5 comments about The Magician and the Cardsharp: The Search for America's Greatest Sleight-of-Hand Artist.

1. We just finished reading The Magician and the Cardsharp by Karl Johnson and are blown away.
   
   If you do not already have this book, get it. Mr. Johnson tells the story of Dai Vernon's hunt for the middle-deal with such excitement, detail, and interest; you would swear he was a magician.
   
   He's not one of us but he is the next best thing; a career journalist who knows how to write a good detective story.
   
   The story of Dai Vernon's pursuit of what many considered a myth - the center deal - is well-known to most magicians (or at least the ones as old as us).
   
   Some magicians assumed Mr. Vernon fabricated the entire story. There is no such thing as undetectable middle-deal, they grumble. And even if there was, no card mechanic would or could ever use it in a real game.
   
   Tony Giorgio's writings against the myth of the center deal has been addressed several times on the Inside Magic web site. We see no need to go into it again other than to suggest this book supports a loud "told you so."
   
   It is difficult to write a book about magic. We've all read the horrible efforts of non-magicians who either describe effects impossible to perform, or expose effects we depend on for our sustenance.
   
   Jim Steinmeyer's approach to writing about the history of our great art deserves praise. We don't believe he unnecessarily exposes magic secrets in his writings.
   
   We thought his balance was perfect in his two latest books: the recently released The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer" and the incredible Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear.
   
   Some may agree with us, some will not.
   
   As much as we loved Mr. Steinmeyer's work -- and we really do -- Mr. Johnson's book on Dai Vernon's hunt for the mythical move surpasses all we've read.
   
   Mr. Johnson's works real magic in his descriptions of the hunt for Allen Kennedy - the card mechanic - and the move magicians either dismissed as impossible to perfect, or irrelevant for a true gambler.
   
   We read Jamy Ian Swiss' review of the book in one of our favorite magic magazines before we picked it up.
   
   Mr. Swiss certainly knows his way around a deck of cards and knows what is possible. Mr. Swiss makes a convincing case that a gambler would learn to perfect the center deal despite the fact that it had limited (or according to Mr. Giorgio no) value in a real card game.
   
   By the way, is it just us, or is Jamy Ian Swiss one of the best writers in our business? The guy is good. In fact, we think he's a gooder writer than us any day.
   
   Some have asked, why would any mechanic take the time necessary to perfect a move that promised no advantage in a card game?
   
   After all, assuming there is a stack you would like to use or preserve, you most certainly would not put the stack approximately in the center of the deck.
   
   Remember, in a card game there would be a cut required after shuffling. The cut would certainly change the order of the bottom or top stack but and certainly not in a predictable sequence.
   
   ("Trust everyone but always cut the cards")
   
   The book makes it clear the center deal can be done. Mr. Johnson points out, however, Mr. Vernon dedicated approximately two-years of daily practice to effectively present it.
   
   Let's assume for the sake of argument Mr. Swiss and Mr. Vernon's skills with a deck of cards exceeds the average internet magic blog editor. If it would take them two years of daily practice to perfect the move for use in a magic trick, why would a gambler spend the time to learn the move or ever use it in a game when his moves are being burned by fellow gamers?
   
   This is essentially Mr. Giorgio's point.
   
   The Magician and the Cardsharp convincingly answers this question. We don't want to ruin the incredible drama of Mr. Vernon and Mr. Kennedy's meeting -- but we are sorely tempted because it is such great literature. You'll need to pick-up the book for yourself and read about the encounter. We think it is almost more exhilarating than the story of how Mr. Vernon finally located the card shark.
   
   One of our favorite scenes leading up to the meeting with Mr. Kennedy, has Mr. Vernon and Charlie Miller meeting the underworld boss of the greater Kansas City area.
   
   We never thought of Mr. Miller as being anything other than one of the very elite, cool members of the Dai Vernon mafia. His skills were legendary. But he had to start somewhere and the description of his first undercover test is hysterical and human.
   
   We don't want to disclose too much. But at the same time, we're aching to tell. It's a great moment.
   
   Please buy the book. Read it, buy copies for your magic and non-magic friends. This is a great story and as such transcends the traditional limitations of genre.
   
   (...)



2. For budding and practicing magicians who love history about their art - hard to go wrong in reading and absorbing this book throughly.
   
   For general readers (like myself) - you can appreciate this book two ways, it's an amazing transport back to another America. Back to a time of riverboat gamblers, railroad card sharps, prohibitions, etc, etc ... and the author's journey in tracing and tracking the whereabouts of a near mythical card trick. You learn about an amazing sub-culture that most of us were vaguely aware of and you learn about the daily lives of magicians and card sharps back in the day.
   
   The other thing you learn to really appreciate and marvel at is that in case you thought non-fiction writers were all lazy (or liars these days :-), Karl Johnson proves them wrong. He literally leaves no stone unturned. If someone remarks that he met so and so on a rainy day. Karl went back and unearthed the meteorological from at least two newspaper to verify if that memory rings true ... and by doing so, he paints a very detailed picture of these small towns (and some not so small) and life in America in the years prior to WWII.
   
   So, even if you're just mildly interested in card tricks or magic, the author has woven a very intricate journey of an interesting subculture and portraits of daily small town America in the 1920's and 1930's that's interesting in itself. Afterwards, you almost feel the need to dust yourself off from the Kansas winds ...
   
   The only people who might be disappointed in this book are people who are looking for card trick tips how to. This is not that kind of book - this book literally shows you that the journey is the reward.



3. This is the story of how one of the century's greatest magicians tracked down a gambler who could do what most slight-of-hand artists only dreamed about: deal cards from the center of the deck. This move, the "holy grail" of card manipulation is really just little more than the MacGuffin in this intriguing page-turner of a story.
   
   Even if you are not the slightest bit interested in magic, card tricks or gambling, this is a fascinating read.
   
   You will be transported to the first third of the 20th century into a story full of memorable and colorful characters. Johnson's attention to detail and the thoroughness of his investigation is nothing short of miraculous.
   
   One of the most purely entertaining books I've read in quite some time.



4. This book goes far beyond most biographical treatments that you see in the field of magic. Yes, it talks about Vernon and his search for Bill Kennedy, and yes, it delves into the magic that they shared (although it was not magic to Kennedy; it was a way of making a living). "Magician and the Cardsharp" reads more like time travel. Johnson superbly takes you back into the past, and gives you a true "you are there" feeling. It reads like a novel, and that is an excellent thing...because you find yourself caring about the characters and seeing how they relate to their surroundings. Superb book; highest recommendation, even if you don't care about magic at all.



5. Prof.Dai Vernon was Sleight-of-Hand's Superman. This book is about Superman's search for a man who could do something that even he could not - deal off the center of a a pack of cards. The Professor, I'm told, told the tale of his quest with great aplomb.I'd say he'd be pretty impressed with the author's version of the tale. It's a very well researched book with a splendid narrative woven around the facts that the author has dug up. You get a peek into Vernon's letters, feel his passion for the art,sense his fear (when he poses as a cardsharp to meet mobsters ) share his excitement (when he discovers Charlie Miller, and when he meets Pleasant Hill's center-dealer) and get insights into the other great magicians of the era. The ways of Pleasant Hill's card and dice mechanics that 'play the boats' or 'work the cubes' will fascinate you.
   
   For non-magicians, this is a wonderful read - a taut , magical tale about a man's lifelong quest for something that most would dismiss as a trivial party trick .
   
   For magicians, there's enough Erdnase/Vernon worship to keep you happy. The description of how Kennedy masters the deal over many years and the tale of Vernon's 'Ambitious Card' routine that flummoxed Houdini will fill your hearts with pride and respect.

5 comments about Aaron Copland: THE LIFE AND WORK OF AN UNCOMMON MAN (Music in American Life).

1. Howard Pollack has, quite simply, written the finest account of Aaron Copland' life and music thus far. I have all of the other biographies - including the excellent autobiography by Copland and Vivien Perlis. As worthwhile as these earlier publications are, it is Howard Pollack who has given all Copland devotees the quintessential story of the life and the music of America's greatest composer. I can think of no better place to start exploring Copland's genius than with this book as an introduction to the music, without which the world would be a poorer place and the 20th century would be missing a unique body of sound. It is inconceivable, to me at any rate, to imagine a world without Copland's music. No one else comes close to creating his sound world.

   Thank you Mr Pollack for making it so clear to all of your readers that Aaron Copland is not only America's greatest composer but is, historically, and without question, one of most important composers the world has ever produced.




2. While occasionally indulging in tendentious "theory," University of Houston professor of music Howard Pollack's ambitious, uneven book is redeemed by the author's encyclopedic knowledge, informed affection for Copland's (1900-1990) person and music, and the biographer's ability, more often than not, to write technically sophisticated musical analyses without obscuring the music.

   Given the identity politics dominating the new musicology, for all its flaws, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man, is a good and valuable book. It contains information from previously unavailable letters and interviews with the late composer's friends and relations. But why does a tenured, respected professor writing for a trade house adopt the method of cobbling on end chapters dealing with tendentious, identity-political theory that can only detract from the work? And yet, at present, this may be as good as can be hoped for: Some theory as encore, to satisfy the commissars. The alternative is, increasingly, all tin-eared theory, and no music.




3. Whilst Esquire as early as 1948 called Copland "America's No. 1 Composer", secondary Copland literature (which, given Copland's habitat and distinction, one automatically credits with a forest-wrecking amplitude) proves surprisingly scarce. The first words of Pollack's own book are, in part: "For many years I took Copland for granted ... he remained a shadowy figure at some distance from the central concerns of myself, my classmates and my teachers".

   Amazingly, between 1955 and the present volume not a single comprehensive study of Copland's life, by an outsider (as distinct from Copland's own explications of his aesthetic), appeared. "Essential" biographies of someone or other emerge, if we are to believe the book trade's spin-doctors, at least once every week; the account under review actually deserves this adjective. Its author (Professor of Music at the University of Houston) shows his love for Copland's oeuvre on every page, which helps; here is no glorified doctoral thesis where the authorial jargon struggles to drown out the authorial yawns.

   Yes, as other reviewers have complained, modish identity politics get too indulgent a treatment; yes, as they have also complained, Pollack makes too small an effort to integrate his insights into a coherent structure. But we're not likely to encounter a better guide to the subject.




4. When Pollack wrote this book, Copland desperately needed a biographer, and for a initial comprehensive effort, Pollack's book more than fills the bill.
   
   The book is a hefty 550 pages, not counting notes and index, but its unorthodox organization--the chapters are chronological, alternating, for example, a history of a few works with an analysis of some aspect of Copland's life--keeps the story moving. In fact, this organizational gambit is about the only thing that makes a life so sprawling as Copland's manageable. By grouping together everything having to do with, say, Copland and European composers, in one chapter, he makes it much easier for the reader to sink his teeth into the subject and to refer back to a topic later on.
   
   This book is almost a hagiography--Pollack clearly adores Copland and, if anything, views him as underappreciated. In particular, Pollack seeks to revive Copland's reputation as a "serious" composer, right up there in the 20th-century American canon with Ives. Along with such staples as "Appalachian Spring" and "Fanfare for the Common Man," Pollack wants us to recognize the achievements of his later, twelve-tone works. Further, he attempts (somewhat convincingly) to show the relationship between his "popular" works and the less-accessible ones, whereas Copland's works have often been seen as belonging to different "periods."
   
   I wouldn't be surprised if someone supersedes this biography in another 15 or 20 years, but for now, Pollack's book is a great introduction to the man and his work. Not only that, but it places Copland's ascension from struggling artist to eminent public figure in such a way to inspire young artists in all fields. A great read.



5. The book "Aaron Copeland: The Life and work of an Uncommon Man" is the story of a courageous sometimes private, but houmerous man who was not afraid to "stand up" for what he believed in and for what was truly the freedom that we must keep alive in this country. If you are at all interested in msic and courage and the impact that this man had on all arts, please read this book.

5 comments about Mr. Jefferson's Women.

1. There is not a scintilla of evidence linking Thomas Jefferson with Sally Hemings and her brood.Nature magazine TIMIDLY "corrected" itself for its faux pas in 1999, however, the media has continued to ignore the fact that there is NO EVIDENCE.Kukla just capitalizes on the public's juvenille tendency to support these ficto-spectacles,P.T.Barnum was correct about "suckers."



2. Why does even the prospect that Jefferson was with Sally Hemings bother you so much ?



3. Just when you thought you had read everything...Jon Kukla presents a very readable portrait of Jefferson's "relationships" with women--which leads to new insights about this great man--and, more interestingly, his attitudes towards women in general. The final chapters about his broader view of women as a threat to republican government place Jefferson in the context of his time. There is a remarkable discussion of Jefferson and Abigail Adams' letters. The book is eminently fair about Sally Hemings and gives a new meaning to the notion that "all men are created equal". Thank you, Jon Kukla, for beginning a lively conversation that is well worth your engagement.



4. I really enjoyed reading this book. The author wrote it in a way that both educates and compells you to read more. I found it hard to put down. My favorite parts were very personal, real-life events that made Mr. Jefferson even more real to me. My favorite is, during his presidency, an account of his chosen attire while welcoming a Rep. of the British King. He was wearing well worn slippers that he tossed around on his toes (priceless!). I also found the additional quotes and excerpts of letters from people such as Abigail Adams and others a welcome addition. Kudos to the author for such an insighful, wonderful, well thought out book about Jefferson and the various forms of relationships with women during his life.



5. Thomas Jefferson is one of the most troubling characters among America's founding fathers. He penned the immortal ideals of freedom and equality in the Declaration of Independence. We, from our modern perspective, also like the fact that he was an intellectual and that he brought refreshing informality to the White House. In recent years, his reputation has been tarnished by re-examination of his disturbing political tendencies. (See for example, John Adams and Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power). This book provides additional insights into Jefferson's character by examining his relation to the women in his life, and the insights add more tarnish to Jefferson's reputation that go beyond the understandably archaic attitudes that might belong to a man of his time. As clearly documented here, "all men created equal" applied no more to women than to blacks in Jefferson's mind. Each woman discussed here provides additional perspective. As to the Sally Hemings controversy, Kukla carefully lays out enough circumstantial details to undermine the most strident doubter.
   
   A fine book, worthy of a wider audience.

No comments about Founding Fathers: The Essential Guide to the Men Who Made America.

5 comments about Robert E. Lee: A Biography.

1. Emory Thomas promises to deploy the cool eye and analytical prowess of the historian to present a Lee much more vulnerable and flawed than that portrayed in Douglas Southall Freeman's titanic classic, R.E. Lee. And I certainly learned a lot about Robert E. Lee from Thomas's book. He does a good job of summarizing Lee's eventful life and his character, and shows why this defeated Confederate retains a more potent place in American history than most of those who won the Civil War.
   
   I was most struck by his insight that Lee was a man whose deeds were more important that his words. Lee never wrote his memoirs. He gave no important speeches and left no pithy quotes. His letters were pedestrian and full of thoughts on household economy, family vacations, and the fates of various pets. To understand Lee, you have to look at how his actions revealed traits like honesty, courage, and grace. Lee embodied what every Southerner aspired to be. For many, he still does.
   
   On a personal level, I also liked reading about Lee's careers as engineer, soldier, and educator. It's reassuring to realize that famous historical figures were actually fellow human beings who suffered the same frustrations as anybody else.
   
   When Thomas strayed from his historian role, I found the book less satisfying. He puts Lee on the couch, psychoanalyzing his thoughts about God and his relationships with his ne'er-do-well father, self-sacrificing mother, crabby wife, and underachieving kids. I saw precious little evidence for some of Thomas's conclusions.
   
   Similarly, I was shocked at the harsh and unsympathetic portrait that Thomas paints of Mary Lee. I was disturbed to realize that Thomas cherry-picked quotes from both Robert and Mary's letters to make Mary look bad, and I wonder why it was so important to him to do so.



2. Emory Thomas gives a southerners perspective on the life of Robert E. Lee. The preface of this book gives the reader a sense that they will be given a pro-southern view of the war and while that is true at times the biography is generally balanced well. Lee is portrayed as a hero which he was to the south and shown as a military genius which was mostly true. Lee accomplished amazing things by bold actions and the principles of movement and concentration. This book tracks his childhood where he lived in the shadow of a father who was a failure. It then moves to his years at West Point where he excelled and graduated at the top of his class. He was given several assignments across the country from building a fort in Savannah to defending the Mississippi near St. Louis. He even spent time in New York City rebuilding forts there before heading off to war in the 1848 Mexican American War. Lee served with distinction in the war and learned a great deal from Winfield Scott about fighting an offensive war with smaller numbers than the enemy. He would take these lessons to heart against the north.
   Lee would refuse both the United States Army and the Confederacy when they offered him posts in their armies. It was only when his home state of Virginia left the union that he accepted command of all Virginia militias. As the militias were absorbed into the army Lee found himself without a command. Jefferson Davis would use Lee as a roving advisor helping to make overall strategic decisions, a sort of Halleck of the South initially. Lee would eventually take command of the army once Johnston was sent out to command the Army of Tennessee. This would be a post that Lee kept throughout the entire war. Lee was able to achieve stunning victories by daring action but in the end resources were against him. Lee correctly believed that his army had to achieve victory very quickly because a war of attrition favored the north. Unfortunately for Lee he was at times too bold and all of the battles are categorized well here. For a book written in 1995 there is a good deal of attention paid to the west which is now considered a vital battlefield. Lee was forced to surrender after a vicious battle near Appomattox courthouse where PA miners actually blew up a whole underneath his army. Lee won daring defensive victories but each time his army was smaller and his position more tenuous. After the war Lee accepted a post to become President of Washington College in Lexington. It was a post he would excel at. Lee would not become a citizen of the union until historians discovered his petition in 1975 when Congress made him a citizen again. This biography provides an excellent and balanced look at Robert E. Lee's life. I would highly recommend for Civil War scholars who want an updated biography and one that is not too biased in one direction.



3. Thomas' book offers a fascinating insight into United States history during the early and mid parts of the nineteenth century. Lee's early career and his family life are treated in great and revealing detail. Robert E. Lee emerges as a man of exceptionally high principles and as a concerned, (but at a distance) father), of seven children. However, to one's great disappointment, Lee emerges from the book as an enigmatic man whom it is difficult to like. A very good read.



4. This is the best book on the market of its kind. It is a fascinating and intimate look into the personal and public life of one of the most revered figures of the Civil War. Robert E. Lee was not a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, and only a handful of very close friends, most of them women, really knew what made him tick. This work exposes his private flaws while celebrating his public strengths. Best of all, it transforms him from the symbolic marble statue which time has created, into the human being that he really was.



5. This is a fine biography of Lee, though not necessarily the best. In an attempt to provide new insights the author seems to stretch the evidence in areas that just don't add up. The insinuation that Lee's flirtations with women were less than innocent is just speculation that takes away from the book. The author does a good job of explaining the little things that Lee had to deal with in his life. He comes off human. Lee has to deal with parenting and marital issues. In one incident his wife embarrasses him by causing him to overdraft his bank account. I thought the book's strength was the period of the last year of the war until Lee's death. Here we see Lee struggling with his helplessness in the face of Grant's ever tightening noose. Realizing the inevitable, Lee becomes testy with his staff and subordintes. Finding defeat certain Lee ponders the advantages of death over the agony of surrender. I thought the post-war years were covered very well. Lee doesn't just retire to academic life, he has to deal with the headaches of reconstruction. Whether it involved his students attacking freedmen or having to personally testify to federal agents, his post-war years were challenging. In the end Lee faces these challenges with the courage and character for which he is so rightly famous. This book is worth a read.

4 comments about A Woman's Civil War: A Diary, with Reminiscences of the War, from March 1862.

1. I read this journal/reminiscence during a short period in whichI read several other Confederate women's diaries and reminiscences,and something that made this one particularly significant in my opinion was that unlike some of the other southern women whose writings I read, Cornelia McDonald lived along a major battlefront of the Civil War from the early months on. Thus, although she definitely preferred to have the Confederate forces around her and appears to have retained some bitterness toward the Union government after the war, she had a more complex view of Union soldiers than did some other Confederate women who lived further from the warfront through much of the war. She mentions the kindness of a shoemaker in her town who sympathized with the Union cause but made shoes for her large family of children even though she could not pay him, and at one point she even has a good word for the Union general who heads the forces occupying the town where she lives. The story of her struggle to feed and protect her children, help nurse soldiers, maintain tense but somewhat peaceable relations with soldiers who occupy her home, and support her family when she is eventually left alone is a story of courage, resourcefulness, pain, and gratitude. Cornelia had not lived only the life of a sheltered belle before the war, and despite the chaos around her, she manages to combine practicality and a love of beauty to keep enough sanity to survive the war and go on with family life afterward.



2. I stumbled on Cornelia Peake McDonald when I discovered she was a relation. Of course I had to obtain this book when I was surprised to find her diary(or in this case an edited form of it) still in print.
   
   This book is not for the light hearted history buff that wants the stories of battle. It is the diary of a woman living through extra-ordinary times. A diary that her husband asked her to keep when he announced that their town was going to be taken by the union while he had to go to Richmond. Col. Angus W. McDonald organized the 7th Virginia Cavalry and served on the staff of his friend Jefferson Davis.
   
   The town of Winchester changed hands a few times. As such Cornelia was on the front lines. She had to deal with the union occupiers who were not too gentlemenly with seccesionists. Cornelia refused to turn over her house several times. Food was hard to obtain as access was denied to people that did not take an oath to the union. Yet she talks of union soldiers that violate orders and trade for flour and bread. As a good conferate she does not like the union forces as she describes life on the occupation. Yet she finds decent people that help her to what extent they can. In fact she even spoke up for a doctor that stayed in her house and did not bother her too much and kept soldiers from pillaging too much.
   
   She speaks of fears of the occupation as everyday more and more mistreatment happens as people are forced from their homes. Some dropped in the middle of nowhere without food or money. The fact that women are accosted if they walk around in pairs. You feel hear heart ache at the loss of her youngest child.
   
   Eventually she and her family become refugees to Lexington. You learn of her hardships as she deals with starvation and tried to get firewood for the family. Creating Confederate Candles, spinning wool for clothing. She even had to beg a man to make shoes for her boys.
   
   She was faced with breaking up her family. Especially after the Col. died. She decided to keep them together no matter what. After the war, they learn their homestead was unusable and decide to stay where they are.
   
   You also get to hear about the personalites of the war. She sits in a pew near Stonewall Jackson in church. Dinners with the Ashby brothers, meeting Robert E. Lee after the war. There are others that I will leave for you to find. :)
   
   Cornelia is an interesting woman and a product of her era. She speaks out against slavery and yet is offended by actions of freed slaves. She speaks of the short lived effort of reconcelliation of the North that was destroyed by John Wilkes Booth. At first she is happy with Lincolns death as she thinks he got what he deserved. And yet on reflection she realizes it was a big mistake that will hurt the South. She talks about the abuse of Jefferson Davis and the fact an innocent woman and her innocent son go to the gallows for the assassanation.
   
   It should be mentioned this is not the full diary and the fact she lost some of it as she moved around. Yet her memory is rather good as she rewrote events that were lost. She eventually penned a copy for each of her children.
   
   All in all a facinating read about a tough resourcefull woman struggling to keep and feed her family.



3. This book provides a glimpse into the struggles and mindset of a southern wife & mom and her family during the civil war. Cornelia McDonald's fortitude and faith under extraordinary trials and tragedies is inspirational. We are a homeschooling family and I think this would be an excellent supplement to a high school student's studies of this time period.



4. Cornelia Peake McDonald's diary shows us what life was like for the South during the Civil War. This inspiring story shows the noble character of Mrs. McDonald and the people of the South in general as they fought for their homeland and their beliefs. Most of us can only dimly imagine the hardships they endured with courage, authentic trust in God, and sacrifical help from neighbors and friends--hardships which included battles being waged in their yards, the death of loved ones, cruel treatment, and women with children being driven from their homes as refugees.

No comments about Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of my Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor.

No comments about Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy, 1863-1865 (The American Crisis Series Books on the Civil War Era).

5 comments about Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

1. Since Hillary's own "Living History" was such a sterile and lifeless academic exercise - at least compared to Obama's "Dreams of My Father," or even to Bill's "My Life" -- and thus did powerful little to reveal the real person behind the "political persona," one is forced to stoop (almost embarrassingly so) to "anti-Hillary tracts" (such as I thought this one would be), to peel back the veneer covering the "Hillary Rodham" mystique.
   
   Whether intentional or not, much to my surprise, this book is NOT an altogether uncomplimentary analysis of Mrs. Clinton's life. With many rich details that highlight the good, the bad, and the ugly -- along the often bumpy road her life has taken -- this volume, quite adequately "fills in the blanks" about who the real Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton is.
   
   Even though one can clearly see from the title that it was intended to appeal to the "I Hate Hillary Club," it turns out to be amazingly straightforward and free of the usual slander, political vitriol, and below the belt personal jabs that one normally associates with, and expects of books with titles of this sort. Nothing could have been more satisfying than to realize that I had misjudged this book based solely on its cover. I had indeed discounted its value, expecting it to be little more than a carefully disguised "attack ad." And even though much of the juicier aspects of its content seem to have been "culled" from other more respectable sources, it is still much more than just an "attack ad in disguise." It is meaty, coherent, and sticks tenaciously to the main task of trying to unravel, who the person behind the Hillary political persona really is. In short, those looking for an "attack ad" disguised as a book: Well, I am here to tell you, this ain't it. This is not the "National Enquirer's" version of the ex-First Lady's life. Ms. Olson can think and write, and has very high standards for her craft and exercises them all quite well here.
   
   The high points of the book lie in the careful way the author uses the details of her subject's life to outline, against the backdrop of the many layers of American society, the essential elements of Hillary's character and the motivation for her often difficult life choices. The ex-First Lady evolves from a "Goldwater Girl," to a "wide-eyed 1960s Leftist Radical," to Bill's "Hippy gal-pal," to a university Law professor, to a partner in a major law firm, to the ambitious "power grabbing money hungry" political predator that she is now thought by many to be. In the best of the American tradition, she "clawed her way to the top of the food chain."
   
   The public portrait of her is as a person seemingly willing to cut whatever moral corners are needed to advance herself; to protect her Golden Goose (Bill); to grab the brass ring for herself (the U.S. Presidency), and in the end" to find financial security for herself and her family. However, the author is careful to note that she is much more complex than just this demeaning portrait. Hillary does a great deal of good along this very treacherous and tortuous path, especially in improving education in Arkansas, with the Children's Defense Fund, steering Bill's campaigns and comebacks to victory, showing uncommon strength in "facing down" one scandal after another, and in raising consciousness about women issues.
   
   The low point of the book is watching the author get stuck chasing her own tail: Trying to graft her own self-created "Leftist Radical" image onto Hillary. No matter how many Saul Alinsky epigrams she uses, the graft simply does not "take." And the reason is because of the much larger, much deeper picture that the author's own analysis shows the ex-First Lady to be: Hillary, more than anything else, is an evolving political animal that is no longer easy to pigeonhole politically, morally or ethically.
   
   Yet, rather sadly, she misses her own most important lesson and contribution by failing to understand that the corruption of Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton, when seen in relief, is little more than a general critique of the American political way of life. For as she so aptly demonstrates, there is nothing unique about Hillary, her personality, her life choices, or her life journey that would make her stand out from the rest of us as predisposed towards political corruption, or towards becoming a "moral retrograde." Yet, as has been the case with so many others of American politicians, she lurched from "Right wing" idealist, to "Left wing" idealist, to a "co-opted and corrupt centrist," to a "bought-and-paid-for" pseudo-liberal democrat, and back into the closet again as a "Right wing Republican in "Democratic clothing."
   
   As a template of how to go from political naiveté to political maturity, Hillary's journey from idealist to corrupt political opportunist, could serve as THE model for anyone who gets caught up in the sausage grinding machinery of American government and politics. The sad fact is that the most likely, and the most probable outcome for any of us, is that we will be consumed by it, and will come out on the other side, grinded into unrecognizable moral mince meat -- a corrupt shell of our previous moral selves. Quite simply, we have a political system that eats and digests its young and spits them out as fertilizer for the next generation.
   
   What was most sobering about the book is that Hillary is the classic case in point. Her life's journey is an object lesson in what not to do. Through her, we can see how truly scary it is that for all but a handful of us, dealt the same hand in life as she, but for the grace of God, we too undoubtedly would have ended up in the same morally corrupt and bankrupt cul de sac that the ex-First Lady now finds herself in: with "unearned riches," dubious but exaggerated accomplishments, hanging on to a failed marriage, and still grasping for a meaningless brass ring, called the U.S. Presidency.
   
   While this is far from a balanced treatment, Hilary's own glossed-over treatment left the door wide-open for a hardnosed assessment, and this is it. Five stars



2. One of the best reviews I have read on this personality, and I have read seven books. Underlines the development of her radicalization in politics and how her dysfunctional family of orgin undergirds her indefensible justification of her husband's sex addiction and thereby blaming Christians for his deeds.



3. In an effort to objectively write a key chapter in my book, America, You Will Be Destroyed !: Thus Saith The Lord - and Other Amazing Prophecies I read Ms. Olson's book as a part of my research. While many other Hillary books focused on her and husband Bill's scandals, Olson's book tried to capture the psyche and inner workings of the former First Lady.
   
   I felt that the little, seemingly insignificant or trivial details of her life and childhood helped me to paint a better mental picure of the driving forces in Hillary's life. As a former national and state licensed therapist, the little details helped me to create a case study snapshot. The influences of the feminist movement, her continued pursuit and espousal of radicalism and socialism, her upbringing under a driven father, the upheaval of the 60's, the me-generation of the 70's, the self-consciousness towards her own body (specifically her legs), the disdain and reproachful way Bill treated her... Whew, her issues of being driven, loathing of men in general, thirst for power/dominance and control, all make sense. as another reviewer said, "When peeling back the layers, we need to know this stuff to get at what makes Hillary tick."
   
   Looking at all the background and biographical details makes me realize (and hopefully others) that in her machinations we see clearly that she has not become more conservative or even centrist. She is a radical socialist to the core, and the most frightening thng in this revelation is that she seems to truly believe that she alone is right, that she alone is the people's champion and this sense of righteous indignation fuels her passionately to apire to the pinnacle of power at all costs.
   
   Like a true socialist, Hillary will do anything and everything to obtain power. She will reinvent herself over and over to do so. This book shows clearly that pragmatism is all a pose to make her attractive to the broad electorate. For her, the end (her obtaining power) will justify any means.
   
   By examing the actions/reactions of Hillary during key events such as Whitewater, the Travel agency firings, etc. The reader has an opportunity to see the venal, petty, cruel, vindictive, vulgar and violent side of a woman that is in a position of power and who is wanting yet more. Though all writer's have some non-altruistic motivation(s) for putting pen to paper, the work of digging out new details and reframing existing ones is crucial in the discovery phase of the case against HillaryThe Case Against Hillary Clinton (another work by a different author). There will be "Hell to Pay" if Hillary is elected.



4. This book was originally published by Barbara Olson in 1999 prior to her tragic death in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the pentagon. The timing is unfortunate in that if this book was just hitting the bookstores now (April 2008) I think it would prove to be Hillary's undoing, much as the Swift Boater's undid John Kerry with "Unfit for Command".
   
   This book is a real eye opener, following Hillary from her high school years through the Clinton White House to her election as a senator from New York. I think Ms. Olson might even have one up on Dick Morris in her documentation of Hillary's past. If even half of what Ms. Olson relates is true this woman should be sitting in a federal penitentiary somewhere, not running for President of the United States, a job she is about as qualified to perform as I am to perform open heart surgery. The book makes it clear that had she not been the First Lady of the United States she probably would have done some time in the slammer. From her shady an often illegal business deals and investments, to her blatant violation of the law by holding Hillarycare meetings in secrete, to funneling money to the PLO and Communist party, to lies, bribes, threats, insults, firings, perjury, blocking investigations, obstructing justice, hiring staff for the White House who couldn't get security clearances or required random drug testing, and altering public documents. Not to mention the fact that people who get too close to the Clintons have a bad habit of turning up dead. Ms Olson depicts Hillary is a one-woman crime wave.
   
   Shortly the American public will be asked to choose between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama as the Democrat Party's nominee to run for the Presidency of the United States. Anybody who is even entertaining the though of voting for Mrs. Clinton needs to buy this book and read it! And quickly! It sure changed my mind.



5. "Hell to Pay" tells the story of Hillary Rodham Clinton's life, from childhood on. We see her behind the scenes in Arkansas and Washington, pushing Bill to fight back from his sometimes political problems and accept Dick Morris' advice, and helping to squelch reactions to Bill's infidelities.
   
   More significantly, Olson reminds readers of Hillary's role in "Travelgate," selecting Bill's Cabinet appointees (including Janet Reno and Joceyln Elders), "Filegate" (FBI files used to find dirt on Bush I and Reagan appointees), likely obstruction of justice in blocking access to Vince Foster's files until her staff removed selected papers, creating HillaryCare (antagonized many through secrecy, inflexibility, and leaving them out, overly complex - 1,300+ pages, holding back pay for her ghostwriter in "It Takes a Village" for revealing that Hillary did not write it, trying to push V.P. Gore to an across the street office so she could have his W.H. spot, supporting the "sale of the W.H." - $ for sleepovers, etc., the cattle futures scandal, etc.
   
   "Hell to Pay" also portrays Hillary's "never say die" nature, and bits of her temper.
   
   The only bad news about the book is that the author was killed in the 9/11 airliner crash into the Pentagon, and thus unable to update the material.

3 comments about There I Grew Up: Remembering Abraham Lincoln's Indiana Youth.

1. A surprisingly significant part of the life of Abraham Lincoln was spent in Indiana prior to his big move to Illinois. This book gives the full run down on what is known about young Mr. Lincoln's years in the Little Pigeon Creek Community.
   
   Those with a serious interest in Lincoln's early life story; those interested in the individuals--including Herndon--who searched in Indiana for the living history of Abraham Lincoln after his assassination; and those good citizens of present day Indiana will all enjoy this book.
   
   Mr. Bartlet, a former park ranger at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, is a just-the-facts type of author who, I think, has done a good job at the important but limited task he undertook.



2. I live less than ten miles from where this story is centered and the way this book is written it was like walking with the Lincoln Family 200 years ago. Over the last couple of years I have read some really good books about Lincoln, but to me this book is outstanding.



3. It takes a village to raise a child. "Here I Grew Up: Remembering Abraham Lincoln's Indiana Youth" is a look at the Indiana of our sixteenth president's childhood. In his own biography, Lincoln barely spoke of his childhood, but Bartelt hopes to inform and educate readers of Lincoln's youth and the place he was raised. Drawn from first person interviews among other sources, "Here I Grew Up" is a thorough and complete look at a man through his environment.