5 comments about Grace After Midnight: A Memoir.

1. I brought this book a few months ago but kept putting it aside without even reading the first page. I decided to pick this book up today and could not put it down. This was a very easy book to read, and I read this book in one sitting. Snoop talked about her life as a crack addicted baby to her mom trying to sale her clothes for crack when she was just a little girl. I loved this book, and I am so glad that snoop made it to the top like she did. Snoop is real and everything she wrote in the book is real, so real you can feel it as you read. Good Snoop!



2. This book was interesting, it told the story of "Snoops" life as a child and her life style as a young women, it told just how strong she is and was, also it was very touching. I read it in one day, it was interesting, it was her autobiography. If you watch the Wire and you are a fan of hers you should read the book.



3. Felicia Pearson's memoir seems truthful, and she makes very little effort to put herself in a more attractive light. Surely her cowriter wrote a very large part of the book, but it consistently reads as her own voice. I think the book is worth buying, but most reader will finish it in well under two hours.



4. A painfully honest but depressing look at what it is like to grow up under the worst conditions. The slum didn't grind her up but, until the wire, she caused grief for society. Help, to her, came from unexpected places and a wonderful set of foster parents. It is a story that we, who grew up in kindness and a clean environment filled with good role models, should read.



5. I am very pleased and satisfied with my book, it came in a timely manner

5 comments about Illuminations: Essays and Reflections.

1. 
   
   Benjamin is arguably the twentieth century's most important thinker--if there is anything left to say about our lives, it is surely in this book.



2. I picked up this book primarily for the purpose of reading Benjamin's critically acclaimed essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", as well as for his darkly poetic - and even apocalyptic - "Theses on the Philosophy of History". These essays are among Benjamin's most highly esteemed and are the last two selections in the book; regardless of whether you start with them or with the first essay, "Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting", you are likely to be drawn into Benjamin's literary world quite quickly.
   
   In many ways, Benjamin's writing style is quite unassuming; reading even his most profound insights is like reading a letter from an old friend. His writing comes in layers; one must make time to savor his presence. This book covers a range of subjects, from critical literary essays (the aforementioned "Unpacking My Library", as well as essays on Kafka, Baudelaire and Proust), to more hermeneutical reflections ("The Task of the Translator"), to straight up philosophy/theory ("The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and "Theses on the Philosophy of History").
   
   The 51 page introduction by Hannah Arendt is absolutely fantastic. It does not simply provide an overview of Benjamin's life, but sets that life within the culture of early 20th century Germany, focusing especially on the time between the two World Wars. She notes the influences of Zionism and Communism (and Marxism) on Benjamin's thought, as well as the broader cultural influence of a quasi-secularized Judaism in a culture where non-baptized Jews were still kept out of university teaching posts. Her introduction, like Benjamin's own writing, contains deep touches of the intimately personal (she selected the various essays that make up this volume).
   
   In many ways, Benjamin was a deeply religious thinker. A friend of Gershom Scholem's (the founder of the modern-day study of Jewish mysticism), Benjamin and Scholem corresponded for a number of years. Although this particular volume pays little attention to his religious thought, "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (the final selection in the book which, in light of Benjamin's suicide, gives Illuminations a bit of a haunting finale), witnesses to Benjamin's poetic-religious insights:
   
   "The soothsayers who found out from time what it had in store certainly did not experience time as either homogenous or empty. Anyone who keeps this in mind will perhaps get an idea of how past times were experienced in remembrance - namely, in just the same way. We know how the Jews were prohibited from investigating the future. This stripped the future of its magic, to which all those succumb who turn to the soothsayers for enlightenment. This does not imply, however, that for the Jews the future turned into homogenous, empty time. For every second of time was the strait gate through which the Messiah might enter."
   
   Highly recommended.



3. I have nothing to add to the reviews below except to note for scholarly interest that the essay 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' included in this collection is not Benjamin's final version. (Neither is this title a good translation of the German: 'Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit'. Zohn's translation in the selected writings is better: 'The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility'.) The text in this collection is the 1935 manuscript, as originally published in 1936; the text collected in the Selected Writings, Vol. 4 is the final 1939 version that, as far as I can tell, was not published in Benjamin's lifetime. The difference between the two texts is slight, consisting mainly of some additional sentences here and there and some changed words. At least one of these revisions is, I hypothesize, the result of Adorno's criticisms of his letter to Benjamin of 18 Mar 1936.
   
   Otherwise, for most purposes, this is the best collection of Benjamin's essays available for an introduction to his thought. This volume collects some of the best of his essays that are otherwise spread throughout the selected writings published by the Harvard U.P.



4. In 1940 Walter Benjamin committed suicide at the Franco-Spanish border fearing that he would be unable to escape the grasp of Hitler's regime. He left behind perhaps one of the finest collections of literary theory of his era, complete with lucidly brilliant essays on Kafka, Proust, Baudelaire, and general Marxist theory.
   
   In this wholly excellent collection of essays, a remarkable introduction to Benjamin's life and work is provided by the late philosopher Hannah Arendt, who overviews his political formations and literary output. It's a model form of critical essay writing.
   
   Perhaps the most famous essay in this collection is Benjamin's `The Task of the Translator,' widely regarded as one of the most important and thoughtful contributions to the field.
   
   "No poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no sympathy for the listener."
   
   He argues that translation is a mode, and that the translatability of the work is the primary concern in the process.
   
   Also included is an analysis of the philosophy of history.



5. The depth of Benjamin's pessimism has, I think, been underestimated.
   
   "The story is told of an automation constructed in such a way that it could play a winning game of chess, answering each move of an opponent with a countermove. A puppet in Turkish attire and with a hookah in its mouth sat before a chessboard placed on a large table. A system of mirrors created the illusion that this table was transparent from all sides. Actually, a little hunchback who was an expert chess player sat inside and guided the puppet's hand by means of strings. One can imagine a philosophical counterpart to this device. The puppet called "historical materialism" is to win all the time. It can easily be a match for anyone if it enlists the services of theology, which today, as we know, is wizened and has to keep out of sight." Walter Benjamin, First "These on the Philosophy of History", p 253.
   
   One can measure how far the contemporary Marxist (better said, the post or semi-Marxist) left has fallen by how many books have appeared, since the fall of the USSR, enthusing over the radically Universal and allegedly 'Progressive' nature of early Christianity. Walter Benjamin, who was first to place the wise but ugly dwarf (Theology) in the beautiful puppet (Historical Materialism) would be amazed (or perhaps not, see the letters between Benjamin and Scholem) to learn that puppet and dwarf are on the verge of switching places! That is, now the ugly dwarf (historical materialism) wants to hide in (and of course direct) the beautiful puppet of Christian theology. ...Crazy, you say? But even Habermas, the Keeper of the Flame of Critical Theory, has on occasion made somewhat similar noises. The best place, btw, to start reading about this new 'political-theology' probably remains Jacob Taubes.
   
   But perhaps this emergent trend is really not so crazy after all. The only reason the Church became so cozy with Capitalism was its fear of Atheism. The collapse of the Soviet Union ended that fear. Now Christianity faces Capitalism alone. Or not, if the detente being proposed between the left and the Church is actually consummated. But every detente is a conspiracy of enemies to destroy an even greater enemy. The Church was with Capitalism because it had to defeat atheism. Now it is likely that the Church will join (a moderate) Socialism in trying to contain the 'soul-destroying' ravages of capitalism. This is only another move on the chessboard of History. ...But what did Benjamin think of History?
   
   "A Klee painting named "Angelus Novus" shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress." BENJAMIN, Ninth Thesis on History, p 257.
   
   Picture this Angel, wings pinned back by the wind, shoulders forced back because of that - the Angel of History is almost in the position of the Crucified Christ; except that this crucification does not end. It is this tone of almost ontological despair that was new to the left. This Crucified Angel is the perfect image of the left-wing theoretical pessimism pioneered by not only Benjamin but also Adorno and Horkheimer that split the intellectual left into two camps: the revolutionary and the cultural. And though no one is likely to admit it, the cultural left has quietly come to think of revolution itself as but another 'progressive' force piling up bodies.
   
   It is one of the little ironies of history that this despairing fantasy described contemporary reality exactly. The Angel of History is the image of dialectical knowledge. Rather than seeing disconnected events this Dialectical Knowledge grasps History as One (single catastrophe). Always facing the past ('the owl of Minerva takes flight at night', Hegel said; meaning that dialectical knowledge is retrospective) the 'contemplating' Angel is overwhelmed by historical action - the storm that has been blowing since the expulsion of humanity from paradise - and can never Himself achieve effective action. His knowledge grows in lockstep with the accumulating horror, but each new historical event only results (i,e., gets 'caught in the wings' of our Angel) in more contemplation. So we see how theory (our Angel) is 'irresistibly' propelled into the future. And we also see that the Knowledge dialectical theory gains is precisely equal to the debris the storm hurls at our Angel's feet. With an irony that strives to be equal to the wind blowing from Paradise Benjamin ends this meditation by calling this storm progress.
   
   This is perhaps why Benjamin insisted over 50 years ago that the dwarf Theology must guide the puppet Historical Materialism. Theory can never be equal to action; circumstance piles upon circumstance so rapidly that theory cannot effectively act, and if it does act (presumably) it only adds to the debris. Thus theology (myth) must guide materialism's hand because theoretical knowledge is powerless to help. Benjamin quotes the following remarks of Willy Haas, with approval, in his large Kafka essay;
   
   "'The object of the trial', he writes, 'indeed, the real hero of this incredible book is forgetting, whose main characteristic is the forgetting of itself [...] The most sacred ... act of the ... ritual is the erasing of sins from the book of memory.'
   What has been forgotten - and this insight affords us yet another avenue of access to Kafka's work - is never something purely individual." (Benjamin, Franz Kafka, p 131.)
   
   (The last sentence was Benjamin's own.) Theology is a non-individual forgetfulness. Thus myth (theology) is the only forgetfulness worthy of the name. What needs to be forgotten by all of us is the unsurpassable fact of the futility of theory...
   
   It is difficult for most to look such despair in the face.

5 comments about Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide.

1. I'm not a guide in Africa, but I am a tour guide at an African Wildlife Preserve, and the stories in this book parallel my own experiences in so many ways. I loved reading it, and was definately sad when it ended. Peter Allison has done an excellent job of revealing many of the dangers, both common and rare, that guides can face. While he faces more dangers than I, like lions and elephants (which we don't have where I work) I can relate so well to the other animal encounters, and interaction with guests, sometimes good and sometimes bad. His stories are told with a blatant honesty, frequently funny, and always entertaining.
   If you're looking for a unique perspective into Africa, safaris, wildlife, or just looking for a fun book to read, I can't recommend this one highly enough.



2. Just remember this is his ONLY book... so far. I am reading it like you eat expensive candy, one piece at a time. Slowly enjoying the stories in hopes that when I am done I won't have to wait to long to buy the new book. Hint hint. To tide you over Peter has a my space with some bloging going on to get you through.
   
   LOVE THIS BOOK!!!



3. Even if you are not tempted to take an African safari, this book is highly entertaining, with many laugh-out-loud moments. Each chapter is a different short story of another close call with nature. My personal favorite was the rodent invasion. This would be a good book to throw in your carry-on for reading on the plane. There was also enough substance here to entice me to investigate Botswana as a possible safari destination.



4. I LOVED this book! Peter Allison took me along on a fun, fabulous, thrilling adventure and I can't thank him enough! YES, I wish the book was longer and I wish he'd shared more of his life as a guide! Maybe he'll write another in the future. I'm still laughing a day after finishing it. His descriptions left me in stitches and sometimes, it was difficult to remember how young he was when he started. If I ever go on a safari, I promise, to Walk, Not Run.



5. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, "Whatever You Do, Don't Run". I have been to Africa numerous times on safari and the stories told by this guide were all too real, in a wonderful sort of way. Each page took me back to being on safari and allowed me to reminisce about those wonderful adventures. They gave me insight into what occurs behind the scenes for the guides and the staff at the camps and let me relive those precious memories. Parts of the book are truly funny while parts express the inherent dangers involved in such a journey. I loved this book and for those who have been fortunate enough to have gone on safari in Africa, they will enjoy it immensely.
   
   Penny Adamson

5 comments about Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table.

1. I love this author. She writes about life and food in such a way that you want to run out and learn to do the same. You want to try each recipe in the books and head to frence and learn french. Great read. Cannot wait to read the next.



2. Ruth Reichl, Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (Broadway, 1998)
   
   There's something to be said for the idea that perhaps one needs to be in the mood to read certain books. I started Tender at the Bone back in the summer of 2006, made it through two chapters, and almost gave up on it entirely. While I'm not a fan of memoirs in general, I am a very big fan of food, and so this seemed like a good match for me. At the time, however, I had just finished reading a couple of mediocre-to-awful memoirs, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back, I guess. But I came back to it in October of 2007, picked up where I left off, and finished the rest of the book in three days. Go figure.
   
   Tender at the Bone is Reichl's account of her early life, the formative events that drew her into being a food writer. I can't tell whether my problems with the first few chapters had to do with pace or whether I just wasn't in the mood for it when I first tried them, but the rest of the book moves along at a pretty good clip, alternately amusing and horrifying, with a recipe per chapter for some similarly alternately amusing and horrifying stuff. If you like memoirs, and if you like food, this really is a good fit for you. I know some of us are pretty sick of the whole memoir fad, but who doesn't like food? *** ½



3. This is the true story of how an influential food critic came to know food. It chronicles the stories and people from her life that shaped her relationship with food and how food has shaped her relationship with people.
   
   I was worried as the book began that it would be filled with nothing more than anecdotes about her mother's culinary disasters...as that is how the book begins. I thought that if the book continued on like that I would give up well before it was over. And I was worried over nothing.
   
   Rather than reading about a young girl who learned to fear her mother's creativity in the kitchen (even though that happened), Tender at the Bone touches on how food became an integral part of each stage of Ruth Reichl's life. Through food she found friends, made friends, and kept friends. With food she learned to create and express herself to her own delight and to the delight of others. She learned the ins and outs of the restaurant business and experienced first hand how important food is to other cultures.
   
   It is fascinating to read her tale, especially to see the luck she has had. While her life took her the wrong way down many one-way streets, she always managed to come across someone who could teach her or show her something invaluable. (I do not mean to discredit her achievements by mentioning her good fortune since not everyone would have been as astute as she was to learn from everything that happened.)
   
   From the stories of her childhood it seemed unlikely that she would end up in the position she has today. She has lived an interesting life which has taken her to many different countries and many different cultures. This book takes you by the hand and leads you through all of it.



4. Ruth Reichl has been a food editor and restaurant critic for the LA Times and NY Times and is now the editor of Gourmet Magazine, but if you're thinking that Tender at the Bone is just another foodie book, think again. Sure, it has recipes (18 of them, most simple, all tantalizing) and plenty of mouth-watering descriptions of food, cookery, and dining. It's also a tasty, tantalizing book, a smorgasbord of entertaining character sketches and often hilarious food adventures.
   
   But Tender at the Bone has its serious side. It tells the disturbing tale of a family thrown into chaos by Ruth's manic mother, the "Queen of Mold" whose idea of a gourmet meal is a stewed two-week-old turkey carcass. It is an almost-classic rite-of-passage journey of a lonely young girl whose dysfunctional parents abandon her to the care of others, leaving her to discover that good food can comfort the lonely (Alice's Apple Dumplings), that food can seduce the unwary (Devil's Food Cake), and that food always expresses our deepest cultural and familial longings (Serafina's mother's Coconut Bread). As she meets helpers who encourage her to outgrow her controlling mother, Ruth graduates from waitress to commune cook to restaurant chef to food writer, stumbling into her vocation along the way in this wonderful journey of self-discovery. Food is a "way of making sense of the world," Ruth says in an introspective moment, or as another character succinctly remarks, "I have to keep tasting."
   
   Tender at the Bone is a sweet, funny, light-hearted memoir whose lessons are dished out with a deft hand. At the same time it is a revealing self-study that offers insights into the forces that limited Reichl during her childhood and teen years, as well as those that brought her new experiences. The author's insatiable appetite for life, her compelling need to "keep tasting": to savor adventure, sample many lifestyles, delight in diversity, relish discovery, learn, create, and grow. It is a nourishing book, in all its various dimensions.
   
   by Susan Wittig Albert
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



5. I loved reading Tender at the Bone. I felt like I had found a new girlfriend and I was 19 again and wanted her to be my roommate. We had so much in common! I also had grown up in Connecticut. My father was superintendent of schools in Norwalk while she lived in Wilton. Of course Ruth lived in New York City also, and traveled and did tons of things as a child and a young woman that I didn't do. But still I always had this feeling as I read this book that I was with a new best friend. I loved all the intimate thoughts, feelings and disclosures that she shared. I never laughed so hard in all my life, reading a book, as I did reading about the engagement party for her brother, when her mother almost killed off the guests with spoiled food. I hope the story was a bit of an exaggeration! How well I knew Norwalk Hospital, where the poisoned guests went! That's where I had my appendix out at 13 and my mom had a baby when I was seventeen! The book couldn't be long enough for me. I enjoyed her travels, except for her time in school in Canada when I felt so badly for her. I was so relieved when that experience was over. I have to say that I really savored the whole book. Many people have read Tender at the Bone because of me!
   
   If you want a fabulous read, if you want to feel intimate with a stranger, if you want to taste good food without the calories, if you want to travel and learn a new profession without leaving your chair, if you want to have a new best friend, then join me and read Tender at the Bone! The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know Everything

1 comments about Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural.

1. At last a major biography worthy of the man who introduced us to the truly amazing and inexplicable world we inhabit. Not since Damon Knight's 1970 bio has Fort been given his due. Fort came from an odd childhood of upper class indulgence and Dickensian cruelty perpetuated by his father. Fort's personal individuation was one of rebellion against social norms and mindless restrictions leading him to an "on the road" existence of travel, train yards, and down and outs from the backroads of America to cattle ships to Britain.
   
   Fort was Bohemia's bohemian who struggled as a newspaper reporter, starving novelist and hermit in a domestic life surrounded by his devoted wife and research notes. Theodore Drieser was the champion that finally realized the unique genius possessed by Fort and supported him with unwaivering friendship through the remainder of Fort's short but prolific life.
   
   But did he "invent" the supernatural as alleged by the title? Like an eccentric Zen master, Fort directly pointed at the documented realities that intrude into a well ordered empirical universe with distinctly uncomfortable implications. Continuing with the zen metaphor, Fort's "stick that heals" was one of curiosity and doubt. He had possessed a healthy minded agnosticism that was interested in everything because everything is interesting. Rather than "invent" Fort more accurately precipitated what has become known as the supernatural. Among the phenomena he documented were aerial phenonmena later to be called UFO's, vanishing lands, people, vessels and mysterious falls of substances that should not fall upon us are now pillars of the supernatural that continue to baffle and delight.
   
   Fort was a pioneer of an art and/or science that provided us with a lens to view the curious and wonderful world around us in ways not dreamed of in our philosophy. Mr. Steinmeyer, an established writer of magical wonders, is to be thanked for this work that brings the enigmatic Charles Fort to a new generation of readers and potential forteans. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal.

1. What a pleasure to sit down with 'Agent Zigzag'. It makes you never want to pick up another spy novel in your life, so extraordinary and particular are the experiences of Zigzag, aka, Eddie Chapman. It's the little things that convince. Without giving anything away, who knew that the British Intelligence services wasted time looking for 'Bobby the Pig' when Bobby the pig was simply Chapman's pet pig mentioned when he was learning to send coded messages? Mcintyre's account occasionally slips towards mocking German Intelligence who certainly had their fair share of successes, but that takes little away from the sheer thrill of following Chapman back and forth between England, France and Germany. Certainly to this reader, it was an intriguing mixture of psychological study and page turning adventure.



2. If you are an early baby-boomer, then you will perhaps have heard bits and pieces of Chapman's story over the past 30-40 years as rumors and occasional releases of previously classified MI5 materials came to light. Finally, it appears, the whole tale can be told and quite a story it is. With the opening of all the files, the tale of this extraordinary young man--successes and failings--comes to light. The author does good work, indeed. Worth the hardcover price.



3. This is a fast paced, exciting story of spy craft and adventures by the most successful double agent of WWII, Eddie Chapman. Ben Macintyre working from recently declassified documents has structured a narrative that cries out mini-series or major motion picture. The amazing story begins with Chapman in jail leaving behind a trail of petty crimes and safe crackings and many jilted women only to be captured by the Germans to whom he volunteers. Instead the Germans have him and a friend shipped to a prison in France. And here in a twist of fate ends up being trained as a German spy who is eventually is awarded the Iron Cross for completing his missions successfully. The Germans never guess that while in England Chapman (Agent ZIGZAG to the British) turns double agent and is involved in many of the most top secret misinformation campaigns of the war. He is interrogated over and over by both the Germans and British and also has time to find women to befriend, and handlers to be loyal too. Chapman is ultimately pardoned by the British for his roll spying for the British. The narrative is a believe it or not true story that will have you riveted from beginning to end. This is simply the most entertaining book I have read in some time. If it were a novel you would never believe it. Why this has not found its way on to the best seller list is beyond me you should not miss Agent ZIGZAG.



4. Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
   
   Very interesting true story of a double spy (Britain and Germany) during
   WWII. After the correspondence from wartime had been released, the author pulled together thousands of details and presented a very informative behind-the-scenes look at the life of a spy on both the Nazi
   and British sides of the war. A fascinating peek at wartime in both
   countries, as well as the amazing life of a double spy!
   
   Not a fast read, but a very interesting one!



5. The trials and tribulations of Eddie Chapman might have made an interesting story with another author, but this story was a disappointment to me. Many of the reviews mention how much this book is just like fiction but that it is a true story. If that were the case, I'd never read another spy fiction story the rest of my life. There is no excitement, no glamour, no dark secrets, no interesting double-cross-save-the-Brits-and-sink-the-Germans storyline, or even any tricks of the trade that I found engrossing. While I would not call this book tedious, I was not anxious to pick it up everyday and get into it. It was just there; just interesting enough to finish, but not the highlight of my day.
   
   This is purely about Eddie Chapman and his love of excitement (as least it was exciting for him) and putting his life on the line into the unknown role of double spy. Unfortunately for the reader, the book concentrates on the mundane learning of various espionage antics that are never used. He was wined and dined by both sides and given anything that he wanted. But what does he really do to earn this treatment? Very little - a couple of weeks of misguidance during the V1 bombings and some misdirection about anti-submarine devices, but nothing in any detail. As this story is told, the ineptness of the German spy ring to England was interesting but hardly something that becomes a page turner.
   
   I was expecting to learn more of the British Intelligence and how they handled the intricacies of the double spy. Other stories that I have read have shown the British to be light years ahead of everyone in this business, but you get only a glimpse of their thinking; almost as if it is tangential to the plot. There could have been some interesting detail on the alluded to, but never really divulged nervousness at the wireless. The reader never gets a feel for the danger involved. The story is too vague.
   
   Eddie Chapman was a pawn used by both England and Germany and really never did anything that can be gleaned from this book for either party except to put a feather in each "spymaster's" cap for their respective governments. There are other acts of sabotage by other agents that are mentioned in the book, but basically nothing interesting is from the main character.
   
   It seems that Chapman's life consisted of living in one hamlet after another while he was "trained" (with at least one woman in both England and in Norway) with one group of spymasters in one country or another for most of the book.
   
   The author did a nice job with the description of what was happening in Norway with the Nazi occupation, but again you are left wanting more details and that was one chapter.
   
   I guess I expected more thrills and danger. This was like a spy club for singles. The Germans are portrayed as totally bubbling idiots in almost all phases of the book. The politics of the situation were not very well explained. There is quite a bit of haggling over whether Chapman was a good spy or a counter intelligence spy by the German authorities, but the author doesn't go into any detail of the decision process.
   
   It seems to me that this is a book about an small time crook that attempted to throw himself into anything that was life-threatening with the rewards of a romp in the sack and as much money as he could get. It does make for somewhat interesting reading, but I can't help but feel that the book was written with a movie in mind; it has that vague and incomplete feel that a movie book has.

5 comments about Drinking: A Love Story.

1. I was really disappointed in this book for a number of reasons, and it took me a while to sort them out. The first problem stemmed from the expectations set by both the title and the beginning of the book - that the book would essentially be the story of a relationship gone bad, and how the author escaped and recovered from it. For a book like that, whether the relationship is with an abusive partner or alcohol, I would expect that somewhere along the way a good writer would give some understanding of the appeal of that relationship. Why did she drink? When was it good, and why? What did she get out of it, ever? I never got the sense of that.
   
   Related to this is the whole idea of an emotional response to drinking. The book is incredibly analytical, descriptive of emotion rather than expressive. And yet, one of the things the author discusses as a key part of recovery was the ability to recognize and understand one's own emotions. She may understand them, but doesn't present them emotively. Sorry, this is a tough concept to express, but I basically felt that the book could have been written by her therapist, rather than the protaganist.
   
   Another major problem with the book was the paradox behind the causes of alcoholism. Is it predestined, either by genetics or circumstances, or is it due to free will? She implies different answers to that question throughout the book, somewhat depending on whom she is talking about, and places blame accordingly. Of course, my understanding is that it's a bit of both, as is most of human life. But since it's an issue that's implicitly important in much of the book, it would have helped a lot to address it directly, even if only to say that it's an inevitable paradox.
   
   Finally, of course, having high expectations at the start can diminish one's actual view of a book. My expectations were set quite high by all the great reviews.



2. This was a very interesting account into the world of alcoholism. I thought I may have a problem with alcohol (drinking 2 to 3 glases of wine @ night) until I read this book! Good read.



3. Her words inspired me to quit drinking, then her death inspired me to quit smoking. I hope her loved ones know, there is one person out here who is alive because of Carolyn. She is my hero. Thank You.



4. What a powerful story! And according to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), half of all American families "have at least 1 or 2 active alcoholics in them". My family is one of them. And over 75% of the caseloads of therapists are problems that arise from living with alcoholism. Most of the people in A.A. have still-drinking alcoholics they go home to. The book that I use over and over, with my counseling clients is "Getting Them Sober". Getting Them Sober: You Can Help! (Getting Them Sober) It's sold over a million copies and endorsed by 'dear Abby' and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Harvard University's employee assistance program.....and has literally hundreds of effective solutions for sobriety and recovery. Most of my clients report that their family lives change for the better within days of reading this book.



5. While I read the book I felt hollow, like I was taking in the words but I felt nothing. It's not that I didn't understand what she was saying, the words just seemed devoid of the human aspect of dependency. I could have done without the first half of the book completely. It was tedious and I never connected with the author's plight. The second half was a little better for me. I saw a friend of mine in the second half and that helped a little...because I could put a human experience with the narrative. And that's what the book lacked. A feeling that someone, a caring human with feelings, was writing it. I never connected with the author no matter how much I wanted to understand her story. I felt like I was reading a weak story about someone written by a third person. It would have been a one-star if not for the second half.

4 comments about Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography.

1. 
   Unlike his subject, Richard Stirling doesn't go beyond his professional talents and requirements. He writes a good biography where his subject never stopped at simply giving us a good song perfectly delivered.
   
   He keeps his well judged and full bodied biography within the realms of good taste and gives us, without camp or intrusion, a clear picture of the complicated life of one of the Last Great Hollywood Icons. He also gives all the information we need to decide what it was that caused that Icon to rust and fall and then eventually rise again. He takes us with insight and humour beyond the often cited unfashionable image and untimely films that caused Miss Andrews to flounder on the rocks just off the shore of superstardom.
   
   In spite of being perceived as Englishness personified and even being the only actress listed in the results of a recent poll which looked to name the Great Britons, very early on in life she became an American; not a great but a mediocre American.
   She is quoted as saying that it was America that made her a star and that the English would have left her to kick in a chorus line. This is improbable given the way her career was going in the UK before being exported to star in the Broadway transfer of The Boy Friend, but it sounds good as a piece of self justification. She went from applying her limited, specialist talent and her strong lovable stage and screen presence in the best situations possible to decades of roles and films that needed a talent entirely different to her own. In other words she stopped doing what she did best very early on in her career. The whys and wherefores of this disastrous mistake are among the core interests in this long needed biography.
   
   Odd though it is that being a first rate live performer should be second choice to appearing in third rate films, Stirling clears up this conundrum as he uncovers the gradual Americanisation (and worse) Hollywoodisation of Julie. Star studded self-named television specials alongside theatre concerts featuring the worlds best orchestras and conductors seemingly underscored decades in a life filled by personal and professional doubt, therapy and unconvincing cinema projects that showed her up as a mediocre acting talent, constantly cost far too many millions and then flopped miserably as the studios, who eventually took their ball home, looked on in horror.
   
   Richard Stirling takes us through this extraordinary life starting with the making of the child variety star with the freak adult vocal chords housed in the tiny sound box making waves that might have drowned a less determined spirit. The now extinct world of music hall is brought vividly to life before moving on to The Hit Broadway Operetta, world recognition, diva sized misjudgements of choice and behaviour, years of confused image and misuse of talent, arriving finally at a return to the musical stage in Sondheim's Putting it Together in which she showed the world exactly the thing for which it had been waiting all those years, i.e. a first rate mature singing actress at the peak of her ability. This fringe success crowning takes her onwards and upwards to royal status a second time thanks to another major misjudgement, this time in a disastrous Broadway `succès de scandale' and then on, ironically, to film stardom a second time around thanks to yet another dose of bad Hollywood which this time became a surprise mega hit franchise.
   
   This is Stirling's first major biography. It follows on from years of cinematic study including conceiving and curating seasons at the National Film Theatre as well as more years of journalistic activity for major publications on both sides of the Atlantic. Between the pages of this biography there is magazine sensation found only in the chapter headings and in the melodrama of the hospital soap-opera operating theatre prologue. His writing is otherwise free flowing, fresh and finely detailed without being pedantic. Every aspect and face(t) of her professional and personal life including the brick wall of privacy surrounding his subject, whom he met and interviewed many times, is thoroughly researched. You'd think that the staroftheworld period in her early years is required knowledge for anyone remotely interested in musical theatre history but there are surprises for all no matter how well informed. That said, where this book scores it's biggest success is in the little known story of her life before stardom and the so easily dismissed but fascinating wilderness years of middle age.



2. I wanted to know more about Julie Andrews. I adored her as Mary Poppins, loved her in The Sound of Music & was delighted by her comic performance in Thoroughly Modern Millie. I somewhat remember her "falling from grace" so to speak, making some unmemorable films, dissappearing...then suddenly it seems, she's back writing children's books & making successful movies again!
   
   So I really wanted an overview of her entire life and that is why I chose this book by Richard Stirling over HOME which ends about the time that Julie's fame begins.
   
   The book is an engaging, easy read that has generally fulfilled my expectations. It covers Julie's meteoric rise to the heights of fame and the painfully slow slide into a lingering sort of limbo that allowed her to triumphantly hold her head up occassionally but never again made full use of her sunny personality & gorgeous voice.
   
   This book gave me the distinct impression that instead of being "ahead of her time" that unfortunately Julie Andrews showed up perhaps 20 years too late to be fully utilized in the field of musical/comedy films. (...and it teases us with the vehicles proposed for her but never made...) However, it also points to the fact that Julie is full of tenacity & perseverance. Of course, she is still around and that's a good thing.



3. I read Julie Andrews' Home first and then picked this up to finish the story. It's well done with loads of details and facts that were previously unknown. Goes so far even to mention Julie's efforts to publish Home in early 2008. This books is worthwhile and quite entertaining. A must read for any Julie Andrews fan.



4. I ordered this book because since the 1960's I've adored Julie Andrews. I found here everything I wanted to know about her. But this book is not very "readable".
   
   Mr Stirling often leads the reader down dead end paths - leaves them wondering "Where am I now?" and is often not fun to read. I enjoy a book that flows. This one jerks along like an old truck with a couple of flat tires on a bumpy forest road. Occasionally there's a well written story, but for the most part it's hard to follow and the stories he tells are truncated and with unrelated elements. It's like being in a forest and wondering where the path is. I'd rather have gotten (and will get) my information from other sources.

5 comments about Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories.

1. Many other reviewers have noted that some of the stories in this book are slow and dry. The drawn out descriptions of the castle builders immediately comes to mind, as does the personal story of Juliette Lewis. But overall this is a worthwhile look into the mind and life of one of the best authors of our time. I feel like I know Chuck Palahniuk on a more personal level now, and that's what I was hoping for. I find him a fascinating man, someone I would love to sit down for coffee with. With that desire in mind, I am very happy I waded through this book.



2. I was attracted to this book after reading fight club, choke, haunted and lullaby. So, of course, i had high hopes. I picked it up, and it was not any where near as good as I thought it would be. There are like 2 good stories but the rest are just bland. While i was reading, i kept thinking, "And why am i reading this?" try reading other palahniuk books such as choke. This, for me, was a dissapointment.



3. Chuck Palahniuk out-does his own fiction writing, (which can be strange at times) with this collection of "True" stories.
   Any fan of Chuck will appreciate this book. It lives up to it's title, and delivers it's helping of strange and obscure topics.
   One of these topics is masturbation. And, he has much to say about this, including the reactions of the listeners when he read this story at bookstores around the world. And, let's not exclude the "Testicle Festival," the yearly event near Massoula Montana, that includes public nakedness, sex, and debauchery of all sorts. And, of course, the consumption of fried bull testicles. (dipped in ranch dressing)
   So, get on...hold on tight. You may wish you hadn't, but, then again, if you are already familiar with Chuck's work, you probably would expect no less.



4. Interesting true stories told well. One story offering some insight into the man? A departure for Palahniuk but one of my favorites of his.



5. Reading Chuck Palahniuk's collection of oddball 'strange-but-true' stories, articles written for various magazines about twisted people and their twisted little hobbies, is like watching "America's Most Terrifying Videos" or reading "Ripley's Believe It or Not." You feel guilty for enjoying the freak show... but not enough to stop reading. The book isn't that thick, and there are 23 chapters so each one makes a pretty good (and somehow appropriate) bathroom companion. There are chapters guaranteed to offend almost any sensibility, and yet there you sit still reading long after your business is done. They say knowledge is neutral, neither good nor inherently bad. But does that mean that every story has to be told?

5 comments about A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman.

1. A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson is a decision chronicle. After her children leave home Anderson realizes her marriage does not satisfy her needs, and more importantly, after a lifetime of taking care of others, she realizes she does not even know what her needs are. When her husband has a job transfer, instead of going with him, she takes a year off to live alone in the family vacation home on Cape Cod.
   
   This book chronicles Anderson's soul searching effort to prioritize her own needs. Her goal: discover new motivation and purpose for life. She must make decisions. She examines everything. She determines to discard patterns that no longer feed her soul, whether that means being honest about her sex life, letting go of her marriage, or NOT fixing meals when her family comes to visit.
   
   At the beginning of the year Anderson doesn't know what the outcome of her search will be. She writes honestly and intimately. She details transitions everyone needs to make at new junctures in life. By letting the reader in on her process she challenges them to examine their own lives. A Year by the Sea is everyone's story.



2. Although Joan Anderson is a good and insightful writer at times, I have to side with the negative reviews of "A Year by the Sea." Her journey to renewed midlife identity isn't just narcissistic, it is as trite as they come. Looking to the natural world is hardly a new idea for metaphorical meaning. "To everything there is a season" has been around since Moses rode in baskets. The "stale marriage at midlife" is a big cliche as well. Then there is Joan Erickson, the old woman who appears in a fog and fills Joan Anderson with perspective. I mean, really? Why are elderly people always so insightful? There are plenty of old people who have no wisdom whatsoever.
   
   There is also the problem of the unreliable narrator. At one point, Anderson mentions that she is permanently estranged from her brother. She mostly blames his wife for this. Later in the text, Joan talks about strained relations she has with her two adult sons. The culprit? You guessed it, their wives. My conclusion is that Joan Anderson is a difficult woman herself. To not get along with so many in-laws is telling. She offers little insight into this in her self appraisals, though. I have a feeling the writer and the woman are two very different people. This is supposed to be a book about identity, but Anderson doesn't seem to know herself very well.
   
   This book reminded me a bit of "Drinking the Rain" by Alix Kates Schulman, which I liked a great deal more. I'm not opposed to "the sea is bringing me home to myself" concepts, but Joan Anderson's approach is flat and unoriginal.



3. Very interesting journey and the following books written by Joan Anderson expand on her experiences.



4. This is a easy, great book to read. Great things come in small packages. Joan was able to take a usually negative situation and turn it into something very beneficial. It's all in your perspective. The best thing I got out of this book was "Don't force things, let them happen". You can let go of a lot of anxiety by doing this. Joan did this in her year by the sea. She was able to slow down and appreciate things in a new light. She discovered new ways to enjoy life and skills that she never imagined she would have. She recreated herself for the better and it was very inspiring to go along with her in her journey. She took a break from her life, rebuilt herself and provided her family and friends with a much stronger, vibrant person. This is a good, uplifting book that will help any woman feel empowered.



5. It was the year 2000, I'd been married almost 20 years -- the kids were pretty much grown and I stood at the edge of my marriage - terrified that I'd jump off and terrified that I wouldn't. Okay, maybe terrified is a dramatic term, but that is how I felt. I truly did not know WHAT to do with my "self" even after many years of intentional inner growth, happiness and many blessings. I didn't know if I needed to be REALLY alone or how to be the ME emerging AND be married. There was no other man - no big outer change I sought...I just felt trapped. Thankfully, a friend told me about this book and I devoured it with gratitude. Joan Anderson is a ballsy, brave wayshower -- she's HONEST about the details I wondered about and I can't begin to say how grateful this wasn't a story about another man. Eight years later, I am HAPPY in me--my life and my marriage AND I am still learning - still growing. And now, Joan has THE SECOND JOURNEY out -- her story about the 10 years after writing her first book. Again, she helps so many as she helps her own life. For those who have found A YEAR BY THE SEA inspirational and helpful, please write to Meryl Streep (or her agent/publicist) or your favorite strong 50's actress to consider pushing this story to be made into a movie. This book has helped so many women, men and their marriages! Thank you Joan Anderson!!