5 comments about All Things Bright and Beautiful.

1. We listened to this book on a trip and wanted to keep driving so it wouldn't end! It was a collection of Mr. Herriot's adventures as a country vet in England, and was so delightfully written. Having lived with the various ailments of large animals, the occasional realistic descriptions of ailments did not bother us. Someone not accustomed to large animals and their care, might find it too descriptive. We enjoyed the book immensely and hope to hear them all!



2. Is there anyone who read ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL and who didn't rush right out and buy this one next? I didn't think so. I gave the first one a rave review, and rightfully so, but somehow I don't recall enjoying it as much as I did this one. He's an amazing talent on so many levels. Read the real reviews by the real reviewers. They're all true. This man lived in the moment, and he enjoyed all in life that is enjoyable.



3. All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot is a true classic and I can see why it has been such a big seller through many decades. Sadly, I missed seeing his books when they were made into a television series. This autobiographical work is charming and delightful.
   
   Jim Herriot was a vet in Yorkshire, England. He was pretty much a country veterinarian, servicing farm animals for most of his years. He began his career when the practice of being a vet was pretty much in the dark ages. Antibiotics were not yet on the horizon and many of today's vaccines weren't invented. Each chapter is a story about a different experience--birthing a lamb, caring for injured animals, judging a favorite pet contest, tasting homemade wine, etc. Through them all, we get to sense Jim's love for his job, his patients, and the simple but grateful folk he came in contact with every day. Many times, being a vet was also to be a detective. He often had to come up with a diagnosis for a mystery ailment, and he had to deal with everything from copper deficiencies to hairballs. As in life, not all of his stories have happy endings.
   
   I am happy to have finally acquainted myself with James Herriot and will definitely read more of his books. I have already started James Herriot's Dog Stories.



4. Want to laugh and cry - then the Harriot books are for you. If you are an animal lover and want to read some really good, fascinating stories, please read these books. You will love them!



5. Whether you love animals, England, or just great stories, James Herriot's memoirs of his career as a country vet will really hit the spot.
   
   Here is a collection of experients he has had in his career of working with animals in the English countryside, full of biting humor and observation that will have you laughing hysterically as well as more than a few that will touch your heart and bring a tear to your eye.
   
   His writing is oberservant, clever, and delightfully simple as to get the story across. It's like he is talking to you, and it is clear that he enjoyed his life.

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 Onions in the Stew.

1. Having finished my previous book and waiting for Amazon's free shipping promo to buy more, I picked up this book collecting dust in my book closet. I was pleasantly surprised.

   It is smart and funny and so down-to-earth that you have to instantly like Betty as your best friend. Althouhg I am not a big fan of women titles (those seems to dominate the New York Times bestsellers list these days), I laughed out loud on a plane from Washington DC to Houston on a business trip. Who knew that everyday domestic issues can be so light and funny?

   Anyway, just try it. You will find it more enjoyable than you want to admit.




2. "The Egg and I." As I said in my review of the earlier book, although I found parts of "Egg" charming, the chapter on Indians made my part-Cherokee blood boil, and that other parts seemed rather mean-spirited as well.
   
   There is none of the mean-spiritedness in "Onions", probably because, in spite of the various toils and tribulations of life on the island, Betty was basically happy there, as opposed to "Egg" where she was mostly miserable.
   
   I loved the part about the small woman who loved to curl up on soft, comfy places like sofas, armchairs, and other women's husbands' laps. I wondered, though, why Betty didn't just ask her to step out into the garden and then drop-kick her across the straight to Seattle? I'm sure she could have gotten some of the other women in their circle of friends to help.
   
   Many of the events she tells of show us that teenage girls have always been a handful, whatever they say. However, in spite of all the complaining and whining, the girls were willing to pich in; how many girls their age nowadays would have something like stuffed pork chops waiting when their parents came home from work?
   
   While "Egg" left me wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to run a chicken farm in the middle of a howling wilderness, "Onions" made me wonder if living on an island might not be fun.



3. I've just finished the fourth Betty MacDonald memoir. Thank you Amazon for the access to all these out of print books!
   I now know what's going to be fun in Heaven - chatting with Betty over strong cups of coffee.
   These books were like discovering a new best friend. I've never been so entertained by reading. What a gal!



4. I first read Onions in the Stew almost thirty years ago, in a Reader's Digest Condensed Books version, and I never forgot it. What a JOY to receive the complete version as a gift years later, along with The Plague and I, and Anybody Can Do Anything, when they were reissued by The Common Reader. I absolutely devoured them, passed them around among my friends & loved ones (keeping track of who had them, very uncharacteristic but they're the kind of books you never want to lose!!!!) and agree with every five-star reviewer here, especially "pony-express," that Betty is the best friend you never met. Also enjoyed the comment about how much fun heaven will be, to drink strong coffee & yak with Betty MacDonald. She is still as witty today as when she wrote her books, utterly classic and fresh, laugh-out-loud and tremendously endearing without EVER being cloying. Such a cut above. Her other books are equally wonderful, and I just wish more people were exposed to her; she's a tonic for stress, an antidote to depression. So glad there are others out there who love her as I do!



5. I first met Betty McDonald when I read The Egg and I, back in high school in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1960s, and I was completely enthralled. First of all: she writes extremely well. Her sentences are terse and well-formed, and she has a knack for shaping quips of all kinds: the quick laugh, the sudden surprise laugh line, and the careful set-up gag. Most of all, though, I find myself laughing aloud (she's one of the few authors who makes me laugh aloud while reading) at the perfection of a sentence which is at the same time witty, perfectly balanced, completely appropriate, and completely unexpected.
   
   You will find all this - in spades - in Onions in the Stew. It is a mellower book than the others, for many reasons; she was older when she wrote it - and, I think, happier in her second marriage; also, her already considerable skill at writing had grown. Her descriptions of Vashon Island in the 1940s are utterly perfect: beautiful, clever, and bittersweet all at once. Her descriptions of her husband and daughters - and others in her family - are full of warmth, and are at the same time completely clear-eyed and unsentimental.
   
   Frankly, comparing Betty to Erma Bombeck is like comparing Julia Child to Rachael Ray. They can both cook - but, oh boy, I know whose house I'd like to visit for lunch . . .

5 comments about The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers.

1. I read this book in two days, only because I had to sleep sometime, otherwise I might have done it in one day. I then gave it to my mother, who is 84 years old, and she read it in two days as well. The way the author writes of such difficult circumstances in which he grew up, in such a simple and all-accepting way, is so pure and innocent that it speaks perfectly of the way a child sees his world. The author is not a newcomer on the scene, but I wish I had a lifetime of novels written by him, because his writing is that good. For anyone who loves a really good story without phony embellishment or unnecessary prose, this is a must read. It is just a remarkable book, and I cannot wait to read the next and the next and the next.



2. This is a really beautiful book. It's so remarkable that the author at what may be considered an advanced age can recreate the atmosphere of England in the early 1900s. Not since "how Green Is My Valley" have I become so immersed in a memoir. The portrait of his mother is lovingly done and your heart aches for her as she struggles. Be sure to follow it up with his sequel, "The Dream" as it, too, is so compelling. May Mr. Bernstein live many more years and continue writing.



3. This was a very beautifully told memoir with a surprising amount of detail and description. It was as much a story of the life Harry and his family lived as it was the love story between his sister and the non-Jewish boyfriend she loved. Lovely.



4. This book really evokes a time and place. The author eloquently transports the reader to a neighborhood full of memorable characters in Lancashire circa pre WWI. It will anger you, make you laugh, make you cry. It is a very powerful book.



5. My sister and mother raved about this book, so I finally decided to read it and boy, what a wonderful slice of life book that let's me get a real glimpse of poverty stricken family life in England in the early 1900's. I live close to Mr. Bernstein (down at the Jersey shore) and I hope that I will be able to meet him if he does a lecture locally. Please read this and also "The Dream". We think that THOSE were the "good old days", but really, for many people, they were tough times. Thank you Harry Bernstein for 2 wonderful books.

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.

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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

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