5 comments about Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter.

1. I loved this book almost as much as I loved the movie. For me it was one more step to tracking down the man, the legend. This is a wonderful book for anyone to read, from juveniles through senior citizens. The justice that eventually prevailed is of the feel good sort. It was such an incredible coming together of so many elements. I think that it should be included on recommended booklists in middle and elementary schools.



2. The life of Rubin Carter is certainly worth reading about regardless of what side of the debate you are on. Many people feel passionate about both his innocence and guilt. This book may help the reader decide for himself or herself, but it obviously has an innocent slant to it which the author makes known and makes no apologies.
   
   The story as many of you know involved the conviction of Rubin Carter and John Artis for a triple murder that took place at a bar in Patterson, NJ. The men always maintained their innocence much to the chagrin of prosecutors. Whether Rubin did this crime or not is besides the question considering he got released from a Federal Court over a writ of habeas corpus issue. The court did not rule on whether he was guilty or innocent even though he had been convicted twice before for the triple murders. The Supreme Court judge that decided to overturn the convictions cited a "racial revenge" motive and prosecutorial withhlding of information as reasons to overturn the case. Therefore, after many intense struggles with personal demons and many years in prison Rubin Carter was released a free man. The book recounts his troubled life as a juvenile, his violent temper, his prize-fighting boxing days, and his many years spent in different prison institutions. Apparently while in prison Carter transformed these former attributes by personal study and reflection. He found some people from a Canadian commune to help go to battle for him and eventually won his freedom. It's a powerful story with a few problem areas. One problem area is that there are so many legal meanderings throughout the book that you begin to feel as if you are undertaking a tedious chore sorting through all of it. You lose the zest and earnest interest you first had when you started the book. The other problem area is it's obviously a very opinionated book meant to portray Carter as an innocent man wronged by the system. However, after reading about Carter's past, his media provoking of local authorities, and his temper, I came away feeling very ambivalent. Whereas, I expected to become totally convinced of his innocence I began to feel I wasn't for sure. Nevertheless, it's a compelling story if you can get past the legal "John Grisham" feel of the book.
   
   Rubin Carter continues to fight to this day to overcome the hardness and emotional devastation he had thrust upon him while in prison. We learn that while he is thankful to be out he still has a long way to go to live the life he yearns for. To put to rest the demons bothering him (such as alcohol) and to be able to trust people is one of the great challenges he faces. One can only hope that justice was served in this instance and that he picks up what he has left of his life and makes the most of it.



3. I have read both this and Rubin Carter's own The 16th Round. There are some things that I believe on both sides of the story. I do believe that Rubin did have a violent juvenile past, and was an angry man. Yet, if a person who is facing oppression on a daily basis i'm sure you would tend to have violent tendancies as well; it's easy to make statements about a man's life when we are in a prosperous 21st century and not in the 1940 - 1950's. I do agree that the film does cut out the large part of Rubin's transformation from a violent individual to a more spiritual one.
   
   I am a young Australian who is not of the age to be around when Rubin Carter was set free. This case was so badly stuck together it provides a good look at the judicial system considering it kept an innocent man in jail for 19 years.
   
   And one of the most insulting facts of the case was that when Rubin was set free from jail in 1985, he was set free because of the biased and racial case that was built before him. NOT because he didn't do the crime. Makes me aggrovated.
   
   If you want a book that will open your mind and make you think independently, then buy this and the 16th Round straight away.



4. Before I read this bio my only knowledge of the Hurricane case was from what other's had told me. Based on that I always felt the guy was probably framed. After reading this bio, I feel he was probably guilty.
   
   By the first third of this book I found myself not liking Carter. It seemed obvious to me that this was a very angry and violent man who was also very dishonest. This book attempts to make a martyr of a man who seemed like trouble even before he was convicted of the alleged murder. It also attempts to explain away every bad thing this man did (and there were many) by trying to make him look like the victim.
   
   The author nor Carter never once admit to any wrong doing on Carter's part regardless of what it may be. If just ONCE Carter had taken responsibility for some of his nasty behavior and poor dealings with other folk, I may have had a more open mind. But this is a blatant attempt at reaching for excuses for every thing that went wrong in his life. Carter and the author want everybody to believe that Carter was the victim of frame-ups, conspiracies, and racism at every turn in his life. I was not convinced.
   
   The pattern that I found apparent in Carter's personality is that he only opened up to folks who could give him something he wanted and once he got it, he changed his personable and trusting come-on and threw them on the scrap heap. Often rationalizing his using of those who helped him by twisting it into some delusional offense against him. The best I can say for Carter is that he struck me as a very cunning con-man who ultimatley beat the system by using people for his own needs until he was portrayed in the main stream media as a martyr and a victim. I no longer buy into that portyrayel after reading this book.



5. I read this book and then saw the movie. This is a familiar formula for disappointment. The book is much better and richer than the movie. The movie portrays Carter as some kind of saint, deeply-principled, who is railroaded by the justice system. As the book reveals, Carter was a deeply troubled individual during the 1960's. Carter was a very angry person who seemed to antagonize authority. He was also an alcoholic and had selfish, chauvanistic attitudes towards women. These traits are overlooked in the film. In fact, the movie shows Carter a suave, kind person. The filmmakers probably skipped these aspects of Carter because they wanted the viewers to like Carter and root for him. In reality, Carter didn't seem a likeable person.
   HOWEVER, the fact that Carter was a troubled, angry person doesn't mean he's guilty of murder. Some people seem to invest their dislike of "hollywood justice" and the "cause celeb" aura surrounding this case, into convicting Carter for the murders. Don't confuse the issues. Carter was not a saint but he's still entitled to justice. Part of this book is the story of the unraveling of the prosecutor's case. As a federal district court found, the prosecutors withheld vital evidence from the defense - evidence which the defense was legally entitled to. The prosecutors also resorted to prejudice during the trial to persuade the jury of Carter's guilt. This is the so-called racial revenge theory advanced by the prosecution.
   The other important and most fascinating part of the book is the transformation of the man. During his prison sentence, Carter transforms himself, with the help of others, from an angry, troubled individual to a much kinder and complete human being. The movie, by overlooking Carter's bad traits, robs the viewer of this incredible growth of one person.
   My advice is to skip the movie and read this excellent book.

5 comments about Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, And a Network of Miracles.

1. This book describes the story of a seemingly common nun who achieved what no money or famous tycoon could have accomplished. Catholic programming 24/7 throughout the world - radio, TV and website. God works marvels thru his weakest servants!



2. Mother Angelica reminds me of my Mother.
   I've watched her on EWTN for many years. I never realized what she had to go through to get her ministry to the point it is now.
   A real page turned that has inspired me to visit the Abbey in Hanceville, AL this Fall.
   Buy it, borrow it,(but, don't steal it). You will enjoy it.



3. Thank you, Raymond Arroyo (and all those who helped him), for writing this wonderful biography of the much loved Mother Angelica and narrating the story with such sincerity. I laughed, I cheered, I cried ... Few books cause one to do that. Her story needed to be told to remind us all of the powerful love of God, His will to do miracles for our salvation, and the astonishing things that can happend when we step aside and let Him work through us, weak and miserable as we are.



4. I wondered what Mother Angelica was like in her spiritual life. On television broadcasts, she always presents herself with common weaknesses and failings, yet communicates plausible remedies to overcome every obstacle. She's as true to form as one might imagine. Raymond Arroyo's writing style is captivating as he shares the life story of this amazing woman of faith. It's inspirational and humorous with so many twists and turns that I've found myself enjoying my second read as much as the first.
   
   Raymond's ability to discover hidden qualities of Mother Angelica, is noteworthy; a masterful writing of a deeply spiritual woman.



5. While corporate America was just discovering the big-hairy-audacious-goal (BHAG) , a spunky little nun from Ohio was living it out. Mother Angelica has taken Jesus' instruction to be "as wise as serpents yet gentle as doves" to heart. Do not let the doughy grandmother face and infectious smile fool you into a false reliance on her being a simple gullible little nun. Beneath that soft exterior is God's iron lady. Many have underestimated her determination and her influence and made the mistake of raising her fiery indignation when she perceived an attack on her spiritual spouse. Truly, Mother's temper rises from time to time but also truly she seems to know how to use that reputation to further the cause of Christ. Miracle upon miracle documented in this book and elsewhere would seem to convey the favor of her Lord on all that she attempts in His name.
   
   Mr. Arroyo does a nice job of remaining neutral in the church politics and ego battles that have surrounded the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) story from the start. He chooses to focus on Mother Angelica's life, her philosophy, her faith, and her amazing accomplishments. At the same time, he gives us a peak into her troubled youth and how those emotional wounds might have played out to shape her incredible life. The story tugs the emotional spectrum, one page leaving you heartbroken and weeping, the next inspiring you to overcome every obstacle through faith. The message that comes through is that God works miracles despite, and sometimes even through, the weaknesses of poor health, bruised egos, and other human frailties. The message is the story of Mother Angelica's life and one of which she would approve. Her life is a reminder that saints are still imperfect human beings and that no refining fire is as intense as our loving Lord's. But, the resulting joy and peace far outweighs the heat of those flames.

5 comments about Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal.

1. There was a seeming dual purpose motivating the author to write this book. Remen is a medical doctor who basically tells the stories about how her professional experiences moved her closer to, rather than away from, emotional involvement with her clients particularly as it pertained to the connection between one's spirituality and recovery,amongst other things.
   Remen also shares some very deep and moving stories that were shared with her by her clients once she became a therapist.
   It's a wonderful read and will be helpful to anyone seeking spiritual enlightenment and motivation.



2. Rachel Naomi Remen believes in the healing power of stories. She trained as a pediatrician and expected to practice traditional medicine much as her father and other male members of her family had done before her, but something happened to change her carefully planned course.
   
   In the introduction to Kitchen Table Wisdom, Remen tells how her male colleagues frequently knocked on her office door to ask for her help with a crying patient. They believed that she, as a woman, would know what to do. Though she knew no more than they, she felt flattered that they came to her and felt that this helped her be more a part of their exclusive "Old Boys Network." She began to spend more and more time listening to patients share their fears and feelings of living with a terminal disease.
   
   Since the age of fifteen, Remen has suffered from Crohn's disease. As she listened to her patients, she began to feel less lonely and isolated. Probably, her guidance and uncanny understanding of her patients stemmed from her familiarity with physical and emotional pain.
   
   Kitchen Table Wisdom is a compilation of eighty-eight poignant stories that Remen heard over many years, as well as stories of her own life. Her stories demonstrate her belief that a larger process is at work in all our lives and that human beings are "unfinished, a work in progress." She believes we come into the world whole but lose faith in our wholeness and become discouraged by feelings of not being pretty enough, smart enough, etc. " ... our wholeness exists in us now," she writes, "Trapped though it may be, it can be called upon for guidance, direction and most fundamentally, comfort."
   
   No retelling of Remen's stories can do them justice. One of my favorites is "The Question"--a story told by a patient named Tim (now a cardiologist) of his experience at the age of fifteen with his father, who was in the last stages of Alzheimer¹s disease. At the time, his father had not spoken for ten years and was totally helpless. Tim and his brother were alone with their father when he suddenly slumped over and fell to the floor. The brother was calling 911 when both boys heard a voice commanding, "Don't call 911, son. Tell your mother that I love her. Tell her that I am all right." With those words, the man died. An autopsy later revealed that Tim's father's brain had been entirely destroyed by the disease. Tim never stops wondering who spoke those final words. He tells Dr. Remen, "Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed."
   
   The author believes that talking about and sharing one¹s feelings revives memories that can lead to important new insights about one¹s life, bringing about a healing that formal treatment is unable to offer. She says that Shamans believe illness is a direct indication of soul loss. The soul, she explains, is that which is aware of the sacredness we carry and the sacredness that exists in the external world as well. Losing our appreciation for our sacredness, living with sadness, with feelings of unworthiness can manifest illness.
   
   "Life is the ultimate teacher...," she writes. "It is through experience, and not scientific knowledge or expert academic training alone that we learn our deepest lessons." In her lectures and writings, Dr. Remen likes to tell of a sign on the wall of a room in Florida where the elderly come to play Bingo. It reads, "You Have to Be Present to Win." And so it is in life.
   
   by Duffie Bart
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. Beautiful sweet touching book that helped me get me through some tough times. Celebrates the human spirit.
   
   I recently had the privilege of hearing the author speak. she is an amazing woman.



4. For years I refused to read this book after a friend's recommendation thinking that it would be another "feel good" attempt . Boy was I wrong! This book is one of the most extraordinary pieces of writing I have ever encountered. I have read it over and over again many times (the stories are short enough that allow you to read at your own pace). It has actually become sort of a "guide to Life" for me. Furthermore, as story-telling itself goes, is simply masterful. Dr. Remen is a powerful communicator and her wisdom goes beyond "new age". It is a groundbreaking work about mystery, awe and Life with a capital "L".



5. I am presurgery and this book helps to calm me and encourage me to think positively.

2 comments about Iron & Silk (Transaction Large Print Books).

1. As a person that has studied East Asian cultural history academically for years, and a person who will be teaching China just four months from now, I found this book to be perfect. It was not written by a scholar, and I think in reality that is what makes it great. It is simply a man with a love for Asian culture, who came to be exposed to the reality of modern China. Still, even with all the hardships, his love remained. It is a testament to Americans that can see beyond the perceptions built by our own society, and also to the Chinese culture that was able to shine even under the political turmoil. Mark Salzman would not only write a wonderful book from his experience, but he also carried the beauty of wushu back to the United States, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. This book has incredible insight into Chinese culture, of course from an American perspective. There are too many good points about this book, and the movie that was produced as a result, to begin to list them here. I suggest you simply buy it and be prepared for a very enjoyable read, and maybe possibly a change in your perceptions.



2. This book, even though not written by a professional writer, tells the true life story of a martial artist and his search for a teacher. The story combines a description of China and its traditions , and the teachings of a true martial artist. It is focused on philosophy and changes the traditional view of martial arts as a violent art. It's a novel with a message.

5 comments about The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea.

1. I have read many books on the Korean war and I found this one the most difficult to read. Many grammatical errors and sentences with entire words missing.
   
   I appreciate the authors effort but feel this work should have been finely tuned by a qualified editor before publishing.



2. This book was just ok. What bothers me is that Brady gives intricate details of his life during the war, but that was almost 40 YEARS before the book was written. How could anyone remember the mundane details of life 40 years prior? It just strikes me as unrealistic.



3. I first read, "The Coldest War" when I was in the military myself.
   
   My training and duty seemed hard and long to me, but compared to what the guys in the Korean War went through, it was a cake walk.
   
   This book reads smoothly, transitioning from his training to his war time in Korea. There are several pictures of his family, himself at home and in battle, letting you really get a feel for what your reading.
   
   Good book..



4. The author recounts his time in Korea where he served as a Marine rifle platoon leader during the "Forgotten War". A very intriguing narrative about a war which claimed in 3 years almost as many American lives as the Vietnam war did in ten years.



5. I found this book to a fine novel of the Korean War.Written from the perspective of a young Marine Lt.It had grit and also some light moments.I recommend it.

5 comments about Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes (Random House Large Print (Paper)).

1. I was so disappointed in this book. Not because it was a horrible book but because it ended. I was reading the memories she had of each recipe and throughly enjoying myself when I realized that the next page that I turned was the index. I didn't want it to be over so soon. I really felt a sense of deep disappointment. I was surprised at my reaction because it was after all only a recipe book. This book pulls you in and takes you on a journey both of her life and her culinary expertise. You will get wrapped up in it as you laugh and imagine the flavors of the dishes. I think that she should write another recipe book. I'm sure that these are not the only recipes she knows. I admire Dr. Angelou both as a poet, writer, woman, and cook.



2. None comes better. The recipes are honest and measure up to the quality of the author! Props to Sister Angelou !



3. A wonderful mix of story and recipe.
   As I try these wonderful southern dishes I recall her stories and I can sense the history of the dish.
   the caramel cake is worth 10x the price of the book alone.



4. I love this cookbook. I have already tried some recipes from it. Almost three weeks passed, however, before I received it. I am very satisfied with it.



5. My daughter reproduced the same Caramel Cake that Maya made as a guest on Martha Stewart's show, for my birthday last fall...oh my gosh, it was so good!
   
   So good that I gave her Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, for Christmas.
   
   It is a warm and wonderful book, chock full of memories and yummy recipes...including the Caramel Cake.

No comments about Tea at Miss Cranston's: A Century of Glasgow Memories (Transaction Large Print Books).

5 comments about Travels With Charley: In Search of America (Thorndike Press Large Print Perennial Bestsellers Series).

1. Travels with Charley is one of my favorite books and one of the few that I have read over and over again. I want here to especially recommend the Gary Sinise reading of the book for Classics on Cassette. Sinise has played and directed in productions of other Steinbeck works, and he reads the book in an engaging manner that I suspect reflects his own love for the book. I have listened to part of the Recorded Books version on CD and enjoyed it far less. I do hope the Gary Sinise version comes out on CD soon.



2. Travels with Charlie works on many levels. As a result of one of our best writer's decision to go on a road trip with his dog in 1960, he left us with a vivid description of what he saw, as well as a good tale about a man and his dog. It has worn well and is as enjoyable for me now as it was when I read as a teenager.



3. Steinbeck seems right at home telling a good traveling story, the pleasure and interest he felt while completing this odyssey comes across in his prose. The book feels like a good story told by a friend over lunch (albeit much longer): a compilation of activities and destinations interspersed with commentary and recollection of individual interactions. This roundabout quality makes it easy to read and absorb, but at times leaves the story without a central driving theme or idea. The beginning and the end are the two sections that seem most coalesced, but at no point does the book drag.
   
   I found Travels with Charley to be a book I could spend five minutes on or an hour on and take something away. Some sections could be read straight through and not feel weary. I doubt many would want to read the book in one sitting, many parts need time to mull over and the style sometimes becomes a bit stale and I found it better to come back later when I found it fresh.



4. Steinbeck's Travels with Charley was his last book I believe. This is a memoir of John Steinbeck's drive from Long Island, New York to the tip of Maine to California and back to Long Island. Of course it's well written, as you'd expect from any Nobel Prize winner in Literature, but it also captures that turbulent time in the early 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to achieve Civil Rights and Khrushchev was banging his shoe in the United Nations.



5. In Travels with Charley, Steinbeck is on a journey to discover if he still knows the country he memorializes in almost all of his other works. Steinbeck manages to express in this memoir of his journey through America a whole host of emotions that many of us still feel today, a conflicting love for our country and disgust with our countrymen, appreciation for our past and worries about what we have become. Like all of his best works, the writing is natural, warm, and often funny. This is a beautiful book that captures America, both the good and the bad, in it's pages.

5 comments about Girl, Interrupted.

1. It's actually one of the better memoirs of recent vintage (it came out in 1993 and became a bestseller in 2000, with the film's release). Not that SK is very insightful about her `borderline personality' disorder, nor capable of extended moments of insight nor poetry, but she compensates for her lack of great craftsmanship in wordplay and sentence/paragraph construction with a daring approach to the memoir.
   
   The book, with larger than normal print, is not even 170 pages in the Vintage edition I read, and there's plenty of white space, as well as transcripts of SK's mental diagnoses within. In a sense, this sets up the piece to be quite poetic. In fact, this is where the poesy of the prose comes from, not the ability to craft gorgeous prose. Most of the few dozen `chapters' are brief- 3-4 pages is usual, and they are often dreamy or hazy recollections that sometimes briefly, violently come into focus, in describing a fellow patient's ill or death. In other chapters SK goes off rambling about mental ills, philosophy, her sexual precocity, and other things. While many of these individual reminiscences and airies fall flat, the way they are woven together and contrast with each other allow make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
   
   This synergy got me to thinking of a poetic equivalent, and the manifest answer was the long Maximus poem series by Charles Olson- another Massachusetts resident. In that poem series, one of the few `experimental' works of poetry that actually coheres and is good, CO strings together many poems about his hometown, yet each poem/stanza is, in a sense, lacking- it fails as an individual work because it is incomplete. Yet, read one after the other the incomplete figurines each `poem' makes connect up. It's like looking at a single Matissean line on a piece of tissue paper. The individual curves and twists seem random until you lay each tissue paper over the next. Then, the full, intricate, and interesting picture emerges. Such it was in CO's poem sequence, and such it is in SK's memoir- each `chapter' a single line, sometimes non-chronological, that gives a better representation of her mindset than any straightforward prose could. Interestingly, in looking up reviews of the book, I was struck by how not a single published review (at least those online) ever mentioned this, even though the form of the book jumped out at me. This is evidence of piss poor criticism. It's akin to reviewing the first edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves Of Grass, dismissing it as smutty, and not even commenting on the breakthrough structure of the free verse.
   
   There is little bitching, and poseur pity.... In short, Girl, Interrupted is a very good work, and what any memoirist should strive to achieve. The very fact that many critics criticized it for, when boiled down, not filling their conventional needs as a reader, and chose to review it against what what they wanted (expected) it to be, argues for its specialness, and I'd bet that it will be read long after Prozac Nation or A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius have gone out of print. Smile at that, Susanna.



2. This was...senseless jibberjaw..Truly that is the only word that comes to mind. The movie was wonderful, but I can see now that it was very loosely based on this book.. It took a few characters and added on to their personalities.. the book was mostly just rambling and opinions. Half of the interesting things that occured in the movie were not in this book. Those that love the movie will be greatly disapointed in this. I would also like to add, you will have in completely read in one or two sittings.



3. On the first page of her novel(?), Susanna Kaysen says she had to live for two years in a "parallel universe" when she became a patient in a psychiatric hospital. In the chapter "Elementary Topography," she poses a question, how did I get to be in here?
   The answer she gives, other than her being delusional, is that she was in a "state of contrariety." She goes on, "All of my integrity seemed to lie in saying No."
   Two other chapters bear witness to the adversarial character of her illness, "Velocity vs. Viscosity," which deals with her obsessive thought patterns, and "Mind vs. Brain:"
   "Whatever we call it--mind, character, soul--we like to think it possesses something that is greater than the sum of its neurons, and that 'animates' us."
   In yet another chapter, Kaysen derides her former therapist, who was named "Melvin," and who was to become her analyst. She acts like she tolerated him as someone imposed on her, and says that she "felt sorry for him" on account of his funny name. In an internal memo, however, a nurse reported that she experienced extreme anxiety over her therapist being absent.
   Part of Kaysen's "state of contrariety," then, must be seen in the light of an abject, back-against-the-wall helplessness caused by the mental illness. I pity Kaysen for her interrupted life. Her novel makes a compelling case for mental-illness research.
   In the Charleston County Library, >Girl, Interrupted< is located in the "Young Adult Fiction" section, which is inappropriate for such a rough, lurid story.



4. Susanna Kaysen shares an episodic account of her two-year stay in a mental institution during her late teens. She recounts the ailments and behavior which led her to the hospital, while also questioning her diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, as well as the manner in which mental illnesses are treated. In order to portray her experience and the experiences of the other young women she encountered within the institution accurately, Kaysen recounts a variety of occurrences, ranging from the grim to the lighthearted. Among Kaysen's recollections are one girl's experience with shock therapy, her own attempt to bite into her hand to ensure that she is "real," and the girls' humorous outing to an ice cream shop.
   
   Copies of Kaysen's medical records are juxtaposed against her personal accounts, often making the tone of the former documents unsettlingly cold and detached. Her personal account is often moving, and even the logic Kaysen uses to explain some of her most unusual behavior can make sense. At the same time, she strives for a relatively objective account of her interaction with mental health professionals. Kaysen presents a strong case to support her belief that the line between "normalcy" and mental illness is often muddied,--a thought she summarizes beautifully at the beginning of the book, writing that "Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco"-- without becoming overly critical of those who diagnosed and treated her.



5. Having PTSD myself from Wars and other things, I thought this was a great movie! I didn't read the book first however and normally I do but from what I gather the movie in this instance was much better than the book...
   
   I have read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and in many ways this reminded me of that, only in the setting of a female dominated one vice a male one....
   
   Maybe in the future if time permits I will read the book itself to see if the movie which I have already seen and truly thought was great stacks up...
   
   If not...
   
   It was that book which inspired the movie and it's a great movie...
   
   And mental illness isn't just something that people are born with, some times they receive it through traumatic experiences such as tragedies or war or the like...
   
   In my opinion it is something that really needs to be given far more attention than it is receiving and this movie sheds light on it like few have...
   
   Your Chance to Hear The Last Panther Speak

5 comments about Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 (Thorndike Press Large Print Nonfiction Series).

1. This is an interesting review of some history. Some of it was in high school textbooks but long forgotten. The author includes details that probably weren't in the textbooks. One aspect that I really like is the author makes links between past and present, e.g. the grandson of a person in one administration turns up in the another president's administration.
   
   It is not dense history so a history-buff probably would find it too simple. But for most of us, it is a quick read (short paragraphs) that is interesting. We can see how difficult governing really is.



2. I recommend this book be read by everybody in America-in order to learn more about some of our finest Presidents. I was educated on things that I had not learned before-FASCINATING!



3. How did Michael Beschloss get to be "America's Leading Presidential Historian?" I can only assume it is because he has a talent for getting himself on TV again & again...because it certainly isn't because of dreadful efforts such as this.
   
   Setting content aside for a moment --- how can any literate person regard this as well written? It reads like a Power Point presentation, or more specifically, like research notes which were never revised into a coherent narrative. It's hard to have narrative at all when your chapters are only 5 pages long! Suffice it to say, I found the writing to be such an irritant that I ultimately never finished the book. Life is too short to read crappy writing.
   
   As for the content itself, this is all ground which has been well-covered many times before and Beschloss' conclusions are generally quite unremarkable. When he isn't stating the obvious, Beschloss is dumbing down the subject matter to make it appear more simple than it really was.
   
   Just as an example, I would point to Andrew Jackson & the Bank War. Exactly how is this courageous? Jackson was enjoying tremendous popular support when he went in for the kill against the 2nd BUS, and he was as convinced of his own rectitude as any man ever has. Also, it is grossly inaccurate to characterize the 2nd BUS as corrupt. Nicholas may have been a ruthless autocrat, but nobody could accuse him of corruption. That label would be more accurately applied to Jackson's "pet banks" into which Jackson put government deposits, and which were largely responsible for the catastrophic Panic of 1837. Does Beschloss provide anything more than the most shallow of analysis? Of course not.
   
   I never would have purchased this in the first place, but it was part of a book club shipment which I opened by mistake, thinking that it was another (better-written) book. It was only the first of many regrets.



4. Like the rest of us, our Presidents have been flawed people -- each with his own limitations, prejudices, and conflicts. And yet, through our history, at times these men have risen above their limitations to exert extraordinary leadership: grasping a moral imperative with uncommon clarity, and finding the strength and passion to use the powers of the office to follow that imperative despite great risk to their own political fortunes -- and, in some cases, to their very lives.
   
   "Presidential Courage" tells the stories behind nine such moments of courageous leadership. In none of them is the protagonist portrayed as an all-knowing superhero. In each, we see the President wrestle with a challenge in a profoundly human way -- beset by the uncertainties, self-doubts, pride and fear that are familiar to all who struggle with a moral dilemma. In each case, the President ultimately comes to the painful decision that the right course of action is contrary to what his advisors recommend or public opinion demands. And yet he chooses to throw himself into the breach.
   
   The author's research is impressive, drawing upon unpublished papers and (for President Reagan) interviews with people who witnessed personal dimensions behind publicly reported events. As a result, the stories contain many human details that do not make it into our school curriculum or popular awareness. These details are not always flattering. Kennedy, for example, is portrayed as being dragged only reluctantly to the "right" side of the fight for racial equality. And for Truman, his own anti-semitic bias was a key obstacle that he had to overcome. But to a large degree it is precisely the humanity of the way these men struggled with -- and triumphed over -- their personal limitations that gives these stories such inspirational impact.
   
   One aspect of the book that I particularly enjoyed was the transitions between chapters. The author searches out connections between these men, suggesting almost spiritual ways in which the legacies of past Presidents have in effect enabled them to reach forward through time to inspire their successors. It gives hope that the best moments in our presidential history will yet empower future leaders, at least from time to time, to rise above their limitations to achieve great things as well.



5. I had high expectations for this book. It let me down a little. It just wasn't that engaging. Some of it is very well known like JFK's battle with civil rights. I was looking for a good analysis on the different presidents and their actions. I didn't find that. I found that Mr. Beschloss just told about the different incident but didn't offer any new insight to it. I was hoping that he would even use them to give perspective on what is happening now but he didn't. I rated this book 3 stars because he does include several presidents and topics that I was unaware of. For that it was worth my time reading it. This is a very basic book so I would recommend it to people that are wanting to learn about the presidents and their thought processes concerning major events in their presidencies.