No comments about A Cow in My Parlour (Isis (Hardcover Large Print)).

No comments about Princess Alexandra (Transaction Large Print Books).

No comments about Champion's Story.

1 comments about Susie, Sadly, and the Black Torpedo of Doom.

1. Delightful and written with such clarity and honesty. You enter into the mind of a boy growing up in a time when life was simpler but the thoughts and feelings are universal to anyone's childhood. From learning to accept his newborn sister into the family, declaring war on the babysitter aptly named Witch Hazel, and describing the love of kick ball and the never-to-forget first crush, the anecdotes are hilarious observations into relationships he has with his parents, his siblings, his friends and neighbors. And he delves into each of the characters wholeheartedly. I thought I was the only one who criticizes my Mom's cooking! Written with imagination, the stories jump a little in time as he weaves his memories around his baby sister Susie, but the personal pictures help to define each anecdote and helps the reader to visualize and bring the story to life. And oh, I was worried the book would end sadly, no pun intended, but the author kept it so light throughout, that the ending was very very touching.

1 comments about Anthony Hopkins: Too Good to Waste (ISIS Large Print).

1. In this book the author gives a very detailed account of the life and career of actor Anthony Hopkins. It is interesting to note that Mr. Hopkins only agreed to contribute to this book on the condition that the author did not interview his first wife who he left along with his baby. In reading this book one can only come to the conclusion that Mr. Hopkins is to be greatly admired as an actor but he leaves a lot to be desired as a husband and father.I would also like to say "Hi" to Tom who works at the Video Store and is always very patient with me in my hunt for little known movies. If you are reading this Tom I hope you invested some of your hard earned cash on a good bottle of 12 year old Chivas Regal Scotch which goes very well with a couple of chunks of ice. Leave Jim Beam for the peasants to drink!!!

No comments about Look Out, Doctor! (Ulverscroft Large Print Series).

5 comments about Fire Lover: A True Story.

1. This is the first Wambaugh book that I've read. I've heard lots of good things about his books. I work in law enforcement and have enjoyed other true crime books written by former law enforcement personnel, so thought I would Wambaugh as well. I had seen the documentary about John Orr and wanted to know more.

   However, although the author is an excellent writer, this book was very biased and Wambaugh comes across to me as very arrogant -- a trait that I cannot tolerate under any circumstance. In fact, his bias that police officers are better than firefighters is downright cocky.

   Although I knew the story of John Orr and felt he was guilty, while reading Fire Lover, I found myself wanting him to get off from page to page because of the cockiness of the writer.

   I would NOT recommend this book to anyone.




2. I think he could have written in 200 words or less that he hated John Orr, thinks cops are better than firemen, and thinks prosecutors should always have the upper hand.

   One thing he could have included was photos, to make the book less boring. And, he could have explained just how we went from the judge disallowing Orr's manuscripts into evidence to the prosecution being allowed to use them as evidence.




3. This is an unusual book. I don't think I've ever read a book about an arsonist before, certainly not a non-fiction book, and the story that it tells is so fantastic that it's one of those stranger-than-fiction tales that defies belief.

   The book tells the story of John Leonard Orr. Orr was a frustrated individual, from a split household, who tried to become a policeman and failed, and wound up becoming a firefighter, both in the Air Force and then in the city of Glendale here in Southern California. He rose to become Glendale's senior arson investigator, actually teaching classes that other arson investigators, even Federal ones, attended. He was considered one of the leading authorities on arson fires and arsonists in California. Then suspicion fell on him and his activities, and he was arrested and accused of being an arsonist himself. The accusation was followed by a pair of trials.

   Now I live in Montrose (yards from the border of the city of Glendale) and used to actually live in Glendale, so it was interesting to read about the locale and the people of my new home (I've lived here for five years). Everything's reasonably well-recreated, though I didn't think Glendale was made that unique compared with other Southern California cities. Orr comes across as something of a nerd, a doofus who's always trying to fit in while never quite making it, and always cheating on the current wife with the prospective one, while paying child support to the ex.

   Wambaugh's writing style is interesting, in that he uses a lot of slang and emphasis to show what he means, and has a very conversational style. It'd be interesting to hear Ken Howard read this book: it reads as if it would sound better than it looks on the page. I will confess that the cast of characters is large enough that I had trouble keeping track of all of the investigators and attorneys involved, and I think it would have helped if the author provided a dramatis personae at the beginning of the book.

   One note: several of the other reviewers presented the idea that the author thinks cops are somehow better than firefighters. This is erroneous. It's his position, stated and restated through the book, that the crime spree was solved by a firefighter turned arson investigator, and that he was ignored by his cop colleagues until the evidence confirmed his suspicions. He does say, several times, that cops themselves sometimes think themselves firefighters, but he's clear that he thinks this is unfortunate. Strange when people have read the same book as you, and come to a different interpretation of what was written. Altogether a good book, though.




4. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed four of Wambaugh's earlier books, I was sure this one would be a page turner; however, it was strictly the story and not the writing that kept my interest. So my feelings are mixed and my rating is lukewarm. Wambaugh tries too hard to depict John Orr as evil, yet without the hard-sell, the reader would come to that conclusion anyway. I finished the book still feeling that there is more on John Orr that could have been included in the book. An additional thought - one reviewer mentions that Wambaugh copies Truman Capote's style of not including photographs of the characters, yet Wambaugh's own picture is on the back. I'd much rather see who I'm reading about.



5. In Fire Lover, Wambaugh attempts to get into the mind of a convicted serial arsonist, one who nevertheless has never (at least as documented in this book) admitted to his crimes. The story is well-written, intriguing, and at times even a page-turner. The few occasions when the story drags are most often in the telling of Orr's trials, when Wambaugh seeks thoroughness in telling the story of the trial, but occasionally at the expense of the reader's interest. But all told, this is a good, even haunting story of a true case.

No comments about The Way of a Man (Large Print Edition).

No comments about The Last Year of the Gang (Ulverscroft Nonfiction).

1 comments about Three Cheers for the Next Man to Die (Reminiscence).

1. The Law Of Land Warfare is quite clear, in that ANY person fighting in uniform, who surrenders, is to be afforded Prisoner Of War Status under the Geneva Convention.
   On page 157 he relates how four captured Germans "in uniform" were ordered by the Battalion Commander..."to be stood against the playground wall and shot".
   On page 158 he relates..."The oldest could not have been more than sixteen, and the youngest probably only fourteen."
   The author/witness does not relate that anyone.....
   ANYONE!... even raised a peep of protest, objection, or argument to these murders of children who legally should have been afforded Prisoners Of War Status under the Geneva Convention.
   No legal justification is provided.
   In 1983, when this book was published, and this veteran "told all",
   had it been Germans executing adult Partisans fighting out of uniform,
   all hell would have broken lose,
   with crininal investigations of any and all surviving members of the self-admitted War Criminal Glider Battallion, (British) Sixth Airborne Division.
   But this was not even that...
   These ...were...C H I L D R E N !.....WHO... WERE... IN ...UNIFORM !
   Ahh, the "Good Guys"...what unabashed hypocrites!