5 comments about Chanel: A Woman of her Own.

1. I'm still reading but wanted to mention that if you have never taken a French class, it is very hard to pronounce most of the names in the book.

   Although very insightful finding it a hard read.




2. I did not enjoy this book and wished I did my own research on a better author to portray Coco Chanel. It was lengthy in boring details and never developed a true feeling for the subject matter. Coco lead an extremely captivating life - so I find it difficult to believe that someone could write such a book lacking in depth!



3. I agree with the other 2 reviewers. This book is very difficult to follow and the author jumps from character to character and topic to topic too frequently. The pictures are nice, but I feel the author could have done a better job at creating more excitement and interest for the reader.



4. I found it strange that some readers gave negative or highly critical reviews of this biography. Someone even commented on the difficulty in reading the French names! It's a little late to change Chanel's nationality and thank God! This biography is successful on a number of levels but primarily two: it recounts the fascinating life, in great detail, of the late Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel and it puts her professional contribution to the world in context. On a personal level, her life-story reads as a Dickens novel. Her's is a truly "rags-to-riches" story. Chanel was a woman who created a life and a legend against the odds. She was one of those rare and stunning creatures rising from practically nothing to become a household name. Her family was destitute. Her father abandoned her at an orphanage. Her attempts in music and theatre came to nothing. Her sewing skills were atrocious! Only after a young gentleman named Balsan recognized her talent through her unconventional beauty did her true potential begin to emerge. Chanel knew all of the greatest people of her age: Stravinsky, Cocteau, Dali, Misia Sert, and the Duke of Westminster, among others. Many of these people she knew intimately. How tragic that even after these acquaintances and global successes as a designer, Chanel never really found success in love. Professionally, the impact of her designs are still with us today and influencing generations of new designers and artists. From a perspective of fashion, Chanel almost single-handedly pulled the 19th century world into the modern age by pulling women out of corsets and sliding them into pants. The "little black dress" and classic Chanel suit are not only articles of clothing, they are timeless works of art. Madsen has succeeded in writing a biography that does not fall short as other books on Chanel have in the past. His biography begins BEFORE her birth and continues on AFTER her death. He explores her roots and discusses the ongoing impact of her life, while filling in all the opulent details in between. If you want to know who Chanel was and why she is still so important today, pick up this book. Now if they would only do a feature film treatment!



5. What an interesting life, as interesting as her clothes... and the empire she built around her name.

5 comments about Chosen Forever: a memoir.

1. If you loved Chosen by a Horse, and I did, then you'll want to read Chosen by Love, the story of what Susan Richards did after the death of Lay Me Down. Susan's childhood and youth were dreadful. She only pulled herself together for the sake of her beloved pets and it was only due to Lay Me Down that she was able to break free of her horrid past and actually live. Living let's her write the original memoir, promote the book, meet a decent man and have the courage to trust and love him. Reading Chosen by Love is like seeing a hard luck relative FINALLy cAtch the break you always knew they deserved. It's a triumphant end.



2. Susan Richards' fluid writing style gracefully transitions between the present -- the book tour readings in which she speaks from her precious and towering debut memoir, Chosen By A Horse -- and the ever-threatening past which looms darkly in the form of a very real sense that she doesn't belong and is undeserving of this praise for her writing, and then fears, what if no one should come (to a book reading)? Never forgotten in this her second book is the shining effect of her fallen horse heroes who, constantly share mind space in the stiller water moments of her daily life. Where human caregivers often abandoned her as a child, the horses carried her in those dark days following a second failed marriage. Although not untrammeled by her life's many despairing moments, Richards unexpectedly finds romance at one of her readings in the form of a man captivated by her as so many readers were by the sheer heart and inspiration found in the expression of the author toward her horse, Lay Me Down, in her debut memoir. Richards overcomes her self doubts and unbridled fears and embraces this man with a sense of destiny, as she explains it. And the way she ultimately chooses to her heart -- to both of theirs -- is through the comforts and smells and swishing tails of horses in a show barn while out on a casual date.



3. Maybe it's my fault for thinking this book would be a continuation of the Chosen by a Horse story. When I bought the book, I was looking forward to catching up what had become friends to me: Hotshot, Tempo, Georgia, Allie, and Dr. Grice.
   
   Well, all the horses are dead, Allie and the author barely speak, and Dr. Grice has moved on.
   
   So what is this book about? Book tours. A tedious account of each book tour the author goes on to promote her first published book. We get a weather report for each day of every reading, an audience count, and whether the author went directly to her hotel or out to dinner afterwards. If I had a fork, I would have stuck myself in the head with it, but I kept thinking: Maybe it gets better. It doesn't.
   
   The first book, Chosen by a Horse, was poetic and filled with love. This book, Chosen Forever, is filled with whining about a difficult childhood and has none of the magic of the first book.



4. I read Chosen by a Horse several times and gave copies to many people, so when Richards came out with a second book, I was excited but a bit nervous. Would this be a sophomore effort, written quickly and thrown on the market? Imagine my relief, then, to actually read it. This book keeps the quiet, thoughtful, bare-bones-honest tone that I loved so much in her first book, but grants the reader a different--if equally powerful--look at the possibilities of transformation in life.
   
   Here is a woman who lived a relatively solitary existence of grief and healing and then, in her late fifties, becomes a New-York-Times-bestselling author in love with an internationally-renowned artist. I'm interested in that transformation and how someone of Richards' temperament handles it. It takes a talented writer like Richards to explore such an evolution without arrogance or artifice. I admire her ability to see the possibilities of change in such different situations--the rescue of a needy animal and the catapult to sudden fame and love--and to write of both so beautifully.



5. having so enjoyed Chosen By A Horse, Chosen Forever was even a braver and stronger memoir.
   I didn't want to put it down.

5 comments about Testament of Youth (Penguin Classics).

1. Vera Brittain enrolled in Summerville College, Oxford, in a time before degrees were granted to women. This was just before The First World War changed almost everything for almost everyone. When it was over, her best friends, her fiance and her brother had all been killed. She also personally witnessed the agony of thousands in the surgical wards where she worked as a volunteer nurse.
   
   In response, she became a suffragette, a feminist and a liberal writer and lecturer. She sought to prevent such tragedy from reoccurring.
   
   The answers to the political and social questions with which she struggled elude us still. But Vera Brittain's autobiographical account of her generation's trials, Testament of Youth, remains both a stunningly-honest portrait of a courageous young woman and a vivid chronicle of a time almost out of living memory. Through her words we see what we might have thought, felt and believed, had we been born into her era.



2. This is a fascinating, insightful book that it would behoove many of us modern folk to read. Learn about the harder times of the past, while sipping latte in a comfy chair. You'll be thankful for today's comforts -- and today's modern attitudes towards the capabilities and intelligence of women -- after you read what it was like for one woman early in the 20th century. Simply a great book.



3. The word "classic" gets thrown around a lot these days. Many so-called "modern classics" are not that important, but "Testament of Youth" deserves this reprint as a Penguin Classic. Brittain tells of her early life in the north of England between 1893 and the start of World War I in 1914 in beautifully clear prose, and her clarity of thought and powers of observation make the bulk of the book, dealing with the war's impact on her, painfully vivid without ever lapsing into self-pity. Like too many others of her generation (and the next and the next) Vera Brittain learned almost unimaginable lessons about life and her own inner strength. To that extent, "Testament of Youth" can serve as both example and inspiration.
   
   Vera Brittain came from an upper-middle-class background shared by millions of young women in late Victorian England. One thing that made her different was her great intellectual curiosity and determination to escape a truly suffocating existence that few of today's Western women can easily imagine. What made her like most citizens of the time (and of later times)was her complete ignorance of the meaning of "war." Patriotism, her social conscience, and a desire to take part in the bigger world led her to volunteer as a nursing sister with the British Army. Her grueling hospital experiences were a revelation to her. Her personal losses are even more powerfully revealing of the human condition. Brittain was a "survivor" in every sense of the word.
   
   "Testament of Youth" is just as fresh and moving today as it was when it was written 75 years ago and Vera Brittain tells a story that must be told and retold to each generation. For every reader who finds the book "too long" by current standards (its almost 700 pages), there will be two who wish they could follow the author even further. But even if you find yourself skipping ahead, particularly in the early part, you will not be able to forget Vera Brittain or her story. "Testament of Youth" is one of the great autobiographies of the past 100 years.



4. I clearly am in a minority here but I did not like this book. A peer of other notable young British writers like Robert Graves and Wilfred Owen, Britton's book stands out among the male writers of the period as giving a woman's view of the war. The problem, at least for me, is that Britton is so over come with bitterness that she flogs the reader with it from the start.
   
   An early feminist Britton had strong views and supported her male friends and family going off to the First World War but as they fell to the german guns she, like many of her generation, became disillusioned. This is understandable but in writing her book, Britton cannot set aside her bitterness and it makes the reading ponderous and heavy. For example noting a fete in her early childhood and the bunting and flags put out she says "If only I knew then it was all meaningless." we are taken from a little girl's views to a bitter adult in the blink of an eye and it just gets too much.
   
   By comparrison the autobiography of Robert Graves, Goodby to All That, starts out with the childish illusions being enjoyed as a child and slowly the bitterness slips into the writer's world view as he matures and is exposed to the horrors of the war. this is far more subtle and easier to read, meaning you are guided to the ponit he wants you to reach, instead of trying to bludgeon you into the mindset as Britton does.



5. Vera Brittain (1893-1970) was raised as the daughter of a mill owner in the north of England. She was an intellectual who dreamed of majoring in English Literature at Oxford University's Somerville College for Women. In the post-World War I period Vera would return to Oxford taking a second in History and later winning a Master's degree.
   The first third of this book deals with Vera's autobiographical description of her raising in a conservative Edwardian home. She was close to her brother Edward; fell in love with poet Roland Leighton and enjoyed poetry. She and her generation were not ready for the horrific reality of the war which would kill over 10 million people.
   During the war Vera temporarily dropped out of Oxford to serve as a
   V.A.D. (a volunteer nurse). She would serve in London, Malta and France.
   She would minster to German Prisoners of War as well as serving with distinction. Vera's beloved Roland was killed in battle as was her brother Edward who fell in the last summer of the war. Vera was seared by these overwhelming tragedies. And yet she went on with her life serving with bravery.
   As the war ended she returned to Oxford becoming a feminist and pacifist. She lectured all over England on behalf of the League of Nations Union. Vera married a World War I veteran who became an academic.
   Vera would write over 25 books becoming a beloved and popular author in her native England.
   This is a long book over 600 densely printed pages. It is also one of the best books about non-combat, civilian life ever written about the war. Many of the scenes in which Vera is serving as a nurse are graphic and touch the human heart with the sadness and tragic loss of a bright generation of young Europeans. This book has become a modern classic which should be required reading in any course on World War I. Several years ago it was broadcast in a miniseries by BBC appearing on Masterpiece Theatre on PBS. This is a book which will remain lodged in your memory. Do your self a favor and purchase a copy soon!

5 comments about A Year of Absence: Six women's stories of courage, hope and love.

1. As an Army wife, having gone through one deployment, and at the end of the second one, this book made me realize that my feelings, and the things my husband and I go through, are natural. I felt as if this book described my feelings and my mistakes. It was a relief to read stories of women who have gone through what i have gone through. To those military moms who think that the wives cant feel what they feel just because we didnt give birth to the soldiers, you are wrong. We are the ones who have to hear their complaints, frustrations, and have to come up with wise words when they are down. Your love for your child is different and so is their love for you. You will always be their mom, just dont underestimate what it takes to stand by a soldier, be faithful, wise, and strong.



2. Finally, a book that got it right. I've gone through my husband's 6mo deployment in 2002 to Kosovo living by myself in Schweinfurt. Then the next deployment to Iraq in 2004 while stationed in GA. This time with the surprise of finding out I got pregnant sometime in the week before he left. There was talk about an extention for them, but thankfully, they came home 1 year to the day. We are now on our third deployment. This time Afghanistan. I'm now home with three dogs, a three year old and a new baby that was 3 mo old when he left. Each deployment has been totally different with our location and family size. I love this book because every woman's story was a bit different. In their job status, family size and coping mechanisms. All were right on! I know and knew women just like them. I read this book after borrowing it from the library on post. Now its going on my Amazon.com wishlist and will be recommending to anyone who will listen. Thank you Jessica for giving us an outlet to share with the world of what its really like.



3. Although I am the wife of a retired soldier who spent 24 years in the Army with two tours in Viet Nam, I still could identify with these women during their husbands' deployments to Iraq. I was especially pleased to read about Baumholder since that was where we were stationed in the 70's. This is a different war from ours, the Army has changed, women are much more independent than I was in the late 60's and early 70's when my husband went to war; however, the loneliness, worry about your spouse, counting down of days until he/she comes home, sometimes the anxieties and sheer terror that you feel...those things remain the same. This is one of my favorite books about this war and I think that it is ideal reading for any woman who watches her man leave for war. I was glad to read that the Army has Family Readiness Groups and support groups for the families. A glimpse into these women's lives was so revealing and I felt their pain. Just an excellent read, in my old Army wife opinion.



4. all i can say is that by reading this book the last 3 deployments my husband has gone thru and the time i have spent by myself and the kids are finally validated.
   im a army wife of 8 years, and 3rd deployment survivor.
   i am german where my husband was stationed at for 10 years, and deployed to iraq twice from there.
   i got the book and instantly started to read, and i couldnt stop, i sat on the couch for 6 hours crying and sobbing.
   and realizing what i have been thru, some of the things i have pushed aside, as my husbandactually deployed from darmstadt in january, pushing into iraq right away, i pushed aside not sleeping for 2 years, while everytime at night i started to jump up when i heared car doors slam, checking the window as my heart almost stopped.
   i am one of these women, and i feel after reading this book that i am somewhat relieved.
   now that my husband is deployed for the 4th time in his career, i told him as soon as he gets home he will read that book to understand what i had to deal with.
   i absoloutly love this book and will keep it for my kids to read, when they grow.
   i am at peace in a sence.
   thank you jessica redmon



5. As a military spouse and after reading so many great reviews here and elsewhere, I felt the need to read this book. It was a little fluffy for my liking. I did relate to events and day to day life of the women. However, I felt as though a lot was missing from this book. I was left wanting to know more about the characters. I think it could have been developed a little more.

5 comments about Queen of the Oil Club: The Intrepid Wanda Jablonski and the Power of Information.

1. You will be sucked into the story from page one. How could a woman named Wanda Jablonski have climbed into the middle of the super secret, conspiratorial world of global oil and remain there for more than 30 years as big oil's top digging journalist? The author, Anna Rubino, lays it out in page-turning fashion.
   
   Wanda broke all the stereotypes. She was on a first-name, trusted basis with Arab oil sheikhs. Her publication, Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, became the must read for every global oil player. She broke all the big stories in a career that, as written in this compelling book, tracks more like a great work of fiction - except it's all true. If you want to understand the forces that have carried us into the current world of skyrocketing fuel prices, read this book.
   
   It's a great summer escape - particularly if you can't afford the gas to get to the beach! You can sit under an umbrella on the back deck, grab a cool drink and get absorbed.
   
   Wanda Jablonski - one of the most important journalists in U.S. history. Who knew?



2. Anna Rubino was a brilliant scholar of history at Yale as she pursued her PhD. Now she has written a brilliant historical study, impeccable in scholarship but also timely and exciting. Five stars all around.
   --William Lilley III, a Yale history faculty member when the author was a graduate student.



3. Review for "The Queen of the Oil Club"
   Anna Rubino takes us into the world of oil in the 1950's through the eyes of a remarkable woman, Wanda Jablonski. In this clearly readable book the reader is exposed to the personalities of the industry leaders, the look and feel of the Middle Eastern cities and the customs and concerns of its people. Filled with high drama, this book tells a fascinating and timely story, perhaps even more relevant in view of today's oil crisis.
   Donald and Kathie Eppert



4. The seeds of today's oil crisis were sown during the five decades that Wanda Jablonski reported on industry events and, through that reporting, influenced their outcome. To understand the current surge of oil nationalism on the part of both producer and consumer nations that will determine the future of hydrocarbons for years to come, we need to go back to the earlier rise of oil nationalism that led to the creation of OPEC. This book takes us there through the life of an extraordinary woman. Wanda, her first name sufficed to identify her whether in the court of the King of Saudi Arabia or the Exxon executive offices, had access to the boardrooms and bedouins that created the oil machine. She spoke the truth to their faces and told her readers what went on behind the curtain. In an all-male oil world, she earned respect and fear for the power she wielded as a journalist who knew as much or more about this crucial industry than the men who ran it. Anna Rubino captures Wanda, a strangely reclusive woman who quietly re-wrote the rules of business journalism and influenced the world we live in today.



5. While I expected to find Queen of the Oil Club to be an educational read, I wasn't prepared for the page turner I found. Rubino's first person and you are there approach to Wanda's amazing life was riveting. So far,I've recommended it to friends looking for a lively summer read, writer friends, my graduate student niece who is pursuing Women's Studies and a friend who grew up in Saudi Arabia in the 1960's. There's something there for each of them.

5 comments about Memoirs of Glueckel of Hameln.

1. Fascinating description of an educated Jewish woman's life in the 1600's with an amazing amount of travel in Northern Europe pertaining to family matters and business. It was not a small world by any means. She was a bit effusive in her thanks and acceptance of her life with moralising, but her description of her life is outstanding.



2. Anyone wanting to get a profound insight into the life of Jews in Germany during the 17th Century as told with true life experiences by an outstanding mother, wife and businesswoman of the time, must read this book. My wife and I bought two so that we could read and discuss every paragraph together, and we really got caught up in the emotions and life experiences of this era in Jewish and German history. Told in simple language and with profound true life experiences and deep religious belief, as only this extraordinary Jewess could have transposed us to this era and the every day life and the hardships and tribulations of German Jews already then.



3. Gluckel of Hameln is the diary of a frum woman from the 1600's. We don't have any real information from this period except from some unavailable books of Rabbi Yaakov Emden. In her diary, she speaks of events of life, death, the Plague, Shabsai Tzvi, and how she raised her family during this hard time in Jewish History.
   This version of the book come in paperback and is annotated. The translation from the original version is pretty good considering that some words don't translate well from one language to another. The introduction gives some of her story away but important to read to understand her approach in writing this diary.
   I bought this book and have given it to my best friends for motivational and historical reading. BUY THIS BOOK!



4. It is a privilege to read a personal memoir of an inhabitant of 17th-century Germany. I have read "history books" about this period, but Glueckel's memoir tells me how it felt to be actually present. Glueckel is a good writer, although I'm sure the translator also deserves some of the credit.



5. THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST BORING BOOKS I'VE EVER READ. IT WAS REPETATIVE. THE ONLY INTERESTING PARTS WAS THE DEPICTION OF LIFE OF JEWS OF THAT TIME.
   ALSO THAT A 14 YEAR OLD FEMALE COULD ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH AS WIFE, MOTHER, BUSINESS WOMAN. IT NEEDED TO BE RE-WRITTEN BY A POLISHED AUTHOR.

5 comments about Lobster Chronicles, The: Life On a Very Small Island.

1. I read this after I read F/V Black Sheep because it was also about lobster fishing in New England. It was entertaining and had some very funny moments but it wasn't especially exciting. I liked her stories about the strange characters who live on that island but when it was over I thought she seemed like a lonely person



2. This book chronicles the life of Linda Greenlaw, the author, during a lobster fishing season. Living on a small island off the coast of Maine, the author allows us into her downeast life. We learn some great information on the lobster fishing industry, as well as the lifestyles of the residents of Isle Au Haut.
   
   Some funny anecdotes and a glimpse into life off the coast of Maine make up this short, quick read, book. Being a resident of Maine, myself, I always like to read authors from here. I have yet to be disappointed.



3. I bought and read this book because my Grandfather, Asbury Arthur [Bob] Gray, was borned in Stonington, Maine; just behind the Opera house on Highland Avenue. His Aunt Millie's stove is still on displayed in the General Store and when I walked through the town for the very first time back in 2001, there were people who looked strangely like my Grandfather all over the place. He was a dear old man, with terrific story telling capabilities, many about the sea since he, like Linda Greenlaw, come from a long line of fishermen. There were tales of exploration, and of terror (like the Great Storm of 1873 where his Grandfather, James H Gray, and the crew of the DH Webb survived by hiding out in the Bay of Chaluer, off the coast of the Prince Edward Islands), and of family (although he lost his mother when he was only 10 and was forced to move to Bath and work in the Iron Works because his Dad and his two brothers were at sea). This book is every bit as good as a conversation with Grandpa Gray, the humor and the charm shines right on through. So does the boredom and the chowder... Thank you Linda for letting us share your little island and your great big hospitality! I enjoyed it immensely.



4. I laughed alot! Anyone who has ever lived in a small town will relate to this book. If not you will wish you lived in a small town just for the comedy of it! Linda is a good writer. If you have red any of her other books you already know this! I highly recommend this book!



5. In her debut memoir, The Hungry Ocean, Greenlaw recounted a monthlong swordfishing expedition off the coast of Newfoundland and discussed what it takes to be the world's only female swordfish boat captain. In this second memoir, Greenlaw confronts the joys and perils of living at home. Over forty, with her biological clock ticking, she returns to Isle au Haut, the tiny Maine island that is her birthplace. With hopes of reaffirming ties to her parents and starting a family of her own, she invests in a lobster-fishing business because it is a much "safer" career than swordfishing. But lobsters are scarce, and eligible men are even more elusive. Greenlaw writes about island life with the same plainspoken lyricism and self- effacing humor that elevated her first book to bestselling status. In the middle of the book, she begins to address her fear of loneliness and old age without a spouse or children, as well as the loss of her mother to cancer and the quickly dwindling island population. Unfortunately, she bails out before fully developing any of these compelling themes.

5 comments about Zelda: A Biography.

1. 
   
   I was actually surprised to see reviews of those who did not like this bio! Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott, daughter of an Alabama Judge, and fashion plate to New York and Paris, was a fascinating woman who, as happens in life, experienced good times and bad. She was the life of the party, she threw the party, she was the party. She attempted things during "mid life" that others of that era would not have thought of attempting--- ballet, painting, writing, etc. I absolutely soared with her spirit when she was on top of the world, and wept when she was deep in depression. I was saddened when she was humiliated by those who didn't know or understand her, and more saddened still when she ended up in an institution in Asheville. But even then, there was an aura about her. She continued to paint while institutionalized, and actually did her self-portrait at that time.
   
   Someone mentioned the fact that F. Scott was mentioned several times in the book, thus the book should have been entitled with the names of both. Well, I'm not sure one could write a book about the wife of such a prolific writer without mentioning his name, but for me, the book was all about Zelda.
   
   This bio is thoroughly researched and extremely well written. The author painted a vivid picture of Zelda in every aspect of her life, and she used the same bold strokes to include the reader. Loved it!! Well done, Ms. Milford!



2. While most people know of "The Legend of Zelda" as a video game, in fact the game takes its name from the real Zelda, the wife of F. Scott (Francis Scott Key) Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was without any doubt a superlative author in his own right. However, an interesting and lesser known fact is that his work comes very much out of his own personal experience with his wife Zelda.
   
   Milford's book, which reads like a novel, is an incredible example of what can be done when one combines intense research skills with extraordinary writing acumen. Zelda was a Southern Girl from Montgomery, Alabama, the first capitol of the Confederacy. It was also the home town of Jefferson Davis the only President of the Confederacy. The Southern ways stuck long after the end of the Civil War in Montgomery and Zelda was truly a child of the era.
   
   What is fascinating about Milford's book is what happens to Zelda and Fitzgerald after they marry and move to New York. Fitzgerald produced two very successful books, the second of which was "The Great Gatsby" and then basically expatriated to France where he was in the good company of Ring Lardner, Ernest Hemingway and many others of that ilk. He and Zelda were friend of Dorothy Parker and Gertrude Stein and the list goes on.
   
   Zelda though, was the creative mind behind "The Great Gatsby" and was the one who created the visual image of the character that Fitzgerald used as the basis of his book. Even more interesting is that Zelda, after a wild life with Fitzgerald in their early marital days became a serious alcoholic and had a horribly debilitating mental disorder that kept her in insane asylums for the better part of 12 years. She never did overcome her problem and ultimately died in a fire when serving one of her many commitments as the building was wood, along with the fire escapes.
   
   The book is perhaps one of the greatest biographies ever written and tells a tale of a lady and her famous author husband both of whom lived at the end of an era that shall never return. It is highly recommended for all readers of F. Scott Fitzgerald and makes a superb biographical connection between Zelda and her famous author/screenwriter husband.



3. i am a huge f. scott and zelda fitzgerald fan, but you can usually only find books that are mostly about scott. this one about zelda gives you such insight into her personality and her mental illnesses, as well as her relationship with scott. it's also a great read for anyone who loves the 1920s and 1930s.



4. I couldn't put this book down, but I often wanted to. This is a real tragedy that Milford makes engaging. I can't stop thinking of this woman.



5. This book is a sad and tragic tale. If you are looking for a carefree, full-bodied portrait of the 1920's, look elsewhere. Zelda's story starts with zest and endless hope for the future. Unfortunately, Zelda's life would turn out to be far from happy.
   
   Zelda seals her fate when she marries the bright, charismatic Scott Fitzgerald at 19 years old. Although their relationship started off happy and carefree, things would soon decline. Both Scott and Zelda brought out the worst in each other. Scott turns to alcohol, and becomes cruel, neglectful, and often abusive. Zelda has an untamable personality, is strangely manic, and often falls into suicidal depression. When the Scott and Zelda move to the French Riviera, things slip further into hell, until the reader's only choice is to go along for the ride.
   
   Scott could be very controlling. He used her diary and personal struggles for material for his novels, and often based his troubled characters on their own struggling relationship. Zelda's own budding desire to be recognized for her talent is quickly squelched by Scott, who often expressed his negative opinions on whatever she did. Soon Zelda falls off the edge for good, and she becomes insane. In this book, you relive her hell through letters and her often bizarre writings and memoir, as she describes hearing voices, and seeing strange apparitions, and becomes increasingly paranoid around her family and friends. She is entered into an insane asylum several times without any improvement, and eight years after Scott's early death, she dies in a fire.
   
   It is an exhausting read, and emotionally charged. Although much of it takes places in the heyday of the Roaring 20's, the reader does not get as good of a look at the era as one might guess, for the book mostly concentrated on Zelda and Scott's personal turmoil and struggles.
   
   All in all, this is a story of love, deeply flawed and tormented as it was, Zelda and Scott deep down cared for one another. They held a bond that would last till the sad end, and their lives still remain legendary.

5 comments about Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love" -The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin (1931-1932).

1. Read this interspaced with Tropic of Cancer. You find a more accurate image of Henry Miller's second wife/muse June this way.
   
   I love Nin's work, especially the vast prose of House of Incest. However, at this point in her writing, I just see her clutching copies of D.H. Lawrence's works and using her sexuality to figure out the rest.
   
   I empathize more with the June who inspired the myths, rather than the sanquinary authors lusting after her degredation and ruin. . .and lastly, her love.
   
   Nin was a rebirth to water in terms of literature and her timeframe on earth, but she was flawed. However she was never destroyed by her flaws. A psychic vampire way beyond Warhol proportions, I still adore her.
   
   This is just my vision of the artist. Don't be lazy. Read for yourself. Research in spite of what you read.



2. A very honest account of a very dishonest period in Nin's life. Highly entertaining, at times liberating (at least for women) and often times very scary (mostly for men). Psychologically fascinating! Interesting peak into Henry Miller's life.



3. From the very first few pages you know that you have entered a fascinating world -- if you are reading these reviews and haven't yet purchased the book, don't wait any longer. It's an easy read -- you should be able to read it in one setting -- maybe one weekend, and you may be totally transformed in the way you think about human relationships.
   
   I would recommend starting with Nin's edited diaries (Vol I: 1931 - 1934) and Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" before reading "Henry and June."
   
   "Henry and June" covers only one year, perhaps the most important year in her life, and is clearly her "coming-of-age" year.
   
   For those who are troubled by Nin's infidelities and lies, one turns to the answer Marcel Proust gave on a questionnaire during his adolescence: "For what fault have you the most toleration?" "For the private life of geniuses."



4. Anais Nin and Henry Miller are minor writers, the former considerably more minor than the latter. However, I daresay Anais Nin is more widely read nowadays than is Henry Miller. The interest in them is gosspiy - that whole Americans in Paris in the thirties schlock - and nicely seasoned by the erotic. This book is actually a rather revolting self-portrait of a self-obsessed woman with too much time on her hands. Her writing is Lawrence without the passion for truth, and her living is all words. Everything is affect. There seems not an ounce of tenderness in her. She (and this book) is cold and false.



5. Well written but boring. I think watching paint dry would be more entertaining than reading this book. I never made it to the end.

5 comments about Hons and Rebels (New York Review Books Classics).

1. A view into the always fascinating Mitford family written by family member, and best-selling author, Jessica Mitford.
   The personal observations about the totally diverse life choices made made by the sisters boggles the mind and confounds the senses.



2. I was looking for a Jessica Mitford autobiography and discovered "Hons & Rebels". The original title of this (1960) book is Daughters & Rebels". Is anything other than the title revised/updated? I'm such a fan of Mitford, I'd rather read her memoirs than Mary S. Lovell's "The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family", which is supposedly more detailed.



3. I absolutely loved this book. I had just finished reading the very long and very good "The Sisters" http://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Saga-Mitford-Family/dp/0393324141 about the Mitfords, and wanted more when I was finished. Jessica ("Decca") was the most fascinating of all -- the one who ran away to Spain and America and became widely known for her politics and her book, "The American Way of Death." (and an Oakland resident, like myself, which is always intriguing!)
   
   "Hons and Rebels" is charming, witty, and in its pages is not only an interesting glimpse of life in upper class England between the wars, but a love story as well, as she retells the story the story of her romance with her first husband, Esmond.
   
   I never heard Mitford speak, but her voice comes through strongly in this book -- witty, determined, able to laugh at herself and family, but serious about her politics and trying to get by as a young idealistic couple in America. (And I imagine a very posh British accent...) What I also liked was how she treated the relationship with her closest sister, Unity, who, as a Nazi sympathizer, was the polar political opposite of Decca. What a family.
   
   Highly, highly recommended.



4. "I'm normal, my wife is normal, but my daughters are each more foolish than the other. What do you say about my daughters? Isn't it very sad?" Mary S Lovell has taken David Mitford's complaint to heart. She has a lot to say about his daughters. But after decades (it seems) of books on those mad, bad and sometimes dangerous-to-know girls, do we want to hear it?
   
   The six Mitford girls pursued lives which are footnotes to 20th-century history: Nancy, the socialist aristocrat, gentle satirist of the society she yet delighted in; Unity, conceived in the Ontario town of Swastika, destined to become Hitler's pet; Diana, whose marriage to Oswald Mosley set her at the fringes of acceptability; Decca, who ended up as a fiery Communist émigré in California; Pam, the country girl who married a scientist and lived quietly in Gloucestershire; and Debo, who declared her intention, and carried out the act, of marrying a duke.
   
   By drawing on new sources, Lovell presents a fresh version of the Mitford story. She fleshes out "Muv" and Farve" - the fictional Uncle Matthew and Aunt Sadie of Nancy's novels - and adds to our understanding of their progeny. David Mitford, "the most handsome man of his generation" according to James Lees-Milne, is as eccentric as his fictional portrait in The Pursuit of Love. He did regard almost all his daughters' suitors as "sewers"; but the word was Tamil, "soor", meaning pig. His wife, Sydney, achieves a Daily Sketch headline, "Peeress Saves Ha'pence", for her economies over home laundry (she used paper napkins).



5. Hons and Rebels, a memoir of the life of the "commie" Mitford sister, Jessica, details the authors life from her childhood in rural England up until the time she lived in Miami in the 1940s. The Mitford clan of six sisters (Nancy wrote The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate) and one brother was an unusual one, prone to playing tricks upon one another and outsiders. Jessica grew up to embrace the ideals of the communist party, while her sister Unity became a Fascist, hobnobbing with Hitler. Jessica then ran away with and married her cousin Edwin Romilly, later moving to the United States.
   
   It's a brilliant memoir, poignant and funny at the same time. Although Jessica's not always the most sympathetic character, she's always witty, touching her story every now and then with a hint of irony. Jessica describes everything in painstaking detail, from the Cotswold countryside to certain conversations she had with various people. The memoir is evocative of the time period in which Jessica lived in.