5 comments about The Royals (not for sale in the UK).

1. I love reading about the royal family and I just loved this book! I have read several books about Diana so I knew the history there but I never knew what an awful mother the Queen is! And I didn't realize how everything has to be approved by her! Nor did I realize what a womanizer Price Philip was and all the mistresses he had over the years!
   
   Would highly recommend if you like reading about the Windsor Family.



2. This book while big is full of lies and no wonder it isn't available in England because if it where the Queen would be all over it for the lies that it says about the royals.
   
   Here are just some of the things that Kitty Kelly says in the book that are not true
   
   1.The Queen Mum was illegitimate-she was the 8th of 9 children and her parents were married long before she was born
   
   2. The Queen Mum had to be impregnated by turkey baser to have Elizabeth and Margret
   
   3. Princess Margret was an anti-Semite because she walked out of Schindler's List
   
   4. Prince Harry is not Prince Charles' son- so not true. Harry's maternal grandfather had red hair and Princess Diana did not meet Harry's supposed father until he was already at least one year old
   
   Do not bother even reading this book. There are much better, more accurate books out there about the royal family.



3. This is the first Kitty Kelley book I've ever read (I saw it on a family member's bookshelf and I felt like slumming), and it will be the last. This woman is not a biographer: she is a human garbage recycler. And a lousy writer at that.
   
   I hold no brief for the British royal family, although I do not object to the institution and find it an interesting if quaint relic of yesteryear. But this disorganized, poorly-written collection of gossip, innuendo, and previously-reported/disclosed information is pretty trashy stuff. There is nothing positive in this portrayal of the Royal Family, only a highly selective collection of slurs. Kelley obviously operates on the principle of, "If you can't say anything nasty, don't say anything at all." She certainly does not hold herself to any journalistic standard of verifying sources.
   
   Kelley is obsessed with sex: who is sleeping with whom, who is gay, who likes to watch porn. And sex is the entire focus of this book. About the institution of the British monarchy itself - a fascinating and complex subject - the reader learns little; Kelley is more interested, for example, in the sexual preferences of the Queen Mother's staff than she is in the Queen Mother herself.
   
   The writing is atrocious. Kelley repeats herself frequently - we get the same information about Phillip's extramarital exploits in at least three different places - and the book's lack of organization muddles the chronology of events. The author's use of similes is trite (a situation "smelled worse than a dead possum under the porch") and her syntax is careless. Worst of all, little of the sensational information we are treated to comes from the author's own investigation; she relies heavily on other published sources and the narrative is replete with thrice-told tales. The entire book gives the impression of being thrown together in a hurry and with little care.
   
   I felt slightly soiled after I finished this prurient tabloid hit-piece. The only thing that kept me going was the same impulse that makes one rubberneck at a bad traffic accident. Only recommended to those with a strong stomach and limited intelligence.



4. I bought this book when it first came out and thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn't sold in England and I made the mistake of loaning it to a Brit I worked with at the time. I never saw the book again. A decade or so later, I wanted to read The Royals again and found it on Amazon's used books. The book arrived quickly and in exactly the condition described by the seller. I'm very pleased to have the book again.



5. To anyone with a serious interest in recent British history, absolutely avoid this book like the plague. The author lost me in the first chapter when she depicts King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their famous and important visit to Washington DC in June of 1939, as living a life of lavish abandon while their subjects suffered wartime privation at home.
   Too bad the war didn't start till September, Ms. Kelley!
   After this outright lie, written for no other reason than to blacken the characters involved and tell an "interesting" story, needless to say, it was impossible to take anything else the author had to say very seriously. This book is meant for the readers of "the National Enquirer", and anyone else to whom such trivial things as dates and correct chronology of events are not important. Is it any wonder that publication was banned in the United Kingdom and this rag is to be found on the twenty five cent reject shelf?
   Nuff said.

5 comments about Papa Hemingway.

1. It was this book, PAPA HEMINGWAY by A.E. Hotchner, that revealed to the world upon its publication in 1966 that Ernest Hemingway died in 1961 not of an accident while cleaning a gun but of an intentional self-inflicted gunshot. If that was all this book had to offer the world on Hemingway, it would not still be in print. He provides an up close and personal portrait of a man he admired and called a good friend, but a complicated personage all the same. This is not a critical, exhaustively researched biography weighing 10 pounds; it is memoir by someone who experienced life with the man firsthand, an account that comes across with honesty and enough detail for readers to draw their own critical conclusions.
   
   Hotchner was a young writer dispatched by a magazine in 1948 to find the by then world famous Hemingway in Cuba and negotiate an article. Hotchner's terror at the assignment turned into high surprise as Hemingway took to him and brought him right into his inner circle. Hotchner never talks about himself really, so we don't know what Hemingway saw in him, but it had to be something because Hemingway was not a man who trusted easily, who required exacting standards in his pals, who also included restaurateur Toots Shor, Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper and Ava Gardner. Hemingway was at the top of his powers in 1948, living as he thought life should be lived and settled in with his fourth and last wife, Mary, who could stand up to him. On the pretense of editing work, he takes Hotchner along for European adventures, making fun while also disclosing memories of his earlier days, and most important, what inspired his classic novels. As they move into the 1950's together, Hotchner also catches evidence of Hemingway's battle with mortality. He has a tough road back to health after surviving a plane crash in Africa, and then, trying to work again, he is bowled over by the response to THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (the Pulitzer) and the Nobel Prize. Castro, with whom he thought he had an understanding, takes his home and sanctuary. He is briefly revived in the outdoors of Ketchum, Idaho, but depression and paranoia begin to tear at him. What now seems a brutal electric shock treatment at the Mayo Clinic, especially for a man who never believed in analysis or being penned up, who wanted to do his own fighting, preceded his death.



2. Wild game hunter, war correspondent, bull fighting afficionado; these were the elements that comprised the public persona of Earnest Hemingway, unparalleled man of American letters. As time went on though, Hemingway added unfathomable amounts of liquor to the mix and he began to confuse his public persona with who he really was. Hotchner's memoir finds Hemingway near the end of his remarkable reign as macho wordsmith king extrordinaire--It begins somewhere before he wrote the Old Man and the Sea, won the Nobel Prize, and covers through his tragic psychological/physical decline and suicide in 1961. Hotchner spent a lot of time with Hemingway during these later years touring Europe and running with the bulls. Along the way Hem and Hotch rub shoulders with Hemingway pals Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, among others; but front and center are Hotchner's observations of the great man himself. It must have been hard for A.E.H. to write this as Hemingway slid into the paranoia/psychosis that eventually led him to fire that shotgun into his mouth in Ketchum, Idaho. As the memoir goes on, EH drinks more and more and struggles to maintain his art. Eventually, he imagines himself a target of the FBI, and at one point attempts to jump out of a plane transporting him to the Mayo Clinic for treatment. Through it all his last wife, Mary--as well as Hotchner and his many friends, stand by him. The reader,though, gets the feeling that while Hemingway was never easy to be around, the years of decline were especially difficult. Hotchner, a loyal friend and admirer, proves a more than able chronicler, always managing to mix just the right touch of compassion (that never becomes blind hero worship) with a keen objectivity that serves a good memoir best. In this book, Hotchner relates both the high and low points of the literary lion in winter.



3. 
   In 1948 A.E. Hotchner was dispatched from New York to Havana by Cosmopolitan Magazine to do a story on Hemingway. Hotchner was in awe of the famous writer and tried to dodge the assignment. Well, it didn't work and even as he was intimidated by the thoughts of how Hemingway would dismiss him without so much as a hint of a story, he screwed up his nerve and initiated the first contact. And from their first meeting at the Floridita Bar in Havana, to Hotchner's dismay, the two connected. A true friendship ensued and Hotchner traveled to Cuba at least once a year and communicated frequently by letter, wire and phone. Papa Hemingway called him Hotch and Hotch was as close to Papa as anyone. During their general conversations apparently very few subjects were off limits. Most of Papa's personal problems were discussed; he even talked about some of his writing techniques.
   Travel was a big part of Hemingway's life. He paid regular visits to New York, Paris, Madrid, Key West and Ketchum, Idaho. Spain was his favorite destination and the Spanish lifestyle was reflected in his writing from `The Sun Also Rises' to various short stories.
   There was no one thing in this book that defined the Hotchner Hemingway relationship unless you consider brotherly love. That kindness is on full display toward the end as Hotchner describes Hemingway's mental path to self-destruction.
   Papa Hemingway is a must read human tragedy.
   Tom Barnes author of: `The Goring Collection,' `Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone,' `The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.'



4. I initially began reading this book many years ago and was taken aback by the author's use of very long verbatim quotations, often two pages long, attributed to Hemingway, which I found very hard to believe that Hotchner was able to remember verbatim things that Hemingway had said, some things decades before. Hotcher prefaces the book that he often took notes and had a tape recorder, but it is obvious that in some instances there would have been no way for him to take a tape recorder.
   
   Then I read Jack Hemingway's ("Bumby," Hemingway's first son) memoir (Adventures of a Fly Fisherman), in which he describes his experience of reading Carlos Baker's biography (which is considered the standard) as not portraying his father in any way even close to being accurate, and Hotchner's bio as being the closest to the life and personality of his father, so I took up the Hotcher book again, but still wasn't happy with it, but finished it. I have in general been very unhappy with pretty much all bios that I've read on Hemingway. I think the most enjoyable was The Hemingway Women. I think we really need an updated Hemingway bio that doesn't fall into the psychoanalytic and/or impersonal historian type of bio.



5. For those new to Hemingway, I would recommend reading a wiki review of Ernest Hemingway, and then "A Moveable Feast" to hear in his own words his thoughts on the myriad cast of characters he met around the world. If possible (but highly unlikely, due to its rarity) I would follow that with Charles Fenton's "The Apprenticeship of Ernest Hemingway." I would then read "The Hemingway Women" (probably reading chapters in reverse order) to get one of the best histories of Ernest Hemingway's life. I would conclude with Hotchner's "Papa Hemingway."
   
   The books by Hotchner and Fenton are classics and I would recommend hardback copies. I think remaindered copies from discount bookstores might be the most precious; there's something to be said for giving these homeless books a loving and final resting place on your bookshelf of treasured possessions.
   
   All I can say is that I had no idea Ernest Hemingway was so much more than an author. It would be like calling TR a politician.

5 comments about Measure of a Man, The: A Spiritual Autobiography.

1. I first encountered Poitier on screen in the film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, which my father insisted I watch with him along with many other classic films. Though I later couldn't recall many particulars about that movie, the memory of an urbane Black man exuding integrity and elegance stuck with me. I later had the pleasure of watching many of his other movies of which my favorite is, Lilies of the Field. So when I saw this book's spine while browsing in a used bookstore, it was a quick decision to buy it.
   
   Poitier refers to this book as a "spiritual autobiography" where he records his ruminations on life in contrast to an earlier autobiography which was simply a "book about my life". As I read, I imagined I heard Poitier's pleasing voice speaking to me in the many colloquial expressions that characterize the style of the book: "You see?", "Listen to me...", "You hear?". But Poitier combines this casualness with touching eloquence: "Well, I'm no scientist, and certainly I don't have Carl Sagan's technical understanding of the universe and our position within it. I simply believe that there's a very organic, immeasurable consciousness of which we're a part. I believe that this consciousness is a force so powerful that I'm incapable of comprehending its power through the puny instrument of my human mind. And yet I believe that this consciousness is so unimaginably calibrated in its sensitivity that not one leaf falls in the deepest of forests on the darkest of nights unnoticed." Sorry, Carl Sagan, but I'm with Sidney Poitier when it comes to appreciating how intimately connected we humans are with the universe.
   
   Included in the book is a delightful description of meeting Katherine Hepburn for the first time as they were preparing to film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?: "When I arrived at her door and that door opened, she looked at me and didn't say a word and didn't crack a smile. But that was her M.O. After the longest while, she said, `Hello, Mr. Poitier,' and I said, `Hello, Miss Hepburn,' and the conversation began. I could tell that I was being sized up every time I spoke, every response I made. I could imagine a plus and a minus column, notations in her mind." Scenes such as this spoke to me as a member of a relatively small ethnic minority in the United States - Asian America. I found myself contemplating the possibility of an Asian-American Sidney Poitier to charismatically and with integrity shift Hollywood portrayals beyond demeaning stereotypes.
   
   I'm glad I found the book (or the book found me) as I find myself referring to it as an example of not giving in to bitterness, the importance of integrity, the truth about the interconnectedness of all things, and that at least for some members of the Hollywood community, spirituality does exist.



2. I bought this book in the hopes that it would be interesting enough to keep my attention...boy way I right! Once I started, I couldn't put it down! Mr. Poitier writes so eloquently that you feel as though you are experiencing and seeing everything first-hand.



3. Brilliantly written novel! But than nothing less could be expected from Sidney Poitier. Also for all of you that are learning English as a second language it is an example of modern American English at its best. This is as good as it gets!



4. I read this book and I loved it. It is a moving story about Poitiers early life in the Bahamas, how poor people lived, racism, his bout with prostate cancer, friends,family, and film career. It is a well written book and I absolute love Sidney Poitier as an actor and a man. I loved his movies Lillies of the Field, Heat of the Night, Patch of Blue, Blackboard Jungle, and To Sir with Love which are some of the ones I enjoyed watching on tv. He is such a versatile actor and writer and handsome too. My 81 year old Mother loves him too. I cant wait to pick up the book that he wrote about his grand grandaughter (MESSAGES). For those of you who love Sidney Poitier, or a great biographical read. GET THIS BOOK. Wonderfully written and moving.



5. I very much enjoyed this book. This book focuses on his life, and his decision-making, and what he has learned through the journey. It is a good way to get some biographical information about him, and to see him as a real person - a normal person, not an actor. If you are looking for a lot of tidbits about his acting career, you might want to try another book. This book touches on those things, but it is not the focus. Very good read.

5 comments about Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan.

1. This book took me two years to get through if you count the times I tried to start reading it and when I actually started plowing through it the last few months. In the beginning it was absolutely hard to get through with the literary technique Morris was using in order to tell the story. Once you get through the weird flow the book which spends as much time at the start talking about the fake narrator as Ronald Reagan, you can get at Reagan. But, as many reviewers have alluded to, this book is hard to get through.
   
   I did learn a lot about President Reagan. There is no doubt that the book is filled with information. I think a glaring error was how little Iran-Contra was dealt with, and how it was dealt with. The portrait that Morris paints of Reagan throughout this book is a cool, detached leader who alternated between caring about the job to not knowing what he was supposed to say at what time. I lean towards Reagan was a very private person who picked his spots to be vulnerable - if ever. Overall - you need to read this book if you are into Presidential history, but allow some time, and breaks. JVD



2. Years ago in a drugstore near Boston I noticed various news magazines had devoted their front pages to Edmund Morris' new biography on Reagan. It garnered weak reviews due to his unique style of presenting Ronald "Dutch" Reagan to the world. I finally read the book and found that his use of fictional characters, presented as real in order for the reader to capture the essence of Reagan, does not work. While at times an "a-ha" moment occurred when I read about Reagan's youthful actions through the eyes of a fictional acquaintance, I was not interested in reading about this character's life, family, problems and future. To take the biography seriously I was asked to pretend. All the while I felt these inclusions were keeping me away from Reagan, which is not the best praise a biography could receive. His insights into how rural, solitary cornfields and swimming shaped this world leader were fascinating, but sorting through fictional characters to get to them was frustrating.
   Since the publication of Dinesh D'Souza's book Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man became an Extraordinary Leader in the mid 1990s, the floodgates have opened with a barrage of pro-Reagan books from former aids, colleagues, political pundits and even his wayward daughter. What is needed is another solid, analytical biography about this larger than life president. Dutch is not it. Written while Reagan was still alive but moribund due to Alzheimer's, it is a miscalculation. Morris stated in an interview that his was a revolutionary way of writing a biography. Some have called it akin to an historical novel. To write a biography-cum-historical novel on Ronald Reagan might be revolutionary, but from what I saw at the revolution, the essence of Reagan might have been beyond even the considerable talents of Mr. Morris.



3. I'm not sure what happened here but Morris ruined his reputation as a great historian by writing one of the most bizzare books ever written. It is the book equivilant of "Plan Nine From Outer Space." It is done to one cent on the used market but not sure it is a bargin, even at that price



4. I was extremely disappointed with this book. I expected to read a candid bio of Ronald Reagan the man, including the good and the bad. Instead, I read a book that contained fictional characters inserted throughout, leaving the impression the author was attempting to mount a disingenuous one-sided piece about his personal opinions of the man. If this was a fiction piece, such as the "North and South" series or the childhood "We Were There" series, then there might be some accolades to share. But to be published and promoted as a bio, this book is sorely lacking. It is my opinion the author wasted an incredible opportunity.



5. After reading the book it is obvious that Morris tries to advance the mantra that the liberals pushed on everyone during Reagans Presidency. Mainly that Reagan was a doddering old fool, with no substance, absent minded and full of bromides and platitudes. Page after page reeks of Morris' disdain and elitist attitude toward Reagan. What Morris gives us is a corny old actor who approaches his Presidency much like one of Reagans B movies, with lots of glitter and no substance. The contradiction, in my mind, is how did this affable dunce, (according to Morris), stand up to, and defeat Communism, reduce taxes, build up our military, beat back the malaise of the Carter years, among many other accomplishments? If you want to read a much better accounting of Reagan and his Presidency, read D'Souza's book. With all the access Morris had to this great man, his book woefully misses the mark!

5 comments about Out On A Limb.

1. Adam and Eve is at it again. Great movie that summarizes all that we know to be real and doesn't pull any punches or spon the insanity of reality.



2. Here is this book in a nutshell: Shirley Maclaine, one-time Hollywood A-lister, finds herself in her early forties (during the mid-1970's) and as many people do upon reaching this hypothetical mid-point in life, Shirley Maclaine feels an inner motivation to seek out answers to humanity's heftiest questions. Does life have meaning? What happens when we die? Has she been on the right path? Is there a God? Is there anything beyond or outside the visible world? While all these are normal, natural, respectable inquiries that anyone with any substance surely makes at some point, the unfortunate fact is Maclaine asked these questions in the time and place she did---California in the '70's---and like the proverbial P.T. Barnum maxim about a you-know-what and his money, this financially-secure starlet soon fell into the clutches of a number of cons and frauds and fake "channelers" who filled her head with non-sense, even as they emptied her bank account. Toss into this retro-New Age tale a trek into the wilds of Peru, some asides about UFO's, an affair with a married British MP (later revealed to be a disguise for Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palma) a friendship with what was surely an emotionally-scarred young man whose mental issues Maclaine confused with "depth" and you got it all. Maclaine is perhaps to be commended for her courage in presenting her experiences and newfound convictions before the public, and for clinging to her beliefs while being made fun of by those who do not hail the legitimacy of spirit channelers who charge mega-bucks for their services, but what it all comes down to is this: she asked good questions and got (expensive) bad answers in return.



3. I thought this book was amazing when it first came out, when I was literally a teenager and first starting to think about life and what it all meant. I believe I have re-read this book over the years at least 6 times, and I always get something from it. For some reason this book is like an old friend I go back to again and again. I also loved the movie, love the ideas it presents, the way you watch Shirley struggle - as we all do (I am now 42, and can really relate to where she was at that time) - with relationships, friendships, family, and the search for spirituality and meaning in this life. I thought her love affair with Gerry was touching, how there was such a connection that she couldn't understand for a long time (though I am a little judgmental when it comes to affairs with married men, so I wasn't so comfortable about that part). We've all been drawn toward someone or repelled from someone so strongly and had trouble shaking the feeling, so it was interesting to see that it all may be about far more than what is happening on the surface. The movie was sweet, and sad, and funny, and touching, and really humanized celebrity in a way that brought home that we're all just people struggling to find our way. I've read nearly all of her books, with The Camino being the last. For some reason that was just too "out there" for me. A really good follow-up was It's All in the Playing, documenting Shirley's experience while filming the movie. It also discussed John Heard, "David" in the movie, who is such a tremendous actor. He wasn't much of a believer in the subject matter when approached to do the movie, and it was very interesting to read the behind-the-scenes of it all. So I would recommend this book whole-heartedly. Interesting and thought-provoking, both.



4. Shirley supplies her fans with the usual information one expects to find in a Hollywood tell-it-all book and so much more. Now you'll find out not only who's slept with whom but who they slept with in previous incarnations!
   
   Yes is was Shirley MacLaine, well-known Hollywood actress, dancer and last surviving member of the infamous "Rat-Pack" who almost single-handedly brought "New Age Spirituality" into the American mainstream with her '83 autobiographical best-seller `Out on a Limb'. This easy to read and highly entertaining 380 page book is a veritable everything you ever wanted to know about the New Age compendium that brought the concept of channeling and reincarnation into mainstream consciousness in unprecedented fashion.
   
   Shirley's revolutionary book came along when the time was ripe for an alternative approach to the divine. A large portion of the population had given up on the Sunday go to church ritual to hear about how the experience of God had touched the lives of people in the remote past. They hungered for something more recent, more accessible and most of all more experiential. Ms. MacLaine provided just that, a contemporary spiritual quest encompassing a myriad of belief systems and personal encounters with living, illumined teachers dispensing wisdom. All this blended with numerous, always eerie and invigorating synchronistic occurrences (meaningful coincidence) that so enthrall us made `Out on a Limb' a sure hit with the public-at-large.
   
   Unthinkable as it may seem, her simplistic, naïve understanding of spirituality has now become the norm for many, especially within the Hollywood elite and has caused a paradigm shift in modern day society that is still evolving. I'm not sure whether the positive brought about by this new mindset outweighs the negative backwash of spurious information and shallow thinking brought about by this book, but it is change nonetheless.
   
   Whether you agree with Shirley or not is not the point. She stands alone as an agent of change, new age guru, spiritual guide, cultural phenomenon and a sociological event that cannot be denied no matter how many people sit back and laugh at her beliefs. Many years from now long after you and I are gone this book will still be read and recognized as an important milestone in the history of the `New Age' movement. Ah..., the power of Hollywood stardom.



5. Shirley Maclaine's willingness to risk ridicule with her candor is to be commended. She powerfully states what many people fear to speak of. This book inspired me and in fact, if the title had not been taken, may very well have been the title for "Blessings In The Mire." Because she is such a celebrity figure, Maclaine risked more than an average joe. By expressing her beliefs, she opened herself up to the skeptics, the critics, the hecklers. If for nothing else, Ms. Maclaine should be commended for her candor and bavery, but with this statement aside, the book stands on its own for being extremely thought provoking, for creating dialog between believers and skeptics, and for being an extremely well written volume. KUDOS to to Shirley Maclaine for her skill and talent as a proficient author. She is NOT "just another pretty face."

5 comments about Even the Stars Look Lonesome.

1. When Maya Angelou was a young woman -- "in the crisp days of my youth," she says -- she carried with her a secret conviction that she wouldn't live past the age of 28. Raped by her mother's boyfriend at 8 and a mother herself since she graduated from high school, she supported herself and her son, Guy, through a series of careers and buoyed by an implacable ambition to escape what might have been a half-lived, ground-down life of poverty and despair. "For it is hateful to be young, bright, ambitious and poor," Angelou observes. "The added insult is to be aware of one's poverty." In "Even the Stars Look Lonesome," a collection of reflective autobiographical essays, Angelou gives no further explanation for her "profound belief" that she would die young.

   "I was thirty-six before I realized that I had lived years beyond my deadline and needed to revise my thinking about an early death," she recalls. "With that realization life waxed sweeter. Old acquaintances became friendships, and new clever acquaintances showed themselves more interesting. Old loves burdened with memories of disappointments and betrayals packed up and left town, leaving no forwarding address, and new loves came calling."

   Angelou, looking at tailights of her 20's, is the nearest thing America has to a sacred institution, a high priestess of culture and love in the tradition of such distaff luminaries (all of them, hitherto, white) as Isadora Duncan and Pearl S. Buck, with a bit of Eleanor Roosevelt and Aimée Semple MacPherson thrown into the mix.

   "She was born poor and powerless in a land where/power is money and money is adored," the poet Angelou writes in tribute to another astonishing black woman of our time, Oprah Winfrey. "Born black in a land where might is white/and white is adored./Born female in a land where decisions are masculine/and masculinity controls." Angelou's lifelong effort to escape and expose the "national, racial and historical hallucinations" that have burdened black women in America and replace them with a shining exemplar of power, achievement and generosity of spirit is as miraculous as she says it is, even if one suspects that in "real life" Angelou must be a little hard to take.

   "I would have my ears filled with the world's music," she writes, "the grunts of hewers of wood, the cackle of old folks sitting in the last sunlight and the whir of busy bees in the early morning ... All sounds of life and living, death and dying are welcome to my ears." At times Angelou seems more like a blast from Olympus than a woman of flesh and blood.

   Reading these essays, I found myself longing somewhat guiltily for evidence of smallness on her part, of pettiness, even -- some sign that even an icon as monumental as she is might occasionally allow herself an irritated moment, a lapse into cynicism, or humor that wasn't so resolutely seasoned and wise.

   On the other hand, smallness isn't what Maya Angelou stands for. Ordinary is not what she does. Only a cynic, a smaller mind than Angelou's, could fail to welcome the gifts she offers.




2. The deep and compelling thoughts of life and how to endear every emotion, experience, and disappointment that comes with growing older day by day, were wonderfully displayed in Maya Angelou's Even the Stars Look Lonesome. This book was an intelligent continuation of her best selling book Wouldn't Take Anything from my Journey Now. Taking life one day at a time, and learning from each experience is what this book is all about. The recreating of each memorable happening from love and intimacy to rage and violence, not discounting her remarkable outlook on age, fame, and perhaps the most impotent, the comfort and security you find in a home and a family. The experiences would relate more to elder women looking for advice and insight on common life issues.
   In this novel, Maya Angelou has combined a wonderful collection of life experiences that have formed and made her the person she is today. Each chapter reflects an important stepping-stone of her life. The book consists of twenty chapters that are mumbled together and yet stayed in order of the way they took place.
   The plot is always changing each chapter is like a different book. Towards the beginning of the novel, love and divorce where the experience of choice and she soon moves in to her times in Africa, and how challenging it is to be an African American Women earning her well deserved respect. Maya Angelou's novel also voices her opinion on age, denial, and anger to an older age group of African American women, using emotionally over powering stories. The chapters are short and moderately easy to get through, if you're good at combing facts and clues to complete the final picture.
   Coming to a conclusion of the eye opening novel Even the Star Look Lonesome we feel as though the experiences displayed in this book would better relate to women between the ages of 20 and 80. The reason for that relation is due to the fact not many people have experienced the things talked about until theses ages have been reached. Also the group felt the book was directed towards African Americans and the troubles that race encounters.



3. maya angelou's even the stars look lonesome is an outburst to the african american society. it gives so much hope. her words express a lyrical emotion. her usage of intelligent voice structure titilates the mind.



4. it talks about essays of aspects in life and what kind of journey that people are planning to have in their experiences and I think its a very interesting book
   Best Book



5. I was looking to get something else when I first bought this book....but, nevertheless, its message resonated with me where, on page 174-175, Maya eloquently pens about Dr. Martin Luther King saying that we all are related to one another and that we all share same demons and divines. Then she writes about W.E. R. Dubois, the first African-American to attend Harvard University who said ALL people, of all colours, age and status dream of a fair and workable future.....the message could not be more important today in a rising economic depression, loss of wealth and purchasing power of poor and middle-class Americans, and growing fascism that is beginning to creep into America today thanks to the cold and calculated Neocon influence.

5 comments about Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines.

1. I should preface this by saying my sister is a recovering Meth and Heroin Addict. The stark contrast between what is available for treatment when you have parents with money and insurance is astounding but not surprising. I would have killed to have the resources to get my sister into the types of treatment that Nic had access to. In the end, it may or may not have made any difference because addiction is one of the few personal journeys that one takes with everyone they love in the front seat powerless to alter the direction.
   
   Dealing with my sister's addiction and our addiction to her I truly believe that people will treat you as badly as you allow them and they will get away with what they can. I wonder if Nic always felt like he had a safety net knowing his parents had the insurance and financial means to afford his rehab once he had reached a bottom he was not comfortable with. Not saying this to minimize the complete and utter despondency that is synonymous with addiction but perhaps a different perspective when it comes to addiction and socioeconomic status.
   
   Tweak begins at a fast and engaging pace for about the first 100 or so pages. During the first of Nic's description of his sobriety the book begins to lag and become repetitive and I start to wish there was a "Name-Dropper Anonymous" that Nic could attend and breathed a sigh of relief when his treatment facility suggested he spend the time not focusing on who he knows. During some points of the book he describes his situation with brutal honesty and at other points he glosses over situations that would have added an extra layer of depth and understanding to the book.
   
   The lowest part of Nic's addiction appears to be at a point before his books started. I felt like to truly understand how low he had reached in his addiction it was important to read more about this period in his life as it affected him so greatly in the book and was only mentioned in an almost passing way. We read about the aftermath of his time as a prostitute but again the details of this time period were glossed over again lessening the impact of the book.
   
   I was surprised to see who Nic decided to dedicate his book to. Perhaps, I am jaded after reading "Beautiful Boy" and dealing with the utter despair that a family member feels when an addict in the family is knocking on death's door with an uncontrolled and desperate vigor and you tying to do anything to slow their nose dive into hell and realizing there is nothing you can do but watch. The choice of dedication also left me with the feeling that we were missing more pieces of the puzzle to Nic's story.
   
   I would absolutely recommend this book and his father's "Beautiful Boy" to anyone dealing with an addict in the family even with the books imperfections it is an insightful read and gives a sometimes powerful glimpse into the mind of addiction but also leaves a lot of unanswered holes and questions about Nic's life as an addict.



2. I don't know of anybody that has battled with addiction so I got this book to help my understand. I heard about it on a local radio station when the author stopped in for a visit. This book really gives you an ides of what a person might do to feel their additions...It's unbelieveable but the author survived it all! Great read!



3. this book was honest and heartbreaking. A true account into all the complications of addiction.



4. This is one of a kind book. It is the kind where you really cannot read too long , but you cannot stay away from reading too long either.
   It shows you the scary reality of our young generation who can easily get hooked to bad lifestyle and refuses to know how or when to get out of it. It is an amazing book



5. Sheff has created a one of a kind dark memoir of his own life. The book starts off like any drug affiliated book: dark, despair and pain. Drug addiction can be a life-long struggle, Sheff has illustrated the horrors of addiction. Like any addiction, it's only fun for a season but this particular book takes you through a decade of use and sorrow. The only draw-back is the conclusion has not yet been written, which gives this reader hope that Sheff has come to terms with his past. A must read for anyone in the struggle of addiction.

5 comments about His Excellency: George Washington.

1. I was extremely disappointed in this book. This book was purchased as a gift for me, and I looked forward to reading it. From the beginning, I was disappointed by the tone of the book, which casts a negative tone on the father of our country.
   
   As I researched some of Ellis' sources, I found that in several parts of his book, he stated items as facts that were completely false.
   
   Ellis, following a popular trend of today, insinuates that George Washington was in love with his friend's wife, Sally Fairfax, and that he felt passionately in love with her throughout his life.
   
   Ellis admits that all we do know is based primarily on three letters Washington wrote to Sally (Fairfax). The last letter he cites was one Washington wrote near the end of his life. Mr. Ellis states that "in this letter, he confessed to an elderly Sally that she had been the passion of his youth, that he had never been able to forget her, 'nor been able to eradicate from my mind those happy moments, the happiest in my life, which have enjoyed in your company."
   
   I decided to research his references, and look up the text of Washington's letter on the Library of Congress website. They have actual images of all of the original letters of George Washington. What I found relieved me greatly and set my mind at ease. It also made me feel disgusted than an author who claims to accurately represent the life of such a noble man could be so purposely deceptive.
   
   The actual letter was written by Washington in his later years, with his wife. He talked about how he was remembering the times of harmony and friendship that he and his wife spent with Sally and her husband at their home. He describes these times as some of the happiest of his life. At the end of his part of the letter he says "Mrs. Washington is about to give you an account of the changes which have happened in the neighbourhood and in our own family."
   
   Mr. Ellis said that in this letter he confessed that she had been the passion of his youth. That is simply a blatant falsehood.
   
   Ellis also states that there is no evidence to show whether the relationship between Washington and Fairfax ever crossed the sexual threshold or not. Why does he even feel the need to include such a ridiculous statement? It is akin to saying that although someone spends some time at the local bank, we don't have evidence to show whether they were a bank robber or not.
   
   Attempting to insinuate that the framers of our Constitution such as Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin were immoral men, is happening more and more often in our country.
   
   In an excellent book "The Rewriting of America's History", there is an example of how deceitful this influence can be. The book explained how in an earlier edition of a school history textbook it stated that George Washington had a hot temper that he kept masterfully controlled. In a later edition of the same textbook, it simply said: "George Washington had a hot temper." I think that is a powerful example of how a subtle adjustment can completely change our thinking of his character.
   
   I have found that this is happening more and more frequently in our world today as I have studied the founding father's lives including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and others.
   
   I could continue on with how careful research contradicts the opinions of Mr. Ellis, but I will simply recommend a much better book. "The Real George Washington", published by The National Center for Constitutional Studies.



2. It is sad. The author has made big bucks on a book that essentially is aimed at bringing George Washington down to the level of today's politicians. There certainly is an audience for this kind of interpretation of our Founding Father and it can only be accomplished by someone who has a perspective and wants to use his skills to slant the reader's view toward his own negativity. I much preferred to read David McCullough's history, "1776," which dwells primarily on Washington as a person and a leader, but without the hidden agenda (whatever it is) of the author of "His Excellency," which is really an attempt to rewrite history and bring Washington down to the level of a Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon in a colonial setting. Shame on you, Mr. Ellis, although you are entitled to your opinion -- which is what this book is all about.



3. Some have wanted to reserve 5 stars to a "War and Peace" type book. To me 5 stars means the book did what it set out to do and did it well. "His Excellency" indeed did. It is an excellent short biography of the father of our country. When I picked this book up, I realized all I knew about Washington was what I had been taught in grade school.
   
   Ellis is an excellent biographer who delves into many aspects of Washington's life. The narrative moved well and was entertaining. Some may be put off by Ellis' style of going into analysis of issues. I found that this added to my understanding.
   
   Washington indeed was a great man who's influence reaches us to this day. Now I know why!



4. While it's totally hip to de-mythify things our parents (silly things) thought were good, Ellis's de-mythification of Washington is not satisfying. His basic thesis is that Washington was a nincompoop who happened to be in the right place at the right time his whole life. That's unlikely, and it doesn't explain why Washington was a legend in his own time as well as our own, unlike most "mythical" legends, whose myths grow in time.
   
   Five stars for doing what everyone else does.
   Two stars for insight.



5. The modern "pyschological" biography attempts what is probably an impossibility: to penetrate and elucidate the core "personality" or "character" of an historic figure. The danger that the resulting portrait may be a novel masquerading as a biography, a creation of the author rather than a rendition of the subject, is great. Still more so when the author has clear psychological quirks of his own, and a contemporary political axe to grind. When he also has formidable literary skills, the danger of creating a cogent, compelling lie is acute. This is certainly so in the works of Joseph J. Ellis. He has admitted telling lies about his alleged role in the Vietnam War, demonstrating that his own character and personality are not wedded to the truth. Stranger still, in light of the content of his self-aggrandizing fabrications, he is an avowed political liberal. Something very odd was going on in his own psyche. More recently, he has written that the political vision of Barack Obama accords with that of the Founding Fathers (or, as Ellis calls them, the "so-called founding fathers"). There are thus multiple reasons to be skeptical of Ellis' several attempts to psychoanalyze the Founders. In this volume the patient on the couch is Washington. It is altogether too convenient that Ellis' Washington is a man whose primary impulse is to seek control in all things, but above all in the attempt to control his own reputation (or, as we might say, his "image"), both for contemporaries and for posterity. That's the psychology; as to the politics, Ellis' Washington is the Founding Liberal, prescient in his perception of the need for a strong national government that would curb the rights that Jeffersonians, and today's conservatives, regard as reserved to the states and the people. According to Ellis, the psychology and the politics are linked: Washington's belief in a strong national government was an external projection of his inner control. As is typical with this sort of work, any behavior or pronouncement that departs from the general "insight" is just the exception that proves the rule. Ellis even manages to turn Washington's Farewell Address, with its admonition against foreign involvement, into a harbinger of Kissingerian internationalism. Although this book is well written, indeed a joy to read, and is superficially convincing, I am deeply suspicious.

No comments about A Monk Swimming: A Memoir, Books on Tape, 6 Cassettes, UNABRIDGED (Read by David Case, Total Running Time Approximately 9 Hours).

1 comments about Harry S. Truman: A Journey to Independence.

1. I listened to these tapes just after finishing McCullough's Truman bio. I felt it was a rehash of the highlights of that work, sensationalized by mixed narration of Lauren Bacall, Gregory Peck, and Jack Lemmon, except with a little more of an additional focus on Margaret than McCullough's book. It did not cover much of Truman's life before or after the presidency. "A Journey to Independence" was a tribute and should be judged as such, rather than a bio. It's a passable listen, but I certainly would not recommend hunting down a copy.