No comments about Don't Bury Me...IT AIN'T OVER YET.

No comments about What Am I Getting Myself Into?.

No comments about Whispers in the Wilderness.

1 comments about Memoir of a Miracle.

1. Dawn Curazzato's true life journey to faith has been instrumental in strengthening my own faith. Through faith and praying the rosary, Dawn has shown that anything is possible. After reading her book, you'll examine your own religious beliefs in trying to evolve to a deeper belief in God and Mary, His Mother. Having known Dawn for many years, I could have not imagined the level of pain and suffering that her family has been through. This book is her real life story and reveals how her journey can help bring you back to your own faith. On the lighter side,Dawn reveals her relationship with her husband,Sam,and how important it is to share your journey. These revelations can be viewed as a guideline to making the connection between faith and love.

No comments about EPILEPSY and All the Torments.

5 comments about Wheeler-dealer: The Rip-roaring Adventures of My Uncle Gordon, a Quadriplegic in Hollywood.

1. I thoroughly enjoyed this page-turning book! The story is one that you will never forget. The author, Chip Jacobs, will touch the soul of everyone who reads this book. I can't recommend it enough. I have told all my friends and family that this is a must-read for everyone!



2. It is unusual to find an unlikely protagonist such as Gordon Zahler, Chip Jacobs didn't have far to dig for this character, Uncle Gordon was always a topic of conversation at family gatherings. Now Chip introduces Gordon to the rest of us. He was a complex and inspiring character. Go Chip!



3. There is something so gripping in Chip Jacobs' biography of his uncle, Gordon Zahler. The author never caricatures his relative, but enfleshes him with boundless objectivity, even when recording his personal distaste in his responses to his mother's brother. I find the ability to do that a rare gift in writing. And the prose, the turn of a phrase and the point in a paragraph, hold the reader's interest like glue. Perhaps that is because Jacobs brings to this work years of newspaper writing, where words cannot be wasted, but packed with punch. Personally I was touched because Chip describes the Southern California and Hollywood of my coming-of-age and young womanhood, and it was, oh, so accurately portayed. Bravo!



4. I loved this book! Wheeler-dealer reminds me of the classic American story. It is a story about an "underdog" fighting to overcome his own personal challenges and limitations to find success. What would you do if you woke up paralyzed? How could you support a family, marry and ultimately enjoy life when you had no use of any of your limbs? Gordon's story shows us how powerful our minds are and reminds us that nothing is beyond our reach. Wheeler-dealer is much more than a story about Hollywood, or about quadriplegia, it is a personal story, one that the author tells with raw honestly of his own journey to find himself and how these family members, especially those past relatives long since buried, effect his life. Anyone that has ever undergone a personal or family tradegy will relate to the circumstances that this family finds themselves in, but as a reader, you will want to cheer as they find succes through ingenuity, perserverence and hard work. The human quality in this book makes you want to keep turning the pages. This book provides amazing insight into the power of dreams and sheer willpower. Try it, you be glad you did!



5. The thing that struck me most about Chip Jacobs' fascinating biography of his "Hollywood Player" uncle was just how un-Hollywood it felt. Certainly there is the human interest aspect, involving the tragic, early childhood injury that left Gordon Zahler bound to a wheelchair for life. Yet Mr. Jacobs wisely avoids going overly maudlin upon his audience, choosing instead to offer up the portrait of a man, so driven by the desire to succeed, that a mere physical disability could not stand in his way. Throughout the course of reading this book, I never saw Gordon Zahler as an object of pity; there were in fact times when I found him an entirely unsympathetic character. But he always came across as a human being, with all the debilitating flaws, and ennobling traits that characterize our species. And that to me is what makes a great biography. I look forward to Mr. Jacobs' next work.

4 comments about Death of a Dancer: Pcos in a Dancer's World.

1. There are a couple of good things about this book - number one, it's a short read. You can give it to your doctor, husband, boyfriend, parents, etc., if they are unfamiliar with PCOS - it explains the devastating effects that PCOS can have on a woman's life in an easy to read format. It is not the most well written book I have ever read, in fact, it's badly in need of editing, and amateurish. However, it is easy to get thorough and explains the syndrome in terms of how it affected one person's life and self-esteem.
   
   Number two, it's like no other book on the market about PCOS - in other words, it's non-technical. It won't intimidate.
   
   Many women with PCOS get the "street level" diagnosis of being fat (i.e., out of control) lazy (why do the two necessarily have to go together - like there's no such thing as a lazy skinny person?) and lacking in ambition - even by medical professionals, who should know better. This book will explain why that perception is totally off-base and how PCOS can devastate a woman's life.
   
   I was surprised at the author's discovery of Diane 35 as a remedy for her symptoms. Apparently Diane has been in use in Europe for the management of PCOS, but not in the US, where it has not been approved by the FDA. Of course, any medication should be investigated before use - not all work the same way with everyone - but I am going to give Diane a try.



2. I was kind of upset when I got this book in the mail today. I got my hopes up from the previous person who reviewed the book. I do agree that high school girls might benefit from reading this, but only if more techincal information had been included. I am not exactly sure how the book was even published, being that there are approximately 3 typos that are blatantly obvious due to the large print and triple spacing. I myself have PCOS and was looking for something/someone to identify with and this was definitely not the answer. I am very sorry that I wasted $13 on something I read in 25 minutes.



3. I was excited to find a book on PCOS that was a full-length personal account, but this book was surprisingly disappointing. Like the previous reviewer mentioned, there are numerous typing and grammar mistakes that distract the reader. I could ignore one or two, but there are several per page. I also found the book to be poorly organized (not by aspect of disease, not even chronologically!). It offers very little in the way of factual information; in fact, the author makes some unsubstantiated assertions that could be dangerous if readers take them as fact.

   The book was neither informative nor enjoyable. Women would be better off reading some of the more biomedically-based books, intimidated or not. I had high hopes for "Death of a Dancer", but it fell short.




4. Please do not waste your money! After reading the online reviews I had a bookstore special order this book for me (they didn't carry it). I read the book at the store since it's so short and triple spaced with big print. Then I nicely handed it back to them and said No thanks!
   First of all, the book has a ton of typos. More than once she refers to PCOS as POCS. POCS! Did they even proof read? It's very low quality.
   Second, the book is not in chronological order, so it's hard to really understand this personal expierience. It's very repetitive and repeats the same points.
   Third, PCOS does entail many issues with the body, however I felt like this person kept refering to emotional/mental issues. While I certainly agree these are a huge part of PCOS, this writer seems to have other mental issues going on. (Seriously, no offense is meant by this.) Just that she simply goes on an on about how everyone with PCOS will call home from college and drop out. So, it's a little ridiculous.....not everyone is going to have the same expierience. And she did not really focus a lot on other issues with PCOS.
   This book is very poor quality, poorly written, and edited. Please check it out from a library. You will see it's not worthwhile. It does not give good information, or even a clear picture of the condition, or ways to overcome.
   I would not recommend this to a young reader, even though it's an easy read- as it is extremely negative.

No comments about On Jane's Time.

5 comments about A Book of Reasons.

1. John Vernon has the task of cleaning out his brother's house after his brother dies of a sudden illness. He discovers that his brother lived in an abyss of hopelessness and depression. This book is his attempt to come to terms with that discovery, and the questions of personal responsibility it raises for him. Should he have known how his brother was suffering? Could he have helped? Was he required to?

   In the beginning Vernon tries to approach these daunting questions in a light-hearted search for the reasons. Why the thermometer, for instance? His musings along these lines are quite interesting. He meanders through all sorts of unrelated arcane lore looking for connections, for the reasons why things happen the way they do. Ultimately, however, he has to acknowledge that all of these reasons are beside the point. He says, finally, "Reasons do have a limit. Shall I offer a history of the Pepsi bottle, the cigarette, the milk carton, the rag? A history of bad smells? Even now, in memory, I feel buried like Paul, trapped in his house, surrounded by the waste of unexplained things."

   This might have been a turning point in the narrative away from reasons to the limits of personal responsibility, but the author doesn't go there. He seems to withdraw into a kind of personal disgust that pushes away the responsibilities of love and kinship. He does not come to terms with his discovery, and this is the drama of the narrative. As this drama unfolds, however, I sense that it is no longer under Vernon's control. Vernon seems to drift to a place outside of human relationships, so that the book ends on a strange unresolved note.




2. The cover illustration of one of Joseph Cornell's cryptic boxes, assembled from discarded junk, is an excellent visual metaphor for the way in which John Vernon approaches the topic of death, loss and an exploration of the reasons for living in this book. Vernon attempts to make sense, not so much of the death, but of the peculiar, eclectic life of his older brother. The binding threads among the disparate elements of Vernon's university career, his role as executor of his brother's estate, the brother's gradual withdrawal from social relationships and the junkpile life that he leaves behind, are brief excerpts from an old encyclopedia that describe the tools and techniques of empirical culture. Vernon profoundly explores the microcosm of American family and lifestyle in his examination of the microcosm of his brother's life and their disconnected and blundered relationship. From the opening pages of his excursion to the local Walmart to find a thermometer to mount on his recently dead brother's house, Vernon is adept at using his own frustration and experiences of cultural clutter as the divining rod to unravel the peculiarities of brother's secluded and repulsively littered life. Vernon uses metaphors like the thermometer throughout the text to observe and measure his own as well as our cultural climate and the ways in which we collect and treat objects and relationships in our supposedly educated and modern American culture. Vernon employs a masterful mix of humor, angst, revulsion, annoyance and fascinated curiousity in his exploration of grieving as a means to examine the many-layered questions of life and death. It is a refreshing exploration that avoids the usual religious and spiritual overtones of the subject, yet retains a profound metaphysical inquiry about self, other and culture that presses the reader to frame (and reframe) his/her own perspective and practices. Vernon uses metaphor and object representation as tools to explore the essential questions and impacts of life and lifestyle. If there is one flaw in this fascinating and engaging book it is the ending, which slips into a conventional approach that pushes the reader to accept the notion that no life is a waste. When Vernon takes us into mundane territory in such an unconventional way it is a bit disappointing that he ends on such a conventional note.



3. The writer attempts to explain if his brother's life was worth living because he ended it so badly. He never answers some basic questions such as "Why did his brother only live with his grandmother" and "what made him so distant to his family". Why the writer chooses to go into such length about the history of the thermometer and the cosmos is beyond me. This book was chosen for my bookclub because of the previous comments and star rating. It should have been a hint to me how bad the book was when no library carried it, and I tried 2 major bookstores plus 3 department store and could only get this book by ordering it. Buy this book if you have trouble sleeping because out of 5 members of my club I was the only one who finished it and it took me forever!



4. Since we live in a democracy, readers like Jude Schmidt of Rockton, Illinois, USA, are free to share their views on literature with one and all. I'll try to be charitable and say he's simply the wrong reader for this book. Unfortunately, though, anyone coming to have a look A Book of Reasons will be tainted by his misinformation. As a writer friend of mine says, "You get a terrific review in the Times and it seems to disappear overnight, but some dim bulb writes in to Amazon and the comments stay forever and a day."

   The fact is, John Vernon's, A Book of Reasons is a lovely and penetrating work. It doesn't easily fall into a genre-except perhaps personal essay or meditation. A few of the other reviewers below describe it well, so I'll simply add that it's constantly surprising, luminous in its sentence craft, informed by a close reading of dozens of other texts-history, biology, cosmology, poetry (his fascinating list of "works consulted" runs to twelve pages). And he avoids the easy pieties that often creep into memoirs. I'm enriched for having spent time with Vernon's mind and heart.

   I ran into this book totally by accident-it was adjacent to something I was looking for in the Tacoma Public Library. Schmidt notes that he had a hard time finding it at major bookstores and department stores-but think of what he could find there, all the hot sellers, and the books that are just like all the other books. I want to weep when I think of the beautiful and different works like Vernon's that fall through the cracks. Whoever reads this review, take a chance on A Book of Reasons, and beyond that, challenge yourself to find others like it-books that don't fit the mold, that are written with great intelligence and a passionate concern for the power of language.




5. In The Age of Grief the writer Jane Smiley refers to that moment when "the barriers between the circumstances of oneself and of the rest of the world have broken down." A similar dawning pervades John Vernon's autobiographical A Book of Reasons. When his older brother Paul dies of an aneurysm, Vernon finds himself saddled with the responsibility of his sibling's estate. He must rehabilitate a house crammed with refuse and the sickening stench of dead pets and their sickening stench, as he tries to comprehend how Paul's life devolved into dilapidation.
   
   Vernon quests for reasons: how could a man perceived as an eccentric sociopath at most, fall to a state that could only be described as animalistic? Though the book's time frame is the three-month period between Paul's death and the dissolution of his estate, the author manages an exhumation of some 40-odd years in a struggle to reconstruct their lives together and apart.
   
   As the author contends with his grief and the practical aspects of the house's cleanup, he finds a coping mechanism: a consideration of items and commonplace occurrences. Buying a thermometer at Wal-Mart conjures a lengthy discourse on the history of temperature measurement. The purchase of equipment needed to build a simple set of stairs fuels a meditation on tools and how their evolution paralleled that of man and animals. Vernon reaches back through the ages to expound on how the contributions of Galileo, Pascal, Robert Fludd and many others shaped our understanding of how the present world came to be. The reader is treated to various insights ranging from how rocks were employed as hammers by Homo sapiens, to the murder of Abel by Cain with a weapon, or "tools that got to be weapons by being misused."
   
   It's a seesaw, really: over here, the life of Paul alongside the author's guilt, incredulity and dormant memory; over there, a timeless world with its theories, speculations and advances. Both carry a long circuitous chain of reasons or "recipes for making sense of the world's arrangements and accidents."
   
   The bulk of the work is unapologetically nonlinear, containing a larger ratio of science to actual memoir. Yet the author's brother is always there, haunting either a discourse on the history of internment or the origin of central heating back in 80 B.C. For readers who prefer straightforward memoir, these flights may prove a distraction from what is essentially a compelling look at sibling estrangement. But these technical flights never feel clinical or even detached. Vernon's wounded, probing voice holds it together nicely, whether the subject is the Big Bang, or the circumstances that led to the appearance of nine-year-old Paul's photo on the front page of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.
   In melding science to the personal, he illuminates a universe that's become as vague to us as his brother was to him, while reminding us that context is everything. At one point Vernon says that he somehow fell asleep while the brother's life plummeted, an observation that might parallel our relation to the world. Everything is moving too fast goes the song; Vernon's insistence on examining the implications of the everyday is an invitation to cease all our taking for granted.
   
   Vernon entreats us with trenchant description and the use of metaphor. He describes the ritual of bathing after Paul: "This is how I cleaned myself: by lowering my body into Paul's gray opacity rimmed with a sort of soapy pond scum." The automobile looms as a vehicle of escape from the grief that the house represents, but also the seat of memory and revelation: an incident in their teens where he and Paul are humiliated by an aggressive motorist parallels the author's recent discovery of Paul's Duke Ellington CDs under the passenger seat.
   
   At one point, Vernon asks, "Was his life a waste of life?" Paul's obsession with pornography, his ham radio and the Internet were "amusements...of solitude and boredom." His preoccupations with instruments of communication are symbolic of a desperate man pining for an elusive acceptance. As Paul sits glued to the computer in pathetic self-exile, Vernon makes ineffectual stabs at conversation: "He looked up only if I stood in the doorway, and eventually I did--out of fraternal duty or to torture us both, I'm not sure which."
   
   And there lies regret: ultimately, Reasons is atonement for a missed opportunity, though its lack of resolution leaves not solace, but an aching sadness. Paul's disintegration becomes one more mystery of life that Vernon, unlike the intrepid Robert Fludd or Jane Goodall, can't crack. In resigning himself, Vernon tellingly muses that "to be fully conscious of everything, of course, from the rivers of microorganisms we breathe in and out to the history of the shoehorn, would be a form of insanity." That statement's lesson - that the world and our loved ones occasionally escape our grasp - strikes to the heart of this work's disquieting power.

5 comments about Morrie: In His Own Words.

1. The shipping to Guam was VERY FAST although it was only USPS priority mail. If you are a Mitch Albom fan, this book is literally in Morrie's own words. So the style is not quite the same. If you just want a little more in depth of him (Morrie), this is must. My 17 yr old has to do a project quarterly and read all of Albom's books, and this is the last one.



2. This book makes you realize that Morrie was such an amazing person. It makes you wish you had known him. But it is also more a book for a person who knows he is dying. Or for someone who loves someone who is dying, you could read it together. It offers positive thinking for a person who has already accepted his imminent death.



3. I wish I had read this book when my husband was dying of ALS. It should be a must for everyone who'd been given a Medical Death Sentance and their family who have to stand by helplessly while their loved one diminishes and then dies before their eyes. It's compelling and would at least ease the sorrow that becomes part of their life.



4. After reading the wonderful 'Tuesdays with Morrie' I was craving for more wise lessons from Morrie Schwartz. Eventually I came across this little booklet written by the man himself. It's filled with the same inspiring wisdom and lessons you'll also find in 'Tuesdays', but there's one big difference. In 'Tuesdays' Morrie was teaching his old student Mitch how to live a better life. As such that book is enormously relevant to everybody who reads it. In 'Morrie in his own words' the focus is more towards helping the dying and terminally ill deal with their situation, settle some important relational 'unfinished business' and reach acceptance and closure. About 75% percent of the book seems to be aimed at this specific group of people.
   
   It still includes valuable lessons and especially Morrie's interpretations of Buddhist concepts appeals to me, but for most people this book will be less relevant than 'Tuesdays'. Having said that, Morrie remains a remarkable man and among his inspring lessons is one about accepting that we'll eventually all die, so we better learn to accept it and make the best of the days that are given to us. So, even the lessons in dying in this booklet will become relevant sooner or later. As such it certainly doesn't hurt to have this little booklet in your collection for when the time comes ...



5. The book is a companion read of "Tuesdays with Morrie." Although both books cover similar material, the difference is the originality of the material. Morrie explains his prospective living and dying in addition to his other life experiences. The reader will get insight on such topics as "handling frustration" and "reaching acceptance" to "relating to others" and "being kind to yourself" or understand Morrie's view regarding "It's not too late to develop new friendships or reconnect with people." Or "It's not to late to...ask yourself if you really are the person you want to be, and if not, who you do want to be."