No comments about A Memoir of Jane Austen: and Other Family Recollections (Oxford World's Classics).

5 comments about Riding in Cars with Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good.

1. This was probably one of the best stories for women, I have ever read. I don't think there is a woman out there who couldn't relate to what this girl/woman went through in her life. The way this woman pursued her dreams no matter what life dished out to her. How she came to realize the things she was doing wrong without someone constantly telling her, even though they did, and how she took credit for the things she did right. Fantastic read!



2. This is a great book! An easy, entertaining read. My mistake was reading in bed at night, ending up staying up way too late!
   
   The author puts her readers in the "cars" with her as she tell about her life.
   
   It is a terrific read!



3. Let me first say that I think the author has a compelling story and potential as a writer, but she does not do her own story justice. Since Ms Donofrio has an MFA in creative writing from a top school, I expected a more polished book, instead I found myself wishing that she had slowed down and written a few more drafts and added a round or two of copyediting before releasing this book.
   
   Aside from the many technical missteps, what bothered me the most was the author's apparent lack of insight about her own actions and motivation, which is an important part of autobiography. She portrays herself as an anti-authoritarian pleasure-seeker with no deep or complex feelings for anyone, including herself. We never get to see her learn from her mistakes or grow emotionally.
   
   Apparently trying to place some blame for her many troubles, the author takes a couple vague and random potshots at her family (especially her brother and father) but is unconvincing because her characterizations of her family are too shallow (father - cop; brother - cop; mother - housewife; sisters - who knows?) Taking some time to show more of the interaction between the family members would have helped to reveal the deep family dynamics and add weight to her story.
   
   I was particularly bothered by her depiction of her relationship with her son, which in the first several years bordered on neglectful, and later seemed overly codependent. She says at one point that this is because she was so young when she gave birth (although 18 is not that young) and that they were "children" together. It doesn't seem as though she had any perspective on her role as a mother.
   
   Instead, what I read was the chaotic story of an angry, rebellious teenager and promiscuous, irresponsible young mother who gets a chance to attend two prestigious universities, but continues to have self-destructive tendencies and no understanding of herself. At the end of this litany of troubles, she congratulates herself on the fact that she obtained two college degrees and managed to get her son off to college. End of story.
   
   At least, that's all her book tells us. Did she ever find peace within herself? Does she understand who she is and why her life turned out the way it did? Does she have hopes and plans for the future? I would like to have known more and I'm sure there IS more to her story. The author was unafraid of revealing her youthful excesses and calamities; but it takes more than raw bravado to tell the more revealing story that unfolds in the heart. Who knows, maybe a few years down the road, Ms Donofrio, having honed her writing skills and learned to understand herself better, will come out with a sequel that will be more developed and insightful, and thus more satisfying to read.



4. Riding in Cars with Boys is a great, easy and fun read. Beverly Donofrio really captures what its like to be in a "bad" situation. Her teen pregnancy, teen marriage, and teen divorce really make you think about your life and how tough it actually could be. What was thought to be her worst mistake (her son), ended up being the best. This book really touches you with humor, sadness, and reality. The ending really gives you hope that you can do whatever you want in life, and there really is nothing that can stop you! This really is a great book!



5. I agree with a previous reviewer. This book -- like many books these days -- could have used a few more drafts. I expected more from Beverly D'Onofrio ... and I really wanted to like this book. I grew up near D'Onofrio around the same time. So, I enjoyed reading about that time and place. But Ms. D'Onofrio could have gone deeper. She wrote about all her wildness, drinking, drug abuse. But what got her out of all that? Just going to college? Just growing up? I wanted more. Plus, I didn't think the writing was very good.
   
   I think part of the problem with a lot of books these days is that publishing houses don't have the staff they used to. So, writers really do not get edited like they used to. Books are being released when really they could use two or three (or more) drafts.

5 comments about Judy.

1. Gerold Frank's biography is probably the single most comprehensive book written concerning Judy Garland: meticulously researched, debunking many myths, and richly detailed, it is certainly a standard for any one seriously interested in Garland. Even so, I have several issues with the book.

   My single greatest complaint about the book is that Frank often seems to include detail for the sake of detail, and at times these details don't seem to make any cohesive statement. That aside, while Frank places Garland under a microscope, he never really quite delivers any sense of the world in which she moved; consequently, we never really have any background against which we may judge her. There is no context.

   These are serious flaws, and while the book is certainly readable and enjoyable, I do not think it is one to which the average reader would return, nor would I particularly recommend it to any but the toughest of hard-core Garland fans.




2. Gerold Frank has taken a subject of innumerable facets, a larger-than-life personality, and an almost indescribable talent and has put the history of her life to words as no writer before or since has been able to accomplish. Judy Garland, one of the silver screen's most beloved stars, is accurately and honestly conveyed in this biography. Frank's style is unique: when he tells of the tradgedies or failures of the star, he is not incriminating against the subject. Frank's book is one as written by an observer, sometimes voyueristically so. His thorough research bring Garland through in all her glory: as the vaudeville headliner, the little girl on the rise to stardom, the MGM superstar, loving wife and mother, and the sometimes self-destructive woman, taken from this earth too soon by the disease brought on by a lifetime of pills, but most of all, the woman trying to find her place in the world and the love she always craved and needed. Judy Garland is a human being, not a media figure, in this book. Gerold Frank is to be well commended for his excellent portrayal of Judy Garland, and readers will also be delighted or surprised by the informative tidbits along this Yellow Brick Road into the life of the great Judy Garland.



3. Never mind other books on the subject, icluding Lorna Luft`s "Me and My Shadows - living with the legacy of Judy Garland"...
   
   THIS IS IT! This is the definitive biography. The detail is amazing and Gerald Frank is by far the only one who has captured Judy the woman and not ONLY the star. John Fricke`s "The World`s Greatest Entertainer" is good, but a tribute to a star, up there somewhere..... It`s written by a fan and good as it is, it sadly looks perspective.
   
   This must NEVER be out of print and belongs to every library in the world. Indeed, I thought I knew evrything about Judy(I`ve been a fan since 1977), but THIS book is filling in holes I NEVER KNEW EXCISTED!
   
   Thanks a LOT, Gerald Frank:-) This book i s of Pulitzer Prize calibre, although I realise a biography will never be given that honour...



4. Do get this book. And you'll be swept-away into another world where a crazy-girl named Francis, aka Judy Garland, got away with all kinds of mischief and adventure. Somewhere in her kooky, chaotic, vaudeville life, she surely got the idea that it was all a show about nothing.
   
   Judy was a passionate person, and Gerold Frank captures her spirit, her sense of humor, her highs, her dark-side and the range of her anger and inspirations. "If you ever want to know who I was, listen to my songs," she said. What does one do with all that talent and energy? Frank gets into it. I think Gerold Frank does a fabulous job of filling-out the life of a human being. We sometimes forget that Judy was more than a performer. It is stunning to watch her films, knowing what was going on behind the scenes, how she was consistently exploited. She was young. People never had psychological terms for boundaries in those days, so she continued to remain a somewhat open and exploited person, "performing" right up to her death. And she was damn-angry in the end.
   
   Judy had no outlet for her anger, except to strike out at things, objects and people. She was at a loss to know how to care, because she was never taught or given models of respect. So she stopped caring and began to take advantage of situations and people as a method of personal survival. This was the thing that alienated her from her children. Deep down, she didn't want to be this. So she let them go, and consequentially, a little bit of her self, as well. Bipolar disease is very difficult to manage without these psychological skills.
   
   Judy never really had much of a chance to be anything than what she was. This happens to actors and people who need to showcase themselves in public: they get stuck. She learned how to play the victim. She just reached a point where she quit defending herself about it, that's all. Was Judy a bitch and a diva? Those were roles she took on, in the victim-mode. Women in those days were acculturated to be subservient, and therefore victims and blamers. If one is physically and mentally challenged, one needs help. Judy never got the right help and couldn't find it. Yet she always reserved a soft spot in her heart. She held on to her theme song, Over the Rainbow, and cherished it. So we have to look to someone like Gerold Frank, who is able to dig down under all this, and finds her; a woman who had a heart, and who was aching to share it with us, in spite of everything.



5. This is an "early" review since I haven't finished this very long book yet, but I will say that I don't like very long books (I find them daunting and time-consuming) but this one is good and holds your interest despite its detail and depth. However, I know that it leaves out certain parts already about her early life. For example, various sources (such as Marcella Rabwin, who is featured in the book prominently, and a family friend of Garland for many years) said on the E! True Hollywood Story TV program, that Judy and her sisters, mother, and father left Grand Rapids because Judy's father, Frank, had an affair with "a young man" and in those days that was "scandalous" and they "had to" move away. This story is nowhere in the book. This book also supposedly had the cooperation and the blessing of Liza and Lorna (not sure about Joe), Judy's children, so you know that despite the book's detail and depth, it's going to be "safe" with nothing too controversial that the children didn't want published. That's too bad, because for a biography to be truly inspirational (let alone just plain "accurate"), you have to include the skeletons in the closet (sorry for the pun, there, Frank). I haven't read Gerald Clarke's "Get Happy", which might include more scandalous stories. It's funny how there are 2 major Judy biographies that are very very long with authors named "Gerald"; easy to confuse the two, as I did at first. What a remarkable life; what a remarkable book. I still recommend book this highly, for Judy fans and also because I recommend biographies in general as a way for people to put their troubles in perspective, to gain inspiration from people we all "know", and as a parable to learn what to do, and not to do, to be happy in life. This would also be a great "primer" for young people to understand the history of Hollywood, or if you want a case study of a great American if you're patriotic, a great woman if you're a feminist, an unfortunate addict if you have an interest in drug and alcohol abuse issues, and a great musician/actress if you're an artist.

5 comments about I Have Lived Before: The True Story of the Reincarnation of Shanti Devi.

1. According to many investigators Near-Death Experiences suggest at least the probability of life after death. In this respect, they are connected to other experiences that do so, such as memories of a previous life.
   One of the most famous early cases in this field concerns the Indian girl Shanti Devi. In the 1930s she spontaneously claimed to have been Lugdi Devi, the wife of Kedar Nath Chaubey from Mathura. This woman had died while giving birth at the young age of 23.
   The numerous details that Shanti mentioned about her previous incarnation were verified as meticulously as possible by Indian researchers. Many of them concluded that the statements and behaviours shown by Shanti Devi could not be explained by mainstream scientific theories.
   One of the first westerners that thoroughly investigated the case was the Swedish author Sture Lönnerstrand. He travelled to India as a skeptic and became convinced by the facts he discovered there. His book Shanti Devi, en berättelse om reinkarnation is a moving, easily accessible biography, illustrated with photographs of Shanti and other persons involved. It is very positive that this English translation was finally issued in 1998.
   At a later age, Shanti Devi told Lönnerstrand what she could recall of her death as Lugdi. She still remembered that she consciously observed how a physician, a nurse, her husband and her mother had jointly decided that her body should be immediately transferred to Mathura to be burnt there. Ultimately she entered a spiritual world of Light and from there she finally returned to earth.
   This book by Sture Lönnerstrand fulfills the important function of spreading reliable information about a typical, classic case of memories of a past incarnation. Scholarly reincarnation research is not an artifical 'invention' of Ian Stevenson, but it studies a natural phenomenon of all ages and regions.



2. Having grown up in Delhi, we had heard of the unbelievable story of Shanti Devi Mathur from my father and other relatives who grew up at that time in the same neighborhood in old Delhi.
   
   There has never been any doubt about the absolutely truth of the story in minds of anyone growing up in old Delhi at that time. The facts in the book are completely in line with what I have always heard from family. These facts may be hard to accept for many, but do yourself a favor and read the book.....it's 100% true!



3. Since friends know I'm interested in yoga and meditation, they often ask if I believe in reincarnation. I advise them to read I Have Lived Before by award winning Swedish journalist Sture Lonnerstrand, and make up their own minds.
   If you only read one book on reincarnation, this should be the one. Shanti Devi's story is the most thoroughly researched case of reincarnation in modern India. The details of this account will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about the nature of the soul.
   Don't miss this book; it's a mind blower.



4. I came across a brief introduction to Shanti Devi in "The Idiots Guide to Hinduism". The story fascinated me and given I was eager to learn more about her past and present lives, I bought the book and couldn't wait to read it! Reincarnation is a concept which have been exposed to me but I've never come across a story as legit and real as Shanti Devi's experience! The facts gathered are amazing! One needs no scientific evidence to accept the fact that this case is legit, genuine... real! The author did a terrific job composing details, outlining details from her present life and past memories, as well as delving into other religions such as Christianity and explaining more about it, such as how it reincarnation was once accepted. This is a must read book for any individual interested in reading an initial true story about reincarnation and learning a little more about Hinduisim in comparison with other religions!



5. Over 50 years ago, I remember reading a passing reference to Shanti Devi and her experiences in a past life. How I could remember her name after all these years I'll never know, but I decided to get the book and read it. I could hardly put it down.
   
   As a Christian, I have never accepted reincarnation--although I have wondered about it from time to time. If this book isn't proof of reincarnation, it comes extremely close. How she could have known all those facts were it not for reincarnation seems to defy logic. But then, trying to understand the spirit world is something beyond our ability to comprehend anyway.
   
   It is an excellent book, relatively short, and easy to read. Quite frankly, it blew me away!

5 comments about Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice.

1. This is a most engaging portrait of a model justice in the common law tradition. Justice O'Connor is a true American icon of humble and hardworking origins rising to the heights of leadership based on character, critical thinking and an ethic of service. Her good will and civility toward those with whom she disagreed is an example to follow. The narrative is well informed, nuanced and flows steadily in a current that merges national, judicial and personal events in the judge's life most artfully. A wonderful book about a wonderful lady and an excellent Supreme Court justice. It is the likes of Sandra Day O'Connor that make one proud to be an American. And though I've never (yet) voted Republican she is also one more beautiful reason to love Ronald Reagan.



2. Joan Biskupic's biography _Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice_ provides a compelling picture of the first woman Supreme Court justice and of the inner workings of the Supreme Court through four presidential administrations. Biskupic combines assiduous research with a writing style that makes the intricacies of Supreme Court proceedings accessible and fascinating. The biography is impressive on many counts, especially in how it captures O'Connor's skilfull handling of the challenges of being the nation's first female Supreme Court Justice. Throughout, Biskupic's stance is balanced, outlining the strengths of O'Connor's jurisprudence while acknowleding O'Connor's critics.
   
   While the main focus of the biography is on O'Connor's work in the Supreme Court, the early chapters offer a snapshot of O'Connor as a driven career woman, a devoted wife and mother, and an adroit politician. Biskupic shows how O'Connor's life on the family's "Lazy B." farm in Arizona was a formative influence, even though her parents consciously separated her from the farm in order to give her more educational opportunities at a private school in in El Paso. Her father's independence and opposition to the expansion of federal powers in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, and O'Connor's experiences as a trial lawyer, an Arizona state senator, and a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals shaped an approach to law based on pragmatic, narrow definitions as opposed to overarching theoretical positions in rulings. As Biskupic shows, O'Connor's Arizonan, Western roots are manifest in her respect for the Tenth Amendment, which gives to states those powers not directly assigned to the federal government.
   
   Biskupic is sensitive in tracing O'Connor's role as a trailblazer (though, often, in a purposefully understated way), and the biography shows how attitudes toward women have evolved from the 1950s to the present. O'Connor, for instance, despite graduating in the top 10% at Stanford University's Law school in 1952 and having been a member of the Stanford Law Review, received no offers at firms. One prestigious firm, Gibson, Dunn offered her a legal secretary position, which she declined. In an irony reflective of social changes, when Fred Smith, Ronald Reagan's White House Counsel and a former lawyer with Gibson, Dunn, and Grutcher, interviewed O'Connor in 1981 for the Supreme Court vacancy, O'Connor asked him if it was an interview for "a secretarial position." Biskupic begins her book with this effective anecdote, and the biography throughout reveals how O'Connor astutely negotiated gender prejudice in public life.
   
   Biskupic also offers a detailed picture of O'Connor's important votes related to Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, capital punishment, and Bush v. Gore as she became increasingly the fifth tie-breaking in a deadlocked court. Biskupic chronicles O'Connor's evolution as a jurist, arguing that her role as a centrist often made her a baramoter of where the nation as a whole stood. Biskupic points out that O'Connor's legislative background as an Arizona State Senator--as a person who ran for office and thus who was directly accountable to the electorate--gave her a unique perspective in the Supreme Court with its life-time appointees.
   
   Chapter 15, "Scalia v. O'Connor," highlights O'Connor's judicial pragmatism and minimalist interpretations, offering a contrast with Scalia's philosophically driven understanding of law on originalist grounds. In this chapter, Biskupic addresses critiques of O'Connor's decisions and legal reasoning from both the right and left. This chapter is fair in its discussion and highly informative about different approaches to law and about the role of the Supreme Court, in general.
   
   An anecdote at the end of the book reveals O'Connor's personal style. In an interview with Biskupic, Clarence Thomas recalled O'Connor's congeniality and even the subtle impact this had on the court . O'Connor had attempted for a number of years to convince the other justices to eat lunch together after listening to cases. Although Thomas and other justices initially resisted, prefering to work on cases, he and others later relented. Thomas remarks, "Now, you have a group of people who really enjoy other's company." Biskupic argues that such tact helped lead to O'Connor's ascendant role in the court.
   
   Biskupic's biography chronicles O'Connor's own life and provides a view of the day-to-day dynamics of the Supreme Court, including shifts in the court with retirements and the investitures of new justices. The biography, while telling many important stories affecting American law and life, maintains a clear argument of O'Connor's unmistakable influence.



3. As an admirer of SDO for quite some time, this book opened me up to admire her even more. This book told me so many things that I never knew. It also explained her reasoning behind many of her decisions, both as a justice and in life. Worth the read.



4. No author to date has fine-tuned the story of O'Connor from ranch to robes as well as Ms. Biskupic. The extent of her study and interviews shows, but does not become an academic report. It is fresh and insightful, and certainly as amusing and straight-shooting as its subject.
   
   If you are interested in the law, the Supremes, history in the making, or simply the politics of what it means to be a woman in the law, this is the book you want to read.



5. Joan Biskupic's biography on Sandra Day O'Connor is one of the best biographies I have read. She discusses Justice O'Connor's life from before she became a Supreme Court Justice to when she announced her retirement. Not only did Ms. Biskupic discuss how the court changed in the early 1980's with the addition of the nation's first woman Supreme Court Justice, but she discussed how this effected the other justices as well. Moreover, the reader who may just be wanting to learn about Justice O'Connor learns about all of the Supreme Court Justices that she served with during her tenure. It is an easy read and would be a great book for high school and college students, who were not born yet when Sandra Day O'Connor first joined the Supreme Court and gave them an idea what she had to contend with to get her job and also what life was like during the 80's, 90's and early 21st century. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the life of Sandra Day O'Connor. She is truly a very interesting woman and a role model for young women today.

5 comments about Let Me Go.

1. I enjoyed the book but kept wondering why the mother's name or the camp she worked at ever mentioned. Would have made the book more enjoyable.



2. History is often written on the grand stage. The huge battles or landmark laws are recorded. The feelings of the children whose parents are caught up in the "monumental events" are rarely recorded. In "Let Me Go, Helga Schneider has given us just such an account. Her mother was a seemingly unapologetic nazi who abandoned her family to serve Hitler. Helga is now going to visit her dying mother, who is possibly suffering from dementia. Helga just needs to know, and engages in incredibly difficult conversations with her mother. Is her mother still rational? Is she telling the truth? Why would she do the brutal things that she herself describes (including tortures and nonchalantly sending another woman who offended her to be enslaved in a brothel). This is compelling reading, and an underappreciated way of knowing history. The only comment I have, and it is not directed at Schneider, but at society in general. We are always surprised when it is a woman who in engages in such terrifying acts, as it violates the stereotype of female behavior. We would probably not be as surprised if this book were written in terms of going to see her aged father.



3. Something was missing for me in the historical recount.
   
   She meets her 90 year old mother in a nursing home and starts asking very leading questions that suggest she should feel pity (whether she should or shouldn't isn't the point) when I was just waiting for her to head in the direction of how her mother came to believe in the nazi lifestyle in the first place. The previous reviewer is right, they pick right up where she leaves her children and joins the SS party and is viewed as a monster but I think it's responsible to attempt to understand humanity's motives and find out what the catalyst was to her drastic life change. There are even hints that she missed her old life terribly but these reasons are not explored, only pondered over by the writer in hindsight. As the famous saying goes, if you neglect to understand these situations, however painful they may be, history may repeat itself.
   
   Overall, it was a very good read but the detail above it why I'm giving it 4 stars.



4. Let Me Go is one of the most un-put-down-able books I've ever read. Though in general my husband and I have very different reading interests he also found it to be so. We each had it finished within 24 hrs. In it Helga Schneider exposes the raw emotional journey of seeing her aged and estranged mother for the last time. This is an intensely personal book focussed entirely on this exchange and to a limited extent the intruding context of Helga's childhood and Helga's previous visit decades ago. The book leaves questions unanswered, and that is it's strength. Just as some readers may find that there are no satisfactory answers in some respects, there are none for Helga. The book does not interpret it just tells you the story with an honesty that is incredibly courageous. There may be things that the reader wishes had been resolved or discussed in the exchange, but this is not the reader's story, it is Helga's story. I have read a lot of Military history and I found this book a wonderful, powerful and moving counterpoint as it illustrates the lasting legacy for the innocents even so many decades on.
   I consider this book to be one of the most precious in my library.
   This review is based on the hardcover edition.



5. i just finished the audio version of 'Let Me Go.' Over the course of a lifetime, thanks to countless tv documentaries, books, movies, museums exhibitions, etc., we're aware and informed of so much that occurred in the death camps during the Holocaust. We have heard many barbaric specifics before or at least enough to extrapolate much of the rest; much of it is not a surprise or revelation, per se, but more than half a century later in this story, the truths of the Holocaust still shock. Can you call an audio book a 'page turner?'
   
   What sets this book apart in this audio version, is it's no-holds-barred, accounting straight from the mouth of a former female Nazi SS guard, the mother of the author, Helga Schneider. The author's rollercoaster of emotions and pain is pitiful and incredibly moving enough and in Rosesnblat's hands, the mother's undiminished hatred is so palpable; she is vile, repulsive, and totally unrepentant. This book speaks to the pathological motivations and complicity of that time. This is the voice of one woman and it is the voice of many. The question has been asked incessantly, by so many as to render it trite; 'How could this have happened?' In this book, in these words, and especially in this superb reading, you sit there and say to yourself, "This is how such a thing can happen."

5 comments about To Full Term: A Mother's Triumph Over Miscarriage.

1. This book really educated me and helped me to understand the struggles many women have in carrying a baby to term. Darci's story is heartbreaking at times but also empowering and uplifting, esp. when she educates us on how to better manage our obstetric care. I also enjoyed the style, which blended personal accounts with research and fact. A must read for anyone who has had a miscarriage and for those who have not, because chances are you know someone who has had one who could use your support and understanding.



2. It is a great story that I think all women should read, especially moms. I had a fairly easy and smooth pregnancy with my little girl, i didn't realize how lucky i was until i read Darci's story. I admire her determination to complete her family, she is a brave woman.



3. This is an amazing book. Darci Klein paints an extremely powerful and realistic portrait of the anxiety and anguish of pregnancy after miscarriage. She also writes about the strain of loss on relationships, especially between spouses, and how these strains can be repaired.
   
   Her story is interwoven with medical information that makes it an essential guide for women who face the same problem: needing to know more than your doctor tells you and to be stronger enough to overcome the many obstacles to becoming a mother and building a family.
   
   Very easy to read, but with a depth & heart that only someone who lived this pain could describe.



4. This book was an emotional journey with the author through her struggle to educate herself about the available testing and available treatments for "all possibilities" that were causing her to deliver pre-term and miscarry. Very informitive. A great read for husbands who need a little insight....



5. I recommend this book primarily for women in the determined phase after their miscarriages, who want to hear a strong, steady voice describing one mother's search for answers to her recurring losses.
   
   Interweaved in the story are background facts, statistics about loss, the National Institutes of Health's woeful funding on miscarriage, and what she feels is the incriminating lack of chromosomal testing on early miscarriages to separate women into those who had "bad luck," and those who have a problem that can be treated to save pregnancies.
   
   Klein's story is passionate and clearly told. She was adamant that she not lose any more babies and demanded medical intervention to save them.
   
   I do think, however, that her mixture of stats and story is not very helpful in the early days following your first loss. It's hard to feel emotionally involved in her journey when you are constantly being fed facts in an order that might not be what you want to know, when you want to know it. Her writing is very edgy and strong, a voice that might be difficult to relate to during your saddest days.
   
   But for those of you who have had two losses or more, those of you who are determined, frustrated, and maybe still a bit angry at your lack of answers or your care, then this is a solidly written and researched book about the journey.
   
   Read a full review at www.pregnancyloss.info

5 comments about Happy Times.

1. I have to confess to being an addict to all things Kennedy and Jackie, especially. I bought this thinking it would be loaded with Jackie information, previously unknown. Well, I was wrong, but in the process I believe I got a truer image of her younger sister. I always had envisioned Lee living entirely, and jealously in her sister's shadow. It appears to me that after reading this book that we have done this woman a disservice. She has led a fabulous life in her own right. English estates, Beach Houses, cruising on Yachts. I found it interesting and I noted that Lee seems to have pretty impressive taste herself and was a little more conservative. (The Philadelphia Story Years notwithstanding) I was pleasantly surprised. I think it's time we allowed this woman her own space. Imagine being compared to your sister the First Lady for over half your life!



2. Having read IN HER SISTER'S SHADOW and knowing of Lee's past ventures, this seems to be the most successful of them. She has the rich lady's talent of putting together Louis XV rooms and arranging flowers, and she definitely has a wealth of pictures to cull from, but I thought she chose an odd lot to include here! And I wonder why some were enlarged while other lovely pictures (such as she and Tina on a Moroccan-looking bed) were so miniscule that you barely noticed them. (I've since seen the picture enlarged in DOMINO magazine, and it's mesmerizing). The book is indeed what she chooses to remember (though it's confusing to see how she could include pictures of Anthony without a little loving note to his memory--I suppose she prefers to remember the happy times when he was alive). I thought the pictures of John Kennedy were boring (I've seen these types 1000 times), but I loved the ones of Lee and Jackie on Christmas morning. They were glorious! I liked her inclusion of a page from her guest book (should be more of this kinda stuff), and I liked her pictures in couture through the years. But you do get the feeling that she's a little self-centered because everything was Lee, Lee, Lee. I loved the pictures of the interiors of her homes and the Italian home and the baptismal pictures. But I think the editing could have been a lot better, and I would've liked more commentary from Lee. Pictures from her brief acting stint would've been interesting too. Still, you will like this book if you love to look through photo albums and decorating magazines and Vogue. That's the feeling it gives you. The best part is the black and white pictures of Lee and Jackie (and their children). There's also a great picture of Lee going to a theater production of COCO in a great suit with her hair up. She is very pretty and the gloss comes through in the pictures. But some better choices could certainly have been made, IMO. I have bought and given away the book TWICE and am fixing to buy it again! I wish it would go to the "bargain books" section so I could buy more for gifts!



3. Filled with hidden treasures. I knew the "format" of this book before purchasing it so I was not suprised that it was not in a traditional biographical layout - it is more like spending a long weekend with a friend of a friend sharing memories, insights, hopes and dreams and then packing up and heading home. I just loved it. She has a very deep understanding of the importance of nurturing children and one line in this book (which I will let you discover for yourselves) is more impactful than a roomfull of "self-help" books - amazing how she just slips it in. Lovely.



4. Read: In Her Sister's Shadow: An Intimate Biography of Lee Radziwill and you will be able to fill in everything for:Happy Times. If you like reading about the Kennedy's this might help with a faction of Jackie's family and needless to say "Onassis"! I assure you, you will appreciate "Happy Times" and the two will all make (some sort of) sense.



5. The title is snappy, and the story is short and sweet, but the pictures are outstanding. You'll want to get this book to look at the intimate holiday pictures, private family gatherings, and the exquisite homes and places they stayed. After reading through this book, you'll wish you were Lee Radziwell. It's a great book.

5 comments about Woodswoman III: Book Three of the Woodswoman's Adventures.

1. I couldn't put this book down! Anne has a way of sharing her experiences with the reader that made me want to consider a major lifestyle change, and has made me much more sensitive to environmental concerns. Her descriptions of the land and people are reminiscent of Thoreau and Hardy...truly inspirational!



2. An interesting account of a woman living alone in the wilderness with tales of courage, bravery, and tenderness in her love for her dogs and the Adirondacks. I have read all of Ms. LaBastille's books and have enjoyed them all.



3. This book is simply a continuation of one woman's life in the Adirondacks, in a house she built by herself. But if we look deeper it really is another look into the life of a fascinationg woman who chose to leave civilization and do what she truely wants. Each chapter is a different adventure and you follow her life with her dogs and her friends and especially the land on which she lives. The writing is beautifully descriptive and you can't help but wish you were her.



4. Reading this book summarizes not only one woman's experience but my own more limited experience in the world of humans and the world of wilderness and animals. Hopefully one or some will be raised to a greater awareness/conscience. Anne has made a GREAT difference with her honesty, love, strength, initiative... I mark all of her books with hopes that those reading after me will learn that I, too, agree with her insights and assertively support her work! Anne's books are 'must reads' for EVERYWOMAN, not just 'wilderness types.'



5. Mind you, I am a great fan of Dr. LaBastille and have nearly all of her books; most of them signed. However, this third installment of her career as a "woodswoman" seems achingly final. All three books are adventures in the North Woods, however, this one clearly shows how her writing has matured with her own experiences. With harsher stories of vandals, environmental scoundrels and the personal tragedies, she seems to counter it all with great stories of bravery, incredible freindships and profound people. She still endears the reader with magical stories of the woods, lakes and mountains. Marking her third decade living in the Adirondack wilderness, Dr. LaBastille's writing is more realistic, world-wary and sometimes achingly mature. Facing ageing, near helplessness at the pollution and noise on wilderness lakes, she still keeps her sense of humor with great dignity. A gracious gift or a book for your collection; she shares her life of passion.

5 comments about Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq (Women Writing the Middle East).

1. This is a journal by a twenty something educated Baghdad woman writen almost daily from the time of the invasion and a picture of what has happened to her city and her family and how they cope - the lack of electricity, water and safety, the constant explosions and the troops breaking into homes and the loss of women's freedoms. She started out (See Baghdad Burning I) being encouraged but the horror of the last years has changed her outlook. She tells of women now having to be scarfed, wear long dresses and not drive and being terrorized by the fanatics and the military and police.
   Emotionally, It is hard to read in great gulps but for a full understanding of what is happening to the daily lives of people of Baghdad I highly recommend it.



2. The collections of blogs written by the Iraqi woman only known as "Riverbend" in what has become the "Baghdad Burning" series, is the best source of information to read to know about how the actual Iraqis are living and dying in the occupied country. More than "The Assassin's Gate" or "Fiasco," "Baghdad Burning" and "Baghdad Burning II" tell the truth about the Bush junta's imperialist war in Iraq and how it has affected the lives of its inhabitants. With grace and fine detail we learn about the loss of basic resources like water and electricity, the fear Iraqis live under with the threat of militia violence and U.S. commando raids on their homes. We get here a portrait of a nation descending into civil war as an occupying foreign force only makes things worse. Conservative pundits and pro-war screamers should read the sections where Riverbend begs the American people not to re-elect George Bush and where she describes the carnage and outright war crimes that took place with the destruction of Fallujah. What will be striking to many is how easily one can put his or herself in Riverbend's shoes as she describes her battles with the internet and her TV-viewing habits. It is poignant to read an Iraqi attacking Fox News for it's obvious distortion of the facts, of course Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity will claim they know more about what's best for Iraq than the actual IRAQIS. "Baghdad Burning II" is even more heartbreaking than the first volume because here the nation has descended into the deep abyss in which we are still mired, the terror has arrived in full spectrum and now the streets are truly not safe, the invaders and guerrillas roam the streets and sons and daughters are being slaughtered. What people should find disturbing about reading this collection of blogs is that indeed, our government has decided to raid a nation it does not understand at all, just read Riverbend's comments on the Iraqi elections and on how as the months pass, the people begin to see their government more as a puppet regime, read here about the basic misunderstanding of Iraqi culture and language, customes and tradition. These are not backwards people we can just push around, nobody is. "Baghdad Burning II" is a powerful, important document for the world, for everyone to read and understand what the consequences and effects are of colonialism, of imperialist war. It is written with a depth and insight priceless for those of us living on the other side which is usually the side that doesn't understand. In the years to come "Baghdad Burning" will be seen as one of the definitive accounts of life inside Iraq during the war, no doubt future generations will be just as moved, and find it just as important as our generation should.



3. I actually bought these books for a couple of friends, but I have read the original blogs online since the beginning of the Iraq war. The author, a young woman with a good job in the computer field loses her job after the war starts and begins a blog about the daily life and politics of Iraq. Written nder the ghost name of "Riverbend", it is a fascinating insight into what it's REALLY like to live in Baghdad during this period of war and unrest. She is extremely articulate, witty and has a great sarcastic sense of humor. She evokes laughter at times, but mostly sadness, anger and frustration as the situation continues to deteriorate. As I read her blogs, I found myself always anxious to read the next one. The first-hand account insight you will get is invaluable in understanding the greater impact on the REAL people who are living through this nightmare that was forced upon them. Her writings have won several awards, and having read many blogs from Iraq, I believe hers is the best. Those who I bought the book for said they were engaged from the start and couldn't put it down. It is a fast read, but you will have to visit her website to see how the story continues. I urge everyone to read her books, especially if you want to know what it's REALLY like living in a war zone from an intelligent Iraqi perspective.



4. Riverbend is a young Sunni female that writes from the perspective of hating the loss of Sunni power and privilege. She indicates this with her contempt for the Iraqi elections and the new Shia dominated government. She frequently complains of losing the good old days when her family benefited from Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship.
   
   Riverbend now talks of having to leave Iraq (she is a supporter of the terrorists in Iraq) and going to either Jordan or Syria. She hints that this is just a "stopover" on her way to another place. No doubt she is considering moving to the United States that she hates so much. Riverbend is an enemy of the United States and should be prevented from visiting the U.S. or any coalition country.



5. That anyone could read this woman's sensitive, heartfelt assessment of what is happening to her country and not be touched by it, is just another example of how this country is continuing to digress instead of make positive progress. How many people have to die in this mindless, spindless war before we all wake up and demand that our government pull our soldiers out and make some attempt to salvage the damage we have done to our reputation and the state of this country.
   
   We have not improved the conditions in Iraq, Riverbend's blog is evidence of that. We have not found the "supposed" Weapons of Mass Destruction. And we have not made Iraq a safer Iraq by killing Saddam. For all of the atrocities Saddam did in his lifetime, we have sadly, put our men and women of the Arms Services in a no-win position so that they too are being forced by their government to cause more chaos than peace.
   
   They should never have been sent over there in the first place, and the fact that we as citizens have buried our heads in the sand and allowed ourselves to easily become sidetracked by stupid, ignorant "news" stories (who cares if Brittany, Nicole or Paris self-distruct?!?)instead of asking, "Why won't our government allow us to see the Baghdad that Riverbend discusses in her blog?" Or "Why is the war being sanitized to the point that our dead are reduced to numbers instead of names?" Or bigger why, "Why is Bush and his cronies being allowed full reign to do whatever they want and no one is investigating them or demanding some type of hearings?"
   
   I mean, we were forced to sit through hours after hours of hearings about Clinton's sexual behavior in the White House. One would think that thousands dead on Bush's watch would be worth some type of investigation. I am so tired of people acting as if what is going on in Iraq is for anything other than the personal gain of Bush and those who are in his inner circle. Let's call a spade a spade. When all of the lines and dots are connected, it will become abundantly clear who came out on top in this war, and it wasn't the Iraqi citizens, or the American Armed Forces or the American people. Could it be U.S. Defense contractors? Could it be Oil Contractors?
   
   America has a long-time habit of glossing over or simply rewriting history so that we can sleep easy at night. I say, bring on the nightmares. We need to experience restless sleep or no sleep until this horrendous mission of Bush's is done. We shouldn't find peace in our dreams until the killing has ceased. Maybe if we toss and turn a few nights like Riverbend has had to,we will begin to make some thoughtful and unselfish demands of our government and the self-appointed leader of the world, Bush. We will demand that Bush (I refuse to call him president) bring our soldiers home, help in whatever way the Iraqis need us to rebuild their country, and fully acknowledge his wrongdoing in all of this craziness. For good measure, he would admit he is incapable of running this country even one more day and will step down...followed by his band of idiots (Condi, Chaney and the gang).
   
   My one hope for Riverbend and her family, now that they have hopefully left Baghdad,is that they are all finding a peaceful place to lay their heads and are finally getting some much deserved rest.