5 comments about Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six Mit Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.

1. It's certainly worth the read and is an interesting look at a group taking on Vegas. As most know, the book chronicles the rise and fall of one of the MIT blackjack teams and gives a behind the scenes look at the roller coaster ride they went on. There were tense moments that kepy the reader turning pages when the team was avoiding being caught, but there really weren't as many stories of the "Vegas" lifestyle as I was expecting. The finish was predictable and somewhat anti-climatic.



2. Mr. Mezrich, in "Bringing Down the House", gives us a fascinating account of a group of MIT students who took "card counting" at the blackjack table to a whole new level. This fast paced page-turner takes a thrill ride that reads like a novel. Great read!!



3. Book was like new and delivered as promised. Great book for a great price. Very easy transaction. Thank you!



4. This book came to my attention after hearing a radio interview with one of the MIT Card Counters. I immediately searched out this book, and it didn't disappoint. Ben Mezrich does a great job of boiling down a sophisticated card-counting system, following the rise and fall of one of the team's key members. And for those interested in the details, an essay on card counting mechanics by the main subject, "Kevin Lewis," is presented at the end of the book.
   
   This was Mezrich's first forray into non-fiction and it shows at times with some cheesy and tedious metaphors and heavy-handed attemps at injecting prose into the action. Nonetheless, the book is short enough and the action quick enough that I wouldn't describe this as a major distraction.
   
   If you liked "Rounders" or the casino scene in "Rain Man," then this book is probably for you.



5. I liked the story behind what these kids did. It was exciting and scandolous. I didn't like the actual people in the story. Most of them seem like overpriveleged brats who were looking for a free lunch. I was also a tad disappointed with how simple their methods really were. It had less to do with brainy algorithims and more to do with teamwork and deception. All in all though, an interesting book.

No comments about Martin Van Buren: The American Presidents Series.

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 . . .

No comments about The Last of the Cockleshell Heroes: A World War Two Memoir (ISIS Large Print).

No comments about Autobiography of Madame Guyon (EasyRead Comfort Edition).

1 comments about A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. The restraint and economy with which the author approaches her subject only enhance the richness of the work. With a wealth of detail,Hazel Holt sets the jewel of Pym's works in the setting of her life. For example, paraphrasing: "Hilary and I reckoned up the reasons people had left our parish church: Rome, Death, and Umbrage. Umbrage, of course, removed the greatest number." Those who have enjoyed Pym's work would do well to read this book before other secondary sources.

5 comments about A Skating Life: My Story.

1. This is a revealing look into Dorothy Hamill's life from her first moments on the ice at 8 years old, to training to become a Gold Medal winner at the '76 Olympics through her life today. Dorothy Hamill details the sacrifices her family made, the challenges with coaches and training to become an Olympic athlete and how her passion for skating got her through some of the most difficult times in her life.
   
   Dorothy Hamill was my hero growing up. I had the Dorothy haircut, the Dorothy glasses, and spent many afternoons on the skating rink at my grade school trying to teach myself spins and jumps. After reading A SKATING LIFE: MY STORY, she remains my hero.
   
   I never realized what went into becoming serious in a sport like ice skating. The expense of traveling to train with the right coach, traveling to get enough time on the ice to practice, the cost of equipment and trying to get an education while competing in shows around the world was only a part of it. It was inspiring to learn the sacrifices made by Dorothy's family and Dorothy herself, although she never writes much of her own personal sacrifices. I learned so much about the beautiful and challenging sport.
   
   Dorothy's story doesn't end with winning the gold medal in the '76 Olympics. It was only the beginning. She met the love of her life, Dean Paul Martin only to have it end in heartbreak and tragedy. My heart broke right along with her. I so wanted her to live happily ever after and the love that she still feels for her first husband, Dean Paul radiates from the pages. This was when her struggle with depression truly came to the surface, even though she battled with panic disorder and depression all through childhood. The honesty that comes from this book is truly a gift. The painful family issues and frank discussion of depression were courageous.
   
   That being said, I hoped for a bit more about her struggle with depression. There was a lot of publicity about this book and America's Sweetheart suffering from depression for years, but little description of her struggle. It was written in a very matter of fact style without a lot of adjectives. Perhaps that's where we glimpse the real Dorothy. Instead of waxing poetic or dwelling in the difficult, she soldiers on telling her story with respectability and straightforwardness.
   
   She survived another marriage that ended in painful divorce and leaving her a bankrupt single mother. I was so sad and angry for what she endured. And yet she never wrote a bitter word about anyone. I don't know of many of us who could have endured what she did, and remain so humble and without animosity or hostility.
   
   While this wasn't the best written book I have ever reviewed, I had to give it a higher rating for its pure heart and openness.
   
   I think that Dorothy found closure with some of the issues plaguing her. The one issue that will probably always haunt her is the death of her first husband. I have a feeling Dean Paul will continue to be a shadow, watching over her and waiting for her.



2. If her Mother ever realized and/or finally got access to the enormous amount of money Dorothy was sending for her independence? If Dr. Forsythe's first wife told Dorothy about her life with him and how she was treated, or more to the point mistreated by him...I can't believe how blindly Dorothy allowed him to take, and take and take from her, one cannot buy love or devotion. I would have liked to know how Dorothy is doing financially; not exact figures of course, but has she recouped to a degree of financial independence, and with all the money she sent her parents over 7 years, didn't they have the decency to provide her some of her own capital to start fresh and help her young daughter? If they didn't, she needs to shut them out of her life too. Parents are to give to their children willingly, not with strings. Had some of these things been discussed in greater detail, the book would have been infinitely more enjoyable overall.
   
   She was quick to mention Vioxx (which has been recalled), and SHOCKINGLY goes to the very man who betrayed her for medical advice and medication? How foolish. Surely she could afford a "real" doctor who is working for a living and up on the latest advances in osteoarthritis. Someone without an ulterior motive for helping her. There was always a sense of her needing to go back to these men for some sense of self, it is really upsetting and very sad. Dorothy will have to keep her vulnerability in check if she is to escape such mistakes in the future.
   
   She is a lovely skater, a national treasure, but has paid way to high a price for that medal.
   
   Best of luck!



3. I love biographies, but this one left me looking forward to getting to the end. It seemed written through the eyes of an adolecent girl. There was nothing juicy or even interesting. It seemed Dorothy was dealing with the guilt she felt, about treating her mother badly, by writing this book. The binding fell apart half way through. It was a bust in every way possible for me!



4. Dorothy writes in almost too much detail, with a balance between revealing and keeping reserved ; what is written bewteen the lines is enough to fill in the blanks anyone might feel exist. It is curious that although Dorothy has the generosity and presence to reveal to the public a large dimension of her private suffering , benefitting so many who have suffered from depression or lived with a demanding or mentally ill family member , there is still a small faction of readers that want MORE, and this is the bane of her sweet sparkling gifted life. Someone is always asking for MORE! Her parents her husbands the coaches and now readers who feel like she must cut open a vein and bleed on to the pages or describe her bedroom details. Yikes.Dorothy is a giver, a woker who gave 110 percent to the world and the sport and the vultures still circle to pick her bones. One reader noted that she has no bitterness or anger, I think she should get some , and fast. Thank you Dorothy for the book and everything you've given in life...Now make part two of your life for you.



5. I loved Dorothy`s book. It was just as candid as the photo on the cover. For an armchair skater like me, who has followed figure skating for the past 40 years, it was a pleasure to be once on the inside of that world. I have such admiration for the dedication of those skaters and for their love of what they do. I enjoyed the book immensely.

5 comments about Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes (Random House Large Print (Paper)).

1. My daughter reproduced the same Caramel Cake that Maya made as a guest on Martha Stewart's show, for my birthday last fall...oh my gosh, it was so good!
   
   So good that I gave her Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, for Christmas.
   
   It is a warm and wonderful book, chock full of memories and yummy recipes...including the Caramel Cake.



2. I love this cookbook. I have already tried some recipes from it. Almost three weeks passed, however, before I received it. I am very satisfied with it.



3. A wonderful mix of story and recipe.
   As I try these wonderful southern dishes I recall her stories and I can sense the history of the dish.
   the caramel cake is worth 10x the price of the book alone.



4. None comes better. The recipes are honest and measure up to the quality of the author! Props to Sister Angelou !



5. I was so disappointed in this book. Not because it was a horrible book but because it ended. I was reading the memories she had of each recipe and throughly enjoying myself when I realized that the next page that I turned was the index. I didn't want it to be over so soon. I really felt a sense of deep disappointment. I was surprised at my reaction because it was after all only a recipe book. This book pulls you in and takes you on a journey both of her life and her culinary expertise. You will get wrapped up in it as you laugh and imagine the flavors of the dishes. I think that she should write another recipe book. I'm sure that these are not the only recipes she knows. I admire Dr. Angelou both as a poet, writer, woman, and cook.

5 comments about Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir.

1. I read Luft's version of her own mothers story. A very good book, told from someone close enough to feel the total pain and agony that the rest of the world felt- only amplified as her daughter.
   Luft's book does paint a little fairy tale into the mix, but is a shocking story of watching your mother slip down a long dark slope.
   Luft tells about Judy's start in Hollywood which is equally as interesting as the photo's in the book. Luft paints that love story between her mother and father and leaves you feeling his loss for her.
   She also explains the relationship between her and sister Liza Minelli.
   It's a great boigraphy.



2. This is a great book and being a Judy Garland admirer, nothing about her life would make me not be a fan but it's more refreshing to hear what happened from someone who was there instead of a biographer who "makes up" stories of what he/she has heard.
   
   This is a great book - it's truthful, compassionate and real.



3. Its difficult to believe that anyone anywhere would get anything out of this auto biography. her whole point seemed to be that Sid Luft was the greatest man and has gotten a bad rap . Her book vindicates him, and she has a way of portraying her mom as a nightmare without actually coming across as being a rotten daughter. Very clever of her but unfortunately her book isnt as clever or well written to make up for the denial and genuine lack of insight or honesty in the book.
   Talking about your drug problems is NOT honest. its just common knowledge and quite acceptable in todays society.
   Lorna seems to reduce everything in her life to addiction, her mothers, her own and her sisters.
   As for Liza, well, i agree with another review, Lorna manages to talk alot about Liza's addiction while glossing over her own.
   And as for the quote on the back of her book
   " Lorna is the most talented of us all"
   Judy Garland
   well, i dont want to state the obvious but
   We know who we're talking about when we say
   JUDY or
   LIZA
   how many trys would someone have to come up with when they heard
   Lorna
   before they said Luft?



4. What is incredible about this book is Lorna Luft's first becoming acquainted, in her mid-thirties, with the theory of alcoholism as a family disease.
   
   It brings to mind Liza Minnelli's appearance on "Inside the Actors Studio" a year or two ago. She told the audience to look up alcoholism, because it actually is a disease!
   
   It makes one wonder whether these two were living under glittery, spangled rocks, or something.
   
   The book is an interesting read, but the many, many pages devoted to Ms. Luft's late-in-life revelations about her mother's and her sister's addictions are like patiently watching a child play with color crayons: You know you're doing the polite thing, but Gawd, it's boring.
   
   Finally, I wonder who edited this book. "Me and Joey," and "Me and Mama," and "Me and Liza," and so on. After the first few dozen, it's like reading a letter from camp.
   
   Is it to remind the reader of the title of the book he already has in his hand, or is it just plain bad grammar?



5. I recently read this book. Although it is not the best autobiography I have ever read it is not the worst either. It is a good interesting read. Ms. Luft is honest and straight forward with how she saw things. I have read other posts blasting her for false statements. And I have to ask those blasting her: Where you there? Did you live it?
   
   One reviewer is under the mistaken idea that Judy was forced to live in London at the end of her life. Not so. She went there quite often to do concerts and I believe was there to do a concert when she passed away. No one forced her out of the country if you read the book no one forced her to do anything no one dared!
   
   Frankly if you want to know the real Judy read this book from someone who loves and cares about her and was there with her constantly. As for cashing in on her mother I don't find that is the case here. I think she just wants to tell her side of the story. After all most books about Ms. Garland are full of false stories and written by people who really did want to cash in on her name. One that comes to mind is her last husband Mickey Deans, who only knew her for a few months not years. Talk about a garbage book.
   
   I didn't find that she was trashing her mother at all on the contrary she was trying to set the record straight. I had no doubt while reading this that she loved her mother very much. It had to be very painful to write this book. On many occasions in the book she says her mother was a great mother. These people blasting Ms. Luft are obviously people who have never lived with someone this dependant on drugs and this mentally affected by those drugs. As one reviewer says "sure she could be difficult, what addict isn't?" Difficult? She threw knifes at people on at least two occasions! This is a reviewer who has never had to deal with this type of problem. Thirty years of the volume of drugs Ms. Garland ingested is going to generate someone that is more than just difficult.
   
   To get on Ms. Luft's case for moving in with her father 10 months before the death of her mother is ridiculous. To say, as one reviewer did, at least the "sleazy hanger-on" were there at the end is ludicrous. Ms. Luft was a teenager. She should not have had to continue to live in that environment. It was not her responsibility to take care of her mother at that age. She did for many years, but it took its toll on her. It showed great strength to walk away.
   
   Reading some of these scathing reviews leads me to believe the people didn't really read the book. They are just Judy fanatics that cannot stand that there icon was not a saint. She was human with human frailties.
   
   Another reviewer blasts Sid Luft and his treatment of Judy and how he pushed her too hard. The book clearly says that Sid Luft did not want to be her manager that Judy wanted him to manage her, so he did. The book also states he watched out for her and monitored her pill intake so she would not take more than perscribed. From what is decribed in the book he had nothing but her best intrest at heart and would not do anything to hurt her.
   
   Everyone has a point of view. Growing up my memories are not the same as my sisters or brothers, but that does not make mine or their memories false just a different point of view. This is true of all families, whether you are famous or not, so the same holds true for Ms. Luft's memories of her family. She was there. This is her point of view on actual events that occured in her life; the reviewers here were not there, so if you want to learn about the real Judy Garland as seen through the eyes of someone very close to her read this book.

5 comments about Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (Large Print Edition).

1. This book was pracitically written for the ambitious young man, as there are many references to this. Mr. Carnegie serves as a great role model, which I feel is quite important, especially considering the terrible events in schools lately. Carnegie emphasizes the importance of self-improvement, knowing your talents, being kind, and also the importance of public speaking. You will learn important lessons thru personal anecdotes of his life. This book should be required reading for every adolescent attending high school.



2. It has been over a year since I ground my way through this book. My lack of adaptability to the Olde Worlde English may have contributed to this. I found this to be a long book about an interesting individual whose sole purpose for writing the book, I have concluded, was to leave a lasting, self-congratulatory reminder of his own life. I must disagree with a previous review that stated it was a must for any young ambitious person. I am; it wasn't.
   For sheer inspiration from another person's life, I would recommend works on Lincoln, the Wright brothers (Kill Devil Hill), Richard Branson, Edison, Spielberg, Mme Curie, Bruce Lee, Iacocca and Einstein.



3. The vanity of today's uneducated society is breathtaking. White is black and black is white and 'a little knowledge' is indeed proving very dangerous. This book (along with the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin) should be read by every American citizen - to relearn what America once represented.

   For example, Carnegie Steel, the world's largest company in 1900, was NOT a corporation; it was a private partnership. The sale of the company to JP morgan (for half a billion dollars) was done on a handshake; a contract was a mere afterthought. Reputation and honesty and customer service were THE guiding principles of the era. 'Individual responsibility' was considered a good thing in those days.

   America now has more lawyers per capita than any other nation on Earth. Our politicians now attempt to micro-manage every detail of our lives. You break a fingernail and sue the universe. We have become terrified of freedom. Read this book if you want to understand how America rose from a third world country to a superpower between 1800 and 1900 - without government intervention or welfare or all the millions of rules and regulations we now hold so dear. We have traded away our freedom for security. The price is higher than you think.




4. I'll admit that my primary motivation for reading this book was somewhat shallow--I basically wanted to read about how one of history's most successful businessmen amassed so much wealth. To be honest, the book didn't really give as many details as I would have liked on that particular interest. But what I got along the way made the book worth it.

   First and foremost, after reading 350 pages of Carnegie writing about his life you feel like you really start to know him, to get a sense of what kind of human being he was, and even to get a sense of his somewhat remarkable confidence level that exists in conjunction with his pretty inspiring level of benevolence and compassion. But I think even more than getting a sense of Carnegie, you get a sense of the time he lived in. Some of the most engaging parts of the book for me were the first-hand accounts of Lincoln during the Civil War, or Carnegie's conversations with President Harrison about a small uprising in Chile. You also hear about how he handled the strikes of steel workers, an occurence I'd only read about in history books but never learned directly about from the perspective of the manager.

   All throughout Carnegie peppers with his nuggets of wisdom, and you get the feeling he knows people want them really badly but that he chooses to give them sparingly.

   In the end, I probably will never re-read this book, but I feel better educated about one of history's greatest industrialists, greatest benefactors, and the time he lived in after having read it. If you have a nascent interest in history, you will most likely enjoy this book; if you're looking for a "how to make your millions" from a master, I would look elsewhere.




5. Born in Scotland but an immigrant to the United States as a teenager, Andrew Carnegie has been variously characterized as a "captain of industry" or a "robber baron" by those who have chronicled his rise to wealth and fame in the latter nineteenth century. After selling his steel company to J.P. Morgan at the turn of the century, Carnegie devoted himself to philanthropic goals. He gave away more than $350 million to various causes and endowed more than 250,000 libraries. His philanthropic activities were underpinned by a fundamental belief in the virtue of hard work, perseverance, and self-improvement through education, hence his emphasis on libraries and the endowing of other educational organizations. Fundamentally, this book offers a restatement of the "Horatio Alger" myth of the "American dream" of success through personal commitment. At the same time Carnegie seeks to pass on his wisdom gained through a lifetime of effort. A significant and fascinating statement of American industrial individualism that is required reading for all who wish to understand the history of the United States in the latter nineteenth century, Carnegie's autobiography also served as a model for many others to follow. Unfortunately, few achieved the success that Carnegie enjoyed despite the diligence they may have registered.