5 comments about Letters from Burma.

1. This is a collection of 52 essays that Aung San Suu Kyi had written in the mid 1990's for a Japanese newspaper. She discusses a full range of topics including politics, religion, and the daily life of the Burmese people as seen through the eyes of the country's biggest proponent of democracy.

   Her tales are fascinating and well written. They offer a glimpse into the world of an almost Orwellian regime and can peak the interest of readers unfamiliar with Burma's current state of unrest.

   As a recent traveller to Burma, I was looking for more detail into Burma's history and details surrounding the nullified election in 1990. Though these issues are touched upon, each essay is a mere 2.5 page newspaper article which does not lend itself to such depth. It is however a fascinating read and a great introduction to Burma's struggle for democracy.




2. As this book is a compilation of 52 letters written to be published as a weekly installment in a Japanese newspaper (each 2 or 3 pages long), it is an easy book to pick up when you have a few minutes. (In New York, we would call it a great subway read - you can read a letter or two between when you get on the subway and when you have to get off.) The letters combine Aung San Suu Kyi's political beliefs and accounts of the remarkable work of her political party (the National Democratic League) with vivid descriptions of Burmese culture and countryside. There are probably other books that focus solely on either the politics or the culture of Burma that do a more comprehensive job of describing it, but this seems like a great introduction to both.



3. This is not just a book. Along with Aung San Suu Kyi's two other major books ("Freedom from Fear" and "Voice of Hope"), this book is destined to be at the heart of the struggle - and eventually the victory - for democracy in Burma. Among the three, this is the one I found most wonderful. Vivid, direct, it makes the reader feel as if she/he is listening to Suu Kyi, with her wonderful Asian voice and Oxford accent. Suu Kyi talks about Burma, about her people, about herself. She tells of the tragedies of her people, in the most natural and serene way, as if she were telling of everyday life - because indeed, this is the Burmese everyday life. She does not inflate things, she does not push for her views, yet she reaches the reader's heart immediately - at least she did with me ! She simply expresses views and feelings along with plenty of thrilling facts and anecdotes. I can't imagine of any reader who won't love this book and won't feel inspired by this account from Burma's heroine. After reading this and the other books, I felt so close to Burma's struggle that I absoliutely had to go there and meet Suu in person. So I did, I took off for Burma and managed to meet her. I had met many world personalities before, but this was truly a unique event in my life. The pages of the book kept coming back to my mind, as I could finally see the source of all that strength and hope, the incarnation of Burma's struggle. In the end I was deported from Burma for having made contact with her. Now these books are my inspiration to keep fighting on for democracy in Burma in all ways I can.



4. An eloquently written piece that will be finished in a few sittings, Suu Kyi's Letters from Burma is a collection of short essays she submitted to the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shinbun.
   
   It is likely that because it has been written for a mass audience, you will find 'Letters from Burma' easier to digest than her other books, Freedom from Fear and Voice of Hope.
   
   A remarkable politician, she examines Burma through its common people and the everyday lives that are led. As with all of Suu Kyi's books, she takes care to not forget why her party is fighting for democracy - its people.
   
   She discusses Burmese politics sans the jargon, allowing this book to be appreciated by everyone, even if new to the situation in Burma.
   
   She included in her writings, several wonderful quotes from English, Japanese and Burmese poems, reflecting her regard of the arts. The title 'Letters from Burma' more than merely states the intention of each of the 52 entries in this book. Her entries are personal, light-hearted, frustrated, or balanced. They are addressed to the reader, bringing him/her into the world of Burma, and seeing it as it is for a lay person.
   
   She has managed to make getting aquainted with politics so beautiful and enjoyable, through which i suppose she nurtures the concern and interest in matters of her state, that you are likely to re-read certain entries, if not the whole book again once you're through it.



5. Aung San Suu Kyi's letters are a window into Burmese culture, politics and problems the people of Burma are facing today. It is an excellent read, well written and very well worded. As you read this book, you begin to form a mental image of her as a person. Her gentle nature and positive, uplifting attitude show through. It is easy to see why the people of Burma risk their own personal freedom and safety to support Aung San Suu Kyi politically and her party.

5 comments about Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic.

1. I loved this book. It joins a spate of other books constructed in much the same way. It is reminiscent of James Michner'ss books, with the construction of personal stories amid the history. The research she did was wonderful. It is interesting how one event can ripple out and connect with and touch so many other lives. This was not even what would be termed a particularly charged event (such as one that would garner world news coverage), yet led to connections everywhere. It is fascinating and she has done a wonderful job with it. I was fascinated with the historical beginnings of Chautauqua. In the present gas crunch it seems like they might be looking at bringing back the concept. What a delightful thought - to have all of that wonderful esoteric knowledge traveling all over the country.
   
   The character of Ada was fascinating. A young Native American who, to hear the boys tell it, wanted nothing more that a white man. After escaping a marriage to an abusive previous husband she is looking for more stability in her life and dealing with a serious case of northern SAD. To make things worse she has not been raised as totally `native' as they thought she had. The general perceptions that regular society in general had for this woman were heartbreaking and incorrect. A sexuality that in an educated Caucasian society is viewed as normal becomes promiscuous in the Native American. Verbalization is different. The totemic thought form is different. I felt that the way the author dealt with these issues was wonderful. Rather than infuse the book with a condescending attitude she simply stated what had happened.
   
   Ada was a strong woman but it seems that some of the troubles and betrayals she went through took a toll on her heart and health. I wonder if we as a society will ever figure out a way to `develop character' without beating people senseless. There was one line that was particularly moving.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone. It was wonderful and a great way to learn history. After reading this I'll have to read her first book.



2. I have become a junkie for true hardship books, and the arctic exploration books are my first love- they are what took me down this road.
   Jennifer Niven does a fine job of fleshing out and making real each person, each family, each government that was involved in these missions into the mostly unknown and proven deadly arctic areas of the world. She lets us know what makes people tick, influences like nationality, religion, sex, race, class- each person comes with their background and reasons for their actions and beliefs explained as fully as possible.
   
   These people are made real and human, so you get their shortcomings and faults, not just a politically correct whitewashing that fits in to our modern world view. The ways of the world were different then, Ada was (mis-)treated the way a female eskimo rated within that world.
   
   It is all a sad story, really. Ada often was her own worst enemy. Those poor boys were so full of faith in their leader, who deserved none of it. If I go on I will end up giving too much story away. Good book- get hooked and read more arctic exploration books!
   
   And always remember to QUESTION AUTHORITY!



3. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Ada. It is well-written and hard to put down. Not your typical dry biography. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in northern exploration and native people. I can't even imagine myself in Ada's position. Even though she wouldn't admit it, it took lots of courage.



4. I picked up this book knowing nothing about the artic expedition to Wrangel Island. I found the story initially quite fascinating but that the book really bogged down when the author insisted on including the contents of every letter that the survivors families wrote over the next ten years. I feel that the book could have been much shorter and still powerfully portrayed the struggles of Ada and her companions to survive Wrangel Island.



5. This is a very interesting true story, of four young men lured to their deaths in the polar regions by V. Steffanson's tales of the "Friendly Arctic" where survival was easy. With minimal arctic experience, the four undertake an expedition to "claim" Wrangel Island for Canada (even though Canada did not want it and the island was known by all to belong to Russia.) Poorly planned, poorly equipped, and poorly executed, the fumbling expedition establishes a camp on Wrangel Island, raises the Canadian and British flags, and hunkers down to a slow demise of abandonment by V. Steffanson.
   
   Ada Blackjack, a young Eskimo woman hired by the four to serve as seamstress, is recruited from Nome Alaska. Though descended from Eskimo people, she knows more of the "white men's" culture than her own, being able to read and write, etc. At first reluctant to undertake her responsibilities, as the privations of the expedition set in she becomes a stalwart support to the others, cooking, making arctic clothing from skins, etc. After three of the men sled off across the frozen sea on a hopeless gambit to get to Siberia for help, never to be seen again, Ada is left alone with the remaining member of the expedition, who is dying of scurvy. Left to her own resources, Ada teaches herself to hunt, trap, shoot, and build boats, recalling techniques and skills observed during childhood from observing her forebears. Ada faces her greatest fear, the dread "Nanook" (polar bears) that roam the island. Fighting starvation, hopelessness, and sickness, Ada valiantly strives to keep the remaining expedition member alive, only to see him slowly waste away from his sickness and die. Ada sojourns another two months before a rescue ship finally arrives, finding her to be the sole survivor of the expedition after over two years.
   
   Returning to civilization, Ada is exploited by her rescuer and by V. Steffanson, who also exploit the memories, diaries, and belongings of the doomed expedition members. The book recounts Ada's subsequent life, trying to raise her sons and make a living in a world no less harsh and unforgiving than the one she had known in the arctic.
   
   This book was a fascinating, well-written read and I intend to read the author's other book.

5 comments about The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History.

1. Being a history buff, I was particularly intrigued by (1) the research that Colley put into this, and (2) the actual description of March's happenings. It is an easy read if you don't mind some extraneous detail. I heartily recommend it to others interested in obscure history.



2. Elizabeth Marsh, daughter of a ship's carpenter, was conceived in Jamaica, was born in England in 1735, and died in Calcutta in 1785.
   
   Between these dates, Elizabeth Marsh travelled extensively lived a full (albeit unconventional) life and saw more of the world than most of her contemporaries.
   
   At twenty, as the sole female passenger aboard a merchant ship bound for Lisbon, she was captured by pirates and taken to Morocco. In order to escape, she pretended to be married to her sailing companion, James Crisp.
   
   Ms Colley has written a book that portrays an unconventional life and the backdrop of the times in which Elizabeth Marsh lived.
   
   Highly recommended to those interested in history through the lives of individuals.
   
   Jennifer Cameron-Smith



3. 
   Professor Colley has done a lot of research on Britain's 18th century world, and this book has come out of that. She presents an extraordinary interweaving of naval history, commerce, the status of women, slavery, and the emergence of the USA, among other subjects. I like the way she is upfront about her speculation about Elizabeth Marsh. As she goes along she makes it clear what is in the record, what she believes would have been typical of the era, and what she is only guessing at. Very admirable. But I found the book dry in places. A little more scholarly than I was in the mood for.



4. This was one of the worst books I have ever read. It reads like a Ph.D. thesis - with some sentences being 2 and 3 lines long. There is nothing said by the heroine - just about her - and in a most tedious descriptive manner, often confusing (since her mother shared her name). Boring boring boring. I gave up after half of the book was finished. It was a Christmas gift to me and I will donate it to our local University - perhaps some student of history or genealogy would be interested. I am certainly not.



5. A great book -- I discovered it from my History Book Club, before the great reviews poured in from the critics. I think the New York Times had it as one of its ten best at the end of the year. For all persons interested in women's history, biography, India, Caribbean. Shows how much certain intrepid souls traveled in days of yore. And a rarity in those days--tales written by a woman. The author has done her research carefully & thoroughly; text is easy to follow, not boring. Loved the fact that she was related to Edmund Burke.

5 comments about Still Life With Rice: A Young American Woman Discovers the Life and Legacy of Her Korean Grandmother.

1. and this is one of them. This is a good quality book written from an interesting perspective. I highly recommend.



2. This is truly an incredible journey: A true story that reads like a gripping novel: from a mother trying to cast out the worms that gnaw at her daughter's stomach, to trying to cross the shell of a bridge from North Korea to South Korea during the war, with children in tow. It will make you appreciate everything you have: your family, the food on your table, the clothes on your back. It will make you want to read the sequel: In the Absence of Sun, which details the family's struggle to smuggle family out of North Korea--unbelievable! There can't be a more oppressive country on the planet. Helie Lee draws attention to this divided country that is often overlooked.



3. Summer reading doesn't have to be a chore. This book was required summer reading for my 9th grade communications students at an international school in Korea. While "required" might turn some off, I was pleasantly surprised at the novel's readability. It is the poignant memoir of a Korean woman who survived the Japanese occupation and civil war of her country eventually making her way to America to live in California. Her grandaughter tells the story through her grandmother's eyes, and it is truly amazing how provocatively she relates the private wishes, dreams and feelings of this woman of a different era. What is most impressive is the feelings invoked on the reader of the applicability of this woman's story to the nation of Korea as a whole. I hope that the wish related at the end of this fantastic memoir comes true!



4. This book is amazing. It really brings the Korean culture into sharp focus. The North Korea-South Korea divide was tragic and this story is beautifully told tying in the war, family, love, divide and salvation. I recommend that you also purchase In the Absence of Sun.



5. This book was recommended to me, and although I was warned about some of the "weirdness" of the approach, still thought it might be worth reading. I was disappointed on many levels, and would not recommend this book to anyone else.
   
   First off, this is not a biography in the strictest sense. It should be treated as historical fiction. The author takes the voice of her grandmother and is clearly making up a number of details (some slightly disturbing, like grandma's sexual encounters). Some of her history, however, is inaccurate.
   
   As has been mentioned elsewhere, the author isn't the best writer. As an example, at one point she is talking about the U.S.-run refugee camps around Pusan and describes numerous hardships such as being sprayed with DDT, fighting rats, cold showers, and dangerous electricity. And then to finish it off, she writes the line, "The worst hardship, however, was the lack of privacy." What?!?
   
   I think what irritated me the most, however, was what was left unsaid most of the time. I suspect part of this is because the author didn't do her research, and part of it is because of the author's own biases. The grandmother is from the yangban class, so a member of the aristocracy of Korea. The background and connections this entails are somewhat covered in a peripheral way, but not in a conscious way. Through most of her life, the lead character is well off. And when she does suffer hardships, the obvious connection between her background and the experiences and results are stripped out. It didn't come as a shock to me that such a wealthy landowner wasn't happy with land reform.
   
   Another issue here that is important to 20th century Korean history but are completely glossed over is that grandmother collaborated with the Japanese in China. This is skirted around, but there is nothing respectable about selling opium to the Chinese, even before acknowledging that the Japanese are the suppliers. There is mention that this made her a little uncomfortable, but it didn't get in the way of her greed. When they return wealthy to Pyongyang, their neighbors know about what they did in China. Again, no surprise when this comes back to haunt them; the core of the military in the north was formed from people who fought against the Japanese.
   
   All this, taken with the occasional historical inaccuracy and the grandmother's fanatical approach to religion at the end of the book took away all trust I had in the author to tell me a "real" story. Because the grandmother seems to present certain events as "miracles", you have to figure out for yourself how events really played out. When you find out that other male relatives are still around later in the book, you can only guess what role they played during the late 40s.
   
   In the end, the author's search for her Korean identity leaves us with a negative impression of what it means to be Korean. I think that's a disservice to Koreans and Korean-Americans.

4 comments about On Women Turning Fifty: Celebrating Mid-Life Discoveries.

1. This is a collection of interviews of famous and not-so-famous women who have navigated their fiftieth birthdays. The women as individuals may be described as admirable, fascinating, witty, and even awesome (check out Dolores Huerta who has spent most of her adult life as a full-time human rights activist, living in poverty or near-poverty, while giving birth to 11 children--most of whom are now college graduates--and periodically catering to the demands of one of her three husbands). A more interesting aspect of this collection is what these women have in common. They each find this time in their lives more free, more focused on making a contribution to society, less focused on physical appearance and pleasing others, and less concerned (if not unconcerned) with having men in their lives. Tabra Tunoa, a jewelry designer and manufacturer, said, "You waste a lot of time in your thirties trying to look twenty and in your forties trying to look thirty"--one comment from among several in the interviews which imply that the forties are for clearning up the vestiges of denial of age, and the fifties are for embracing its gifts. Said Gloria Steinem, "I learned that to be defiant about age may be better than despair--it's energizing--but it is not progress." Rountree has done a fine job of asking the right questions, eliciting illuminating answers, and photographing 18 women who are worth hearing from.



2. The author of On Women Turning 50, Cathleen Rountree, is an artist, wrier and lecturer specializing in women's issues. Her book is made up of photos of and interviews with 18 women in their 50's and above. Some of these women are famous, some not, but all of them are fascinating.

   I really enjoyed the portraits in this book because they do not aim at a Vogue-model, fake-beauty effect. Instead, they artistically reveal each woman's character, personality and wisdom. The prose narration is also excellent, because Rountree presents each woman's experience with growing older in her own words. The result is that this book reads like 18 short, interrelated autobiographies.

   There aren't a lot of good books out there geared at encouraging women over 50 in a sexist society that tells women they are worthless without youth and beauty. Of those I've seen so far, this is the best written and most respectful of older women. As such, I recommend it not just to women over 50, but to the men and younger women in their lives who love them.




3. I just happened to notice this book on the shelf at a bookstore, flipped it open to one of the brief interviews, and began to read about a breast cancer survivor who had turned her experience into a career helping other women find their own individually appropriate breast prosthetics. Isn't this inspiring? I thought. This book is filled with the experiences and thoughts of women who've entered their fifties, stepped back from their lives for a moment of introspection, and agreed to share their insights and personal opinions on the process of maturing as part of the "baby-boomer" generation. I have learned so many little details about what can happen physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to women of a "certain age", and how to spin straw into gold. At times humorous, poignant, radical, thought provoking, but always articulated with sincerity, sometimes with poetry. This is one of those golden books that shares promises fulfilled and achievements that go outside the standard definition of the word "success". Like sitting down with a really inspiring friend who encourages me to remember, as the saying goes in Zimbabwe, "If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing."



4. This is a compilation from various authors writing on the subject of turning 50. The first contributor really lays it on the line by saying "Stop complaining" and get your act together so that you'll get through many years after 50.

5 comments about Still Waters.

1. I will be honest ~~ this book did not move me to tears like "Blackbird" did ~~ but it did make me angry ~~ really angry and disgusted with human beings, especially those who are in charge of taking care of the children who need them. I was so relieved when I read the ending of "Blackbird" that Jennifer was going to be rescued by her father's family (though I was really confused as to why Aunt Georgia and Uncle Charles didn't pick her up at the bus stop since they were the ones that went looking for the Lauck kids in L.A.). Then I picked this book up, the sequel to "Blackbird" and finished it in two days.
   
   This is a fast paced book ~~ it skims a lot of Jennifer's growing up years but it dealt with her anger and frustrations. She was separated from her brother, Bryan, as he "chose" to live with Uncle Leonard and Aunt Sylvia. Jennifer didn't get to choose ~~ after spending several weeks with her grandparents, her father's parents, (a few weeks where she began her healing process and started to feel safe) she was sent to live with Peggy and Dick, her father's youngest sister and husband. From the very beginning, Dick made her feel like that she was never welcomed. Peggy was inconsistent with her behavior and gradually became meaner to her over the years, in spite of the fact that she loved Jennifer's mother and was one of her closest friends. Jennifer grew up in various places in the Northwest, confused, lonely and gradually getting angrier. Shuffled among different relatives, enduring sexual abuse, emotional abuse, basically being her aunt and uncle's (though they eventually adopted her) housekeeper/cook and on and on. The dishonesty of her relatives boils me ~~ and no wonder why Jennifer was so angry and bitter by the time she made her escape at the age of 18.
   
   Then her brother committed suicide. Bryan was never close to Jennifer and she mistakenly thought he had the "better" life since he was an all A student, and so handsome. When Jennifer finally went on a journey to discover peace and the truth of what happened to her family and how it impacted her, she discovered so much more about Bryan that the reader ends up grieving for him too. By the end of the book, Jennifer has faced her demons and rediscovered the youth she missed out on by enjoying her son's life. She was able to find peace again.
   
   This book is about surviving. This book is about finding peace in the worst that life can offer you. This book is an inspiration to all people ~~ regardless of how they live their lives. This book is just a wonderful sequel to the first one and for once, it shows that someone can have a happy ending in spite of it all. It shows how some people can survive neglect and abuse and how some people can't. It shows the power of forgiveness and the power of letting go.
   
   This is one that I will definitely recommend to my book club to read ~~ it provides so much fodder for conversation just by reading these alone! It is not easy reading but sometimes, readers just need to be reminded that life isn't always easy and reading about someone else's struggles can affirm our sense of survival. At least Jennifer's story did.
   
   7-10-07



2. This is a sequel to her book Blackbird. Both novels are so very interesting. You won't believe everything this girl has been through, and how she not only survives, but goes on to live a sucessful life. Both novels are hard to put down as you cannot wait to read what happens next.



3. I now know what author to avoid..she does have a third memoir out but I won't be reading her again!!



4. All I can say is, Wow. I picked up Lauck's first book, "Blackbird" at the library and loved it. So right after I finished it I bought Still Waters. I read it in about 2 days.
   
   A lot happens in her life. A lot happens in many of our lives. But the way Lauck sees things that go on in her life and in the world, are special. Her books opened my mind and my heart.
   
   Saying this is a memoir about a dysfunctional family does not do this book justice. Yes, her family is dysfunctional, but her attitude and experiences and how she draws these into her world view, are all woven through her book in a way that I wanted it to never end.
   
   Another thing, many sequels re-hash much of what happened in the first book. And for those of us who have read the first book, it's a bore to read about all this re-hashing. "Still Waters" does not do this. I really appreciated the fluidity with which Jennifer Lauck wrote her sequel.
   
   I look forward to more from this gifted writer.



5. This book is a sequel to the author's first autobiography, 'Blackbird: A Childhood Lost And Found.'
   
   'Still Waters' affected me even more strongly than the first book, because it more closely mirrored my own childhood and young adulthood. There are millions of kids who are not foster children but what I call shuffled kids, sent from one relative to the next, from one family friend to the next, and back again.
   
   At one point in the book, Lauck writes about staying a few days at a relative's house, where there are no other children, and she is comfortable and happy, and there's more than enough room for her to live there without being in the way. Yet inexplicably that relative sends her off to live with someone else and no real explanation is given.
   
   Despite being shuffled around like a deck of cheap cards, Lauck found the inner strength to grow up intact, and this book affirms the incredible resiliency of children to thrive even under less than ideal circumstances.
   
   This is also a disgraceful and shameful retelling of what happens when relatives turn their back on children who are blood relatives and allow them to be raised by strangers. It is truly a gift and a miracle that Lauck made it to adulthood without becoming a criminal or a drug addict, because her family certainly didn't provide the guidance and nurturing that every child deserves.

5 comments about Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography.

1. I had read a book about Ingrid Bergman by Charlotte Chandler and thought that the book about Joan Crawford would be the same. It was not, it was much worse.
   
   From the title I thought that Charlotte Chandler would a least touch on the abuse that Christina Crawford detailed in Mommy Dearest. Instead the readers are given quotes from Myra Loy who said that she did not want children because of Christina and Christopher Crawford, as well as quotes by one of the twins Joan adopted in 1947 saying that there was no abuse in the Crawford household.
   
   One other thing that the author did not do was research. When writing about Joan Crawford's birth she listed 1908 as the year of her birth when there is evidence that she was born in 1905 and Christina Crawford says Anna (Joan's mother) told her that she was born in 1904.
   
   If you want to know more about Joan Crawford, do not waste your time or money on this book.



2. Any sympathetic biographer of Joan Crawford has to overcome a reader's initial repugnance for the "Joan Crawford" presented in Christina Crawford's autobiography. I admire this author for trying to even the balance, as it were, on Joan Crawford's complex character.
   
   I liked the fact that this biography "talks" to the reader, apparently in Joan Crawford's own words. And while the author is sympathetic to Joan, I never got the impression that anything that passed between Joan Crawford and Ms. Chandler, as reported here by Ms. Chandler, was in any way false, or was said in order to perpetuate a cover-up of Ms. Crawford's "true" character.
   
   From this biography it is easy to see that Lucille LeSeuer, aka Joan Crawford, came from the bottom up. She was an exceptionally strong woman who, with basically no support system from childhood onward, re-invented herself and achieved stardom in Hollywood.
   
   Maybe she wasn't the most nuturing, understanding, warm & cuddly Mother she could be -- I still can't make up my mind that she was a physically abusive one -- but she herself was the receipient of a hard and unloved girlhood, which couldn't have prepared her for being a mother herself.
   
   If it went somewhat wrong between JC and her children (and I think "somewhat" is the right term, because her younger children seemingly have no complaints), it seems appropriate to place the blame on JC's own childhood, which left her emotionally unable to establish strong, continuously loving relationships with anyone but her adoring (and distant) fans.
   
   And one other thing I took away from this biography is, how refreshing to read about a woman who came up from nothing, with sheer hard work, guts and determination.



3. Joan Crawford remains a star! Her claim to fame is awesome. Such a strong woman who used everything she had to get the life she got. Nothing wrong with living as she did. I absolutely loved her. The beauty! The image! The lady! The star! She was all that and more. The Vincent Sherman quotes in the book are priceless. He gave a great candid view of the often media crafted public Joan Crawford. That alone makes this a great read.



4. I like to read biographies. But this one did not give me a picture of what the real Crawford was like. How she wanted to be seen, yes. Crawford's interviews with the author of course put her in the light she wants to be seen in - selfless and generous. For the most part, anyone who spoke about Joan only had good to say, except of course Bette Davis. Crawford would not admit to a "feud" but said she tried numerous times to make friends, but Bette would have none of it. Crawford has nothing but harsh words for her brother, but she criticizes no one in the movie business. She shared that she and Otto Preminger ("nobody liked poor Otto")had the same sense of humor (which must be none). She also said she would not take out the garbage without getting dressed up as "Joan Crawford" first.
   
   Here are the weird parts (to me): Her first three marriages just strangely peter out. The husbands don't know what's wrong (although Fairbanks admits he cheated on her, but said she didn't act like she knew). They would ask her questions, but she would ignore them, and just wouldn't answer, as if that was a normal response between a husband and wife (later her son did the same thing to her, but she didn't see the connection). While married to Fairbanks, she got a cottage by the ocean. When he asked for the phone number, she said she preferred to keep it private. I mean, how do you say that to your own husband? This is a woman who did not discuss problems or feelings. But apparently Fairbanks and Tone stayed on good terms with her, down the road anyway. (Joan invited Tone to leave her house.) Terry's after effects aren't mentioned. No mention of beatings, drinking, etc.
   
   Also, how did her looks change so radically? In her childhood photos, she has faint eyebrows and thin lips. The photo taken around the time she arrived in Hollywood (according the the author) shows her with narrow lips and eyebrows which slant downwards (they look real). However, as time goes on, her eyebrows, still thin, have a high arch. These could be completely drawn on, you can't really tell from the pictures in the book, but on the one on the cover, they look genuine. Her lips become fuller, that could always be makeup, but it's strange how they have completely changed shape . Later her eyebrows become even thicker, but still very arched. These look real too. Even later, her eyebrows become black caterpillars, very rounded and super black, not arched up and away. Her lips are even thicker. Her makeup got more and more clownish. What's up with all that? I kept looking from picture to picture trying to figure it out. The author makes no note of it. Just that Joan said she wore a size four shoe and everybody said how tiny she was, with a big head and shoulders. At least in her autobiography, Lana Turner tells how she lost her eyebrows (they shaved them off every day for a film, and they never grew back), so they always had to be drawn on. Therefore, they looked different in different pictures. Crawford doesn't even look like the same person as she develops.
   
   With dates, the author is vague and explicit as she pleases. When Joan enters grade school (year not given), she is three years behind the other students because she has never been enrolled in school. When she graduates from the school she's attending, according to the year, she would be fourteen. She then begins high school, graduating a year later (?). So at fifteen she's on her own, and before she's seventeen, she been asked to Hollywood. According to Fairbanks, he's 19 and Joan is a few years older than he, when they begin their romance. A few pages later, Joan tells the author that they were both in their "late teens." The author makes no note of the discrepancy.
   
   In at least one movie synopsis, the author is inaccurate. In "The Best of Everything" Gregg does not end up happy in her personal or professional life. I also don't remember certain things she says Veda said in "Mildred Pierce" but I'll have to watch the video again. Most of the movies, I've never seen, so I don't know if their summaries are correct. I didn't really like them being sandwiched in between the writing either. Some of them I skipped as I wasn't interested - they all seemed to be about a girl having to decide between two men.
   
   The book is pro-Crawford rather than pro-truth. It just isn't realistic that Joan was that wonderful with nary a bad trait. Where's the proof that she paid for this hospital room (for the poor employees)for forty years? Just because somebody said she said she was going to? Her oldest children Christina and Chris were just willful, spiteful and refused to accept her love...or maybe they just didn't want to eat raw meat.
   
   But there are hints. On their honeymoon night she screams at Douglas Fairbanks to pick up his socks. Later he says he never saw her lose her temper so Christina's book could not be true. One of the younger children, talks mainly about all the chores she and her twin had to do, and while she says their life was wonderful, she doesn't really give any examples. Well, Joan did pick her up from school one time when she was injured - but why is that so remarkable? Isn't that what a mother normally does?



5. Not the Girl Next Door is not the book we Crawford fans wanted, which is a pity because Charlotte Chandler has never before let me down. Her book on Bette Davis was astonishingly good! What happened with Crawford? Don't know. All I could think of was that she had this one new angle--that Crawford wasn't so bad--and she had to hold on to it despite all evidence to the contrary. She was able to interview a reclusive Crafword daughter, one who had never spoken before to the press, and their conclusions were that a) Christopher was evil, and b) Christina encouraged his weird behavior and alienated a loving, devoted Joan.
   
   I agree with the other reviewer who was tempted to review the hairdo in the author photograph in this book. You can't see it from here, can you, but maybe there's a Charlotte Chandler dot.com in which she displays her magnificent, Jeff Koonslike hair that occupies most of the photo space like a headdress by Carmen Miranda. She looks like a playing card, but not in a bad way, that hair makes one feel very affectionate towards her, plus it looks as though she could smuggle small cats and dogs in it, so it gives her some compassionate cachet.
   
   The book comes alive in a lengthy description of the fairytale romance between Crawford and the young Douglas Fairbanks Jr, their attraction for each other and the thrill of being "young Hollywood" in the shadow of the two older players, her in-laws. Fairbanks' memories in old age of his "salad days" are warm and genial, but then the book grows faint and spotty and we never get an idea of who Franchot Tone was, Philip Terry and Pepsi Cola Guy blur in a haze. If this wonderful and gracious Joan is who she really was, then give me back my monster!

2 comments about The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Foundingof a Nation.

1. We make much of the Founding Fathers of our nation, with barely a nod to any founding mothers. There is the legendary composition of the American flag by Betsy Ross, but even if Ms Ross did so, no one pays attention to her ideas or opinions. We have Abigail Adams, whose recommendation to history was not just that she was married to John Adams, but also that she was a clear thinker and did not confine her frequent letters to domestic or matrimonial issues. And then we have Mercy Otis Warren. Who? Mrs. Warren is little known to our time, although she was well known in her own (and was known as "Mrs. Warren") for publishing plays and poetry with political and revolutionary themes, even though she had to do so anonymously, and for having close acquaintances among other writers and among the leaders of the age. She also wrote one of the first histories of the American Revolution, which, if it is not regarded as a classic, is still consulted by historians specializing in the era. That a woman of her time could have the confidence, perhaps the presumption, of writing history was a surprise to her contemporaries, and argues that she had some sort of greatness and is worth knowing about. _The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation_ (Beacon Press) by Nancy Rubin Stuart is a fine introduction to Mrs. Warren's life, and to the domestic and civil concerns of Revolutionary patriots.
   
   Warren was born in 1728, and besides getting the domestic education all girls got, she was exposed to the books of her brothers, and succeeded when she begged to accompany them to school. Her love of reading, and her introduction to Pope, Dryden, Shakespeare, and others would affect her eventual writing style, but of course she didn't get to go on to Harvard as her brothers did. She married James Warren in 1754. He was a gentleman farmer and politician who was well known by all the more famous leaders of the Revolution. Mrs. Warren became known in her own way, and chief among her friends was John Adams, who would be a mentor and correspondent to her for decades. Adams introduced his young wife Abigail to Mrs. Warren, and the correspondence between the three forms much of the quoted material within this book. Warren's works included plays, satires of the times lacerating the Britons in authority who were oppressing the citizens. It's not fair to say she was a feminist, or even a proto-feminist. Though she thought a great deal about the news of the day, she was deferential. In a letter to her great friend John Adams, having mentioned the subject of patriots opposing Britain, she wrote, "I ask pardon for touching on war, politicks, or anything relative thereto, as I think you gave me a hint in yours not to approach... anything so far beyond the line of my sex." In writing about Mrs. Warren's reactions through the years, Stuart provides delightful insight to the sorts of day-to-day matters that were on her mind. We get to follow, for instance, her involvement in the daunting inoculation process against smallpox, a cure that had many of the aspects of the fearsome disease itself. Mrs. Warren reminds us that no matter how much we cherish our Revolutionary heroes, she spied during the war "a total change of manners" among the rising materialistic class of her countrymen with a new vogue in "profusion, pride and servility and almost every vice," and she was shocked at the "privateering" by those who made their profits in the war.
   
   It is also refreshing to understand that many of the heroes in our bronze statues were but humans, as Mrs. Warren saw them. She was disgusted, for instance, by the ostentation of John Hancock in 1777, as he made his official travels in his gold coach accompanied by fifty horsemen from his private corps of cadets. This sort of throwback to the trappings of royalty was also to offend her when John Adams took power, and Adams was especially upset with Mrs. Warren's depiction of him in her _History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations_ (1805). The rift was severe, and Stuart summarizes their sixteen letters back and forth on the issue. Only the year before her death in 1814 did Adams deign to correspond again and the friendship was renewed. Mrs. Warren's story is also a reminder that the Constitution that we take for granted was a controversial document even among American patriots. She did not like it, and although her authorship was not known for 140 years, she wrote a treatise critiquing the document. The treatise played a role in the eventual drafting of the Bill of Rights. Stuart's book shows a woman of her times, but one with self-made erudition and with ambitions and influence outside the domestic sphere. It is an excellent summary of the life of an important patriot who made a difference during the times of the Founding Fathers.



2. A fascinating & entertaining account about one of America's forgotten outstanding women. I learned far more about the American Revolution and how it affected ordinary poeple by reading The Muse of the Revolution than I ever learned in my American history class.
   
   L.S.
   Manhattan

5 comments about Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over.

1. Cathy Alter's life is a mess - fresh off a divorce, affairs with the wrong men, bad job, bad eating habits...just a lot of bad choices all the way around. Instead of saying "hmm, I'll make a list of resolutions and stick to them", she turns to various magazines for helping her make a better life for herself.
   She picks [Giftscriptions Magazine Gift Certificate: O, The Oprah Magazine (Giftscriptions) Self (1-year), Real Simple (1-year),Cosmopolitan (1-year),In Style, April 2008 IssueElleMarie Claire (1-year) and Glamour (1-year) as the guides for her life for the next year. Each month she would pick one particular theme to focus on and she recounts her adventures with with and humor.
   
   The first month she tackles her diet. She begins to brown bag her lunch with the help of "Real Simple"'s guide to using plastic wrap. (I never knew there would be a guide to that.) It seems strange how the small simple act of packing lunch could cause such a change, but it did.
   M's Alter documents each step along the way of her year long experiment with honesty and a sense of humor. She details her past problems, warts and all, and I found myself rooting for her through out the whole book. I wanted her to make it to the happy ending.
   
   Reading this book is like catching up with an old friend. Inbetween M's Alter's magazine experiment, she writes about her job, her family and her friends. She writes about her experiment in being a bitch with an old lover and how that does not work out quite the way she had planned.
   
   I recommend this book highly to anybody who has stood in front of the magazine rack at the store and surveyed the many choices available. It's very good and I hope to see more from M's alter in the future.



2. When I first read the description of this book, I thought it would be like the website chronicling following Oprah's every piece of advice. I was wrong.
   
   The magazine advice is really just a structure around which the author builds her story of breaking her self-destructive patterns and creating a new life for herself. Each month, she focuses on a different area- diet (the author doesn't need to lose weight and isn't trying; she just wants to stop eating her lunch out of the vending machine), sex, clothing, exercise, etc. She chooses the subject based on what she needs in her life at the time, and she often uses the advice in a way that the original article does not always intend. For instance, an article about wardrobe essentials that is obviously meant to inspire readers to go out and buy becomes a guide for cleaning out her closet instead.
   
   One word of warning- the author starts out as pretty unlikeable. Even her best friend wants to ditch her (one of the catalysts of this journey). She does some pretty stupid things, and initially makes it sound like she divorced her ex-husband because he gained 100 lbs. However, her sheer determination to fix her life by focusing on one small thing at a time is pretty gutsy and endearing. I was really prepared to hate her through the whole book. I did find myself rooting for her by the end, though.



3. As an editor and book critic at PODBRAM, I have read a number of books aimed at women, and this is certainly one of the best of those I have read in that genre. I cannot speak for all male readers, but from my viewpoint, Cathy Alter is a highly competent writer in all respects. As I have sometimes done, I chose to read Ms. Alter's lighthearted poke at the frivolity and pseudo-seriousness of women's magazines sandwiched between a pair of books of much heavier subject matter, and Up for Renewal proved to be a very satisfying read.
   
   Up for Renewal is apparently autobiographical and has been composed in a sort of real-time framework. Ms. Alter has been a contributor to some of the same magazines discussed in the book, showing off her insider expertise on a plotline of which she is intimately familiar. What I was most impressed with was her deft, yet compact, use of the characters, dialog, pacing, and language in the storyline. I felt as if I was being taken along on a slice-of-life joyride by a lady who really knows how to drive. Although this is only Cathy's second book, her extensive experience in magazine writing drips off the pages. Maybe that's why the storyline is so precise. The author knows how to truly make every word count, showing off some really tight editing. Do I have anything negative to say about Up for Renewal? I get a delicately queasy feeling that Ms. Alter has led a very easy, comfortable, upper-middle-class lifestyle that has left very little room for any angst to develop that cannot be solved by a little dose of feminist, pop psychology. Maybe that's just the impression I get when I read Up for Renewal between a morality treatise on the death penalty and the history of religious politics in America.
   
   Cathy Alter creates a style that I strongly admire, one that I have diligently tried to impart in my own books, the concept of giving the reader the deepest and best experience possible in as few words as possible. Up for Renewal held my interest from the first word to the last, and I'm not even a member of the skirt-wearing target audience for the book!
   
   Floyd M. Orr is the author of The Last Horizon: Feminine Sexuality & The Class System, Timeline of America: Sound Bytes from the Consumer Culture, and a few books on subjects that men like to read.



4. At 322 pages, this book is about 200 pages too long. The book starts out with a very interesting summary of the newly divorced author's toxic romantic/sexual relationships and other self destructive behaviors, and describes her interesting plan to improve her life. Unfortunately, my interest waned rapidly as the book progressed. The writing style was inconsistent. Brilliant in places, incredibly boring in others.
   
   Borrow this book from the library if you feel you must read it.



5. As a huge magazine reader I was really looking forward to reading this book. As I got further and further into the book I found myself rooting against the author. While the premise of the book was engaging the actual execution of the idea lacked any commitment. This is really a "novel" that would have made a good magazine article but lacked the substance necessary for a book.

1 comments about Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; Or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus.

1. What is the third thing between living and dreaming? Antonio Machado's epigraph to Holy Roller asks the question, and Diane Wilson answers in a memoir at once particular to her childhood on the back bays and bayous of the Gulf Coast and catholic in its theme of a girl's awakening. A fascinating story of snake handlers and shrimpers and a child trying to make sense of it all.