revolution against the Egyptians, but instead found himself running for his life out of the country.
   He was reduced to working as a shepherd in Midian. He married the priest's daughter and worked as a shepherd for him for 40 years!@
   "Can you believe it? A man with advanced knowledge in hieroglyphics, science, literature, and military tactics was now eking out his existence on the backside of the desert, living with his father-in-law, raising a couple of boys and watching over little flocks of sheep."
   There were groupings of 40 year periods of time in Moses'life-40 years in the Pharahoah's household, 40 years "living on the lam" in Midian and his 40 years leading the Hebrews throuth the desert to the land of Canann in the Exodus.
   God wished to humble Moses, a former murderer and fugitive so as to make him into a suitable vessel or conduit of God's miraculous power which he would used in his confrontations with the Pharaoh and during the Exodus.
   God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and sent him to his people and to the Pharaoh with the ultimatum LET MY PEOPLE GO! God worked mighty miracles through Moses and his brother Aaron to make the Pharaoh obey God. What I did notice was how at first the Pharaoh was conviced to obey God's command. Yet God himself with harden the Pharaoh's heart (make it hostile towards God and Moses again_ so that God had more moral justification to inflict more damage on Egypt. God had "stacked the deck" with Pharaoh, so to speak. Finally, it took the Destroying Angel killing all the firstborn of Egypt to make Pharaoh let his people go.
   The last thing I found of interest in Chuck's study of the life of Moses was that when the Hebrews rebelled against God that God simply wanted to wipe them out and make Moses the new father of Israel. Then at Midian when Moses stuck the rock to make water gush from it instead of speaking to it, Moses disobeyed God and lost his right to enter Canaan. I think if I were in Moses' shoes I think I would have just let God wipe the whole ungrateful nation out!
   Moses was the greatest prophet of the Bible, short of Jesus Christ, of couse.
   What I like about some Chuck Swindol books is that you realize that the heroes of the Bible are some rough men who are at odds with society at times. Some have been to prison for their beliefs, too. Some have been executed for what they stood for. Some of the churches and teachings I have heard from some, make me think that the church in the suburbs is like some postive-thinking suburban girl's finishing school! That is sooo-unbiblical!



3. Mother Theresa of Calcutta used that phrase to describe her work. Moses was a reflection of that statement.
   
   You cannot outwit God. Herod tried to kill all the toddlers but Moses was saved by a warning in a dream. The Court of Egypt banished him into the desert but he returned to set the Israelites free. Pharoah's magicians tried to avert the 10 plagues but God's will won.
   
   Moses was a pencil in the writing of Exodus. Christianity and Islam both acknowledge him for the great mission he played.
   
   I agree with another reviewer, Michael Taylor, on whom God uses and why. God will use anyone and anything in his Divine plan.



4. Chuck Swindoll beautifully brings Moses to life. One has a common picture of Moses in the "10 Commandments" by Cecil Demille in their minds. Through this book, one will truly begin to see why Moses is listed in Hebrews in the "Hall of Faith Hereos."



5. Excellent book that every Christian should read. Dr. Swindoll does an excellent job of sharing the life of Moses and comparing it to what happens in our lives; our impatience and how it affects us verses waiting for God's timing.

2 comments about Elizabeth Taylor: A Tribute.

1. This tribute is a mastermind to all thanks. It is great! It tells of her works, and just, well I am speachless. It is just great. Get the real thing, get this. The real Liz that we should all pay homage to.

   Thanks Geoffrey for such a wonderful recording.




2. This book is too self-obsorbing. Not much sustance. Mostly entertaining fun.

5 comments about Slaves in the Family.

1. Some reviewers below complain that this book is tedious. Well, sure. I bet the US Constitution and the Bible are tedious to someone who has no clue about, or doesn't care about, their context. To anyone with some understanding of US history, the project of writing this book marks a step forward in race relations, however big or small that step may turn out to be. If you care even a little about why this country is the way it is, this book crackles with a searing flame.
   
   Ball writes about visiting a wary African American man in Chapter 6, and what that man says at the end of his interview speaks for me and my opinion of the book. "Someone has to break the ice. I gotta give you credit, you were man enough to do it."
   
   People won't agree whether reconciliation or forgiveness apply in this situation, and I'm not sure either. But this is the author's best effort at telling the objective truth about black-white relations as it was lived by individuals over the centuries. "I decided I would make an effort, however inadequate and personal, to face the plantations, to reckon with them rather than ignore their realities or make excuses for them."
   
   Chapter 9 describes the shocking child mortality figures on the plantations. And on a slave voyage from Africa to Charleston, over a third of the captive passengers died en route - just the cost of doing business to the owners. No wonder some try to deny this history; it's too painful. Yet, the book also provides some episodes of humanity and hope. Readers will emerge with a greater understanding of our history and human nature. Maybe they'll become more vigilant against trespasses on human life and dignity in our own day as well.



2. I thought this was a good read. I especially appreciated the details of the types of Africans that the planters preferred and detested. I recommend this book. Yes, I do agree that the author's writing style was dry. However, I find most books that have a historical base, unless it is fiction, to be dry as cracker.



3. Oh my gosh! I didn't realize that Dawn Langley Simmons had passed away. When I purchased her book about the life of Margaret Rutherford, "A Blithe Spirit", I wrote to Dawn, and was surprised to receive a reply from her or him. For several years she/he corresponded and now I realize that she/he may have mis-represented herself. She did send me several photos of Margaret Rutherford. Interesting story.



4. Edward Ball made a courageous journey into his family's past when he researched and wrote this book about their slave owning history, and took the step of searching out and meeting descendants of their slaves. This paperback edition includes an insightful follow-up exchange between the author and one of his black relatives about the writing of the book, their relationship, and how their views of race relations have and have not changed since its writing. The book inspired me both to think deeply about my attitude towards race and to read more about southern history, using the prism of slave ownership and my own family's southern geneaology as a focus. Related recommendations: The Ruling Race: A History of American Slaveholders] and [ASIN:0465015557 My Confederate Kinfolk



5. Quite often history textbooks can be dry and boring. Edward Ball's "Slaves in the Family" illuminates many larger historical events -- the slave trade, the institution of slavery, plantation economies, the Revolutionary War, The Civil War, and Emancipation -- and brings these events down to the human level, to the place where flesh and blood people lived through these events, how the events shaped them, and how they in turn contributed to history.
   
   Ball's careful, meticulous research wove oral accounts with written records kept so well by the Ball family, giving a credible, well-balanced view of plantation life, slavery, and how it impacted the lives of both black and white Ball plantation residents.
   
   Ball paid special note to the nuances of each speaker's story as told, not only through their words, but also their body language. He is an astute observer of people's reactions and unspoken thoughts.
   
   I highly recommend this fasinating book. I couldn't lay it down.

5 comments about Makes Me Wanna Holler.

1. Whether you admire or despise the author, this is an outstanding book. I bought it for my library (large international school in Switzerland) and read it when it first came out in the early 90's. It moved me in a way few books ever have, and I read a lot. I've just re-read it (March 2008) and it is as powerful to me now as it was over a decade ago.
   
   Lots of reviews on amazon judge this author one way or another, but I leave it to the reader to think critically and honestly about the book's message.
   
   I just purchasd this book for my current library (large school in Hong Kong). I recommend it for high schools as the issues of adolescence and personal growth are very relevant to teens, it supports humanities curriculum and introduces debate on human rights, civil rights, racism, responsibility, and much more. I especially recommend it for public libraries in North America as everyone at some point has encountered dilemmas and frustrations such as McCall's (though perhaps not for the same reason or in the same situation). His message is so powerfully positive and hopeful and so brilliantly written, that this is one of my all-time favorite books.



2. First of all, if you start this book, you really should push yourself to get through the first half. That part is brutal, and unfortunately, if people stop there, it might only confirm some shallow stereotypes about black men. McCall and his crew were very dangerous, destructive teenagers. However, in recounting the later part of his maturity, McCall makes clear that there are still powerful societal influences that instill frustration, rage, and self-hatred in black people, forces that can make it difficult to resist lashing out or crumbling inward with compulsive, abusive, and self-destructive behavior.
   
   America costs itself so much talent by continuing to abuse its non-white people, subtly beating them down in countless ways, rather than building them up so they can see, live, and act the good that is in all of us. (The obvious disparities in black and white school systems is only one of the more obvious ways that this collective beat-down still goes on.) McCall shows how he managed to draw on a solid family background and his own willpower to push away the negative messages and temptations of his environment. He also does an excellent job of showing how an instilled self-hatred prevents so many others from living up to their potential. Thank you Mr. McCall for showing us your exemplary self so honestly, warts and all.



3. although this book consists of parts where i thought i was going to puke (especially things done to girls), it still captured my attention. mccall delivers a personal REAL MESSAGE......this is the kind of talk some troubled teens need now a days instead of trying to be so politically correct all the time.....i read this book many years ago and i can still remember very vividly the events, thus it is an impacting book!



4. I read this book while a passenger on a drive to Florida. It was so compelling that I found myself reading sections to my husband as we drove. This was about three years ago. We STILL mention issues from this book. Should be mandatory reading for young people....especially those from Portsmouth, where the writer grew up, and where we live today.



5. Nathan's McCall's book is an extremely well written autobiography. McCall discusses the deep turmoil that many young Black men face. If you are looking for true answers about the young Black male psyche this is the book.
   
   McCall is unfiltered and selfless trut his past. He shows how a young Black man from a working-class family goes from a straight A student to a gang-member, drug dealer who runs trains on different girls etc.
   
   Does McCall make excuses--NO He only gives explanations to his actions.
   Does McCall talk about how deeply racism effects the Black male? YES
   Does McCall touch on how White privelege effects the Black Community? Most definitely
   
   Because of this book I understand why there are so many young Black men behind bars and on street corners. I will be purchasing this book for many of my family members and friends.

3 comments about Among the Porcupines/Audio Cassettes.

1. I read this book from cover to cover without putting it down once! Matthau lived and shared the story of a life that young girls from Texas only dream of. I loaned my copy of this book-mistake!- and now learn it is out of print. Please consider printing more. Those stories are as close as most of us will ever get to the privileged existence of Carol, her friends and lovers and to experience, vicariously, the glamour and excitement of that "stardusted" New York City.



2. What a beautiful and honest memoir!I thoroughly enjoyed every page and thank the author for sharing her life stories so freely!



3. This book is on my short list of all time favorites. Carol Matthau lived a fairy tale life, from rags to riches.
   How many people can say they grew up with Truman Capote? How many can say they married William Saroyan (twice) AND Walter Matthau? Who else chummed around with Gloria Vanderbilt and Oona O'Niel as young girls and as women? Her writing style brings them all to life on the page with both shocking and warm stories.
   
   One of my favorite stories in the book is about a pair of diamond earrings that Gloria Venderbilt designed and had made for her. She was married to William Saroyan at the time and he made Carol return the earrings to Gloria. Her description of the earrings is so astonishing, they sound so mesmerizing, that I'll always wonder what happened to them. What I wouldn't give to at least get a glimpse of them!

3 comments about Mothers & Daughters (Nova Audio Books).

1. This book is special to me because my Great Grandmother and her daughters (as well as my grandmother who raised me) are in the book. My "Granny" will be 100 years old in 1999 and has been an inspiration to us all. I've often thought her story should be told and while this is a very short version among many I was pleased with the gentle way they captured her essence.



2. I purchased this book as a holiday gift for my child's teacher. She has a close but intense relationship with her mother, and I thought she would enjoy the topic. Now, I have my fingers crossed and am holding my breath a bit. The black and white photography is beautifully compelling. At times, it is excruciatingly sad (for example, the photo of a woman who has lost her daughter to a drunk driver sits alone in her child's room, another of a daughter hugging her mom's gravestone.)

   The accompanying short profiles/ stories are tersely, crisply written. They can be truly uplifting, like one very personal tale, which recounts a woman's battle with breast cancer and how she later overcomes her shame in her daughters seeing her post-surgery breasts. Another tale tells of a daughter who has cared for her ailing mother at home for decades, changing diapers and preparing pureed food. Virtually all of the relationships, however, reveal palpable strains of deep-seated anger, regret or misunderstanding. Many of the women have suffered intensely; many have healed from their own bad marriages and divorces.

   For a young woman like myself who now has a small daughter and who recently lost a mother, the book was absorbing though it strangely lacked hope. My favorite profile was of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; she seems like a type A mom but happy with her family and the personal and career choices she has made. Her daughter teases her mother, but seems secretly grateful for the upbringing she received. You sense that they appreciate each other, despite differences.

   If you are considering this book for a friend, it would probably be most appreciated by someone who has survived many ups and downs with her mom. Those mother and daughter pairs who pal around together and who consider themselves good friends may be strangely put off by the tragedy and simmering warfare in between many of the pictures.




3. I received this book as a gift when it was first published. Thanks to Amazon.com I was able to find a new copy of an out of print book for a Christmas gift to give to someone special.

5 comments about Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown.

1. Very good book as long as it deals with the space program, full of anecdotes. I learned a lot. (I have almost 150 books about the American Space Program). If you believe in UFO's then you will love all the book, if you don't you may be disappointed by some of Gordon Cooper's allegations.



2. This work has produced a rather hefty array of responses from Amazon readers, many of whom are stridently opposed to Cooper's career-long pursuit of the secrets of UFO's and other mysterious new technologies, and others who see in the Mercury astronaut a hero of what now appears to be a cause losing steam. Our focus here is on the book, however. For as several reviewers have correctly observed, this is a tale of two Gordo's, one battling the unknowns of space, and the other battling the knowns of the NASA/military industrial complex.
   
   Unfortunately, neither tale is particularly compelling. The account of the astronaut's career, coming as it did in 2000, was the tail of the dog in a string of early astronaut autobiographies as the pioneers rushed to beat the Grim Reaper with their version of events. As to the second, Cooper's extensive research and observations about UFO's are not as deliciously crazy as some would like us to believe, either. In fact, some of his conjectures about alien propulsion systems and the like are rather fascinating to the layman.
   
   While Cooper has been a busy man since leaving NASA thirty-something years ago, it would seem that something he neglected to do is read what others around the space program were writing in those three decades, and specifically what they were writing about him. One Amazon reader in this sequence of reviews reports to having collected 150 such volumes himself. The general consensus of post-Apollo writers seems to be that Cooper's years with NASA are somewhat enigmatic. One of the original seven Mercury astronauts, he was the last one to fly, a statement of sorts about how the NASA hierarchy regarded him. [Oddly, NASA's "the best shall be first" policy in Mercury resulted in Cooper's complex and spectacularly successful Faith 7 two-day marathon, the last flight in the Mercury series.]
   
   Cooper and Pete Conrad would fly the Gemini 5 mission in the summer of 1965 to test fuel cells, endurance and, as the author observes wryly, defecation technique. But after Gemini 5, Cooper becomes an invisible man. He was designated to the back-up crews of three future flights, the last of which, Apollo 13, he turned down as a political slight.
   
   So why did the hero of Faith 7 fall out of favor in succeeding years? This is the question most readers today would probably bring to the book. The author himself never does soul-searching about his own role in why his space career stalled. Instead he boils his dilemma down to two words: Al Shepard. Cooper believes that Shepard, embittered by his health problems and eager to get back into rotation, used his influence with Deke Slayton, then assigning crews, to keep the Mercury hero under the radar. Cooper's distrust of Shepard appears to date back to his Faith 7 days in 1963 when he asked Wally Schirra to privately tail Shepard, then Cooper's back-up, during pre-flight training.
   
   Cooper cites the Shepard/Slayton cabal as symptomatic of the increasing bureaucracy of NASA, the military, and the federal government. He notes, for example, his complaint in a conversation with President Lyndon Johnson that his photography from Gemini 5 had been seized and classified. Johnson coolly informed him that he, the president, had given the order. It is important for the reader to observe keenly Cooper's misadventures with government entities, for they are of one weave with his later criticisms of government cover-up in the reporting of UFO sightings and general hostility toward individuals like himself at the outer margins of technology, from this world or another.
   
   If Cooper feels that he was blackballed by Shepard and Slayton, what can we say of astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman, Gene Cernan, and Pete Conrad, to name several whose careers thrived under the Slaton-Shepard regime? Lovell, in fact, flew four space missions [two Gemini, two Apollo] after Cooper's Gemini 5, and he is living proof that the "evil duo" was not completely adverse to the emergence of "stars" in the astronaut corps.
   
   No, the answer to Cooper's dilemma is more personal, and probably reflects nagging doubts in NASA about Cooper's manageability and application to the growing complexity of the space business. In this Cooper was hardly alone. Nearly all of the original Mercury Seven had difficulty adjusting to a bigger astronaut corps, greater bureaucracy, public relations, politics, and the general idea of "teamwork." It is no accident that Schirra and Shepard, the two Mercury veterans to fly Apollo, each chose all rookie teams. [Walt Cunningham of Apollo 7 would refer to Schirra as "the cock of the walk."] Schirra himself found the new NASA so discomfiting that he passed on a sure moon landing assignment and retired.
   
   Because Cooper does not really address his own career difficulties with insight, the charges of some historians that Cooper did not train or apply himself sufficiently will still be left to hang out there in the foreseeable future. This is regrettable, because Cooper, like his colleague Scotty Carpenter, was one of the true multidimensional human beings of the early space program. And I give him a great deal of credit for his respect of John Glenn and others for whom timing and luck made them national heroes.
   
   Given Cooper's colorful space career, his subsequent employment by Disney, among others, comes as little surprise. The intrepid pilot of Faith 7 became--how can I put it?--a magnet for scientific entrepreneurs, some of remarkable brilliance, some eccentrics, and some undecipherable. Cooper apparently never lost touch with his astronaut friends, but he certainly picked up new ones along the way, including the mysterious clairvoyant and purveyor of character Valerie Ransone who seems to have preoccupied his personal and scientific attentions for a period in the 1980's. Perhaps if he had met Valerie in 1965, it would be Gordon Cooper making that giant leap for mankind.



3. I too was first confused by Coopers reference to the Saturn VIII. After reading other books about Chris Kraft and Werner Von Braun, it dawned on me that he was referring to the Nova rocket that was on the drawing boards in the early sixties by Werner Von Braun. See the Wikipedea for more information. The Nova rocket was conceptualized before the powers that be decided on the LOR (Lunar Orbit Rendevous). Everybody, including Von Braun thought the best approach was the direct ascent, which was to land a rocket vertically and blast off from the moon and return home. The other option explored was (EOR) or Earth Orbit and Rendevous, where the componets for direct ascent were to be launched individually and assembled in earth orbit, then on to the moon. The winner, LOR, was scoffed, but through perseverance, it won out as the quickest way to get to the moon with the lightest payload. Therefore, the Nova (Coopers Saturn VIII) was never needed.
   
   I'll admit this threw me for a while too. It was worded as if it existed. It never existed beyond the conceptual level. Wikipedia has a picture showing it having a 50' diameter first stage and 8 engines while the Saturn V had a 33' diameter first stage and 5 engines. The height would have been just 10' taller than the Saturn V. It would have been a beast at lift off.
   
   I thought the UFO reference's a little far fetched, and I've read that the confication of film after the gemini lauch was improbable. Cooper says the film was developed right there on the recovery ship and I've heard this was never the procedure. Maybe he's right and their is a conspiracy after all!



4. Over the past few years I have rediscovered my fascination with the 1960s space race by reading several books by or about people connected with NASA back in those glory days. After reading "Leap of Faith" I have now read biographies of all the Mercury Seven astronauts. The good news is that Gordon Cooper's book is easily one of the most interesting. The bad news is that I don't exactly mean that as a compliment.
   
   For about two thirds of this book Cooper recounts his days with NASA and here he is, pardon the expression, on solid ground. The passages feel a bit rushed and his interpretation of events differ from other viewpoints you may have read, but he's Gordon Cooper and he's earned the right to have his say.
   
   Unfortunately, the NASA days are only part of Cooper's life story and it's the remaining one third of the book where he drives himself into the ditch. I knew from other sources that Cooper firmly believes flying saucers have visited the Earth and our government has conspired to keep the truth from us. I don't believe this myself, but again, he's Gordon Cooper and he has earned my respect. I was willing to listen to what he had to say.
   
   A few UFO stories would have been fine, but Cooper shoots himself in the foot and destroys whatever credibility he had when he recounts his relationship with Valerie Ransone who he met in the late 70s. Ransone claimed to receive telepathic messages from space aliens and wanted to use the knowledge she was gaining to start something called the Advanced Technology Group. Of course, this group needed some funding to get itself going.
   
   Rarely, if ever, have I read a book before where something becomes painfully obvious to the reader but of which the author remains blissfully unaware. Ransone begins to use Cooper for his name and prestige to obtain money for what is nothing more than a huge scam. Cooper never seems to catch on. His viewpoint always seems to be "It might be true, therefore it is true."
   
   The lowest point in this silliness comes when Ransone announces that the aliens are coming to Earth to give Cooper a ride in one of their saucers. Cooper, as gullible as can be, prepares for his expectant UFO flight just as he had for any of his NASA missions. It comes as absolutely no surprise, to anyone but Cooper I guess, when shortly before the flight the aliens are forced to cancel. Apparently there was a political squabble over this proposed flight back on the homeworld. Darn the luck.
   
   One is left to wonder if Cooper really believed all this nonsense or if he was just including it as a way to make his book stand out and sell a few more copies. Either way, it's a pretty poor way for a true American hero to act.



5. This isn't a review because I haven't read the book yet, but I want to say that I saw Gordon Cooper on a talk show in the 1970s or early 1980s, describing how he and other test pilots chased the lights emitted by these spacecraft and that it was common knowledge by NASA that these things existed. As he seemed to be a very intelligent, forthright and plain speaking person, I believed him. I just can't imagine why it took him so long to write a book. Did NASA keep him from talking?

5 comments about Man Who Stayed Behind.

1. Anyone who has made seeking truth his or her quest should read this book. With a painful honesty, Rittenberg accounts a sincere believer's failed efforts in pursuing idealism. He does not shun away from the truth that idealism and stupidity were often twins in human history. In fact, "faith" can make one blind and an involuntarily contributor to harm. It took the author a lifetime - including 16 years in the prisons of the system he believed in - to realize this simple truth. An ordinary person might have woken up a lot earlier, but not a believer. Is this faith or stupidity? The reader should draw his or her own conclusion. Nonetheless, what I really want to say is: although his effort in pursing ideals has failed, his life experience is not a waste; we can all learn from his lessons. In this sense he is still a hero, or in classic Chinese terms, a "hero by failure". To the reviewer below who called Rittenberg a "coward" with the "integrity of a worm" I want to ask, could you do better than him in those circumstances - in the bombing and in the prisons? That is a very pointed question.
   
   Rittenberg's Chinese name Li Dunbai has been known to me since my childhood during the Cultural Revolution in China, though I never knew him personally, and still don't know him now. In this book it is his candid and thorough accounts of the personal experiences of the familiar history that grab me, from the opening page to the last. Unlike some other bestseller memoirs on the same period of China, such as "Wild Swans," which emphasize the virtue while downplaying the deficits of the protagonists, Rittenberg hides nothing about his own personal weakness and mistakes. Anyone who has gone through the same period knows that we were all participants, no matter how noble or gaudy our motives were, no matter you admit it or not. To deny this and dress up as a pure victim or even a hero is truly a shame. Only by facing our mistakes and failures honestly we can help ourselves.



2. Sydney Rittenberg was one of a tiny handful of misguided utopia seekers who escaped from America to the Workers' Paradise, Mao's China. Rittenberg spends decades of his life in China championing a supposedly idealistic movement that was rife with intrigue from its inception. I cite Mao's "Let a 100 Flowers Bloom" campaign as one of many examples. It was a call for a dialog with the country's intellectuals. After getting them to air their true feelings he launched his "Uprooting Poisonous Weeds" campaign in which those who's views didn't spout the official party line were sent to the laogai, the Chinese gulag. I won't get into Mao's manufactured famine (read The Hungry Ghosts and Scarlet Memorial) or the Cultural Revolution. He was imprisoned twice for a period of 16 years. He didn't commit any criminal offense he was simply an international pawn for the Communist Party. What is so frustrating about this autobiography is that he never wavers in his so called "faith". For whatever reasons he just can't contemplate the reality that the intensity of his obsequiousness and fanaticism or political correctness (we got that term from the communists) is irrelevant to the Chinese. Perhaps that realization would have totally destroyed his persona. At the end he decides that the Communist Party has deviated from its "pure and humble" origins and moves back to the capitalist United States where his wife makes a windfall from an import deal. The United States is hardly perfect but I think it speaks to our generosity that after Rittenberg's dream of a totalitarian utopia failed, after he spent decades denouncing the "yellow dog imperialists" he was allowed to return along with his Chinese wife and Chinese born adult children.
   
   I was more impressed with Army Private James George Veneris, the man who stayed behind until the end. Veneris was one of 21 POWs during the Korean War, between America and China, who chose not to be repatriated. Eventually all but Veneris returned to the US in disgrace. I realize that a lot of Americans would consider Veneris a traitor, but at least he stayed true to his principles to the end. I was quite intrigued by the adaptability of this man and what motivated him to sever all aspects of his former life. I spent the academic year of 1999/2000 in China and had many difficulties adjusting, even with access to the Internet, English TV, and Hong Kong nearby. I wanted to write his biography. Unfortunately, he died a few years ago. In the process of searching for Virginia Pasley's book, 21 Stayed: The story of the American GI's who chose Communist China: who they were and why they stayed, I came across Rittenberg's book.
   
   The book is worth reading for the fact that Rittenberg had a unique experience during an interesting period of history. I would also recommend Jan Wong's Red China Blues. Wong is a Canadian born Chinese who was a college student during the Cultural Revolution. She decided that revolution was the way to paradise and was allowed to go to China to participate in the process. She became an ardent fanatic, but it only took a few years for her to wise up.



3. Sidney Rittenberg is a truly amazing character, and you must read his story to believe it. It's also one of the most insightful and thorough evaluations of Maoism and the Cultural Revolution, written by someone who believed firmly in those ideals at the time, but came to reexamine and question them as he saw their darker sides. This book is highly recommended for anyone even remotely interested in China, Chinese history, Communism, or just a really well-written autobiography of someone with an extraordinary life.



4. Few books written about Communist China are pleasant to read because of the experiences related, this is certainly one of them. Mr. Rittenberg's quixotic adventure in China was tragic-comic to an unbelievable proportion but still his undying idealism commands one's respect.
   
   I have googled and read his speeches about China on internet and I think he is one of the wiser guys in matters of China. He knows China inside out.



5. Lots of people have derided Rittenberg in this space, most seemingly because of Rittenberg's religious-level belief in communism in his earlier years. Read this book not as a defense of communism (it isn't, at all), but as an intensely personal journal of one life, lived at the core of the PRC, from 1946 to the late 1970s. Rittenberg, now in his mid 80s, gives a unique perspective on the early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, and the vision, plus the folly, that intertwined with the early years. Whether one believes that he earned his 15+ years of imprisonment or not, no feeling human can fail to empathize with those, including him, who were jailed by the regime.
   In recent years, the PRC has admitted that the Cultural Revolution was a mistake, and therefore these years have seen a flurry of what's called 'scar literature' in China. Rittenberg's work cover much more than just his years in jail during the Revolution--it provides a remarkably close-up look at the emergent PRC in its first 25 years. Read it without fail if you seek to understand the roots of China today.