1 comments about Zinger : A Champion's Story of Determination, Courage and Charging Back/Audio Cassettes.

1. Determination and trust in himself and now God make Zinger one of the most popular players.

   So good to now see him contend like he just did at 2001 U.S. Open. He is gritty player who toughs it out on the course and as he so exemplary demonstrates here in his early PGA career and his bout with shoulder cancer.

   Love the story about his hitting 3-irons over the motel from the asphalt parking lot. That's got to be a swing that can be trusted.

   His anguish and yet peace with death of Payne is still treasured memory of all of us who love this game. Zinger is a winner if he never wins again. But I'm convinced that will not be the case.

   Great read worth your pursuit. Lessons to be gleaned.

5 comments about Merle Haggard's My House of Memories : For the Record.

1. I'm a big Meryl fan, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading his book. It's well written, and good reading for anyone who likes autobiography.



2. Merle Haggard admits in the preface that prose is not his strong suit; based on this book, the same can be said of professional writer Tom Carter. Yet leaving grammar and flow aside, this book tells some interesting and occasionally funny stories about one of the greatest singers and writers of country songs, and is worth reading for any fan.
   
   The "annoying" part is of course subjective, but here is an example where Hag explains in two short paragraphs his decision to home school his children:
   
   "Some folks contend that I'll be shielding my kids from the real world with home schooling. Nonsense. My kids have all their adult lives for the real world. They'll prepare for it in a controlled world--a world controlled by love.
   "And Theresa and I love to see their personalities unfold without the influence of other youngsters. My kids have their own identities, not some other child's. The fall of 1999 will mark Ben's entry into first grade, Jenessa's into fourth."
   
   You be the judge.



3. If you are a fan of Merle Haggard, you owe it to yourself to read this book.



4. I enjoyed reading this book about a singer whose music I've always loved. Tom Carter did a good job with the chatty style, and I liked Merle's humor and honesty and humility. I highly recommend the book.



5. I enjoyed the book, but I thought it could have been so much better. I learned more about Merle Haggard than I knew before. I liked the stories and Merle's sense of humor. I just think there was something missing. I can't really put my finger on what it is, but I was expecting more. The book was pretty good though. I read it cover to cover. I am sure anyone who likes Merle Haggard will enjoy this book.

5 comments about Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician.

1. This is the weakest of the 3-part series... probably because Nixon wasn't that great of a President. He didn't achieve anything of note so there really isn't anything for Ambrose to tell up until Watergate. By far, the most interesting aspect of the second volume is Nixon's relationship with Kissinger and his mastery of foreign affairs.
   
   I think Nixon had some good ideas, but didn't have the political clout to pull it off. Instead, he spent his political clout making himself look better than he actually was. That doesn't look good when viewed through the writings of an historian like Ambrose.
   
   While this is the weakest of the three, it still is worthy of your time. I would suggest you check it out at the library though to save yourself about 50 bucks.
   
   It is a good bridge to the third book which is nearly as good as the first volume of this series.



2. If you are like me, you found Ambrose's first volume at a used book store or online for a reasonable price. Now you are looking for volume 2 and experiencing sticker shock. Don't worry, if you are patient, you can obtain a copy of this book at a reasonable price. Check Amazon and other online sites regularly and you'll eventually obtain a good reading copy for $30 - $50 dollars. And while the final volume is also hard to find, it's more abundant that the second.
   
   Now to the book. Ambrose provides a fair look at Nixon. He points out both his great strengths and weaknesses. The seeds of Nixon's destruction are evident throughout this book. In fact, Watergate itself occurs in this volume. The scandal occurs in the final volume.
   
   If you wish to learn about Nixon and politics in the post World War II era, you'll be hard pressed to find a better source than Ambrose's three volumes.



3. The American political system at its worst! This view of Nixon reveals a despicable man, doing whatever he could do to discredit his opponents, manipulate whoever he could, lie, and cheat to get elected. Hard-working, brilliant, but disgusting. Nixon even tried to undermine peace attempts in Vietnam just before the 1968 election. All that said, the incumbent president wasn't much better, as those peace attempts were really lies propagated by the LBJ administration to influence the election in Humphrey's favor. The 1968 campaign was absolutely horrid and unforgivable. What was different between Nixon and LBJ is Nixon's paranoia and vindictiveness.

   It's interesting how Ike never really endorses Nixon, even when his grandson married Nixon's daughter. Finally, from his hospital bed Ike endorses him before the 1968 election, but even then it was lukewarm. Ambrose - who wrote an Eisenhower biography as well - contrasted the two. He says Ike loved life and loved people, while Nixon was distrustful of people, and gave in to hate. Ike brought people together; Nixon tore people apart. Ambrose cites a diary entry from Ike's secretary during Ike's administration: "The Vice President [Nixon] seems more like someone acting like a nice man more than a nice man".

   The author commented how much different the Nixon administration may have been had Nixon had his first choice - Bob Finch, a genuine nice person - as his running mate. As it was Nixon surrounded himself with clones, all vindictive and paranoid. All fed his paranoia and anger and goaded his wrath. Their daily orders - delivered via comments in the margins of Nixon's daily news summaries - were very telling (and extremely interesting).

   Nixon's foreign policy accomplishments - the settlement with North Vietnam, the opening to China and détente with the Russians - were indeed exceptional. But could these events have happened sooner had Nixon not circumvented his own State department in order to increase the histrionics and guarantee the credit for himself? Also, regarding the China and Russian initiatives, the author poses an interesting rhetorical question - who could have done it but Nixon, since he did not have to deal with a Nixon critic!

   This is the middle book of a Nixon trilogy, so you don't get the childhood and Congressional years, or "Nixon in winter", but you get to know the man, and it is depressing.




4. As usual, Stephen E. Ambrose is flawless in this middle edition of the Nixon trilogy. The book is quite long and detailed to a fault. The detail includes huge quantities of actual quotes, painting a picture of Nixon about as clear as one can get on any man.

   The picture I got was of a man not well suited for the presidency. Intelligent, clever, creative, bold, knowledgeable on world affairs, yes. But he also had character flaws. Over-sensitive almost to the point of paranoia, Nixon was driven by an obsession to be President more than the desire to be presidential. His statement in the later David Frost interview that, "If the President does it, it's not illegal," is very telling. The ends justified the means. He had the ability to rank goals above consequences, and almost everything he did was for the acquisition or preservation of political power.

   The best example is Vietnam. He took four years to end a war he knew early on could not be won. His delays were to search for ways to avoid being the first American President to lose a war, and to prevent the staining of American honor. Both of which would have cost Nixon reelection in 1972. Ambrose makes the point that half the names on the Vietnam War Memorial are from the period of Nixon's futile attempts to foil Hanoi and fool America. People should never have to die to protect a politician's legacy.

   I see Nixon and Clinton, representing both political parties, as two good examples of why character matters when we vote. For some reason, the presidency attracts extreme or narcissistic personalities whose motivations are more for glory than good. After reading Ambrose's book, the simple question, "Why does this person want to be president?" will rank higher in my mind.

   Another eye-opener in the book was the lesson in political science. Nixon was neither an appealing candidate, nor a rallying ideologue. He scraped his way to the top because he was the consummate partisan politician. Ambrose shows a glimpse of the American political system's underbelly: maneuvering, manipulating, prevaricating, waffling, and backstabbing. He makes it easy to forget that despite the warts, our republican democracy is still the best system in the world.

   The irony and enigma of Nixon is that he also opened up China, warmed the Cold War with the Soviets, began nuclear disarmament, and other worthy and statesman-like accomplishments. The book, like Nixon himself, will mean different things to different people. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of BIG ICE




5. Stephen Ambrose's second volume of Nixon:
   "Triumph of a politician" is just as good as
   volume one.
   This is the heart and soul of presidential politics.
   Surely we have the politicians we deserve, but some of them
   are complex, confusing, ruthless, criminal, fascinating,
   moving, grand and great - which kind of make it hard
   for us poor voters. Nixon was all of that! as is so
   clearly demonstrated in this
   portrait of the Nixon presidency.

   In 1962 Nixon held his famous last press conference
   after losing the California gubernatorial contest.
   The reporters wrote his political obituary.
   Five years later he had held hundreds of press
   conferences and was on his way to becoming president!

   He won the presidency over Humphrey in 1968
   partly by the not very statesman like behavior of
   namecalling and allegations about Humphreys neglect of
   national defense and his softness on law and
   order and his willingness to spend the country into
   bancruptcy. Or perhaps he almost lost because
   of these wild charges?

   I think the book explains how it all happened.
   Even the parts that are really unexplainable.
   Fascinating.

   -Simon

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.

1 comments about On My Own: The Journey Continues.

1. I myself have a blind sibling and this book was a great insight into the challenges a blind person faces living in society in this modern era. This personal account of Sally Alexander's experiences as she lost her sight gave me a better understanding about being blind and learning to cope with the challenges that accompany it. This book, which accounts many obstacles that she had to overcome as she tried to live a normal life, opened my eyes to many aspects of life that I never realized were so effected by blindness. I highly recommend this book to those who want to know what it is really like to live with blindness, a sense that most of us take for granted.

No comments about When Money Is King.

No comments about The Final Score.

5 comments about Travels With A Donkey In The Cevennes (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection).

1. Excellent, short book. This is a must read for anyone interested in donkeys, The Cevennes, or Robert Louis Stevenson.



2. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1878) is among the earliest published works of Robert Louis Stevenson, and yet it is in no way inferior to his later writing that established his fame. In fact, this delightful account of Stevenson's solo trek in the Cevennes Range in south central France ranks among the best travel literature in the nineteenth century.
   
   Wishing not to advertise that he would be camping alone in remote areas, he chose not to travel with a tent. Instead, he designed a sleeping sack some six feet square, made of green water-proof cart cloth without and blue sheep's fur within. This commodious bed was too heavy to carry, and thus Stevenson acquired a donkey, one Modestine.
   
   Stevenson and Modestine for twelve days were close companions, traveling some 120 miles over several mountain ridges, along rocky roads, and even through boggy marshes. The stubborn Modestine was never quite convinced that the journey was entirely worth the effort, but nonetheless Stevenson and Modestine eventually became fast friends.
   
   Stevenson actually found lodging most nights, including a stint at a monastery, Our Lady of the Snows, allowing him not only to sleep more comfortably, but to share meals with strangers. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes is as much about the people Stevenson encountered as about his adventuresome travels through this remote region of France. My only criticism of this short account, a little more than one hundred pages, is that it is not twice as long.
   
   Stevenson was familiar with the history of the Cevennes, especially the Protestant-Catholic strife under Louis XIV that eventually resulted in a Protestant rebellion in 1702. With the passage of nearly two hundred years, the Protestants and Catholics were now living peacefully together, although these two peoples seldom mixed socially and intermarriages were quite rare. Stevenson himself was Protestant, and while staying at the monastery his hosts made sincere efforts to convert him to the Catholic faith.
   
   The young Robert Louis Stevenson was a rare individual that truly enjoyed life, one that was continually fascinated with his chanced acquaintances. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes is delightful and amusing, but at the same time it is equally successful as a thoughtful examination of the people of the Cevennes, isolated by both mountainous geography and a minority religion.



3. In the late 1870s, Robert Louis Stevenson needed cash to break dependence on his parents so he could go to the woman he loved (and they did not). A chronic invalid, he also needed adventure. He decided to do some travel writing and one such trip is recounted in TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY. He headed off to the remote Cevennes mountain range of south central France and got himself kitted out nicely, so nicely, he needed assistance in carrying everything. Enter Modestine, a donkey. He might as well have attempted to harness and pack up a cat. Thus, to a deft narrative that works in powerful landscape description, sketches of country folk met along the way, and a revisiting of the region's dramatic history, he adds the self-deprecating wit that would become a model for his 20th century counterparts like Peter Fleming, Eric Newby, and Bill Bryson. Though his commentary moves along at a swift but casual gait, it builds a tension on the upside, beginning with the age-old legend of the murderous Beast of Gevaudan that haunts a neighborhood where he finds the peasantry by turns hostile and friendly and accommodations primitive. Near the summit, a visit to a monastery introduces the religious theme that will attend his descent into the beautiful land of the Camisards, the friction between Protestants and Catholics that erupted into a tragic civil war in the first decade of the 18th century. Stevenson does a fine job of sorting out the history and evoking the awe that comes with visiting the deceptively bucolic scene. No wonder this book has continued to inspire: it often appears on recommended lists and it prompted Romantic biographer Richard Holmes to retrace the journey early in his career, a century later, complete with a donkey of his own (see his book FOOTSTEPS). The critical introduction to this edition is worthwhile.



4. R.L. Stevenson writes here the first account of a touristic journey in France. He is the first modern tourist. He penetrates and discovers the country and the people of what he calls the Lozère, this mountain range in the south of The Central mountains in France, a range of mountains that was the locale of a protestant rebellion at the very beginning of the eighteenth century, severely repressed by Louis XIV. These protestant insurgers are known as the Camisards. Stevenson tries to discover the landscape, the natural setting of this insurrection and tries to show how the insurrection was connected to the very nature of these mountains. He also shows how no repression can change a person or a population. These old Camisards are still alive in the memory and the customs and ways of the protestant population of this region. It is the survival of this faith that interests and fascinates Stevenson. He also notices that the catholics and the protestants, at the time of his travels, lived in harmony but with an absolute divide between the two communities. A young catholic man who married a protestant girl and changed his faith in the process was unanimously condemned for this breach of loyalty. This book is also a perfect example of what tourism can and must be : the discovery of the visited people's mentality, culture, way of life, and the connection of these with the surrounding nature, and not only a quick look at monuments and other (un)perishable. One has to live with the people, no matter how little, to eat the people's food and to be in contact with the people in order to discuss general and particular subjects and to understand their way of thinking and behaving. Thus tourism becomes an adventure even in the heart of the most civilized country and only a couple of miles away from a railroad.

   Dr Jacques COULARDEAU




5. If you want to discover a beautiful and wild French region through the eyes of a Scottish writer, read Travels with a donkey. Stevenson, before he became famous, depicted his journey in the cevennes, with his donkey "Modestine". Rediscover the excellent style of a young writer about to become world-wide-known.

5 comments about All American Girls.

1. All american girl is the storyr of the golden oldies of the Womens National soccer team! It shows how some 10+ ordinary girls came together to make a HUGE difference in the history of sports! Best book ever!!!!!!



2. This book is fantastic. It gives an inside look at each player to pass through the National team program for an extended period of time. Includes player interviews and a sort of "rap"sheet for each player, like their most embaressing soccer moment, their favorite number, and other interesting facts. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning more about the Womens National team. Don't Miss it!!



3. If you are a fan of any player on the US womens team and wonder what they do in there life (Yes they do have a life out side of soccer)this is the book for you. Your brothers picking on you saing girls cant play sports. Will now you can prove him wrong. Hand him this book tell him to read the first page, it will make him think twice before he makes fun of womens soccer again. This book has each player tell about there life in and out of soccer. They tell of all the interesting hobbies they have and some of am even rat on there team mates. If you buy this book and dont enjoy reading it you are not a true womens soccer fan.



4. If u don't have this book, u must buy it because i never liked soccer untill my friend bought me it. I was hooked. I read it 5 times that is how good it was. Please buy the book. If u don't, you are missing out....... BIG time.



5. This book will give you the facts and inside scoop of the wonderful ladies. Some of the stories the team tells are hilaroius. It's not the best book I've read but it's great for young girls to see how they got to the highest level.

5 comments about Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side With David Bowie.

1. I read this book some years back when it was first published. Although it wasn't so dull that I put it down, it by far wasn't the most gripping of stories. Angela tends to talk more about herself and her experiences while married to Bowie than about the man himself. When she wrote this, she was not a happy woman.



2. If you never paid much attention to David Bowie - and I confess I did not - then this kiss and tell by his ex-wife may make trashy reading. She certainly takes you back to the late 60s-early 70s London music scene when creativity seemed to be bursting out all over. Theirs was a sort of marriage of convenience, in this version, with Angie a glorified go-fer, doing anything to promote Bowie's career. She makes him out a cold fish, which is certainly how he looks. Their 'open marriage' meant both were free to dally with whomever they wanted, and she says Bowie dallied with Mick Jagger at least once, gossip that made headlines years back. It seems plausible. This may be the "Angie" in the Stones song, she contends. Bowie's music always left me cold, though a few of his bigger hits have held up. This book is a trippy look back at a time now long gone, though you'll wish you could have at least observed it in full flower.



3. I wasn't expecting great writing, or an untarnished view of angela's ex, I was expecting a guilty pleasure, a fun read. This book is just dull. Angela is dull, her writing is dull, it was more a book about her, and really, who cares?



4. This book is absolutely worthless. Nothing special is learned about David Bowie and his amazing career during the 60's and 70's. This woman makes Yoko Ono look like mother Theresa. She seems to want to take all the credit for Bowie's success and insists throughout the book that he would not have gone as far as he would have had she not been involved in his life.
   This woman is self centered and egotistical and it shows in how she writes the book. Do not waste your time of money buying this crap!!!!!



5. Why do some reviewers care whether Angela Bowie is "bitter?" Does she seem a little bitter? Yes, frequently. Um ... So?
   
   Great stories in this book (my fave involves Led Zeppelin, who come across as average, rather loveable drunks), with an attempt by Bowie to exorcise a demon from a swimming pool running a close second.
   
   A really enjoyable read ... A friend who's met Angela tells me she seemed kind of crazy, but I'd have to say she comes across as a very hurt, somewhat bitter person who also has a few cogent things to say. Take her with a grain of salt.
   
   And all you people working so hard to knock this poor woman ... an average human who probably did indeed have an impact on Bowie's career, in the same way all magical things combine in places and in times to create a special chemistry -- what, are you secretly jealous you didn't marry Bowie or something? Let's hear it for pulling hair. Meow.
   
   Geez