5 comments about Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

1. This was the second memoir of prostitution that I have read (the first being The Scorpion's Sweet Venom), and so far, here is what I've learned:
   
   - The sex scenes will as a rule be explicitly detailed and told with implausible detachment.
   
   - Prostitution will be conveyed as a chic and not an altogether unpleasant profession.
   
   - Flashbacks will abound in pitiful attempts at characterization and a more literary angle.
   
   Belle de Jour was no exception to these rules, but it was a fun if not compelling read. I really enjoyed the author's witty style, even if reading about her friends was utterly boring. By the end of the book, every man in the author's life seemed to merge into one tall-ridiculously-attractive fellow with a proclivity for rough sex and moping over ex-girlfriends.
   
   All in all, I would like to see the genre of prostitution memoirs take a more realistic/gritty turn. But then I have to really ask myself, do I really want to read the tell-all memoir of an Atlanta crack whore? Perhaps publishers choose these high-end prostitute tell-alls for a reason...



2. I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. Like a reviewer befor me said, some areas just lacked the details needed to make them interesting. I found myself wanting to skip over entries because I was becoming bored with the same basic descriptions of her past boyfriends and such. Overall i'm sure the book could have been worse but it still wasnt as good as I had hoped.



3. After having read Belle de Jour's blog, I was hoping that the book would primarily be new material. Unfortunately, the bulk of it was pulled directly from the blog with only a few new entries interspersed. Yes, the alphabet piece at the beginning of each chapter was new, but I'm not quite sure that it made the purchase worth it.
   
   Now I'm wondering if the second book will be more of the same.



4. This book is soooooo stupid! I don't believe it was even written by a woman. There are phrases and words a woman just wouldn't not use! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY :(



5. First off, I'd like to offset other reviewers' claims that this book misleadingly refers to prostitution as a safe and thrilling lifestyle. I think its important to say that this is a unique portrayal of ONE woman's life in sex work. She very clearly states that there are many levels of sex work and the vast majority are not safe, enjoyable, or beneficial in anyway. She obviously enjoys much of her work and simply because her experience does not fit the mold, does not mean she should be silenced.
   
   Secondly, there are sex scenes in the book and they are to some degree explicit. Is this too much? Well considering the nature of the book, I think not. Considering the importance of the job to the book, so much so that it is in the very title and also the importance of her pseudonym, I think its quite understandable that sex should be a key element in the book. Isn't that part of the experience we are so intrigued by when it comes to this particular author?
   
   Also, as one reviewer mentioned the previous relationship and friend-circle is not full of an extraordinary amount of depth. What we need to remember is that this is adapted from the author's blog. For some bloggers, myself included, other people's lives are their own to tell. We just tell what relates to us. I felt that Belle's interaction with her friends and ex-lovers were covered meaningfully and naturally.
   
   This is a diary and by definition it's not the type of writing that will be layered with back story or references. Although meant to be read in the fashion that most blogs are nowadays, it is written with immediacy and often with the intent to be brief. Perhaps some years down the line the author will be interested in adapting it as an autobiography and then she'll decide to add relevant information, a new perspective now that she is removed from it by time, etc., but the very title acknowledges what the book is: a diary.
   
   When it comes to getting what you paid for and what was advertised, you get it in this book.
   
   Beyond that, my own observation is that the author is intelligent, witty, and has a unique and sometimes detached view of sex which is enlightening thing to see in a female writer.
   
   I enjoyed the book. It's not a literary masterpiece, but it is much better than a good amount of popular new fiction.

5 comments about One Ranger: A Memoir (Bridwell Texas History Series).

1. Our dad had been wanting this book for some time and we were able to get it through Amazon as no other local book store had it and he just loves it, in fact he went home right after getting it and didn't go to bed until late due to wanting to read it. It came just in time and was in great shape.



2. This Texas Ranger's life story is a review of how one man made a difference, and a journey through Texas history. Told in forthright, vivid prose, the book is an easy, interesting read.
   
   Mr. Jackson's experiences are things many of us have gone through. He describes what a man thinks about when life is upon him. Parents, siblings, children, bosses. His honest acknowledgement and acceptance of the turns of his life are a lesson for all in this age of feeling sorry for yourself because of hardship.
   
   Mr. Jackson ties together the history of Texas, and the hisotry of crime and criminals in Texas, with his love of the land and resulting adventures trying to explain why things happened while describing his law enforcement actions as consequences that cannot take the why's as excuses.
   
   His talent, hard work, and rugged upbringing provide Mr. Jackson with special opportunities we all would enjoy. He clearly revels in them as he spins the yarns.
   
   It was a joy to read this Texan's story. It is an American story, for all to experience.



3. After listening to the CD's, I wanted to become a Ranger or at least a Texan! A riveting story of One Man, One Ranger, you will be totally engrossed in one man's story of his law enforcement career with the Texas Rangers as they were during the latter half of the Twentieth Century. The narration by Rex Linn is first rate and, at times, spellbinding. Don't miss this great epic! If Hollywood doesn't make this into a movie, they will miss the chance of a lifetime to chronicle this Ranger's journey as the last of the old west's Ranger's.



4. Great book covering the modern Texas Rangers. But, the author would be fired these days due to the liberal press and the hands-off approach to the scum of the earth.



5. Great book! I love hearing first hand stories from an old Ranger. I have read both of his books and they are a must read for anyone who likes stories about the Texas Rangers.

5 comments about The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.

1. Anne Boleyn continues to fascinate. A woman of wit, intelligence and a feminist in her time. She won a king's heart but incurred his wrath. A life cut short, a child deprived of her mother. A true tale of intrigue, corruption and manipulation. A cast of interesting characters vieing for power, wealth and fame.



2. Anne Boleyn was undoubtedly one history's most fascinating woman. She was not conventionally beautiful, she had a sharp-tongued, acidic personality, and she engendered both obsessive love and implacable hatred in the people around her. She also was caught in the middle of a bitter, bloody war between the traditional Catholics and the Reform Protestants. As a result, trying to know the "real" Anne Boleyn is a hard task indeed, as contemporary accounts are extremely biased. In the end, we don't even really know which drawings or portraits are accurate.
   But Eric Ives has taken up this enormously difficult task of finding the woman behind the legend, and his book will probably be the standard for years to come. He has carefully considered all his sources, including the ones that are obviously extremely biased, and weighed what is probably true and what is not. He has started from scratch, using only contemporary (meaning, Tudor era) sources, and spends an entire chapter weighing which sources can be trusted, and which cannot. For instance, Eustace Chapuys's accounts are heavily biased towards Katherine of Aragon, but they also give a great timeline of the divorce proceedings. He spends anther chapter devoted to which portraits or images of Anne is likely to be the most accurate. His conclusion: a ring that Anne's daughter Elizabeth wore that had a cameo of herself and her mother. Little details like that make the book more human, for while Henry tried the best he could to erase Anne from history, it is clear that Elizabeth never forgot her mother. Ives also uses the poetry of Thomas Wyatt, an early admirer of Anne who seems to have always carried a torch for her, to great effect.
   Ives' tone is that of a detached scholar, and while he is obviously fascinated by Anne, and eager to dispel the more vicious myths about her, this is no hagiography. He reports the ugly side of Anne's personality -- her imperiousness, her tendency to kick people while they were down. Of Katherine of Aragon, Anne once coldly remarked that she "wished all Spaniards were at the bottom of the sea." Yet the overall picture of Anne is that of a remarkable woman. Intelligent, independent, radical in her belief of the Protestant Reform movement, a mover and shaker.
   That such an intelligent woman could fall so fast in fortune speaks volumes both of the cruelty of Henry VIII, the machinations of Thomas Cromwell (the book's villain), and the status of women in Anne's time. Henry loved Anne because she was outspoken, witty, elusive, and cultured (she spent her adolescence in the French royal court). But once they were married, she was expected to start bearing sons, and to tolerate infidelity. She was also expected to keep her nose out of political and religious affairs. She could not do any of the above. Her fall (three weeks from arrest to execution) is documented with astonishing detail.
   Warning: although Ives' book is extremely well-written, it is not an "easy" read. It is extremely scholarly in tone, and if you want a more general overview of Henry VIII's wives, then Alison Weir, Antonia Fraser, and David Starkey have all written excellent books on the subject. The middle section, which goes into rather arcane detail about Anne's interest in arts, culture, court life, interior decorating and religious reform is on the dry side.
   My other criticism of Ives is that in his eagerness to paint a picture of a larger conspiracy to dethrone Anne by Thomas Cromwell, the religious conservatives, and the ever-ambitious Seymour clan, he almost lets Henry VIII off the hook. In the end, one person could have stopped Anne the "beloved wife" from such a cruel fate and that was her husband. But despite these flaws, Ives' level of research goes above and beyond the call of duty. Anne finally had her fair day in court, and no doubt she would have been very proud.



3. This is a must-read for any Anne Boleyn fan, who wants to learn more about her life. This book lists many intricate details about Anne's life at court, which I found fascinating!



4. i loved this book, very accurate and insightful, great read for all anne boleyn fans.



5. I became fascinated with Anne Boleyn after watching The Tudors and The Other Boleyn Girl. I really wanted to find out the factual truth about her. I thought this book was fairly easy to read and the author seemed very interested in writing as close to the factual truth as possible.
   
   I definitely am interested in reading more about this period.

2 comments about Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again.

1. Interwoven themes of mid-life personal growth and recovery, contemporary college education commentary, and snippets of Ancient Greek literary wisdom, with a refreshing and upbeat message! This book has it all, from the serious to the humorous, as a tranformative tale of work, love, mind ,and body. It is uplifting and deftly done. The author describes a personal journey that adds new meaning to being a 'life-long learner'. And, he documents the life force of youth in current culture against a backdrop of literature that spans human history. It seems to me that he has captured the elan vital that exists across the generational divide. And, he shows us a perspective that tears down this divide, like the Fall of the Berlin Wall, to expose a very warm, human story that anyone, of any age, can relate to. It is a refreshing and uplifting read that leaves the reader a better person.
   Having visited the St. John's College campus,in Annapolis, Maryland, several times, I can attest to the flawless accuracy of his descriptions of the college setting, activities, and staff.



2. Martin shares his life as a "Boomer Freshman", complete with rekindling of adolescent problems he had thought were long buried, with humor and candor, and meanwhile gives those of us who feel sheepish about not having actually read the Greek Classics painless synopses set against observations on the geopolitical dramas of today and the author's all-too-real concerns about his own mortality. Amazingly, he's combined all of this in a quick and satisfying read that makes you feel like you've done something to better yourself.

5 comments about Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, (Vintage).

1. Caro is a master writer. I found his book 'The Power Broker' about Robert Moses easily one of my top ten reads of all time, five star all the way. Johnson to me was not quite as interesting, but nevertheless this is a top notch book showing how Johnson came into the Senate and transformed it. No matter what one thinks of Johnson, if one is a student of American politics, this is a worthwhile book as it shows the influence of one man and what can be done. He was no saint, but he did manage to get things done. I am slowly working my way through it, it's been about 2 years, I keep picking it up and putting it down, but learn something every time.



2. Despite what you think of LBJ, and I don't think much of him, Robert Caro's series on Johnson far surpasses any other books that have come before or after on Lyndon Johnson. In all three of Caro's volumes, he includes mini biographies of important people in Lyndon's life. In this volume, Senator Richard Russell, jr. of Georgia is given his due, and his importance as friend and adviser to LBJ. Also, the first 100 pages include a history of the US senate that could stand alone as a book unto itself. I can't wait for Caro's fourth volume, alas it probably won't be out for another five years.



3. Anyone know? This is a masterful book series. The one on LBJ's presidency should be the best.



4. I had read Robert Caro's book on Robert Moses, and I found Master of the Senate to be an equally well-written and insightful read about an even more complicated figure. Readers get a real sense of the dark character of Lyndon Johnson. The book also offers a revealing view of the inner workings of the U.S. Senate. His portraits of Richard Russell and Sam Rayburn are particularly poignant. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in 20th-century U.S. history, and for anyone who enjoys monumental biographies.



5. Caro's triology on LBJ is unrivaled, and this volume might lay claim to the best of the bunch. LBJ's genius in leading the Senate is put on display, but also his raw ambition and dishonesty. Caro shows how LBJ is a model of how to lead and not to lead at the same time.

5 comments about Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously.

1. Some of the negative reviews seem oddly fixated on the authors swearing (?) or having sex (?) or even that she wastes/spends too much on food. (Doesn't all gourmet cooking do that by definition?) Why blame that on her? She also lives in the most expensive city in the US - her salary makes her poor there, she isn't exaggerating at all. She is a young woman living in New York - duh. So she curses and drinks and talks about sex. Big deal.
   
   But on to the book - This is an unadorned look at a journey in someone's life, which happens to involve cooking and the divine Julia Child hovering over it all as sort of a cooking life-coach/ fairy godmother.....it isn't a cook book per se. The focus is on a discovery of self - it's a memoir. If you are looking for the wrong thing in a book - why blame the book? Blogs are diaries - remember them, those unvarnished outpourings of life's melodramatic struggle? That is what this is, albeit a bit more polished. I though it was intriguing and read it all in a short time - I wanted to see how she did. Maybe one needs to be at the age of self discovery or open to changes in lifes plan to see the merit.
   
   I loved it, you may not, But it is an interesting journey to read, very uplifting and real. Her writing brings you into the story, you feel a real kinship...And there's butter...lots and lots of butter.
   
   *By the way, she isn't mean to 9/11 survivors families as claimed by one review. The woman is not Ann Coulter, just someone who had a rather thankless job wherein she had to field a lot of PR complaints over things she had no control over. The rebuilding effort of the towers site is a political football in reality. Lighten up, people. You are seeing things that aren't there. And the reason that she is upset about her biological clock is that she was diagnosed with a chronic health problem, PCOS, which she will have to deal with for the rest of her life, making her very prone to infertility and certain cancers. There is no cure, no effective treatments - look it up those of you who accuse her of whining. It's no picnic.



2. This book made me laugh and has inspired me to get on my cooking and baking spree again. The story is raw and real and I like that!
   If you love cooking and baking and aren't a food snob....you will love this book! Julie and Julia...Thank You!



3. This blog/book is like a bag of Cheetos. It's so yummy and cheesy and you just can't stop and you really should stop and you kind of slow down and then you feel full and then you have another handful and then you fold up the bag and start to put it where you can't reach it and then you eat another handful and feel kind of yucky and then you wish you'd never seen those Cheetos ever because they weren't really that good to begin with. You don't eat Cheetos again for a long time. This book is a tidbit, not worth the money.



4. This lady is funny, quick witted, especially insightful and brutally honest. And I'm not talking about Julia Childs. I found this book belly-laugh funny. Even if you don't like to cook, it's a good read.



5. I rounded up. I'dve gone with a 4.5., mainly because I think that some points were belabored, but it was a hysterical memoir filled with mistakes and blunders, cursing and all-in-all a wonderful narrator. I think one of the paragraphs towards the end summed it up for me: "Sometimes, if you want to be happy, you've got to run away to Bath and marry a punk rocker. Sometimes you've got to dye your hair cobalt blue, or wander remote islands in Sicily, or cook your way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, for no good reason. Julia taught me that." In other words, life is messy. And that's if you're doing it right.

5 comments about The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War.

1. Mr. Lebedoff's thematic portrait of Messrs. Orwell (Blair) and Waugh is commendable for the true power of ideas and how they are used in the hands of masters---in a book remarkable in it's brevity. I would tend to agree with another reviewer that Mr. Lebedoff over-reaches (just a bit) when he describes these two remarkable men as the "greatest" of their generation----which is, of course, subjective (Lewis has my vote as being in their company). Nonetheless, this small volume is a magnificent contribution to our era of "political correctness" and the breath-taking lack of diverse intellectual inquiry at the university. Mr. Lebedoff correctly concludes that these two men, Orwell and Waugh, while vastly different were one in concluding that "modernity" holds much peril for the essential moral foundation on which Western civilization precariously rests.
   A few quotes jumped off the page:
   
   "What they had most in common was a hatred of moral relativism. They both believed that morality is absolute, though they defined and applied it differently. But each believed with all his heart, brain, and soul that there were such things as moral right and moral wrong, and that these were not subject to changes in fashion. Moral relativism was, in fact, the gravest of sins. Everything else they believed in common flowed from this basic perception."
   
   "They opposed totalitarianism, period, and they opposed it with all their hearts...What both believed---their core, who they are---was that individual freedom mattered more than anything else on earth and reliance on tradition was the best way to maintain it."
   
   "Their most fundamental concern was that the Modern Age would strip human beings of their humanity. They felt that man does not live by bread alone, and that the Modern Age would provide us exclusively with bread.
   And circuses."
   
   This little volume was a true pleasure---a breath of fresh air in a culture (world) of homogenized group think---and is has my highest possible recommendation. This book will find it's way to many of my friends as a gift---and all of my children.
   Congratulations to Mr. Lebedoff!!! He is to be commended for a great work!!! I'm going to read it again this weekend!!



2. Looking back over fifty years, Dave Lebedoff sees two men, from differing backgrounds and experience who, in their literary works,presciently saw what now appears to be the truth: a decline of morality, and the substitution of situational ethics. Celebrity seems to define our world, and we have no societal fibre which recognizes any higher power. We will sign anywhere as free agents. This book is a good read: witty in the best sense, thorougly researched and it makes a point.



3. Viscount Bolingbroke
   
   One of the pleasures of wandering through a brick-and-mortar bookstore is the opportunity to stumble across a marvelous book quite by chance. Such was the case with David Lebedoff's small but substantial "The Same Man". A dual biography of George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, "The Same Man" proposes to show that for all their external differences Orwell and Waugh were essentially two sides of the same coin. I thought this a difficult almost impossible task. I was wrong. Lebedoff's thesis is a compelling one and one he supports with both substance and no small amount of charm.
   
   Lebedoff's Prologue sets out the external difference between Waugh and Orwell in a compelling manner. He takes a night in June 1930. It is one in which Waugh attends a grand dinner party in London thrown by the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. That same night, Lebedoff takes us to Leeds where Eric Blair/Orwell sits working in a shabby ill-lit room. To his friends and family Orwell was considered a sponger and a failure. As the narrative continues, Lebedoff points to the various other external differences between the men. Waugh seems to wish for nothing more than an opportunity (via marriage if need be) to turn his blood as blue as possible. His drive to insinuate himself into the upper reaches of Britain's aristocracy was obsessive. Orwell's path of downward mobility was as driven and as seemingly obsessive as Waugh's. Waugh was religious, a convert to Catholicism, and his faith deepened as the years went on. Orwell was secular and was as committed to his secular view of the world as possible. Their writing was also markedly different. Where Waugh may be said to have used a comic lens for his work I think it fair to say that Orwell used a much darker, despairing lens for his.
   
   Lebedoff proceeds to lay out his case and his case may be summarized by the quotation that began this review. Both Orwell and Waugh strove mightily and wrote splendidly in search of or within "that little and certain compass." Lebedoff writes of both as appalled by the moral relativism of the day and I think that assessment is spot on. For both men truth is not nor could it ever be relative and the search for objective truth cannot or should not be distorted by the prevailing ideology of the day. The differences in writing and the window dressing of social caste pale, in Lebedoff's view, to this one great internal commonality - their possession of this fixed moral compass. I'm not sure I am in total agreement with Lebedoff's viewpoint but he makes his case well.
   
   Two aspects of "The Same Man" stand out for me. First, Lebedoff's writing style is light and witty. Lebedoff writes in a conversational style that is neither leaden nor pretentious. This is not a literary deconstruction aimed at academics. But, at the same time Lebedoff avoids a trap that popular historians and/or biographers sometime fall into; he does not condescend to the reader. This is not "Orwell & Waugh for Dummies." The book also caused me to cast a new and measurably more informed eye over Waugh. I had made the all too common mistake of conflating the vapid, effete, empty-headed characters Waugh wrote about with the character of Waugh himself. I admit to sloughing Waugh off as a young man but "The Same Man" compelled me to correct that error. I've since read Scoop and Vile Bodies and am thankful for Lebedoff for being the causative factor in that act. I consider that high praise for Lebedoff. L. Fleisig



4. This is a very enjoyable book to read. I read it while driving across the United States on my vacation. I must definitely read it again.
   Lebedoff has done his research very well. He has identified the essence of the similarities in the literary diction of both of Waugh and Orwell. It was very rewarding to read of Blair's, i.e., Orwell's, the U-upbringing, education and diction and his political-artistic rebellion against it. Equally rewarding was to read about Waugh's genuine transformation into the upper classes as well as the genuineness of his of his religious conversion. The notes on Orwell's hidden faith and Christian burial will make some of his radical socialist admirers wince -- good! A totally pleasurable read as high class literary salon chatter: where we come and go talking of Orwell and Waugh, and serious analysis of the literary and social in England.
   
   Lebedoff slips off his literary platform when he makes comments about current American political and religious conservative supposed principles and practices.



5. A book presenting a different viewpoint from which to evaluate two great English authors, Orwell and Waugh.
   
   David Lebedoff makes an extended argument that these two, although wildly unalike in terms of life style and religion, were both masters of English prose and insightful moral thinkers of the first order.
   
   I benefited from Mr. Lebedoff's own thinking, presented in the latter part of his book, on the current state of affairs as to writing (e-mail), politically correct behavior (group think), and the sorry lack of time devoted by most to the great questions of life.
   
   I also join Mr. Lebedoff in highly recommending Evelyn Waugh's grandson's recent book, "Fathers and Sons".

5 comments about The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage.

1. Well researched with excellent writing, Epstein catures the fascinating and complex relationship of Abe and Mary. Although much has been written on Abe, Epstein provides a full and human description of Mary who was a voluptuous, intelligent beauty in her youth that was well sought by many prominent beaus including Stephen Douglas. The courtship is fascinating by itself as the poor struggling lawyer appears no match for the well kept after Mary and his sudden break of their relationship is full of mystery as Abe becomes seriously ill and the author providess more than speculation as to the cause. The return to Mary in a secret courtship includes their intellectual sharing of poetry and reading, including guarded private moments that all lead to a sudden marraige followed by Robert's birth in quick time. Epstein details the life of Lincolns from their living in a small room in a rooming house while raising their small children, adding to personal stress, till they landed their own homw with Abe's better fortunes and assistance from the Todd family. The revelations of Mary's actions are quite fascinating as she was high strung, emotional and needed more attention than Abe could give that sometimes resulted in sudden and dramatic harsh treatment such as hot coffee to his face to a wrap across the nose with a piece of firewood. Honest Abe, from a variety of examined correspondence was not so political naive but could also play the political gameship well even in his runs for congress. The most fascinating part of the book is of course in the white house where Mary's desire for extravaant spending involveding finacial corruption, her interference with politics, her jealousy over her husband and her extended grief over the death of Willie creates serious strain between the couple. Abe's incredulous stress load only increases as he not only has the war and politics but his wife's often erratic behavior and personal vendettas that are other burdens he must carry as well as caring for young Tad. As Epstein discusses, Mary's head injury from a run away carraige may have caused brain trauma that may never have been resolved as demonstrated by severe outbursts most significantly just before Lincoln's death. And Lincoln's own behavior, dramatically limiting his personal security as noted to his walking into Richmond with a limited escort, his exposing himself at Fort Stephens in the face of Confederates and his toying with his cavalry escorts says something about his feelings of fate. There is no doubt that both loved each other very much but the Presidency, in time of war, certainly strained the relationship between the two as evidenced by Mary's mental health and Abe's physical. Just over 500 pages not counting notes and index and in heavy paper that make this hard back edition a collector's item. A very fluently written book that makes it hard to put down as the author is a great story teller, writer with the documentation to support his telling.



2. One might have thought there would be little more to say about Abraham Lincoln, certainly not enough to fill a 500-page book. But that would be incorrect. Epstein's Lincoln is often distracted, sometimes depressed, always under stress, yet caring and psychologically in tune with his troubled wife. Although there were unexplainable tantrums, jealousies, and shopping sprees that he couldn't tolerate, he still drew on a deep reservoir of love. Long before we understood mental illness as we do today, Abraham Lincoln knew that Mary was a basically good woman who was suffering from a serious disease.
   
   Epstein writes like the poet that he is, and he never loses sight of his goal -- to portray the marriage of these two fascinating people. Events such as the Gettysburg Address are hardly mentioned. We know something about them already, so Epstein looks at what was really going on in the White House living quarters at that time.
   
   Epstein uses his sources seamlessly, drawing on letters and memoirs of obscure people to illuminate the Lincolns' marriage. This would have been a five-star review, except that I found the first 50 pages somewhat difficult to follow. Epstein plunges into the political and social spheres of Springfield, Illinois, bringing in dozens of characters, in a way that I found hard to keep up with. This problem quickly resolves itself, however.



3. I have not finished this book yet but will soldier on through to the end. I have read so many books about Abraham Lincoln and also about Mary Todd Lincoln and have found them much more readable. I feel the author has tried to drag out the narrative to fill a 500 page book. The lives of A. and M.T. Lincoln are so compelling and the book should be as well. P



4. The "portrait" of this famous couple's relationship is not an accurate portrayal, rather it is a whitewashing of Mary Lincoln's destructive role in it. While there can be no doubt that it began with great cherishing on both sides, Mary's narcissistic, violent and venal character twisted their love into something so meaningless that little survived it but tolerant loyalty on his part and hysteria on hers.
   
   As the author admits, it is no longer fashionable to paint Lincoln as a saint and the movement to rehabilitate Mary has gained momentum of late, especially as evidenced by Epstein's own "Portrait." In truth, Mary represented a civil war within the Lincolns' personal lives and was the worst possible mate for this complex man.
   
   Nonetheless, Epstein would have you believe that Mary gave Lincoln self-confidence, was his intellectual equal, provided a nourishing home life and partnered him in his ambitions. She had long ago determined to marry a "president" and by damn, she'd make her man one even if he was too gutless to do it himself. And thus you have Epstein's version of Mary the dynamo and Lincoln her bright but vacillating vessel.
   
   The objective evidence of their lives (i.e., less advocacy-prone studies than Epstein's), indicate that the substantive merit was on Lincoln's part and Mary was at first helpful, then incidental and finally detrimental to his success. Long before they reached the White House, Mary had become an albatross; unstable and frightening.
   
   At first she was an amazing catch for this gangly lad - pretty and vivacious, well-connected, educated and flatteringly adoring. But the flaws in her personality surfaced within months of their marriage when he, abstracted at breakfast one morning, failed to take note of her chatter and she threw a cup of scalding coffee in his face, witnessed with horror by several residents of their boarding house. Other incidents of hitting, screaming, and slapping followed - including one when she smashed his face with a piece of firewood and another when she attacked him with a kitchen knife. And these were pre-presidential public displays - God knows what happened when no one was present to report it.
   
   And how does Epstein report such violence? "So she struck her husband from time to time..." Not a big deal. It was beyond her control. And Lincoln "sulked and brooded and grieved over it if he could not laugh it off." Like most domestic abusers, Mary was contrite, but repeated the addictive behavior. And thank God for servants because she could beat them with impunity and regularly did so.
   
   Mary's violence was so notable that the Springfield sheriff reported that Lincoln would sometimes pick up one of the boys and walk away until Mary "returned to her senses". Epstein writes about this domestic horror like it was just a normal backyard tiff instead of Lincoln trying to escape his wife's violent rages and protecting his children from possible harm. Epstein hustles this ugliness offstage in preference to imaginary scenes of fireside bliss where the two of them read poetry and Shakespeare and Lincoln even reworked his political speeches until the astute Mary was satisfied.
   
   What astonished this reader more than Epstein's scenes of fictional harmony in Springfield was his deliberate refusal to acknowledge Mary's latent and later, patently manifest, mental illness. She suffered bouts of "moodiness", yes he admits that, but bi-polar? Epstein never mentions it, even in view of today's understanding of Mary's severe mental illness. (See Robert Lincoln's "Insanity File", in which her son discloses during conservatorship proceeding Mary's post-assassination paranoia, obsessive/compulsiveness and bizarre hallucinations: iron pins coming out of her eyes, an Indian ghost who peeled back her skull and removed her brains, then replaced them, and endless purchasing of hundreds of articles of unused clothing and curtains.)
   
   The minutiae of the Lincolns' political journey to the White House is exhaustively documented, as is the marital breakdown the couple sustained once they had achieved their presidential dream.
   
   Lincoln did the best he could for the good of the union and suffered for it profoundly. Mary, meanwhile, indulged in expensive shopping junkets, embezzled government funds, took instantly to influence peddling for her family and friends, tampered with the White House payroll, and engaged in actual treason. She was seen by all who interacted with her as overbearing, strange and demonic, even evil.
   
   But it wasn't Mary's fault! It was the lack of time with her husband, her natural innocence and lack of a moral compass! It was Willie's sad death and the pressure and frustration of the job of having to look pretty and entertain all those people. No one understood the headaches and work, the having so much money to spend, and her desperation in trying to hide it once it got out of hand. Mary's sojourn as First Lady is a nightmare to read, but really, urges Epstein, don't blame her.
   
   Epstein manages to equate Lincoln's failure to share military/state secrets with his duplicitous wife to a justifiable quid pro quo refusal on her part to come clean on her secret spending and unsavory relationships. And while Lincoln worked in a coma of exhaustion, Mary's sole objective was to keep him from knowing how serious her underhanded deeds had become. And of course to keep spending, spending, spending.
   
   Lincoln's assassination was both a shock and relief to Mary, a horrible thing to say even now. But Mary's self interest had clearly grown beyond her. Narcissistic, mad and self indulgent as she was, Lincoln had been the only person who gave her latitude, compassion and tolerance, and it is no wonder that she lost her small scrap of sanity when he died. Lincoln had reigned in, even controlled to some degree, Mary's most unmanageable and disturbed personality manifestations, and his death triggered a complete implosion that lasted until her death seventeen later.
   
   Anyone who parses the endless Lincoln studies knows well that, however great his genius, Lincoln was tortured by his own neurotic, insecure and depressive nature. But he was not psychotic. Mary was, destructively so.
   
   "The Lincolns: A Portrait of a Marriage" is a long read and a well-researched one, but too partisan for a healthy portrayal of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln and the reality of their internal dynamics. Worse, it minimizes the damage Mary's madness and greed had upon a truly great man and a nation in shock at itself.
   
   Five stars for research but one for conspicuous bias = two stars.



5. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was a poor Kentuckian who rose to national stature becoming elected our 16th President of the United States in 1861. Most lists of the best presidents place him at the top. His wife Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) was the daughter of the socially prominent Todd family of Lexington, Ky. Their marriage was difficult, tragic and worthy of the skills of a great biographer.Epstein succeeds in his portrayal of their troubled life together in nineteenth century frontier America and in the halls of power in Washington DC during the dark days of the Civil War.
   Abraham Lincoln married Mary in 1842. They were living in Springfield, Illinois where the state capital had recently been relocated from Vadelia.
   Abraham had raised himself by the bootstraps., He began life as a poor lad growing up with very little schooling on the Kentucky and Indiana frontier. After migrating to Illinois he tried his hands at many jobs before become a circuit riding lawyer. Mary was a wealthy woman from Lexington who spoke French, was well educated and grew up a few miles from the home of Kentucky's famous Whig Senator Henry Clay. Mutual friends brought the two together drawn by passion, Whig politics and wit.
   After a stormy courtship which led to a time of separation the two were wed in 1842. Lincoln was tall while Mary was short. Mary had a vicious temper, tart tongue and was moody. Lincoln and she became the parents of four sons. Robert the eldest was a Harvard graduate and became president of a railroad company. Eddie died in 1850 while Willie died in 1852 as a result of cholera while living in the White House. Tad died in 1871. Mary and Abraham were permissive parents; Mary never got over the tragic loss of her sons and two of her brothers fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The two were often apart for weeks as Lincoln tried cases across Illinois and served a term as a congressmen in Washington during the Polk administration. =Mary and the boys tried life in Washington but grew homesick for Kentucky and Illinois leaving the lonely Lincoln to fulfill his term as a one term congressman who opposed the Mexican War.
   Lincoln won the White House as a Republican in the election of 1860 facing the problems of civil war. Northerners falsely accused Mary of being a Southern spy! Mary was much scorned by elite Washington society as being a crude Westerner. She spent lavishly on redecorating the White House earning a good deal of justifiable criticism from the public and her own frugal husband. Mary was jealous of other younger and more beautiful women in wartime Washington.
   Abraham Lincoln was a melancholy man who kept his thoughts to himself. He was intellectually miles ahead of the moody Mary. The two kept relatively separate lives during the dark days of the Civil War. They did love one another and neither had extramarital affairs. President Lincoln knew how to handle Mary in her time of mental afflictions even though he sometimes suffered her wrath. She was known as a hellcat and many found it difficult to work with her. Others such as Senator Charles Sumner considered her a friend. Mary had a good heart often visiting wounded soldiers and helping friends. She was not an easy person to know or like.
   Tragedy came to the couple when Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 15, 1865. Mary was devasted never really recovering her mental stability following the death of Abraham, her children and the tragedies of the Civil War.
   Hundreds of books have been written about both Lincolns but this is the best popular and readable history of their marital life. Epstein has done his homework.Epstein makes his two complex subjects come alive for the reader. The book is over 500 pages of small print which is detailed but never dull. An excellent book by an excellent biographer. Highly recommended!

5 comments about David: A Man of Passion & Destiny (Great Lives from God's Word Series: Volume 1).

1. All the books are good ... this one was great. It hit home for me.



2. This is a well written, thought provoking book. I am currently using it as a manual for a Bible study class. It's not one of those "deep theological" biographies, but it speaks to the layman, in a very easy-to-understand style. Recommended for study groups, or anyone, who wants to know more about the "man after God's own heart".



3. Yet another great book in the series. Well worth the reading and study. I have ordered additional copies to give as gifts.



4. What I do like about Chuck Swindoll's is that he brings that Old Testament to life for Born Again Christians and makes it relevant to adult lives and problems. This book on David as well as his study guide did give me much food for life when I was having non-legal problems with the government after I had applied for the Federal Civil Service in 1985. I heard on TV that Reagan had to approve in signature even applications for GS-9 position and I was on the list for considerations for such jobs when I was in grad school. I think they just wanted to teach young men like ma a lesson in life the hard way!
   David had become a national hero by killing the Philistine Giant Goliath. Then the prophet Samuel had annointed David to be Israel's future king since Saul had committed an act of disobedience against him. Saul became paranoid how David become a military hero where "Saul has slain his thousands; David his ten thousands"! So, Saul in his madness set out to kill David.
   What I found so some food for thought was that when David was losing heart about Saul persuing him to kill him and he had to live underground and off the land, that David decided to defect to the pagan Phillistine army-kind of like seeking Political Assylum with the Soviets or the North Koreans! When I was being persecuted on Park Street in North Toledo, I did seek assylum with several foreing nations. But nothing happened. I told myself who is "America's Philistines"-Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. I even sent them all resumes through my shortwave radio hobby. I had a big foreign address book called THE WORLD RADIO TV HANDBOOK! Plenty of people to complain to there!
   Other things I liked about David was that he had a thing for the ladies; and I also like pretty girls, but never seem to make it with any of them. David had an entire Harem of seven wives. You cannot find the definition of the word "Harem" in my Bible Dictionary; so sexless and loveless is America's Christianity! He was such an opportunist that he picked up the wife Abagial from a dead enemy Nabal who denied him and his men food when they were on the run from Saul. God stuck Nabal dead with a heart attack for his stinginess. I used to say that my former father in law was liewise a hard man like Nabal-yet God did not strike him dead. And of course David was a Prophet and a Man of God. He wrote about 50 of the Old Testament Psalms, some of which prophesy of Christ;s crucifion on the cross and the coming Millennial Kingdom of God. God had taken David from tending the sheep to becoming Sheperd of Israel! David was a man after God's heart as David did what God had wanted him to do during his reign as King. I found that defining verse in Acts.
   I liked the folk guitar in high school and in the Army. I read that David played the small harp, which was a forerunner of the modern folk guitar. Me and David liked music and pretty ladies. I was just thinking the other day that when I die and go to Heaven I will really like to meet this man, as though he was my friend!



5. Worthy of the reading and study whether this is by itself or part of the series.

5 comments about Marva Collins' Way: Updated.

1. I first read Marva Collins Way several years ago, and have reread it many times since, to help guide and clarify my thoughts about education. She has revolutionized public education, and people's perceptions of it. She has also effectively refuted the growing slew of people in the highest places
   of academia who stubbornly cling to long-discredited theories about the intellectual inferiority of certain races in this country. I would recommend this book to anyone, and ask only that you read it at least twice, because it has too much to absorb, to just read it once. It will possibly alter your concept about education, and just who is capable of learning. If you use Marva's concepts as a teacher, I guarantee powerful results!



2. I read about 70 pages of the book and unfortunately lost it during my travel. I will be buying this book again. Marva is an extraordinary teacher who has taught me at my middle age that NO CHILD CAN FAIL TO SUCCEED in school. She has achieved this with such re-sounding success that one would want to have a teacher like her for all children in the world. I have no words to express how great the feeling is when you know that every child has all the potential to succeed.



3. marva collins is such an idol and inspiration for me. she is so full of morals and has a brilliant answer for all of life's problems. get this book if you want to hear the most intelligent things from the most intelligent human being walking the earth! she is HIGHLY underrated as an educator and everything! i really needed to find her b/c as she says, "in this slippery world we all need something to hold onto...." thank you Marva, I love you and God bless you!



4. The Marva Collins story is an inspiring story of a teacher who was passionate about teaching and excelled through the odds set against her by the school system.



5. Originally published in 1982 (revised and re-published in 1990), this book tells the story of who Marva Collins is, starting with her childhood and what contributed to her becoming the person she is. The book explains her start as a public school teacher and dealing with the negative politics of schools, then about how and why she opened her own private school where she was freer to use her own teaching methods including the ability to have full control over the curriculums and books she wanted to use.
   
   While working in the Chicago public school system she held her students to a higher standard and taught more difficult material than the school felt was necessary. She felt that children would rise to the level of the teacher's expectations. In times of civil unrest regarding black and white relations, she felt that children from the "ghetto" are indeed teachable. Even the students who have been labeled as having numerous disorders (by school staff) or who are said to have been unteachable, indeed are teachable.
   
   This book tells the story of what Marva Collins believed, the general philosophy is clearly explained. Why she feels a return to the classical education method is a good idea, including why rote memorization of math facts and some other information is explained. She believes a liberal arts education is right for all children of all races and income levels. Her anti-progressive education stance is explained. What specific content she taught and why is there. A good amount of information is given about why she believes that intensive phonics education is necessary and good for all children (and avoiding the look-say / sight reading method). How she taught Shakespeare to young children and her use of the classics and other, more difficult older books is covered. (This is not a curriculum guide for school teachers or homeschoolers to read and copy her method.)
   
   What is not stated that was clear to me is that Collins is a truly brilliant person who used her own knowledge to make many connections within the classroom. Her teaching methods do not rely only on use of certain curriculums but rather depend on the teacher having certain knowledge from their own education and then using that in classroom discussions to make connections between the books and facts that the children were using and what they were learning. In order to teach in the exact way that she does, the teacher must have a foundation of education present, specifically a good liberal arts education herself. Collins realized this was an issue when she first began hiring teachers to work in her private school.
   
   Collins also criticizes many teachers who she feels are uneducated and blames them for not only setting low standards and looking for easy ways to teach but for not being able to have the type of discussions that she has with her students. Collins comes out being quite harsh on public school teachers. Collins' blames teachers for being a main cause of the breakdown of public education. She thinks that some are products of inferior educations themselves, leaving them ignorant and uneducated without a strong foundation from which to teach from. She feels there are teachers who don't know how to teach, who are then subject to various educational fads that clearly are not working (i.e. the look-say method of teaching reading). She also condemns teachers who have low standards about children's abilities as being the issue, feeling children will rise to the level of their expectations.
   
   This is the first book written about Marva Collins. It is a good read to get the beginning of the story and the general background of her theory. She has a second book if you are left wanting more "Ordinary Children, Extraordinary Teachers" is the title.
   
   "Marva Collins' Way" would be of interest to educators who like to read success stories of teachers who do things differently, those who want to or like to buck the status quo or try to stand up to `the education machine' to do what they think is right and best for their students.
   
   Teachers and others interested in charter schools or private schools who have different standards for their students would also like this book.
   
   Anyone interested in the topic of the history of American education or education reform would enjoy this as well.
   
   This will appeal to anyone concerned with the education of inner city, low income level minority children and their experience in public schooling.
   
   Lastly homeschooling parents may learn a thing or two about standards in education and expecting more from students.
   
   At the very least the book is a good read that is inspiring. At its best it may influence you, in whatever role you have with children or education, to raise the standards and to stand up to a failing system in whatever way is applicable in your life.
   
   How I came to read this book: Two years ago a local classical method homeschool support group leader recommended the writings of Marva Collins to me to provide encouragement for having high standards in educational content for children, even young children. I was going through a time when I was being pressured by some homeschooling parents who feel that education should be dumbed down and that little should be expected of elementary grade children. Later another classical homeschooling mother/ blogger whose writing and opinion I respect credited Marva Collins' books as providing inspiration for her educational model for the very same reason. I decided to obtain a copy of Collins' books and I read her first book this month (finally).