5 comments about Let's Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series).

1. This is a surprisingly well written biography by an actor whom we thought was only a pretty face. He tells us some inside facts of his thoughts, his life and marriage and how he has grown and changed. The tittle says it all and then he fleshes it out. I'm giving this book to a lifelong friend who was a huge fan of Kirk Douglas 50-60 years ago.



2. I could not put the book down ,I had to read it from cover to cover . He is a one of a kind person It shows how you will always go back to your roots



3. I have read past books by Kirk Douglas which were much better, mainly because they told a story, and this book is mostly ramblings. It is okay to pick up and read a bit from time to time but not a book you will be engrossed in.



4. Kurt does it again. At ninety he is still feisty and funny. And his life- story which he has told in two previous books is only enriched by another retelling. He opens with the story of his ninetieth birthday party, a gala family event in which he laughs and is laughed at as well as celebrated and appreciated. The little kid from Amsterdam did not do so bad. He may have started out as a poor hungry kid robbing eggs from the neighbor's chicken coop but he with a lot of moxie and ability made it to the top of the American entertainment world. In this book which comes across as a series of small essays or talks he wanders all over the place but always interestingly. He in his long career knew a lot of remarkable people and he tells about many of his old buddies. He also in the course of this speaks about how much he misses many of them, one of the sad consequences of a very long life. He also speaks about the tragic death of his youngest son, whose grave he visits twice a week.
   Kurt did not make it the easy way. A heart attack, a helicopter crash which set him back a lot, a stroke which took his speech from him. The stroke however did not take away his will and through great effort much help he fought back to speak and think clearly again. Part of his wake- up process was a decision to explore Judaism which he had sort of forgotten about in his prime acting years ( Except for his yearly Yom Kippur synagogue visits, and the movies made in Israel which he is a staunch supporter of) His strong desire to help young people to educate them to moral dignity and lives of contributing to making a better world is also expressed here. Also he tells the story of his fifty- three year and running marriage to his second wife,Ann, and how this has been the great love story of his life.
   Kurt has guts and heart .He is a tough, caring person, who will always of course be most known for some of his remarkable performances on the screen ( Lonely Are the Brave, The Champion, Spartacus, The Clown, Lust or Life) but his works as a writer also have great entertainment and educational value.
   A wonderfully enjoyable little book by a great human being.



5. 
   You have to be tough to face your own mortality and Kirk Douglas faces it feisty, reflective, and sometimes furious. In addition to great stories from his life that he hasn't told before, this book tells of the things that, 90 years on, move his heart and his soul. I was surprised, delighted and stirred all the way through.

2 comments about A Good Enough Daughter: A Memoir.

1. I bought this book because of a review I read in"Bust" magazine, but I must say this book isn't really worth reading. I thought I might get something useful and insightful out of it since I just turned 18 and will be moving out of the house soon. Boy was I wrong. The entire story is about a woman who reviews her childhood and her parents. The only interesting thing is how she progresses from seeing her parents as just that--parents, designed to keep her caged in, to seeing them as real people with real desires, people who don't always get along and see eye to eye. I'd have to say, don't buy this book unless you're desperate.



2. This relatively short (254 pages) memoir is outstanding in the way Shulman reviews her life and learns more about those of her parents as she cleans out the home they lived in for forty years (after moving both of them to an assisted-living facility) in the prosperous suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio. She finds old letters she has written to her parents and they have written to each other. She re-explores the rooms and furnishings of the house she grew up in, couldn't wait to leave after high school graduation, and finally returns to. So well does she describe her parents that by the end of the book, following both their deaths at the retirement home, I was weeping myself, and missing her sensuous, vivacious mother, and matter-of-fact, judicious, loving father. The weakness of the book is that her relationship with her brother (actually a cousin her parents adopted after his mother died following childbirth) is very poorly described. We are told they have not had a close relationship as adults, but, aside from one episode of friction the author relates, we do not know why. When her brother dies of lung cancer, she regrets their distant relationship, but does not seem to have done much to nurture a better one while he was living.

5 comments about Between You and Me (Random House Large Print (Hardcover)).

1. Good Lord, the man is 87 years old! And still going strong! For veteran TV journalist Mike Wallace, one advantage of old age is that he who lives longest gets to write the last word. And in this, his second memoir, Wallace does precisely that. The book is promoted as a collection of his most memorable interviews, beginning with those heady days in the 1950s when he arrived on the scene...



2. I love Mike Wallace as a journalist and television broadcaster. In this book, he writes about his abundance of great memories, regrets, apologies, and encounters with celebrities like Barbra Streisand, Vanessa Redgrave CBE, Tina Turner, and Shirley Maclaine. He also writes about his encounters with mobsters, politicians, diplomats, and even Yasir Arafat in the Middle East chapter which has some great insights into Arafat's way of thinking. At first, Wallace was supposed to dislike Arafat for what he represented as terrorism but he grew to like him despite his own Jewish heritage which he separates from his journalism. Wallace knows first hand about being Jewish and writes about his encounter with Mel Brooks who mocks Adolph Hitler in the musical, "The Producers." Wallace is a hard hitting journalist who doesn't ask easy questions. This book is first rate and with it includes a dvd featuring his interviews. I wished that he included Janet Flanner in this book but I'm sure that he has volumes of materials.



3. This book provides you with insightful information on personalities who helped shape American politics and society during the past decades. The tension between the interviewer`s attempt to coax new and newsworthy revelations from the interviewed personality and the image which the latter tries to project make for fascinating reading. Great bonus:the DVD enclosed showing Wallace in action. Mike Wallace is a part of the history of political television reporting, he is in fact a part of American history.



4. Mike Wallace has been engaged in his so- called hard- hitting journalism for years. But anyone who has studied Wallace close-up knows he has engaged repeatedly in some of the most dishonest of all journalist practices. In the late eighties his crew was caught paying Palestinian youths to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers. This provided good film footage. Wallace's most recent interview which is not included in this book is a perfect illustration of the dishonesty in another way. The very same week Wallace interviewed him Ahmadinejad spoke in Iran before a screaming hystircal audience. He ranted against the United States and said how it would fall apart. But his most bitter cursings were for Israel and he repeatedly shouted to his audience , in Hitlerlike fashion 'Death to Israel'
   Now switch to the interview. Wallace says Ahmadinejad is personable , does question him about his Holocaust denial, but lets him off relatively easily. There is no mention of proposed genocide, or politicide, only that Ahmadinejad is against the 'Zionists'
   Years ago watching Wallace I noticed how insulting and aggressive he could be with those who did not share his political views.
   Edward R. Murrow he is not.



5. Who else can boast such a remarkable career - 60 years of interviewing the most fascinating, influential and interesting people on the planet! Although the behind-the-scenes "revelations" aren't particularly revealing, the book offers an entertaining and interesting look back at the cultural, political and historical changes the world has experienced during the decades of Wallace's reign as the king of interviewers.
   
   The contents are arranged in chapters grouped by the type of person Wallace interviewed: Presidents, First Couples, Race in America, The Middle East, Con Men, and other celebrities. Just about every president, and many other icons and celebrities of public life have sat across from Mike Wallace - some came across looking commendable, some a little worse for the encounter.
   
   The book is supplemented by a CD with brief clips from some of the more fascinating interviews, including Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King. Watching Wallace age throughout his career interviewing the powerful and influential is another reminder of the impact he has had and the stories he has brought to us for so many decades. He, and some of his colleagues on 60 Minutes, in many ways has defined the progress of broadcast journalism for decades. The book is as much a history lesson as a tribute to Wallace's career - well worth reading.

No comments about Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant Volume 1 (Large Print Edition).

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

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.

5 comments about Kitchen Privileges : A Memoir.

1. I read this book when it first came out and was not disappointed in the slightest. I've read every Mary Higgins Clark book ever written. They're page turners, pure and simple, with often riveting plots and always nice, dignified characters. In an increasingly nastier world, I LIKE nice :). A lovely book about how a very lovely lady came to be one of the top fiction writers, triumphing over many odds.



2. My Mother has been suffering from memory issues. We recently lucked out and found a prescription drug that has helped her focus more than she has in years. We couldn't believe it when she told us she read a book (the only book she's read in several years) that she borrowed from a friend at her Assisted Living facility. Apparently it was in large print and she loved it. I personally haven't read it, but she did pass it on to her older sister (83) and youger sister (77) and my sister 50) who all read it and said it was great. So, probably good gift idea for those form the depression era.



3. A member of my church loaned me this book and to be frank, I wasn't all that interested in it. I had never read anything by Mary Higgins Clark before, and why did a writer name her book after a kitchen anyway? I was also intent on reading the Elsie Dinsmore books, and so put this book down, thinking that I'll return it after a week or so.
   
   Two weeks passed and I finally realized that I should at least make a seventy-something woman happy by reading it and so I began reading it after reading another borrowed book, "The Secret Life of Bees" (see my review on that superb novel). From Chapter One, I was hooked.
   
   Mary Higgins Clark writes her story with charm, wit and detail. She tells us the story of her childhood in the 1940s, the death of her father, her first jobs, her marriage and the births of her five children. She discusses her dream of becoming a writer and I can relate to this. I love to write, but my work is either rubbish or incomplete or both.
   
   However, the book was very short and left me asking some questions. She's written a lot of books, but only goes into detail about writing two of them-one of which was a failure. The epilogue leaves you asking questions that she doesn't answer, especially since she devotes an entire sentence to her second, failed marriage. Wow...
   
   Despite these flaws, I am going to read Mary Higgins Clark's fictional works and see if they are as well-written as this book is. I encourage any aspiring writer to read this book.



4. The voice of Mary Higgins Clark comes through clearly to her many readers in "Kitchen Privileges." Her story-telling skills are on display as she relates the events through the decades of her life. Populating the story are family and friends, dear to her, and a theme throughout (though understated) is her warm Irish pluck, that courage that enabled her to raise five children when she was left on her own as a young widow. Clark is modest about her highly-honed writing ability; also, she never overplays her unfolding story. Instead she carries the reader along in a highly competent, yet matter-of-fact style---it's like she's
   refusing to take the role of heroine. The woman we meet in these pages is modest, immensely likable, and still young in spirit after all these years and all these best sellers. Clark's memoir deserves the highest recommendation.



5. I've been reading Mary Higgins Clark's well-woven tales of mystery since I was a little girl. I long admired and enjoyed Mrs. Higgins Clark's gift for writing entertaining mysteries with characters that still seemed like "real people". When I saw her memoir available I scooped it up immediately and read it in one afternoon. Several times I laughed out loud and cried tears of sorrow reading about her life from its humble, beautiful beginnings in the Bronx to her struggle as a young widow with five small children. I had no idea that the author had undergone such a road in her life to reach the success and fame she now well deserves. I highly reccomend this book to any Mary Higgins Clark fan, or anyone who would like to read an account of a resourceful, tender on the inside, tough as nails on the outside lady. Bravo!

5 comments about John Glenn: A Memoir (Random House Large Print (Paper)).

1. Excellent biography of a space pioneer. You will enjoy this book, even though the author went to the "dark side" later in life. At least he interjects very little of his liberal bias into the book.



2. Absolutely my hero. I was (-1) when he flew his first flight, and love all of the Mercury Astronauts. John Glenn is the finest example of the GOOD that this country can produce. If there were more men like him, we would be weaned off of oil, and would have maintained our preeminence in the world as a respected country- instead of living off of the labors of our fathers without much contribution. It is interesting that John Glenn is the oldest of the Mercury 7, yet has managed to outlive almost all of them (as of Jan 19, 2008) except for Scott Carpenter!
   
   Please read this book, and discover the possibilities that a disciplined life and an honest-to-goodness sincere human being can give.



3. * There is a great story to be told about John's life and this book does a decent, straightforward job.
   * The writing isn't perfect, but it works...especially in audiobook format, where the author presents the material
   * There are no revalations here. It seems like a Disney version of his life at times, but it is an enjoyable read.



4. A great story and I am glad that I read it. However, my admiration for Glenn would have been far higher had I stopped a hundred or so pages from the end. Getting reacquainted with Glen as a young man, Marine fighter pilot and then astronaut was to see the very best. In addition to all his accomplishments his relationship with his wife was a great tribute to those left behind.
   
   Glenn's story of becoming a Marine fighter pilot through sheer resolve was enlightening. His flying in the Pacific during and after WW2 was an interesting look at the era, as was the description of their flying in China when Stilwell was attempting to get the communists to live up to their agreements. Finally the Vietnam like escape from China by train with Glen and his fellow Marine pilots providing low air cover.
   
   Too soon after the end of WW2 we were back in Korea and Glenn is in the front seat, flying both Marine ground attack aircraft and USAF Sabres. Again Glenn does his tour of duty with the Marines and then arranges to fly Sabres against the Migs.
   
   Within a few years after Korea the Russians were overhead with Sputnik and the world changed again. Glenn's description of the initial testing of the astronauts adds some interesting insights.
   
   Although the book was presumably written in its entirety after his return from space, the man changes with his election to the Senate. Perhaps the changes are even appearing in his post mortem on his campaigns. Most of the blame is shifted away from the leader.
   
   Later as the book covers his years in the Senate the change continues. While he literally demanded that his fellow astronauts give up their road romances because they were both wrong and threatened the public's support of the program. However a few years after hanging out with Bill Clinton the book suddenly offers the standard Clintonian spin that what people do behind their bedroom doors is not public. What is even more amazing is that Glenn seems to gloss over his critical role in protecting Clinton from being removed from office after he was impeached.
   
   Glenn does off the tidbit that while he and John McCain were deemed to not be involved with the Keating scandal, his fellow democrats would not acknowledge that because to release Glenn they would have to release McCain and then they would have only democrats ( Cranston et al) left. Having been advised that Keating was under criminal investigation Glenn ( unlike McCain) maintains a relationship and even hosts a private lunch for Keating in his office. All of this is covered in the book with a little too much self serving cover to earn the respect of the reader.
   
   Glenn the Marine officer would have been outraged if the generals had summoned his career enlisted personnel and asked them why they were complaining about the performance of an airplane made by a friend. Yet Glenn sees none of the destructive impact of 5 senators demanding that a civil servant appear to explain why a major donor is being investigated. A sad transition.
   
   Glenn blames his campaign organization for failing him in his run for the presidency after he was a leading contender among the democrats. If you can't run your own campaign staff how are you going to run the nation?
   
   I agree with the prior writer that Glenn's return to space was a pure and simple reward by Clinton for his having taken the heat. A sad ending to an otherwise heroic life of great accomplishments.
   
   Recommended but be prepared for a letdown at the end.



5. After seeing "The Right Stuff" I became intrigued with the Mercury Seven astronauts and wanted to read everything I could about them and when I saw John Glenn's autobiography I immediately snatched it up and pored through the pages! What a great and exciting life John lived! Poring through the pages I hung on every word and lived his experiences vicariously as he described them...I can only imagine how he felt when he was picked to be one of the 7 Mercury astronauts...He was in a elite group that was beginning to embark on a major adventure into a new frontier...How exciting that must have been! John's book to me was better than the movie..He talks bout his childhood days and test pilot years and ends with a wonderful passage on flying back into space again at the ripe old age of 77..What an inspiring book! If you are looking for inspiration..pick this book up and read about ambition and hard work and focus ande see what all these things can do for your life! John...thanks for being a great role model!

5 comments about The Lord God Made Them All (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. I think we've all heard of ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL. The book was brilliantly written in every way, and I thought that was that. But then he wrote a sequel, and I marveled that it was at least as great as the original. Then he did it to me again with a third book. The titles come from a famous poem or hymn, by the way. He used the second verse, for the creatures, then the first, then the third, and now we're at the fourth.
   
   I'm going to say it again. I believe I'm enjoying this one most of all. All the humor, all the spot-on accurate observation of animals, of both the four-legged and the two-legged variety. And, I'm feeling this time, a maturity in the veterinarian, the author, and the person. He still has the ability to write a chapter so touching or sad that I stop and wipe my eyes, and then read a few more so I can laugh before I put the book away for the evening.
   
   So I've read four in a row by this guy, and they all get five stars. I ordered all of mine from Amazon, but you in "the west" can probably just swing by your local library. Do so.



2. I read his books as a teen and loved them. Bought the whole set for my grandsons, [teens]. They laughed until they cried. [so did I].



3. I was verey satisfied with the whole process of ordering
   on-line and I will continue buying books this way.



4. As an animal lover, if I were to be restricted to a single author on my bookshelves, it would be James Herriot, hands down. All four books by James Herriot, The English Country Veterinarian, comprise a collection of stories that remain unsurpassed in all animal literature.



5. In this fourth edition you will have everything you are use to in a James Herriot book. Eccentric pet owners, nutty business partners, fun loving animals, and the author who reveals his heartfelt love and admiration for the animals he cares so deeply for. Only the souless few won't be touched by these humorous stories of animal and human interactions. Mr. Herriot shows just how much better the world is because of the animals who inhabit our daily lives.

5 comments about Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives).

1. With this book, the ever succinct Bill Bryson exposes how little we know and can know about one of the world's most recognized figures. The writer left only a few bland papers, wills and court fillings. His time left some engravings, some diaries. Of course, there are the plays themselves and the sonnets, mined for biography by many. Much of what is commonly believed is conjecture or invention from a sense of "had to be" that only started long after his death with each generation adding, not examining prior imaginings. Our need to know a man of such influence and the absence of first hand accounts forced their creation and promoted their endurance.
   
   That great bald head. Every one of the three - and there are only three - portrayals of him are open to question. Was this or that lord his patron or do we just repeat the opinions of biographers writing long after his death? Ever look over the new globe theatre in London, the "reproduction" of Shakespeare's original? One, just one, image of a theatre like it survives. Not it, of one just like it and so you looked around what? And Bryson even finds space for the line of strangely named enthusiasts who believed someone else wrote Shakespeare, that a man from backwater Stratford had no business exploring humanity.
   
   This small book shows once again that the most interesting of history is the making of history itself, exposing her process, that showing how little we can know is the greatest gift of the truly inquisitive.



2. Bill Bryson is more or less superman in today's literary world. He transcends subjects in a single bound and the globe in another. He's a talented critic, writer and humourist. It's a good job, to use modern vernacular, that he's the daddy because, with this one, he's taken on the mother of all literary subjects.
   
   He's done so wisely. He's not attempted to become an original researcher and posit new theories about the man's identity or his plays and other works. He has essentially evaluated and sumamrised the existing state of Shakepearian debate and study, providing his own critique of what is compelling and credible. Thankfully, Bryson was born without a 'boredom gene' and the book reaches any audience, reading so easily. The man does not do dull.
   
   Typically, Bryson's prose is litered with diverting and revealing anecdoes, we get a potted physical history of the theatre alongside the exposition of the central figure. Bryson is expert at demonstrating the lack of hard information about Shakespeaare (I spelled that incorrectly, but then, so did the Bard...) and the vulnerability about the claims and surmises made about his life and character. That will no doubt ruffle feathers. I found it interesting to learn that Shakespeare had thieved so many of his stories from others. As also did I find the battle for written English over Latin. The fact there were lost plays is new to me too. So to non-Shakespeare scholars this offers a lot.
   
   To those who are scholars I am not sure it will be depthy enough to satisfy but they are not the prime audience I'd suppose. Bryson's great economy of expression, wit and clarity mean he is less self-indulgent in this book than perhaps any other of his that I have read (which is all but one, that being the African diaries). Although always near the surface, his trademark wit is less in evidence, reserved for a full scale assault on those who feel Shakespeare was somebody else. That business is clearly a cottage industry and I know Bryson has trodden on somebody else's cucumbers here by reason of the ridicule he heaps on the alternate theories.
   
   It is a short book. There could have been more. But how much more was truly needed? And at whatever point should he have stopped on an almost inexhaustible subject populated by many including purists and pedants? Nevertheless one gets the impression he made a judgement about the length that possibly excluded a little more hard work examining various omissions from the life of the Bard and those who knew or worked with him.
   
   Bryson's book has one central curiosity. It is really the oppositite of a biography - more a book about what we don't know than what we do - and that is refreshing in itself. I think he's done a first rate job here given how well aired the subject is.
   
   And for his next trick...?
   
   Incidentally, the title I gave to this is a quote from one of the Bard's plays and seems to convey Bryson's attitude to much of the literature he discovered!



3. This is a brief, but very enjoyable and elegant read by someone who obviously loves this subject and its environment.
   
   Bill Bryson gives this question of Shakespeare's identity a pretty good shot. There is apparently no definitive answer as to whether he was simply himself, someone else under a pseudo name, or several people under the same pseudo name. Even his portrait that we know him by is questionable. We do get interesting little glimpses of the times and the life of the person who purported to be Shakespeare. We also get glimpses of the stir that Shakespeare created with his work. How could one person, a country person at that, be so sophisticated and knowledgeable about so many important things? His work is so revered that it is studied for authentication purposes almost like biblical manuscripts. Shakespeare, in a word, seems to have created his own weather.
   
   Sometimes the things that surround something or someone are as exciting as the thing itself



4. Several reviewers have taken this book to task for what it is not. It is not a scholarly book and was not intended to be. It is part of the "Eminent Lives" series. The publishers tout the series as consisting of "succinct" essay-like books intended to be "short biographies for an age short on time." No book in the series (that I have seen) has any significant scholarly apparatus. They allow well-known writers to relate the basic facts of an "eminent" person's life and give their take on the person to the extent they think appropriate. They are like the serious essays you can find in magazines like the "New Yorker" but longer. This book fits the series's pattern.
   
   The book relates all that is actually known about Shakespeare, points out the many things that are not known and touches on the major problem areas, including the authorship controversy. Like Jack Webb on the old "Dragnet" TV show, Bryson pretty much keeps to "just the facts" but does note many of the areas of speculation in which Shakespeare students routinely indulge. He does all this in a smooth and flowing prose and with energy and wit.
   
   The book has no index, no scholarly footnotes and only a minimal bibliography of a few secondary sources. There is evidently little or no documentary research, although Bryson obviously read what books he should and interviewed a number of knowledgeable people for the book. He takes no position on any of the controversies except the question of authorship, on which he is a firm Stratfordian. The book is strictly about Shakespeare's life, however, and makes almost no effort to discuss the poems and plays as works of literature. Couldn't do that and keep it short.
   
   This is an excellent book for someone who wants to begin to learn about Shakespeare's life and (to some extent) his times. And it is a fun fast read for those who want a handy and short summary of what is known and what some of the problems are.



5. When Bill Bryson is going to tackle a subject like William Shakespeare, you know that it is going to informative and very funny, an excellent combination. In his usual wry style Bill Bryson tries to unravel fact and fiction about Shakespeare's life, time and works. Because of the scarcity of facts, people have over the ages made up whole stories based on no evidence whatsoever. Also, there was (and is) a strong movement that Shakespeare's plays were not written be Shakespeare, because they consider him too much of a country yokel to write about the sophisticated topics covered in his plays. Bill bryson describes the times in which Shakespeare was alive, including the way in which theaters and plays were run, and makes a convincing case for not over-fantasizing, but also a realistic believe that Shakespeare has actually existed. A very readible book that combines fact and humor in a very pleasant way.