5 comments about My Life So Far (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

1. In "My life so far" Jane Fonda opens her heart and her life to all of us and while doing so teaches us how to live and survive in these difficult times.



2. My Life So Far by Jane Fonda is a fascinating look into her family life and journey into womanhood. Very revealing look into her life as the child of Henry Fonda to "Hanoi Jane" and the criminal investigation waged against her by the government, to Jane the mother/wife, to the insightful woman she is today. She is her own woman. Never knowing much about her, I found this book intriguing, candid and educational.



3. Very Honest and inspiring. Just when she gets whiney she deflects you. A great read overall.



4. First of all, I would like to thank Jane Fonda for sharing so much of her spirit, self and life. Reading her book made me feel like I was a time traveler as she took me back in time to when she was a liitle girl and traversed along side her throughout her life and into her third act.
   
   I most definitely could relate to some of the same issues Jane Fonda dealt with in her life. For instance the lack of love, compassion and acceptance in the home while growing up.
   The uncertainty about her sexuality.
   Questions concerning the Vietnam War.
   Jane Fonda's relationship with her father or lack thereof. Unable to connect with her father on any level (no fault of her own). All these issues I to combatted in my life and just like Jane I am a fighter and a survivor.
   
   On another note, I have a favorite actress for each decade going back to the 30's. For instance Merle Oberon is my favorite actress of the 30's, Ginger Rogers the 40's, Kim Novak the 50's, and Jane Fonda of the 60's and 70's. I have not been able to choose one since Jane Fonda retired, but I am so happy to see that she is making a come back in movies. I so missed her presence on the big screen.
   
   In closing, I believe this book has something for everybody. I highly recommend "My Life So Far" to everyone.
   Thank you Jane Fonda for sharing so much of yourself with family, friends and fans.
   
   For a love story that is unlike anything you've ever read check out D. W. Gutridge's Captured by a Smile.Captured by a Smile "Imprisoned by Love": A Memoir of Young Love that Refused to Die.



5. Jane is a pretty misunderstood woman. People make judgements about her based on stories they see in the media, and based on the rhetoric of those who oppose her. I learned a lot about the real Jane Fonda in this book. Her childhood was not that pretty. Her relationship with her father was strained at best, and this book delves into that with the insight and sensitivity of a person who has learned to accept parents who are not perfect, and who has come to understand how those early years shaped her life and the decisions she made throughout.
   
   - C.A.Wulff, author of Born Without a Tail

No comments about Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life LP.

5 comments about The Story of My Father (Random House Large Print) (Random House Large Print (Paper)).

1. A heart-felt memoir that could only be written by someone who has experienced this painful journey. My mother died of Alzheimer's and this book helped me with my healing. Thank you Sue Miller.



2. Parts of this memoir are very moving..I felt a tug in my heart for my father who is in the throws of Alzheimer's Disease.



3. This is Sue Miller's first nonfiction book about her father, James Nichols, who started showing signs of Alzheimer's disease (AD) well before he was picked up by the police after getting lost while driving his car. That incident, however, proved to be the moment of truth for his family yet Miller explains the tendency to repeatedly deny the disease: "It came and went anyway, and so again and again I was able to argue myself out of acknowledging it." Instances of acceptance are described too as she notes, "I found out there were still things I could learn from him, still things he could teach me, things that helped bring him home in my memory from the faraway land of his disease." Miller describes her father's slow progression through the disease and the resulting transitions from home care to different levels of residential care. She has few compliments for professional caregivers, suggesting that staff and families alike did not know how to care for persons with dementia when her father was diagnosed in 1986.
   
   Miller's sad and pleasant memories in the midst of his decline are placed within the context of her childhood and family of origin. She describes in detail many of the ways that her father's personality shaped her own way of thinking and her career as a writer. She recalls the cruel irony of watching her father, a church historian, wrestle with a disease that chipped away at his own history over a period of eight years. She does not write simply about his AD, for he had a fulfilling life before its onset. His life before and after the onset of his disease are examined as a whole. Miller does not wish to remember her father as a man rendered helpless. She tries to reclaim him as the loving parent he was for most of his long life. Isn't this what every caregiver hopes that others will also see in someone who has changed and lost so many abilities?
   
   Miller passionately reflects on her own struggles that are universal concerns among caregivers. "[T]his is the hardest lesson... for a caregiver: you can never do enough to make a difference in the course of the disease," she writes. "We always find ourselves deficient in devotion.... Did you visit once a week? You might have visited twice. Oh, you visited daily? But perhaps he would have done better if you'd kept him at home. In the end all those judgments, those self-judgments, are pointless." Miller's desire to rescue her father from AD is impossible and in the end, she realizes that he did not need rescuing - his life of faith had prepared him for this experience. This moving memoir takes the reader on an intensely personal journey through a daughter's grief over a series of losses that are part and parcel of AD. Her observational skills and literary talent blend together into a poignant story about the special bond that is tested in the midst of caring for a parent.



4. 3/15/05 Sue Miller's ability to show her father's decline from calm and compassionate to defensive ,often combative[ less selflessness :except in the latter section in the book where his concern in his dillusion that children had died in a fire] which had been no more than a "late night" fire drill at the 'Sutton Hill' Retirement Community Center, is a tribute to her as a biographer and an autobiographer (She speaks in "the 1st person").However, Pgs 149-153 , with 1.her father(Professor James Nichols)'s physician estimate that he has only a couple of weeks or less to live, and 2. with the issue and authorization of "DNR"(Do Not Resuscitate) and 3. with the exit of his physician,(she came to see him no more,leaving the "dying to 'the Hospice Service' and the Nursing Homes'nursing services) ,4.the entrance of "the Hospice Service",5.the morphine injections(less injections than Miller wanted for him) to annihilate the pain which he was apparently experiencing",5.the schedules and manner of feeding food or liquids ,6. the rituals of reading (mostly scriptures) or hymn singing by Miller summarizes this "climax" in only 5 pages while elongating from the second half of Pg 153-171 ,a perspective of her retrospects and thoughts(which makes these ending pages(149-171),more a fine essay than a strong epilogue.



5. Perhaps I am a bit jaded; my father-in-law is in the late stages of dementia, and over the years I have read many books written by relatives who watch over a loved one's decline into this disease.
   
   What Sue Miller adds to this "genre" is the general excellence of her writing. (Miller is well-known as the author of novels such as "The Good Mother.") Thus, "The Story of My Father" rises above the sad story of her father's decline (a story whose outlines will be familiar to many of us) and gives us more, a touching portrait of the man her father was throughout his life.
   
   I did not learn anything new about Alzheimer's from reading this book. But I think most of us read books like this not for the medical facts, but for the sense that we are not alone, that other people have been there, too. If that describes you well, you will find "The Story of My Father" a very sympathetic choice.

5 comments about Leadership.

1. Im in management, and I have taken more than one thing away from this book. Brilliant man, brilliant book, brilliant operational strategies! Wish he could have taken the republican nomination! I would definitely recommend this to anyone in a corporate leadership position.



2. Forget about politics. Forget about extreme Muslims. Forgot about Republican or Democrat. Forget about Giuliani's personal life. Just forget about it.
   
   This book is about the defining moments of 9/11 and the leadership it needed in order not to descend into chaos. This man has put his heart and soul into this event and showed great leadership you can learn from.
   
   The writings in 'Leadership' give you great insight into the situation of the event and dealings of the mayor. Courage as well as leadership prevail in keeping the objective of his mission close. Information is critical when chaos is lurking around the corner. Sleep can be denied.
   
   Being European I'm not biassed in my judgement of the person or politician Giuliani. When you read this book about mayor Giuliani there's a lot you can learn from.



3. His head is SO big and he is so stuck on himself. I was really looking forward to reading it but Mr. Giuliani may have confused leadership with ego.



4. In response to Rachel's review, which I somewhat agreed with, she was frusturated that Giuliani compared running a city to running a business. Running a city IS like running a business. think about it: you cut tax - so more companies come to NYC to do business, which brings in more revanue to the city. that's business! you clean up madisson square garden and make it more family friendly - more tourists come to visit bringing more money to nyc. etc etc.
   
   is it derogatory to call citizens "costomers"? absolutely not!! on the contrary: a good business man respects his costomers. a good business man's motto: 'the costomer is always right' is onlike a politician who would rather say: 'the union board memmber is always right because he can get me more votes' or 'the big media coorperation is always right cuz they can write more positive one liners for my campaign'
   
   if NYC is a business, and the customer (-citizen) is always right, than the citizen is most respected. more so than the bureaucrat. unfortunately, this honest method did not work for Giuliani - he did not suck up to the media/beurocrats/unions and therefore failed to become prez.
   
   but as for the book itself - it was not his life story or anything - which is more like what I was hoping for. it was just dry pointers on how to lead. the only interesting part was that fire in the church and some other personal ancitodes few and far in between.
   
   for the record - those who claim that he decided to write it after 9/11 - check your facts: this book was almost finished being written by the time 9/11 rolled by.



5. Rudy Giuliani has always been a man I admired. When he stood up to the crime bosses I was impressed. As he was finishing off his second term as New York City Mayor he was already known for making incredible crime reductions and for cleaning up 42nd Street. Imagine ESPN Zone and the Disney Store where all the adult XXX stores use to be! Anyone who could accomplish this when everyone else was saying that it was impossible, is certainly worth listening to when he discusses leadership qualities. Rudy wrote what is basically part II of the book as he prepared to leave office.
   
   Then came 9-11. He wisely chose to add chapter 1 on the events of 9-11 and the immediate aftermath. The final chapter describes how the recovery was achieved over the last days of his adminstration. Basically Giuliani was always interested in being a leader. He read a lot about and learned a lot from his mentors. Many of the ideas in this book I had already learned from reading and taking courses in leadership, e.g. empower and make everyone accountable, be open and honest and communicate clearly, let your positions be known but allow for open and honest debate, and consider all reasonable options but make a decision and stick with it.
   
   What the book added for me was the details of Rudy's experience from his father and grandfather teaching him as a child how to stand up to bullies, to the synergism of Torre and Steinbrenner, to the teachings of Judge MacMahon and to the example of Ronald Reagan standing up to the air traffic controller. Not only does Rudy clearly relate these experiences but he also takes examples from his years in the district attorney's office and as Mayor of New York where he applied the lessons he learned. Standing up to Arafat when he crashed in on an engagement was an example of Rudy standing up to a bully when Clinton would not.
   
   Still his achievements as Mayor and the leadership he showed during the 9-11 disaster were remarkable. What was so special about Giuliani compared to other Mayors? One thing was his unconventional way of treating the government of a city like the running of a corporation. He used the organizational and economic principles of business in running New York City. He followed what Jack Welch was doing with six sigma at GE and through his Compstat program successfully used statistical methods for improving police effectiveness. This is very similar to the success that is common in many six sigma projects. It was fascinating to hear the types of information they chose to collect and the dramatic results that occurred when the measures were reviewed in meetings.
   
   I even found myself recognizing Reagan and other Republicans whose vision and leadership I generally discounted in the past. Rudy is not arrogant or a braggard. He is simply trying to describe the key ideas that led to his success. This is great food for thought for all of us.
   
   I took my book to a signing at Barnes and Nobel in Princeton New Jersey and got him to sign my copy and we talked briefly. In 2008 as he runs for president in the republican primaries it may be worthwhile to look at this book again to see if he displays the leadship of a president. If he should get nominated it would take a strong campaign by the democratic candidate to get me to vote democratic and I have never voted for a republican for president before. But more than other candidates except for Clinton and McCain he exhibits the level of leadship that we expect but rarely get from our president.

5 comments about A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father, Jack Lemmon.

1. When writing about Jack Lemmon's failed aspirations on the celebrity golf classic Chris Lemmon declared that he could clearly imagine his "Pop" winning with his traditional hearty "Isn't that a bit of terrific!" Every time I read that I could hear Jack Lemmon's voice in my head. That's the juice of this story. Jack's voice singing through his son's words.
   
   This is the view of the gifted, charming, incredibly likeable Jack Lemmon through the eyes of his gifted, talented, and seemingly honest son Chris. He is a bit heavy handed on the "beloved father" and "cherished sister" phrases which, although refreshing in a celebrity biography (very un-Mommy Dearest), such affectations were completely superfluous because his adoration of his Pop came through in every word.
   
   It took a bit of getting used to hearing of squeaky clean Jack Lemmon swearing and drinking so much. But he swore in such a funny, enthusiastic, unique way that I ended up adoring that about him. And the drinking? He fixed it. The hero came through in the end.
   
   Some of the players didn't come off as well. I was appalled at the pettiness of Lemmon's wife who had her knickers in a twist over some fight with Walter Matthau's wife and made Jack and Walter's friendship difficult. Chris said of the depth of his father's relationship with Walter "I think if Uncle Waltz had taken up golf, Pop would have married him." But that was not the only time Lemmon's widow got into fights with people. She fought with Jack and nearly killed him in a drunken rage when she threw a heavy glass ashtray at Lemmon's head. That particular drunken brawl was the end of drinking for Jack, but not for his wife. Chris alludes that he and his stepmother were never on good terms and it's admirable that he didn't stoop to airing any of their dirty laundry in this book. Though dirty it certainly would be.
   
   The book takes us on fishing trips to Alaska, sound stages in Hollywood, and on the golf course. Chris' references to the "Lemmon curse" is amusing and so well told that it played in my imagination as clear as a movie. What a great sense of humour Jack had, and how delightfully it was passed down to Chris.
   
   I had such a crush on Jack Lemmon, and still do even now he's gone. I wish he had enjoyed a happier marriage and had taken more time to be a father. But he was true to himself, and did remarkable things. I would imagine being his son to be the most wonderful thing in the world and one of the hardest. What an act to follow!
   
   This was a fascinating tribute to the father, not the actor or the person. Chris Lemmon is a really gifted writer. I hope he continues to write. I will eagerly buy whatever he puts his name to after reading this charming book. I hope he reads these reviews because there is something I'd like to say to him. "Hello Ramhead, go F yourself!" (He said he missed hearing that.)



2. CL pays the ultimate tribute to his father in this classy portrayal of the supremely gifted father and the somewhat lonely but not lost son trying to sort out a complicated relationship made more complex amidst the mixed fortunes born of fame and celebrity and the tensions and heartaches that always come with divorce. This is a wonderful read that confirms much of the positive image that most people hold of the elder Lemmon while affirming the deep love that father and son were able to share in an environment that has split so many other families apart. Jack Lemmon was without doubt driven in terms of his career, but the measure of the man is that he reserved a part of himself for his son that was theirs and theirs alone.



3. Recommended: A Twist of Lemmon: a Tribute to My Father, by Chris Lemmon
   
   Chris Lemmon writes as though chatting with a friend, about the father he loved. I was drawn in by the humanity of the man and the honesty of his son, the author. According to Chris, Jack Lemmon was like an ornery little boy, a little like my own father. Both father and son were aware of Jack's strengths and shortcomings (drinking, a temper, over-dedication to his career). I think Jack Lemmon is probably recognizable in some person in everyone's life. STAR is not the picture drawn here.
   
   There is some language that a few sensitive folks may find offensive; I did say he was ornery didn't I? However,I believe if those folks read on, they will be glad they did. There's nothing really vulgar, but some humor is pretty worldly. Chris says that one of his father's favorite lines to the nurses, even near the end, was "Wanna take a peek at Stiffy?" Alternating from hospital room to scenes from Jack's life Chris Lemmon creates a complete picture of the man without ever going Hollywood neon.



4. Actor Chris Lemmon,not as famous as his late movie star father Jack pays homage to the elder Lemmon in this book. The elder Lemmon has done quite a few films throughout his career with his late longtime friend Walter Matthau. Chris' mother divorced Jack when Chris was a toddler. Chris became a cast member of one of Fox's first sitcoms,Duet,which ran from April 1987 to August 1989. Duet was then spun off as Open House which ran for nearly a year. Chris' character Richard Phillips and his wife Linda,played by Alison LaPlaca, were respectively,a patio furniture salesman and an executive film producer. Richard quit the retail business and became a cocktail lounge pianist. On the spin-off Linda went into real estate. Post-Duet-OH,Chris has had a series of guest roles on various shows. Hundreds of people,including Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones,attended memorial services for Jack in 2001. Jack was 75 years old when he passed away. I dedicate this book to Jack's memory.



5. depressing as each chapter starts with a final illness segment. Without that it would have been a MUCH better and more enjoyable book. It may have been cathartic and healing for Chris, but not so for me.

5 comments about It Must Have Been Moonglow: Reflections on the First Years of Widowhood.

1. I wish I had read this book after my dad had died. I feel I would have known what my mom may have been experiencing even if she didn't say how difficult the first few years were after his death. I could have been a better daughter.



2. I read this book after seeing it mentioned in a review and was interested in what life must be like when a spouse whom you have been married to for a long time passes away. This would be a great book to give to someone who is going through the grief of losing a spouse and may provide some comfort in the universality of the experience.



3. ...is what Mrs. Greene provided for my mother after we lost my Dad. They had a long and happy marriage and while we had plenty of warning that we would lose Dad, she was understandably inconsolable when he died... ...until she read an article by Bob Greene about his mother's book. I can honestly say, she started to turn the corner while reading this book and has read it many, many times. I am online tonight buying a copy of it for my mother to give to one of her friends who recently lost her husband. I hope Mrs. Greene knows what a profound and generous contribution she has made to many grieving spouses. I personally would like to thank her for helping my mother resume her life and begin to find happiness again.

   Buy the book, you won't regret it.




4. Not a word is wasted in Mrs. Greene's book. Whether she is so graciously sharing the simple truth of how a quiet day of TV and crossword puzzles can be truly precious when shared with someone you love in the chapter, "Killing Time, or Using It," or her honest and amusing poem about how she and her husband could no longer keep with tradition and join the gang for the Ohio State football games, this book is a pleasure for Mrs. Greene's honest and approachable style as well as for her insight into the truths of widowhood, and in general life on your own, however that came to be about for you.



5. There is a comonality we all share in grief when we lose a loved one. How great it is to read that we are not alone in our feelings. Thank you Phillis Greene for sharing this book with us.
   I highly recommend it.
   Kathrine Peterson
   author of
   Write from Your Heart, A Healing Grief Journal
   Healing Stories of Grief and Faith (2002)
   After the Tears, A Gentle Guide to Help Children Understand Death (video)

5 comments about The Long Goodbye (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

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 One Writer's Beginnings (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. I just recently read this again--each time it grows on me even more. It's a deceptively simple memoir that grows more complex in its structure and style with each re-reading. It's subjective memory at its best, and W's style is just a joy. I'm just back from Jackson, the best place to go after reading the book.



2. I spent my vacation absorbing this book. I had heard of Eudora Welty, but this was my first opportunity to read her writing. I sat in Kentucky, listened to the cicadas singing, and read the words of Miss. Welty. Glorious!



3. "Listening," "Learning to See" and "Finding a Voice," Eudora Welty entitled the three chapters of her autobiography "One Writer's Beginnings." And while these may be steps that most writers will undergo at some point, Welty's compact memoir is notable both because it allows a rare glimpse into the celebrated writer's otherwise fiercely protected private life and it illustrates the roots from which sprang such extraordinary protagonists as "The Ponder Heart"'s Edna Earle and Daniel Ponder, Miss Eckhart and the Morgana families in "The Golden Apples" and, of course, the anti-heroes of her Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Optimist's Daughter," Judge McKelva, his second wife Fay and (most importantly) his daughter Laurel.
   
   A native and -- with minimal exceptions -- lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi, Welty received her first introduction to storytelling as a listener; and early on, learned to sharpen her ears not only to a story's contents but also to its narrator and its protagonists' individual nature: "[T]here [never was] a line read that I didn't hear," and "any room ... at any time of day, was there to read in, or to be read to," she notes in "One Writer's Beginnings," adding that the discovery that all those stories had been written by someone, not come into existence of their own, not only surprised but also severely disappointed her. Equally importantly, family visits to relatives brought out the born observer in her; each trip providing its own lessons and revelations, each a story onto itself -- the seed from which later grew her manifold unforgettable literary creations. At the same time, her father's interest in technology introduced her to photography as a means of capturing visual impressions, one moment at a time; and when traveling around Mississippi as an agent for a state agency (her first job) she learned to use that camera as "a hand-held auxiliary of wanting-to-know" and discovered that "to be able to capture transience, by being ready to click the shutter at the crucial moment, was [then] the greatest need I had." Not surprisingly, her photography was published in several collections which have found much acclaim in their own right.
   
   Thus, from early childhood on, Eudora Welty not only had a keen sense of the world around her but also, of words as such: of their existence as much as the interrelation between their sound, physical appearance and the things they stand for. Encouraged by her mother, a teacher, and over her father's worries (he considered fiction writing an occupation of dubitable financial promise and, worse, inferior to fact because it was "not true"), Welty embarked on a writer's path which would lead her to award-winning heights and to a reputation as one of the South's finest writers, with as abounding as obvious comparisons to fellow Mississippian William Faulkner in particular; a literary debt she acknowledged when she wrote that "his work, though it can't increase in itself, increases us" and "[w]hat is written in the South from now on is going to be taken into account by Faulkner's work" ("Must the Novelist Crusade?", 1965).
   
   An approach that Welty herself developed early on was to consider the publication of her short stories in periodicals merely a step towards each story's final shape, and she generally revised her stories before including them in their various collections. -- Not only a keen observer, she was also a writer endowed with a sharp sense of humor and satire, and with the gift to brilliantly use location, localisms, accents, patterns of speech and customs to make a point.
   
   Yet, "[t]here is no explanation outside fiction for what its writer is learning to do," Eudora Welty maintained in "Writing and Analyzing a Story;" explaining that each story references only the writer's vision at the moment of the creation of that very story, and the creative process itself: nothing that can be "mapped and plotted" but a product taking shape within the process of its creation as such, thus giving each story a unique identity of its own. And considering her reluctance to comment on, or to explain her own fiction writing, the insights into that creative process's origins she allowed her readers in "One Writer's Beginnings" are all the more to be treasured.
   
   Also recommended:
   Eudora Welty : Stories, Essays & Memoir (Library of America, 102)
   Eudora Welty : Complete Novels: The Robber Bridegroom, Delta Wedding, The Ponder Heart, Losing Battles, The Optimist's Daughter (Library of America)
   Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters (Library of America)
   The Heart is a Lonely Hunter/Reflections in a Golden Eye/The Ballad of the Sad Cafe/The Member of the Wedding/The Clock Without Hands (Library of America)
   To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
   To Kill a Mockingbird (Universal Legacy Series)



4. For someone like myself, who is fascinated by the writing process, there is no book I value more than this book by Eudora Welty. The book, beautifully illustrated with family photographs, consists of three lectures delivered by Miss Welty at Harvard University in April 1983. A paragraph written by Miss Welty and inserted at the beginning of the book, in my view, perfectly illustrates the eloquence and subtleties of biography:
   
   "When I was young enough to still spend a long time buttoning my shoes in the morning, I'd listen toward the hall: Daddy upstairs was shaving in the bathroom and Mother downstairs was frying the bacon. They would begin whistling back and forth to each other up and down the stairwell. My father would whistle his phrase, my mother would try to whistle, then hum hers back. It was their duet. I drew my buttonhook in and out and listened to it - I knew it was 'The Merry Widow.' The difference was, their song almost floated with laughter: how different from the record, which growled from the beginning, as if the Victrola were only slowly being wound up. They kept it running between them, up and down the stairs where I was now just about ready to run clattering down and show them my shoes."
   
   One Writer's Beginnings is divided into three sections, representing the three individual lectures: Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice. As I read "Listening," I felt another good title for it would be "Observing." Miss Welty knows her two parents as, I believe, few children know their parents. Her acute powers of observation--the differences and similarities between these two important people in her life, their separate tastes and talents, the daily habits of their household--are insightful and fascinating to read. This section makes clear how reading and being read to were as regular a ritual in her life as eating three meals a day. I love her observation that "It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like grass." The author's observations about her life and the people around her are both sensitive and incisive. I quickly realized her reason for calling this chapter "Listening." She does not merely take in the literal content of words. Since childhood, apparently, she heard the cadences of words and the less obvious message of their inner meanings. This has been a particularly helpful revelation for me. With my strict German background, I tend to respond literally to what I hear and see, to what I read and write. Even journalism today does not limit itself to mere reporting, and I gained enormously from reading Miss Welty describe this aspect of her writing. What she does so well is to convey her own feelings inherent in words rather than merely their factual content. In short, she trusts what she hears, she trusts her inner voice that listens... and this is the source of all her writing.
   
   Thus, it is not surprising to learn that Miss Welty was unable to feel comfortable with organized religion, that her reverence for the holiness and mystery of life was found in the great churches she visited and her contemplation of the King James Version of the Bible with its beginning offering: "In the beginning was the Word."
   
   In the section "Learning to See," Miss Welty describes her love of traveling--road trips in the car for shopping sprees, to visit grandparents. She writes of how Ohio (where her father grew up) had her father "around the heart" as her mother adored West Virginia from whence she came...before her parents settled in Jackson, Mississippi, where Miss Welty lived her entire life. She observes and gives examples illustrating that her father, the optimist, was the one prepared for the worst, and her mother, the pessimist, was the daredevil. How many children see their parents that clearly? In this chapter, we learn a bit about the personalities of Miss Welty's grandparents. Her observations are replete with her love of them...not merely factual recountings of their backgrounds.
   
   Perhaps it is here that another of Miss Welty's distinctions lies--her love of the people about whom she writes. Her love and respect for them is as plain between the lines as it is in the words she uses to define herself and her family in this revealing biography. My heart opens as I read her memories on the page, so filled with love are they.
   
   It is clear I love every page of this small book, but I confess that my favorite chapter is the last one--"Finding a Voice." I love it best perhaps because it tells of one particular rail trip Miss Welty took with her father and reveals how the support for her becoming a writer came from her mother. She shares her feelings about her college experience, her discovery of poetry, and a host of helpful comments to do with her writing. I love that she writes: "I was always my own teacher." She shares her belief that a writer should remain "invisble," not "effaced" but invisible. A good example of this is her description of a soldier who had unexpectedly stepped off a halted train and was walking across a field into the distance. Rather than describe what she felt in watching him disappear, Miss Welty writes from the soldier's point of view: "...I felt us going out of sight for him, diminishing and soon to be forgotten." Another helpful reminder for me was her discovery that "...all begins with the particular, never the general."
   
   There is too much of value in this book for any review to convey it adequately. However, I cannot end before quoting her last brief paragraph: "...I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within."
   
   There could be no better ending to this treasure of a book.
   
   by Duffie Bart
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



5. I was assigned this book twice in college, when it first came out, and I still don't know why. It's a very nice memoir of growing up in the south, but there's little that has to do with actual writing. The same can be said for a documentary I saw of the same title - Welty is a very intelligent and charming lady, and the book and documentary tell a good deal about her early life, but that's about it.
   
   If you wish to learn how someone actually became a writer, and all the challenges of living such a life, you'd be much more rewarded by Somerset Maugham's "The Summing Up," Louis L'Amour's "Autobiography of a Wandering Man," the letters of Keats, Irving Stone's biography of Jack London, and "Women Writers at Work," in which there's a twenty-two page interview with Welty. (In fact, you can find it in the Interview archives of the Paris Review website.)
   
   So again, nothing against the author or this book as a memoir, and if you love her stories, then definitely go for it, but if you're thinking of assigning it for a writing class, or simply looking to see how someone became a writer, there are better books to learn from.

5 comments about Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.

1. I read this for book club and it was an okay read. The author does a nice job and the book is interesting.



2. In an e-mail exchange, a ministry colleague asked, "I have never read Anne Lamott. Do you recommend her?" I responded:
   
   Knowing your heart for broken people and for Jesus, I can recommend "Traveling Mercies" to you without qualification. I have only about 16 feet of easily reachable bookshelf, including my favorite reference books, yet this is one book that I keep avoiding moving to attic storage.
   
   Lamott is blunt about what she has gone through, how she has felt (especially about those of us who make a career of being nice), and her determination to keep Jesus out of her life at all costs. She is a product of multiple dysfunctions, and you can see why she'd have a hard time learning to love herself or to admit that perhaps God could love her. But I love the sentences by which she let Jesus come in; I have never otherwise heard such a simple prayer of conversion, nor one that is so true at the heart level.
   
   My daughter-in-law said that if I enjoyed Lamott, I'd also enjoy Kathleen Norris (The Cloister Walk). I did, but Norris is more cerebral. Lamott is at once pithy, practical, shocking, and profound. "Traveling Mercies" has confirmed in me, probably more than any other source has, an understanding of how varied, unexpected, and original God's work is in any one individual's life.



3. Anne Lamott recounts the stories of her growing faith from disbelief to belief in a God who crouches down and waits patiently for her to open the door and welcome Him in. Anne recounts a harsh life of challenges with addiction, love, family, and herself. She shares her simple yet profound spiritual conversion careful to incorporate the people who have had some of the greatest impact in her life.
   We catch glimpses of her faith story through the people she shares relationships with: her childhood friend, a Jesuit, the people (especially the older women) of her church community, and her son. We see in her life the mundane, the struggles, a person who can be gritty in one breath and sweet in the next. Anne Lamott tells her journey of faith, in a way that is not for the faint of heart. (or the straight and narrow) She packs this memoir with everything that life is made of and allows one to enter into her story and glimpse the God who unwearyingly waits.



4. This book is written differently than just your average book. It's a compilation of several life lessons all molded into one story. The short stories are really interesting and her humor gives it a fun kick. She tells her stories in such detail it feels as though you're experiencing it with her. The stories are so diverse that I guarentee someone finds some story in there that they relate to. No matter what your religion is, this book is a really powerful read. Prayer helps the author out in numerous ways that will prove to the readers that there is power in prayer. This book is touching and it really makes you think about life.



5. Anne Lamott writes with tremendous vulnerability and sincerity. She opens her veins for us and spills the contents of her life onto the page--the good, the bad, and the very very ugly. Her words are raw and evocative.
   
   I must say that while this book resonates with many people, including myself, who have been hurt by life, disillusioned by the church, and a bit angry at things, I did not come away feeling closer to any tangible answers. I didn't think her crass and vulgar language added much to her message. It was kindof distracting, and I felt like taking a shower after wading through it.
   
   My generation is craving something more--something deeper. We want real answers for real problems. While I continue to read Lamott, I would not say this is her best work.
   
   Shameless plug--check out my new book Sex, Sushi, and Salvation: Thoughts on Intimacy, Community, and Eternity

5 comments about The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes From My Life (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

1. It's the best. From one who remembers what went on in life by what she cooked, it's great to have his memories. Sharon Lee



2. I am entranced by Mr. Conroy. This is possibly because many parts of his life sound so familiar to me. In this memoir/cookbook he once again is enchanting. He fills me with joy/sadness as I recall similar memories. My favorite author. I wanted to make all of the recipes immediately and did so on a number of them. Some were excellent and some not so excellent; however the stories behind the recipes kept the disappointment at bay. I continue to try the recipes. Next is the pickled shrimp.



3. If you like Conroy you'll love this book. As with any cookbook you aren't going to like everything and I think this cookbook fell just short of average with the number of recipes that have caught my eye. It's also not a cookbook for the kitchen novice.
   
   As a book of short stories I loved it! It's part background (and I would guess a healthy dose of fiction) on recipes and people who have made Conroy the cook and author he is today. This book provides a culinary backdrop to the life of Conroy and help explain what he was eating when he wrote about the food and characters in his books.
   
   This isn't the book I'd recommend as your first, or even your second Pat Conroy experience, but I do feel that your Conroy experience isn't complete until you've read this book.



4. This author can do no wrong. I have everything he has produced and while this is called a "cookbook" it is so very much more...It resides proudly
   in the midst of my complete and comprehensive collection!...Bravo, Mr. Conroy!



5. All of Pat Conroy's books reside proudly on my bookshelf. I started collecting with "The Water is Wide" and "The Boo". I have followed his career with joy for his well deserved success in literature. In "The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life" he treats us to a witty and emotional memoir interspersed with his culinary expertise garnered in France, Italy, The South, including Atlanta, New Orleans, Mobile and the low country of South Carolina. It's another "can't put it down" Conroy book, only there are many wonderful recipes to please the discerning palate -don't miss this one!