No comments about Bringing Elizabeth Home: A Journey of Faith and Hope.

No comments about All Madden: Hey Im Talking Football.

5 comments about Dark Wind.

1. Some reviewers may not have liked Gordon personally (a bit self-absorbed, seems to bail on his daughters, runs off with his friend's wife...), but they shouldn't hold that against his tale. The story of his ill-fated trip is more of a memoir than an adventure. I'm not sure how a critic could say the story was not convincing -- it's real and very affecting. I don't want to give away the plot, but this is a wrenching tale. How many times have we thought, "If I'd only done x, y or z..." Gordon rakes himself over the coals over and over again, but nothing can bring back the past. I thought he was brave to write of his own personal suffering, even if you don't happen to side with him. I agree that the writing wasn't as good as the very best, but it was exciting and detailed and very solid. Okay, not literary, but respectable enough for its genre. Overall, if you like a bit of the personal mixed in with adventure, you will appreciate this book although remember it is difficult in parts because of the tragedy. Overall, it was an absorbing read.



2. If you want modern sailing, adventures, dilemmas, botched revenges, lies, exotic settings, anxious families back home and eventual disaster in one of the most beautiful and unspoiled places in the world, this is your book. Dark wind tells an average tale about contemporary sailors: middle-aged couple, bouncing out of failed marriages, decides to have the big trip before it's too late: Belize, Panama, back to the US by plane, when the family needs attention, and beyond. Twilights, sunsets, the weird floating society of a port full of foreigners and their boats. Lonesome beaches, mechanical mishaps, the purchase of an EPIRB system: no classic sailing story, here, in the manner of Patrick O'Brien, but autopilots, engines and tourism. People who argue, face hard times and may look selfish. No multi-talented sailor-hero around the world on sight, either. This book is a memoir, a real story about people who suffered while chasing their dreams, and it rings true, even if it's not, which is rather out of the point as far as I'm concerned. It also provides a charming route to follow in the future, autopilot and all. And it taught me something else: if the hurricane comes close, don't ever do what they did.



3. I am the author of Dark Wind, Gordon Chaplin, and this is not a review. I'd like to correct your listing of my books, which begins with the out of print audiobook version of Dark Wind, instead of the in-print paperback edition. Would it be possible to list the paperback first? Thank you for your attention.
   Gordon Chaplin



4. I've read this book twice in the last two weeks, A very moving story of two people looking for adventure. After both previous marriges fall apart they set upon a journy that ultimately takes the life of one and leaves the other searching his soul for forgiveness. Some how it has left me feeling evey emotion that I think Mr Chaplin had wanted to achieve with the writing of this book. A great book! A real joy reading. I just wish it were possible to tell Mr. Chaplin himself.



5. After reading some of these reviews I wonder if the people writing them actually read the book or maybe they never experienced a lost love. It is clear the author has written a very gripping account of paradise found and lost. I give him credit for seeking it out and finding it which is something most people never do. I have just started sailing and this book has reminded me just how powerful and deadly a force nature can be, regardless of preparation and skill. It is a risk all people who venture out to sea take and it is no different than driving a car. It is a good thing if this book causes people to err on the side of caution.

5 comments about The Unquiet Mind.

1. An interesting product for anyone interested in the workings of the mind. Of particular interest to people with or concerned with people who show symptoms of bipolar disorders.



2. I found this book to be very helpful in understanding bi polar illness.
   My son suffers with bi polar and my mom also suffered with it. I finally
   realized that it can never be fully understood by anyone unless they
   actually have it, but I have come closer to accepting it and learning how to cope with it.



3. portrait of a controlable disease . I understand jlalbee manic-depressive illness for the charmed life , but i do not agree . The more learned people know , the better we will be able to be part of the healing process . Some readers might be a bit resentful is not accurate , the lonely and the poor will most likely not read this book . But the more we know , more compasionate we will become and be able to help . Even that i do agree that her case is above the normal person , it takes this kind of person to guide us to the tunnel , so that we can be run over by that train called madness that we all posses in different degrees . So be it .



4. A very insightful writing about Bi-Polar illness. I enjoyed the book and it convinced me that the diagnosis is being incorrectly overused.



5. This was the first stand alone book on Bipolar I have read, and the only one most of my family has read. It is based on the lived experiences of a Bipolar I sufferer (lack of a better word). Kay is a good writter but gets bogged down in accademia speak which is a bit distracting. Unlike the text book she has co written, in comparison, this is easy to read. I still sugest you read it, and keep it on your book shelf, as it promotes bipolar as something normal inteligent successful people can have, instead of the stigma that all people with Bipolar are stupid and dangerous.

1 comments about Ledge Between the Streams (Isis).

1. I first read one of Ved Mehta's autobiographical stories a long time ago in the New Yorker, and didn't stop until I read them all. Ved Mehta turned blind at a very young age, went to a school for the blind in India, then came to the USA, went to Oxford and later became a staff writer for the New Yorker. His autobiography starts off with the biographies of his mother and father, who had a totally different background. And then he takes off with his own story. And that's an impressive story. He not only gives you a deep look into his own life, he also tells the story of India (the partition of India and Pakistan is the background of this particular book) and gives you a fresh look at American and European culture. These are books that make you laugh, that make you cry, and The Ledge between the Streams sometimes sent shivers down my spines. You'd think this writer would be famous all over the world, and I would have expected him to get the Nobel Prize for literature (I'm serious!), but some of his books are out of print and they have hardly been translated. So grab your chance and buy this book! You'll agree with me and tell other people about it, and give this great writer some credit!

5 comments about Charles Chaplin: My Autobiography.

1. Once grown up, sort of, I never lingered long at the video shop over Chaplin's oeurve, passing his famous movies by for another day and then renting the Mambo Kings or True Grit, whatever. Finding his autobiography on a sale rack at Gecko Books in Chiang Mai stopped me though, and a few perused pages were enough to intrigue me as the man wrote affectionately and well. How the world has changed! Chaplin will acquaint you with turn-of-the-century London with its vibrant theatrical entertainment juxtaposed with 'work houses' and 'loony bins'. His initial tours as a stage actor in America are wonderfully rendered, filled with anecdotes worthy of Dos Passos, then followed by his swift ascent to fame and fortune working in and transforming the nascent movie industry in Los Angeles. After that sweet ride Chaplin confronted the 'talkies', a somewhat diminished energy and, eventually, the crude machinations of a voracious media and paranoid government. These latter periods are peppered throughout with overly long renditions of the rich and famous who sought him out or he them; mostly they ate and drank together. The look into celebrityhood is, at the very least, quite entertaining as a test of trivia. My Autobiography is a fine book and very well written, by one of the most engaging men of the twentieth century - I've got to rent those videos.



2. CHARLES CHAPLIN: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY tells the revealing life of one of the most beloved and iconic American silver screen legends of the twentieth century. In his well-known bowl hat, toothbrush mustache, floppy shoes, and bamboo cane, Chaplin had a long illustrious film career that spanned from 1914 to 1957 where he made about 88 films. Through his modest upbringing in Victorian era England by former stage performers, Charles and Hannah Chaplin, Charles picked up where his parents left off. He was an entertainer as he was an articulate man who lived a somewhat vagabond life, which included travels all over the world, but between directing and performing, he spent his time reading the classics from history to philosophy; he was observant of the world around him, but dealt with the subject of history as poetic and a breath of skepticism. Chaplin states, "After all, there are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books" (323).
   
   MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY does not cover controversial terrain. Chaplin is honest and respectful of the people he encountered throughout his career, and this is conveyed within his narrative. Charlie Chaplin lived and worked during the most serious periods in world history, the two World Wars and the controversy of looming accusations that he was tied to communist sentiment. Chaplin had the opportunity to become acquainted with the most towering dignitaries of the world, Sir Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, US presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, he offers little hints of particular encounters, such as with his meeting with Herbert Hoover, but does not elaborate on the details and leaves it up to the readers to come to their own conclusions. Indeed, he had a deep concern for humanity. He clearly was cognizant in translating his concerns through his creative endeavors, such as in his full-length films, "City Lights" and "The Great Dictator." One of the interesting aspects of Chaplin's discussion of "Dictator" is that he includes the transcript to the last lines to the film in this book.
   
   As a fixture of Hollywood, Chaplin shared the limelight with his peers. His most revered friendships were with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, William Randolph Hearst, H.G. Wells, and mentor Upton Sinclair. He also experienced less than stellar relationships with different women that led to three failed marriages, but finally succeeded in finding happiness with his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill, when she was only eighteen years old and shockingly, he was in his 50's.
   
   Overall, Charlie Chaplin shares with readers his most creative and colorful life. The only weakness to the book is that Chaplin seldom mentions any particular date to an event, thus readers are assumed to have knowledge of history and the individuals in which he speaks about in order to parallel these events to his own life. Nevertheless, MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY will enlighten the Chaplin aficionado or curious reader.



3. Charlie Chaplin was always a sort of mystery to me. I never understood the political mystique, the teary-eyed love of all his fans, the emotional attachment. But I do now. He was a wonderful and courageous individual. He was human. He had weaknesses; he had loves. The story of his childhood in England and his mother was a Dickens novel in itself. I could hardly believe it. What a book. I thoroughly enjoyed it - from cover to cover.



4. There is no doubt that Chaplin was a man of many talents, but he was also a human being. And like us all, was of contradictions, and many flaws. He tells of an absolute horrible childhood,with an alcoholic father, and a very emotional, unstable mother,that left him with a wary eye,towards practically everyone. It is true, that this autobiography left out those that he considered his equal. Such as Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton. He was probably deeply in love with a young girl named Hetty Kelly,that he knew in England-whom he never told how much he cared for her, and when she died, affected him profoundly. His pattern of marriages and their subsequent failures, told me that forever after, he continued to search for Hetty Kelly. Chaplin may have been famous, but this was one deeply sad story, that gave him a lifetime, to reflect on, and mourn.



5. Love it...........That man or rather when he was a boy worked so many jobs and moved around constantly, he sure had a lot of "ups and downs" as a child. Still reading the book, but I find it very fascinating.
   Really getting into the Silent film era, I wish more people would too. These marvels of the early movie industry are genius's.
   
   Thanks Again

5 comments about Napoleon and Josephine: An Improbable Marriage (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection).

1. Ms. Bruce does an excellent job of portraying both Napoleon and Josephine with all of their human foibles and thus allows us to see them as people rather than just historical figures. The bibliography is a great reference tool and cites sources from both sides of the debate on 'Napoleon the monster/Napoleon the saint'. All in all an even handed account of one of the most noted marriages of the modern era.



2. I didn't think I would be able to get through such a lengthy biography of Napoleon and Josephine, thinking myself already very familiar with their story. But I was wrong, this book is utterly fascinating, there isn't a dull sentence in it, I had no difficulty getting through it and wouldn't have minded if it had been even longer. If you have never read a book about Napoleon and Josephine, I would recommend this one, and even if you have read others, this one is probably the best there is. This extraordinary love story has never been better told. The only thing that dissapointed me about this book was to read that it was the only one Evangeline Bruce ever wrote, she died not long after it was published, but at least she lived to see this superb work in print.



3. Anybody with a slight interest in Napoleon I or his age, the period of French history known as First Empire, is aware that after his fall power in France was regained by the Bourbon dynasty that had been replaced first by the Revolution, then by Napoleon's Consulate and Empire. Even during his life, after his abdication, he was violently vilified by Royalist propaganda, as never a dethroned sovereign was in all History. Besides the obvious political reasons for that hatred, there was the xenophobic one: not only Bonaparte, the former Emperor of the French, was not of French noble birth, but also he wasn't French at all. Josephine, on the other hand, who was always a representative of the Ancien Régime, regardless of her being Napoleon's wife for 13 years, was beloved by the Royalists, she, who was of French, though doubtful, noble birth.

   Evangeline Bruce's book could have been written during the Bourbon Restoration, between 1815 and 1830, being, as it is, a compendium of all kinds of Royalist gossip and slander ever written against Napoleon and his Italian family, whereas Josephine and her French family are always treated fairly and sympathetically. Bruce sees Napoleon as a natural born monster: cynical, unscrupulous, ambitious, calculating, tyrannical and a bloodthirsty warmonger, in a word, the Corsican Ogre, that famous boogeyman invented by French and English Royalists to extinguish all trace of the Revolution which, according to them, was embodied by that single man.

   She denies him any patriotism or idealism. She denies him any merit, attributing his military successes to his marshals and his political ones to his "incredible luck." Josephine, on the other hand, is the destitute brave mother of two children who survived the Revolution's Terror, caught the eye of the Ogre and, thanks to her sweetness, delicacy and femininity that only a noble stock can provide, succeeded to make something of a human being of that Ogre, but ended up as martyr when he put her aside to marry another woman (and a foreign one at that). In sum, Mrs. Bruce's book is sheer Royalist propaganda mixed up with "beauty and the beast" fairy tale, nothing more.

   There's hardly one paragraph in this whole lampoon without some unpleasant remark on any of Napoleon's acts. Everything he does is distorted by a maligned bias. No word he ever utters is sincere. Even his most generous attitudes are not to be trusted. On page 414 (of the British edition) we read: "He made even less effort than usual to hide his contempt for all around him; the few signs of affection, and these quite unreliable, were reserved only for Josephine and Hortense." Bruce supports this incredible nonsense not by quoting these "all around him," but bloodsucking Talleyrand on saying that the Emperor was "fascinated by himself." For Bruce, in fact, everything Napoleon's enemies tell is true, like viperous Metternich's unbelievable words put in Napoleon's mouth that he would "drag down the whole of society in his fall." All the guilty ones of betrayal towards him are acquitted, like treacherous Bernadotte, depicted by Bruce as opposing his benefactor out of true republican feeling and as "elected" for the Swedish throne, although even the rocks in Sweden know that this French marshal owed that throne exclusively to the Emperor.

   It is far from surprising the author's deliberate omission of everything that could account for Napoleon's well-deserved fame of administrative genius as well as a military one. Considering him nothing but an usurper, out of sheer intellectual dishonesty Bruce simply omits the fact that the immense majority of the French elected Napoleon their Consul, as well as their Emperor through a referendum, which made him, in the democratic sense, the only legitimate monarch of his time in all Europe. Bruce doesn't mention that First Consul Bonaparte found the country bankrupt by the Directory and that he put finances in order. She wouldn't dream on mentioning his improvements in the education system, his protection of the labor classes, or that salaries in France were high as never before, limiting herself to point out that he surrounded his court by pomp and had 44 palaces, as if his military conquests had not increased the revenue considerably. Bruce ignores Napoleon's sane and balanced financial policy to say, rather deliriously: "War became France's almost sole industry." And, of course, she blames him for all the wars, although the whole world knows that the English government, which ultimately benefited from them, pushed for war relentlessly.

   But the most striking proof that no story is absurd enough for Bruce to help her paint her unoriginal "Corsican Ogre" portrait is in the opening of the 23rd chapter, when we are confronted with the astonishing statement that Napoleon, and not England, caused the abrogation of the peace treaty of Amiens, by insulting a British ambassador. The reason presented by Bruce for such undiplomatic attitude is even more astounding: "Bonaparte disliked tall men."

   Bruce does describe in a lively manner a few aspects of Revolutionary France, as well as some picturesque episodes concerning French salons, people's clothes and house decorations. But for that she seldom quotes her sources, and, given her general untrustworthiness and incredible prejudices against the main character and his family, there's no way to know if any description comes from historical fact or her own fanciful imagination. Even when she does indicate her sources at the end of the book, she won't give the chapter, making it difficult for us to go check the quotations for ourselves. There is only one recommendable thing in this whole 555 page book, which are its 32 pages of black and white pictures, untouched by the author's fantasy and prejudices. It's very little.




4. Evangeline Bruce beautifully combines historical fact with the dance of fiction. A must-read for anyone who's ever wanted to understand the machinations of the French Revolution and the fate of those who lived through it.



5. Mention the word 'Napoleon,' and what may come to mind is a short fellow with his hand stuck in his vest, a breed of cat that has abnormally short legs, or a rich pastry with thin layers and lots of sweet cream in a high stack. The origin of this term actually comes from a historical figure, who was the subject of fear, loathing and satire, who managed to conquer most of Europe in the early nineteenth century, and who fell in love with a woman.
   
   Author Evangline Bruce -- this was the only work that she published -- takes a long look at the self-proclaimed Emperor of the French, Napoleon, and his wife, the American born Josephine. Both of them came from unlikely backgrounds, both survived the Terror that came after the Revolution, and both were to play vital roles in history.
   
   It's an amazing look at one of history's more famous 'power couples.' The courtship of the pair was intense, with Napoleon firing off passionate letters, and Josephine maintaining a cool, rather remote presence. The more she refused to give in, the more he pressed her to accept his offer of marriage. His family were all firmly against his choice of a wife, and would gleefully repeat damaging gossip and would openly refer to her as la putana or that woman. Finally, he wore Josephine down -- or was it the fact that he was on the fast track to fame, and especially fortune? -- and she wed him in a quick, civil ceremony. Many of the witnesses noted that she looked rather unhappy and fatigued, and after a honeymoon of only two days, Napoleon was marching with his armies to Italy. By 1804, he had conquered Italy, conducted his Egyptian campaign, and had consolidated enough power to crown himself Emperor of the French, and Josephine was his Empress.
   
   But the relationship would flounder within six years, with a separation that was painful to them both. Napoleon was a jealous man, and tended to use and discard women as he pleased -- the author continually refers to him as a misogynist -- and when a woman ceased to be useful to him, he merely kicked her to the curb and moved on. Unable to give him the male child that he craved, Josephine agreed to a divorce, and retired from Paris to her beloved estate of Malmaison. Napoleon immediately took a young, blonde Austrian Archduchess as his second wife and was rewarded almost immediately with a son. But Europe was rebelling against his rule, and the final years of his reign as Emperor were plagued with a disasterous war in Spain, a France that was bled of men and money, and a retreat from Russia in the dead of winter that was the final blow. When the triumphant armies of the English, Prussians and Russians marched into Paris, Napoleon was well on the way to Elba, Waterloo and a final exile to a desolate island in the south Atlantic, St. Helena.
   
   As for Josephine, a day after meeting the charismatic Tsar of Russia, she caught a fever and died soon after. Her popularity with the people that she met never wavered, and she was genuinely mourned. It is a curious twist that she would become the ancestress of most of today's European royalty through her son, Eugene de Beauharnais.
   
   Another touch that Bruce added that made the story interesting is that of the Clarys, a family of wealthy merchants from Marseilles that had one daughter, Julie, become Napoleon's sister in law, and another that was his fiancee for a time, before he jilted her to marry Josephine. Desiree, as she was known, would go on to marry one of Napoleon's generals, and became in time, Queen of Sweden. Other mistresses of Napoleon get equal time, including the Polish born Maria Walenska.
   
   The narrative tends to stall a bit when it isn't being focused on Napoleon or Josephine's letters and private lives. The descriptions of wars and battles are mercifully short and sadly, rather tedious. Instead, Bruce keeps her focus on the psychological relationship, and shows both the good and the bad that was between this couple. It does make for compelling reading in spots, and don't be surprised if it keeps you up late at night.
   
   Several inserts of black and white reproductions of paintings, drawings and sketches are included. Notes, bibliography and an index are included as well. This was Evangline Bruce's only published work. History fans will have a fine time with this, and I happily recommend it.

5 comments about Fire Lover.

1. Too much information. The story line gets bogged down and lost in Wambaugh's microscopic details. Too bad. Could've been an interesting read.



2. Even though you know how the true story ends it is a page turner. The arsonist's mind is beyond comprehension. Wambaugh does a great job with this account.



3. Nobody does non-fiction crime reporting like Joe Wambaugh. Like The Onion Field and The Blooding, this is a non-stop read. Wambaugh's insight into human behavior and motivations is fascinating. Joe Wambaugh is an american treasure.



4. I thought that Ken Howard's reading added to the drama of this story about an arson investigator who set and then videotaped his own fires. The author paid appropriate homage to those whose tenacity finally brought John Orr to trial. The trial (transcript) was pretty much verbatim, but that is a plus because the attorneys were so eloquent.



5. Readers know from the beginning that John Orr, ace arson investigator, and the mysterious serial arsonist he investigates are one and the same. We also know that such cases are, alas, not so unusual: fire bugs are often firemen. Even so, Wambaugh's writing skill maintains the suspense of this story to the bitter end. Will justice be done for Matt, the little boy who never got that chocolate mint ice cream cone?
   
   BOOK lovers will be struck by the central role of the perp's autobiographical novel in the case. Can the jury really believe that there is a reasonable doubt that the little boy in the book was named Matt by coincidence?

No comments about The Lost Days of Agatha Christie.

5 comments about The Diaries of Adam and Eve.

1. I truly loved this book and have shared it with many people. Few books are so funny and end with such a good heartwarming message. Not everyone, I have found, thinks it is as funny as I do as their humor obviously needs a little refining. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes to laugh, has a sharp wit, and likes the Twain type of writing style and charm it posesses.



2. Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice
   
   Short and very sweet. The Diaries present a charming and enlightened view of the relationship between the First Humans. Written late in Twain's life, the Diaries are considered his most personal work. Contain typical Twain wit, iconoclastic thinking and sardonic good will. Adam's later entries are believed to reflect Twain's feelings for his beloved, deceased wife, Livy. Adam and Eve's love for each other and Adam's grief for Eve moved me to tears. Beautifully illustrated.



3. It doesnt take comments from people such as myself to speak of the brilliance of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmons). His body of work simply speaks for itself. If you are new to Twain's work I would highly reccommend that you try reading this novel first. It is short, entertaining, witty, and beautifully portreyed. This novel is worth absultely every penny you pay for it!



4. I have always wanted to get a copy of this particular work of MT's under one volume. This appears to be it!



5. I was teaching Huck Finn to my junior class this year, and I tried getting to some of Twain's extra writings so that I'd have a little more background information to offer. This was the gem that I found. I've read plenty of Twain, and I've loved just about all of it, but Eve's Diary, especially, was something that both entertained me and moved me.
   
   It is hilarious. Eve's observations on men are priceless, and her naivete is just so charming. More than that, though, Eve's Diary urges the reader to look at the world with the same innocence and exuberance as Eve does. I know that this little book was Twain's love letter to his deceased wife, but it's also a love letter to human life. This is Twain at his least cynical.
   
   This edition blends the diaries of Adam and Eve together, but they were written separately, and I actually prefer them that way (I much prefer Eve's Diary by itself). I also sort of prefer the original edition's woodcuts, though the engravings in this edition are nice. Those originals are readily available online for free.
   
   However you read it though, don't miss this one. With the exception of Huck Finn, this is the essential Twain read.