No comments about Spacious Days: Growing Up on an Estate in Buckinghamshire (Isis Reminiscence Series).

5 comments about Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion.

1. Those who love books and the history of the written word have benefitted from these devoted "literary sleuths" who not only devoted themselves to located lost treasures, but who pioneered the rights of women in academe. A story of how devotede friends could pool their talents to rescue lost arts and discover the literary secrets of groundbreaking authors. A suprisingly exciting read.



2. For everyone loving books, history and detectives this book is a great pleasure to read. With great enthusiasm Leona & Madeleine write about their lives and the books which they bought and sold. It makes one jealous of times when rare books could still be found under piles of dust instead of being sold for fortunes. So stop reading the reviews and start reading this book now.



3. Given to me as a birthday present on a misty Northwest beach,the whimsical allure of these charmingly self-possessed women residingin one of the toughest cities in the world, drew me into its first pages even as the rest of my party sat around on logs, barbecuing fine local viands & feeding the camp dogs. From their student years, surviving the Depression & WWII; to studying & getting published through the exciting times of starting a company & their book-hunting jaunts to musty basements in faraway places this is a lively, lovely duet by two voices weaving a deeply evocative memoir...



4. Sometimes I will fall in love with an author's life as perceived through her books, and read all of her works for other glimpses into her private paradise. Authors such as Will and Ariel Durant, Edwin Way Teale, Stephen Jay Gould, and Oliver Sacks have shared their curiosity, astonishment, and joy with me. These authors are endlessly inquisitive. Each new discovery in their world, whether it is a fern, a skull, or an anecdote about a long-dead king is greeted with joy and eagerly shared with the reader.
   
   Now in the dusty corner of bibliomania, I have found two more authors who are willing to share their joy of discovery with me. They even have a name for it: 'Finger-Spitzengefühl'--"the electrifying alertness to what is unusual or important in an early printed book. When 'Finger-Spitzengefühl' is coupled with serendipity, the gates of paradise open for the dealer in old and rare [books]."
   
   Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern share their "thrill of the chase and the joy of the find," as well as a seven-decade-long partnership in life--"the partnership of 'Faithful Friends' who share 'a deep, deep love.'"
   
   I have to admit I had trouble getting into this book. I read some of the earlier pages six or seven times because I kept falling asleep and losing my place. However, once the authors were out of childhood recollections and into the chase--first of all for the works that Louisa May Alcott had published under a pseudonym--then I was hooked.
   
   These authors have illuminated many once-obscure corners of history through their curiosity and devotion. They deplore collectors who pursue rare books as an investment, much as I would deplore a physician who is in practice 'only for the money.' Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern have devoted their lives to the search for the old and rare, and their love, curiosity, and wisdom show through on almost every page of this book.



5. For those of us who lust after books about books, as well as the history of successful booksellers, this book is one of the best. "Old Books, Rare Friends" details the struggles and triumps of two of the most famous women in bookselling during the twentieth century. They include lots of stories about tracking those elusive hidden gems overlooked by other more successful book dealers. They also describe each woman's scholarly adventures, successes and failures. I read this when it was first published, but wanted to own it so I could re-read it from time to time. If you love books you can't go wrong with Madeleine and Leona's story.

No comments about Ngaio Marsh: A Life (Transaction Large Print Books).

1 comments about Fighter Pilot: A Personal Record of the Campaign in France 1939-1940.

1. This book covers the often forgotten air war over France in 1940, which preceded the Battle of Britain.

   I cannot praise "Fighter Pilot" too highly. Written by a pilot who served throughout WWII it is a vivid and often moving first-hand account of the tragedies and exhilaration experienced by those of the RAF who supported the British Expeditionary Force.

   I have read quite a few books covering the same ground and none come close to this.

2 comments about Don't Shoot, It's Only Me: Bob Hope's Comedy History of the United States.

1. This is an interesting combination of autobiography and history lesson. Hope (with co-writer Mel Shavelson, who was one of Hope's joke writers) tell Bob's show-biz career story through the lens of world events. It's not straight storytelling- jokes come at a quick clip, which makes for amusing reading.



2. This book is hilarious. I was laughing out loud from the very first page. I think that even people who don't consider themselves big Hope fans will be able to read this and find it funny, entertaining and insightful to a time gone past. It's a great part of American history; Bob Hope has his place therein. He was the perfect man to pull off all the things he accomplished during his amazing career. Entertaining the troops, putting himself in dangerous situations, making people laugh and forget the real world for a short time through films, radio, stand-up performances, Hope did it all and was the true king of all media. The book is very well-written and easy to follow the stories and jokes. You can just hear Hope's voice as you read his narration of events. I strongly suggest this book.

No comments about Grandmothers Talking (Isis (Hardcover Large Print)).

4 comments about Gabby: A Fighter Pilot's Life.

1. If current events leave your head spinning...if you go to bed at night wondering where have all the heros gone and wake-up in the morning still searching, read "Gabby A Fighter Pilot's Life" by Francis Gabreski.

   In this age, when everybody has an excuse for every meaningless thing, it is humbling and skin dingling to unfold the tale of Gabby's life through each chapter. Gabreski, a man of simple elegance, scripts a tale of greatness throughout the book. This is greatness earned by actions. From humble beginnings, Gabreski travels the American dream through a never boring progression of character challenging and character building struggles. Gabby tells his story with the humility and directness only a real honest hero can possess.

   If you never want to be bored, always want to be inspired and feel good throughout, then this book is a "must read". Gabreski's story will leave you shaking your head, with a tear in your eye and a smile on your face.

   "Gabby" is a primer in character development. If it needs to be said, Gabreski makes the point that determination, faith, morals and hard work combine to pay a big dividend. Yet, he is subtle, entertaining and a real "class act". Thank you Gabby.




2. Un très bon bouquin, très facile d'accès même pour les non anglophiles, pas beaucoup de termes techniques ce qui facilité d'autant la compréhension. A l'inverse, j'ai trouvé que cet ouvrage manquait un peu d'anecdote.



3. I read an abridged paperback version of this book many years ago and found it to be both stirring and informative. I particularly enjoyed reading about the more human side of being a fighter pilot. Gabreski, for example, became so excited in his first aerial combat that he didn't even see the German fighter that was in his gun sights even when his flight leader told him to shoot it down. He only saw it much later when they reviewed his gun camera footage. How human can you get?
   
   The smaller paperback excerpted the combat sequences from this autobiography and condensed them into a much smaller more action packed book obviously intended for a broader audience. After reading it, I was anxious to read the whole story; the larger, more comprehensive story of Gabby Gabreski's life. And this book did not disappoint. It tells the story of Gabreski's life from the time of his birth in Oil City, Pennsylvania, through his many actions in both World War II and in Korea, on through the post war years until his final retirement from Grumman Aircraft in 1987.
   
   America has a tendency to forget its heroes all too soon and sadly, except in certain circles, Gabby Gabreski is all but forgotten today. But with 28 aerial victories in World War II, making him America's living "ace-of-aces" for most of his life, and having added another 6 ? MiGs flying jets in Korea, he shouldn't be forgotten. So, if you want to read a good book about a great American and true hero, this is a good place to start.



4. I BOUGHT THIS BOOK FOR MY HUSBAND AND HE QUICKLY DEVOURED IT AND IMMEDIATELY SHARED IT WITH A FRIEND. THE BEST RECOMMENDATION POSSIBLE.

5 comments about My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. The reply he gave when told of the book,whose reply?, who do you think,all in hearsay of course, but i believe it.Maclaines current outing is quite enjoyable really, apart from when she takes of into phycobabble,boring,in other tomes,too serious to be a good storyteller,suprisingly in this she is different,couldve dropped a few more juicy titbits,she has probably seen it all,her tales of the mafia are fasinating,that dry detached realism of hers,really suits such a subject maybe she should write a book about them sometime,but her insights into sinatra are truly fasinating,actually they are confusing,was she cutting his throat,or what,this is what baffles me,on one page calling him god,on another icily tearing him asunder,for to sinatra disloyalty,was the greatest sin of all,what i would not have given to be a fly on the wall of a reasturent, when mclaine walked in and met him after this.



2. be so lucky. I have not read Shirley's other books and I am not sure exactly why I purchased this one other than I suppose I was feeling especially nosey and liked the gossipy aspect of the book. Shirley tells a lot of her business but I suppose at this point and time in her life she could really care less how people judge her.

   I always knew she had an unconventional marriage but just how unconventional was made very clear as she sustained long term affairs with Robert Mitchum, Danny Kaye and little escapades with some of her leading men like Yves Montand. What is very noticeable is that Shirley doesn't go into any of the issues associated with having such an open marriage at the time she did it. Her escapades are told with dry humor and a sort of emotional detachment. I do, however, believe that Robert Mitchum could have been one of her great loves instead of a long term affair.

   I did appreciate her attempts to provide insight as to how affairs can happen so readily when making a picture. How they are in fact aided and abetted sometimes by directors and other crew members. Some directors won't let spouses on the set, some do questionable things to provoke reactions to get you to do the movie their way.... It's all very enlightening in that you do see how insecure people such as a Marilyn Monroe type would get eaten alive by these sort of games.

   I suppose Frank Sinatra was really p_ _ _ _d off when this book came out because for all her flattery of him she paints such a sad picture of him. It almost.... I said almost, makes you want to overlook his ego maniac, self centered, I am God attitude towards the rest of the people on the planet. I also found her description of Debra Winger's antics on Terms of Endearment to be totally revolting. I have to think that if behavior like this is found acceptable in order to get the best from an actor then the behavior we read about shouldn't be a surprise. The anything goes behavior that is tolerated while making the movie could in fact and does create serious behavioral problems in some stars. In other words they expect real life to be like on the movie set and it doesn't work that way.

   All in all I enjoyed the book, it's very juicy gossipy bits and her insights into old Hollywood.




3. What is MacLaine's book like? Like being at a party where someone corners you, and talks to you the whole night, all about herself and her psycho-analysis of everyone else, never knowing when to shut up. Sure, I knew it was a book all about her - I was actually looking forward to reading it. Still, endless drivel and psycho-analysis on the many famous people MacLaine has met does not make for an interesting memoir. Half way through the book I gave up! I got the picture in the chapter about Lewis and Martin: the world is filled with unhappy, complex people - even Hollyworld. Next time, Shirley, remember: Less is indeed More.



4. Is anyone's favorite star Shirley MacLaine? I doubt it. But she's spent a lot of time thinking about stardom and Hollywood and audience and appeal, and in MY LUCKY STARS she gives it to us without holding much back. Her love affair with Robert Mitchum is presented as a Romeo and Juliet folie a deux in which the two of them entered a private world out of which they never really found their way back out. When she became intimate with Yves Montand, even after knowing what he had done to Marilyn Monroe, his co-star on an earlier picture, you really have to wonder if Shirley has a masochistic streak. (I suppose co-starring with Jerry Lewis, you'd need one.) And frankly, her description of a sizzling sex affair with Danny Kaye didn't ring true.
   
   Far more solid is her recounting of Debra Winger's acting out on the set of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, and in one of the very last chapters, "SAY ANYTHING," Shirley really lets her hair down with a series of anecdotes about her fellow stars that are too hot to repeat; she protects their anonymity by not revealing their names, but their identities will be obvious to anyone who knows anything about Hollywood. The story about John and Bo Derek is far more graphic and gruesome than anything you could have imagined. Well, maybe it's not the Dereks, since Shirley doesn't name them, but hey, she does everything but draw their faces on the margins of the chapter. Read it if you're in the mood for a good shock.
   
   By her own accounting, Mac Laine has now made three comebacks in the movies (with THE TURNING POINT, with TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, and with GUARDING TESS). She might go on to do more, who knows? You may not like her any more than you did before you started reading this book, but you'll have gotten a grainier look at Hollywood life than anything since the last Bruce Wagner novel. Well done, Shirley MacLaine!



5. This is a "Hollywood" memoir, not a "Shirley MacLaine" memoir, so be advised. Yeah, she's in there all right, but you get more, so much more. It's one of the most intelligent of all the star bios. If you are looking for a lot of mindless tibits and giggly gossip, you won't find much of that here. But if you are looking for real insight into some of our star icons, like Sinatra, Dean, Mitchum, this is the place to find it. Further, if you have any interest in what making movies is like, if you want to be an actor, director, cameraman or marry one, this is the book for you. If you are a creative person who puts yourself out there for the public, you will love this book. No one else has nailed this experience like MacLaine has. I will never see the Oscars or star interviews the same way again. In fact, the writing is so exceptional and insights so wide-ranging that this book should be required reading in any film class.

1 comments about Last Stands: Notes from Memory.

1. Hilary Masters' memoir Last Stands exhibits uniqueness in writing with a universal appeal. Whether it be upper class zeal, lower class pride, war stories, grandparents, grandchildren, health, humor, abuse, neglect, tolerance, strength, or even food, there is something in it for everyone.

   Overall, Last Stands is a patchwork piece--a memoir and indirect autobiography glittered with several familial biographies. Masters constantly switches scenes and elements of focus, but he overlaps his storyline, keeping the reader grounded, despite a sequence of simultaneous events. Thus, history is tied together in a busy but logical manner.

   Although Masters reveals disturbing events, he adds tidbits of humor to lighten the mood. In addition, he compares and contrasts fictitious characters, such as Odysseus, to events in his own life--a technique that grants him boundless points-of-view. Furthermore, his ingenuity unfolds with his use of secondary sources: letters, poems, epitaphs, and invitations. Finally, his use of dialogue carries the story where it might otherwise seem bland.

   Even where memory falls short in the author's mind, he entertains the reader with his image of how a situation could have happened. Thus, Masters offers creative details of a picture that might have been there, and even if it wasn't, he proves that the truth is as real as the writer's true imagination.

5 comments about Woodrow Wilson.

1. If you don't know much more about Woodrow Wilson than an overview of the important events of his life, this book isn't going to help much. There's very little political analysis, almost no attempt to portray what diffiulties Wilson needed to overcome, and no passion at all in the writing. Actually this book feels a lot like a high school term paper that someone knew they had to write and just wanted to turn in for a passing grade. Auchincloss talks a bit about the two Wilsons (one good one bad) and hints at Wilson's dependance on women, but neither of these positions is fleshed out or used consistently. Maybe Woodrow Wilson's life is just too large for a book this small.



2. This is a reasonable brief introduction to the career of Woodrow Wilson. His upbringing and early academic career are disposed of in short order in the first chapter. Then one chapter deals with his presidency of Princeton, one deals with (or covers the same time period as) his governorship of New Jersey, and the remaining seven cover his Presidency, all in an engaging and chatty style.

   The book's strongest point is describing what happened, although even here there are some strange omissions. It mentions his break with Hibben in Princeton without describing the circumstances, noting that Hibben went on to succeed Wilson as President of the university, or exploring the parallels with his later breaks with House and Tumulty. All of this could have been covered in a single paragraph. In addition, there is no mention of the country's Caribbean adventures in 1915; none of the Red Scare of 1919; and, probably worst of all, nothing about the Sedition Acts and the imprisonment of Eugene Debs, and no discussion of why America behaved worse towards its own citizens during and after the war than either Britain or France did. The first time the book mentions the League of Nations, it doesn't clearly describe what its purpose was (and it would have been nice if it had mentioned that it was actually the idea of the British Foreign Secretary, not Wilson). Still, as an overview of the events of Wilson's life it hits most of the main points.

   The book has less to offer on why things happened. In trying to explain why Colonel Harvey picked Wilson for Governor of New Jersey, it gives two pages on what Harvey got wrong about Wilson, but nothing on what he got right. It also takes at face value the idea that Wilson was offered the governorship "without ... even lifting a hand". It describes Wilson's feeling of betrayal by House when he returned to Paris in March 1919, but not what House had actually done!

   As noted by another reviewer, the book also fails to put Wilson's international achievements in a broader context. His aim of a just, lasing peace with Germany failed; his aim of encouraging self-determination among smaller nations succeeded, and he is still looked on as a hero in many smaller nations of Europe. Some more insight and context, and a more detailed assessment of his legacy, would have been welcome.

   Woodrow Wilson was a fascinating and controversial President. This book helps explain -- and to an extent shares -- the fascination, but it doesn't do enough to help the reader assess the controversies. Still, it's an reasonable starting point for people who know little about Wilson.

   One final comment: I'd also have been interested to know how the author is related to the Gordon Auchincloss who attended the Versailles conference -- it's not that common a name, after all.




3. Of all the men who have tried to fill the shoes of Washington and Jefferson, who was the worst? Our current crop of "Hallmarxist" professors consider anyone who would assign Wilson and FDR to the lower depths as deserving a quick commitment with Ezra Pound into loony bin of St. Elizabeth's, and for anyone to hold Lincoln among the worst invites being regarded a simple crank. But Thomas DiLorenzo's _The Real Lincoln_ has finally exposed Old Abe as well worthy of infamy, and Jim Powell's _FDR's Folly_ has corrected the omission of Murray Rothbard's _America's Great Depression_ by exposing FDR as really nothing more than - pardon the pun - Hoover on wheels.
   
   This leaves only Wilson, the man whom Mencken denominated _Doctor Dulciferous_ for his cooing blovations. The lack of a good biography of Wilson that reveals him for what he was - our worst president - or at least a book as good as DiLorenzo's on Lincoln- is not remedied by Louis Auchincloss (hereafter LA).
   
   LA for the first 64 pages gets his facts roughly right and his conclusions quite wrong. For example:
   - LA calls Wilson's claims to being a Southerner "factitious". This is putting it mildly: Wilson in his heart was an utter New England barn burner and witch-hunter, oblivious to the positive achievements of Calvinism (Milton, Rembrandt, and the Jansenist Pascal) and a perfect specimen of non-conformism's worst faults: obstinacy, a cocksure belief in one's moral correctness, a deluded sense that he was the agent of the Almighty, and that his opponents were tools of the Devil.
   -- Wilson's view of blacks can only be called sheer racist, even in a time when "racist" has become a word of cultural socialist McCarthyism - yet LA offers the lame excuse that everyone else from his background thought the same.
   - LA faults Wilson for appointing an Anglophile to the Court of St. James, yet LA's own facts prove Wilson the most Anglophilic of all. He tried to remake Princeton into the image of Oxford and Cambridge. He wanted American government to resemble Westminster, knowing full well that in Britain today the Prime Minister is a dictator, free of any checks. Wilson wanted the same for the President in a manner that would make even a Gaullist blush. Indeed, one of Wilson's many bad legacies is a chief executive out of control. Mencken was right to observe that the US State Dept. was simply an antechamber to the Foreign Office in Whitehall.
   - LA mentions Wilson's stokes, one after another it seems, and tries to blame them, wrongly, for his manifold shortcomings. In fact, I have yet to see in print what seems quite possible: That Wilson - and for that matter Theodore Roosevelt - were really unhinged.
   
   Wilson's 2nd worst foreign policy blunder was his treatment of Latin Americas - a treatment inept when it wasn't contemptible. LA tries to make Bryan the fall guy for Wilson's folly, and considers the Villa fiasco as "necessitated". I pray the Mexicans now flooding into the country have short memories. When it comes to economics, LA really shows himself wanting. He considers the Federal Reserve Act a "great success", giving us an "elastic currency", when in fact the fiscal solvency of the US -- relatively sound after Hamilton's schemes were put down and prior to Wilson - has been a shambles ever since. Need proof? Check the inflation monitor at the Commerce Dept website and see what a dollar in 1950 is worth now. And thank Woodrow Wilson. Desperate for something good to say about Wilson's domestic turn at the helm, LA chooses his tariff reduction - only on the same page to state, rightly, that the taxpayer was now to be equally robbed by the new Federal Income Tax (also a Wilson deed), that tariff reform was aborted by the Great War, and that it was repealed in 1922.
   
   LA never mentions Wilson's lasting effect on domestic US politics: Completing the work of Lincoln in the destruction of the Jeffersonian party in the US (I'm grateful to Thomas Dilorenzo and Clyde Wilson for this insight). Prior to Wilson, we had such a party, the Democrat Party - with support for minimal government, subsidiarily, states' rights, low tariffs, originalist construction of the Constitution, Anglophobia, gold standard (at least until Bryan), staying out of European affairs, and a healthy suspicion of banks. Wilson turned this party into a socialist party. In fact, now we really only have the choice between two socialist parties: The Hamiltonian version of the Republicans, and the 100 proof offered by the Dimmycrats.
   
   After page 64, LA offers a complete whitewash. Wilson's utter disaster - still visited upon all of us, and re-uttered in the inaugural addresses of Kennedy I and Bush II - was, or course, his entry into World War I, with all the suffering that this decision caused. LA can only find sympathy for Wilson's views, and wastes a whole chapter of this short book demonizing Lodge. I am reminded by the estimable Clyde Wilson (no relation, certainly!) that Woodrow Wilson was our only Ph. D. president. LA offers nothing better than the socialist and PHuddy-Duddy camorra presiding in our Potemkin universities
   
   So, as we wait for a good biography, anyone who really wants to know the truth of the Old Fool should save his money and buy instead Jim Powell, _Wilson's War_, and Thomas Fleming, _The Illusion of Victory_.
   
   Two stars for being mercifully brief with readable prose.



4. Enjoyed the taped version of WOODROW WILSON by
   Louis Auchincloss . . . it is a brief account of our 28th President
   that gave me insight into how a professor and then college
   administrator could make the leap into politics . . . hearing it
   reminded me a bit the Classic Comics that I read when
   younger, in that much detail was left out . . . however, you
   got just enough information . . . I'd recommend this book
   by Auchincloss, especially for the fascinating tale it told
   of how when Wilson became sick, his wife practically ran the nation.



5. In the annals of American history, few presidents have a more interesting story to tell than Woodrow Wilson. Despite this truth, Wilson's legacy has produced such a terrible collection of biographies. This book is a continuation of that standard of trampling the legacy of the greatest idealist to reside in the White House.
   
   While this book is intended to be a brief biography of Wilson, this characteristic would seem to cause more focus on landmarks in Wilson's life. This does not stop Louis Auchincloss from going off topic for pages at a time. The author repeatedly references Bill Clinton, whose most striking similarity is being a democrat. There also seems to be a lot of speculation on the part of the author, such as speculating that Wilson's childhood illnesses were psychosomatic (p. 7). Like the original source of this fact, he lacks tangible support for his agrument. It is nothing more than an educated guess. Just like the guess that Wilson suffered from dyslexia (p. 6). The chapters on World War I are clumsy because of the digressions. The better chapters focus on Wilson's first and second wives, as well as his years at Princeton.
   
   I initially thought the author loathed Woodrow Wilson, but softened in this stance as the book progressed. Still I wondered why one would write a book about a seemingly undesirable topic? Not that I expected much from this book, but I, like many readers of history, am still waiting for an outstanding biography on Woodrow Wilson.