No comments about Esther a Woman of Strength and Dignity.

2 comments about JOHN WAYNE'S AMERICA: THE POLITICS OF CELEBRITY CASSETTE: The Politics of Celebrity.

1. Wills, author of many other works, including the amazing Lincoln at Gettysburg, sets an examination of Wayne's films squarely in the American zeitgeist - given them added heft and importance.
   Wills will appear at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral on October 15, 2007, for a conversation with Dean Alan Jones. It will also be webcast live and archived for later listening. More information is available at: http://www.gracecathedral.org/calendar/detail.php?eid=1053.



2. An immensely engaging analysis of the actor who for many years was the #1 most popular film star in the world, even many years after his death. The author diagnostically and exhaustingly detailed perspective of Wayne the actor vs. Wayne the man is what sets it apart as a landmark bio. You will not be displeased. In one chapter the author discusses the fact that, after having seen "High Noon" he was so upset with the scene wherein Coop throws his marshall's badge into the dusty road that he was instrumental in seeing to it that the script writer was investigated and later forced out of the country after being suspected of pro-communist leanings during the McCarhty witchtrials. Wayne is ultimately admired as an artist yet condemned for his staunchly conservative political views

3 comments about Cyanide in My Shoe (Isis Series).

1. A friend lent me this book by Josephine Butler.
   
   It is extraordinary. She reports that Sir Winston Churchill told her to tell the absolute truth and she does so.
   
   She tells an amazing story of being Jay Bee, a member of a secret circle of agents, taking orders directly from Churchill and the operatives who reported to him directly.
   
   She tells us what it was like to be an agent of the British government, in touch with the Resistance, in occupied France during WW II.
   
   Her exploits are stupendous. She has a photographic memory. She speaks French fluently, and therefore is able to operate effectively in occupied France.
   
   What was most inspirational and astounding to me was her faith in the human spirit and eventual world peace, in the midst of war, torture, and horror.
   
   Despite her direct experience with some of the most horrific atrocities in the history of humankind, she still believes in the inherent goodness of human beings.
   
   A great book -- exciting, full of information about WW II, and spiritually inspiring.
   
   Susan McGee
   somewhere near the redwoods in California



2. A terrific book. I could not stop listening. It is a great story and the fact that it is a true story makes it even better. It is a fascinating story of world war II espionage. This woman is a true hero and her story should be given more attention. I would reccomend this to anyone.



3. This is a book-on-tape selected by accident while searching for British mysteries. And what a fortuitous accident it was. This is the story of a British female physician, very familiar with France due to a long period of residence there, who was selected to be a member of Winston Churchill's Secret Circle of spies. The detail of the accounts of her preparation and adventures in France, running from the Gestapo, establishing collaborator networks, rival the best of fictional novels. This autobiography will rivet your attention from beginning to end, and hope someday for the movie. Bravo, Jay Bee, and thanks!!

5 comments about The Long Goodbye.

1. Sad and uplifting at the same time. Patti Davis is a truly talented writer. Am looking forward to reading "Angels Don't Die" which I learned about from this book.



2. This book is touching and wonderfully written. I read it slow to catch the author's undertones of disease. I wanted to hold onto everything the author experienced listening and watching her father go down his path of life. 'The Chosen Few' I have called Alzheimer victims, because they react to love. She told it in a held back way, wanting you to feel what she was feeling and I did. The love for her mother and father was beautiful and when she put on her father's shirt to be close to him, I understood it well. Because I too have gone through this disease with a loved one. Her description of nature is a gift, given to her by her father. I would recommend this book to anyone who has lost a love one to Alzheimer's or has a detached family that comes together over disease. It's as if the disease taught them,(the ones involved) how to love again. Good going Patti, you told it well.
   Rose
   Rm Lamatt



3. I have always admired Miss Davis' literary efforts, even when I recognized that she was writing to vent a great deal of anger. I was quite interested when I learned she had written about her Father's battle with Alzheimer's. This was a loving, respectful tribute to both her parents, and it gave me a sense of what this terrible disease does not only to the victim, but to the family as well. In fact, I would recommend it to anyone facing the aging and illness of a family member. It's a story of love, acceptance and faith.



4. How silly for those other reviewers to say this book didn't include "the family's experience with Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's disease." Or that the book didn't say enough about Alzeimer's itself. What do they want, a medical book? There are plenty of those. This is the unique story that only Patti, with her special place in history could tell, of how her father's disease brought her and her family tremendous pain, yet spiritual growth, and actual blessings. In so doing, she points the way to how we can continue to learn, as Americans, and as human beings, from these gifted leaders, the Reagans. I loved another book about Ronald Reagan, "How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life," by Peter Robinson. It told what Mr. Robinson had observed and learned from President Reagan as a speechwriter in his administration. It is a good book, but this one is even better, because of the vantage point, and insights of the person writing it.
   
   Ms. Davis is an unusually gifted writer, as her father was an unusually gifted speaker. I read this book on an airplane, unable to put it down, even though I couldn't help sobbing out loud during parts of it.
   
   I can now understand how Ms. Davis, with her deep intelligence and passionate, poetic nature, felt (and feels) so strongly about her parents. She talks some about why she rebelled so angrily, yet I am still not sure I completely understand her motivations there. She said she was "mad at America," for 1)taking her father into public service and away from her and 2)for sending some of her young friends to be killed in the Vietnam War. She has now come to sorely regret many of her actions spawned by that anger. Now more mature, she still holds to many of her liberal beliefs, yet regrets that she couldn't have done during her father's administration what she did at a celebration for Margaret Thatcher after her father's diagnosis, namely, laugh off differences, and relate to people as human beings, instead of political entities. It is something her father did exceptionally well.
   
   She describes so many other touching moments, though, in this book, and beautiful impressions. She gave small examples of what her father had taught her, such as how to dive into ocean waves, and how to get back on a horse when you have fallen off. The small examples and big ones add up to an exploration into what love really means. It made me happy to know that President Reagan's daughter has reconciled with her mother and takes care of her now. She shared the moment of her father's death, and how love triumphed over the disease, in many small ways throughout it. With God's help, Patti has now achieved a triumph.



5. While I thought the book was well written, I was disappointed that more about the family's experience with Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's disease wasn't included. The title of the book is somewhat misleading, for that reason, in my opinion. The bulk of the book was more about the author's feelings and experiences than about her father's illness.

5 comments about Where Did I Go Right?: You're No One in Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead.

1. Because we're so star-struck in America, we tend to be overly impressed with ShowBiz and the people who inhabit that world. But as charming, determined and persistent a personality Mr. Brillstein may be, he's essentially just a salesman - NOT the creator, but a "dealmaker" of the ShowBiz Old School - and after almost 400 pages, I found he'd worn thin his welcome! However dramatic it may have been FOR HIM to accompany John Belushi's body back East, or "duke it out" with the Big Boys in corporate takeovers while at Lorimar, the emotions are thinly drawn and shallow in this book. Brillstein made me less than intrigued with his machinations, unimpressed by his self-aggrandizing spin on events and ultimately unsympathetic to his life challenges. (His obvious misogyny doesn't help, either - he has no use for women outside of the sack, it appears.) Here's another absurdly fortunate, rich powerful older man feeling sorry for himself because time changes everything? I'd have hoped he'd have learned to adjust better to the slings and arrows of life by the time he got to his 60s and 70s!

   This book was distressing to me because I REALLY WANTED to LIKE the guy - but I found I couldn't. He's kinda ordinary, and once you remove the "famous" names and large amounts of money, his anecdotes are kinda ordinary! He's not terribly brilliant, sage or extraordinary in any other way than being sublimely LUCKY! I gave the book 3 stars, because it's certainly not dreck, but for inspiration or insight, I'd advise looking elsewhere!




2. I'm not sure what drove me to buy the Brillstein book. I had heard of him of years, but wasn't sure that a managers tale was all that interesting. Oh, but is! This book is filled with humor, honesty, and and ego. Bernie seems like a terrific guy and he tells fantastic stories. Some are filled with love: Belushi, Radner, etc. Others venom (and these are the most fun, he pulls no punches): Ovitz, Shandling (more would have better on this), etc. You learn about the inside story of Hee Haw, The Muppets, SNL, and Lorimar. My favorite stuff was about Jim Henson, rarely have I seen so much great stuff written about one of my heroes.

   While this may not be a roast, I raise my glass to Big Bernie and the wonderful life he has led. Thanks for sharing.




3. I found myself unexpectedly touched by this autobiography. Having read it, I consider Bernie Brillstein a friend. With no self-praise, Brillstein shows himself to be a man of decency, of compassion, of empathy. He began in his profession as an agent at William Morris, dreaming of representing mid-Century comics such as Jackie Gleason and Jackie Gale. When he left William Morris, he became a personal manager, starting the careers of dozens of entertainers who have become household names. The stories Bernie has to tell! He survived--there's no other word--until the end of the century, representing Jim Henson, Lorne Michaels, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and, as the saying goes, a cast of thousands along the way. He created HEE HAW and greenlighted THE SOPRANOS, headed a movie studio for a short time, got fired, picked himself up and started again. His very life has been the personification of the entertainment business; there are few who exceeded his success. And he is the one having the last laugh: He's still here! But along with the chronological report of his professional experience, what he was thinking, how he pulled it off, there is this man, this basically sweet and decent man, and that's what shines through his book. I enjoyed reading about Bernie's fascinating life.



4. A passably interesting look into life of an "old school" agent/manager with some real insights into his client's lives and the behind-the-scenes machinations of Hollywood. WARNING: You'll have to wade through a considerable amount of self-aggrandizment that I found tremendously off-putting toward the end. It's a rare occasion when I don't finish a book but I found myself skipping through the last third and ultimately bailed out with just a few chapters to go.



5. There's really no good insider showbiz tips or amazing gossip here. I found the book to be readable -- meaning I kept on reading once I picked it up but at any time I could have stopped and not felt like I was going to be missing a golden nugget.

   It's a show biz biography of a manager. Did we really expect it to be an essential read?

1 comments about Voltaire and Rousseau (The World of Philosophy).

1. This tape series is very good. They had college professors make an outline of the subject matter and then got famous actors to read the material. It is very good, the only part I don't like is the accents they give to the "historical characters." Especially if it is a German accent, it is just too much to try to understand German philosophy with a bad German accent thrown in for flavor. - this tape has bad French accents, which is only slightely easier to listen to. I have bought the entire series and listen to each of them 3 to 5 times - great information, quick and painless.

1 comments about Descartes, Bacon, and Modern Philosophy (The World of Philosophy).

1. It wil open your mind and your eyes to a whole new world. The concepts in this book is what modern philosophy is based on! It is as painful as a root canal to read but if you can read a fully comprehend the concepts you have achived more than you can ever imagine. I was truly blown away!

No comments about The Philosophies of India (The World of Philosophy).

5 comments about Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War.

1. This was absolutely a wonderful read. The author, through the time he spent with his dying father AND the time he spent with Paul Tibbets, brings to the reader two remarkable stories in one. It is a great book historically, and , I think, enables some of us to understand our own WWII fathers better. In any case, you will love this one!



2. Great book, I have grown to really like Bob Greene. I have bought many of his books and and reading them as fast as I can. This book brings the people who fought WWII for us and why they did it and makes them real. I am learning to really appreciate their sacrifices.



3. This is a good work. As one disgruntled reviewer pointed out, this is not a history book, but rather a memoir and tribute from a son to his father and to one of the many heros of WWII. Having been raised by a father from that era, it is quite apparent to me that my relationship with my father was my no means isolated, but somewhat the norm. This work struck pretty close to home. Having spent over twenty years in the military myself, I can understand some of their thoughts, but even that cannot bridge the entire gap. Those guys looked at life differently than my generation. The author has approached the subject with great sensitivity and through his conversations with these men, I feel, has been able to understand not only them, but himself. I highly recommend this one to any father and any son. Well done Mr Greene.



4. Bob Greene has written a touching and emotion-filled book about two men who influenced the outcome of World War II; his own father and Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay. Greene's father served as an infantry soldier in Italy, while Tibbets was training his men in Wendover, Utah for a mission which would hopefully end the war.

   Tibbets and Robert Greene, Sr. lived in the same town in Ohio, but had never met. Bob jr. writes about how his father would speak of Tibbets and call him "the man who won the war". While Bob jr. was back in Ohio to be with his dying father, he drew on his memories of Tibbets. Finally, Bob went to meet Tibbets. What occured was the beginning of an unlikely friendship that spanned a generation and allowed Bob to discover things about his father and his father's generation that he never understood before.

   Bob found Tibbets to be a very honest and straight-forward man. There was no nonsense from him; everything was in plain terms. Tibbets talked frequently about his mission to Hiroshima on that fateful day in August, 1945. He said several times that he had no regrets for what he did and he always slept easy at night. Tibbets' stories enabled Bob to see that his father and many other men just like him also played large parts in winning the war. Tibbets never liked the phrase "the man who won the war". He was always quick to give credit to the soldiers as the real heroes, just like Robert sr.

   Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the several chapters which deal with the trip to Branson, Missouri. Bob, Tibbets, Tom Ferebee (bombardier), and "Dutch" Van Kirk (navigator) took a trip to Branson over Memorial Day weekend and they were treated like conquering heroes by the public. But what impressed me was the candor and openness that these men spoke with. I learned a lot about the Hiroshima mission that I never knew before.

   I found this book a little slow at the beginning, but it definitely picks up over the second half. Read this book and learn about the generation of men who won the war.




5. A great book about a true hero and other's worthy of the same label. A very easy and engaging read. I highly recommend this book.

1 comments about Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller.

1. I purchased TITAN when if first came out, but never got around to reading it. When I spyed the title of audio cassette I was at first reluctant to tackle a book with 13 tapes in just the first part. However, it was an excellent decision.
   
   The narrator, Edward Holland does an outstanding job. He makes the story come alive.
   
   The book reveals a side of Rockefeller that I was totally unaware of. We all know he was a philathropist but did you know that his money cured hook worm disease in the American South and most of Central America? I was totally unaware of his contributions to the University of Chicago and that his giving virtually started research institutes in America.
   
   Of course there is a down side to Rockefeller and his trust and Standard Oil, but the amount of giving that Rockefeller gave in his life and through his contributions to the arts, science, medicine and social issue is so fast it can hardly be measured.