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

1. 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.



2. 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



3. 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



4. Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone opened my eyes to a new way of looking at life. I never imagined that a person could find themselves so entranced by food. Her passion for cooking, tasting, eating, and critiquing food is proudly revealed with each word. Although she began her career as a food critic for the New York Times, she impresses me with her versatility when she writes such an intriguing and personal memoir as Tender at the Bone.
   Each important relationship she has is usually documented with a recipe or a dish. When Ruth's mother comes to meet her daughter's new and perpetually tan roommate, she jumps to conclusions: "I guess I'm a prejudiced person. It never occurred to me that your roommate would be negro". Ruth replies, " 'Oh, she's not...Her family is from Guyana...They are not negro.' And to prove it I gave her some of the coconut bread that Serafina's mother had sent" (107). On the following page, the coconut bread recipe is provided. I never would have thought that coconut bread could hold such secrets as family heritage!
   Reichl also tends to judge people based on their cooking. Her mother, for example, is outrageous and creates equally outrageous concoctions that Ruth must prevent her loved ones from eating, otherwise they will end up in the hospital with food-sickness (as 26 of the guests at her son's engagement party did). Her Aunt Birdie, who is very set in her ways, has her one dish: potato salad. This lack of culinary diversity characterizes Aunt Birdie as the simple, old-fashioned lady that she is. With this memoir I have no doubt become more aware of people's cooking habits, and what it reveals about their personalities.



5. I was in love with this book from the first words of the introduction, where Reichl tells us about the story telling tradition in her family. She introduces her book thus: "Everything here is true, but it may not be entirely factual. I learned early that the most important thing in life is a good story". She then proceeds to tell her stories so convincingly, with such candor and feeling, that you completely forget that some of it is embellished for story telling purposes.
   
   The recipes are absolutely charming and wonderful, a very genuine addition. They may not be the best recipes, some of them may well be old fashioned, but they are honest and intended as an illustration; she includes no photos after the one on the cover - the recipes serve as photos of her life as told here.
   
   This book is about Reichl's life with food. It is not a true autobiography, but anecdotes that are slices and bites of her life. We feel we know Ruth while realizing that we don't know everything about her. But then isn't that the reality of most friendships? And Ruth does feel like a friend that you are getting to know.
   
   Anyone who loves food and cooking will get great pleasure from this book. It is always charming, always engaging, always entertaining. I ordered her sequel the minute I read the last word.

5 comments about Good Dog. Stay..

1. Loved this book - sounded just like what we went through with our yellow lab. Quick read - heartwarming.



2. I think she is such a wonderful author and love her books. This was yet another treasure.



3. I bought this book for my husband as part of the grieving process after our 14-year-old black lab died. I expected Anna Quindlen's usual wisdom and frankly I was disappointed. The text was very short; not enough in quantity or quality to justify a book in my opinion. Worse, every page featured those awful cutesy stockhouse dog photos that seem the antithesis of the honest and straight style I expected based on reading her wise columns in the NY Times for many years. The book came across as a celebrity milking something very thin for some extra cash. Come on, Anna, you can do a lot better than this!



4. This is a 45 minute short story about Anna's dog, Beau. I am not a fan of animal stories as they usually either end up getting hurt or dying. The same is true in this one. It is the life story of Beau and as all life stories, the end is death. That brings tears to me which is why I don't like these types of stories.
   
   I believe Anna wrote this as a way to heal from her lost of Beau more than trying to tell a readable story. This is not to say the story doesn't make sense. It does. I just hear in Anna's own words how much she and her family cared for Beau and how much his loss meant to them.
   
   As with all stories, there are the good times and the "bad dog" times, laughs and tears and general day-to-day life. If you want to hear about a good dog's life, this CD will provide that.



5. Short and oh so sweet!
   
   Yes this is more of an essay than a full blown novel, but the writing is worth every dime. There are so many phrases in the book that I read and re-read. Spend the money and keep this book for revisiting over and over.

5 comments about Anything Goes.

1. john talks about the love he has for his partner Scott, family, and all of humanity it is funny and sad at times. all in all well worth the read feel rather sorry for some of these reviewers.



2. I am a huge fan of Torchwood and John Barrowman (discovered both recently)and was waiting eagerly for this book to learn more about him and his life. But I'm sorry to say this highly anticipated book was a disappointment -- the incidents portrayed are so arbitrary and without depth. I get no sense of his deepest feelings, fears, dreams. Has his whole life been wonderful, or did he and sister just decide to stress the positive and funny things? What was it like when he first came to NY? How did he survive the bad times or were they all good? What about some REAL gossip? What's the real scoop on the Will and Grace audition?
   
   I remember reading Tennessee Williams' autobiography and Christopher Isherwood's Christopher and His Kind and wondering how such great writers could write such juvenile autobiographies, but at least it showed them flaws and all including a lot of sordid sexual encounters.
   
   This is probably written mostly by Carole Barrowman and is too slick and surface like a magazine article. Yes there are a some well-adjusted positive totally happy people in the world (none of them live in NYC I suspect) I'm sure he's a good natured "bloke" but no one's life is that smooth. It makes for superficial reading. The pictures are great!
   
   Bess in the Big Apple



3. When I first read others' comments about this book (as I waited...and waited...and waited for Amazon to send it) I just figured the negative ones came from a bunch of John and/or gay haters. I now have to concede that they had some valid points. At times, I wonder if the John I've seen in interviews is the same guy as the one in this book! I'd already listened to the audio version, and there were times when he came off as a bit of a d*** in it, but hearing the anecdotes in his own voice softened the bite. In print, he does not come off well. He comes off as a brat. Where's the guy who helped those two ladies after one of his shows? (A cute anecdote about some fans who were stranded after a thief nabbed a purse.) Where's the guy who got so irritated at the protesters at London Pride that he told the crowd that "THEY'RE the ones who need saving, not me"? THAT man has more passion and integrity than the one I've seen so far here. Save your money - watch and buy some Torchwood and Who instead. And watch his interview from Heaven and Earth. I think you'll see Another - and better - Side of John.
   All that said, some of the photos are absolutely gorgeous!!!!!!!!!



4. I actually listened to the audiobook version, read very entertainingly by John Barrowman himself. I can't say whether the book benefits from a slight abridgment, but I suspect it benefits quite a bit by the addition of John Barrowman's always charming delivery. I smiled all the way through, laughed aloud in places, and found myself touched in more.
   Besides the look into his life thus far (his coming out tale, for example), the book serves as good introduction to the hard work a professional entertainer has in store for themselves before reaching success (or at least steady employment!) Talent - something John has in almost unfair spades - and looks, another thing John can't truthfully deny he possesses - are not enough. He details the work he put in, the learning he had to do (and his gratitude to his many teachers), as well as his trials (amusing to hear how he didn't get a part he wasn't considered 'gay enough' for) on the long yet interesting road to Doctor Who, Torchwood and becoming a National Treasure.
   There's also a smattering of fun "behind the scenes" Doctor Who and Torchwood stories for fans like me!



5. I got turned on to John Barrowman last year after discovering Torchwood. I find it refreshing, in this day and age, to come across someone who is living his life to the fullest, no apologies, no regrets.
   
   The book gives us a brief overview of what seems to be, his very charmed life. I am sure he has had much more grief and frustration in his 40 years then the book lets on, but maybe that's left for another book.
   (And according to Carole, they are in talks to do another one)
   
   He gives us tales of his growing up in Scotland and later spending his formative years in Illinois, becoming an American boy. He returns to the UK for schooling and gets his big break, starring in a big West End show.
   Charmed indeed.
   
   The love he has for his family and partner is evident throughout the book. I had the pleasure of talking to his mother and father at a booksigning in Milwaukee and they were absolutely charming people who are so proud of their son.
   
   It's a really quick read and you will find yourself laughing out loud at some of his stories and sniffling at others. I enjoyed the audio version too as it's kind of fun listening to him talk about his life, almost like you're sitting there and he's talking to you personally.
   Plenty of great pictures too.
   So, if you're just discovering John or just want to know more about him, it's a great place to start.
   
   (I have to admit though, I hate the cover photo.)

5 comments about Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations.

1. thank god I did not pay for it. ANOTHER NEOCON who did not take TWO english classes in college. SAVE YOUR MONEY.



2. I admit I rather admired Bolton before I read this book, but after reading it, I admire the guy even more, the white-mustached David taking on the UN Goliath--although in this case, David didn't exactly win, though he did make an impact. Bolton tells his entire life story, though, unlike some recent political biographies (e.g., Bill Clinton's), he doesn't assail us with every detail of his childhood in youth, fast-forwarding through those periods and bringing us up to his service in the State Department, the one government agency he consistently derides (and backing up his derision with mountains of data). The thing that makes the book so appealing is that Bolton is the Great Pragmatist, not fond of the UN, but willing to accept it as a flawed but potentially useful institution (as all human institutions are, of course). My one beef with the book is the TMI factor--Too Much Information, which I suppose will be useful to some future Ph.D. student doing a dissertation on US foreign relations. The book runs over 400 pages and I wouldn't have minded getting a Reader's Digest version at around 200 pages. But all in all, it is a great read, some delightful insights into George W. Bush, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and especially UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.



3. This book is in a league of its own. This book takes you right inside the belly of the beast. If you have ever been remotely curious at how things really work - the inner workings of the UN, the politics at the highest levels of the US government, State Department etc. This is a must read.
   
   Blockbuster stuff. And the dirt on the permanent bureaucracy? Jaw dropping



4. ... it just didn't deliver.
   
   I tried to get into this book four times (literally falling asleep reading it twice) before I finally thumbed through to his resignation. It tends toward a dull recitation of events where mostly either US interests were defeated or where the US blocked the UN from doing something stupid. While lots of words and little action may be the hallmark of the UN, it doesn't make for a good book. Too bad, too, since I'm very sympathetic to most of Bolton's positions.
   
   The last few chapters are markedly better, if only because it's always fun to read Lincoln Chafee be poked with sharp sticks (metaphorically speaking). If all the characters in this book had been painted with the vividness and clarity of Bolton's portrayal of Chafee (neurotic, dishonest, unstable, self-defeating), this book would have made for much better reading.
   
   There was a single tantalizing nugget of info near the end that I found fascinating. Bolton reports that, based on conversations with certain Russian officials, Russian indulgence of North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs was grounded in racism. Unfortunately, he doesn't identify the sources, doesn't report what they said to make him draw that conclusion, and doesn't follow up on it.
   
   This book came highly recommended by a number of people and outlets I considered reliable, but I was extremely disappointed by it.



5. John Bolton is one of the smartest, most honest men in this great country, America. You will enjoy hearing him read his book. Of course as always, there are many sides to an issue, however, Truth does win out every time! Thank you John Bolton for letting us know you.

2 comments about In the Hamptons: My Fifty Years with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities.

1. Being a Long Islander who spents some time in the Hamptons and Montauk, I found this book interesting. Its chapters contained anecdotal stories of events and people. Nice, easy, summer read.



2. I've been around as long as Dan's Papers and remember in the early years Dan Rattiner had several summer papers such as the East Hampton Summer Sun. the Sag Harbor Pilot etc. The stories Dan wrote were always great and my favorite was local history. As Dan's business grew all these local summer weekly throwaways were incorporated into one paper, Dan's Papers. With the exception being I believe the Montauk Pioneer. Anyway, This new book from Dan is great. I remember alot of this stuff from the 60's and 70's, as it appeared in his paper, but he has rewritten it and it is still an enjoyable read. A book I would highly recommend to anyone. I still long for the time in the 1960's, when I could pick up a copy of the East Hampton Summer Sun at the A&P on Newtown Lane, but that of course is not possible. Thank you Dan for 48 years of pleasurable reading. P.S. Was anyone ever electrocuted for copying that local map you use to have in the back of your newspaper?

5 comments about A Rumor of War.

1. In keeping with the theme of this Memorial Day weekend, I would like to offer my thoughts on "A Rumor of War," a classic tale of Vietnam. Philip Caputo has crafted one of the most moving and disturbing testaments to the men who fought and died in that far away land. When the book was first published in 1977, the New York Times called it "The troubled conscience of America speaking passionately, truthfully, finally." I became aware of this classic memoir when my friend, Capt. Kyle Kalkwarf, West Point Class of 2002, told me that it was one of the best books about war he had ever read. He recommended that I add it to my reading list. He was right in doing so.
   
   Caputo's recollections of his time as a Marine in Vietnam are filled with anger and sorrow at the misbegotten policies promulgated in Washington and carried out with disastrous results by General Westmorland and his subordinates. The author makes it clear in his introductory remarks how he felt and feels about that war and the impact that it had upon him and his comrades in arms:
   
   "Beyond adding a few more corpses to the weekly body count, none of these encounters achieved anything; none will ever appear in military histories or be studied by cadets at West Point. Still, they changed us and taught us, the men who fought in them; in those obscure skirmishes we learned the old lessons about fear, cowardice, courage, suffering, cruelty and comradeship. Most of all, we learned about death at an age when it is common to think of oneself as immortal. Everyone loses that illusion eventually, but in civilian life it is lost in installments over the years. We lost it all at once, and in the span of months, passed from boyhood through manhood to a premature middle age. The knowledge of death, of the implacable limits placed on a man's existence, severed us from our youth as irrevocably as a surgeon's scissors had once severed us from the womb. And yet, few of us were past twenty-five. We left Vietnam peculiar creatures, with young shoulders that bore rather old heads. . .
   
   This book is partly an attempt to capture something of its [the war's] ambivalent realities. Anyone who fought in Vietnam, if he is honest about himself, will have to admit he enjoyed the compelling attractiveness of combat. It was a peculiar enjoyment because it was mixed with a commensurate pain. Under fire, a man's powers of life heightened in proportion to the proximity of death, so that he felt an elation as extreme as his dread. His senses quickened, and he attained an acuity of consciousness at once pleasurable and excruciating. It was something like the elevated state of awareness induced by drugs. And it could be just as addictive, for it made whatever else life offered in the way of delights or torments see pedestrian." (Pages xv-xvii)
   
   Caputo's last comments in the section just quoted seem to be eerily in keeping with the themes of the stunning films, "The Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now."
   
   In one of the most gripping passages in the book, Caputo recaptures the spectrum of emotions he felt during a helicopter assault - running the gamut from fear to courage:
   
   "A helicopter assault on a hot landing zone creates emotional pressures far more intense than a conventional ground assault. It is the enclosed space, the noise, the speed, and, above all, the sense of total helplessness. There is a certain excitement to it the first time, but after that it is one of the more unpleasant experiences offered by modern war. On the ground, an infantryman has some control over his destiny, or at least the illusion of it. In a helicopter under fire, he hasn't even the illusion. Confronted by the indifferent forces of gravity, ballistics and machinery, he is himself pulled in several directions at once by a range of extreme, conflicting emotions. Claustrophobia plagues him in the small space: the sense of being trapped and powerless in a machine in unbearable, and yet he has to bear it. Bearing it, he begins to feel a blind fury toward the forces that made him powerless, but has to control his fury until he is out of the helicopter and on the ground again. He yearns to be on the ground, but the desire is countered by the danger he knows is there. Yet, he is also attracted by the danger, for he knows he can only overcome his fear by facing it. His blind rage then begins to focus on the men who are the source of the danger - and of his fear. It concentrates inside him, and through some chemistry is transformed into a fierce resolve to fight until the danger ceases to exist. But this resolve, which is sometimes called courage, cannot be separated from the fear that has aroused it. Its very measure is the measure of that fear. It is, in fact, a powerful urge not to be afraid anymore, to rid himself of fear by eliminating the source of it. This inner, emotional war produces tension almost sexual in its intensity. It is too painful to endure for long. All a soldier can think about is the moment when he can escape his impotent confinement and release this tension. All other considerations, the rights and wrongs of what he is doing, the chances for victory or defeat in the battle, the battle's purpose or lack of it, become so absurd as to be less than irrelevant. Nothing matters except the final, critical instant when he leaps out into the violent catharsis he both seeks and dreads." (Pages 277-8)
   
   Caputo's thoughtful and passionate recounting of the growing up that he did in the cauldron of Vietnam added to my understanding of what many of my generation experienced as they fought in Southeast Asia and returned to a country that had grown sick of the fighting. As our nation once again wrestles with combat fatigue and the questions of when to withdraw and how to withdraw from Iraq, I am grateful that this time around - unlike the situation that existed in the late `60's and 70's - even those who oppose the war have not showered those returning from the Gulf with opprobrium. They desire our admiration and our gratitude.
   
   Thanks Kyle, for recommending this book, and for your continuing service to our nation.
   
   Al



2. I assigned this book to my college students for a closer glimpse of the Vietnam Conflict. I had not read it before, but had done research and study on the subject. I found Caputo's book to be insightful, controversial and thought provoking. He doesn't glamorize the war but explains how it effected soldiers and one of the many reasons it was such a mess. Throughout the book, Caputo shows how the conditions changed the average American teenager into a robotic killer and how their experiences stayed with them. In the end, he speaks against the war, but not in the normal Jane Fonda version of bashing the military and labeling them rapists and baby killer. Caputo talks about how the government was at fault and created the situations that lead to PTSD and other issues for returning soldiers.
   
   A must read to understand the war and its effects on our soldiers.



3. Caputo wasn't much of a marine. He started complaining about Vietnam before he arrived. Every page is filled with criticism, cynicism, griping, complaining, and self-serving tripe. He wanted to be a hero, but he didn't have what it took to be anything but a whining wimp. Certainly he writes well. But writing well and living well are entirely different. He doesn't understand honor or duty. Sure the war was politicized, but so is every war. Sure the rules of engagement were stupid, but a soldier serves. Caputo did not serve; rather he whined. Many of us who served in Vietnam believed there were many things that made no sense. But we didn't turn tail and run. We served. For those who want to understand what is was like to be a soldier in Vietnam, read "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young" or "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts". If you want to know what is was like to be useless in Vietnam, read this book.



4. Its a page turner from start to finish. A very unique view of the war.



5. I thought this book was the best book on Vietnam that I have ever read. Its a facinating look into life as a line officer in a front line Marine Infantry batallion during the early part of the war. Caputo holds nothing back when it comes to describing life on the front line and what goes through the minds of these young, too young Marines who fought on the front line. An excellent read and I highly reccomend it.

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 Grayson.

1. I love the ocean and found this book beautiful and moving. It describes the experience of meeting a baby gray whale and then trying to help it find its mother. There is some wonderfully descriptive writing of the ocean, and facts added in that give it more meat. It also gives lots of advice and encouragement, not to give up, to follow your dreams and that anything is possible. We bought the audio book for a family vacation and my 4 year old and 7 year old both enjoyed the story very much. They are excited to attend a grunion run and are also excited about whales.



2. A sweet story for any age. True, and the information given is stunning. Imagine swimming with a whale! Would be good to read aloud to a 9-12 year old, but I cry everytime with joy at the ending.



3. While listening to this tale as an audiobook, I was surprised to be sitting at the edge of my recliner! For a very simple premise, Lynne Cox crafted a plot with a lot of excitement.
   
   I was touched by the sense of communion between the human swimmer and the baby whale, each of them vulnerable and exposed.
   
   The communication and intelligence of the whales in this story, plus a mega-pod of dophins, made me think of the line, "Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish!" the title of Douglas Adams' fourth book in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. (Where Wonko the scientist posits that dolphins were the actual creators of planet Earth.)
   
   I now own Grayson in an audio format and as a hardcover book, and I consider it a treasure.



4. Grayson, by Lynne Cox is a wonderful concise book with lots to say. There are three different story threads running through it. The smaller thread is about a girl athlete with lots of will and determination, and the second is a nature story about the sea animals in southern California and the third thread is the most moving. It is an inspirational story about a girl tiring to help a young baby whale finds its mother. It is a story for all ages. I'm 38 and I loved it, bought one for my 1st edition collection, and I bought another for my younger ten-year-old sister.



5. The book grayson, a true life story of a then seventeen year old woman who encounters a baby gray whale in the Pacific near Long Beach, is a story that is poetically and so beautifully told it will linger, I guarantee, in the mind of the reader for a long time, if not forever. This book, about interspecies communication is so beautifully written that I have nothing but admiration for the writer and her exquisite sensitivity. It is a story that is deeply philosophical in nature as the writer describes metaphorically her maintenance of personal positivity and her own soul desire to communicate with this whale and its lost mother. Can we communicate non verbally, with each other, with other species? Read this book and ponder deeply. I recommend this and hope you love it as much as I did and do!

5 comments about My Life in Dog Years.

1. My Life in Dog Years, written by Gary Paulsen was one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. Gary Paulsen has an extremely different way of writing from other authors. I have read a couple of his other books. This was probably not his best, but it was well written. I would highly recommend it for any dog lover.



2. Reading this book, My Life in Dog Years was an OK book. You read all the different dogs' stories. What every dog's personality is, and what the dog does with him. Some stories are very interesting. It is an easy book to read. If you like reading about dogs, this book has all kinds of good stories.



3. A good book for people of all ages who love dogs. Although, like many of Gary Paulsen's books it is geared toward teens, this is a quick read for anyone. Laughs and tears throughout!



4. Book arrived promptly and in the condition as advtised, actually it was better than I expected.



5. Owning Sibs and other breeds over the years I laughed till I had tears reading about Caesar. What a great read. Not that I recommend it for the bathroom reading but that is the only place my hubby will read. I walked past the door one day and he was laughing hysterically. I just knocked on the dog and asked "Caesar?" He replied "Lived that one before!"
   After having lived with so many characters over the years it is easy to see that they really are true stories. If you have a dog lover in your life this should be in their stocking.
   -S
   Redwood Siberians

5 comments about The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer.

1. This is a reprint of the review I wrote for my book review website Letters On Pages (www.lettersonpages.com)
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   Horrifying.
   
   That is really the only good way to describe The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo. The book itself isn't horrifying...in fact it is fantastically written. What is horrifying is Richard Kuklinski and the things the did during his lifetime.
   
   You see...Richard Kuklinski was a Mafia hitman. He killed people for money. He also killed people because they upset him in some manner, like flipping him the bird while driving. The middle finger was a particularly terrible affront to Kuklinski...one that would likely earn you the death penalty. But those killings aren't where he made his mark on the world. Richard "The Ice Man" Kuklinski is known as one of the most dangerous mob related people ever. I say mob related because he was Polish, and you can't officially join the Mafia unless you are Italian. You can still work as a hired killer though apparently.
   
   Kuklinski was a giant (literally at 6'5" 280lbs) psychopathic, sociopathic, anti-social, paranoid person. He had the classic serial killer upbringing: hyper-abusive parents, picked on by local bullies, enjoyed torturing animals...etc. His home life was so abusive that his father actually killed Richard's brother by beating him. So obviously there was no love in his house, or anywhere throughout his childhood. This, combined with his genetic disposition for violence and personality flaws, turned him into one of the most prolific killers ever. Kuklinski killed over 200 people during his life, most of them mob/organized crime related. His lack of conscience and inability to feel remorse meant that he was a perfect killer. He could "go see somebody", torture (if that's what the client wanted), kill, and dispose of the body with no second thoughts.
   
   In fact, he had a family and loved them dearly. Actually, I don't know that he had the capacity to love. But he cared for them quite a bit. His home life was like Jekyll & Hyde though: sometimes he would be the most caring, thoughtful person around. Other times he would go on a rampage, destroying furniture and beating his wife. He never harmed his children, however. In fact, he would kill people for abusing children. He was a regular vigilante.
   
   This book is amazingly interesting and I couldn't put it down. To read the stories that this man told were shocking. Carlo does a pretty good job of not being too explicit though. There are a few stories that are especially bad...but otherwise it's OK.
   
   I (like a lot of other people) am interested in serial killers and why they do what they do. For some reason they are really interesting to people. I'm sure there are plenty of psyche people who could explain why. Kuklinski is one of the ultimate serial killers, and therefore, garners a lot of attention. That he did all of this while leading a relatively normal family life only futhers the intrigue.
   
   Three HBO documentaries of Kuklinski were filed while he was in prison. I have seen one of them and it's pretty riveting stuff. It's actually frightening to watch him cavalierly describe taking another man's life. Sometimes he gets mad and glares at the interviewer...which is a haunting view for that person I'm sure.
   
   I very highly recommend this book to anyone interested in True Crime, serial killers, or the Mafia. Be prepared though.
   
   Rating: 5 out of 5



2. Great book about one of the most notoriously unknown killers of all time!
   
   Richard Kuklinski was a very interesting man to say the least, his family life, his secret life of murder and his long list of petty crimes and schemes!
   
   When you finish "The Ice Man", you'll feel as if you know the guy. The book starts off talking about Richard's horrible childhood and how/when he committed his first murder and takes you through his early days of crime and his association with the Mafia!
   
   "Big Rich" as he was known to his friends killed over 100 men, possibly as many as 200. He killed using almost every means possible. Kuklinski claims to have killed the infamous Jimmy Hoffa and ruthless mobster Roy DeMeo. He not only killed for money, he killed without a reason. Strangers, punks, thugs and the homeless all felt the wrath of the Ice Man, but never women or children according to Richard.
   
   Many people, including Richard Kuklinski believe he was poisoned while in prison, which ulitmately led to his death. Richard was going to testify against Sammy (the Bull) Gravano, he died in prison days before!
   
   You can buy the dvd's here at Amazon of Richard's HBO interviews, they can also be found on Youtube! The interviews are excellent, they give a real life perspective of Big Rich!
   
   Great read, very interesting stuff, truly a natural born killer!



3. i am no book reviewer but at first i thought this is one crazy dude.several times i stopped to try to find out how many people wererolled up into this one guy.the photos and discription of him didn't seem to jibe with the dates.it'sfun to read but itt can't all be fact.



4. It's completely believable. (did someone say it isn't totally believable?) It was the first experience I'd had reading any first-hand telling by someone as he in his teens kills his worst bully. His cold disposing of that body and getting away with it. Horrific. But what was meaner than his own father? The ice-man was hit, bashed for reasons that weren't clear to him at the moments his father came down on him. Out of the blue. Bad enough, child battery, when daddy states his reasoning. The iceman even believes that this daddy beat over and over his older brother until that child died. Hello? Mom? where was Mom? Right there! The beatings and other humane neglects formed warm pulsating heart into permafrost in he who became Ice. Ok. Life tells us there are no sufficient provocations for violence. but there are things done to soft and cuddly humans while they are dependent and trusting of the big humans who are in charge of such tenderness that screw their wee minds and there you go. What the Iceman did to his victims is unreadable. You lay (throw?) the book down and gasp and take days to recover and reluctantly give it your time yet again. A horrific read or did I say that? Yet Mr Bruno, you did good. Why did you not have to stop over and over to vomit as you related what are facts of such vile magnitude I'll never figure. maybe you did. Utterly unforgettable, and I tentatively thank you for reporting/writing it.



5. This book was an intense read. It's definitely filled with everything you might expect from reading the Amazon description. The one flaw is its lack of credibility, but I guess if a killer is as good as this, he wouldn't leave a trail of evidence to prove his stories are true later on.