5 comments about Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography.

1. This book was awesome. As a normal person, I didn't know much about Tom Cruise, just the general stuff. It helped me understand how Tom became what he is now, how he's been brainwashed and is now a perfect product of the Scientology church.
   
   I really don't think that the author is trying to turn Tom down, he is just bringing some explanations on what happened in Tom's life. This book is really like a documentary, not really trying to give an opinion saying "Tom Cruise is bad" but more observing how things go around the actor.
   
   I just hope now the Katie is going to succeed to go out of the church.



2. I think this book explains a lot about Tom Cruise. It goes a lot into the scientology movement. It's quite interesting how they recruit members. Tom's usual talk show personality persona is quite different then his private image. We saw some of that when he insulted Brooke Shields on television. You really need to read it to understand how a man like Tom Cruise could be recruited into this organization. Andrew Morton who wrote the blockbuster books on Princess Diana and Monica Lewinsky also wrote this interesting book.



3. Is Tom Cruise is totally delusional? In one part he apparently says something like if he knew what he did now he could have went through college at age 11. He also says that no one tells you about dictionaries, like they are some mystery or something! I laughed so hard at both of these statements. I would love to see him go to college and get a degree...would love to put him in a chemistry class. And the dictionary thing, uh, in college many times you have a dictionary right next to you when you read...this is common. Wow...join the rest of the world Tom.



4. This is quite an interesting book. I had some idea of Scientology before reading but was shocked at how much I didn't know.
   I personally wouldn't support any actors I find are involved with such a corrupt organization.



5. It wasn't until after I read this book I realized who Andrew Morton was. He caught my attention over the Princess Diana book that was "secretly authorized" by Diana. If I had known this was the guy, I would have passed on the book. The guy gave me the creeps over the Diana thing and his latest book about Tom Cruise has that National Enquirer feel to it. Ack!
   
   If all biographies, authorized or not, were written by Andrew Morton, I'd probably never read another one again.

2 comments about Drunkard: A Hard-Drinking Life.

1. I have to up front admit that I didn't read this book cover to cover. I read it over a period of a couple of days at my local bookstore, and I skimmed parts. I just want to state that up front. I would say I read 70 % of the book, though. I think it is a very honest book, and well written. The author is a Jewish-American journalist (the only reason I mention that is because some people claim that there is less alcohol abuse among Jews, and some claim that there is a lot of hidden alcoholism among Jews; you decide). He lives in north Chicago and has a good job. The book starts out with the author in jail for having slapped his wife during a fight. He blames alcohol. Ok, fine.
   
   The one thing about this book that I didn't understand was that upon intake at the rehab center, they ask him how much he drinks a day, and he states "3 to 5". If that is not untrue, to me, that would put him within moderate drinkers, at least in some cultures (Germany, Britain, France, etc.). Maybe he was lying or being ironic. He does admit to drinking occasionally in the morning, and downing bottles of wine and harder alcohol, which of course are associated not with hard drinking, but with alcoholism.
   
   And yet, I just kept wondering, is this guy really an alcoholic, or just a heavy drinker. For instance, I think domestic violence can occur concomitant with alcohol abuse, but of course, there are many people who engage in the one and not the other, so I think it would be unscientific to state that the drink caused the violent incident (and note, he only hit her once, during a verbal altercation [I am not trying to minimize this, but I am just stating, it was not a chronic behavior with the author). Many abusive men don't drink, and many hardened alcoholics would never hit their wife or girlfriend. So I found the conclusion that his drinking "caused" that one slap to be unscientific. It seems to me that these are two very separate issues.
   
   What follows is that he ends up being "processed" by the U.S. 12-step industry (I call it that), based on his choice and wishes, though. I realize his drinking was not normal by any means, especially by U.S. cultural standards. But is having 3-5 beers on your way home from work, and then a wine in the train (and not driving !) really alcoholism ? I just wonder. In Germany, where I lived for years, that would be considered moderate to heavy drinking, I think. Ditto in Britain and most of continental, Catholic Europe. Plus, he held down a job and never had work-related issues from his drinking (he even admits or hints that drinking might have helped him at work). I mean, he is a journalist, and he does mention the long traditon among journalists and writers of drinking, also in Chicago newsrooms (Royko, etc.).
   
   Of course it is all his choice and I wish him well in his choice. But I just have these lingering doubts, based on the information he provided.
   
   Still an entertaining, honest, courageous (really !) book, and a book with a sense of humor.



2. I'll begin with my most serious criticism of this book: the book itself, not the contents. The binding shattered while I read chapter 3, then shed pages for the duration like a Persian cat sheds hair in August.
   
   I know no one's interested, but I had to vent.
   
   That said, I'll admit to an early-on fear that I'd picked up the wrong drunkalogue when the author admitted to his rehab gatekeeper a daily average consumption of only 3-5 drinks: not the stuff of alcoholism as I know it, nor the subject of a book I'd be willing to invest time into. I smelled a rat, or a moderate-drinking newspaper columnist with a nagging, teetotalling wife he'd taken an ill-advised swat at. While in the pokey, the notion of converting all that into a book opportunity crossed his mind--or so went the Murphy's Law thought that crossed MY mind, anyway; the $25 had been spent, and the book by that time was in a non-returnable condition.
   
   Happily, I can report that by the time I'd turned the final loose leaf, Steinberg had redeemed both himself and his literary effort--and, in so doing, my investment. Unlike the pages of my book, His alcoholic credentials proved solid, held firm under the weight of post-rehab mischief: slips, lapses, and relapses. Tapping on locked doors of liquor stores before hours, hoping for human mercy. Placing clinking bagfuls of hostile three-to-five-drinks-my-@$$ testimony into moonlit dumpsters. And binges, both bolt-out-of-the-blue and the more calculated when-the-cat(i.e., wife)-is-away variety, most of them conducted like shadowy, lamplit acts of marital infidelity (His wife had read him the standard booze-or-me riot act, adding her confidence that he'd "make the right decision." He clearly, by this point, wasn't so sure).
   
   Any alcoholic worthy of his or her morning shakes will feel the same warm implosion I did reading Steinberg's recollection of waking alone at 1:00 AM with a fifth of Gordon's, then watching the contents slip from "G" to "S" over the next few dark, dead-to-the-world hours. But the clincher--the profundity only another drunk can appreciate with precision--is his observation that "...memory of [drinking] prompts us to contemplate the aridity of our future lives as suburban [and abstinent] alcoholics, a bleak desert stretching before us. Where will our fun be? From whence our comfort?"
   
   Yes, he understands. Therein--and eloquently stated--is the essence of the thing.
   
   The admission must be made that save for the fact he's at least a minor celebrated figure, the wife-and-two-kids suburban backdrop of his tale is, well...ordinary. His book would surely suffer the same fate were he not a writer by vocation, and by demonstrated talent. He knows how to craft a story. And along the way, he has an insightful remark or two to make about this nation's 12-step-based rehabilitation monopoly, not all of them complementary. He has his problems with AA--the low success rate, the mind-dead sloganeering, the "God thing"--but it's the only game in town of any consequence, if a game in which many of the players march in one-lockstep-at-a-time, vacant-eyed harmony. A sobering thought, that.
   
   In the end, conflicts with his wife and his search for an agnostic's Higher Power converge and are fused into a single, novel resolution of both problems.
   
   It was a good ride, and worth the read.

5 comments about If You're Happy and You Know It (Baby Board Books).

1. A much appreciated gift for 8 mo. old baby. "He loves his 'If You're Happy and You Know It' book already!", Mom wrote in her thank you note sent with a very happy baby picture!



2. I was a little disappointed with this book...it is basically just a depiction of the song. Nothing new and exciting and my daughter actually prefers that I sing it to her without looking at the book so she can look at me.



3. My daughter who is 10 months has loved to have all the books by Annie Kubler read to her since she was 5 months old. These books by Annie Kubler are great starter books for a child's library!



4. Was looking for the right books for the very little ones in the family, for Christmas. Saw this (and others in the series) and felt I had found just what I was looking for. Lively, colorful illustrations, activities for parents and little ones to do together. I wound up ordering even more, after my original shipment. The hardest part was which ones to choose!!!



5. This is a pretty cute book! I believe it has most of the "If you're happy.." lyrics in it - I've been trying to teach him to clap his hands. It is pretty short - only a few pages, but he seems to appreciate it.

5 comments about On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family.

1. Genealogy buffs would do well to read this "One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of [Lisa See's] Chinese-American History" as an excellent example of how to write their own family histories. See, one-eighth Chinese, interviewed "close to one hundred people" and with help, found historical information from the late 1880s about her great-great grandfather's generation on up to her own children by perusing documents such as immigration records, photographs, letters, diaries, etc., that is, in the usual way. The result, On Gold Mountain "the Chinese name for the United States," almost 400 pages in length, is an in-depth, well-written account of the happenings in the lives of her ancestors, cousins, aunts and uncles. But anyone who knows anything about genealogy will agree that while a person's own genealogical information is, or can be, quite thrilling, another's is usually significantly less so. The main "character" of the family history, Fong See, was a polygamist. His second marriage, to a white woman (his first, unconsummated, was to a young girl in China) created the line from which the author descended. He was a merchant by trade who sold undergarments to prostitutes (during which he met his Lisa See's great-grandmother). Later, he dealt in antiques and other merchandise, creating a name for himself both in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles and in Dimtao, his home village in China, to which he provided monetary assistance. While the information on the lives of Chinese immigrants in general (including the ever-changing, often discriminatory immigration policies) and Fong See in particular, were great reading, the book was exceedingly long and overly detailed. I, for one, am not really interested in the names and occupations of Ms. See's first cousins. And less annoying but worth mentioning is the fact that the book's standard format, consistent and chronological, changes dramatically at Chapter 11. Memories: Tyrus Tells His Story reads like a taped interview might sound. In Chapter 14, Anna May Speaks (from the Grave), a film star, unrelated to the Sees except as a family friend, complains about her mistreatment by the film industry, the Americans, and the Chinese. Chapter 15, which I like to call The Improperly Edited Chapter, contains nine paragraphs beginning with a single word or short phrase (Pp 247-250), "Wives," "Children," "Grandchildren," "Business," "More business," "Business and family," "The Japanese crisis," "Partners," and "Life story." Lastly, the inclusion of a reference to California's Prop 187 (p 355) "Through Proposition 187, illegal immigrants would be barred from receiving any state funds; this meant no education, no welfare, and no medical care, except in dire emergencies," seems a bit unfair. China's policies concerning illegal immigrants are certainly much stricter than the USA's. In summary, Lisa See is a very good storyteller, has produced a great example of a family history and a tribute to her ancestors, but the audience of interest for the overly long overly detailed On Gold Mountain is likely limited to Fong Dun Shung's descendants, fans of the historical aspects of Chinese immigration to America (or their life in America) during the late 1880s and early 1900s, and genealogy buffs. And if I weren't part of the last category, I'd have either quit the book or slogged through and given it only two stars. Better: The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan, the Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.



2. I read On Gold Mountain slowly, with days between chapters to think about new ideas. On Gold Mountain was many things to me. A true story, it captures the diversity of life: hopeful and heartbreaking; success and failure; riches and poverty; love, courage and pride. In the many lives of the See family and other Chinese immigrants, opportunity, danger, effort and chance all play a role in deciding who will be rich, who will live and who will die.
   
   It was an eye-opening revelation to me of how racist our laws and immigration policies were towards the Chinese, up until our recently.
   
   It was an amazing journey into Chinese society both in America and in China.
   
   It was an uplifting and hopeful account of how, in spite of everything, Chinese immigrants were able to come to America, work, and prosper.
   
   It was a heart-breaking indictment of the treatment of the Chinese by our government and big business, particularly the railroads. The suffering and death of so many people has gone too long unnoticed in our history books.
   
   It was an amusing commentary on the foibles of human nature, and how love truly can triumph over it all, down through the generations.
   
   It was an incredibly well-researched, well-documented and remarkably frank story of one Chinese immigrant and his numerous descendants.
   
   In the developing field of social history, and using social history to illuminate a genealogy, On Gold Mountain is a seminal work, published five years prior to the ground-breaking "Bringing Your Family History to Life through social history" by Katherine Scott Sturdevant. As such, it is a remarkable example of the professional standards to which the social historian/genealogist may aspire.
   
   Although the family history is rife with bi-racial marriage, multiple wives and concubines, infidelity and divorce, Lisa See presents the story in a sympathetic and factual manner, and avoids sensationalizing her family history. It is as much about the family business of importing Asian art, furniture and folk items, and other businesses the younger generations developed, as it is about the personal history of the family.
   
   I would recommend Lisa See's book to anyone planning to write a social history; to all high school and college students in classes on U. S. Government, sociology, immigration, and capitalism. I would also recommend it to anyone who likes a good work of non-fiction about real people.



3. I cannot express what wonderful storytelling of 100 years odyssey this book was. It was filled with historic detail, from China to the United States, as they referred to it as Gold Mountain. The patriach, Fong See was a merchant, and you will learn plenty of the business side of the family. He rented furniture to Hollywood studios. The many descriptive characters stories are well-tracked, and clearly identified. There is no confusion.
   
   Lisa is with interracial heritage, which makes the telling of the past more interesting as we learn that aspect of her family's life. Although a long read, it was insightful, informative, intriguing with mystery, concubines, romance, business, immigration, travel, etc. This book is an enthralling read with every chapter advancing to more.



4. I had read "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and just loved it. This book is just as absorbing. The reader is transported to another time and place. I enjoy historical fiction. This is a good story based on the history of Lisa See's family. It was obviously a labor of love for her. I would recommend it especially to those who are interested in West Coast history, from the late 19th century to WWII-era.



5. There's not much magic realism or mystic exoticism about this blunt, detailed, multi-generational history of an immigrant family. If you're looking for a novel, you'll find that Lisa See has written several. I repeat, this is a history, and it will be of interest chiefly to historians and other social scientists, professional or arm-chair.
   
   Ms. See's great-great-grandfather arrived in America in 1867. The shabby treatment that he and other Chinese immigrants received is part of American history, but here in this book it becomes more vivid because See includes the reader in her "family album." Suffice it to say that the Fong/See family shrugged off indignities, worked hard, brought kinfolk to share the work despite arbitrary and unfair hurdles, took root in America, and succeeded more or less to the measure of their immigrant dreams. So it was with my mother's immigrant family from North Europe, and so it has been with every immigrant complement to America's cultural universality. Quite a few of the Fong/See second-comers spent time at the detention center of Angel Island, as described in the book "Island" which I reviewed a few days ago.
   
   The drama in this history of the branching See family - what makes this book memorable - is a love story, the secret and perilous marriage of Fong See, the son of the 1867 immigrant, to a woman of European heritage, Letticie Pruett. Interracial marriage was illegal for decades in California, as in many states, and the penalties were a lot more severe than mere annulment. The Fong See clan ran the risk of deportation, and the couple had reason to fear ostracism and personal violence.
   
   There's a sheaf of family photos in the center of the book. There's a snapshot of Richard See - fourth generation, I believe - with his buddies in Levis and Pendletons, getting ready for a fishing trip. Then there's Lisa herself as a girl in Chinese silks, but gasp! Lisa has wide European eyes, long blonde hair, and freckles!
   
   My mother's sister and her Norwegian-American husband Jim, the last of my Minnesota kin to live on a homestead farm, came to visit me in San Francisco in the 1970s. One evening I took them, with other relatives and friends, to a Chinese restaurant. Jim is not what you'd call loquacious; he was sitting with his back to the room and paying more heed to the talk at other tables than to us. Just behind him, a family was talking about visits to colleges, arguing the merits of Cal Tech versus MIT. Jim got curious and turned around - discretely? oh yeah! - to see what the family looked like. Then he gaped at me and whispered "them folks are Chinese!" "Well," said I, "what do you expect in a Chinese restaurant?" "But they're speakin' English!" quoth he.
   
   The heart and soul of Lisa See's history of her extended family is exactly what my uncle didn't understand. The Chinese who came to America were not insidious strangers and inscrutable menaces to European American culture. They were just plain folk.

5 comments about Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return.

1. A strong sequel to Satrapi's original autobiography, Persepolis, also told in graphic novel format. In part 2, Satrapi relates her time in Vienna and her return to Iran. She grows up, in short, and grapples with her exile, her nationality and universal coming-of-age struggles -- from experimenting with drugs, to finding love. As in the first novel, Satrapi's black-and-white illustrations contrast with the multi-hued complexity of the political and religious backdrop of Iranian culture.



2. This is the only book that I have manged to read the entire of it in one day!
   It is a comic book, supper easy read and very educational in terms of knowing different culture.
   I like Persepolis 2 better than 1.
   U may wanna watch the movie, as well. It won and nominated for many awards in 2007.



3. I call myself a history buff but in reality I really only know American history with a little knowledge of King Henry VIII. I was 18 when Iranian crisis started. This book gave me a better insight to the overall issues behind this area than any other reading I had done, which I admit is not vast. The difference here was this book laid things out in such an engaging way I was totally engrossed. The author was both straight foward and insightful, along with quite humorous.



4. The first novel in this series succeeded because its childlike graphics and gee-whiz storytelling matched perfectly with this subject matter. We could imagine the infant/child author telling her story in exactly these terms.
   This sequel fails because the issues of growing up and dealing with the disillusionment with one's own culture are much more subtle. The story and the graphics remind us constantly of the nuances that are left out, of the issues of women's rights and humanity that are sentimentalized, of the real conflicts that this child/woman is undergoing that are completely unexplored.
   There are a few quibbles to be explored: the view of vienna is odd and the little vignette of the narrator peeing standing up seems forced. But most importantly, the mismatch between the story and the way in which it is told ends up making for a read that turns boring quickly.



5. I loved Persepolis, so when I realized there was a Persepolis 2, I quickly bought a used copy from Amazon. When I received it, I was very disappointed to learn that I had already read it! Although my first book was entitled Persepolis, it contained both stories. Check your copy of Persepolis before you buy the sequel; you may have read it!

5 comments about Lincoln.

1. In giving this book five stars, it is easy to confuse the book with its subject. Who doesn't love Lincoln? (Well, I guess there are some, but there are even people who don't like Bob Seger.) Like many people, particularly those (like me) who grew up right in the heart of the Lincoln country of Central Illinois, I thought that I knew Lincoln, but there is a feeling that most of what I knew was mythic legend rather than facts. The biographies of Lincoln are many, and the classic ones are multi-volume and would take years to digest. Donald has given the English-speaking world the gift of condensing all of that into a thorough and modern account that can be easily consumed, and maybe leave the reader healthily interesed in more.
   The book literally begins with what little we know of Lincoln's birth, and ends just moments after his untimely death. The entire singular focus of the book is Lincoln. Precious little is devoted to any detail outside of Lincoln's life, so some prior elementary knowledge of Lincoln's place and times (including the Civil War) would be helpful. I think that the one deviation from Lincoln that I noticed was on the topic of Booth and his tragic plot to kidnap and, as it eventually turned out, to kill the President. Other than that, the reader is shown the world and its events as Lincoln saw and knew them, for the most part. I felt that there was enormous and significant gaps in the narrative in places, but it was also obvious to me that the gaps are the result of what we don't know about Lincoln; after all, for most of his life, Lincoln was not a historical figure, and he went about his life and career without keeping minute records of it, just as we all do. What we know of his early life (birth in Kentucky, the surprisingly many years that he spent in the wilderness of Southern Indiana as a young boy, and the New Salem years) we gather from the interviews and biographical accounts that were collected after he was elected President and the world had an interest in these otherwise forgotten facts. We can know much about his adulthood from the accounts of his law partners, fellow legislators, and others who worked and lived with him, and who no doubt recorded their thoughts and memories after it was clear that they had walked with one of history's true giants. Given the sometimes thin detail, I noticed that nowhere in the book were the smallest things noted with more triviality than in the few days between the end of the War (April 9th) and his murder (April 14th/15th). Clearly, those ironically joyous days became more important to the eyewitnesses, and every detail was recorded for posterity. So, whereas there are many important events of which we know little (say, the deliverance of the Gettysburg Address), in the final days and hours of Lincoln's life, we know almost every quip, word, and gesture that he produced. It is precious information, but also sad to reflect on.
   Like other reviewers here, I was astonished to learn of the evolution of the man. His country beginnings cannot be overstated: he began life with absolutely no advantage whatsoever, except for the very chemistry that drove him to become truly a masterful President. In one of the book's (that is, the historical record's) many gaps, I missed the force that drove him to leap into his successful law career, but looking back we can see that he parlayed a skill for analysis, speech, and human manipulation into a political career that catapulated him into the White House. This was a time in the young country when such things could be accomplished - even by rough-hewn country lawyers from the "West." The reader also sees his evolution from an inexperienced executive who has the very future of the Union on his shoulders, and whose political mistakes and challenges were as many as they were life-crushing, into a shrewd master of not only the Presidency but the known political world as well.
   I was surprised to find that there were places in the book where I find Lincoln to be unlikeable. His contempt of his father is hard to understand, as was his sophomoric early philosophy of "Reason." He certainly seems like he would have been a neat guy to know (major understatement), but he also seems to have been sometimes cold, too driven by his career and politics, and a bit of a jerk to those he could not tolerate (and there were many). Was he "Honest Abe" who would walk a mile to return a few pennies change? Yes, I guess so, but he was not a pushover.
   Anyway, this is a review of the book and not the man. Great book on a greater subject. I like what Donald has done: put together the singular and readable biography, and presented one of history's top subjects without too much editorializing or sentiment. Having now read it, I cannot imagine being an American and not doing so.



2. After hearing all of the hype about this Lincoln bio I finally got around to reading it. OK, I am spoiled, I read Sandburg's bio and it is hard to find anything close to that-certainly not in this book. To sum up my feelings, I don't know Lincoln any better after reading this than before. Prof. Donald misses the mark and I think he is somewhat awestruck that he can't seem to get any deeper. It is well researched and well written, but a bio needs much more.
   Here was a man with barely any formal education, not particularly succesful as a politician, elected over many who who knew they could do better and then the nation splits apart into Civil War. Not only did he face the undaunted task of trying to hold the nation together, but learn to be a general of sort, let alone his home life. Other bios show how Lincoln rose to the challenge to hold our nation together and finally find the right general, Grant, and become probably our greatest president.
   Somehow, Donald's book does not do it for me.



3. Well written book with great detail. The depth of research must have been great to give this reader a special feel for each progression of Lincoln's amazing journey though life. I'm really enjoying this book.



4. David Donald's Lincoln is packed full of relevant (and irrelevent) facts. I was surprised that a biography of 600 pages on anybody, especially Abraham Lincoln, could contain so much information. It usually takes authors two or three volumes to say as much as Donald does in one.
   
   Just like life on the western frontier, this biography begins slowly. This provides a good place for those interested in getting the author's take on Lincoln as a person. A portion of other people's lives that is usually covered in two to three pages is covered in great depth. In approximately 150+ pages, Donald gives us a look into Lincoln's early life, his time as a moderately successful Lawyer in Illinois, and his unsuccessful political career. For those looking to learn more about Lincoln's Administration, I would recommend skipping to Chapter Eight, where the book gets much more exciting.
   
   Once begun, Donald sets an exciting (and still fact-filled) pace that does not let up until the end.
   
   While this is a great biography, the subject will always be fiercely debated. Lincoln's Administration led during the greatest upheaval our nation has ever seen. Therefore the literature will vary immensely. For some (like Mr. Donald) Lincoln was mostly passive, and reacted to events as they came; for others he was a great leader with some less than great subordinates; and to still others he was a usurper who limited individual rights and constantly ignored the constitution.
   
   Mr. Donald does an excellent job of providing a balanced review of Lincoln, both as a person and as President. Too many biographers prefer to keep out negative aspects of their subjects, hurting the overall integrity of their work, but Mr. Donald is willing to admit fault in his man.
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the American Civil War era. I must again warn the reader that this is a hotly debated subject, and taking one opinion is not sufficient. I strongly suggest looking at other writers' take on the subject as well.



5. I have a read a lot of biographical works on Abraham Lincoln. I found this to be the best and most balanced view. If you read biographies or other works related to Abraham Lincoln, you must include this book. It is required reading and was written by one of the - if not the - preeminent scholar on Lincoln.
   
   I would also recommend you to other books, in addition to this one, if you desire to learn about Abraham Lincoln. Reading a variety of biographies about Abraham Lincoln will give you an overall and better picture than one book can alone.
   
   However, having said that, this is the best Lincoln biography. It is excellent.

5 comments about Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (P.S.).

1. The author dives deep into her life and the choices she made. She doesn't hold back. Up front and personal.



2. Marya wasn't always the way she is today. She used to be the all American girl eating PB and J's while she watched her cartoons, but when Marya was eight years old something in her brain changed and since then she has never been the same.
   Author Marya Hornbacher beautifully illustrates her struggles with bulimia and anorexia in her autobiography Wasted. She shows a world that people hardly get to see and explains the life and ways of bulimics and anorectics that is both compelling and inspiring.
   Wasted takes you through 10 years of Marya's life as she slowly jumps back and forth between anorexia and bulimia. It depicts the everyday struggles of the disease; how the body slowly stops to care about what is occurring, the constant worries about food, and the fear that someone might find out and God forbid, possibly try to help you! It goes in depth about the psychological factors of the disease and explains it all in a way that is understandable and relevant. This book will both shock and sicken you as you discover what goes behind closed doors of these two heartless diseases.
   My praise is endless for this novel and I thank it for opening my eyes to the mysterious world that is impossible to fully understand unless you've experienced the ordeal first hand. Many people could benefit from taking the time to read Wasted, which will help to clue people in and provide a better understanding to the problems in our society and what goes on to the people who are enduring these struggles daily. However this book is not a constant thriller and amongst the eye opening and realization moments there will be a few parts that are tedious and almost seem to drag on. In spite of the occasional drowsy sections this book offers an incredible insight inside the secret lives of bulimics and anorectics and I would confidently recommend it to anyone who wants a brilliant and inspiring read.



3. Marya Hornbacher is the mediator between the everyday human being and the world's most widely misunderstood creatures of society: the eating-disordered. In "Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia", she explains to readers that eating disorders are not just "phases" that teenage "girls" go through, but rather an intense, passionate desire for power that "strips you of all power" instead.
   Hornbacher, a freelance journalist who is also the author of "The Center of Winter" and "Madness: A Bipolar Life", developed bulimia at age nine, developed alcohol and drug issues at the age of thirteen, and became anorexic at the age of fifteen. After her release from a residential treatment hospital, she attended the University of Minnesota and wrote for the local paper, accepting her scholarship to American University later in 1992. She later developed other physical problems following her continued eating disorders.
   Although a rather sullen story of the highs and lows of her struggle with weight, Hornbacher addresses the point that eating disorders, cultural obsession with weight and body, food, and control have a lot in common. In one section of the book, she writes that an eating disorder is



4. Marya Hornbacher is witty, honest, and surprisingly insightful. Marya does not hold back. I can not imagine what it is like to have the truth (pretty much, the bad, the ugly, and the uglier) out on paper, much less published and widely circulated. It certainly takes courage. There is always a little part of the human psyche that does not want to "look in the mirror" to face the self-created and self-destroyed reality. I was equally impressed to find out that Marya was 23 years old when she wrote this memoir, the maturity of her voice, philosophical discussions, and the depth of her experiences do not betray this fact. This is definitely a must read for anybody looking to find out more about life (and death) with EDs.



5. This was exceptionally written. Marya is a girl who suffers from severe anorexia and bulimia and lived to tell about it. When she begins her story and talks about when she first started her bulimia, her observations of things at this young age seemed far beyond her years. Her feelings and thoughts are described in the most intricate detail and intelligence. It isn't a surprise that Marya won awards for her writing.
   I grew up during the 70's and 80's but I can't really relate to the obsession with body, weight and food. Society may play a part in her eating disorder but I think her family, their lifestyle, her relationship with her parents and their eating habits all contributed to Marya's eating disorder.
   I am amazed at how well Marya was able to put her experience, thoughts, feelings and diagnosis into words. Her ability to go back and interpret her disease and why she did the things she did is truly amazing.
   I think all girls, teenagers and adult woman should read this book. Not only for the perspective of the eating disorder but to get a true picture of how everywhere you go women are talking about their weight and the parts of their bodies they hate.

1 comments about Chiquita (Premio Alfaguara de novela 2008).

1. Just finished reading Chiquita. Very entertaining. You never know if what you are reading is true or false, and the description of the characters, places, etc. just great.
   The author has this kind of humor, you know he is enjoying himself writing those outrageous situations. Reminded me of Cien Años de Soledad, or Pantaleón y las Visitadoras.

5 comments about Walden and Civil Disobedience (150th Anniversary) (Signet Classics).

1. Isn't it a little bit incongruous to desire to detach yourself from society, seeking self-reliance, and then write a book about it? Just an observation...

   While Thoreau is a curious individual - sort of a poor-man's G.K. Chesterton - he always seems to come up short. The Virtue of Civil Disobedience reads more like self-satire than a serious attempt at political philosophy. And while Walden is rich and fulfilling, it is ultimately just a vehicle for Thoreau to make baseless claims predicated upon his treasury of tidbits and odd knowledge.

   Had Thoreau been blessed with living in the modern world, he could have just written "Living by a Pond on Your Own For Dummies" and saved himself (and us) a lot of trouble.

   Instead of "Civil Disobedience," I recommend anything by Lysander Spooner (particularly "No Treason")

   Instead of "Walden" I recommend "Two Years Before the Mast." It's both more relevant than Walden, and a heck of a lot Closer To Nature.




2. Thoreau lived for two years and two months at Walden Pond. He said the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation. Henry Thoreau asked hard questions.

   He related that when the Masschusetts Bay Colony was founded, earthen houses were built. They were convenient and suitable and they had the advantage of putting everyone in a position of equality and not making the poorer inhabitants feel discouraged. It distressed Thoreau that a good deal of the money spent for shelter and dress was for show, uneconomical.

   He farmed organically because he was only a squatter. He found that by working for about six weeks he could meet all of the annual expenses of living. He claimed that memorable events transpired in the morning.

   Thoreau went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately. The sounds of the railroad penetrated the woods. Visitors were frequent during three seasons. In the wintertime basically he had only himself for company and some of the animals.

   In any season, the woods were surprisingly dark at night. Because he had no helpers or animals to assist him in cultivating the fields he felt that he ws more intimate with the beans in his beanfield. Songs have suggested that husbandry is a sacred art.

   The scenery of Walden was on a humble scale. The first ice was especially interesting. He reported seeing fox, jays, chickadees, and red squirrels in the the winter.

   In CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE he asserts that in a government that imprisons unjustly, the place of a just man is in prison. Thoreau underwent an overnight jail stay when he failed to pay a poll tax.




3. Thoreau is more than simply a writer who produced a great American classic. He exemplified the idea which perhaps as much as any other has come to be at the heart of the American creed. "If a man does not keep pace to his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
   
   Throreau when he went into the woods of Walden Pond on July 4, 1845 , a journey in solitude which would last just two years and two months, was the archetypal American individualist. He was the man 'doing his own thing' living in accordance with what only he could know was right for himself. This idea of 'radical individualism' has become part of the American common faith. Its abuses are legion and may be disastrous, but it also has brought about not simply 'better mousetraps' but a whole vast world of innovations and innovators, the like of which Mankind has never known before.
   
   Thoreau as he writes in his introduction went to the woods to explore not simply the natural world, the outdoors he so much loved. He went to the woods to truly go more deeply into and know himself. As he says in his introduction:
   
   " I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me."
   
   Thoreau in that enigmatic, epigrammatic aphoristic style, he shared with his great mentor and fellow pioneering poet- philosopher, Emerson connects the world within with the world without , connects the Concord woods with the Cosmos . He creates a work in 'Walden' of singular beauty and of its own special economy and principles in thought.
   
   Thoreau was too an abolitionist, an opponent of the Mexican war, a civil disobedient who refused to pay the poll tax-, a pioneer
   whose followers would include Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
   
   But in his close looking at the world of nature and the world of himself he was first a great explorer of life and reality going out alone in his own way- however geographically close he may have been to home.
   
   His words and his wisdom waken us even today to the hope of new and better worlds i.e. he also embodied the spirit of a great American optimism.
   
   The great individual teaches us even in dark hours to find new worlds in ourselves outside our own darknesses. " There are new worlds yet to be born" he writes, " The sun is but a morning star"



4. This is a classic novel. It's value as literature speaks for itself.
   I received the product in the condition advertised, in two days.
   I am completely satisfied with the purchase and service.



5. A previous reviewer asked what Thoreau might think of how society has developed commercially since he wrote this book. I have to also wonder what he would think of the ridiculous (in my opinion) and jingoistic cover of this current edition? The person who chose the cover design should have read the book. The cover is offensive, given the ideas the book contains. Penguin should be ashamed.

5 comments about Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam.

1. This book is a fantasticly written story about a part of American history that is a common thread to us all, yet few know about it. Brock's mastry of the written word and clever phrase makes this book a delightful read!



2. I purchased this book on a colleagues recommendation and read it on a trip t o Brazil. I could hardly put it down. The author writes in an extrememly amusing way of a little known chapter in the history of the US in the early part of the 20th century. It is hard to believe that such recent history has so little to do with modern medicine.



3. With 20 pages of notes, it is evident that the author has a great story to relate of a not too long ago history of medical quacks with absurd promises of renewed health and restored youth. The story of the book's "Charlatan" is complete with all of the gory details. I enjoyed reading it thinking that the "era" has ended, but has it really? I found the story of Dr. Morris Fishbein and the somewhat difficult development of the A.M.A. to be of a redeeming second story of the book. The details of Del Rio becoming "Hillbilly Heaven" along with other unbeliveable, in this generation, stories of greed and gullibility was enjoyable reading. Alas, reading of the great fortunes and mansions being built today, there are, no doubt, "charlatans" out there by other names.



4. CHARLATON by Pope Brock
   
   A fascinating book that chronicles the rise and fall of the man who is generally considered to be the most successful quack in American history, John Brinkley, and his pursuit by Morris Fishbein, the legendary chief of the AMA.
   
   Brock does a good job of explaining the time and characteristics of the golden age of American quackery, Brinkley began his career as a quack in the first part of the twentieth century, after working in patent medicine shows, in the Midwest, wore a Van Dyke beard and moustache, owned and a radio station which he used to promote his quackery, furnished his mansion with an assortment of bizarre and ostentatious souvenirs, and was an anti-Semite.
   
   Brinkley, who had no medical degree, nevertheless became a licensed physician and surgeon in 12 states and surgically implanted goat testes into patients, at $750 a pop, and sold worthless and often even harmful medicines, which he prescribed over the radian, at drugstores that advertised his products and then paid Brinkley a commission on every medicine sold. His average annual income, in the middle of the depression, was $12 million a year, compared to the average MD GP who was earning about $3500 at that time.
   
   Fishbein, aided by the famous editor and social critic H.L.Mencken, who led a crusade against quackery for more than 30 years, first as the editor of JAMA and the as the chief of the AMA, eventually cornered and exposed Brinkley in 1939, who died soon after.
   
   All-in-all, Charlatan is a great read that most people will enjoy immensely although there are several points that the author makes that I think should have been developed more. First, although Brock alludes briefly to this, Fishbein considered not just Brinkely, BJ, and other obvious frauds as quacks, but also optometrists, podiatrists, DOs most of whom were received medical training comparable to MDs, and even opposed nurse midwives and nurse anesthesiologists. He was a social and political reactionary who was as passionately opposed to group medical practice by MDs as he was to any medical practice by anyone other than an MD, including quacks.
   
   Secondly, John Brinkley was not America's most successful quack. Brinkley was an imposter. The most "successful" quack in American history by any standard was BJ Palmer.the "developer" of chirpractic, which Brock acknowledges caused the death of Eugene V. Debs and undoubtedly many, many others over the past 110 years since it's "discovery". Palmer, like Brinkeley, began his career as a quack in the first part of the twentieth century, after working in patent medicine shows in the Midwest, also wore a Van Dyke beard and moustache, also owned and a radio station which he used to promote his quackery, also furnished his mansion with an assortment of bizarre and ostentatious souvenirs, and also was an anti-Semite.
   
   The chiropractic quack cult is declining but it is still defrauding hundreds of thousands of patients, public and private insurance, and thousands students, out of tens of millions of dollars a year. BJ Palmer was without question the most successful quack in American history.
   



5. I picked up this book after reading its 5 star review in an Audio magazine.
   
   Every page makes you laugh at the man's marketing acumen. Its a timely books since I am dealing with such sleazes in my life right now.
   
   I sometimes wonder how people like these can sleep in the night knowing they are coning others in broad day light.
   
   If you want to know the mind of a scoundrel, this book is for you.