No comments about William Blake's Sexual Path to Spiritual Vision.

5 comments about Don't Bet against Me!: Beating the Odds Against Breast Cancer and in Life.

1. This book is totally awesome. A great insight by Deanna from her life with Brett to her cancer and beyond. A book worth reading.



2. This is an excellent book about a woman's journey with breast cancer. Deanna Favre is the wife of Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers. She describes her dealing with breast cancer, the aftermath of it and her struggle to survive and live with a deadly disease. Her and her husband have started a foundation dealing with breast cancer and continue to work tirelessly for the foundation. Reading the book brings forth a variety of emotions and I would recommend this book to everyone especially those who have been touched by breast cancer in some way.



3. In a word? Inspirational. This lady has faith and talks freely about it. I believe this to be an ideal gift to share with someone facing this disease; they may well be comforted.



4. She is a very brave woman who because of who she is will inspire women to get through whatever God puts in front of them. She is someone who has not let being in the public eye to change them into someone they are not. But has stayed true to herself and is doing wonderful things for others.



5. Wonderful book with lots of information about breast cancer. Also a great story on Deanna's life and such a down to earth person. She is just a sweetheart and you will love her. Don't Bet against Me!: Beating the Odds Against Breast Cancer and in Life I also bought the book for a friend that has breast cancer and is going through chemo and she has found the book to be a great comfort.

5 comments about A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier.

1. This priceless memoir is one of those works often quoted, but never read. Countless Rev War historians quote this work by pvt. Joseph Plumb Martin, and many TV documentries do the same. At length I was finally able to obtain a copy of this most elusive, yet oft used work.
   
   Martin's recollections range from the trivial, to the fascinating. His homespun style of writing catches the mood of what the Revolutionary War soldier was. Written many years after these events one can only marvel at the authors ability to recall so much detail. But I think this is the case with many veterans. My father (God rest his soul) who fought in WW2 would have agreed with everything Martins says. Like him, my dad's memory of war events became clearer in his advanced years, and I think this was probably the case with our writer here. While much of it could have been fabricated, there seems too much an air of authenticity to deny its truth.
   
   Martin speaks with the convictions of a determined old rebel, and while may personal feelings lean more toward the British/Loyalist perspective, I can't deny the utter charm this work has for the reader. Intespaced with all the hunger and privation of his expereinces, the old soldier still has the ability to offer wit and humor at his circumstances. Martin's expereinces could well apply to any soldier of both sides, for the British soldier's lot was often not much better, despite all the supposed power of Albion!
   
   What strikes one most about this memoir is how little fighting Martin saw, despite the whole time he spent in the war. Yet his time was almost always spent in hunger and want. This is the universal plight of the soldier no matter what time period we speak of. In the end, Martin rightly faults his country for allowing him and his comrades to suffer so much for so little in the end. His quote that his government expected every last obligation from him, yet was so half-hearted in fulfilling its own in turn I think is a tendency that still haunts us today in the USA. Not much his changed in that regard. The veterans of Iraq today would find much to agree with Pvt. Jospeh Plumb Martin.
   
   There are interesting details about his movements in the New York, New Jersey area, and any person interested in this local history would find this book fascinating. Martin's account of his time as an enginner is also quite interesting. His account of the attack on redoubt's No. 9 and 10 at Yorktown sheds much light on how the stroming parties took those advanced posts. Martin was the original combat engineer. In fact he is the original GI grunt. Forget Vietnam and Iraq, here is the essential US army veteran. Reader's today, whether military historians or not, could gain many fascinating insights into the soldier's daily life, which as I said earlier is unniversal. This book certainly deserves a wider reading audience. Many will find the appealing nature of the author's words worthy of a smile and a nod of admiration. A classic work, essential for reader on the Rev War.



2. Serious, sad, scary & often funny. Read about US history from someone who was actually there. This young man was a patriot, and a member of our misguided youth, as well. What fun. But not for them.



3. This fascinating personal account does not fixate on the grandeur and laurels of high-ranking generals, the lofty ideals of revolution, or on battlefield strategies. It focuses on one man's arduous eight years of service in an army that neither common citizen nor Congress seemed really to care much about. Engrossing and littered with humor and honesty, it is a unique chance to witness a common man in an uncommon time.
   
   Martin's account should be required reading for every enthusiast of the Revolutionary War. For those of little knowledge about the war, the book nonetheless is still an engaging account of war and army life, a generally fascinating subject for the layman. It effectively communicates the monotony and vexation of an ordinary man who struggles and succeeds in a terrible enlistment. Martin's descriptions of his extended family, of his hometown life, of the everyday observations are fascinating windows into the 18th century. Martin laments that in his eight-year journey his constant companions were "fatigue, hunger, and cold." The book's exhausting ride leaves the reader in undeniable agreement.



4. This is a very interesting book. I like it a lot. It is also very small so would be handy to take along on business trips, etc.. I had to take a break from reading my Civil War books to go back to the Rev. War. to read this one. Highly recommended! Moviemaniac



5. One thing comes through loud and clear with Plummer's account of his service in the Continental Army: Starvation and disease were a lot worse enemy than the British, followed by his own countrymen who didn't want to give up on the English way of life. From reading this narrative it is apparrent that someone has taken the liberty to "wordsmith" the account with heavy editiing. The grammar is too much akin to 20th century language patterns, which casts doubts on the whole work as to the truthfulness.

5 comments about I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir (P.S.).

1. This book is a must read for all those who are or have ever been involved in the gay club or bar culture and who enjoy witty banter and extreme circumstances. Surprisingly, given its content and focus on a twenty-something alcoholic advertising exec by day and drag queen by night and a high-end fetish prostitute, the book is incredibly insightful and well written, titalating for even the most discerning and well-read critic. It's truly a mix of fun and outlandish situations and commentary on life that is a great read.



2. This book definitely gives insight into a life few of us will ever lead; therefore a great escape. There are some dark topics which the author touches on but does not go into detail which keeps the book fairly light and really a story about relationships on a level that is relatable to all forms of relationships. I am being a book pimp and pushing it on all my friends and family. It is emotional and entertaining, an easy read. Loved it.



3. You will not want to put this book down. Look for Josh's next book which will be available in May.



4. There is really not much to say about Kilmer-Purcell's 'I Am Not Myself These Days'. Simply put, it is my favorite book, a beautiful book, a book that I have read to pieces, scribbled thoughts in, and highlighted to smithereens. This book changed my life (how cliche) and I have since passed it on to no less than 10 of my friends, all of whom have written in the margins and underlined passages that scream out to them.
   
   Read this book.



5. I guess it always amazes me when people write books about their lives and just lay it all out there for the world and their mothers to see. Mr. Kilmer-Purcell pulls a chunk of his life from when he first landed in New York and covers the good--meeting a rich guy with a nice apartment, the bad--drug and alcohol addiction, and the ugly--the crash and burn when it all crashes down, a drunk drag queen the morning after, etc. As a comparison you could say it's sort of like Augusten Burroughs book Magical Drinking as they are both advertising copy guys who drink and drug a whole lot. It's funny how that particular career seems to have generated a number of writers and also amazing how they continue to drink and drug yet never manage to be fired or lose their jobs. I did enjoy the book, he has a light breezy writing style that makes the funny and sad material compulsively readable. Being a 7 foot, in heels, drag queen named Aqua definitely portends itself to riotous happenings and there are quite a few related to good effect here. But it's his addictive compulsive relationship with his hustler crack addict boyfriend that drives the story along to it's ultimate ending. The fact that he has recovered himself enough now to be a writer and columnist for Out Magazine seems like it could be a story in itself. Somehow you want to know how he managed to clean himself up after the extreme highs and lows he went through all in years time, hopefully in the next non-fiction book he does he will cover it. I do recommend this book, not only as an enjoyable read but a handbook of what NOT to do when you first move to New York.

5 comments about Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley.

1. I ordered this product a MONTH AGO and still HAVEN'T RECIEVED IT. I contacted the seller and after a couple of dats finally got a response that told me to WAIT, stating that if I don't recieve in ANOTHER BUSINESS WEEK that I would either be shipped a replacement or given a refund. I paid fast, and have been patient, but this is ridiculous! I will NEVER buy from them again!



2. I have read this book awhile back and feel it's a nice story but alittle reserved for someone that was very close to Elvis. I like Jerry's honesty but prefer the reality packed Joe Esposito books like Remember Elvis and Elvis Straight UP. I have the sense that since Jerry is very close with the Estate , it might have had something to do with how careful he writes. At least he did not stoop down to the level of a Sonny West, Lamar Fike or that insane idiot Marty Lacker.



3. This book is a let down for all the hype it got. Jerry is obviously Priscillas poodle and it shows blatantly in this book. This soft soaping "careful to not break any eggs" writing is getting old. I am not saying to speak ill or write dreck like what Marty Lacker does. Just saying that the fans might appreciate you acting like you got a pair like your friend Joe who is not afraid to say his mind. Take Elvis Straight Up for example, Joe says it like it happened covers the raquetball lawsuit ,drugs,divorce, col parker etc without throwing Elvis under a bus.
   
   Is it too much to ask a representative of the Estate to acknowledge the intelligence of the fans?
   
   Jerry, If you would have told the story the way it really happened, you might start doing some good by putting those other trash authors like Nash and the likes out of business.
   
   Jerry, get back on the computer and put some kick bootie into this book. The fans will love you for it.



4. Jerry Schilling, original member of Elvis's entourage The Memphis Mafia, tells the events surrounding the King of Rock 'n Roll in this unique perspective, and from the opening chapter, you'll find yourself hooked. Schilling tells it all, from the beginning when he found friendship with Elvis by playing football in the park with him just as the rocker had released his first single, to the end, when Elvis passes away and Jerry's life continues. Jerry lived at Graceland and he was beside Elvis throughout the good and the bad, meeting legendary entertainers, taking care of the King, and generally having the time of his life. Jerry comes across as genuine and a true friend as he tells his story, and gives new insight into someone who lived his life inside a fishbowl.
   
   The book isn't without its flaws, however. Do I think Schilling glossed over a few of the major issues at times, including Elvis's drug abuse and the disintegration of his marriage? Certainly. Was Schilling overly careful in his descriptions of his fellow Mafia Members? Absolutely. I personally was very let down at Schilling's lack of information about the actual death of Elvis, though to be fair, he was no longer a regular employee at the time, having chosen to go into management (including managing both Billy Joel and The Beach Boys). I feel strongly that Schilling knows more about the death than he shared, but that's his perogative, and apparently he's not comfortable letting the rest of us know. I also would've liked him to address, at least briefly, the whole "Elvis is alive" myth and lay it to rest permanently. But overall this is a very well-written, well-remembered book, and I enjoyed Schilling's recounting of the life and times the rest of us could only observe from afar. Schilling seems like a decent guy and I enjoyed learning about him almost as much as I liked the glimpse into the side of Elvis the performer tried to keep to himself. If it were possible, I'd give this one 4.5 stars. Fascinating stuff.



5. Good addition to the bookshelf of Elvis fans, but as much as Elvis was a true legend, the phenomena has been a little over-done. This book does, however, offer a slightly different view on life with Elvis.
   
   Real Life Dramas - Volume One
   
   Darren G. Burton

5 comments about Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare.

1. I have been a Shakespeare scholar since college, and I am 68 Years old. This was the best book about the Bard that I have ever read. The writing is clear, he relates the times to the plays, and his criticisms are cogent.



2. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was the greatest playwright ever to grace the stage and page in the English language; he also remains the most elusive of biographical figures. Biographers who tackle the Bard undertake an exercise in conjecture, for even though by the seventeenth century England was a record-keeping society--the better to busy subsequent scholars--huge gaps remain in even the most basic reconstructions of Shakespeare's life. Greenblatt's subtitle, then, is a misnomer, for we really do not know how Shakespeare became Shakespeare, how a person from a provincial town, a modest family, and no wealth or personal connections, chose his vocation and "wrote the most important body of imaginative literature of the last thousand years" (p. 12).
   
   The exact date of Shakespeare's birth (April 23 or 26?) is debated, and as for his death, we have no surviving account of the details of his last days, final illness and passing. All points in between, too, are matters of hypothesis and speculation. We think we know the name of his Stratford school teacher. The decade or more after he presumably finished school, and before he left Stratford for London, are known as the "lost years" because we know virtually nothing about this period of his life. Was he apprenticed to be a butcher? Did he follow in his father's footsteps as a glove maker? Perhaps he did a stint as a private tutor? Ambiguity qualifies all suggestions. We do know that at age eighteen (November 1582) he married Anne Hathaway, age twenty-six, and by the time he was twenty-one he had three children. Some time after that he left his wife and children and moved to London, although exactly how, when or why we do not know. Similar ignorance clouds our knowledge about his written work. We have, for example, only one manuscript autograph that was written by Shakespeare. Were his 154 sonnets written to a certain gay lover, or to a wider audience of men and women? "There is no way of achieving any certainty," writes Greenblatt, for "no one has been able to offer more than guesses, careful or wild." We have none of his personal letters, none of the books he surely owned, and nothing that is overtly self-revealing in his writings that otherwise revealed more about the complexities of human interiority than any other texts. After roughly twenty years in London, Shakespeare returned to Stratford and the family he had left behind, but even the date of this return is a matter of speculation.
   
   How can we explain the breadth and depth of obscurity that hides even the basics of Shakespeare's life? It might simply be the result of historical accident and chance. Four hundred years is a long time. Perhaps more practical considerations, like avoiding trouble with political and ecclesial authorities, caused him to keep a low profile; to the former playwrights were subversive and to the latter immoral. Still, Greenblatt suggests that in Shakespeare's life and writings there is a deliberate "act of erasure" (p. 255) that prevents us from knowing him.
   
   What Greenblatt does in his book is "to tread the shadowy paths that lead from the life Shakespeare lived into the literature he created" (p. 12). His views on anti-semitism, for example, emerge from consideration of his relationship with Christopher Marlow (who wrote The Jew of Malta) and his own play The Merchant of Venice. The death of his son Hamnet at age eleven and his father elucidate Hamlet and Shakespeare's genius at portraying human interiority and especially "tormented inwardness." King Lear connects with his return to Stratford from London's limelight and the last five years or so when he returned to Stratford and embraced the inevitability of old age, loss of power and identity, and family tensions. Greenblatt also shines in explaining the socio-cultural essentials of the day, such as the emergence of sixteenth century theater in London, the horrible violence that engulfed England as it alternated between Catholic and Protestant royalty, the literary nature of a sonnet to both hide and reveal, and so on. As the founder and leader of the New Historicist movement in literary studies, some have criticized Greenblatt for the notion that literature and art emerge mainly as a construct from society and less from a single individual's effort, the result being that readers learn more about Shakespeare's context than about the writer himself.
   
   Greenblatt, professor of humanities at Harvard and one of the leading Shakespeare scholars today, has written an elegant book about a fascinating figure. Twenty or so color and black and white plates compliment the text.



3. Not much is known about the life of William Shakespeare. Even though by the seventeenth century England was a record keeping nation, gaps remain in even the most basic reconstructions of Shakespeare's life. The surviving traces of his life are abundant but thin. The decade or more after he presumably finished school, and before he left Stratford for London, are known as the "lost years" because we know virtually nothing about this period of his life. We have no surviving account of the details of his last days, final illness and passing. All points in between, too, are matters of hypothesis and speculation. We have none of his personal letters, none of the books he surely owned. The author, Stephen Greenblatt, a Harvard professor and Shakespeare historian, thus asks us to imagine certain aspects of Shakespeare's life. The book is thus more assumptions about Shakespeare's life than a true biography.
   
   The author succeeds in taking the reader back into the Elizabethan world in which Shakespeare lived. One needed to obtain a coat of arms from inheritance or university education (Oxford or Cambridge) to become a gentleman, which was almost impossible without money. It was a world where the Queen was ex-communicated by the roman Pope, where the Jews were unjustly kicked out of England (by the end of the 13th Century all Jews had been deported from England), where Catholics were publicly and brutally executed, where people died of the bubonic plague, and where women were burnt for the crime of witchcraft and magic. It is a great introduction to that era for those not familiar with it.
   
   There were some amusing parts I really enjoyed. For example, I found myself laughing at the playwright's relationship with Robert Greene (discussed as a chief source for the character of Falstaff). Those passages were really entertaining.
   
   For a man who succeeded in writing such beautiful love prose, it seemed that his life was lacking of love. Shakespeare (1564-1616) was 18 and his wife, Anne Hathaway, 26 when they got married in November of 1582. By the time he was twenty-one he had three children. He married her because she was pregnant. For the times, he was considered to be underage. In most likelihood Shakespeare did not love his wife. He bequeathed her only his "second best bed" in his will, after more than thirty years of marriage!
   
   Were his sonnets written to a male lover? Homosexuality was accepted at the time. Since man was considered superior to women it was not surprising to anyone if men fell in love with each other. It was also the custom at the time that no writer ever wrote love sonnets to his wife. Most writers wrote of the hellish enterprise of marriage. Some, like Francis Bacon, refused to marry.
   
   We learn much about his father. The author analyzes Shakespeare's father's rise and fall as a public figure in Stratford. At one point his father went bankrupt, and his dreams of ever getting the `coat of arms' vanished. However, with Shakespeare's success and fortune, the `coat of arms' was bought.
   
   We learn about Christopher Marlowe, the most prominent playwright of the time, who died in a bar fight at age 30. Some say he might have been a spy. Shakespeare was inspired by his play Tamberlane, and wanted to equal or surpass him. Marlowe was thus an inspiration to Shakespeare.
   
   Surprisingly, actors were seen as whores and vagabonds. Shakespeare wanted to be a gentleman. He paid later for the coat of arms with money earned from his theatre in order to gain the status of gentleman. Costumes were very important and very expensive, and the playwright's most important assets. Actors were allowed to wear them only on stage else be arrested for impersonating gentlemen.
   
   After roughly twenty years in London, Shakespeare finally returned to Stratford and the family he had left behind. His wish was to live with his daughter and her husband, and his grandchild.
   
   Shakespeare was a master at the ability to use words to question power, authority and evil. He had a rich vocabulary and had invented many words. He borrowed a lot from real life and other sources, but his words were unique. He went to court and witnessed executions, held a skull in his hand in a cemetery and wondered who this man could have been and what clothes he wore.
   
   Some suspect that all the works attributed to Shakespeare weren't really by him. However this was not addressed by the author. Greenblatts seems confident of the authenticity of Shakespeare's authorship. (Shakespeare wrote 39 plays that scholars know of between 1590 and 1613 including a play that was lost and 154 sonnets.)
   
   Until his death at the age of 52, Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, All's Well That Ends Well, Othello, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Winter's Tale. Some of the plays were actually co-authored by other writers.
   
   One reviewer writes the following very enlightening comment I thought I must include: "In the jungles of Yucatan, our mystical guide, Pepe, opined that most, if not all, very successful individuals were visitors from outer space who rose above the strivings of ordinary earthlings because of their extraterrestrial powers. Pepe's explanation is most tempting when one seeks to comprehend how an Elizabethan playwright and poet, Will Shakespeare, so far eclipsed every mere earthling before or since the time he visited our planet. But if one isn't satisfied with Pepe's facile philosophy of greatness, read Stephen Greenblatt's masterful biography, Will in the World. He comes closer than the thousands of previous biographers and commentators to a recreation of Shakespeare in the Elizabethan setting, and his outstanding accomplishment may lead some of us to believe that he, too, is an extraterrestrial."
   
   For Shakespeare, all the world did become a stage!



4. This is one of the most interesting books that I read last year.
   
   While it is highly speculative it can be entertaining and even in portions insightful. Even though that there is no specific evidence that the Bard was a secret Catholic the events that unfolded around the area where he grew up could indicate this at least circumstantially. Where the book does take liberates I don't think Stephen Greenblatt is being deliberately sloppy he just knows that in terms of subject mater old Will has been done to death and no one is really going to add anything. So why not write something a little more speculative?
   
   Overall-It probably didn't happen but it MIGHT have happened "all the world's a stage and men in their time play many parts"



5. I think a lot of Shakespeare fans are grateful when a new bio comes out. It seems to revive the strength of the usual authorship assumption. The book gives evidence that the Shakespeares might have been covertly Catholic and on that basis mainly to suggest that William may have got his deep and spectacularly undocumented formal education in Greek, the classics, and other subjects in a clandestine Catholic stronghold where drama was performed. It sounds exciting to suggest that there was something special and secretive going on along these lines in Shakespeare's parental home family; but a lot of English still leaned Catholic back then, naturally enough, since even the previous queen, Elizabeth's sister, was "bloodily" Catholic Mary. I was given Greenblatt's book as a birthday present and did read it carefully, but didn't feel further enlightened by it or even convinced it contained any additional information about his life that bore very certainly or tellingly on Shakespeare as author. The best Shakespeare biographies are the short ones, I think. Three or four pages. Of course, beyond that there's lots to read interestedly about the times and Elizabethan/Jacobean theater. Like other Shakespeare book-length bios, this one isn't likely to much increase your understanding of or appreciation for the brilliant Shakespeare plays.

5 comments about The Hills of Tuscany.

1. Reading "The Hills of Tuscany", Ferenc Mate's exuberant, joyful ode to his adopted country, makes one eager to join that expatriate band. After occupying a series of dwellings a "houseboat, sailboat, mountain cabin, that garage in Laguna Beach, the attic in Paris, the cubbyhole in New York, and a whatsit in the Bahamas," the Hungarian-born Mate and his artist wife, Candace, deemed it time for a permanent home.
   
   Central Italy's countryside, where "Everything was small to the measure of man," beguiled them; there "reigned the gentle Tuscan light, and silence, and a calm." They became contentedly sated by "pranzo," the four-course daily meal that resembles in quantity "our average Thanksgiving dinner," and decided to buy a farmhouse, to put down roots in the idyllic Tuscan hills.
   
   Their enchanting dream was a challenging task. Mate spoke no Italian and was woefully ignorant of the vagaries of an agrarian existence. Nonetheless, he set about his search for their perfect home with a Quixote-like zeal, undaunted by a real estate agent cum undertaker who stored his listings with names of the recently departed in a shoe box. A parade of touted homesteads in abject disrepair didn't discourage him. Collapsed fireplaces and gaping roof holes were the norm. Mate zigzagged his way across unfamiliar terrain, following unmapped rutted paths, bouncing over rocky roads until he found his utopia, "a structure with perfect rhythm." La Marinaia The Sailor's Wife. Once that purchase was accomplished, attempts to have utilities turned on introduced him to an implacable, inscrutable Italian bureaucracy. It was explained that there are an almost infinite number of regulations in Italy, " . . . many dating from Roman times, some contradictory, some incomprehensible."
   
   Settling in also meant becoming a part of the nearest town, Montepulciano, "built for humans not for cars, so the main street was just wide enough for conducting daily affairs, evening promenades, and small festive processions." The couple delighted in exploring closet-size shops run by often absent, usually amiable owners. Their nearest neighbor welcomed them with fresh goat cheese covered by a large fig leaf, and they attempted to improve their Italian by watching Telegiornale, the local televised news an "Italian version of reality, a flexible amalgam of fresh headlines, old footage, and clips from Steve McQueen movies."
   
   More than an enthusiastic tribute to the ever astounding beauties of the Italian countryside, "The Hills Of Tuscany" is a paean to the pleasures of the palate as Mate describes in rapturous detail ravioli stuffed with ricotta and wild mushrooms, crostini spread with tuna and capers, rabbit ragu "spicy with tomatoes" plus a legion of dishes bathed, basted, stir-fried, swathed in or caressed by olive oil. He is also unreservedly passionate about the local wine, "wine as robust as the clay," "wine with a deep complexity that tingled all the taste buds."
   
   Today, Mate lives with his wife and young son at La Marinaia, tending his olives and vineyard. It is there, he writes, that "we learned to live and enjoy life as the Tuscans do piano, piano, con calma." Slowly, slowly, with calm. The author's enthusiastic prose is infectious. His word pictures are captivating, as he unveils a Tuscany that is both serene and seductive. "The Hills Of Tuscany" is an invitation to follow your dream . . . especially if it leads to Italy.
   
   - Gail Cooke



2. What a delightful arm-chair journey The Hills of Tuscany is! Máté's descriptions involve all senses and beyond that they make the reader yearn for something simple, ancient and cozy, -- to be close to earth and to our fellowmen, and to rediscover the joy of unpretentious things. His enjoyment of life is so obvious that his book would be a pleasure regardless where he settled, be it the Arctic Circle or the rainforest of Costa Rica.



3. Very enjoyable reading, especially if you have vacationed in this area. I could picture the coutry side and the town of Montepluciana that he wrote about. I loved the area and loved Ferenc Mate's book, "The Hills of Tuscany". Some of us wishes that we could trade places with him, living there sounds devine.



4. I thought this book was an easy read and pleasant. It was just kind of a diary of the day to day life the author experienced when he bought a home in Tuscany. It was not an in depth study of life as a foreigner in a foreign country but then again I don't think that was his purpose in writing it.



5. I enjoyed this book. I will be going back to Italy in the fall and will probably visit some small hill towns. Since this book, the Mates are now living in another part of Italy. It was fun to read. Once you read this one then read the next book "A Vineyard in Tuscany: A Wine Lover's Dream".

No comments about A Cry from the Heart: The Biography of Edith Piaf.

5 comments about Inside My Heart: Choosing to Live with Passion and Purpose.

1. I thought this was going to be Robin pretending to be a therapist. It really wasn't. She just told her life story and I respect her for it. There are things she feels strongly about that I don't (like she finds a lot of joy in keeping house and ironing her husbands shirts) but I was able to take a lot away from the book anyway. I would recommend it!



2. did not care for it, VERY boring, I've owned it for a year and still have not finished it and no desire to.



3. I did not think this was such a great book. Somewhat of an arrogant type of person, not at all a humbleness to her. Sorry, I didn't like it.



4. This is a very interesting book. Very well written and a hard book to put down. I Loved It. She is a very smart woman. And a great wife. I learned alot from her. Thank You Robin for your great insight into being a great wife and mother!



5. If you like, love, hate, don't know Dr Phil it doesn't matter. This book (narrated by Robin herself) is an incredible listen and she takes you from little girl to woman and all the trials she has gone through. She is amazingly candid and because of this she is someone you can relate too. The way she has handled everything from an alcoholic father to cancer is not only inspiring but admirable. She tells it from the darkest times to the most happiest momonts in her life. I loved it.

5 comments about The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey.

1. This is a great book with historical information. I really enjoyed reading about the authors struggles and survival.



2. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised at all they went through.



3. This will be a present for my nephew George's 37th birthday. He loved
   Curious George as a child, and still does. It's wonderful how someone
   carries a love for a childhood toy, book, etc. throughout their life.
   Such an individual eternally has a special spot in their heart
   Kudos to Amazon for providing the book for $5.00 under market price.



4. This book is one of the most intersting books that i have ever read in my intire life! you will find many marvolous things about CG including that his real name is FIFI! (wich is french for curious) This book will always remain in my bedroom for as long as i live!!!! Very intersting storys about history and that time period! many intersting facts such as, you can always find a redheaded lady in CG books, because that redhead is his wife and she is always walking thier dog in the books, who they also took everywhere with them in real life.



5. Curious George fans of all ages should love this warm-hearted book about his creators and how they narrowly escaped (and rescued George!) from the Nazis coming into Paris. Their story reveals two people of great creativity, tenacity, and humor--and courage, too. This truly delightful book is packed with information and a compelling, well-researched story, cleverly written in a style similar to the original "George" books. The illustrations are fanciful and vibrant, but the pages are also enhanced by H.A. Rey's own drawings, Margret Rey's photography, and pictures of their personal ephemera in a wonderful scrapbook style. It really is a fascinating history that made me love and appreciate George all the more. It is sophisticated enough for adult readers, but approachable enough to share with grade-school children... and might prove a gentle way to introduce children to the history surrounding World War II. For any monkey still blessed to be young at heart, this is a book worth owning and sharing.