5 comments about Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time (Thorndike Press Large Print Americana Series).

1. In "Iron Horse", Ray Robinson gives the reader an introduction to the Lou Gehrig persona. More than a list of records and triumphs of the baseball star, we meet the human being behind the records. I always had the impression that Gehrig was a good man, whereas Babe Ruth was only a good baseball player. This book confirms that impression.
   
   Growing up the son of German immigrants, Gehrig had the disadvantage of being something of an outsider in his own world. Baseball was just one avenue he traveled in his efforts to advance himself. Various jobs and Columbia University were other options pursued by Lou. His parents discouraged him from playing a game which they did not understand. When Lou had to choose between Columbia University and baseball, his parents urged the University, while a professor recommended baseball. Going to work every day was not extraordinary for Lou. That was how his parents raised him.
   
   In his chosen trade, Lou achieved excellence and attention wherever he played. Lou lived the thrill of playing baseball, and as a Yankee to boot! Lou always considered himself the luckiest man alive, even as he lived in the shadow of two giants, Babe Ruth at the start of his career, and Joe DiMaggio toward the end. Through it all, Lou considered himself a lucky man.
   
   Robinson leads the reader through a character study of his boyhood hero. We see Lou's relationships with his loving parents who could never understand the stage on which he strode. His wife, who gave him joy while suffering his mother's resentment, would be his solace in his illness. His relationships with his team mates, particularly Babe Ruth, get much attention. In this book we see Gehrig as a man not only driven by passions and wants, but guided by a sense of right and wrong. He was the moral compass of the Yankees. This trait prevented him from ever being the close friend of Ruth with whom he is so commonly associated in the public mind.
   
   Driven, perhaps, by contemporary interests, Lou's earnings are frequently reported. We are brought to understand that even a star of Gehrig's luminance earned a large salary, but still needed to work when he retired. Lou found post baseball employment in a department of the city in which he grew up, achieved stardom and gradually deteriorated and died.
   
   The illness of the only patient to give his name to a disease forms much of the latter sections of the book. Robinson tries to give an accurate report of how the disease affected Lou without over exaggerating its effects. We travel with Lou throughout his slump, ending of the streak and his gradual deterioration. At the end we have seen all 37 years of his remarkable and admirable life.
   
   Although the reader is introduced to the persona of Lou Gehrig, there is plenty of baseball too. This is an excellent book for any baseball fan with a desire to into the soul of one of baseball's most noble knights.



2. Lou Gehrig is a baseball legend. He played on the dynastic New York Yankees teams of the 1920s and 1930s alongside Babe Ruth. He had a .340 lifetime batting average and 493 career home runs. He set a record of 2,130 consecutive games played, a record that stood for decades. And he died of ALS in 1941 at age 38, a disease that now bears his name in the recollections of most Americans. His story, with proper dramatic license, was portrayed in the classic baseball movie, "The Pride of the Yankees," with Gary Cooper as Gehrig in what many consider the actor's greatest performance.
   
   Ray Robinson, a sports journalist and editor, tells this story in "Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig and His Time." It is a book very much in the genre of many other conventional sports biographies. It is a serviceable biography at best, and far from great. In it we learn about one of the greatest stars of major league baseball in the pre-World War II era. If you want a basic introduction to the life and career of Lou Gehrig this book is fine. If you want a well-researched, thoughtful, and sophisticated biography of the Yankee great go elsewhere. This work is very much a "once over lightly" treatment of a person who deserves better.



3. Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig In His Time charts the life and accomplishments of a truly legendary ball player, plus author Ray Robinson provides the reader with a wealth of background details on the era of baseball through the Depression years. Most of all, it's a recreation of the man who played over two thousand consecutive games before he was diagnosed with the fatal disease named after him. A lively writing style blends history and biography, setting the times and baseball events for newcomers to the sport and providing a vivid account of a legend. Highly recommended: even non-baseball readers will find it engrossing.



4. This is the story of Lou in more than just baseball terms, from his humble upbringing, to his marriage and untimely death. The book is full of great stories and insights by someone who has obviously done their homework on the topic. Alot of fact-correcting with regards to the Ruth-Gehrig squabbles, and sets the record straight on aot of issues. It is not a "pageturner", but I came away feeling like I learned a great deal about a baseball legend I thought I knew alot about.



5. A well written piece with good research about the life of this great man. Good book for any sports fan.

5 comments about Patrimony : A True Story (Curley Large Print).

1. With such clarity, love, and understanding of both sides, Philip Roth writes an autobiographical account of his relationship with his father, who is 86 years old at the time the book begins. Philip Roth is to be commended for showing not only the duality in taking on such a role, but also how roles reverse...This is a must read for those who are in the role reversal, and coming to terms with a parent!



2. Heard the CD version of PATRIMONY: A TRUE STORY
   by Philip Roth, the touching story of how his 86-year-old
   father battles with the brain tumor that eventually kills him.
   
   If you've ever been in the situation where you have had a parent
   or grandparent get old right before your eyes, then this
   is a book for you . . . it will help you deal with the situation
   better and, also, to understand the aging process.
   
   I really felt I got to know Herman Roth and enjoyed in
   sharing his reminisces about growing up in Newark, as
   well as about life.
   
   In addition, I could relate to the difficulties that Philip Roth
   was going through in attempting to care for his
   father--especially when he, too, had to deal with a serious
   illness during the process.
   
   The narration by George Guidall was excellent . . . his interpretation
   of the elder Roth's voice was truly amazing.



3. It assumes a certain degree of risk for one of the most successful writers of the last half of the 20th Century to expose his personal life for the approval of the public. Perhaps crossing a barrier into intimacy in "Patrimony", Philip Roth tells of the story of the death of his father.
   
   It is difficult to be judgmental about biographical account of of somebody's life or in this case death while not being overly critcal of the person. Yet while I found this book to be humorous at points, the story was just not what I had hoped to read. I am a fan of many of Philip Roth's other books. I knew this book would be unlike his other books and risked alienating Roth's fan base. This makes me wonder why Roth ever wrote or published this book.
   
   While it is personal and exhibits good storytelling, it never engaged me as a reader. To be cliche, I never felt Roth's pain. In this regard, this book is somewhat of a lemon.



4. There is something sad, something utterly painful about book tributes to fathers. When reading Wiesel's "Night", Franzen's "My Father's Brain" or Roth's "Patrimony", one comes to grips with a difficult reality, of the unnatural heart ache and grief that accompany aging and what they do in the mean time to the father-son relationship.
   
   "Patrimony" offers a glimpse of this aging, of the deterioration of the body. As one reads, one physically partakes into the burden of loosing a loved one, of facing the difficult decisions of what comes next, of recalling memories, of learning to struggle, of the heartbreaking doctor appointments...Philip Roth never holds back. He doesn't protect from the sorrow, or grief. He tells his life's story with honesty and shameless openness that requires not only brilliant clarity, but also the strength of love, love of the kind passed down from a good father to a worthy son.
   
   This is a difficult book with an extraordinary writing and should be considered by anyone who has, is or will ever care for an aging parent.
   
   - by Simon Cleveland



5. I like Philip Roth as an author. This book is really a tribute to his father not so much his mother. It seems that he was closer to his father, Herman Roth who he calls the true Bard of Newark, New Jersey. While his son, Philip Roth, has continued to become one of America's top authors and was almost short of winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005, Roth is hardly known or as popular as he should be. This book tells the story of how he copes and deals with his father's illness and death. I wished he would explain more about his relationship with his mother because I think it's key to explaining the troubles in his relationships with women. Twice divorced Roth lives alone in rural Connecticut. At the time of this book, he was with British actress Claire Bloom. Sadly, the relationship dissolved. Roth's own relationships with his brother and nephews are never really expanded or explained. Roth is quite a literary figure maybe a giant but he has problems which most literary geniuses have in their own personal life. Roth's loving book is a tribute to his father, Herman Roth, who was his greatest inspiration. The photo of him and his two sons on the cover was taken at Bradley Beach where Newark Jewish residents rented cottages or bungalows down by Bradley Beach in New Jersey during the hot summer months. I like Roth and have studied and read his books. He can make you feel pride about being from New Jersey in his works.

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5 comments about Bean Blossom Dreams: A City Family's Search for a Simple Country Life (Thorndike Press Large Print Paperback Series).

1. I grew up in the country, so I knew Sallyann was in trouble when she named her turkeys! LOL I really did enjoy this book. I now live in the "big city" (Atlanta), and often dream of doing what the Murphey's did. I hope that if I ever get the chance, I will have neighbors as great as theirs. This is a wonderful book to read.



2. Isn't quitting your boring 9 to 5 office job, moving to the country and living a quieter, humbler existence, everyone's secret dream? Well it has always been one of mine, and reading this book was absolutely a treat for me. In addition to thouroughly enjoying every page of this story, I actually learned many things from this book and was delighted to find that Sallyann included her recipes and tips from the story in the back of the book (although it did mean that the book ended too soon). I was especially dying to know the recipe for her Gorganzola and Leek Soup, and now I can't wait to try it out. I will fondly remember the Murphey's story as I try out her many wonderful recipes. I look forward to her next book, and hopefully a sequel to this story is in her plans.



3. My daughter picked this book up from a garage sale for fifty cents and left it in the "reading room" in our modest house in a modest city in the modest midwest. Growing up on a farm and being raised in a climate where work was expected and birth/life/death were daily events and where weather determined how many presents would be under the Christmas tree, and as well, how much canning would be done in the fall from the family garden, I hold little respect from someone who makes light of being an organic farmer and makes "potpourri" from rose petals.
   
   I realize it's been 10 years or so since Ms. Murphey wrote her book, but I would likely enjoy reading or listening to what she has to say today. Yes, neighbors were family and we lived and breathed next to them. The vet was next to God and God was next to the dinner table every single night when my Dad said Grace. A life on the farm is not romantic when there is no other livelihood. Too bad most people don't recognize this.
   
   I spent just today working on tearing down an old chicken coop at my folks place. The mouse dirt, the years of chicken filth and the constant wind out on the prairie are NOT romantic and not to be trifled with.
   This book goes to the next grange sale fund raiser.



4. Well, geez, the previous reviewer was a little harsh. I don't think Ms. Murphey glamorized or made light of the serious work she had to do on the farm. Rather, I thought she did a great job of showing how difficult it really is. I enjoyed the book and thought it was very touching.



5. Hi, this is Charley Murphey - the daughter :) I may be nearly twenty now and heading toward my sophomore year in college, but I remember those years which Bean Blossom Dreams so aptly describes better than I remember the past five and I can tell you completely honestly that we were never once arrogant about our ability as farmers. I can only remember my mom's infamous enthusiasm at work, her total and complete optimism and hope that we could really have a farm. We have since eased off of that - especially when my mom became deathly allergic to bee stings and we had to completely change our expectations of the garden - but my father is starting a new business producing organic plant food and I've been learning all I can about gardening to help out my mother. I'm sorry that there are those who feel that farm work is not something to be celebrated the way we do, but one thing I can tell you for sure is that we were not glamourizing our life here, or trying to pass ourselves off as great farmers. I know what real farmwork is, I've seen it at home and at the farms of our friends - and I know I'm not cut out for it. But having humor and joy for something that is underappreciated as a profession and way of life is not making a mockery of it - it is simply making it real and something people can smile about and relate to on the smaller level we were working at, so that they would understand and appreciate what we were trying to accomplish. This farm means more to me than anywhere else in the world. The things my mother and father gave to me by coming here, by trying so hard, by having the grace to giggle at themselves when they made mistakes - is priceless. I will never forget what they did for me/us and I will be a part of this farm - as well as try to make it a part of my children someday - forever.

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