5 comments about Into the Wild.

1. Este bestseller permitió a Krakauer obtener la reputación de notable escritor de aventuras. Este libro se basa en la historia real de Christopher McCandless, un joven proveniente de una familia acomodada de la Costa Este quien, tras graduarse en la universidad, donó todo su dinero a obras de caridad y se embarcó en un viaje por el oeste americano bajo el nombre de "Alexander Supertramp". Dos años después, McCandless fue encontrado muerto en la desolación de Alaska. En su libro, Krakauer traza paralelismos entre sus propias experiencias y motivaciones y aquellas que guiaron a McCandless a su trágico final. Krakauer también narra la historia de Everett Ruess, un joven artista a que despareció en el desierto de Utah en 1934, cuando tenía solo 20 años.
   
   Nestor Vallester
   www.tesmel.com



2. This book was amazing. It goes much further into the idealism of "going into the wild" then the story of Alex himself; unlike the movie. Recommend to any person ever willing to pass on the idea of society and return to our roots.



3. This book was okay it wasn't all that great, but if you like an autobiography then this is the book for you.



4. Unfortunately, I find this to be one of the most idiotic stories I have ever read. It is the story of a young man with no respect for the enormity of nature. His story is akin to waiting on a beach to watch a category 5 hurricane make landfall. I feel sorry for Chris' family
   I love Krakauer's other books.



5. this is the story of chris mccandles. candles inherits money, then lights it on fire out of principle. he then travels the country excoriating people for not doing the same. in between stints working at mcdonalds, he ventures off into the wild with nothing but a gun and fishing pole. after almost dying repeatedly, he decides alaska is the only wilderness tough enough for him. he walks down a trail off the highway, wades across a stream, then starts writing a journal. he gets hungry and decides to go back, but is blocked by the ice-melt swollen stream. not realizing that getting upriver to a crossing point is now a matter of life or death, he goes back to his campground. something very bad then happens to him and he can't get out. the best parts of the book are the several chilling accounts of how seemingly innocuous mistakes cost some very tough people their lives all alone in the wilderness. the author will make you feel like you're about to die, that's how well written it is.

5 comments about Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story.

1. This is a very intimate book written with a great deal of courage and self-questioning. Roy Blount Jr. lays this book out in a stream-of-consciousness style which makes for compelling reading. He keeps coming back to questioning the unsettling aspects of his relationship with his mother. Child abuse is an unjust and toxic experience for a child that creates chronic stress past childhood into adulthood; Blount does an outstanding job of showing this to be the case, in spite of his well-deserved great successes including development of character and wisdom.
   
   Nowadays, inappropriate communication/intimacy from parent to child is identified as enmeshment, a form of sexual-emotional child abuse. A mother who has experienced neglect and/or violated boundaries as a child can without compunction abuse her power with her own children demanding pity for all her life's woes and make them into her caretaker(s). Parents with less than sturdy personalities, possibly due to childhood damage, (esp. without treatment or at least acknowledgement of their inadequacies, awareness of the need to respect other's boundaries, etc.) can be invasive in a very unhealthy way and wholly inconsistent; there is no abiding gratitude for the caretaking by the child - unnatural caretaking and pity created by the needy parent in the plastic brain of a child that could have gone in infinite directions - at the root of it, created because of a sense of entitlement by the parent.
   
   Not surprisingly, self-absorbed parents also resent their children's growing autonomy and fear abandonment adding more inappropriate behavior as they grow away. Additionally, this type of parent is capable of projecting profound resentment and rage at their own children - redirected from their feelings about their childhood and/or their abuser. This is the complicated legacy of past abuse or mental instability morphing into other forms of less easily defined abuse that Blount writes about.
   
   This author's anger toward his mother's behavior was almost always overridden (with hesitation on several occasions he writes "I hate my mother") by pity for her, the curse of enmeshment abuse; his anger was fiercely directed at historical family members who may have abused his mother, but that history was shown to be unclear (perhaps even unlikely to the extent this mother dramatically described her purported abuse with relish to her own children) as well; in fact, the reader is left to wonder how much physical abuse actually took place of the mother when she was a child and whether it was mostly neglect and a personality which may have been unstable, maybe histrionic, and self-indulgence. This search was especially poignent.
   
   It is always difficult to ascertain what is immaturity and narcissism versus what is damage done in childhood which impaired normal functioning and reactions - especially historically. This author seeks understanding of his mother, but solid facts, analyses, definitions and understanding are illusive. This is where Roy Blount Jr. is, I believe, is passing along an important message with his story.
   
   There was, during the time period he is writing about -roughly the 1950s- a profound societal pity for women, which gave a greater sense of entitlement to women in the home behaving self-indulgently and feeling like it was "their time" and they were going to get "their due." (During this time, women would be on complete bedrest with full assistance of the baby for weeks after they gave birth to a child; nowadays they are discharged with the baby within in a day and back to full-time jobs in a week even if they are a single parent.) In addition, there was a lot of praise for women in any sort of community or church involvement. For some women this overwrought societal praise and pity fueled their narcissism and sense of entitlement that they could use the family however they wished. I haven't seen this documented but rather it is an observation.
   
   With women having more opportunity nowadays (and of course with birth control established), that deep societal pity is gone and - please forgive the generality here -it seems that there is less unquestioned inappropriate behavior, women behave more responsibily in the home. Women behaving as competently in professional jobs as men nowadays also has eliminated the idea that they were to be automatically pitied and protected because of their incredibly complex neurological and endocrine systems, (part of the physiological dialogue of the 50s). Also, the 50s were also a time where it was not uncommon for children to be berated for just being there as in "you damned kids"; a lot of parents felt entitled to resent and rage at their children. For the most part, children were not treated as individuals with rights during this time period; it was a parent-centered time.
   
   It is unarguable that on this mother's part there was a lack of the hard work of growing up, a lack of self discipline, a lack of respect for boundaries; in general, there was a lack of genuine empathy for what she was doing to those in the immediate family and seeking what she needed from her children instead of the other way around. Enmeshment takes energy from the child to parent; the child gets drained by and used for companionship, attention and love;in the process the child is abandoned.
   
   Blount's frankness about determining his main job in life to rid the family of its' multigenerational "legacy" of abuse was thoughtful and moving. It was a fairly raw account of a man (an extremely intelligent and articulate -well published- man in his mid-50s) still struggling with a form abuse less obvious but more likely to cripple him and his sister in relationships than a straightforward whack against the head, making them more likely to bring old resentments from childhood into adult relationships. He continues to detox from the chronic stress created by his childhood by going back and looking at what happened and seeks a way to deal with issues of injustice in some way besides resentment and recycling old anger.
   
   This idea that no matter what his successes were in this life that his main goal was to overcome the family legacy made for compelling reading. Writing it as he did, extensive humorous analyses typical of his other writing mixed with reflection upon successes and then intermittently coming back to disturbing elements of the parental -mother- relationship that could not be resolved, that there can never be closure to the experience of a toxic childhood, was just plain brilliant.



2. I was lucky enough to stumble across Roy Blount reading from this book in a Vermont bookstore. I bought it on the spot, telling him that it was the first one of his books that I had paid full price for. He thought this was pretty fun, the store employee sitting next to him didn't. This book is worth its full price.

   Be Sweet in no way sets out to "make fun of the mother-son relationship". I suppose because Blount is such an irreverent goof-ball on the radio and in print, it seems fair to have that preconception. However, Blount has always let us know that some things are sacred and after you get a short way into this book you realize that family is one of them. He desperately does not want to cast aspersions on his own mother's character, but he has to acknowledge that she did drive him to distraction throughout his life.

   There were several points in this book were Blount seems to be going off on a tangent. To be honest I began to wonder if he was just filling the space between the covers. Oh me of little faith! In the last third of the book I was progressively more amazed and impressed as I discovered that his seemingly unconnected threads were actually germane to the resolution of his mid-life psychic wrestling match with himself.

   Bill Bryson's recent A Walk In the Woods similarly surprised me. I don't expect journalists to write deeply personal prose. Roy Blount beats Bryson hands down as far as the psychological depths that are plumbed and illuminated. If the presentation of the psychological dimension of things bores you or insults your sense of decorum, then don't read this Roy Blount book. If you want to know what is going on in the head of middle aged white Southern guys of above average emotional honesty, then this is a pretty good place to start.




3. Having roared at Roy Blount's humor on the Garrison Keillor show, I really looked forward to reading his book making fun of the mother-son relationship so aptly caught up in the title, "Be Sweet". I was terribly disappointed and found him not only lacking in humor but exhibiting a real dislike for females altogether. It was a book I easily gave away to the second hand shop.



4. I was very surprised by this book on a number of levels. I've thought Blount's past works were funny, but also quite well thought out. Blount is never "funny" in the sense that Dave Berry is funny. There is no silliness about Blount; he is firmly grounded in reality.

   This work is very serious. It is his attempt to displell his "family curse." He explores his relationships with his parents, sister, and ex-wives. He speculates on the nature of humor and humorists.

   I thought the book was brilliant. It's like Blount is willing to talk about things that no one else will because doing so would sound stupid, but it's still what you want to say.

   An added bonus is Blount's voice. He is not a particularly elegant reader. But it is hard to imagine any other voice reading this work. I compare it to Jean Shepard, who also has the perfect voice for his own work.




5. By the end of this book, I knew for certain that it was worth reading although I had many doubts until then. Blount made me laugh and made me marvel at his skill, but he also bored me with his self-loathing and longueurs. The chapter on the troubles of men named after their fathers (juniors) was excruciatingly dull, and forgot to make mention of Hank Williams Junior, one of the most grandiose sufferers from this syndrome. Worse, Blount junior never really explained what made his mother so maddening. Nevertheless, he tells very well how he finally came to value what she (and his father) gave to him.

4 comments about Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1850; the diary of Margaret A. Frink (Living Voices of the Past) (Living Voices of the Past).

1. My great-great grandparents with an infant daughter journeyed overland from Missouri to California in 1850 and I read this book to learn something of their experience.
   
   As the editors point out few women made the crossing by land and thus their accounts have great significance. This book contains the diaries and letters of six women who traveled by wagon and horseback across the Great Plains and the mountains of the West to a new home in California, Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico in 1850. Amongst their descriptions of terror and hardship are also homely tales of life on the trail and often the generosity and nobility of many of their fellows.
   
   I was impressed most by the sheer numbers of the overlanders. Some 50,000 people took the Western trails in 1850, drawn mostly by the promise of gold in California. Accounts of the dust, the crowded conditions, and the inevitable cholera caught my attention. The journey across the plains and mountains was, as the editors note, the longest voluntary migration in history and one has to wonder why so many people left comfortable homes to journey west. The westward urge -- "Manifest Destiny" -- or whatever it might be called was a powerful force in 19th century United States. Indians and buffalo play surprisingly small roles in the accounts of the crossing. They were perhaps wise enough to keep their distance from the overlanders.
   
   The editors have contributed good introductions to the book and each of the women.
   
   Smallchief



2. Meaningful, first-hand chronicles from six westward women pioneers of 1850.
   As editor Dr. Holmes notes, Anna Maria Morris was the wife of a military commander and as a result was "treated with attention and care". Nonetheless, she describes the relentless heat, lack of water and wood, poor grass, etc. which was typical of travel to Santa Fe, along with daily routines.
   Mary Colby, Margaret Frink, Sarah Davis, Sophia Goodridge and Lucena Parsons all traveled the northern ,more familiar, Oregon Trail. These women give stunning details of wagon travel including: the phenomenal numbers of graves along the trail due to cholera, daily chores and mishaps, the vast numbers of emigrants along the route, dry ponds, abandoned wagons and personal belongings, river crossings, cutting grass for future livestock feed, etc.
   We feel the persistent, annoying stings of clouds of mosquitoes along the Platte, the disturbing sights of countless numbers of human graves, the unsettling smells of innumerable dead livestock left alongside the road, feel their Indian anxieties, the sounds of nerve-racking horrendous thunderstorms, the continual unwelcomed taste of trail dust. These women clearly illustrate what life was like traveling westward in 1850.
   A pleasure to read.



3. As Americans we have heard many tales, true and false, of tales of, and about, those brave souls who migrated across the country in wagons and on foot in the 19th century. Beverly's LTD has recorded The personal diary of one such woman, Margaret A. Frink.

   Mrs. Frink, along with her husband, whose first name we never know, and a boy named Robert leave their nice home in Martinsburg, Indiana, for the riches of the California territories. It's not only the promise of gold that spurs this couple on, but of the riches available to those who make the arduous trip.

   Mrs. Frink keeps a detailed diary of the daily distances traveled (how did they m ark this?), the price of provisions along the way, the weather, the many people they run into, and an acute observation of the fashions on the trail. I found that quite interesting, those detailed descriptions of fashion, in clothing, transportation, and supplies, and the daily traveling distance. I also found myself amazed at the mileage the wagons were able to make each day and the price of provisions along the way. In 1851, one onion costs the Frink's one dollar, which is astronomically even in the 2002 market.

   Susan Baxter, an actress at the Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado, gives life to Margaret. By the tone of voice she uses, I suspect that Margaret is a bit of a snob, but she handles the travails of the trail with remarkable good humor.

   It is particularly interesting that the diary does not end with their arrival in Sacramento, but gives a hurried account of life for their life as hotel owners and diary farmers. It is also interesting that the home they dismantled in Indiana and ship by boat, arrived in the new state at almost the same time they did.

   Thanks to the publication of this diary, I have a whole new appreciation of the Old West!




4. The second in the series is as interesting as the first.The immigrants now have a bit more knowledge as many have gone before them.There are still many misshaps, disease, lack of water and feed. We now are starting to see many oppertunists who prey on the people. It is interesting to note that the women and Indians seemed to get along quite well and shared hints about many things. We also see the diffrence in the trip for diffrent income levels.This is also where we start to see pollution,as the animals were allowed in the creeks and anything not needed was just left .These books show what life was really like on the trail and what the women went through each day.

5 comments about The Last Dive: The Harrowing Account of a Father-Son Dive Team and Their Fatal Descent.

1. I first read this book while my son was still doing a lot of diving. The book resonated with me as it is as much about the relationship of a father and son as it is about diving. It also is set in the context of the U-Who German Submarine that divers were trying to identify at the time so it contains WWII history info and local dive history. I thought it was a great book and recommend it.



2. One of my favorite dive books. The story of a father and son dive team and their tragic accident. Well written and gripping story of what happens when you get complacent. Just a good book that really pulls you in and keeps you in till the end. Written in a way to really get you attached to the characters.



3. "The Last Dive" is a very engaging read that is every bit as much about why people take risks at the edge of human ability (diving, mountain climbing, racing, etc.), their personalities, and their weaknesses, as it is about Chris and Chrissy Rouse and their fatal dive on the U-Who.
   
   Although I found "Shadow Divers" and "Deep Descent" a bit more riveting; after the somewhat flowery prose of the initial couple of chapters, "The Last Dive" did an excellent job of bringing me into the club of elite cave and wreck divers, introducing the history and exploits of the key divers including the Rouses, helping to understand a bit of what motivates these divers to make the deep dives and take the risks they do, introducing some of the key wrecks that help to set the stage, and taking you inside the head of the author as he experiences the same fascination, thrill, fever, risk, and pain of a dive gone bad.
   
   The author is a friend of many of the key divers and has personally made many of the same cave and wreck dives and has been through a serious episode of the bends, so he knows what he is talking about. He does a good job of describing technical issues in lay terms, so "The Last Dive" will engage the diver and non-diver alike.
   
   While the lives and personalities of Chris and Chrissy Rouse are a thread running through "The Last Dive"; it is just as much the author's story and that of the other deep wreck divers who take the same risks, and their inner needs and drive to do so. Once you get through the first two chapters, you will find "The Last Dive" to be a page-turning adventure.
   
   Definitely read the postlog chapter, "Ever Deeper". It's not the same rate of adventure as the rest of the book, but the additional information about many of the divers, advances in the science and psychology of deep wreck diving, and further information about identifying the U-Who (covered better in Shadow Divers) is worth the additional reading.



4. If you are looking for a great book about scuba diving you search has ended. The last dive is amazing and is a great story about a diving family and their quest for improvement.



5. This isn't Shadow Divers. This isn't written like a NY Times bestseller. It doesn't intensify or create drama like some other books do to try to captivate your interest. This book is written by a diver and is most appreciated by a fellow diver. Some complain of tangents which they say detract from the father and son story. These only serve to richen the experience for me. It not only tells the story but teaches valuable lessons and makes a diver desire further understanding on the many subject which are touched upon.

5 comments about I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story.

1. It doesn't matter how many home runs Berry Bond's or anyone of this aera of Baseball, what Hank AAron endured and the racial hatred he went through only proves that he is the BEST. These modern day players could not survive what he and others went through.



2. I've been a fan from age seven, which is where I was in life when Henry hit number 715. His recounting of his life in baseball is captivating and highly educational.
   
   Mr Aaron is one of the most skilled players in baseball history, and his telling of his story explains that he is much more than that. Mr Aaron is a man of dignity and class, his success through clouds of racist hate provides a shining example of what a man can be under extreme circumstances. Thank you Henry, for your marvelous career in baseball, and for your open, honest sharing of the story.



3. "I Had A Hammer" is a wonderfully written autobiography about the struggles and the triumphs of one Henry(aka Hank) "The Hammer" Aaron, the career home run record holder, and one of the last of the "Negro League" players to make it big. Aaron describes his upbringing in Mobile well, and shows us the different levels of racism in the Deep South. The book reveals that Aaron fought against segregation in the minor leagues, helping to end "white-only" minor league teams, and shows us Aaron's love affair with the city of Milwaukee and it's long-gone Braves team, and the tense relationship between Aaron and Atlanta, which had the first Deep South major league team. This is recommended for lovers of baseball as well as those who want to know more about civil rights heroes. Atlanta is not cast in a good light in this book, but Aaron harbors little bitterness towards the city or the racism and death threats he had to endure while trying to break Babe Ruth's record.



4. The athletic proficiency of Hank Aaron is probably the greatest in the history of baseball if not all sports. He is a man of dignity, grace and the stuff legends are made of. This is an endearing and absorbing biography. This biography has captivated the legend of the man for me. It is well written with true fervor and endearment. One of the best.



5. In this baseball season where my favorite team is floundering in the cellar, and every good story(compelling divisional races) is counterbalanced by the bad (steroids), I have been trying to maintain interest by re-reading some baseball books that I have read over the years. After re-reading "I Had A Hammer", I remember why it remains one of the best biographies/autobiographies that I have ever read.
   
   The sports genre in books is much harder than one would think to keep up interest in. There are very few gems in any sporting subject; mostly it's very mediocre to terribly vapid. Usually a fan becomes disappointed in their sports "heroes" when they read a biography about them, because the writing can be so bad. Fortunately, for a ballplayer as great as Hank Aaron, the work lives up to the character and legend of the man.
   
   Mr. Aaron does a splendid job of taking the reader through his life in Alabama, his discovering the game of baseball, and - of course - his remarkable career. His writing style provides enough description to allow the reader to get a true mental "picture" of what his life was like without getting bogged down in minutiae. Throughout the book, I had the feeling like I really was there watching his career unfold.
   
   Of course, that brings us to the real core - and most important part - of his life story. That is, what Mr. Aaron experienced as he neared and eclipsed Babe Ruth's home run record. Most celebrities or sports figures would relate this in that sensational, "woe-is-me", tabloid-tell-all sort of way. Not Mr. Aaron. He shares many of the truly hateful and despicable letters he received from people across the nation who saw the idea of an African-American breaking the record of a white man as egregious. Mr. Aaron relates how this inundation of hate mail affected him, but he manages to avoid expressing any hate towards the senders of those letters. One obviously gets the sense that Mr. Aaron steeled himself against those attacks with grace and dignity, allowing himself to still play the game the way it was supposed to be played, and to do it with class and personal enjoyment.
   
   It is striking to return to Mr. Aaron's autobiography after the events in baseball over the past decade. We as a fan base in general express outrage over the strike, the steroids (and questions about those players that broke records), outrageous salaries, and the like. It seems to always elicit a response demanding a return to the "innocence" of baseball seasons and players gone by. However, Mr. Aaron's experience demonstrates that there was controversy in almost every era of the game. In his case, it was a despicable form of racial hatred expressed by a very vocal minority in this country.
   
   Again, "I Had A Hammer" stands out as one of the great books in the sports genre, and stands out as one of my favorite biographies/autobiographies. I rate it the full five stars, and encourage readers of all interests to give this one their attention.

5 comments about The Circus Fire.

1. Good books on historical events usually tell of events before, during and after the occurence. Some much more so than others. What is striking here is how O'nan manages to refer to everything related to Hartford's fire over a fifty year period! Everything is included. We are told of circus fires and accidents back in to the 19th century, circus mishaps in the years after the fire, other disasters of interest, and of the personal lives and fates of those involved. I have extensive knowledge of historic catastrophes, and can attest that nothing of any interest was left out. The author has said the book was a lot of work to write, and this is clear given its detail. There is no other book quite like it.
   
   But the book's strength is also its weakness. So much is included that the writing suffers some. We are constantly introduced to new characters and sub-stories, interrupting the flow, and creating a kind of 'literary turbulence' that is disturbing at times. But don't let this stop you from buying, and reading, this tale of a circus tragedy.



2. My family is from Sarasota, FL, where the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus had their winter quarters for many years. My great-grandmother on my mother's side used to watch some of the circus kids while their parents trained, and my mom had heard stories about this fire, and then when I was younger, I had heard the same stories. We had known Merle Evans, and he told us about that day.
   
   I had not known about this book until reading about it in a thread on LT, so I thought I would give it a try and learn a little bit more about that awful day. O'Nan presents what is clearly a well-researched, if not always well-written, history about that day, and the events that (may or may not have) led up to it, and the circumstances that followed. After O'Nan introduces each person, he continues to write about these people as if the reader is as familiar them as he is due to his researching them. If you can let go of trying to keep track of who is who (there is a huge number of people involved) and simply read the book and accept the facts as they are presented, you will have a better chance of getting something out of this book. I kept trying to keep straight in my head who was who, but after awhile I simply gave up on this and just read.
   
   Due to the nature of the tragedy, I don't know that it's possible for O'Nan to write this without some sense of sensationalizing the facts, but everything that he writes clearly gets across the horror of the day. The accompanying photographs help you visualize exactly what happened during the fire. The book itself suffers from some writing errors throughout, and these probably could have been fixed with a stronger editing, but they are not overly distracting.
   
   O'Nan clearly researched his facts, and while he tries to present some possible explanations to the cause of the fire and circumstances surrounding it, he doesn't try to present these as fact. He relies on the established facts that have been proven, and draws on these to present the story as best he can. This book won't be for everyone. It was a horrible day, and O'Nan doesn't try to sugar-coat the events or what happened to the victims of the fire. For those that are interested in learning more about the fire, however, this will prove to be an interesting read.



3. Having grown up in this area, I was very much aware of the fire and it's consequences. But ... nobody ever really wanted to talk about it. This is a very good account. While reading, though, I grew frustrated because I forgot who was who, where in the tent they were, seemed too much space in chapters before they were mentioned again. But then again, that it reflective of what it was like under that big top. Chaos. Where was everyone in your family or party?
   
   Also good documentation of the investigation. Sometimes a little bit too detailed, but then again, that's what investigations are.
   
   O'Nan did well with this book. Too bad more people in that area refuse to read it. Guess time doesn't always heal pain.



4. I have owned this book for several years and have read and reread it several times. Before picking it up, I had never heard of the fire in Hartford. After reading it, I wanted to find out even more. The best books about historical tragedies and disasters tell not only the story of a single event but convey the mood and atmosphere of the times in which they occurred. Mr. O'Nan does that very well here I think. This is not just a book about a fire but a snapshot of a specific time in American history. I appreciated that he did not shy away from depicting many of the more gruesome details of the fire and its aftermath in detail. To airbrush the details for readers would have shown an utter lack of respect for the victims of the fire as well as the survivors. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning more about American history by studying influential events. The Hartford fire, like the Triangle fire and the Iroquois fire, were great tragedies which created ripples across the entire American landscape. They lead to changes in our values, our workplaces, and our amusements. They are worth remembering, not only to honor their victims but as a part of understanding our American story.



5. Having read Stewart O'Nan's novel A Prayer for the Dying and loving it, I decided I would give O'Nan the opportunity to tell a true story of life and death.
   
   As a word of warning for those who come after me, if you are expecting a story centered around 5-10 "main characters," you will be disappointed. This is a story about the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944 and in telling that story, O'Nan attempts to tell the story of EVERYONE who was connected to it. It requires the reader to accept a large "cast of characters" who is willing to follow several threads of the "story" at one time. O'Nan's frenetic, peripatetic telling of the story gives the reader a sense of what it may have been like under the Big Top when it caught on fire.
   
   In telling the story of the Hartford Circus Fire, O'Nan also tells the story of "Little Miss 1565." "Little Miss 1565" was perhaps the most well-known victim of the circus fire. She was named after the number assigned to her body at the city's makeshift morgue. The debate over her identify rages on to this day. O'Nan does refute the contention of Rick Davey and Don Massey's contention that Little Miss 1565 was, in fact Elenaor Cook. For more on Rick Davey and Don Massey, you can check out A Matter of Degree: The Hartford Circus Fire & The Mystery of Little Miss 1565.
   
   Whether Elenaor Cook is properly or improperly identified as "Little Miss 1565" does not change the fact that she died in the Hartford Circus Fire. In telling the story of "Little Miss 1565" O'Nan is really telling the story of those who survived the Circus Fire and those who died.
   
   Dick Hill's narration is utterly breathtaking. He handles O'Nan's frenetic narrative with both style and grace. The only quirk in this production occurs in the one instance in O'Nan's narrative is where a dialog is recounted. Rather than using voice inflection to differentiate the speakers, a production effect is used in which the lines of the opposite speaker are slightly muffled as if Dick Hill is delivering the lines with his hand slightly covering the microphone. Otherwise, Hill's narration is flawless.

No comments about Daniel Boone.

5 comments about Truth & Beauty: A Friendship.

1. wonderfully written. if you put a gun to my head and ask who was a better writer, patchett or her friend lucy grealy, the friend that makes completes this companionship, i'd say grealy. much more forceful, passionate and wild writer, hence grealy is not alive now, but patchett is. good book however. check out grealy's writings too.



2. I don't like memoirs, but I read this one in one day. The two writers Anne Patchett and Lucy Grealy meet at Sarah Lawrence and later are roommates while pursuing Master's Degrees at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Fate deals them both great success as writers, yet their personal paths take completely divergent courses. The bond of friendship spans two decades and countless heartbreaks. Anne Patchett does portray herself to be the 'saint' in this friendship but you would almost have to be to endure the suffering that being friend to Lucy Grealy demanded. The themes of friendship, art, loneliness and love are rendered with realism and depth. Patchett's obvious love for writing and her poet friend is shared in this gift of a book.



3. I'm giving this book 3 stars because I like Ann Patchett's writing very much, but the story isn't as interesting to me as a woman in my mid-40s as it would have been had I read this in my 20s. In my 20s, this would have been a grand sweeping tragedy - a life changing book, a standard by which to judge loyalty and friendship. In my 40s, I went "eh." I read this as the story of two highly dysfunctional people in a suffocating relationship. It feels like Patchett wrote it as a way to exorcise her grief; and also perhaps examine her own less than healthy behavior. It did make me want to read more of Patchett's fiction. I picked up a copy of Patron Saint of Liars and am going to give that a try next. Part of me wants to say, Ann just forgive yourself already. We've all been there and done that. Maybe not in such an extreme way or for so many years... but we've all been sucked in by a charming selfish user. Learn a lesson and move on.



4. Readers will likely recognize the author's name from her previous novels, including Bel Canto, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, and The Patron Saint of Liars, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Readers also may recognize Ann Patchett from her articles that appear in such publications as Gourmet, the New York Times Magazine, and the Paris Review. No doubt, some readers will recognize Patchett's friend, Lucy Grealy, as the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Autobiography of a Face.
   
   Truth & Beauty is the story of the friendship shared by Lucy Grealy and Ann Patchett. It is at once tender, heartwarming, heartbreaking and complex. Truth & Beauty is neither the story of Lucy nor the story of Ann, but of the parts of each life that were shared. What one lacked, the other offered for the relationship. What one shared, the other reached out to receive.
   
   Ann and Lucy met in the early 1980s while attending college. At the Iowa Writers' Workshop, they began a friendship that would become a lifelong process. This is no ordinary friendship. It is one riddled with emotional upheaval, creative successes and disappointments, health crises, and ultimately the lecherous hold of drug abuse.
   
   This is a phenomenal look at the way in which two exceptionally creative people lived, loved, wrote, and grappled with the realities of life. It is also an extremely sensitive description of the way a woman wrought with illness, despair and depression can one minute create beauty and the next minute search for ways to destroy herself.
   
   Truth & Beauty is the story of two friends who loved one another through the best and worst of times. It is a portrayal of loyalty and devotion over more than twenty years of friendship, and a haunting, heartbreaking portrait of the belief in the invincibility of one who lives so largely despite their diminuitive size. Only to find that no one is invincible...no one.
   
   by Lee Ambrose
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



5. The reason I even looked at reviews for this book is so that I could gage how trustworthy other book reviews on here are and how seriously I should take them. Now that I look at the negative, totally ridiculous critiques of Truth and Beauty, I'm never trusting another sour review on here again! When somebody asks me, "What's your favorite book?" I used to say something by T. Capote or M. Angelo, but now I reply, without hesitation, "TRUTH & BEAUTY by Ann Patchett!" Seriously. This book is awesome and I'm annoyed even reading other bad reviews on here about it. Patchett writes in a way that makes me stop, re-read the page, and then say to myself, "Damn, this is great stuff! Why didn't I think of something like that?" I think if you are an aspiring writer, or just somebody who appreciates intelligent, well-written prose, then you should read this one. Do not trust the other reviewers on this page - they're probably the kind of people who'd give a Harlequin novel 5 stars.

5 comments about Maggie's American Dream.

1. I read this book for a college class this past semester and was truely amazed at how well this book was written. This book is basically broken down into three parts, all equally intersesting. The first part is based in Maggies story, her life, struggles and amazing accomplishments. The second part is all about the author, James, who is also Maggies son. The story of "Maggie's American Dream" is an excellent representation of a family that went through tough times and prevailed through a combination of church, education as well as being "taught and strongly encouraged to develop the needed social skills and personal controls." Maggie raises her family during a time when it was difficult to be a black person in America. Maggie was ridiculed and pushed away from any opportunities simply because of the color of her skin. Maggie became a wonderful mother, which I feel is the most important part of this story. Her son James tells the stories of how he was raised. These are stories of a mother that attended all sporting events, assisting her children in becoming talented at several different activities ranging from playing the piano to playing sports. Maggie was always there for her family. She taught them right from wrong as well as a strong sense of that "never give up" attitude. These children continue to strive to do their best in anything they did, even during a time when they were held back from doing just that. This is an example of how a family can make it through most adversities as long as they all stick together and work towards their goals and dreams.
   
   Wonderful book Mr. Comer and thank you for opening my eyes to a great story.



2. Comer tells the story of his family by focusing on the remarkable life of his mother, Maggie Comer, whose determination helped her survive poverty and segregation in the South and discrimination in the North to raise of family of successful children. The first half of the book is told in Maggie's own words. The second half is in Comer's. An excellent example of the broader social migration of black families from the South to the North following Reconstruction.



3. I did a research study on American Dream in America during the 20s-30s decade. I've read a lot of books concerning the subject; literary works, forming the main portion of my resources. These ranged from Fitzgerald's 'Great Gatzby' to Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath', from Dreiser's 'An American Tragedy' to Lewis's 'Main Street'. In addition to these quite old literary works, I collected statistical, analytical information about the particular decades, to verify what I've acquired from the novels. It was a hard study, but I managed to write a reasonably concise thesis, with the help of not the sources I listed, but with this book, 'Maggie's American Dream' instead. Why?

   Almost all of the books I've read were productions of imagination. Even Dreiser, who was inspired from a real account, did not stick to facts in his book, but altered them to create a fiction. However, 'Maggie's American Dream' is a true story. It is told from James Comer's point of view, in a very poetical fashion. The second part of the book is his mother's story, which is again expressed by James. The book also contains a nice section of pictures of the Comer family, which are quite interesting after reading about the family.

   James P. Comer had a very hard childhood, as it could be expected during the years of never-ending racism issues. Comer beautifully expresses how they managed to stand tall, and get their share in the competition of living. Mr. Comer is now working as a psychiatrist in New Haven, after having completed his doctoral work in Yale University. It is a dream that is realised, indeed.

   This book will provide you with a lot of insights about the lives of black families, American societal norms, family relations during the 20s and 30s, which you cannot find easily in any other source this clearly and truely.




4. What a wonderful book. Very easy to read with lots of short chapters so that even the busiest of us can get through it quickly. And of course Maggie and her family are so real that you find you can't put the book down...you just have to find out what happens to them all next.
   It's a great story, and worth reading from that angle alone. But all the way through this book also gives you plenty to ponder - whether you are someone with an interest in education (and doesn't that include all parents?), someone who wishes that all people had an equal opportunity to realise their potential, or someone who really wants to know what life is like for others from different backgrounds and countries. The author also inspires us to think about how we can make a difference, in some small way, wherever and whoever we are.



5. This book I have read is the best book I have ever read. It has inspired me by not being mad ever time someone gets in my face and be racis toward me. I really like this aurthor he is a very insperational writter. I would tell everbody who is going through something very hard, reconmemd this book to any and every one

5 comments about Let's Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage.

1. "Let's Roll" is the story of the lives of Lisa Beamer of her husband Todd, who was killed aboard United Flight 93 on September 11th, 2001. See my review of the hard cover for details.
   
   The two stars are for the horrendous job of narration. Lisa Helms gives Lisa Beamer a voice that is so chirpy, perky and mindless that I could hardly stomach the book. The first 3-4 CDs were so relentlessly cute and smug that I almost couldn't stand listending to more. Only when the book rolled around the describing the events of 9/11 and its aftermatch did Helms calm down enough to be tolerable.
   
   Read the book, or skip the first 4 CDs if you have a weak stomach for saccharin.



2. This audio book went into a complete background of both Lisa and Todd Beamers lifes: from childhood, through school, to college and how they meet. It gives you great detail on the background of these two peoples lifes, but I felt it was too wordy at times, especially when I was expecting this book to be mainly an account of the 9/11 incidents. But when Lisa finally gets to this account in her book, it is very detailed and interesting. Lisa and Todds closesness and devotion to God give hope to the reader and our Nation .. a great reminder.



3. The book Lets roll is a good book for people to read what happened to Lisa. In this book she talks about her life, marriage, children and staying home taking care of her kids. A normal staying home mom. Lisa beamer is a wife of the 9-11 hero Todd beamer. Lisa was talking to Todd her husband on the phone while the terrorist were on the plane with him. Lisa has a lot of courage to write this book and put her life on the line for all of the nation to read she wrote the book of her life and her family. To tell the world what she was thinking the day of 9-11 and the days before and after the attacks was very hard for her as she said in the book but she was incredible open about it. Lisa talked about how her and her husband was a very close. Lisa now has three wonderful children. The title of the book Lets Roll came from when she was on the phone with her husband Todd and He was talking to another person on the flight and they were talking about how they were going to take down the terrorist or they wouldn?t make it through the day. I give this book four stars. Lisa beamer had a great deal of courage to talk about her life and her husband?s last words. Lisa was a great mother to her children. In 9-11 the attacks made a lot of family?s go lonely those nights. I liked this book because it shows a women who has great courage to talk about her husband she expressed her emoations. In a way that no women usually would



4. The book Lets roll is a good book for people to read what happened to Lisa. In this book she talks about her life, marriage, children and staying home taking care of her kids. A normal staying home mom. Lisa beamer is a wife of the 9-11 hero Todd beamer. Lisa was talking to Todd her husband on the phone while the terrorist were on the plane with him. Lisa has a lot of courage to write this book and put her life on the line for all of the nation to read she wrote the book of her life and her family. To tell the world what she was thinking the day of 9-11 and the days before and after the attacks was very hard for her as she said in the book but she was incredible open about it. Lisa talked about how her and her husband was a very close. Lisa now has three wonderful children. The title of the book Lets Roll came from when she was on the phone with her husband Todd and He was talking to another person on the flight and they were talking about how they were going to take down the terrorist or they wouldn?t make it through the day. I give this book four stars. Lisa beamer had a great deal of courage to talk about her life and her husband?s last words. Lisa was a great mother to her children. In 9-11 the attacks made a lot of family?s go lonely those nights. I liked this book because it shows a women who has great courage to talk about her husband she expressed her emoations. In a way that no women usually would



5. I think this should be required reading for every married couple with children. Lisa explains how dedicated (sometimes too dedicated) Todd was to his job and how he discovered there was more to life than just his job. It discusses the couple's negotiations over family time versus work time, and strong work ethic and faith values. I highly recommend anyone to give this book a read or a listen!