5 comments about Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family (Beeler).

1. In the past several years, food writing has mushroomed, and I believe the bubble is about to burst. I came across this book in a local charity shop, the kind patronized by well-heeled and well-read donors. This book is well-written, humorous, full of family anecdotes, and also contains memorable quotes about the Volk family's advice on living a good and full life. The family photographs are gorgeous, to put it in Volk's terminology. I give it 5 stars when considering it within the gastro genre. Forget Ruth Reichl's multi-volume in-progress autobiography. This is food lit meets Judaica, and it is a worthwhile read.



2. I bought this after reading Volk's newly-published novel, which I also enjoyed. Good writing through-out this book. I just ordered the audio version.



3. Here, Patricia Volk reminisces about her 19th- and 20th-Century ancestors, mostly New York City Jewish restauranteurs. The entire work is flavoured with a touch of humor, outright hilarity in places.
   
   Ms. Volk's family is bulging with people which are found in every large family -- that's partly what makes the book so interesting. There also seems to be an above-average degree of eccentricity among her clan which makes for good reading as well.
   
   One of the more interesting facets of the book is the story of an ancestor who first acquired the recipe for, and then introduced, PASTRAMI to America. This is a good tale, and especially so since it's true.
   
   There was a certain point in the book where I sighed, took a break, and then finally moved on. But, mostly, it's a pretty fluid read. A lot of folks would say that this is "women's reading" but I enjoyed it quite a lot, mostly due to my personal interest in culinary topics.
   
   Recommended to people with large families or to anyone interested in culinary history.



4. A well written memoir of an interesting quirky family that resonates and reminds us that we all have these odd members in our families, and that is what makes life interesting.



5. Enjoyable, evocative, and wonderfully written. Both funny and touching, it made me laugh, and it made me cry! I bought five copies to give as gifts! C.L.

5 comments about Stay Here With Me.

1. i read this book when it first came out and still can't say enough nice things about it. i'm glad it's in the world when i'm in the world so i could read it. it's funny, powerful, poetic, sad, pitch-perfect. a great book forever.



2. I purchased this book on a whim after reading another of Olmstead's works. When I began reading, I found myself moved by the book's honesty and intimacy. Familiar & new experiences balance one another in the book - and Olmstead perfectly captures those moments when new experiences are so very new and wonderful that they are more important - almost - than breathing. I can still remember passages with crystal clarity, months later. Lovely, lovely work.



3. Let's be bluntly honest: this novel is phony...the prose is affected and contrived...Olmstead once again capitalizes on his broad knowledge of literary fiction. He has a talent for manipulating anyone that reads his work...but if you read this as a writer, you will smell the stink pretty fast.



4. Anyone who's ever written about their youth would have to be impressed by the perceptiveness and imagery with which Robert Olmstead weaves this tale. It captures the New Hampshire summer landscape in a thousand hues and textures, and it perches on the brink of leaving home, of irrevocable change in a family, in a way that abrades the reader's remembered growing pains. Is it possible that so many things happened in one week, played themselves out so poignantly? Maybe not. Is the girl he describes too perfect to be true? May be, (but young love captures the beloved's perfection in amber, so her portrait is true.) Is the writing style so poetic it sometimes makes me gnash my teeth with envy, and sometimes makes me want to groan, enough already, it's not the Song of Solomon? Yeah. But, man, oh, man. You got to admire the craft.



5. While I can see how some of the other reviewers feel that this book's art is too much for them, at the heart of the matter this is still a beautiful book. There is a story here that is something everyone of us has experienced or can relate too, but this story is not cliche, its not sappy, it has a warmth to it all its own. Bob does a nice job of not only telling a good story, but making it sound damn cool too.

No comments about John Brown.

3 comments about Martin Luther: The Great Reformer.

1. I picked this up at a Christian book store for half price. This is an abridged book in a series on famous Christians (mostly Protestant). The author, who is clearly sympathetic with Luther's cause, devotes more attention to Luther's personal relationships and political struggle than to his theology. However, this is probably appropriate for the intended audience (the book store located it near the young readers' section). I can't compare the book to others since this is the first I've read on the topic, but I've personally found it to be an enjoyable read.



2. This German-born Martin Luther was the most prominent of all the Sixteenth Century reformers (as well as counter-reformers). His life became his religious struggle. Though he won some and lost some, he became a symbol of religious defiance to his adversaries, and an anchor-point to his disciples.
   This book did not detail us on the reason why some of his co-reformers parted ways with him; but I did enjoy the time I invested on reading it.



3. Synopsis: A brief biography of Luther's life. Part of a series of approximately 20 books entitled Heroes of the Faith. Evidently, it is edited and abridged from a larger work by one Dan Harmon.
   
   My review: Mr. Harmon has done a poor, poor, poor job of editing a larger work. Really bad. The book has large, direct quotes from other sources, including big chunks of the questioning of Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521. This is most appropriate since Luther was a well-spoken as well as plain-spoke debater. His text is lively and interesting to read. Even to the modern reader his meaning is quite clear and devoid of all of the flowery Renaissance nonsense that entraps other writers and bores me to distraction.
   
   However, Harmon edited out Luther's most famous line: 'My conscience is captive to the Word of God...Here I stand I can do no other.' This is the image of Luther presented in every school book in the world - the solitary monk standing up to the entire church and against all of Europe's kings at the Diet of Worms on a matter of conscience and refusing to blink because, by God (literally), he thinks he is right and is willing to die for that belief. In my mind, this is one of those moments of heroism that everyone should admire, even if you are not a believer. But, this editor edited it out!!! The height of his shining moment - gone!!
   
   Ironically, that quote is featured on the back of the book - it is in bold print and serves as the headline for the description of the book! AARRGH! Even sillier, the editor has left in a one page description of Charles the Elector's retinue and the parade as they entered Augusburg in 1530. Wow!!!! - if they were trying to limit the size of the book, they really edited out the wrong part!!!! Who really cares what color his men wore as they paraded into town!
   
   My grade: The book is, in general, informative and would serve as a decent introduction to Luther. However, I cannot forgive the very poor editing job. Imagine a Lincoln biography without the Gettysburg Address, a Martin Luther King, Jr. biography without his 'I have a dream speech' or a Julius Caesar biography without 'Vini, vidi, vici.' Man, my blood is up. Imagine, printing this whole book and EDITING OUT THE POINT!!!!!!! Really, I cannot stress my irritation enough, as you all can surely tell by this point...
   
   ***Reviewer's note: please read the comment section. The editor of the text made a few comments that explain the "Diet of Worms" section was left out. Thanks, DWD 3-14-07

5 comments about Shoeless: The Life and Times of Joe Jackson.

1. Baseball biographies come in all types, from boring descriptions of the player's performance in games, to tantalizing disconnected details of the player's life outside the lines, to full-fledged development of the player's life history and personality. This new book by David Fleitz falls more toward the latter. I recommend it to all baseball fans, especially ones (like me) who are fascinated by the lesser-known stars of the pre-Ruthian world.

   Much of the book is devoted to Jackson's role in the Black Sox scandal, putting it into historical context and digging into the actions and motives of some of the key figures. The passages involving Charles Comiskey are especially revealing.

   The road between city life and country life was much longer back then. Early baseball has many stories of the difficulties rural men faced when thrust into MLB's urban landscape. Because of his great physical skills, the illiterate Jackson is a highly compelling example of these stories. I now feel like I've met Jackson. Among the best baseball biographies I've read.




2. Great book. Separates the myth and the legend of Shoeless Joe Jackson from the "average Joe" and looks at his banishment from baseball in an honest, objective light. Author does an outstanding job of dissecting Jackson's behavior and possible motives throughout the scandal of the 1919 Black Sox.
   But more importantly, more personal information about Joe is available on Joe throughout the pages of this text than any I have ever seen. This is a fantastic accomplishment as there is a lot of sappy, sentimental fluff out there about Joe Jackson and this book really made me feel as though I knew Joe, in addition to understanding what he was about.
   This book is by far and away the best baseball book of the year (along with Reed Browning's Cy Young) and is amongst the best and most important baseball books ever written. If you're a serious baseball fan, you will enjoy SHOELESS!!



3. There has been a lot said and written about Joe Jackson by a variety of people - baseball people, baseball historians, scholars of the 1919 World Series, residents of the South (particularly South Carolina), and others. There's also been a variety of books produced about Jackson, most with his point of view or the "point of view he would have had," whatever that might have been at any point in time. It was with some skepticism that I picked up Fleitz's book and started to read, half expecting to see the same arguments that I've read before - Jackson as a victim, as the greatest player not in the Hall of Fame but for one mistake, and how he went back to South Carolina and scratched out a living (or was very successful, depending on which book you read).

   Fleitz's book was a most pleasant surprise - it offers information that I haven't found anywhere else, and gives more "flesh" and substance to the person that was Joe Jackson than any previous account of his life that I had read. One point is the relationship that he had with his wife: always shown as the doting couple, Fleitz writes that this wasn't always the case. In baseball, he shows that Jackson wasn't the near-mythological player that he had been portrayed, and that he did fail at any number of clutch situations. By the same token, Jackson is also frequently mentioned as a batting role model to any number of famous players. The reactions of contemporaries thoughtout the book is also delightful feature.

   A primary focus of the book is in the 1919 World Series and Jackson's role in that. Through the years Jackson has garnered significant numbers of supporters claiming that he was innocent; Fleitz offers evidence and opinions that he may not have been that innocent at all. There is also the issue of his initial acceptance of the gamblers' money. As with many people, I have my opinions of the World Series fix and Jackson's involvement. Prior to Fleitz's book, the opinion was a little fuzzier; after reading the book, it's become a little clearer. Was he innocent or guilty? Read the book and make your decision - it's well worth your time.




4. Fleitz does a fine job of describing the atmosphere of the early days of baseball and is usually objective in his treatment of Jackson as a player and as a person. I recommend the book for anyone who is a Jackson affectionado and/or enjoys human drama in a sports context. However, I was very disappointed in the final pages where Fleitz offers his opinion that Jackson wouldn't have cared about the Hall of Fame anyway because he was basically a Southern, good old boy from a poor background who cared only about hanging out with friends and family near the old homeplace. My great uncle worked in those same Greenville, SC cotton mills as a 9-yr old boy for almost no wages but ambition did not die there among the textile looms.



5. David Fleitz has captured in a snapshot the essence of the life of Joe Jackson. He was born in rural South Carolina in the late 19th Century and died in 1951 in his home state.
   Shoeless Joe Jackson, has since become the precursor to the modern baseball slugger. His batting stance was copied by the ultimate baseball slugger, that being Babe Ruth. Mr. Jackson's batting skills in Cleveland and Chicago are legendary. He really was the first hitter to take a full cut at the ball. His batting prow ness was not out of the small ball era.
   Mr. Fleitz goes into great detail about Shoeless Joe's career. After reading this thorough dissertation, I feel that Mr. Jackson belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was a good man who probably deserved better. Like the tragedy of Pete Rose it probably will not happen. However I hope in the great wisdom of the "Old Timers Committee" they will see that Joe Jackson belongs in the hallowed chambers at Cooperstown.
   This book was well written and very readable. If you love the history of baseball, you'll love this book

No comments about The Ugly One.

5 comments about Running With The Bulls: My Years With The Hemingways.

1. This is yet another "I knew Hemingway when" story. As my title states, I have mixed feelings and opinions about this one. The first portion of the book, where the author is actually with Hemingway and his wife at the time, Mary, is interesting and somewhat informative. It is always interesting (for me anyway) to pick up tidbits of the life of this author, i.e. E. Hemingway. After the death of Hemingway the book sort of goes into a bit of a decline. Some of the interactions with Mary Hemingway were interesting and indeed the horrible, sad story of her marrage (the author's) to Greg Hemingway was, while not facsinating, at least interesting, in a voyeuristic sort of way. I do have several problems with this work though. First, the author is by far one of the most profilfic name droppers I have ever read. This is okay I suppose, but in this work she really goes over the top. In addition (probably, no doubt, due to my complete lack of sophistication), I had no clue who 90 pecent of these people were and, in all truth, could care less. Secondly, the author is simply not consistent, even in matters concerning her own life. She goes from being a simple little Irish girl, to an ultra sophisticated world traveler who is wise in the way of literater, back to being a simple little Irish Girl, over and over and over again. Third, the author seems to hesitate to speak of anything remotely personal and intimate in dealing with E. and Mary Hemingway as if she does not want to break a trust. Hey, they are dead - most of the family is either dead or insane! The writing of this book alone broke a trust, per author's own admission, so why not be a bit more detailed? The book is an obvious effort to make a buck (no hard feelings there, I would have done the same, only earlier), so why not go into a bit more depth? That being said, I am glad I read this work and glad it was written. I just feel it could have been so much more and so much more informative. It did give me more information concerning the life of a great author. For that I am grateful.



2. When a non-literary or semi-literary character gets caught up in the wake of a great writer, an historical event or disaster or what have you, you have to take their memoir as it is. Valerie Hemingway, a teen when she met Hemingway, seems to have been an aspiring journalist and to have done some editing since, though obviously she makes no great claim as a writer. The question is what she has to say, and frankly this writer not only has some new revelations about Hemingway and his family which are more than mere gossip, but posesses a degree of wisdom and balance, all in all something to say about life.
   
   The first half of the book deals with Valerie's relationship with Ernest and Mary Hemingway, in Spain and Cuba, 1959-1961. The author is eerily present in each line Valerie writes, well recognizable from other known accounts, but she adds her own valuable and to some degree deeper take. She was a perceptive girl who Hemingway (who always enjoyed tough young "Summer People" as he once memorably termed them) obviously had good reason to like. But just as obviously it has taken her years to meditate on this material and get it right.
   
   Hemingway's funeral and her meeting with Gregory are then told, including her touchy relationship with Mary Hemingway. Here one perhaps wishes for a little more, but the fact is no one yet has been able to properly get an angle on Hemingway's fox terrier of a fourth wife who stuck it out for hell on earth and was thereby seriously damaged afterwords.
   
   An interlude then concerns the Irish playwright Brendan Behan, by whom Valerie had a son. And finally the rest -- which comes to feel like the majority of the book -- concerns the third "bull" in her life, Ernest's third and tragic son Gregory, whom Valerie married. This seemingly private and sensational story, on the charming Dr.Gregory and his finally all-encompassing transvestism disorder, is nonetheles as relevant to Hemingway studies as the first half of the book. Gregory was the model for one of Thomas Hudson's sons in Islands in the Stream, and the subject behind the meditation in a little known late short story, "I Guess Everything Reminds You of Something." Gregory also wrote his own justly acclaimed take on Ernest which pulled no punches. The product of Ernest's stormy second marriage, there were scars from the beginning which are duly reflected in his realist father's letters and fiction.
   
   Even more relevantly, the whole issue of family illnesses and psychoses, which emerges in the Gregory material, throws light back on Hemingway's fictionalized relationship with his own father in the Nick Adams stories, plus the whole issue of hidden psychic wounds in most major Hemingway characters first explored by the early and pioneering Hemingway critic Phillip Young. The fact is psycho-sexual issues permeate Hemingway biography because they lay under his body of his fiction like an iceberg. Those taking Valerie to task for the revelations herein, and arbitrarily labeling her a goldbrick and the 2nd half of the book as worthless, are simply uninformed. Gregory was apparently the saddest victim of something haunting his family for the three generations that have been documented. Valerie therefore has nothing to be ashamed of. Nor does she ask for your applause, either.
   
   Moreover, her frank story of Gregory Hemingway's obsessive downfall is rather courageous. The very private sort of sexual psychosis Gregory had may well be more common than generally known, and will always likely cause shame and scorn to both the victim and his family to become known. Valerie could therefore only risk exposing herself to ridicule to publish this, and most people would have buckled to that threat. In that case a very important chronicle of a family's struggle with this sort of downfall would not be available. The telling is neither sensational, bitter, nor confused -- it is straight up realism professionally told. It is loving and quite starkly human. It will certainly help families burdened by the same affliction in their midst.



3. A very disturbing book and a strange story but I could not stop reading till I finished. Yet, finally, very disappointing because there is so much left out -- as if too much has not been said. Valerie Hemingway -- whose own story and autobiography seems so very interesting -- never fills in those spaces that explain how she really came to be where she was in the years she describes (both before meeting Hemingway, with Hemingway and her life with his family after his death). It's a great outline for a great book. Hope she writes it someday.



4. Valeries serious and lovingly book about her life as married to one of Hem's sons is also very well written. For all of us still reading about the astonishing life of Hem (there are several 100 around)this one is a must. Don't miss her sound opinions from a life within the family.



5. A balanced and sympathetic description of events from someone who was really there but whose ego does not lead to embellishment of the facts.

No comments about It Was Like This. . ..

5 comments about The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings.

1. I had no idea. I had no idea what a great writer she is, what an amazing person she is, how difficult her life has been. Now that I've read this book, I know. And I am inspired.
   
   I highly recommend this book to any daughter, any Asian, any writer, and any person with an open mind/heart who wants to know a little bit more about an intriguing, challenging life.



2. This book is a personal favorite, as it gives so much insight into Tan's writing and her views, but also because the essays are simply so enjoyable to read. The book is a collection of essays that spans her literary career and is filled with her own special brand of humor. Within the pages we find writing on her authorial intentions, her perspective on critics and scholars who interpret her writing and her intentions, and biographical essays. I can imagine using one or two of these essays as material for teaching a writing class. These essays are overall lovely, clever, and engaging. This book is not just for "fans only." If you weren't a fan before, you may become one after reading this collection.



3. I've always enjoyed her novels, and The Opposite of Fate gave me an even deeper understanding of the origins of her work. I really enjoyed the opportunity to hear, in her own words, the true history of her family, her thoughts on her childhood, young adulthood, and even current day. She's a fun, funky, formidable, & fascinating woman & someone you'd love to know & introduce to all your friends. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to get to know her better!



4. The book is wonderful, so interesting. It is rather like Eat,Pray,Love with a chinese twist.
   
   The AUDIO version of the book is a revelation: Amy Tan has a lively and lovely voice, she is a gifted mimic, and she does a fabulous job of reading this great book.
   
   There are some very sad parts, you will definitely be moved to think and consider wider concepts, but it is completely delightful and thick with insight.



5. I didn't read The Joy Luck Club; I wasn't interested, it sounded like a chick book, and I don't play Mah Jong. This book is more like taking a peek inside Amy Tan. It was great.
   
   I hated literature in high school and college, because all the professors always talked about all the "hidden meaning" and symbolism in persons, objects and events happening in the book. I thought this was a bunch of BS. So thank you Amy for proving me right!
   
   It is a well written compilation of stories, observations and even commencement addresses. My favorite was her thoughts on waiting to be introduced for a talk and seeing the Cliff Notes of her book on display. Nice touch. I would probably appreciate Joy Luck Club after reading this book.

No comments about Thomas Jefferson.