5 comments about Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier.

1. Like Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly was born to a very privileged life in Philadelphia and was a debutant before she was a Hollywood Star. Cool, poised, aloof, and classy she was the blonde counterpart to Kennedy's dark mysterious allure. But her fairytale life had no happy ending and despite its glamour was all too human.



2. This book gets 5 stars for research, 5 stars for presentation (simply a photo of Grace in THAT wedding dress justifies a book existing) and 4 stars for a good read; It's not that it could have been any better, it's just that the story is ultimately sad. However, I think the subject matter was taken very seriously by the author, and unlike other reviewers here, I consider the thoughts expressed to be well thought out and supported by the material that was uncovered in the process, including that from interviews. What other material is ever likely to be uncovered on this subject?? This book is better than 3.5 stars.



3. This book details the lives of Grace Kelly and Rainier Grimaldi otherwise known as Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco both before and after their "marriage of the century."
   
   Grace Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1929 to Jack and Margret Kelly. She had an older sister Margaret (Peggy) and older brother Jack Jr (Kell) as well as a younger sister Elizabeth Anne (Lizanne). From the time that she was young she wanted to be an actress. When she was a teenager she modeled to pay for an acting school and thanks to her uncle George got some early work on the stage. Soon after she started making movies such as High Noon (with Gary Cooper), Mogambo (with Clark Gable) and won an Oscar for her portrayal in The Country Girl. It was because of this that she was offered the opportunity to go to Cannes to the Cannes Film Festival. During her time in France she also was offered the opportunity to go to Monaco to visit Prince Rainier little realizing that the visit would change her life.
   
   Prince Rainier was born in 1923. His mother was the illegitimate daughter of the Prince of Monaco and married a French Duke in 1920. Rainier had a younger sister named Antoinette. When Rainier was six his parents divorced and he and Antoinette were mostly raised by their grandfather. Rainier was educated in England and France and in 1949 became heir to his grandfather's throne after his mother and sister renounced it. He became Prince of Monaco in 1950. During this time he was single, but dating an actress. Shortly before Grace Kelly's visit he and the actress broke up.
   
   Several months after the meeting between Grace and Rainier he came to the United States. Grace and Rainier used this time to better know each other and shortly after Christmas they became engaged. After several months of negotiations they where married in Monaco. Nine months later they had their first child, Caroline, and five months after that Grace was pregnant with Prince Albert. They later added to the family with princess Stephanie.
   
   The marriage between Princess Grace and Prince Rainier was not always the best, but ultimalty they loved each other and their three children. When Grace was killed in 1981 after a car crash Rainier mourned her for the rest of his life.



4. Taraborrelli was clearly fascinated by his primary subject, Grace, but it appears it was Prince Rainier whom he truly fell in love with.
   
   He never once mentions Rainier's notorious infidelities, which began as soon as Grace married him, and continued until she died. According to Wendy Leigh's new book "True Grace", she strayed too, but her affairs started off as quid pro quo for Rainier's constant mistresses (and continued from isolation and loneliness).
   
   This omission is profoundly prejudicial to Grace because it makes it look like she was just too shallow to give up her attachment to her movie career and thus made herself morbidly unhappy with her new life in Monaco. In fact, she did struggle with that loss, but her greatest heartbreak in Monaco was that she married a philandering, obnoxious, overbearing, insensitive and dismissive popinjay of a prince.
   
   Taraborrelli should have waited for Rainier's death to write Grace's biography. Maybe then he wouldn't have been so tempted to whitewash Rainier into the caring, tender, appreciative and supportive husband he most certainly was not.
   
   Shame on you Randy.



5. You can't go wrong with a biography by J.Randy Taraborrelli! Again very well researched and again you get hooked after the first sentences.For all who want to know more about the actress Grace Patricia Kelly who became the Princess of Monaco and her life with her husband and family behind palace walls,I highly recommend this book.

5 comments about His Excellency: George Washington (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

1. I was extremely disappointed in this book. This book was purchased as a gift for me, and I looked forward to reading it. From the beginning, I was disappointed by the tone of the book, which casts a negative tone on the father of our country.
   
   As I researched some of Ellis' sources, I found that in several parts of his book, he stated items as facts that were completely false.
   
   Ellis, following a popular trend of today, insinuates that George Washington was in love with his friend's wife, Sally Fairfax, and that he felt passionately in love with her throughout his life.
   
   Ellis admits that all we do know is based primarily on three letters Washington wrote to Sally (Fairfax). The last letter he cites was one Washington wrote near the end of his life. Mr. Ellis states that "in this letter, he confessed to an elderly Sally that she had been the passion of his youth, that he had never been able to forget her, 'nor been able to eradicate from my mind those happy moments, the happiest in my life, which have enjoyed in your company."
   
   I decided to research his references, and look up the text of Washington's letter on the Library of Congress website. They have actual images of all of the original letters of George Washington. What I found relieved me greatly and set my mind at ease. It also made me feel disgusted than an author who claims to accurately represent the life of such a noble man could be so purposely deceptive.
   
   The actual letter was written by Washington in his later years, with his wife. He talked about how he was remembering the times of harmony and friendship that he and his wife spent with Sally and her husband at their home. He describes these times as some of the happiest of his life. At the end of his part of the letter he says "Mrs. Washington is about to give you an account of the changes which have happened in the neighbourhood and in our own family."
   
   Mr. Ellis said that in this letter he confessed that she had been the passion of his youth. That is simply a blatant falsehood.
   
   Ellis also states that there is no evidence to show whether the relationship between Washington and Fairfax ever crossed the sexual threshold or not. Why does he even feel the need to include such a ridiculous statement? It is akin to saying that although someone spends some time at the local bank, we don't have evidence to show whether they were a bank robber or not.
   
   Attempting to insinuate that the framers of our Constitution such as Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin were immoral men, is happening more and more often in our country.
   
   In an excellent book "The Rewriting of America's History", there is an example of how deceitful this influence can be. The book explained how in an earlier edition of a school history textbook it stated that George Washington had a hot temper that he kept masterfully controlled. In a later edition of the same textbook, it simply said: "George Washington had a hot temper." I think that is a powerful example of how a subtle adjustment can completely change our thinking of his character.
   
   I have found that this is happening more and more frequently in our world today as I have studied the founding father's lives including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and others.
   
   I could continue on with how careful research contradicts the opinions of Mr. Ellis, but I will simply recommend a much better book. "The Real George Washington", published by The National Center for Constitutional Studies.



2. It is sad. The author has made big bucks on a book that essentially is aimed at bringing George Washington down to the level of today's politicians. There certainly is an audience for this kind of interpretation of our Founding Father and it can only be accomplished by someone who has a perspective and wants to use his skills to slant the reader's view toward his own negativity. I much preferred to read David McCullough's history, "1776," which dwells primarily on Washington as a person and a leader, but without the hidden agenda (whatever it is) of the author of "His Excellency," which is really an attempt to rewrite history and bring Washington down to the level of a Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon in a colonial setting. Shame on you, Mr. Ellis, although you are entitled to your opinion -- which is what this book is all about.



3. Some have wanted to reserve 5 stars to a "War and Peace" type book. To me 5 stars means the book did what it set out to do and did it well. "His Excellency" indeed did. It is an excellent short biography of the father of our country. When I picked this book up, I realized all I knew about Washington was what I had been taught in grade school.
   
   Ellis is an excellent biographer who delves into many aspects of Washington's life. The narrative moved well and was entertaining. Some may be put off by Ellis' style of going into analysis of issues. I found that this added to my understanding.
   
   Washington indeed was a great man who's influence reaches us to this day. Now I know why!



4. While it's totally hip to de-mythify things our parents (silly things) thought were good, Ellis's de-mythification of Washington is not satisfying. His basic thesis is that Washington was a nincompoop who happened to be in the right place at the right time his whole life. That's unlikely, and it doesn't explain why Washington was a legend in his own time as well as our own, unlike most "mythical" legends, whose myths grow in time.
   
   Five stars for doing what everyone else does.
   Two stars for insight.



5. The modern "pyschological" biography attempts what is probably an impossibility: to penetrate and elucidate the core "personality" or "character" of an historic figure. The danger that the resulting portrait may be a novel masquerading as a biography, a creation of the author rather than a rendition of the subject, is great. Still more so when the author has clear psychological quirks of his own, and a contemporary political axe to grind. When he also has formidable literary skills, the danger of creating a cogent, compelling lie is acute. This is certainly so in the works of Joseph J. Ellis. He has admitted telling lies about his alleged role in the Vietnam War, demonstrating that his own character and personality are not wedded to the truth. Stranger still, in light of the content of his self-aggrandizing fabrications, he is an avowed political liberal. Something very odd was going on in his own psyche. More recently, he has written that the political vision of Barack Obama accords with that of the Founding Fathers (or, as Ellis calls them, the "so-called founding fathers"). There are thus multiple reasons to be skeptical of Ellis' several attempts to psychoanalyze the Founders. In this volume the patient on the couch is Washington. It is altogether too convenient that Ellis' Washington is a man whose primary impulse is to seek control in all things, but above all in the attempt to control his own reputation (or, as we might say, his "image"), both for contemporaries and for posterity. That's the psychology; as to the politics, Ellis' Washington is the Founding Liberal, prescient in his perception of the need for a strong national government that would curb the rights that Jeffersonians, and today's conservatives, regard as reserved to the states and the people. According to Ellis, the psychology and the politics are linked: Washington's belief in a strong national government was an external projection of his inner control. As is typical with this sort of work, any behavior or pronouncement that departs from the general "insight" is just the exception that proves the rule. Ellis even manages to turn Washington's Farewell Address, with its admonition against foreign involvement, into a harbinger of Kissingerian internationalism. Although this book is well written, indeed a joy to read, and is superficially convincing, I am deeply suspicious.

1 comments about Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memories of Major Dick Winters (Thorndike Paperback Bestsellers).

1. This informative book gives first hand information of a great American, who served his country extremely well during WWII.!!! It gives additional clarification to the historical experiences that Major Winters had during and after the war. If you enjoyed the Band of Brothers book, you will greatly enjoy Dick Winters' recollections!

5 comments about 'Tis: A Memoir.

1. This book was great and was definitely more light-hearted than Angela's Ashes. You don't need to have read his first book (Angela's Ashes) to enjoy this part of his memoir; in fact reading the first book made me enjoy this one less simply because there was just no way for it to compare to the first.



2. I ordered this book USED/GOOD CONDITION. It came in Very good condition. I was very pleased and will not hesitate to order a used book again.



3. Frank McCourt wrote "'Tis" as an obvious follow-up after the success of "Angela's Ashes". This second memoir is less visceral and dramatic, perhaps because it does not deal with memories of a childhood in poverty. Nevertheless, it is still engrossing and emotionally moving, full of humor and sadness, revealing the deep family feelings and the individual self of the author.
   
   Starting with his arrival in New York City at the age of 19, McCourt describes his first shocking experience with the priest at the hotel (I could not stop laughing, although, sadly, this is not something to be taken lightly), which led to his first janitorial job in a hotel lobby. His struggle for money to sustain himself and send enough to his mother in Limerick led him to work at the docks, where he met a plethora of people and started experiencing the true New York diversity. In his pursuit of education, he discovered the library, but could not even imagine a way to get a college degree...until he was drafted to serve in the Korea war.
   
   Never actually sent to Korea, Frank spent his army time in Germany instead, first working with dog training, and then as a clerk. He became a skilled typist, which allowed him to get a clerical job back in New York City. Another benefit of serving in the military was his entitlement to go to the university. Despite his lack of high school diploma and massive inferiority complex, Frank got a degree in English and became a teacher. In college, he met a beautiful girl, Alberta, who later became his wife (perhaps he viewed her as a challenge? A woman epitomizing everything American?). I loved his descriptions of problems with students and the school system, the family perturbations a little less so - but, all in all, "'Tis" is a great book, which reads very well and is hard to put down. I enjoyed it as much as "Angela's Ashes": in a little bit different way, but I did not expect it to be the same - the period of Frank's life here is that of a young man, and he focuses more on his personal development and experience, not so much on his family (which, anyway, is an eternal presence). Is it a typical route an immigrant could follow at that time, or highly personal? I think it is both, in a way...
   I like McCourt's language, the flow of his sentences like a story told at the fireplace, his sensitivity and eye to detail. I enjoyed his view of the New York City, too.
   
   I assume will read the third part, "Teacher Man", with equal pleasure and I am looking forward to it.



4. I thought Tis was a better read than Angela's Ashes. Being an American born in 1970, I can not relate to Ireland circa 1925 (it was apparently an awful place - move on). However, I found McCourt's historical accounts of WWII America to be fascinating reading. Americans were so openly racist back then toward every group imaginable. If anyone can claim a reason for America's greatness, it's her ability to change for the better, although Iraq is a bad example. But then again, GW Bush actually lost those two elections, so we tried. I suppose there will always be material for books, like Tis, about ugly Americans who despite themselves turn out to have functioning hearts. A sincere thank you, Frank.



5. Oh my word. I don't know what most reviewers are talking about. Tis is a true gift to readers who're interested in the author's life. Angela's Ashes had more poetry while Tis has more modern day cynicism being caged to a life imposes. In transparent words, this is the book where McCourt grows up in the USA. It's about his odd and awkward days of longing for women and wondering why he was the odd one out, about days when he wanted to be disconnected from his family and despite not being poor, the author finds himself in another predicament of missing Limerick, Ireland.
   
   Frank McCourt is my favourite author. I don't know about writing styles because I've never read many books but Tis truly broke my heart a few times and it made me laugh out loud atleast six times. In my opinion, it is a bit criminal to say that this book is better than Angela's Ashes but I must admit I enjoyed reading this even more.
   
   Do me a favour and ignore all the negative reviews. Arm chair critics wouldn't know better.

No comments about Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 (Large Print Press).

2 comments about Why Women Should Rule the World LP: A Memoir.

1. 
   We women are often afraid of our own power. Afraid to be thought of as pushy or bitchy if we assert ourselves willfully with the force of our passion. But wise women wield power wisely and the planet is in desperate need of our wisdom. The time couldn't be more crucial.
   
   Thank you, Dee Dee Meyers for your insights, as well as for being such an inspiring role model. You are right! I agree completely. Women SHOULD rule the world!
   
   Now is the time for all women to acknowledge and explore our stature and our strength. It is high time to exert our influence and the power of our moral convictions and authority. We have held back long enough. Starting here, starting now, we must claim our rightful duties as powerful leaders. We have the whole world in our hands.
   
   Hell may have no fury like a woman scorned, but women standing together side by side, autonomous, proud, and empowered can create heaven on earth.
   
   There will be no heaven unless we make it.
   -Florence Nightingale



2. 
   I loved this book; anyone against war and for communication among
   law makers and world leaders, as well as fiscal responsibility will want to see what real change could do.

No comments about The Sum of Our Days LP: A Memoir.

1 comments about My Losing Season: The Point Guard's Way to Knowledge (Random House Large Print) (Random House Large Print (Paper)).

1. Although I'm not a basketball player or even a sports fan, I couldn't put this book down. The book is really about the coming of age of a young man, as seen through the experience of an intense basketball season at a military academy. The writing is full of wonderful metaphors, and smooth and easy to read. The emotional journey--like other Conroy books--is intense. The difference here is that the experience is so real. He's describing real people, and the narrator is Conroy himself. The depiction of what goes on at The Citadel may shock you with its brutality. Its amazing that Conroy can recreate his senior year in college so clearly thirty years later. Thoroughly enjoyable.

5 comments about Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again.

1. I highly recommend this book to anyone!!! Very interesting and insightful, and a fast read!



2. Critics of this book argue that Ms. Vincent began at the outset of her cross-dressing, gender-bending adventure with a biased, anti-male outlook. This may well be true, as Ms. Vincent, if not biased against men, certainly battles with an almost omnipresent cloud of arrogance. However, it is foolish of the critics to expect an unbiased accounting of an event that in itself eliminates any possibility to be unbiased. This is not a distant observation of animal packs, but an author putting herself within the experiment and attempting to gain knowledge and insight into herself from her deceptions.
   
   On that subject, Ms. Vincent's year-and-a-half dressing and acting as a man seems to yield relatively few strong insights for outside readers. The analysis Vincent gives: That men act differently around men than women, that men are held to a different standard and that oftentimes this different standard damages men's images of themselves, that men are often not the single-minded, sex-driven animals some (like Ms. Vincent) believe them to be, fails to break much new ground. If anything, Vincent's triumph is illuminating these ideas with biographies and interactions with real people. One comes away from a first reading sympathetic towards the many men Vincent meets, condescends upon and redeems while incognito. The male supporting characters - not Vincent's fictional man - ultimately become the most intriguing and thought-provoking characters in Self Made Man, a fact that ultimately supports Vincent's argument that the "modern man" could use a good second analysis, for what first appears in Vincent's varied characters rarely holds true beneath the surface.



3. Good read, but the conclusions she reaches are a bit questionable. Largely, this is a good book if you want to know what it is like for a woman to pretend to be a man. It is not so good if you want insight on what it is like to actually be a man. Let's look at each of her experiences:
   
   1. Dating. She engages in primarly in either trying to pick up strangers or dating people she meets on Interent match sites. Naturally, she encounters much rejection with the former, and bad experiences with the latter. Well, what did she expect? It is always best to try to meet people in friendlier social settings and spend some time with them before asking them out. Naturally, this is not an option for Vincent, as her own social circles are closed to her as far as this experiment goes.
   
   2. Sales jobs. She tries out being a man in the workplace, but the problem is that she ends up working the worst type of job out there - the door to door salesman. The firms she applies reject no one, and everyone works strictly on commission, so her co-workers are not exactly the cream of the crop of society. Vincent complains about off-color and masogynistic behavior at work, and, again, what did she expect? These are very seedy environments.
   
   3. Monastery. Vincent joins an all-male community, and therein lies the problem. These people are not normal. The brothers actively shun females and choose to live a life of chastity and largely solitude (even pets are not allowed in the monastery). Naturally, these men will have issues.
   
   4. All-male retreat. A bunch of guys with daddy issues go to a retreat and try to get in touch with themselves and so forth. Again, this is not normal, and most men do not do this and have no need for this. So naturally, she is going to encounter guys with emotional problems.
   
   Here is a quote toward the end of the book. "Being a guy was. . . a series of unrealistic, limiting, infuriating and depressing expectations constantly coming over the wire, and you just a dummy trying to act on the instructions." Seriously, I do not know a single guy who thinks this. Now, naturally, for a woman pretending to be a man and not knowing how to act in certain situations, yes, this must be how it feels. But this is not what "being a guy" feels like to an actual guy.



4. While this book had some moments where it contributed something, it read much more like one long rant about how tough it is to be male, and how tough it was for the author to go undercover and attempt to be a male. Her skewered prospective of the absolutely miserable lives of her blue collar teammates (she all but encourages they to smoke and drink themselves into an early grave because they have such hopeless lives anyway) is just one example of her strangely slanted view of the world.



5. Being especially interested in the study of masculinity, I was excited to read this book after hearing about Vincent's initial concept and consequent project. I held off buying the book for awhile, and only purchased it after it came out in paperback. After completing the book a few nights ago, I must say that I almost wish that I had forgotten to read it. In reading the book, I was expecting a courageous account of how difficult it was for a woman to navigate male culture in disguise, and further, how her ensuing journey would complicate simplistic understandings of gender roles in contemporary American society. Instead, I got gratuitous condescension heaped upon a wide variety of underdeveloped-male "characters" - the working-class man in particular, and the emotionally handicapped male in general. Vincent's work is by no means insightful, lacks any real tension, and was tedious to read. The only worthwhile part of the book was the author's discussion of her nervous break that resulted from her experiment. It was the only part of the book that seemed somewhat honest. Yet, while this final discussion elicited some emotional response from me, I could not help but feel a little manipulated - was this addendum a desperate move to add credibility to the banal observations that littered Vincent's work? I grant that Vincent's experiment was a courageous one, too bad the author could not break out of rigid stereotypes about both men and women to actually add something worthwhile to discussions of masculinity and gender in a world where such discussions are sorely needed.

5 comments about Me (Random House Large Print).

1. One of Homer Simpson's favorite books, along with TV Guide and Son of Sniglet.



2. Katharine Hepburn was an amazing American actress and icon. Although you wouldn't think so reading this book, Kate doesn't think of what she does as anything to be ashamed of or boast about. I could still see her in the documentary after this book came out. She said Oscars are nice but they won't garden for you or something like that. She was a remarkable human being. I just have one criticism. She left out the Golden Pond but she also left a very nice page to her devoted platonic secretary, personal assistant and companion, Phyllis. I thought it was so touching that she wrote something so nice about her. It can kind of gives you goosebumps to the amazing person that she was. Sadly, she discovered her brother's dead body from a suicide. Her struggles as an actress and her relationship with the love of her life, Spencer Tracy, is also there for the audience. She clearly loved him so much and yet, they could teach today's celebrities a thing or two about being discreet but they were truly movie stars and gifted actors beyond my comprehension. Katharine, we miss you and this book provides us some of your voice.



3. Her life and her stories are so interesting and the way she tells them makes you almost hear her voice while reading the words. Her phrasing is almost like stream of consciousness (not like Virginia Woolf-stream of consciousness, just very fragment-y, incorrect grammar, etc.) I got the feeling that what she allows the reader to learn about is only a small fraction of what she really knows and has experienced in her life, not to mention that the stories are more than likely a little one-sided at times, as if the other person in the story, if you could talk to them, would have a completely different version of the same event. But that's part of the attraction of the book for me.
   Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot on Spencer Tracy, and leaves a bunch to the reader's imagination in that department (Spencer was married to someone else the entire time they were a "couple" and she alludes to the fact that they spent time living together; how did this work?). But you definitely pick up on her absolute reverence for the man and their relationship, which is why she doesn't reveal much.
   Overall it's a fascinating glimpse inside the workings of one of America's most famous, most talented, most enigmatic actresses with SO many quirks and interesting ideas and beliefs about life.



4. Listening to Ms. Hepburn's audiobiography now, what a witty and charming lady she was! We always knew she was so talented, and now we get to hear from her, herself, in her own words. She's a true star -- in every sense of the word!



5. I first became curious about the life of Katherine Hepburn after seeing how she was portrayed in the wonderful film, The Aviator, starring Leonardo DeCaprio. So, when I found her autobiography, ME, available on CD read by Katherine, herself, I jumped at the opportunity to buy it. Anyone who has respect and admiration for Katherine Hepburn should treasure this recording. Particularly endearing were the chuckles in her sweet voice as she read; her childhood memories of tree climbing; her memories Howard Hughes landing a plane on a golf course and finishing out a round of golf wth her; and her undying love for Spencer Tracy. The CD ended beautifully with one of the most touching descriptions of love this 52 year old man has ever heard. Her admiration for "Spence" has provoked me to explore his movies. Boom Town starring Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and Heddy Lamar came on TV the other night and I would have never thought to care for it had it not been for this CD. The movie was a delight! I am now a Spencer Tracy fan thanks to Ms. Hepburn.
   
   I highly recommend this CD for anyone who enjoys reflecting on the fascinating people who made their mark in society and helped to make our lives more enjoyable. In my opinion, Katherine Hepburn should be regarded as a national treasure.