5 comments about Sinatra: The Life (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

1. To be short, if you're interested in Sinatra's sex life and Mafia connections, that's your book. But if you want to know more about his music or his career as an actor, skip it.
   Nevertheless all the authors' effort to be "objective", the fact is they simply don't like Sinatra, and try, all the time, to desconstruct the mith. But as someone has said: "a world without heroes is like a world without sun".



2. Francis Albert Sinatra (1915-1998) grew up in a lower middle class home in Hoboken, New Jersey. Frank's parents were from immigrant Italian families; mother Dolley was a strong community figure working with politicians and mobsters as she performed abortions. His father Marty held a succession of jobs; was a boxer and was uxorioius in his relationships with the strong Mrs Sinatra.
   Frank dropped out of school and was a mama's only child petted and pampered. He began singing at local clubs eventually landing a stint with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands as lead singer. Girls went wild for him at the Paramount Theatre; he went to Hollywood where he made movies (winning an Oscar for best supporting actor for his "Maggio" charcter in "From Here To Eternity." Ole Blue Eyes performed in nightclubs and theatres throughout the USA and the world. He loved Los Vegas performing for many years at the mob owned Sands Hotel. He and his rat pack playmates Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr. and Shirley McClaine stood at the top of the entertainment ladder of accomplishments.
   Summers and his spouse Robbyn Summers have done their research in this well chronicled career. Over 100 pages of footnotes and 300 reference books as well as over 500 interviews lend credence to their assertions regarding the singer's Cosa Nostra ties. The mob forced Tommy Dorsey to release Frank from his contract or face personal retaliation. Later film studio head Harry Cohn was forced to cast Sinatra in "From Here to Eternity' or face mob violence.
   Frank was a friend of such notorious organized crime figures as Lucky Luciano; Frank Costello, Sam Giacanna and others. He served as a go-between between the Kennedy family and the mob during JFK's presidential campaign of 1960. Sinatra would later become a Republican who was friendly with the Reagan family.
   Frank was an alcoholic and a lifetime womanizer. He wed his teenage sweetheart Nancy by whom he had three children: Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina. Sinatra may also have fathered illegitimate children. The great love of his life was Ava Gardner whom he wed on November 7, 1951. The tempestuous duo fought, drank and were unfaithful during their short marriage. Sinatra later wed Mia Farrow who was over 20 years his junior.
   His last wife was Barbara Marx the divorced wife of Zeppo Marx. Barbara was a Vegas showgirl who was not liked by the Sinatra family.
   Sinatra was a great singer with such hits as "I Did It My Way:; "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning; "New York, New York", "Nancy With the Smiling Face", "Night and Day" and "Strangers in the Night."
   He was not a very nice man. He could be cruel often being up columnists and erstwhile friends in public places. He often lied about his mob friends. Sinatra could become violent in a second with a hair-trigger temper and a Dr. Jekyll/Mr Hyde personality. The kid from Hoboken was intelligent enjoying serious reading, classical music and art.
   The material garnered by Summers and Swan makes for a good celebrity biography of a complex figure of American popular culture. I recommend it to anyone interested in Sinatra or the Mob in America.



3. All my life I had heard of the name Frank Sinatra, but never knew who he was. I decided to purchase this book to find put who the true Sinatra was. This book gives you all sides of him (good and bad) and addresses all of the "mafia" talk that surrounds him. This is a good read not only because it was so detailed, but it tells the truth. It doesnt water down his mob ties or that he was an immense flirt with women problems. This is a good read for anybody, in any age.



4. During the opening parts of this book, I was amazed at how much private information the author (Summers) seemed to have accumulated on the Sinatra Family. As I got further into the book, I began to feel a little "suspect" of the growing amount of intelligence he had gathered. By the time I was halfway through, I had begun to suspect just about anything Summers was saying.
   
   Although the publicity statement on the book labels it as "unfailingly fair-minded," after finishing the book, I think it's safe to say that such accolades are seriously off-target. This biography is anything but "fair-minded."
   
   Summers' bias trickles through in the first third of the book (he obviously didn't like Sinatra, the man), then runs more steadily in the book's middle before it grows to a torrent by the last third.
   
   For instance, Summers obviously approves of Sinatra's political dalliances with the Roosevelts and the Kennedys, but repels at his alignment with Nixon later in his life. He makes light of Sinatra's failure to condemn the burglary of Nixon's doctor's office by Kennedy henchmen during the 1960 presidential campaign (Frank's mob connections may have even helped), but is offended by Frank's cavalier opinion about the Watergate burglary by Nixon henchmen during the 1972 campaign.
   
   And some of Summers' assertions are just too improbable, such as the allegation that Sinatra turned to forcible rape when he was a mega-star in his 50s.
   
   The book is entertaining, and well written, but I would take about 80 percent of it with a grain of salt--maybe even a whole saltshaker. In fact, if just 20 percent of the contents can be called factual, then Sinatra has to be discussed in the same vein as Ted Bundy, Son of Sam, and Jack the Ripper. If I thought the information was more accurate, I would have graded it a star higher.



5. If you were looking to read quite a bit about the Mob from the 1800's in Sicily up through the 1970's you are in for a treat.
   If you wanted to read a biography about Frank Sinatra go elsewhere.
   It is so clear that the authors of this book flatout dislike Sinatra and anyone involved with him. Everything is written with a side comment clearly expressing the authors' dislike of Sinatra, for example, about the Rat Pack "Being Drunk and making cracks about being drunk, was supposed to be hilarious" Clearly meaning the authors did not find it hilarious.
   This is what you should expect throughout the book, side comments clearly expressing the authors dislike of anything Sinatra.
   I'm not the type of person who needs to read gushing about someone I'm interested in but I expect nuetrality at the very least and not flatout hatred.

5 comments about I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up.

1. The title of Jesse Ventura's memoir is taken from his famous line he delivered in the movie Predator. It is a great mantra for a former Navy SEAL, pro-wrestler, and man-of-the-people elected official. Once you get through the first chapter that explains Ventura's views on the issues of the day, the rest is an absorbing, humorous, truthful, and motivating memoir of a true tough guy who can put his money where his mouth is.
   
   Jesse tells all in this memoir. When he was a young man, he worked hard, and played hard. Drinking and sex are included here. My eyebrows went up a few times. It is clear he is not covering anything up in order to look squeaky clean.
   
   Anyone who reads this book will wish there were a million more Jesses holding political office, instead of the Democrat/Republican factory of career politicians who are addicted to power. I never seriously considered the validity or need for a third political party until I read this book.



2. This work is written in a simple and uncomplicated conversational
   style. The author discusses the desirability of raising money
   modestly and the judicious use of television time in campaigning.
   Governor Ventura is in favor of term limits, legal reform,
   low taxes and the consumption tax. The beauty of the consumption
   tax is that it penalizes excess consumption and frivolous
   purchases. The author would have the government refund budget
   surpluses. In addition, people should not be driven off their
   land due to increasing tax valuations. New York's Harlem is
   becoming unaffordable to people who've lived there for generations.
   
   The author urges us to improve public education and basic
   literacy. He asks that we make math/science relevant and
   involve parents in the schooling process. Reduced class size
   and student work-study programs provide additional enhancements to the learning environment. The internet is a tremendous
   tool for learners according to the author.
   
   Ultimately, Americans are pioneers and visionaries. This is our
   basic strength as a country. To continue prospering, we should
   build upon these strengths.



3. The Jesse Ventura story is an example of the American Dream where an average man can push himself into places that he never would have thought that he would go.
   
   Ventura was a Navy SEAL in Vietnam, then became a professional wrestler, wrestling commentator, radio host, Mayor and then Governor of Minneapolis.
   
   Ventura writes pretty well and tells it the way he thinks it is (which is ok, everyone should have an opinion).
   
   Perhaps the only point that I would like to make is that it appears a very political book - not as in discussing politics (from which he makes some good points) but the rhetoric about not running for President. He mentions it a few times throughout the book, almost as if he wants us to think about him in the role and to start to generate support for the White House bid. It just seemed to me to be a little self-serving. That is a minor point though and could be just my imagination.
   
   All in all, a readable book and worth the time.



4. Jesse the Body had an unconventional career before being a politician, so he's able to take risks in disclosing his background and ideas in a manner very refreshing in today's political arena. Jesse starts with his background in the Navy, moves on to his life as a wrestler, and lastly the motivation behind his entrance into politics. The pop-autobiography shows a few more warts than most in the genre, perhaps due to Ventura's security with his persona and life. All in all it's a very fun ride!



5. Jesse Ventura has had an interesting life, and he wants to tell you about it. He has been a US Navy SEAL, a professional wrestler, and surprisingly, a Governor of Minnesota.
   
   Ventura is a six feet four inches tall and has been an athlete for a long time. He seems to be physically imposing. However his autobiography makes him seem like an intellectual light weight. He became Governor as part of the Reform party. Ross Perot had caused a surge of interest in an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans.
   
   Despite having served as a Governor he offers us few political insights. We learn that there are too many laws, and that people need to be responsible for themselves. I don't think we needed Jesse for that. You would think a political outsider might be able to offer some fresh perspective. The only thing I found surprising about the book is that Ventura seems astonished by gotcha journalism. What did he expect?
   
   I was hoping for more. In the end there is nothing much to the book.

No comments about Vet in a Spin (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

2 comments about Wins, Losses, and Lessons LP.

1. LOU HOLTZ IS THE GREATEST MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER OF ALL TIME. IT'S NO WONDER HE WAS SUCH A GREAT COACH.



2. I bought this item for my son, a football coach, and he stated that it was the best presentation that he had ever heard. Although I had heard this previously from the person who had recommended it. Haven't listened myself, but will to assure that both are correct.

5 comments about Growing Up.

1. My three favorite books about growing up, "My Dog Skip", "The Old Man and the Boy", and this book, "Growing Up" by Russell Baker, were all written by newspaper and magazine journalists with Southern roots. There must be some southern storytelling tradition that turns out writers of great memoirs. This is a charming book, full of love of family, humor, and growing up during the difficult history of the depression. I have read and re-read this book, and always find something to laugh about or something that touches me deeply. I expected the reviews of this book to be all five-star accolades, and I am shocked and alarmed by the several reviewers who found the book "boring" and "repetitive". I can't help but wonder what comprises excitement in such readers' lives.



2. WHen I first encountered "Growing Up" in 1983, I thought it was dull. Once I allowed myself to be patient, I realized how wrong I had been. When I allowed myself the time to read, "Growing Up" became a pleasure and a classic I have since read several times. Baker spent his early years in Virginia, in a time before modern communication. People in that time and place took their time telling a story, but good storytellers always get to a point. Those of us born after WWII have to learn not to expect instant gratification. A book like "Growing Up" teaches you that if you will let the storyteller tell his story, you will be caught up in his magic. Take the time to read "Growing Up" and I bet you will be sorry when you get to the end, hungering for more about Russell Baker and his family. Like all families, there is pain and anger, conflict and crisis, but at the core, in "Growing Up" and in the Baker family, there is deep love.



3. Wanting to have a little more insight into the life of someone living through the Great Depression (besides my father) I found this book "filled the bill". The book isn't exciting and doesn't really have a plot, but is more like a "day in the life" of a young man living in hard circumstances and being too young to understand the depth of the hardships. The author has an engaging writing style that kept me from putting the book down. I found I felt like I knew him and could feel his fears, embarassments,and his insecurities.



4. Note: Some immature Mormon has been slamming my reviews because I wrote some negative reviews of books attempting to defend the Book of Mormon.
   
   So your "helpful" votes are greatly appreciated. A shorter review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great book. I've just noted the general theme. Thanks
   
   Inside my paperback copy of Russell Baker's book, I wrote "Great Book!"
   This was in 1985, and I would rank this memoir as one of the best I have ever read.
   
   From his youth in rural Virginia through the Depression in Baltimore, the very best of America shines though in this charming autobiography. I laughed till I cried at Baker's description of living above his uncle's funeral parlor. Whenever families gathered, he provided shrimp, and so whenever the young Russell smelled shrimp, he knew there was a funeral.
   
   Mrs. Baker's determination to raise a good family after her husband's death was inspiring. My own father died when I was fifteen, so I could see my mother in her--even though my story was set in the 1960s, not the 1930s.
   
   Highly recommended. I would also highly recommend the "Autobiography of Malcolm X." A very powerful account of Malcolm X's life. I do not agree with his religion, but I was inspired at how he turned away from a life of crime and made a better man of himself. In the last few years of his life, he turned away from the racism against whites that he had earlier believed.
   
   The Autobiography of Malcolm X : As Told to Alex Haley
   The Autobiography of Malcom X



5. too long, boring, pointless.....if i wrote a book about coming of age, i would definitely have more action to report.

No comments about Letters of a Woman Homesteader (Large Print Edition).

1 comments about Clare Boothe Luce.

1. Although she is seldom recalled today, Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) was easily among the best-known, most powerful, and most influential women of the 20th Century. She was also an extremely, extremely divisive figure: those who loved her were devoted in their affection; those who hated her were devoted in their ire.
   
   By some accounts an illegitimate child (something that Sheed does not note in his work), Clare had an impoverished childhood with an absentee father--a fact that did not prevent her mother, Anna Snyder, from promoting Clare into a wealthy marriage to Geogre Brokaw, a wealthy man whose social position seemed likely to open still further doors. The marriage was a disaster and ended in divorce in 1929, but it did have the effect of leaving Clare financially comfortable.
   
   Following the divorce, Clare entered the magazine publishing industry. Her critics often claimed that she got her foot in door by virtue of her good looks; there may be some truth to this, but there is no denying the fact that she was both talented and driven, and by the early 1930s she was a force with which to be reckoned at such notable magazines as VOGUE and VANITY FAIR, venues in which her combination of personal glamour, way with a quip, and steel-trap intelligence sparkled wickedly. In 1935 she married Harry Luce, owner of such magazines as TIME, and brought with her to the marriage the idea for LIFE MAGAZINE, which in many ways was "the" American magazine for some four decades.
   
   In 1936 she also debuted on Broadway as the author of the legendary comedy THE WOMEN, a poison-pen letter to her own gender which proved a massive smash and continues to enjoy tremendous fame to this day; she was also among the savvy backers of such stage smashes as LIFE WITH FATHER and OKLAHOMA. But her marriage to Luce gradually pulled Clare away from both the theatre and her own literary ambitions; although she would write several more plays, a few books, and numerous articles, she began to drift into politics, becoming a two-term congresswoman during the height of World War II, the ambassador to Italy during the touchy 1950s, and one of the most implacable foes of Soviet-era communism imaginable.
   
   Through it all she retained her sense of personal glamour, and it was this fact more than other that seemed to outrage her foes. To many on the left, she was everything bad about the right, a rich woman who slept her way to the top, whose politics were founded more on her husband's hard-edged business sense than her own independent thought, her from-the-lecturn quips more a matter of personal emnity than intellectual depth. But say what you like about Clare Boothe Luce, she was never, ever dull.
   
   Wilfrid Sheed, an "uptown" author in the same sense as Tom Wolf and Dominick Dunne, first met Clare Boothe Luce in 1949 and maintained a running friendship with her over the course of the next forty years. Sheed is clearly among those who loved her with devotion, and CLARE BOOTHE LUCE comes from that standpoint; at the same time, however, he is hardly blind to the foibles that made the lady so fascinating, and his book--which he freely describes as less biography than personal impression--presents her in all her contradictions.
   
   From Sheed's point of view, Clare Boothe Luce was alternately a glamour queen and a hardnosed pragmatist; a brilliant author who ultimately wasted her talents; a noted political thinker whose private life seldom reflected the extremes of her speeches; and above all a witty and highly intelligent creature who found herself trapped in what was then a man's world and struggled to find a balance between social roles and her own ambitions, blazing a trail for the feminists who came afterward. It is a vivid portrait, and Sheed writes of his subject in an arresting manner.
   
   At the same time, however, there's no getting around the fact that Sheed is biased in favor of his subject and her politics, the latter of which becomes increasingly clear as the book progresses. He is also a rather sloppy writer with a gift for turning an awkward phrase that forces you to occasionally re-read a phrase or sentence in order to make sense of its structure. It is perhaps typical of the book that Sheed refers to the central character of THE WOMEN as "Mary Haynes" when the character is in fact named "Mary Haines." It may seem a very slight point, but given the play's central position in Clare Boothe Luce's life and career it is an error that hardly inspires confidence in the author's claims of factual account--and it is therefore fortunate that Sheed goes out of his way to eshew any idea that this is indeed a factual account.
   
   When all is said and done, CLARE BOOTHE LUCE is a rather loosely written portrait of the woman that Sheed himself knew rather than a balanced look at the woman in all her dimensions. But although limited in scope, it is an intriguing portrait. Recommended, but perhaps best taken with several grains of salt.
   
   GFT, Amazon Reviewer

No comments about Autobiography of a Yogi (Large Print Edition).

5 comments about Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman, A Personal Biography (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series).

1. This was a well-written story about Ingrid Bergman...I had seen her in several movies but did not know about her background. Just things I had read and heard about her. The author really captured her fascinating life in detail from her birth until her death...and revealed how Ingrid Bergman felt about the things that were happening to her throughout her life. I thought the book was a page turner and I couldn't put it down.



2. This book tells a very human story about the life of Ingrid Bergman from the time of her parents before she was born, to her early life after her mothers death, to being an actress in Sweeden Hollywood and Italy to being a wife three times and mother of four including Isabella Rossalini.
   
   Great Book, Very interesting life!



3. This book was purchased as a gift, and the recipient was very well pleased.
   It has great interest to people, women particularly, who were living during the period of Ingrid Bergman's stardom and scandal.



4. very disappointing no new facts or interesting untold published background on the star.



5. Having had a close, sweet friendship with Ingrid the last 12 years of her life, I can easily say that Ms Chandler's remembrances of Ingrid, marked by numerous interviews of family, friends & collegues rings very true!
   Being privy to many personal aspects of Ingrid's life, visits to Choisel, dinners in Paris & London, etc., I was swept with nostalgia & memories of dear Ingrid as I read this marvelous story picturing Ingrid as she really was in her life.
   Following a less than nice review of a play in London, Ingrid was appearing in, she wrote to me about that notice & said: "Let the dogs bark
   the caravan moves on!" Typical Bergman.
   Unpretentious, caring, sweet, natural, I loved Ingrid dearly, as a friend!
   This book says it all!

5 comments about The Assault on Reason (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series).

1. Regardless of your political disposition, everyone should read this book. It is NOT about global warming, it is about the current state of our democracy, and what we can do to improve it. Highly recommended!



2. Don Stacy
   Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
   August 13, 2008
   
   Al Gore
   Nashville, TN, USA
   
   Dear Mr Gore,
   
   Ocassionally I will be prompted to write to an author whose work I
   found interesting or informative or of exceptional literary value. I
   have been deeply moved by what you have said so far in The Assault on
   Reason. Obviously you are the only person who could have written this
   very unusual critique of the present weakened state of public
   discourse.
   
   Not only have you produced an unassailable indictment of the
   fault-filled Bush years in the White House, and of his appalling
   disregard for authortative reports from various people to whom he
   should have paid careful attention, but you have also easily
   vindicated yourself for America's failure to elect you as President in
   2000.
   
   Before I moved to China to teach English at a "software college" in
   Yunnan Province, I had been studying computer science at a small
   university in Idaho. I was particularly interested in your metaphore
   of a massively parallel system in comparison to the public workings of
   Democracy and Capitalism. I thought it rather illuminating--but then
   your entire book is exceedingly illuminating and I must thank you for
   having written it.
   
   I hope that not a few Conservatives will have the simple courage and
   good sense to read your book, thus innoculating themselves against the
   further tendency to immerse their heads in the moist warm sand of
   willful neglect of the truth. But of course there are those, some whom
   you refer to, the radio hosts and so forth, who will deride you as
   before hoping to seek a laugh from their gullible audience, who smugly
   retain their shallow views and unwittingly mock Truth itself in doing
   so.
   
   When you pointed out that Capitalism has proven to be a far more
   efficiently workable economic system than Communism, you illustrated
   this with the emaciation that is North Korea, and the lumbering
   corruption-ridden former Soviet Union. You might have also mentioned
   Cuba. The one country you did not mention--which would have interfered
   with your argument--is China, a timely topic right now, considering the
   Olympic Games.
   
   I've only read a few books about the modern political history of
   China, most recently a biography of one of their Presidents, Zhang
   Zhemin. Now, we are all perfectly aware thanks to TV coverage of the
   Olympics just what China has become in so astonishingly short a time.
   The Chinese are accustomed to change like no other people on the
   planet, I believe. And thanks to Deng Xiao Ping and his hand-picked
   successor, Zhang Zhemin, the country is now on its way to surpassing
   the United States as an economic power, a thought which would have
   been inconceivable twenty years ago.
   
   I'd be curious to know your views on China. Perhaps someday you will
   publish a book which touches upon the relations between the United
   States and this protean nation so crowded with people, so determined
   toward prosperity, so different from anything we have seen before.
   
   Respectfully yours,
   
   Don Stacy



3. This book is the literary equivalent of having a bucket of cold water thrown on you while you sleep, and its exactly what we all need right now. As i read through this book I found myself getting angry, angry because I realized that I had given up my right to change the course of this country by allowing someone else to make the decisions for me. For allowing the television to make up my mind instead of studying the facts and having meanful discussions with friends and family based on those facts. I'm angry because I allow our govenment to lie, cheat, steal and torture witout being completely livid. This book could very well change the world, and its sad that every word is simple common sense aimed at everyone of us.
   Chapter by chapter it reminds us of the ways we have let our freedoms go and become subservient to a government that no longer works for us. I challenge everyone to read this book and see if they dont feel empowered to stand up and say no more! Lets get our nation back along with our minds.



4. As a therapist who sees everyday Americans on a daily basis, it is quite apparent that each and every one of us is literally worried sick by the turn of events in this country over the past few years. When I read Mr. Gore's book, I was enlightened as to the details (who, what, when, where) of our decline. Nevertheless, disturbing as it was to learn the truth, I am grateful to finally know it.



5. Although Al Gore makes me cringe inside a little, I found him in this book to be articulating a sentiment that has been troubling me: public discourse (to the extent it exists in this country) is not ruled by reason. Nonetheless, I was a little disappointed that Gore focused much of the book on the Bush administration, rather than on the deeper problem of our (the general populous') inability make decisions and choices based on relevant evidence. While recent politics is both a major symptom as well as cause of this societal trend, I would like to have seen an exploration of this underlying problem that the majority of our population is not just uninformed but unable to effectively process and evaluate what little information we may have.