5 comments about Summer at Tiffany.

1. The summer of '45 was full of discoveries for the author: New York City, the elegance of Tiffany's, the euphoric end to WWII, happenings with friends, and meeting a beau. Well-written picture of the times. A really fun read - highly recommended.



2. This memoir of working as one of the first women on the sales floor at Tiffany & Co. was informative and sweet, but a bit dull. It's an easy read and definitely suitable for a young adult reader. If you like stories about New York and "career girl" narratives you might enjoy it. I'd hoped for a bit more.



3. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, fun to hear about life during the 40's and what New York City was like back then. Fun book to read!



4. Not to be confused with the infamous Holly Golightly caper, this charming tale takes us back to the turquoise corridors of Tiffany, where jewels twinkle and customers include Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland. This time, the heroines are two Iowa-bred "long-limbed, blue eyed blondes" who are traveling to Manhattan to find summer work. The catch? The hordes of other hungry co-ed girls hellbent on the same glamorous goal.
   
   Far from pretentious fare like Nichole Ritchie's "The Truth about Diamonds," this memoir of two college girls hoofing it into Manhattan in search of summer work is a career girl's tale at heart. From their initial dizzy hysteria of job hunting, to working the mysterious connections of a family friend, the story perfectly captures the plummeting feeling of job rejection, and the giddy glee of being hired for even the most menial tasks when set in glamorous Manhattan. With this mindset, Marjorie and her best friend Marty become the first-ever female store pages for Tiffany, delivering packages to the shipping and receiving department. The irony that they work among glittering diamonds and pearls on a salary of $20 is not lost on them, even in 1945 when the book is set.
   
   Indeed, this is period literature, but only in the most lightly pleasing way. From dancing the Charleston to Frank Sinatra's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" to scrambling on her hands and knees to recover the precious pearls that have spilled all over the elevator floor on her way to the Tiffany Diamond and Pearl room (yes, it's real), Hart is a charming heroine whose adventures equal an endearing coming-of-age tale, wrought with Tiffany glamour and winsome World War II overtones.
   
   The overall result is a book that is special, light-hearted without being shallow, and perfectly satisfying as a summer beach read. If you want summer reading but need a break from stilettos and cosmopolitans, this little blue jewel of a book will transport you in no time.



5. Cute. That would be the best word to describe this short, particularly sweet memoir. Going into it, I was waiting for vast accounts of the inner workings of one of the most fantastic stores ever to exist. The tome is more character driven than tell-all, which I would assume stems from the era the author comes from (that is, polite and loyal). I could have done without the dozens of "Ohmygosh!"s that were sprinkled quite liberally throughout the narrative - it was distracting, irritating, and took away credibility from the writer. The naive charm still held me captive, though: I received a glimpse of a time where girls still wore gloves and hats, were polite and charming, and treated everyday as if it were a glamorous event. The backdrop of World War Two gave the book more depth, thankfully, for without it the story would have drooped from saccharine sweetness. The descriptions of the now-antiquated stores and sweetshops were divine, and the cameos from celebrities like Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland were quite nice, as well. (Watch out for the sub-plot with Yale...it felt like a forced dilemma for the main character and also quite unrealistic). All in all, I loved seeing New York as it never will be again, especially after 9/11. A lovely look inside a rare moment of time, this book will most definitely cheer you up. That's all it's really there for, I guess. Charming.

5 comments about We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive.

1. I thought I was going to LOVE this book as it appeared to be hysterical and had me oddly intrigued when i read the description and the back of the book. However, I could BARELY get through this book and literally had to force myself to continue reading it sometimes, hoping it got better in the next chapter. It didn't. I admit there are some stories that had me chuckling, but most of it was just boring and stupid. I agree with some of the other reviewers that it just seemed she was trying to hard to be "clever" and funny. It just didn't happen for me. I finally gave up and tossed the book before I even finished it.



2. "We Thought You Would be Prettier" by Laurie Notaro, © 2005
   
   Laurie is growing up and becoming more normal. She is still worried of her size and her social calamities. The spin is still funny, but she has friends who have babies, who move far away, etc. In fact one of the best stories is of an old bar she and her friends frequented. It was closing, mostly due to urban renewal, so there was one last blow out party. All the old friends get there for one last time. Laurie remembers all the good times and some bad times, embarrassing times and the after hours parties, all of it. The times change and she has not been there for years, nor have her friends, but the memories are still there and for one last time they will have some fun, then they will go home and continue their lives. She does not even go to the after hours party.



3. A friend told me about Laurie Notaro's work. I could not believe that someone was able to write about so many different things that I have also struggled with. While she weaved humor throughout the book, she still could have a serious tone at times. I would recommend this book to almost any woman 20-40 years old.



4. Hilarious book. It had me laughing out loud. As soon as I finished reading it, I ordered more books by the same author!



5. Yes, I love Laurie. But not in a girl-on-girl love way... more like she's the kind of woman who would fit right in with me & my sisters on a girl's night out. Her stupid stories can stand up to ours. We are kin.

5 comments about A Drinking Life: A Memoir.

1. A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill is a reflection on his drinking past. Without sentimentality Hamill tells a hard story. He portrays a loving mother, and an alcoholic father. He chronicles his impoverished childhood, his tough coming of age, his difficult search for meaning, his newspaper career, and his regrets about the way he treated his first wife and children. As the title implies his memories are tied together by recollections of alcohol, and a drinking culture that both fascinated and repelled him. The bar was a place of refuge where Hamill could be a man. It was a place to celebrate, to commiserate, to identify with others, to escape loneliness. It was the only place he bonded with his father.
   
   But the bar and the alcohol that fueled it had an evil side. It stifled human consciousness; it dulled pain, boredom, and joy. It allowed unconsciousness in the midst of living. During the 1960's at the peak of his newspaper career he realized drink was making his hands shake when he typed, and his mind so soft he couldn't spell easy words. He quit. Drinking memories ended. Hamill's love for the writing life was more important than his love for booze.
   
   His memoir is not a cautionary tale against using alcohol, nor is it a self-serving whine against the way he was brought up. He writes like the reporter he is. Honest sentences, specificity, and recalled emotion inform his text. He presents clear snapshots of his 1940's childhood in Brooklyn. He lets the reader draw conclusions, or judgments. He presents the characters who walked across his mother's kitchen floor--his Irish father, mostly drunk, and his siblings. He gives us his friends. He moves into the 1950's with raw adolescent energy--lots of sex, lots of booze. Drinking so overpowers the narrative, that at times I felt exhausted just by reading of his drinking binges.
   
   Hamill's talent, in this memoir and in other work, is a passionate love for real life. He spreads humanity on a broad canvas without moralizing. He paints violence, gentleness, loneliness, and companionship. Real life is hard to look at. Hamill gives it to the reader like he gives it to himself. Without bitterness, with humility, with forgiveness, and with compassion.



2. In my quest for chronicles that detail the often entwined aspects of drink and journalism, I was delighted to discover Pete Hamill's candid tale, robust and surly - an account that carries the reader through his lushly-detailed memoirs that began in blue-collared Brooklyn. As the son of struggling Irish immigrants, Hamill grew up during the Depression with the enduring beliefs of the working-class neighborhood in which he lived -street-fights, low pay, loyalty to the neighborhood, and machismo drinking. His tale is rich with the nostalgia of days long past - marbles and stickball, Milton Caniff, Captain America, and the city Athletic League. He details his own lack of connectedness with an alcoholic father he longed to love and vowed not to imitate, only to fall prey to the same lure of the bottle.
   
   Hamill recounts his loss-of-innocence submission to wine at eleven, along with the internalization of the street-tough attitude that shapes his life in the ensuing years. His talent for graphics and natural ability in academics often leads him to the edge of success, only to fall victim to his own self-destruction. Dreams of becoming a cartoonist are interrupted by the reality of a Navy Yard job, yet resurrected again through art lessons from Burne Hogarth, then dulled by a desire to imitate stoic drinkers like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The romantic association of absinthe and literature appeals to Hamill, a seduction that eventually draws him to a career in journalism. He details the rocks and bumps along the way - through newspaper strikes and Mexican jail. His obvious wanderlust takes him from Barcelona to Dublin, Rome to San Juan to Washington D.C., while trying to sustain a turbulent marriage, peppered with an infinite immersion into parties and booze, and eventual divorce.
   
   In 1966, Hamill meets Shirley McLaine at a party in Rome, and he details, very briefly, the eventual celebrity life he shared with her, but shies away from giving us a paparazzi view of truly personal details. Although he denies it, he is perhaps too immersed in drink to recall the nitty gritty. In his final look inward, he describes a New Year's Eve party and his feeling "as if I were shooting the scene with a camera from across the bar...I noticed that my hand was trembling and wondered if that was in the camera shot," - his own personal play that has lasted a lifetime, one written with a bad script that he rewrites at that very moment. Kudos for him.
   
   This is not a book that shows you how to quit drinking; rather, it is a searing, vivid account of one man's recognition of his own problem with alcohol. Despite years of succumbing to the liquor that constantly dragged him into the depths of the gutter, he emerged with a brilliant tale to tell.



3. Pete Hamill"s deeply introspective memoir of his coming of age during the late 40's and 50's in working class Brooklyn is a brutally honest account of how alcohol gets integrated into certain rights of passage as people , especially men navigate the transition to adulthood.
   
   His story could be anyone's, except that Hamill writes in a gripping personal style that infuses each episode in his young life with a sense of urgency. The struggle to reconcile with a distant father never deteriorates into a sense of victimhood. I admired the fact that Hamill is able to describe his youthful feelings of anger toward his father without wallowing in them and always with a sense of someone seeking to understand and forgive.
   
   This is a great book on several levels. Hamill captures a sense of the old neighborhoods of New York that have vanished and the strong influence that a sense of place had on young people of his generation when the world was quite a bit smaller.



4. I picked this book up out of desperation for something, anything to read...and I must admit that the title clinched the deal. "A Drinking Life" - I couldn't resist. Drama, angst, highs, lows...it's all right there in the title.
   
   What I wasn't expecting was a book that depicts a time, place and way of life that has always fascinated me. One of the reasons I love "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is the vivid and at the same time, faded sepia description of a New York, and an America that I never knew. I've been to New York twice, have seen touristy parts and not so touristy parts, have been at turns delighted and appalled by its residents...and of course, in that short period of time, barely scratched the surface of this city that almost defies description. Because, of course, there are so many facets to it. New York depends on the area, the time, the circumstances. One person's New York may be a polar opposite of the next person's.
   
   Pete Hamill, in the first half of his memoir, describes the New York of Brooklyn from 1939 to 1950. In this New York, he and his Irish Catholic family struggle to better their situation. They live hand to mouth, in sometimes squalid apartments - too small for a family that keeps growing. And yet - when Hamill spends pages describing the more positive aspects of his childhood - I feel a yearning to be there. To see the far quieter and yet more greatly populated streets. I hope to hear the sounds of stickball, and radios playing jazz and swing into a summer night. I want to feel the safety and connection of a neighborhood that knows each and every member...one that shares the joy of the end of a war that they together shared the dread of.
   
   He describes D day in a New York that had been blacked out for months fearing air raids. "...without warning, the entire skyline of New York erupted into glorious light: dazzling, glittering, throbbing in triumph. And the crowds on the rooftops roared. They were roaring on roofs all over Brooklyn, on streets, on bridges, the whole city roaring for light. There it was, gigantic and brilliant, the way they said it used to be: the skyline of New York. Back again. On D day, at the command of Mayor LaGuardia. And it wasn't just the skyline. Over on the left was the Statue of Liberty, glowing green from dozens of light beams, a bright red torch held high over her head. The skyline and the statue: in all those years of the war, in all those years of my life, I had never seen either of them at night. I stood there in the roar, transfixed."
   
   He also describes his love of books, and words, and comics and the magic that happens when one is drawn into the new world of a story. When you discover a world, an existence, a universe previously unknown.
   
   "But when we lived on Thirteenth Street, the content of the comics was driving deep into me. They filled me with secret and lurid narratives, a notion of the hero, a sense of the existence of evil. They showed me the uses of the mask, insisting that heroism was possible only when you fashioned an elaborate disguise. Most important was the lesson of the magic potion. The comics taught me, and millions of other kids, that even the weakest human being could take a drink and be magically transformed into someone smarter, bigger, braver. All you needed was the right drink."
   
   And there it is, of course. The underlying thread of the book...drinking. From the earliest age, alcohol is everywhere in Hamill's life. In his neighborhood, in his home, even in his history - drinking is an accompaniment to all events, large and small.
   
   When he reads Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the passage that stands out is one where Jekyll drinks the potion and is transformed in a hideous way..."I read that passage and thought of my father." Hamill is deeply influenced by his father...hating what drinking does to him at the same time he is learning that drinking is what men do.
   
   As the book continues, some of the detail of Hamill's life is lost, certainly because (as he is first to point out) much of it was lost to him as well due to alcohol, but I also got the sense that this part of the book was rushed. It almost felt like Hamill was looking at how much had written about his early life and realizing that he'd better move things along if was ever to finish.
   
   Still - there are passages like these that sucked me right back in. "In the summer of 1950, all of us from the Neighborhood hung out in a place on Coney Island called the Oceantide. Built on the boardwalk at Bay 22, it was a block long complex with a swimming pool, lockers, a long packed bar, and a small fenced-off area where the young men danced with the young women to a bubbling Wurlitzer jukebox. Down the block was a shop called Mary's, which sold the most fabulous hero sandwiches in New York, great thick concoctions of ham and cheese and tomatoes laced with mustard or mayonnaise, along with cases of ice cold sodas."
   
   My mouth waters just thinking about it...I want to be there!
   
   Finally, towards the end, Hamill comes to the realization that he's spent his whole life trying to either be exactly like or nothing like all of the influences in his life. Nothing like his father, and yet just like his father. Exactly like the comic book artists and heroes. Exactly like and nothing like his friends from the Neighborhood. Not only his life, but his writing is an imitation or rejection of that of others.
   
   Which is summed up in the mantra he uses to quit drinking. "I will live my life, I will not perform it." There is much time and experience and emotions that he has lost - but in the end, he is able to find the strength to cut the losses.
   
   "And I loved my life, with all its hurts and injuries and failures, and the things I now saw clearly, and the things I only remembered through the golden blur of drink."



5. Pete Hammill's biography is fascinating from our modern perspective. Seeing the life transition of the author along with the characters in his neighborhood brought that period to life for me. Strong, muscular writing that evokes his experiences in a visceral way. Terrific book.

5 comments about Jesus Land: A Memoir.

1. Immediately absorbing, Jesus Land is a tribute to the author's younger brother, David, her soul mate. She goes to great lengths to make sure he is safe, indeed she gives up her own freedom to look after him. It will cost her much more in the long run.
   
   At first I thought this family had to be poor. As the story unfolds, you see the children sitting down to a meal of the most awful boiled-down leftover crap you can imagine, flavored with a little beef. But then the author casually mentions her father is a surgeon. Immediately, the reader's perception changes. Why is the family eating slop? And aren't surgeons supposed to be smart, and not radical religious fanatics?
   
   This was quite a harrowing journey and throughout the book, Julia's bravery shines through. She does not spare herself, however. She is upfront and honest about her own insecurities regarding having black brothers. Kids at that age are trying so hard to fit in, still finding their way. She spends their early years ignoring him while Jerome, the older adopted black brother protects him. Except he can't protect them both from their father. The surgeon has a sadistic streak.
   
   Strong and intimidating, Jerome violates a deep trust and places himself beyond redemption. Unspeakable things occur. Racial revenge? The reader finds himself engaged in a whole new set of philosophical and familial riddles.
   
   And Julia stays huddled over vulnerable David, doing her best to protect him.
   
   I don't want to give any of this book away. It just has to be read. It is a suspenseful account of a family subtly and then violently torn apart. But Julia's honesty and courage brings redemption in the end.
   
   Great read.



2. "Jesus Land" by Julia Scheeres is one of those rare books that one can read in a day, given enough free time. It is lucidly written, engaging, and very troubling. Fans of memoirs/biographies will likely enjoy "Jesus Land," though it reads like a novel, so fiction lovers will enjoy it as well.
   
   "Jesus Land" is about Julia growing up in her Christian fundamentalist household in Indiana in the 70s and 80s, and particularly about the relationship she had with her adopted African-American brother, David. The first part of the book focuses on Julia's experiences at home, and the second part on her harrowing stay at Escuela Caribe, a Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic.
   
   David & Julia are the same age, and so begin high school together. Unfortunately, David is the subject of ceaseless racial taunting, and Julia must keep to herself during the school day to avoid being seen as "the black kid's sister." Yet still, she is seen as an outsider. At home, things are no better. The Scheeres adopted another African-American, Jerome, since they thought that David "would want to play with someone of his own color." Unfortunately, Jerome is highly aggressive, and gets into trouble frequently. The father of the family is abusive, and frequently beats David and Jerome, while Julia is simply scolded. This sets the 2 boys against the white sister. Jerome then begins sexually abusing Julia, perhaps as a way of getting back at the father. The mother is emotionally distant (if not hostile), and resents it whenever the children ask her for something beyond the minimum food, water, shelter, and church that she provides. At their hard-line Calvinist church, Lafayette Christian, they are told lots about sin and repentance, but very little about how to deal with the problems around them. So Julia deals with them in her own way- she siphons liquor and has sex with her new boyfriend, Scott. Eventually, she is caught and sent to Escuela Caribe.
   
   Escuela Caribe is one of the worst places a parent could send a teenager. Everyone there is ranked, from 0 to 5, and must rank up points in categories such as Being Truthful, Being a Helpful and Positive Influence, Respectful to Authority, etc., to move up on the rankings. Only when one reaches level 5 is it possible to go home. The "program" rewards tattling on other people. For example, if a student catches another student cussing, then informs the teachers, then the informing student will get points in the "Being a Helpful and Positive Influence" category, whereas the offending student will be docked in points. Students at the school experience all manner of abuse, and Julia is constantly woken in her sleep to the shrieks of girls with nightmares. Throughout all of this, her one constant is the relationship she has with her brother David. In one particularly touching passage, after David finally learns about Julia's abuse at the hands of Jerome, he slips her a note saying "I know what happened to you is not your fault." In the end, despite all the hardships, Julia and David know that they have formed a bond that could not be broken.
   
   "Jesus Land" is fascinating in so many ways. It is fascinating in its exploration of racism and fundamentalism in the American heartland, the dynamics of a dysfunctional family, and how people can form bonds to overcome bigotry and dogmatism. David, who died in a car crash when he was only 20, was the inspiration for this memoir, and it shows. At the end of every chapter, in italics, there is a tale about David from childhood, giving the reader insight into the character. Despite the grim subject matter, this is not a bombastic, self-pitying memoir (like Jodee Blanco's "Please Stop Laughing At Me"). Scheeres never goads the reader into anger, sadness, or joy, but simply tells the story. And that's what makes it so powerful. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. (See my comment for some links)



3. I found this book to be a very good read; however, I will warn - it is quite depressing. I consider myself to be an eternal optimist, but this book really threw me for a loop. I had no idea it would be so sad, especially from the reviews that I had read. Either way, it's an excellent book, and I am glad I read it!



4. This is a memoir of a little girl's family that adopted two little black boys. The story is disturbing about the hatred and racism that she encountered as well as her two brothers. People were cruel to black people in the late seventies and early eighties in these small little towns in the north as well as the south. This story is set in Illinois. The family was highly religious as the mother spent most of her extra time corresponding with missionaries and her father was a doctor. The father was abusive to the little boys while he was merciful to his girl. But when the boys left home, one ran away and the other was sent away, his angry and wrath turned on Julia. The book recounts the time that her and her brother David spent months at a Christian reform camp. The book was painful for me to read. People hate with gladness. There is a big difference between being a Christian in action and appearance and being a Christian in heart. This book makes you sad at how people treat one another, how Christians treat one another, and how love of one another is the strongest bond in life. This book is a page turner, in the sense of hoping for a better result, a happy ending. The book ends, but you are left to provide happiness in your own life. You will watch how you treat people, that is where the happiness is in the book.



5. Jesus Land is Julia Scheeres' memoir of her childhood, with the main theme being her relationship with her adopted brother David. It has witty prose and graphic reality, leaving you with the haunting feeling that there are places in the world where things are terribly wrong.
   
   The majority of the book is set in mid-80's rural Indiana. Julia lives with her father, who is a doctor, her stay at home mother, and her adopted brother David, who happens to be black. There is another adopted brother, Jerome, who occasionally makes appearances. Julia's parents are devoutly religious, preferring mission trips and Bible studies over their children.
   
   This is not a feel good book. Julia's father, who is absent through most of the book, beats Jerome and David. Jerome rapes Julia, yet her relationship with her parents is so bad that she feels she cannot tell them. There are frequent encounters with racism, as most people at the time were not comfortable with siblings of different races. David and Julia are shipped off to the Dominican Republic to attend Escuela Caribe, a fundamentalist school outside of U.S. government control for a reason. There they encounter more physical and psychological abuse, often reduced to animals in the way they are treated.
   
   But there is plenty of good to take away from this book. It is essentially the story of the love between David and Julia. It is hard to imagine two siblings being closer, especially considering what they had to endure. They were the same age, and nearly inseparable. They were even able to develop a code of "sign language" between them during the times they couldn't speak to each other at Escuela Caribe. There is also the opportunity to learn what a home looks like when love is absent and religious rules and traditions are used instead.
   
   I strongly recommend this book, but it is highly graphic. Be prepared to be confronted with real life, unfiltered and without apologies.

5 comments about Adventures in the Screen Trade.

1. Reading this book makes you feel the writer is talking to you personally - it is written in a conversational style .
   The author sometimes can't believe the sort of conditions he himself works in or the type of surroundings , he is as confused by them as we are . He is also as captivated by them as we are , coming from a pure love of movies and their magic .
   
   If you are a film fan , do not delay in buying this book .
   It will bring a new perspective to viewing a film .
   Once you've read it , go and watch BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID , for which the author wrote the screenplay .
   A fantastic book !!



2. this is a must for everyone interested in screenwriting...a little slow in the beginning but riveting after that



3. What kind of book can the writer of such great screenplays as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, A Bridge Too Far, Dreamcatcher, and my sentimental favorite, The Princess Bride write? A romping, great ride through the movie making business, complete with behind-the-scenes stories. It opens with an astutely worded history of Hollywood, covers splendid tales about movie stars--both good and very, very bad, and the screenwriting process. `Adventures In The Screen Trade' is a true classic.
   
   Goldman understands movies and more than that, he truly understands how to tell a story and be funny at the same time. In the book, he writes that comedy is not his forte. Nonsense! I was laughing half the time I was reading; I had to put the book down occasionally, I was laughing so hard.
   
   More than simply comedy, the book is filled with insights not only on human nature, but also on writing about human nature. Near the end of the book, after a most enjoyable read about what parts he played in the many good movies he's written or had a part in writing (including only the last line from the Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman movie, Papillon), he shows his true genius. He actually demonstrates his thinking process in adapting a short story of his into a screenplay.
   
   After reading that story, but before I read his working plan of adaptation, I decided to experiment and see what angle I could come up with on the story in a rough outline. After doing that, I read his plan of attack in comparison and I was simply blown away. Here is a master storyteller at work--I'm not worthy.
   
   I enjoyed reading this book and if you're a fan of film, you'll like this one too.



4. Mr. Goldman has written a classic. A great panacea for anyone that gets too starry-eyed over celebrities and aspires to "make it big" in show business. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Goldman's no-holds-barred approach to explaining just how Hollywood works. His book is instructive and illuminating. His sarcastic approach is extremely funny and a great stress reliever. His quasi-sequel, Which Lie Did I Tell?, was also very enjoyable. I would highly recommend both books.



5. Shadow Watcher
   Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake
   
   This is perhaps the best book about screenwriting and the film business ever written.
   
   Oscar winner William Goldman, who wrote such classic films as HARPER, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, MARATHON MAN and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN shares his unique, often difficult, experiences working with top directors, producers and stars like Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier.
   
   If survival in the Hollywood film industry is possible, then there is no better "survival guide" than this book, because Goldman tells it like it is. He pulls no punches.
   
   According to Goldman, the single most important fact in the movie industry is that "Nobody Knows Anything".
   
   Most of the book's second-half is a primer on how to write a successful screenplay.
   
   What does Goldman feel is the most important lesson to be learned about writing for films?
   
   1. "Screenplays Are Structure"
   2. You protect the "spine" of that structure "to the death".
   
   If you want to work (and succeed) in Hollywood, then this is a book that you must carry around with you...like a Bible.
   
   
   - Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)

4 comments about Things the Grandchildren Should Know.

1. Picked this book up while visiting London. Read it in a day. Couldn't put it down. It is a great read. I am a huge Eels fan. It helped me understand more about my favorite songs and favorite band. I think only a casual fan would find this book both interesting and amusing.
   
   E (Mark) writes about death, music and how he has been able to find satisfaction in life. He has a dry but very funny sense of humor about his life and the world at large.
   
   I gave it to my wife to read and she was hooked in a few pages.
   
   Do yourself a favor and pick this book up.



2. Sure, the title to this review might sound like hyperbole, but I honestly cannot think of a book I enjoyed as much as this one for the past several years.
   
   A somewhat rambly memoir, it represents a chronological description of Mark Everett's very interesting life. From his childhood, and his relationship with his family (including his detached father, genius physicist Hugh Everett) through to his touring life and inspiration for his band, the Eels, this book represents a fascinating insight into E's experiences. His self-reflection is thought-provoking and allows us just a small peek into what it's like inside his world.
   
   As a long-time Eels fan I found this book particularly engaging due to Everett's discussion of inspiration for song-writing and arrangement. As I read through the chapters, I could remember hearing songs for the first time, or seeing new arrangements at the shows. This gave the book an added dimension which I honestly hadn't expected.
   
   This is a very honest, well-written book that I think will appeal to music fans and others alike.



3. I've been an Eels fan since Beautiful Freak came out, and have since purchased the catalogue as the records came out. I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a 'superfan', but I definitely have an appreciation for the fact that each record is varied, is obviously sincere, and carries with it a heavy dose of integrity (something that is more than rare in music these days).
   
   When I found out that Mark Everett had written a book, I was intrigued to say the least. With such scattered & quirky musical ambitions, I was sure that he would have some interesting things to say. I underestimated how interesting!! I'm sure there had to be a certain amount of disconnect inherent in the writing of this book, as it would be more than difficult to explore the events throughout his life without it. That said, I definitely appreciate the witty sense of humour and sarcasm throughout the book, a sort of tongue-in-cheek walk through a man's life as he explores all of the ups & downs & absurdities that life has to offer.
   
   I walked into this book an Eels fan. I walked out with a deep appreciation of the author and all that he has had to endure to bring us something real, both in his personal life and as a musician.
   
   If you're into Eels at all, you'll be glad you picked up the book.



4. I loved this book. I admire E's (Mark Oliver Everett) willingness to open both his life, his heart and his soul to us via this book. It is one of the most personal, candid, and frank autobiographies I have every read. While I was reading it I felt I was in a very private conversation with the artist and author. His music speaks volumes to me and I am touched that the creation of his music touched him also. This is a book for the real music fan that understands music can be real nourishment and a savior for the human soul and the human spirit.

5 comments about Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin.

1. In 1492 Elio Antonio de Nebrija (the author of the Latin grammar most priests used to teach Latin in the "New" World) wrote that "always language was the companion of empire and followed it in such a way that jointly they began, grew, flourished; and afterward joint was the fall of both."
   
   Ad Infinitum is a continuation of Ostler's work in Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, in which he developed the field he called "language dynamics," or the comparision of the "careers" of different languages, such as Phoenician, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Chinese, English, and many others. Like Ad Infinitum, Empires of the Word is a great book - - I've read it through twice.
   
   Ostler revealed ironies in Ad Infinitum that I had no idea of.
   
   For instance, I didn't realize that Latin was first chosen by the Catholic Church as the liturgical language because it was the vernacular that people spoke every day, not because it was a language like Esperanto that could unite everyone who spoke different langauges.
   
   In the fourth century A.D. Ambrosiaster ("pseudo-Ambrose") gave at least two reasons for using the common language: because the mind, as well as the emotions, should be engaged when praying, and also so the pagans can see that "nothing is done in obscurity."
   
   Now the exact opposite argument is used for keeping Latin as the language of the Catholic Church - - because it ISN'T one of the languages different nationalities use every day, and therefore it can unite the Church.
   
   I was struck by how modern some of the medieval Latin writers sounded. St. Augustine reminds me of linguists like David Crystal challenging the language mavens: " . . . [W]hat is called a solecism is nothing other than putting words together on a different rule than that followed by our authoritative predecessors."
   
   John Colet in 1511 on prescriptivist rules that only sometimes reflected actual Latin grammar: "In the beginning men spake not Latin because such rules were made, but, contrariwise, because men spake such Latin the rules were made. That is to say, Latin speech was before the rules, and not the rules before the Latin speech."
   
   The fourteenth-century scholar Ibn Khaldun (talking about Arabic dialects) could be describing Chomskyan Universal or Transformational Grammar: "These norms [of speaking] are of general applicability, like universals and basic principles."
   
   Another irony was how the "Romantic movement," which even at its most Wagnerian descended from Provencal ideas of chivalry and knighthood, really only took hold in Germanic-speaking countries, not where Romance languages were spoken.
   
   While the Empire still existed, it was the toga-wearing Romans who possessed "gravitas" and the barbarian Gauls who had "levitas." Now, American and English tourists to the Continent use the word "heavy" to describe aspects of German-speaking countries and it's the people in Mediterranean countries who are "light" and "easy-going."
   
   The first half of the book (on classical Rome and medieval scholasticism) was fascinating and might even be described as a "heroic" story, but the second half, which tells about the transmission of Latin and the Romance languages to the "novus orbis" is a tragedy as much as anything else. "Rome's dream" was a nightmare for some.
   
   Ostler describes Garcilaso de la Vega, son of an Inca princess and a conquistador father as "another highly articulate advertisement for the value of Spanish colonial education." How many indigenous languages disappeared after 1492? (I just read an estimate - - David Crystal again - - that 150,000 langauges have existed in human history. There are only 6,000 now.)
   
   Ostler makes it clear that Quechua was doomed in the face of Spanish and Latin. But earlier we saw how Latin supplanted Greek in the Mediterranean without genocide on the same scale as happened in "Latin" America.
   
   You can understand the past but you can't change it.



2. A quirky, idiosyncratic introduction to the history of the Latin language. What purports to be a history of the language begins with the author's assumption that the Romans were from the first political, military, cultural and linguistic imperialists (perhaps not all that surprising in a student of Chomsky?). That in turn requires him to rewrite the history of Rome in and outside of Italy in ways which can only provoke raised eyebrows, and snickers, among Roman historians. The result of that first misstep is a prolonged exercise in history rewritten to substantiate theory: badly rewritten, too, with bloopers which run the gamut from from ancient (that Gaius Marius created a standing army for Rome) to the modern (that the Catholic Church no longer uses Latin in its liturgy). The unfortunate result is that there really is little room for the history of the Latin language. There are, amidst the historical theorizing, some interesting nuggets of information about Latin, but they are buried in far too much sand and detritus to make the effort of digging them out worthwhile.



3. If you love Latin, I think this is the book for you. I purchased it for a friend who teaches Latin. I only wish it had been more humerous.



4. I came to Ostler's Ad Infitum from a perspective of fond memory for my four years of high school Latin and an abiding interest in Roman history. I recommend this book unequivocally for fans of classical history, the Latin language, or linguistics generally.
   
   Calling the book a "biography" is not a misnomer. Ostler makes the Latin language the protagonist, and he brings us through the language's youth, rise by conquest, conflicted relationship with its elder Greek, its marriage with the Christian Church, its thriving success long after the empire had perished, and its slow decline. The last chapters were genuinely sad to read, as Ostler explains how Latin was supplanted as the prevailing language in all important areas and has become at best an honored relic today.
   
   This book is not long and highly readable. Ostler left me wishing for more, especially in the early chapters in which Ostler describes, but could go into far more detail regarding, Latin's troubled youth in the shadow of Etruscan and Greek speakers and other Italian peoples whose languages might have become that of an empire in the stead of Latin. I wanted to know more about the Etruscan or Oscan languages and whether and to what extent they survived after Roman conquest. But these are quibbles with an excellent writer's decision to create a focused and engaging survey of an entire language's long history. Ostler's work is well noted for those who wish to pursue further any of the many interesting areas touched on by this book. My own Latin is not strong enough for me to take issue with Ostler's scholarship but as a casual student of the language I enjoyed this book immensely.



5. This work is truly a soup-to-nuts tour of the language of the Romans. It is overflowing with linguistics and history. Ostler gives the reader an erudite review of Latin. Magister dixit.

5 comments about In the Pink: Dorothy Draper--America's Most Fabulous Decorator.

1. A sensational look at the life and stratospheric career of the extraordinary Dorothy Draper. Written by her assistant who inherited the company, Carleton Varney has written about Draper's life and career like no-one else could have. Draper had such a unique style that has inspired the likes of Kelly Wearstler to this day. Unfortunately one of her most important design signatures, colour - and lots of it, is not done justice or captured accurately in the mostly black and white photos in this book. This is a great book if you are interested in the life and career of one of America's most important and charismatic decorator's, but if you are hoping for reference for her design and trademark colours then you may be disappointed.



2. This is an interesting book but the items reproduced therein are no so great. The photos of the ballrooms/hotels are great and that's where Draper was at her best - in grand spaces. It's difficult to imagine men living in these highly styled white baroque plaster rooms in more common-sized apartments with dizzy graphic prints and maneating flower motives. Still, if you like that kinda thing, find it on sale.
   
   Stylemaven



3. Like other reviewers, I was disappointed in all of the black and white photos. The content is very good but it just needed more color to really show what Draper's style was all about.



4. This is a wonderful book, full of excellent photographs and graphics, detailing the history and the flamboyant and highly sophisticated design of Dorothy Draper. The book includes treatment of her furniture, fabric designs, and public relations projects, as well as examples of her most important residential and commercial commissions. A book about great style, and a book with great style.



5. Although I found the book to be visually interesting...I was disappointed to find that the majority of the photos are in black & white, which greatly reduced the "impact" of the actual rooms being shown. I truly believe that if the original vivid colors were "inserted" (via digital / computer imagery) into the black & white pictures, this would have truly represented the decorator's original vision and consequently made for a much more visually powerful book.

5 comments about The House of Rothschild: Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848.

1. Those who already know Niall Ferguson do not need any praise for the books he writes: a few years ago I chanced to read his excellent "The Cash Nexus" and this led me to "The Pity of War" and finally to "The House of Rothschild".
   
   Ferguson is a scholar who loves challenges: not just challenging arguments, but also challenges in the sheer volume of sources and research, and finally challenges to the reader in presenting controversial theses (I think specially of those advanced brilliantly, and contentiously, in "The Pity of War" - see my review if interested).
   
   This last effort is mainly an attempt to unveil the Rothschild mythology, restoring an historically accurate perspective both of the family saga and of the banking and financial European history from 1798 to 1848.
   
   The book is a masterpiece for many reasons: not just story of a family (circumscribed to the male members), not just story of a great banking institution in the past two centuries, but also comprehensive financial history of the first half of XIX century... "a rich and nuanced portrait" as the book leaflet reads - that reveals and hides, but also creates an appealing and fascinated image of those turbulent years.
   So, it can appeal the history buff, and all those readers interested in financial history (and speculative bubbles) as well as those interested in biography and cultural history.
   
   The essay definitely has also - obviously maybe - a literary dimension: because in describing the five brothers Ferguson uses those same "colors" used by contemporaries, a literary dimension that cannot but appeal and enrich the more serious economic investigation: for Nathan the "meteoric" larger than life Napoleon-like image (passion for risk, high stakes on the table and the ruthlessness of a general), for James that richly colored literary portrait (full of mid-tones) we have been used by writers like Balzac, Zola and Stendhal (the mix of secretiveness and candid frankness, detachment and savoir vivre), for the others three brothers the age-old mythologies of Midas and the wandering Jew (specially in the portrait of the German and Austrian branch: they seem consciously prisoners of the Jewish stereotype in their inability to enjoy life and relax).
   
   Every reader interested in the story of the House of Rothschild want to know the why and how a middle class Jewish family confined in the Frankfurt ghetto was able in just one generation to become the richest family in the world.
   Ferguson's study is very good in the pars destruens, that is in taking down and unveiling the old mythologies (like the Waterloo myth, or the Hesse Kassel myth), less good in the pars construens that is substituting a coherent explanation. The surviving accounts are of course too tiny to cast light, and the accounting techniques used by the family in the early days too backward to be critically useful.
   So the impression is that of an unending race over speed limits, a sheer willingness to accept often uncalculated risks and to play for the highest stakes and at the same time an impressive luck (or God's favor) that stuck contemporaries (always expecting the meteoric rise of Nathan to end like the parallel story of Napoleon).
   So was their preeminence produced only by chance?
   Yes and no. Chance - according to Ferguson - played a striking role in the early stages - the building up, but consolidation and enlargement were due to specific attitudes of the family: solidarity between brothers, their informative network, their ability in cultivating diplomacy and - not least - to the fact that the family systematically reinvested in the business about 96percent of the net income produced (unlike - say - the Barings brothers, that in 1816 had almost the same size)
   
   The book will be also hugely helpful to readers interested in European history, casting a different - unusual to most readers - light in the inner mechanism of the early XIX century European politics.
   As for the nature of the Restoration, often liquidated by historians as a narrow and backward attempt to turn back the clock to pre-revolutionary times, Ferguson shows how different in reality was this period from the Ancien Regime and how the seeds of modernity were well present and working: the sheer preference of the banking institution for financing representative-backed monarchies, the consolidation in Jewish emancipation all over Europe, but also the frailty of arch-conservative governments (not just the case of Spain, but also of the Holy Alliance) compared to more pragmatic approaches.
   A rather under-developed theme is the rise of modern anti-Semitism: Ferguson - unlike most scholars - indicates the first traces in France well before the Affaire Dreyfus and hints how the irresistible rise of the Rothschild family (with their devotion to Judaism) was very instrumental in consolidating anti-Jewish mythologies (out of a sense of envy but also perceived in France especially as a alien "evil" power).
   
   As a reader interested also in financial themes, I was truly fascinated by those chapters dedicated to the bond and stock markets, particularly those regarding the default of Spanish and Portuguese consols.
   The Rothschild were the first bankers to export the financial facilities, long enjoyed in Great Britain, to Continental Europe and were decisive in creating a retail market for bonds and stocks.
   But the most interesting part is the one dealing with financial speculation, bubbles and defaults. Most remarkable is the feeling of a déjà vue: if you substitute Spain and Portugal with Argentina, you will observe striking similarities both in price, negotiations and very likely in the final outcome. Nihil sub sole novi, or at least it seems so.
   
   This is a book I greatly enjoyed.
   I cannot but recommend it to every reader interested in serious history.
   That is not to say that it is perfect: I was - as many other reviewers - incensed by the lack of bibliography (shame on Penguin), but on the average it is an outstanding achievement.
   
   Likewise, if you happen to be interested in the argument, you may be interested in other works I chanced to read about the same themes:
   - Muhlstein, Anhka - "James de Rothschild", this is a book I read long time ago, but it was more a biography in the classical way and as far as I remember, I found it rather inconsequential
   - Chancellor, Edward - "The Devil Takes the Hindmost" - a colorful and well-informed essay focusing specially on the XIX century. There are chapters dedicated to defaulting bonds in the XIX century as well as to the railway stocks bubble in the United Kingdom.
   - Conor Cruise O'Brien - "The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism". I have many works dedicated to Sionism and Judaism, but this is the most concise and clear exposition of the birth of anti-Semitism in Western Europe in late XIX century.
   
   You are most welcome if you can suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!
   Thanks for reading.



2. I have to start out by saying overall I enjoyed the book but I would only rate it as an average book. It is a little too detailed and didn't keep my interest from one chapter to the next. It would have been better if it left out 150 pages or so. I found myself doing a lot of skiming over what I would say was boring filler in the book. You can learn a lot about the type of business that that Rothschilds were in but not a lot of how they went about doing it.
   
   After reading this it seems that the Rothschilds were in the business of making large loans to governments and then packaging these loans as bonds and selling them to the public. They were as much bond and commodity traders as they were bankers, which I found interesting. There are numerous quotes from letters written back and forth between family members that will give you a sense of their personalities. The family history is very detailed so if this is the kind of thing you are interested in then you will probably enjoy the book more then I did.



3. [Also see: Fritz Springmeier's Bloodlines of the
   Illuminati]. Ferguson, who teaches at a Northea-
   stern University in the US, did yeoman work here
   on at least defusing some of conspiracy talk about
   how fools like Bernard Piper-Collins claim Roths-
   childs alledgedly control ALL things.The Rothschilds
   never ran the bank of England, the gentile Baring
   Bros. did. They are however a very corrupt family.
   Author Ferguson did excellent work here.



4. the book had some good pictures, however prof Ferguson not once, but on numerous occasions, claims to refute the story of how Nathan brilliantly deceived the London Stock Exchange players after the battle of Waterloo, earning $40 billion (2007 prices) in one day. A bit jealous I suppose.
   
   Verdict: Ignore the anti-semitic propaganda and the book is worth a look.



5. What has Ferguson not told about the Rothschilds in his seemingly exhaustive two volume set?
   
   He all too facilely dismisses Victor Rothschild's being the fifth man in the World War II Soviet spy ring of Blunt, Burgess, et. al. He does not bring up the 1776 Masonic Illuminati order of Adam Weishaupt with alleged connections to Mayer Amschel. And he dosen't discuss the Rothschilds' connection with Freemasonry at the highest level, and their gift to Israel of the Supreme Court building, a New World Order artifact, heavily laden architecturally with Freemasonry symbolism. Likewise, glaringly absent from note are 19th, 20th, and 21st century Illuminati activities, which the family has been widely thought to be involved with. History Professor Ferguson could fill in his blanks on some vital but shady Rothschild history from Henry Makow, a researcher and writer--and a Jew.
   
   According to an article on Ferguson in Harvard Magazine (May/June '07), he is about to take on biographical writing of Henry Kissinger, at Kissinger's request. This should generate caution. Could Kissinger's "papers" be entirely relied on? Kissinger probably saw what sheen Ferguson could put on the Rothschild's archives as raw material, ignoring or minimising important but dark concerns.
   
   Same question on the Warburg's family papers that he is availing himself of. What will Ferguson tell us about Paul Warburg's role in establishing the egregious Federal Reserve, and Max Warburg financing the Bolshevik revolution?
   
   Let's hope that Ferguson can either put this and other allegations to rest once and for all or illuminate them if true--but now that he's shown his colors with the Rothschilds, I doubt that he will, either way.
   
   It seems that sympathetic academic interest in these elitist families and individuals is inevitable in part because that is where the big bucks for research and publishing would be, especially for a scholar who professes to have, as he says in the Harvard Magazine article, "become a thorough philo-Semite".
   
   Is there a whiff of opportunism here at the expense of objectivity?

5 comments about All Souls: A Family Story from Southie.

1. The feature which works best in All Souls is the dramatically understated quality of MacDonald's prose. There isn't an ounce of pretense here, and this, when balanced against the horrors he is telling, creates a surface tension of great effect. As a piece of art, as a work of writing, there is little to learn beyond this, however; MacDonald is careful in how he uses language, but there are no surprises. So, this work's strength is also its weakness. Given that, it is a hard book to put down. It has a unique strength that makes one want to reach the end.



2. MacDonald characterizes himself as cursed with an "Irish whisper." That is, unable to keep the secrets he's entrusted with under wraps, blaring out what he should have kept hidden. This memoir of the 1970s through the 1990s, when Whitey Bulger's thugs replaced the anti-busing protests for media attention in South Boston, moves efficiently, with modest attention to Michael Patrick's own coming-of-age as contrasted with a fearsome family scenario of ten siblings, four of whom meet violent ends and three of whom die tragically. The one who survives might as well have died earlier; she survives a coma only to emerge a psychological and physical wreck. While this story often blurs the schooling, or lack of, that the author gained as he grew up in the midst of the anti-busing boycotts, and while you gain a stronger sense of the other members of his family rather than himself, this may be redressed in the new sequel, "Easter Rising." You get a less distinctive depiction of himself compared to his larger-than-life Ma and assorted brothers. Yet, the author appears here to deliberately focus upon his family and the violent milieu that boasts of its solidarity yet which poisons its very cohesion by such corruption on a moral level and a sociological scale. MacDonald redeems himself and his neighborhood as he grows up not only in body but in spirit, managing a buy-back gun program and learning to trust (a few perhaps) police.
   
   The same department who sought to imprison his brother, at thirteen, as Boston's youngest suspect: such maturity for the narrator emerges gradually and realistically. His story of how he survived Old Colony, absent of maudlin sentimentality or contrived cutesy anecdotes, reflects what in his acknowledgements appended he calls "every painful and personally redemptive sentence." (265) MacDonald manages to tell a story that could have been akin to the film "The Departed" or the HBO "Brotherhood," yet avoids ethnic cliche and predictably pat endings. The drama of abiding by the neighborhood code that forbids snitching but vowing to break that same omerta by seeking the culprits behind two of his brothers' deaths and the imprisonment of a third adds natural tension to this narrative. Yet, MacDonald sidesteps special pleading.
   
   Many of the memories he shares deserve repeating. For this review, three quick examples. First: the author accounts for the absence of a regular man in Ma's life as she cares for eight kids. "A man would only be abusive, tear at Ma's self-worth, and limit her mobility in life. Welfare could do all that 'and' pay for the groceries." (33). Her third (named) partner and second husband, Bob King, gets hit over the head by Ma with the wine bottle that made him drunk. When he comes to, she accuses him or stealing the "Christmas money" and he's sent off down Jamaica Ave. for the last time. Staggering down the street, to staunch his bleeding head, he holds what Michael Patrick fetched on his mother's orders: a Kotex pad.
   
   Ma herself gets shot randomly, through the living room window, by a teen high on Whitey's cocaine, just before the episode of "Dallas" comes on that she and all of America had been waiting for: "Who Shot J.R.?" Whether evoking the terror of his brother Davey's schizophrenia at Mass Mental, the fear of rats and roaches that infest the projects, the rage of the busing protests, the desperate schemes of his Ma to stay ahead of the authorities, or the conniving that infects both cops and criminals with the same lack of morality, MacDonald holds a calm eye for the telling detail and a cool pen to record what transpired. I look forward to his sequel, "Easter Rising." He keeps to the unadorned, if often witty, accounts of "street justice" that complicate his series of vivid incidents, recalled conversations, and local lore that add up to a poignant, yet honest, depiction of what it was to grow up in what was Southie, before gentrification, integration, and disintegration.



3. The past few years there has been a bright spotlight shone upon the South Boston social and political climates that have forever given Southie the reputation of being a sort of rough and tumble sort of place. With movies such as The Departed glorifying and demonstrating to the rest of the world what exactly Southie was all about, the resurgence to try and understand what living in South Boston must have been like is perhaps stronger now than ever before.
   
   Though a textbook format could certainly provide readers with a sociological and psychological look at the factors that went into making South Boston perhaps one of the most volatile sections of the country, not everyone is always looking for the highfalutin academic approach to gain a glimpse into a society. Rather, what is too often not focused on is the personal stories of the area.
   
   Thanks to the work of Michael Patrick MacDonald, readers from across the globe can read a much more personal take on life in the South Boston projects, streets, hospitals and morgues. In 2000, MacDonald and Ballantine Books release All Souls: A Family Story from Southie . MacDonald, who grew up in the projects located in Old Colony in South Boston tells an amazing family story that is so far reaching that each page seems almost as unbelievable as the next.
   
   The MacDonald family, although perhaps never willing to admit it back in the day, did not have it easy. Though they may have been masked in their zeal for their homeland, South Boston, the realities that existed were perhaps only realized once a look back at Southie was taken by those members of the family that were fortunate enough to get out.
   
   The book tells remarkable story after story in which the trials and tribulations of the MacDonald family and the life and events taking place in the world around them in Southie. The family is perhaps the ideal capture of a family that has been through so much yet continues to remain strong. Certainly the societal factors so prevalent in South Boston such as drugs, poverty and Whitey Bulger affected this family as it did so many in Southie. However, the remarkable part is that the author faced with the tragedy of having to bury sibling after sibling and seeing both his family and friends suffer so much is capable of releasing such a well thought out and brilliant book.
   
   What remains true not just for the MacDonald family but also so many that grew up in South Boston during the mid to late 1900's is that despite all of the social evils taking place around them perhaps the unifying factor of being from Southie was all they needed to remain strong. When others might have crumbled or lost all hope, Southie residents and the MacDonald's in particular were able to time and time again pull themselves out of the gutter and move on in life.
   
   The book is written in a very methodical and organized way. The stories tell a sort of time-line approach to the life of MacDonald and how it interrelated to not just his family members but also the issues that Southie will forever be remembered for: the busing riots, the drug trade of the Irish underground and the fist fights on street corners that turned into an almost daily occurrence.
   
   What MacDonald does well in this book is not just tell a story, but rather allows the reader into the lives of those around him. Through an almost genealogical lens, MacDonald brings the reader into his family in a way that at times makes the reader forget that they have no idea of this family prior to turning to page one.
   
   All Souls is the perfect read for someone that is both familiar with Southie either because of geographic or historical relevance or for someone who has no idea about what South Boston and its residents were faced with. The book is an amazing account of what is right about South Boston when so much has been wrong about South Boston. Even when faced with amazing extenuating circumstances, what held South Boston together was families like the MacDonald's.
   
   Though certainly sullied by a few bad apples, the bunch is never ruined.
   
   
   Recommended:
   Yes



4. i could not stand this book and did not finish it. it was poorly written and has probably gotten its good reviews from people who feel sorry for their poverty, but it is neither touching nor sympathetic. if chapters on hiding the boyfriends and the big color television from the government welfare worker appeal to you, you are in luck.



5. Every once in awhile a book comes along that affects me in a profound way. This is such a book. I laughed, I cried and I got angry. The characters came alive for me, proud of their heritage, with their self-identifying clothing brands, hairstyle and tattoo dot on the wrist, branding them forever as a "Southie"
   Amidst the poverty, the drugs, the fights, and the untimely deaths, there was still a sense of community. In a world where most of us hardly know our neighbors, Southie was a tribe of white Irish warriors where every outsider was perceived, and rightly so, as the enemy. It was never dull in Southie, for life was lived on the edge. As Ma laments years later after moving to the mountains of Colorado, "people here just don't know how to have fun". What a family, what a life, set in the background of an era that is now over and gone, there will never again be "no place like Southie".