5 comments about Plan of Attack.

1. Great book defining the President's decision to go to war, and the inept stooges running our country.



2. Well, this is a classic example of why histories should not be written within a few short months of the event. Woodward fawns over President Bush, accepting without question that Bush had nothing to do with orchestrating the grand deception of the American public that led to war. His questions of the president, during and after, are softballs that are infuriating to read as the Bush innocently claims he thought he was just getting the finest intelligence that ever was, and blaming everything on George Tenet for his alleged "Slam-Dunk" statement. Gosh, golly, I really believed ol' George, yuh know--in fact, that's all I needed. What, me worry?
   
   At the least, some of the sinister side of Dick Cheney shows through. If Secretary of State Colin Powell did in fact have such misgivings about the war, however, as stated in the book (and yet stayed on out of political loyalty and sent thousands to their deaths), I find it even harder to believe that G. W. Bush was the innocent bystander that Woodward paints him to be.



3. We returned this book because you sent it to us minus the first twenty or so pages. We did not read this book.



4. I just reread _Plan of Attack_, and was struck by how much light it sheds on the currently unfolding drama swirling around Iran.
   
   To the extent that President Bush still appears to believe that it is his sacred duty to strike pre-emptively at evil wherever he finds it, then the current "coercive diplomacy" being aimed at Iran--the current exemplar of his "axis of evil"--seems likely to end in war, just as it did in Iraq.
   
   The parallels between the developments that Woodward reports on in the run-up to the war in Iraq, and what we are seeing with respect to Iran, are eerie--the distortion and exaggeration of intelligence to justify the war, the simultaneous building up of forces in the region, and the willingness to shift justifications as needed, jump from the page.
   
   At this moment, December of 2007, when we are learning that our own intelligence does not support the existence of a nuclear threat from Iran, we're also seeing the neocon establishment attack the messengers, and re-focus on Iran's intent rather than capability. Unless Bush and those around him have experienced a real change of heart, the White House depicted by Woodward can be expected to redouble its efforts to bring about regime change in Iran, rather than admit any errors and change course.
   
   I strongly recommend giving _Plan of Attack_ a read or re-read right now, certainly for what it says about how and why we got into Iraq, but even more for what it may presage about Iran.



5. Woodward seems to have a little industry of churning these books out (and other people doing a lot of the work).
   
   This book shares the faults and good points of the earlier book: basically a recounting of a lot of meetings that we were never in...but still a limited picture of what people were REALLY thinking...and no analysis of what they SHOULD have been thinking.
   
   Somehow it seems just a bit richer and more interesting than the previous one. As if either the events were more intriguing or Woodward had warmed to his subject more. But still...too much of a reportorial data dump.

5 comments about Still Me (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

1. Christopher and Dana Reeves are sadly missed by many! Their stories are inspirational and supportive to a community that needed much more awareness. Chris Reeves did this! Writing his tell all story took courage and strength which he had much of.
   
   These two people will be forever known for what they left in this world along with their children. This book is a must read for anyone, even if you feel at your bottom. It will help show you the way.
   
   Bless them in heaven!
   
   Merna
   
   Pocket of Pearls: A 30-day pocket workbook to start hearing a softer voice inside of you!



2. This honestly written books gave me goosebumps. The first two chapters are the most riveting.



3. I thought the book was very well written. It was very easy to read. It showed a lot about the courageous Reeve family and what they had to live through on a daily basis and what contributions they made to persons with disabilities.



4. I absolutely loved this book! I have loved Christopher Reeve since I was a small child. This book made me feel like he was writing to me personally, sharing the intimate details of his life. It made me feel close to my life-long hero and is probably the best book I have ever read. The way he described his love for his wife helped me open up my heart and let myself fall in love again. I recommend this book to anyone who's admired Mr. Reeve or is in need of inspiration.



5. In this book, Christopher Reeve recounts the events his life both before and after his accident that left him paralyzed. He takes through the events that led up to him entering into the horse race, his preparations on the day of the race, and the accident itself. He describes his long recuperation in the hospital, where he had to struggle to learn to breathe and most importantly, to look at life differently. He also looks back on his life, tracing the main incidents in his acting career, from teenage amateur roles through starring on the big screen.
   
   Reeve reveals much about his inner feelings during the period of adjustment following his injuries. He tells us how became aware that he would have to start relying on the help of others just to accomplish the bare necessities of life, such as breathing, and how it was the love of friends and family that pulled him through. He touches on varied topics, from near-death experiences to health insurance reform to the relationship between father and son. I gained a lot of respect for Reeve after reading this book-anyone can play a role in the movies, but it takes a real superhero to accomplish all that he did after such a devastating accident.

4 comments about Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. If you've ever been to Princeton University, NJ and the Cotswold you'll realize how funny this quote from the book is. Besides interesting tid-bits like this, a more serious allegation by Peter Wright was that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a "set-up," a fabulous Russian disinformation effort in which the Russians actually won! Having lived through this incident I'm firmly convinced that he was right. You'll have to read about it to find out why.
   
   Overall, the book is one of the most interesting spy books I've ever read. It's basic, down-to-earth and showed MI-5 to be a disaster mainly as a result of activities by a few elite, upper-crust, rich, idealistic Oxford/Cambridge (Oxbridge)University homosexuals! All this started in the 1930's and moved into the 50's. What a mess!
   
   It also displays the courage of several men, mainly Peter Wright, to find the truth and act on it. Peter's boss, the head of MI-5, was a spy for Russia, but Peter was relentless in his effort to expose this fact.
   
   If you like spy books you have got to get this one.



2. Peter Wright was a former assistant director of MI5 (Britain's secret service or counter-intelligence). This is his story of his career, including his anecdotes about his American allies. He joined MI5 as a scientist who specialized in tools for espionage. He had been promised credit for his years as a civilian scientist. When this promise was broken at retirement, he wrote this book to even out things.

   This is an interesting book that can't be summarized in a few paragraphs. It is definitely worth reading for the details on government activities in a "democracy". Watergate was a notable failure of such activities. Do these activities continue? Of course!

   Pages 158-9 tell of his proposal for a "Bolshevik model" for former colonial countries: let a political party control the army and secret police so that neither the army or another political party could gain control of the government. He pointed out that only those newly created countries that adopted this principle have escaped military dictatorships and civil war.

   Does the above advice seem to cynical and radical? But our Establishment DOES control the army and secret police so that neither the military or a populist political party (one not controlled by corporate interests) can gain control.

   Yet the classic solution for democracies, from Aristotle to Machiavelli to our Founding Fathers was well-armed citizens and their militia. It has worked well for over over a century, and the idea still survives today.




3. Well, the Peter Wright who wrote SPYCATCHER is a deceased person. Your side-bar link to, "...an interview with Peter Wright," leads to an interview with a live Peter Wright, not the dead Peter Wright. Right?



4. this is not a review, but a note to amazon.com

   for "spycatcher" by peter wright, you have on the same screen an interview with peter wright. unfortunately for you, Peter Wright-who=wrote-spycatcher DIED a few years ago. He is an ex-spycatcher (cue dead parrot sketch). So please REMOVE your "interview-with-DIFFERENT-PeterWright" link from the spycatcher book page.

   I hope this note is sufficiently clear, if not, email me at bg283@ncf.ca thanks, bts

   And by the way, I would very much like to write a review of "spycatcher", it is an excellent book, but please take the "interview" link out of the page for this book.... thanks, bts

5 comments about The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea.

1. Junger recounts the relentless ferocity of the Storm of the Century that hit North America's eastern seaboard during 1991. This is a breath-taking, riveting tale of human courage in the face of the most devastating forces of nature.



2. The book ably reconstructs the terrifying facts, feelings and tragedy of the fishing boat Andrea Gail and her six-man crew, which disappeared during a killing storm of mythic proportions. Tragically, the bodies were never found, so nobody survived to tell the story. The book weaves a compelling patchwork around the sinking itself--the ship's colourful crew, their manic drives, lives and backgrounds. There are fascinating details of meterology, navigation and commercial fishing. We peer into the physics of rogue waves, the horrifying physiology of drowning, the agonies of search and rescue. We feel the adrenal charge of risk-fishing, the frailty of humans pitted against Nature, the lash of wind, the brine, the towering waves, the violent pitch and toss of the sea, told with the crackling force and energy of a first novel. The writing is tight, plain, elegant and restrained. Junger is ever the journalist, always tethered to his materials, never sensational, never indulging himself, or setting free the novelist. Perhaps his stern, disciplined self-control is his greatest triumph. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would gladly read it again.



3. This book is very vivid in its descriptions of the storm and the activities leading up to it. The author has done an excellent job of making the reader feel that he/she is involved in the action. Very exciting and emotional read.



4. I watched the movie of this book before I read the book itself, and I have to say that the movie has taken some liberties with the story and the book is still better than the movie despite its great storm special effects. Nobody can say exactly what happened to the swordboat Andrea Gail but this book does a credible job of describing what probably happened based on knowledge of swordfish fishermen, the fishing industry, the ocean, storm behaviour and the rescue services involved.
   
   Having read this book I now feel I know a lot more about swordfish and the fishing industry than I ever believed I would. I also feel I've been given a reasonable education in storm and wave behaviour around the Grand Banks and northern fishing waters. You have to have some patience with this book as the Storm of the title doesn't really start to play a part in its story till half way through the book. Up till then everything is mostly background material about the fishing industry. However, even if you know nothing about the sea, this book covers so many topics in so much depth that it keeps you moving along till the tragedies and triumphs of the storm and its human costs are played out. A recommended read if you like your stories factually based but not debased to the point of being "based on a true story".



5. This book is amazing. Sebastian Junger went to a great deal of effort to write this book. It is historically accurate and all people and places are real. The only piece I have trouble with is after Andrea Gail is no longer heard from. Anything regarding what happened on the boat after that is guessing even if it is fairly accurate. The actual name of the storm was Hurricane Gloria and to those of us who lived through it it makes more sense to think of it that way.

5 comments about All Over but the Shoutin' (Random House Large Print (Paper)).

1. I found myself plodding on and on to get through this book. I thought the very early part of the memoir (about the first 1/4 of it) made for some very interesting reading. I liked the authors style--almost like reading a prose poem---but then the author took us in his early career as a journalist I read too many chapters about that; and that is when I shut the book for good.



2. This is not only a wonderful story, but written beautifully. Great for adults and teens alike.



3. This is one of the best well-written books I've read in a long time. His powerful story of a ragged, poverty-filled childhood with an abusive, neglectful, alcoholic father is very compellingly told.
   
   Bragg's focus is on his strong and yet victimized mother. The only nagging thing that bothered me is Bragg's adulation of his mother to the point that he neglects the fact that she bears some responsibility for continually going back to the loser and exposing the kids to the financial and emotional depravation that occurred.
   
   I will read his other books because the writing is so crisp and clean.



4. In this first volume of his trilogy of family memoir, Rick Bragg (b. 1959) takes us to rural Alabama's deep south, and through his deft story-telling introduces us to his people and their ways. With Shoutin' and his two subsequent bestsellers, Ava's Man (2001) about his maternal grandfather and The Prince of Frogtown (2008) about his father, Bragg has earned an avid readership. It's easy to see why. His family of origin epitomized the poorest of poor white trash. His grandfather could neither read nor write, his grandmother dipped snuff, they picked the banjo, danced a jig, cussed like sailors, drank their homemade moonshine like it was water, and brawled at the slightest insult to defend "honor." Bragg spent one semester in college, then started writing, first high school sports, local stories, anything. In 1993 he won a prestigious Nieman fellowship as a journalist to spend a year at Harvard, and in 1996 he won a Pulitzer for feature writing at the New York Times.
   
   Shoutin' works well at many levels, but it's especially about embracing one's family with all its blessings and curses. Bragg introduces us to his violent alcoholic father who repeatedly abandoned his family until his early death at age forty-one, his two brothers, and most of all to his mother Margaret. In his telling, she's a hero's hero. She was effectively a single mother who raised three boys in destitute circumstances. She picked cotton and did other people's laundry at night, swallowed her pride and accepted welfare, and slept on the sofa in their tiny shack. His chapter on taking her to New York City for his Pulitzer award is worth the book alone. She had never been on a plane before and didn't own a suit case; for her few trips before then she stuffed her clothes in paper bags.
   
   In an interview Bragg once described Shoutin' as a failed effort at revenge. His attitude toward his past is deeply ambivalent. On the one hand, he's deeply proud, as every person should be of their family. With brutal honesty he describes the angry chip he's carried on his shoulder about the endless putdowns and insults about his people. He'd prove the cultural snobs wrong, by God. On the other hand, his journey leaves rural Alabama as only a distant reflection in his rear view mirror as his professional reporting takes him around the world. The revenge he savored would come, he thought, when he finally saved enough money to buy his mother a real house for cash. And he did; it would be "a house of healing." But the day she moved in his two adult brothers brawled in the front yard, and his mother returned to her shack before settling in to the new house. And so, he admits, life and the power of place are far more complicated and rich. Bragg has now come full circle; today he teaches writing at The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.



5. Destined to be a Southern classic, Bragg's "All Over But the Shoutin'" rings true. It is not only a well-written, journalist's memoir, but offers readers who aren't from the South an insightful look at why Southern men often act as they do.
   
   On the one hand the book is a rags-to-riches story about a poor white boy from the cotton fields of northeast Alabama who reads, works and writes his way out of poverty; from being a small-town sportwriter all the way up to to heading the Atlanta office the New York Times and winning the Pulitzer Prize. Like visiting with an old friend and having a glass of ice-tea and an all-afternoon, after-funeral conversation under the shade-tree in the back-yard back home, Bragg recounts his career via the Talladega Daily Home, the Anniston Star, the Birmingham News, the Miami Herald, the LA Times (very briefly), and the New York Times. Running throughout are stories and themes of: the homeless in the mean streets of Miami; the class-structure and deaths, rapes and tortures of Haiti (which he covered two or three times for the Miami paper and the NYT); his year at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow; covering Harlem and the violence experienced by the storeowners from robberies and murders; covering a tornado that hit on a Sunday morning near his hometown in 1994 (and the resulting shock to the faith of those who lost loved ones in a church that day); and, the 1994 Smith murders in Union, South Carolina and the Oklahoma City bombing.
   
   That said, the real theme of the book is his love, concern and focus on his relationship with his mother back near Jacksonville, Alabama, his two brothers -- one older and one younger -- and, how to regard the life and his relationship with an abusive, hard-drinking and usually absent father. Having roots in the Sand Mountain area myself, I can attest to the fact that there must be something in the water (and moonshine) around there as meanness, drinking and sn snake-handling Sunday-morning gospel religion are "par-for-the-course." There's a tightrope facing folks around there trying to rise above their circumstances - it heads upward and, instead of a net, those who slip, fall into a hard life of factory-work, or worse yet, no work at all. Then, clutching for a Bible or the bottle -- and, sometimes both -- men and their families work like hell to survive.
   
   This book will become a must-read for anyone interested in Southern area studies, Southern literature, or just understanding the Southern psyche. While we're all different, I have to admit that the "Southern man" I see throughout this book is similar to those of my own family, and men I've known all my life -- a different breed, with a hard, determined drive to succeed be it through books, muscle or whatever. And, as Bragg points out, though we're every bit as smart in our own way as well-schooled intellectuals, don't mess with the chip on our shoulders -- as that very well may bring out a bit of the rattlesnake that lurks in our dark side.
   
   While not easy to read from cover-to-cover over a few days, it's a great book to place on the bedside table to read a few pages at a time.

3 comments about The Confession LP.

1. I cried when I read this. I knew Jimmy back when I was engaged to his Special Labor Counsel. What a great way to tell his life story - and "confess." Human life is precious and should never be judged. Why should a man or woman have to go through what he did....and in the face of it all...he held his own and became Governor anyway - imagine the strength.
   
   Love you, Jimmy! I'm so glad you are happy! Mark is a hottie! xoxoxo



2. This work was one of the most helpful tools in gaining insight into the political machine. Governor McGreevey constructed a great read following his path through probably one of the greatest experiences of his life. I applaud his work and effort and recommend reading this book. It had me frustrated and angry during the read, but I emerged happy and able to place him on a higher pedastal. If redemption was necessary, Jim has earned it by putting this out.
   I hear people say he did it for the money - and to that I say: It is well earned. Read the book and get a grip. Bravo, Jim.



3. All of New Jersey and the country were probably anticipating the release of former Governor Jim Mcgreevey's book. Some of the hype may have been due to the scandal involving his sexual encounters. I am completing the book and am very impressed with the wealth of information included.
   
   Governor Mcgreevey shares all of himself in relation to his sexual escapades, but he also connects these escapades to the many emotions and experiences that brought him to his political end and to his new beginning.
   
   There were many selfish acts and many acts of kindness performed by Jim Mcgreevey. There were hurts and pains thrust upon others as well as happiness and joys given.
   
   I make no judgments as to the truths or untruths of his book. I evaluate based on the emotions that were left with me as a reader. I am highly appreciative of the wealth of knowledge on history, philosophy, psychology and other educational topics that were included.
   
   Jim Mcgreevey has shown his ability to take the English language and develop a stellar performance as an author. His development or lack of development of his life is for him to decide. I thank Governor Mcgreevey for sharing.
   
   Elaine Butler NJ

2 comments about Last Man Down: A Firefighter's Story of Survival and Escape from the World Trade Center.

1. This book is frankly, terrible. The author sets himself up as the one-and-only hero in his world of self-centeredness. We can certainly admire anyone who went through the events that he did, but this type of storytelling tends to diminish the whole thing. I find it very hard to believe the truth of much of his perspective. If his attitude about himself is any indication of officers in the FDNY (likely not), it's no wonder that the FD and PD of that city don't get along.



2. I picked up this book solely because I had heard this man talking on the radio to promote this book. For the entire 1.5 hours the man talked, I was riveted to the radio. I was so freakin amazed at this mans story as he was relating it, that I had to have his book.

   After having read the book, I was slightly disappointed. Maybe I had built it up too much in my head with anticipation, I do not know. The things this man did were still great if they are true, but it is told from a very egotistical point of view. That left a kind of bad taste to the book. He did not talk that way on the radio. He describes it in the book, as if he were making decisions that may or may not have been according to protocol. All of this was being done without really knowing what was going on around him, (as in the actual buildings falling, etc.). It just left me to wonder how much of the story is true, and how much is added on. It's hard to believe that with all of these men fighting to save lives, he seems to be the best one to always make decisions, or the correct decision. This may just have been a flaw in the way the story was written, I do not know.

   All in all, it was a good book. A fascinating tale. I'm just not quite sure of the authenticity of the tale during this tragedy in American history, which is why I only gave it 3 stars.

5 comments about Catch Me If You Can: The Amazing True Story of the Youngest and Most Daring Con Man in the History of Fun and Profit.

1. Frank Abagnale did what we all fantasize doing: getting away with messing up with the system as long as we can get away with it. He took advantage of loopholes and people's greed. If he wore a different label, let's say, "secret agent" or "bank executive", we would never condemn him but rather envy him; instead, we call him criminal. I'm glad he thought quickly on his feet and wound up becoming a "security consultant". Still taking advantage of the system and greedy people!



2. We enjoyed this movie. Do not buy just because you are a Tom Hanks fan, you will be disappointed, but movie is fun.



3. Billed as true crime or as an autobiography, but when the author admits he's the perfect liar, I found I had to read this as a novel, because I doubted a lot of what he writes. If he's so good at the con, how is this book any different. As a novel, it's entertaining at first, repetitive after awhile, and offers no clear climax. A very hard book to judge, although I gave it three stars because it is engaging somehow. The lying, conns, and sexism are hard to accept, and the author doesn't seem to feel bad for all the people he conned. Difficult to like, impossible to hate?



4. 'Catch me if you can' is a fairly entertaining, badly written fiction book that served as a base for a very entertaining, well directed fiction movie. It's not an amazing true story as the blurbs proclaim.
   
   Don't reach for this book if you want to read a true-to-fact autobiography. 'Catch me if you can' is a ghostwritten, highly embellished in style and content, largely implausible narrative that diverts from what probably really happened as much as the Spielberg movie diverts from the book. In words of Abagnale himself:
   
   'I was interviewed by the co-writer only about four times. I believe he did a great job of telling the story, but he also over dramatized and exaggerated some of the story. That was his style and what the editor wanted. He always reminded me that he was just telling a story and not writing my biography. This is one of the reasons that from the very beginning, I insisted the publisher put a disclaimer in the book and tapes.'
   
   I have yet to find this disclaimer in my copy. I like fiction and don't mind reading it as long as the author (or the publisher) doesn't try to sell it as a true story. Reading 'Catch me if you can' I had an increasing feeling that I was being conned. I swallowed all the tall tales of his forgeries, swindles and impersonations hook line and sinker, but the devil, as usual, is in details.
   
   Funnily my suspicions were aroused only when I found out he was fluent in French despite the fact that a few pages earlier he used an interpreter to communicate in that language.
   
   The description of his incarceration in a French hellhole of a prison is unbelievable to the point of ridiculous, but still the time is extended from 6 months he purportedly served to about one year.
   Then he's rescued by a Swedish policewoman Jan Lundström. Fine. I understand that all names in the book have been changed but Jan is a male name in Sweden. At this point I couldn't suspend my disbelief any longer and I put the book down unfinished.
   
   A few words about the style of writing. It's about as overdone as the facts it's supposed to desribe and nearly unreadable.



5. I gave it 4 stars only because I reserve 5-star ratings for books I could not have lived without reading, so to speak. But it is a fascinating account, and if you like knowing that it's a big world out there with people doing interesting things, you'll probably enjoy this book. Abagnale is obviously intelligent and likes to have fun -- an infectious combination. I'm interested now in reading his follow-up, The Art of the Steal: How to Protect Yourself and Your Business from Fraud, America's #1 Crime. I suspect his advice will be more helpful than the dispirited, obfuscating "instructions" of the credit reporting agencies!

5 comments about Grace (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. Everyone remembers his first screen love.
   
   Grace Kelly was mine, and I can still remember her clear Teutonic skin, lugubrious soft hair, her casual sophistication, all completely new fascinations to my mundane childhood. Years later, the only thing that's changed is I've grown older and she's still impossibly perfect.
   
   What Robert Lacey has done in Grace is bring us all a little bit closer to that Snow Princess whom we all would have made our Princess were we a Prince. Behind the camera, behind bedroom doors, behind the veneer of an idyllic fairy tale that proves that fairy tales are exactly that, each anecdote is like a stitch in a grand painting that is sometimes bleak (Grace ages and somewhat pathetically begins to fool around with younger men), sometimes inspiring (her persistence at overcoming her natural dramatic flaws), and always sensual (her intimate fashion shows for her boyfriend Don Richardson).
   
   Unlike many biographies of screen legends, Lacey largely eschews extended back lot stories that might involve but not support the basic image of Grace that he believes must be told. So while we learn High Noon's screenwriter Carl Foreman meant his film as an allegory about Communist witch hunts, we are spared a complete A-Z on the Hollywood Blacklist and its artistic implications. A great biography of a great person must not necessarily take on the great issues of his day. Of which Lacey understands.
   
   Grace is a woman of terrific sexual energies and ambitions but just as importantly, sports a marvelous capacity to mask those penchants. So instead of becoming Jenna Jameson, she turns into Princess Grace, a woman who sleeps her way to the top but seems so inevitably suited for the position that no one can possibly begrudge her it.
   
   As Lacey says "She managed to be naughty while appearing very nice."
   
   It's become axiomatic that the greatest personalities are deeply contradictory. Nearly every biographer, when faced with the compelling weight of his research, is forced to concede that mankind is a very complex being (thank you, Mr. Stevenson). And Grace was no different. Lacey talks of Grace's growing conservatism, her disputes with her daughters over their flagrant ways, all while engaging in her own illicit love affairs as Princess Grace. And what of her devoted Catholicism? How to resolve her piety with her philandering?
   
   Questions which can only be answered by Hitchcock's own. This is a snow covered volcano we're dealing with here.
   
   And sometimes, you can't guess; you can only watch.



2. The media reviewers quoted here harp on Grace Kelly's supposed "promiscous" behavior, the main point of the book, as far as they are concerned. Anyone who actually reads the book will find someone who had a few discreet affairs before she was married, who took her marriage vows and commitment to her family and role as princess seriously, who worked very hard throughout her life to meet her commitments, and who had a comforting relationship with a kind younger man when her marriage turned lonely as she got older. If she wasn't quite the cold, virginal image presented by Hollywood, good for her.
   
   It's a very good book about a real woman of extraordinary beauty who could have settled for a society matron's life in Philadelphia but who made an extraordinary life for herself through her own efforts. Read it for that and not the sensationalism.



3. I picked up "Grace" about a year ago when I found it in my mom's old book closet. Although I am relatively young, something about the stars of yesteryear attracts me more than the glitz surrounding contemporary celebrities. Grace Kelly is no exception. I knew nothing about this icon, except that she was an American princess and a Hitchcockian heroine. Mr. Lacey certainly did his share in informing me about this classic movie star. I enjoyed how he provides us with immense background on the Kelly's, a prominent family in their own right. Mr. Lacey also does a fine job in giving us the "low-down" on Monaco and its interesting history.
   Also of note would be the fact that Lacey attempts (and succeeds) at presenting the seemingly ethereal Grace as a person, not the sex symbol or ice queen she is usually remembered as. He does give a lot of insight into her love life and various affairs, but you never lose sight that Grace had this innocence about her. It seemed as if she could do no wrong.
   Aside from being a talented actress, Grace was a true beauty and a dedicated mother and wife. She will always be remembered as our very own princess.



4. This book has a great deal of detail. I feel as if there was too much emphasis on her sex life versus her screen image, and frankly that was her business, not important in the book. Otherwise a good book.



5. I wanted to know all about the men in Grace Kelley's life, both before and after her marriage. This book told me everything, but in a classy, well-researched way. I learned a lot about Monaco, and just the things I would have wanted to know about her family members, too. After reading this excellent book, I plan to read more of Robert Lacey's works.

5 comments about Sam Walton: Made in America.

1. This book is an inspiring all-american success story of Sam Walton and his global Wal-mart empire. Sam chronicles his days as a small town merchant all the way to when the company did $45 billion dollars in the early 90's with testimnoials and insights by wal-mart associates, family and friends. Sam is brilliant yet modest and this makes this book a really good read. I expected to read a different story but ended up uncovering the tale of a man who refused to stop ever thinking of the customer. His obsession with keeping the customer happy is the secret and the means are eye-opening. Overall this book is one of the important business books I've read. It has inspired me in so many ways. Retail the walmart way is cruel yet fascinating!



2. Sam Walton was one of the worst things to happen to America. It's a monopoly. It destroys communities.



3. I have worked in retail and competed with Wal Mart. Although I don't shop at Wal Mart often, Sam Walton's story is a unique American story of a man that went from poverty to wealth. His stores have always been competitive with most of the other discount stores in our area. This book is the story of his rise to success through the discount store concept. This book is written in Sam's folksy style. He explains his concepts on management and business through this book.
   
   Sam shows his workaholic style created a unique American corporation. I doubt few companies expect as much as Wal Mart. Long hours, weekend work, and holidays are expected. I wonder how much time Sam spent with his family during this time when Wal Mart expanded. The respect for the value of a dollar, small town America, and work all resonate in this book.
   
   There are some things I don't completely agree with. Unions have protected the working people in this country, but Sam has strongly resisted there representation in his stores. Sam's associates are for the most part low paid workers struggling to get by. Perhaps some have made it rich, but most haven't.
   
   This is a unique story of one man's success in the discount store business. Walton revolutionized this industry. His ideas created value to both shoppers, shareholders, and stakeholders.



4. An excellent, honest account of how a business grew from nothing to being the world's largest retailer. How it grew so successful that it helped shape America - for good or for bad. Walton's view on that is hard to dispute: customers wanted low prices, and that's what Wal-Mart was able to provide them. His take on labour policy (such as the notoriously low wages at Wal-Mart) was quite disarmingly frank, from a person who was unashamedly frugal by nature. An honourable man who never let the extreme wealth go to his head. Quite inspirational. JK



5. Excellent book on Sam Walton. I don't believe that WalMart has the same ideals today, but it sure started off on the right foot... Congrats Sam on an excellent business plan and visionary management style.