No comments about Ralph Ingersoll: A Biography.

1 comments about Creative Memories : The 10 Timeless Principles Behind the Company that Pioneered the Scrapbooking Industry.

1. I like stories of people who build businesses and while I am unfamiliar with this company I took a chance on the story. The storyline is interesting how they got the company turned around and built it into what it is today. The timeless principles are nothing you havent read but hey these ladies are successful and it is a nice read but no big lessons just a good success stroy.

1 comments about Elizabeth Gaskell: The Early Years.

1. I see I'm the first person to review this book, and I can understand why. No one else has read it. That's because it's almost unreadable. The type is very small. The author cannot have omitted a single scrap of his copious research. His selection skills need honing. People with only remote connections to EG, and many with no connection at all, are discussed in tedious detail.

   This book is definitely not for the common reader. The details may interest other scholars, and the author is probably justifiably proud of all the new facts he's unearthed, but these do not make for compelling, or even interesting, reading by ordinary fans of literary biographies.

2 comments about LETTERS TO MILENA (Kafka, Franz, Works.).

1. These letters written by Franz Kafka to Milena comprise my most loved Kafka letters. Writing to Felice, his former fiancée, he was less mature - could he be said to have been less himself? In 'Letters to Milena' he asks at one point (I paraphrase) 'Is it you I really love or the existence that you give to me?' Couldn't any of us ask this question of the person we really love and of ourselves when we really love? I think Milena, whom his biographers considered a far more fitting companion for Kafka than Felice; Milena who in Berlin, years younger than the ageless Franz, living desperately and often pennilessly with her loved hurtful husband (who frequently withheld money from her, so that at one point she worked as a railway porter) - this woman who 'lived her life down to the depths' and who was a writer in her own right - really did give Kafka existence in the years they wrote and too infrequently met. She did not let the nervous, procrastinating and intensely self referential Kafka hide from her - which may be part of why he loved her - and when he is finally prevailed upon to visit her, deliciously drolly reassuring her that if he does get onto a train he will likely as not get off it at the right stop, she does not wait until they each arrive at the much discussed meeting point to actually meet him, but goes unflinchingly to his hotel, cutting off Kafka's apprehensions, making everything in their meeting easy, amicable and precious to him.

   'If only it were possible to go to Berlin, to become independent, to live from one day to the next, even to go hungry, but to let all one's strength pour forth instead of husbanding it here, or rather - instead of one's turning aside into nothingness!' Kafka wrote in his diaries in 1914 whilst still engaged to Felice. Milena, for a little while, allowed him to feel he was living, the tragedy was that concurrently Kafka's terrible illness was progressing, depriving him of time and physical energy. He was a man who needed so much time, and who had so painfully little, but, notwithstanding his not infrequent sensation of 'turning aside into nothingness', Kafka lived, he lived his whole life as few, very few, ever do, these letters are a testimony to his intense aliveness and to his genius as a writer. I envy Milena, even though she knew eventually she could not leave her husband for Kafka, she was still the woman who received the treasure of these letters. And yet - a reader has to, bewildered, witness and realize the inevitability and sadness of the eventual cessation of Kafka and Milena's communication, witness Kafka poignantly losing his plans for their future and the idea that Milena can live with him, witness both withdrawing and both mourning.

   'M was here', Kafka wrote (again in his diaries, 8th May 1922, when he was more or less housebound with his illness) 'won't come again; probably wise and right in this, yet there is perhaps still a possibility whose locked door we both are guarding lest we open it, for it will not open of itself.'
   
   I treasure this book. I've read and reread it so that the pages are all dog-eared, falling out and closely annotated all over. To anyone who finds themselves drawn to Kafka I'd say get your hands on a copy or two.




2. These are Kafka's best letters . He pours forth his broken soul to the woman who can and does understand him. His language is painful and beautiful. Milena the Czech woman married to another Jewish man is too trapped by her life. Their love is impossible also because Kafka within himself is impossible. The letters are powerful and bring a sense of compassion and loss for these two remarkable people who each in his own way ( Kafka through his tuberculosis) Milena ( in a concentration camp) lose their lives when young.

2 comments about June Callwood: A Life of Action.

1. "Each person is like a stone in a pond...Individual actions, good or bad, send out tiny ripples that change the surface of the public pond. People, by choice, can spread warm understanding or cold indifference."--June Callwood
   
   June Callwood, a Canadian journalist and activist, has led a very active life. Having written articles about everything from celebrities to censorship, and over thirty books dealing with topics like Canadian history and the battle against AIDS, Ms. Callwood has definitely kept busy.
   
   JUNE CALLWOOD: A LIFE OF ACTION is a comprehensive biography of the woman who helped establish over fifty different organizations, such as Digger House for homeless youth and Casey House for people with AIDS. She's also a Companion of the Order of Canada, which is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a Canadian citizen, and has a park and street named after her.
   
   Filled with dozens of photographs, a timeline of her life, and selected honors she's received, this is a great book for anyone looking for information specifically on Ms. Callwood, or for those interested in Canadian activists.
   
   Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"



2. Teacher, librarian, and award-winning author Anne Dublin presents June Callwood: A Life of Action, a biography for young adults about the remarkable life of June Callwood, one of Canada's greatest journalists and activists. Callwood grew up poor during the Great Depression, in farm communities and small towns of Southern Ontario, yet through compassion, hard work and sheer grit she made a difference in thousands of lives around her. She founded more than 50 activist groups, including Jessie's, a center that gives housing and support for teen parents; Nellie's, a shelter that protects abused women and children from violence; and Casey House, the world's first special-care hospice for people with AIDS. Her journalism career included an interview with a young Elvis Presley, and for a time she even hosted her own television show. Black-and-white photographs illustrate this inspirational tale of an exemplary life, highly recommended for school libraries.

No comments about P.B. Young, Newspaperman: Race, Politics, and Journalism in the New South, 1910-1962.

No comments about Percy Keese Fitzhugh Boy Scout Author.

2 comments about Beyond the Night: A Remembrance.

1. Readers fond of memoirs will not want to miss this one. It is highly imaginative, moving, beautifully written and immensely satisfying. Wayne Greenhaw has written many books, a wide variety, but he has never written one quite like this one, and I guarantee you'll love it. It would be perfect as a gift for someone you love.



2. This is a rich and textured memior of youth in the South. Wayne Greenhaw is one of the great voices of Southern writers. This is his most personal and engaging work. If you love Harper Lee, Pat Conroy, and Truman Capote, you will love this book.

2 comments about Entirely Personal.

1. Pine Bluff Arkansas is the background for fifty four of Paul Greenberg's most personal pieces. These are the experiences that shaped Greenberg's life including family, religion and baseball. "Entirely Personal" is a collection of short pieces that help the reader to understand what has shaped Greenberg's editorials. This is an appraisal of how his enviroment set the scene for his writing.



2. With a Pulitzer Prize under his belt and more than 35 years of writing experience, journalist/editor Paul Greenberg is one of America's finest. He has the ability to write in a candid, yet respectful manner and his style is engaging and entertaining. This book, published in 1992, reveals some of Greenberg's influential roots, explaining how he got where he is and the people and events that have shaped his writing and his life.

   Greenberg touches on many important influences in this book. In particular, he makes mention of his family and how his parents helped to instill certain values within him as a young man growing up in Louisiana and then Arkansas. Greenberg also points out his Jewish religious upbringing and his small town roots in the South as major contributors to his life and, hence, to his views and writing.

   Some of Greenberg's opinions presented in the journalistic pieces included in this book will not sit well with certain readers. Greenberg's views are mostly, but not entirely, conservative in nature. But they deviate from this course on many occasions, which is part of the reason why Greenberg often refers to himself as an "ideologically unreliable conservative". You cannot really place a label on Greenberg's political ideology, since many of his opinions are compatible with different political philosophies.

   Since this book is comprised of a collection of previous writings, it doesn't have the smoothness that some readers expect and demand. Instead, it changes direction from time to time, with articles included from many decades of writing, sorted into seven broad categories: family, religion, writing, small towns, the South, the American nation, and baseball. Greenberg selected the articles for this book, based on how closely they fit into these categories and how significant they were to his life and his profession.

   This is a very intriguing read from an intriguing man. Even though I don't always see eye to eye with Greenberg, I still enjoy his writing. If nothing else, I can always count on Greenberg to remain civil and respectful when he writes and to hold my attention for the duration of the article. And this book is no exception. It presents some of Greenberg's most powerful influences on his life, showing what factors, great and small, helped to form the opinions of this award- winning journalist.

No comments about Spokesman for Democracy: Claude G. Bowers, 1878-1958 (Distributed for the Indiana Historical Society).