No comments about Marriage (Large Print Edition).

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No comments about The Life of Charlotte Bronte - Volume 2 (Large Print).

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4 comments about Golden Afternoon: Being the Second Part of "Share of Summer," Her Autobiography.

1. At long last, the sequel to Sun in the Morning -- and as always, M.M. Kaye's writing is evocative, sumptuous, and addictive. (The Far Pavilions is one of the two books I always travel with -- the other is Gone With the Wind -- because I can start reading anywhere and become totally immersed, no matter how many times I've read it.) No one is better at evoking that time-lost period before the Second World War; the details are not only fascinating but reveal to us moderns what the world once was like (which in British India in many cases seems rather closely to resemble E.F. Benson's town of Tilling...). Since I owe not only my interest in, but my several-hundred-volume library on, India to reading The Far Pavilions, I must admit a certain partiality here -- and a burning desire to read the sequel to Golden Afternoon.



2. Ms. Kaye has the most wonderful way of describing scenes, colors, and events of an era never to be seen again. Her family led a story-book life of adventure and she makes it look so easy to overcome the forces of nature that were part of living there with very few, if any, modern conveniences. It was a delicious read and I hope Ms. Kaye is busily at work on the next book of her travels in China! I am grateful for this journey back into a gentler, quieter time.



3. This book is thoroughly enjoyable, with M. M. Kaye describing her idlyic days in India in a wonderfully interesting, humorous way, which makes this book a pleasure to read and a must own!



4. What a terrific book--nostalgic, romantic, funnny, poignant. I was utterly charmed once again by Ms. Kaye's writing. Her descriptions of visits to the Taj Mahal and spring in Kashmir are beautiful. I can't wait to read "Enchanted Evening."

4 comments about The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (Large Print Edition).

1. John Muir, one of the great leaders of the ecological movement in America, tells of growing up on a farm in Wisconsin. He gives detailed information about the wildlife he sees growing up, which is interesting but does get a bit tedious. It was interesting to learn how Muir became interested in being an inventor; before reading this book I hadn't known of his inventions. It gives some insights into how he came to love and appreciate nature, and hints at his later desire to protect all things wild. Near the end of the book he writes, "I wandered away on a glorious botanical and geological excursion, which has lasted nearly fifty years and is not yet completed, always happy and free, poor and rich, without thought of a diploma or of making a name, urged on and on through endless, inspiring, Godful beauty." Certainly Muir's writing recalls Thoreau, and his spirit has lived on through the writings of such diverse people as Rachel Carson, Jack Kerouac, and Adolph Murie. This book is not one of his classics, but if you're interested in Muir or life on the plains before they became completely tamed, it's worth reading.



2. I wouldn't recommend this as a first book for those who are interested or curious about Muir (try _My First Summer in the Sierra_ or _1000 Mile Walk_), but it gives a lot of insight, for me at least, on why Muir turned out the way he did. He had a cruel, strict father and had to endure a lot of pain and hardship, which made his latter wilderness travels so much easier and free in comparison.



3. The central symbol of Muir's abusive father is the father's decision to become a lay preacher, and thus his determination to study the Bible all day, while dumping all the farm chores on young John. This puts John at the bottom of a new well, hacking through the rocky ground in search of water. While the holy father urges him on between inspirational readings. One wonders if the father was reading of Jesus's encounter with the woman at the well, offering himself as the living water.

   John concluded it's time to get the heck out of Wisconsin and away from his dad, to roam around the mountains and forests of the great unexplored Western U.S., appreciating the water where God placed it in plain view.

   Muir's experience of being forced to work like a Calvinist, while his dad sat around like a pietist, presents a juxtaposition which can be applied to other relationships we all come across in our lives. That, and the lesson that you need not be a perpetual victim of a rotten childhood. Muir certainly overcame it.




4. John Muir was a genius of natural understanding, and this book doesn't really explain why. His life is beyond explanation. But he sure can tell a tale! It's a fascinating look at new immigrants to the U.S. in the 1800's. John Muir is such a man apart that every page is mindblowing. He has thoughts and experiences that will appeal to nearly every reader. His schooling was remarkable, his work ethic unrelenting, his desire to learn insatiable, his boldness irrefutable. He relates his thought processes in a way that opens the window to his soul, and you learn to know a man who you really want to know. His instincts, thoughts, motives, and wonderings guide the reader's mind to productive and beneficial thoughts.
   I loved this book!

No comments about The Private Life of Napoleon Volume IV [EasyRead Large Edition].

5 comments about Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography (Thorndike Press Large Print Paperback Series).

1. If you love gossip, you will love this book. Kitty Kelley does a great job of telling all the dirt she can dig up on Nancy Reagan and our former president, Ronald. Now, how much can you take to heart and accept as truth? That would be difficult to tell. Kelley gives great references, but the problem is that she has found people who have an axe to grind and she lets them grind away! I am certain that the former first family were not perfect. Some of the things we read about are likely true, but overall, they did a fantastic job. We really don't need to know all of their dirty laundry. When I read about the family struggles that were experienced between the Reagan's and their kids, I was disappointed. But, I never expected them to be perfect parents. I was very disappointed in the actions of the children as well. I read about Nancy's great desire for wealth, expensive clothes, etc. She and Ronald Reagan were criticized for gaining much wealth after the presidency by "using" their position. I could not help but laugh and think about how Kitty Kelley makes her wealth. Writing Gossip is real honorable. She certainly cashed in on Reagan's presidency, but she criticises Ronnie and Nancy for accepting speaking engagements, book offers, gifts, etc. Kelley was totally negative, taking most of her quotes from people who were angry with the Reagans. Why did she not spend more time interviewing the people who were close to the Reagans. She talked about, "the Girls," but failed to include what they thought of Nancy. Instead of digging up the gossip, she should try giving a balanced report of things in the future. There are many who loved this first family greatly and many of them were very close to the true situation. I guess Kitty is afraid that the truth would not sell. If all of this is really true about Nancy, I deeply piti her. Kitty has certainly only given us one side of the story.



2. I avoided reading Kitty Kelly's books for many years, not because I felt they might not be interesting but because I considered it unseemly to go rummaging around in the closets of other people's pasts. I finally broke down, however, and read this one. As a matter of fact I made it all the way through. I wonder if anyone else has ever been able to do that. Thank Heaven it was only 528 pages. Half that number would have been sufficient and surely would have buried Nancy Reagan at least up to her ears.
   
   The book, although probably correct in many particulars, perhaps most or even all, and quite interesting at times is simply too long and very much too one-sided. Early on, I grew weary of the constant piling on, but I soldiered on and actually finished it. Others don't have to make that choice. But, if you hold Nancy Reagan in low esteem and would like to know her every fault, this is the book for you. If you feel otherwise about Nancy, you would be well advised to confine yourself to page 358.



3. I think this is fair to say that Reagan was so far-gone most of his second term that I'm sympathetic for Mrs. Reagan! And probably grateful now.. better Mrs. Reagan telling the president what to say than Carl Rove and V Pres Cheney!
   
   When I read this when it first came out, it was a bit upsetting, but now as I look back those days were a lot more pleasant than now. Though I would never have voted for Reagan under any circumstance, I am a LOT more appreciative now!
   
   READ it.. but forgive their foibles.



4. Whenever I see a biography that is unauthorized, that usually means two things...the subject had aboslutely no input into it and thus cannot refute or put into perspective on tidbits given to the writers by (usually) disgruntle sources, and the book itself is going to trash the subject (Madonna Unauthorized by Christopher Andersen comes to mind).
   
   In any case, I do have to admit the Kitty Kelley did her research into Nancy Reagan. Straight from the mouths of her children, step-children, relatives, colleauges, fellow Hollywood starlets (and from Nancy herself, thanks to her own gossipy book "My Turn"), Kelley chronicled Mrs. Reagan's beginnings as a Hollywood starlet to her tenure as America's first unofficial "petticoat president".
   
   The tone of Kelley's approach was cast when the book began with Kelley claiming she ran into a wall of silence while researching the book (well, she still did find plenty of people to open their trap), and the book opens with how everything on Nancy's birth certificate was manufactured other than her race and gender.
   
   Yes, you can tell by now, that Mrs. Reagan's dirty laundry is going to be exposed to the world. I particularly take interest on the chapter dealing with Nancy's years in Hollywood, where it is chronicled that she got parts in movies by ingratiating herself with the higher-ups; as if everybody else in Hollywood was not ambitious as well.
   
   In all, Nancy Reagan is portrayed as an ambitious woman who placed her career and place in society by sacrificing her relationship with her family and children; like men hasn't been doing that for years. It is again, a case where a woman who has sights for higher heights is put down for her ambitions (not to say that tact and diplomacy are not virtues, something Mrs. Reagan, according to the book, seems to lack).
   
   There is a Notes section at the rear of the book that detailed all the sources Kelley compiled from that make up each chapter, and almost every one included a little expose on Nancy that otherwise didn't quite fit in the book proper (yes when you thought there isn't more to read!).
   
   One more observation, the book also tell of Nancy's agressive pursuit of Ronald Reagan. Given his recent passing and Mrs. Reagan emotionally farewell to her husband, I can only say she really loved that man.



5. Kelly's books, whether you like her or not, can be taken to the bank. You know they are true, no matter how salacious (which means most of them) otherwise she would end up tied into a thousand libel law suits -- and yet she has not.
   
   The same is true for his one. She mines the alley-ways of Washington, and drains the swamps of her close "tell-all" friends and family to come up with the goods on the "made in Hollywood plastic doll" called Nancy Reagan. Too bad Kelly had to become an institution in and of her self. If we had anything other than a "limp-wristed" press, we would not have to rely on the likes of Kelly to give us the "true skinny" on what's happening in the "Lincoln bedroom" and its environs.
   
   This 600-page tale has more than just the ring of truth. Even without hearing her voice, we all knew that Nancy was a flawed personality in the classic way of American flaws; the kind that makes her blend-in and makes her become all but invisible to the typical majority American public. She possessed a kind of "dainty and flighty empty persona" that goes down well with being a "washed-out ex-starlet" and a conservative Republicanism (or is this redundant?).
   
   But inviting Frank Sinatra in through the backdoor of the White House for private lunches when "Old Ronny boy" was away? This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "when the Cats away, the mouse will come out to play."
   
   And this is just the most salacious of a whole feast of salacious fare. Her firing of Donald Regan, for instance, was a Machiavellian work of art. It proves that Nancy knew how to protect and run interference for her "golden goose." Her consultation and faith in the prediction of psychics bordered on lunacy: Don't these people ever read books? And also, I thought that the Reagan's were religious? How do they pull it off, conning the American people so easily with their facades and "public show faces?"
   
   Nancy's deep insecurities grew out of her troubled childhood and erratic upbringing. However, throughout her life it was all covered-over by a patina of faux style and grace, that got her a long way in our empty culture. There is something mildly vulgar about having leaders as intellectually empty as the Reagans running our country. But Kelly did her job well.
   
   Three stars.

No comments about John Barleycorn (Large Print Edition).