5 comments about Slash.

1. Rock documentaries are my husbands lastest thing. He went from a man that does not like to read to reading these type of books daily. "Slash" is a good read. Packed full of juicy stories. A must read!



2. Amazon delivered Slash book to me in just a few days, and the payment was ok too. I love the book because it's very interesting,I recommed it because it's great and easy to read. It had interesting things that people would like though they are not Slash's fan.He is showing us what great he is. Thanks, Amazon, to give me the possibility of read this book. It's hard to find a page like Amazon that deliver this book to my country (Argentina).



3. This isn't one of your boring autobiographies. The book progresses from Slash's early childhood to his current status in life, and it's entertaining every step of the way. Slash shares moments of triumph as well as humiliating incidents, and tells us stories of many of the celebrities he's met over the years. He also answers the questions running through the minds of all Guns N Roses fans: What happened? Could it have been avoided? I'd recommend this book for any GNR fan. Damn near 500 pages, and not one was boring.



4. I enjoyed this book. He tells his story in a simple, honest, and humble manner. No boasting or bridge burning. He is obviously deeply disappointed with the demise of the original line up for GnR but he doesn't scream about it or come off as bitter and twisted. I believe what he has to say regarding the reasons for the breakup: Axl was an inconsiderate member of the band who is both unapologetic for his inconsideration and incapable of realizing how important it is to be considerate when interacting with other human beings.
   
   Axl humiliated the entire band and organization by refusing to show up for gigs on time. There were innumerable times he did not take to the stage until HOURS after the band was scheduled and ready to go on. This did not happen once or twice or a few times here and there. It happened many times and Axl refused to apologize or even explain what the hell his reasoning was for keeping tens of thousands of fans waiting for him to show up and sing some rock n' roll.
   
   Slash does NOT slam Axl in this book. He merely lays out the simple and indisputable facts about Axl's arrogance, narcissism, greed, tyrannical inclinations, and his grossly un-brotherly & inconsiderate treatment of his fellow band mates. To his further credit, Slash praises Axl's talent as a lyricist, song writer, and lead vocalist. He conveys a sense of deep sorrow that the two of them could not remain friends or band mates.
   
   Read this book and you will no longer wish that the original GnR reunite. You will be glad that Axl has had so much difficulty with his version of the "new & improved" GnR. His thoroughly ill treatment of the original line up is enough to not only turn your stomach but put you off from ever looking again at any of those old GnR videos & concerts. You cannot watch them without seeing what an absolute piece of excrement that Axl Rose was towards his band and their audience.
   
   When this book was published, Scott Weiland was still part of Velvet Revolver. He has since left the band and one hopes with all of one's heart that Slash and the band ask Eric Dover to join them as lead vocalist. Eric doesn't have the same front man presence as Axl, but he sings a helluva lot better than him and you can bet he won't be refusing to go on stage on time.
   
   As for Slash's drug use: He talks about it in a refreshingly unrepentant manner. He does not come off moralistic or preachy. He does not look down his nose at anyone. His attitude is similar to that of Bill Hicks: He had a fun time in the debauchery and survived it and that's that. No apologies for having fun with crack, heroin, ecstasy, and OxyContin. None needed. He's been there, done that, and now he's a dad with two sons whom he adores and wants to raise in a healthy way.
   
   If you liked the original GnR as much as I did, then you must read this book. It is easy to read and Slash's voice and manner are on every page. He speaks without any pretentiousness and drives home the point that he loves being a road hog and a working musician and is not interested in being anything or anyone else. He loves himself, his family, his talent, his friends, and his life. He is a good egg with a good heart. The man deserves his success.
   
   Thanks for having the balls to write this , Slash. The current list of band bios about GnR are nauseatingly frivolous and unforgivably sensationalistic. They do not enlighten the reader; they merely obscure the truth with rumours and misspoken anecdotes.
   
   This book was fun to read!



5. Let me start by saying I am a huge Slash/GnR fan. I loved Slash's stories behind all the GnR songs and his take on Axl being Axl and the last band tours. My beef is with the editing and fact checking. I am shocked by how much of it is wrong! Just small examples like Slash and Renee being married at the Four Seasons in Marina Del Rey (it's a Ritz) and getting Fred Coury's name wrong (it is mentioned at least 1/2 dozen times as Curry). There are several other wrong or inconsistent details, enough for it to distract me and wonder what else was incorrect in this book. Again, that being said, I did enjoy the book would recommend it. I just wish the publishers would take the time to put out a better quality book. Nikki Sixx's book was really so much better quality even though it is a totally different style.

5 comments about Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag.

1. You can almost think the writer is a woman the way he writes passionately about Birkin bags! You come to learn however, there is no emotional connection: purely sales. Michael is a great writer, weaving wonderful stories amongst the Birkin-buying mayhem. The fact that this is a true story was even better. I recommend this book to anyone who loves travel/shopping/laughing. But beware: you'll want to jump on the first plane to Barcelona after you've read it!



2. Wow! Recently I decided to read books that don't fit my personality. A friend of mine gave me this book because it was a "good read." I'm not that into shopping but I was hooked from chapter 1 to the point where I honestly started reading the book one Saturday at 11am and finished it that night by 11pm. I didn't want to put it down because everytime I decided to do something important like, bathe or eat, there was another loop that I had to ride. I felt like I was able to enjoy a world of fashion, food and culture that I'm not often exposed to or can't always afford to experience all from the confines of my home. I felt like traveling to all the places mentioned, sipping from a few of those wine glasses and I actually wanted to be friends with the hero. Most of all it made me want to pursue those little things that I don't think are such a "big deal," or probably "won't turn into anything," this book took me on a mini vacation that I never expected to go on. Even sweeter, there are moments that made me melt. LOVED IT!!



3. This is not normally the type of book that I would read (non-fiction, fashion related), but I loved it. I couldn't put it down in parts, because I couldn't wait to see how the situations that he found himself in turned out. He brings you along for the adventure, and also adds his funny (and sometimes sarcastic) commentary, which I loved. Definitely a fun book to read.



4. An exciting, fast-paced, laugh-out-loud romp through the bizarre world of the modern day bazaar. Truly a fascinating voyeuristic peek into the intersection of an internet based business & the weird characters obsessed with outrageously high priced fashion items.
   
   This is NOT just a book about fashion. I believe you'll enjoy the book if you are interested in : money, business, the internet and.... (oh yeah) $30,000 purses.



5. Bringing Home the Birkin is an excellent book -- very well-written, witty, and fun! This book would be a great pick to bring on a trip or vacation, or just to relax with at home, as it is a smooth and enjoyable read from beginning to end. The world of luxury goods (specifically, Hermes) is explored during one man's adventures as he travels the world purchasing Hermes goods and reselling them to (quite interesting!) clients on Ebay. Anyone picking up a copy of this book is sure to enjoy it.

5 comments about Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me.

1. Very good book here. Really good stories of clapton and harrison. The funnything i took away from this was that , even the greatest guys go thru depression and experience the sames things that we all face. Sometimes, in life, what you think you need is not often what is best for you. As patty proves at the end of the book.



2. I was drawn to WONDERFUL TONIGHT--written and read by Pattie
   Boyd--by its subtitle: GEORGE HARRISON, ERIC CLAPTON, AND
   ME . . . I thought to myself that I had heard of those guys; in fact, I
   had grown up listening to much of their music.
   
   Yet I had not followed their personal lives all that closely, nor had
   I known too much about Boyd other than the fact that she had been
   married to both Harrison and Clapton.
   
   It turns out that she was more than just their respective wives . . . she
   was also their muse, having inspired Harrison's classic "Something"
   and "Layla," Clapton's rock anthem.
   
   In addition, she lived a fascinating life . . . WONDERFUL TONIGHT
   explores it in vivid detail, including this recollection of her first real
   encounter with Clapton:
   
   * It was a sweet, turbulent life, but one that would take an
   unexpected turn, starting with a simple note that began
   "dearest l."
   
   I read it quickly and assumed that it was from some weirdo;
   I did get fan mail from time to time. . . . I thought no
   more about it until that evening when the phone rang. It was
   Eric [Clapton]. "Did you get my letter?" . . . And then
   the penny dropped. "Was that from you?" I said. . . . It
   was the most passionate letter anyone had ever written me.
   
   Unfortunately, Boyd had her share of heartaches . . . her
   childhood was interrupted by the divorce of her parents,
   both her famous husbands cheated on her, and she was also
   abused by Clapton . . . to her credit, she managed to turn
   her life around and since has become a well-respected
   photographer.
   
   The author broke a 40-year period of silence with this book . . I'm glad
   she did . . . do read or listen to it if you want to know more about
   the music scene of the 1960s and 70s.



3. I had heard tidbits about how Eric Clapton "stole" George Harrison's beautiful wife, Patti Boyd before, and I was curious about how that happened and...then what? Happily ever after? No, no. Patti gives us the whole story, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the world of rock and roll musicians. The relationship interplays, the emotions, the disappointment over songs that don't "make it." The stories behind the creation of some unforgettable songs, and the personalities and friendships of the people we see only as public figures. After I read this book, I read "Clapton" and got a perspective from that side of the story. Fascinating and, well, "lovely." Well worth the read.



4. A story well told. Patty Boyd has had quite a life and does a wonderful job sharing her story. I've always wondered what life with the Beatles was like and she gives great details. The rock n'roll lifestyle (life with Eric Clapton) may not be everyone's dream after-all. Her story was well told and left me wanting more. I enjoyed every moment I spent reading her book.



5. I really enjoyed this book about Pattie's life. It starts off with the background of her family which I always find fascinating. She didn't have the greatest childhood, but she sure made up for it as an adult! Thanks to this book,when I hear George Harrison and Eric Clapton songs, I think of the background stories she told about some of these songs. Great insight on what it was like to be up-close and personal with two talented musicians and their friends and family.

5 comments about 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy.

1. Charla Muller's epigraph for 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy is from dramatist Jean Anouilh: "To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows." Out of its context, Anouilh's quotation summarizes Charla Muller's attitude toward marital sex: It's a chore and a bore. That is why, on the occasion of her husband's 40th birthday, she, in the spirit of self-sacrifice, offers him what she calls "The Gift"--sex every day for the next year. After pages of overwrought mutual analysis about the implications, Brad Muller accepts. In one short chapter, the reader is introduced to what seems to be the most passionless marriage on the planet.
   
   The rest of 365 Nights (give or take a few--mustn't have sex during menstruation, for example) rarely delves into sex or even intimacy, physical or emotional. Our most penetrating look into the Mullers' sex life comes when Charla says, "Wow, that was really nice" (or "yummy") and Brad says, "Could you pretend you're enjoying it?" to which Charla replies, "How 'bout you just close your eyes." Between these flashes of profound love, Charla tirelessly fills the reader in on her rather narrow view of relationships, marriage, parenting, being a working mother (she works two days a week), and how giving her husband what he wants ("The Gift") has somehow made them stronger as a couple. It's not the intimacy itself that seems to bring them closer together, but the sense of sacrifice and the willingness to work to overcome the obstacles--not only Charla's dislike of sex (which she seems to believe she shares with every married mother), but logistics such as work, children, activities, and the need for private time.
   
   Perhaps married women with children who see their husbands as "sperm donors" and "providers," as Charla writes of some of her friends, will relate to her and her view of love, marriage, and life. Undoubtedly, many will find that she validates the sexual ennui that can set in during any long-term relationship. From my single, childless perspective, she offers no insights, not even as to the underlying reasons she makes every effort to avoid sex with the man she loves and why getting ready for sex means, "I just continue lying there" (prompting her husband to say, "Could you pretend you're interested in this?").
   
   When the year of "The Gift" is over, Brad seems happy because he will continue to get sex more frequently (although not every day), and Charla is happy because her husband is more content and her marriage is more solid--and, to me, as free of passion as ever. Charla writes about some of the benefits of sex--it provides exercise and offers improved communication for example (she likes to talk to Brad about the mundane during the act, we learn). She mentions greater emotional intimacy, but she doesn't convey it or what it means. She touches on the surface of the issues, but is unable or is afraid to say anything meaningful beyond the obvious. While she lies back and gives "The Gift," she cannot bring herself to mention that she finds any physical pleasure or emotional joy in the act itself (other than that it's "nice"). She and Brad seem to be well suited to each other, but they could be brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables for all the passion shown in their marriage--with or without sex.
   
   Charla's perky style is annoying, and her values, which she assumes we all share, are painfully shallow. She disdains ugly mini-vans (and her beloved children's energy future) in favor of a "cool" SUV. A "polite feminist," she believes that it's a "rule" that women, and now men, must pluck their eyebrows (and any other hair that doesn't meet her concept of perfect grooming and appearance). She is surprised to learn she is pregnant after just a couple of months, calling herself "very fertile" (what does this make Brad?) and making one wonder if she never learned the reasons that contraception became such a hot topic for 19th century women. She abhors the idea of aging naturally and fantasizes about "slight tweaking" through plastic surgery until Brad says, "What will she [daughter] think if she sees her mother conforming to these bizarre societal standards?"--standards to which Charla would have us all make every effort to conform.
   
   Charla presents herself as someone you should want to chat with over coffee about the vicissitudes of married suburban life; indeed, that's how this book came about. I couldn't. It's more than her overuse of words like "nice," "gal," and "girls" (this from a "polite feminist") or the wearisome banality of her endless reflections. She's one of those people--we all know at least one--who prattle nonstop without saying anything, leaving one feeling tired and empty--or energized, if that is your sort of thing.
   
   365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy could have been a compelling story, but it would take a more interesting and thoughtful person than Charla Muller to grasp the topic and its nuances and to do it the justice it deserves.



2. I thought it was a great idea what she did, and I was really excited to read this book. But it was so boring! She barely talked about the sex, and rambled on and on about how she likes to cook, about her life, and barely discussed the impact the gift made on their sex life. I read the first half, felt bored to tears, and skipped to the epilogue where I got the gist of the entire book. The only reason she gets 2 stars for this book is because I loved the idea behind the gift and thought it was gutsy that she then wrote a book about it. I just wish the book had had more oomph.



3. This is a good book... exactly what you think it would be. It's not written by a Ph.D. or anything... just a wife telling about her year of sex. I guess it can be inspiring to a woman who wants to help her sex life. Dont let your husband read it or he'll want the gift of sex every day.



4. What's the 2nd largest complaint men make about the woman in their life? (Most women know the first is they don't "get" enough.) - Most men find women confusing. (Face it ladies, most of us do think the men in our lives should be able read our minds after a number of years.)
   
   Charla Muller offers an insider's look at the realities of "married with children" in an honest, light-hearted, shoot from the hip style. I had so many "hey-that's me" moments that I lost count after the first chapter. Read this book ladies and you will find out that you are not alone. Give this book to your husband and you may find they understand you just a bit better.
   
   The best relationship book since Men Are From Mars and Women are From Venus!



5. It's got positive energy about it, positive concepts and overall it's about a style of living rather then about sex of love. If someone wants a detailed how-to guide - this is not it. The book goes as a diary starting with a conversation between the author and her husband, which leads into some funny anecdotes about experiences in her life that impacted who she is today and therefore what she brings into her marriage.
   To go more into a self help book about this topic i will highly recommend I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't

5 comments about All over but the Shoutin'.

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 A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL.

1. Even the most dedicated fan of the National Football League (NFL) can't possibly know what goes on "behind the curtain." Most of us know only what we see on Sundays or what we read in Monday's newspaper. Sure, we think we know our favorite players and all their foibles. You can lay all that aside after reading this book.
   
   Stefan Fatsis suceeds in infiltrating the most sacred of grounds: the NFL locker room and the strange world that surrounds it. We get a glimpse of what it is like to know that your very job hinges on the next play in training camp. Players come and go like the tides. Coaches rule like tyrrants and the pecking order among them becomes painfully evident. So does the stress created in this bubbling cauldron they call professional football.
   
   Reading about the personalities of the players--from the lowly undrafted rookie free agent to the highest paid super-star--reminds us that these people are only human. In fact, Fastis' colorful writing creates a word picture that surely is the way these players really are. Some are real characters, some are sad reminders of how cruel life can be. I found myself identifying with one partiular play and this gave me great insight into my own place in life.
   
   It must be terribly frustrating to be a professional football player, where the glamor of game day gives way to utter despair when the "turk" comes to visit.
   
   The only downside I see with this book is that it is so captivating that I let my usual workload pile up while I sat glue to the book. Oh, well.
   
   Stefan Fatsis provides a ticket to a game seldom of us see--the game withing the game. Though he stands only 5 feet 8 inches, this work is gigantic. May all of his kicks in life sail thorugh the uprights.



2. I have been a huge Broncos fan for many years, and when I saw this book was being printed I ordered a copy right away. I think I was looking for a book that would give some real insight into what a player goes through to play in the NFL, and I was anxious to read about interesting things involving the Broncos. This book provides only small amounts of both.
   
   First off, I must give the author credit for having the guts and determination to train and participate in the Broncos' training camps. He does give some glimpses into what life is like for players trying to make the team, and he gives slightly more detailed descriptions about some of the individual players he interviewed. But most of his book seems to focus on himself and his efforts to perform like an NFL kicker. After a while it gets boring reading about him practicing, missing kicks, wanting to perform better, standing around watching others practice, wanting to kick in a preseason game, whining because the NFL won't let him play in an exhibition game, blah, blah, blah. I would much rather have read more about the other players and what trying out, training, and/or playing for the NFL was like for them.
   
   If you are a die-hard Broncos fan you may enjoy reading most of this book just to read about some of the players with whom you are surely familiar. Anyone else will likely get bored after the first 40 pages or so.



3. Jason Elam, the Broncos' most successful place kicker described a kicker's experience in the NFL as "hours and hours of boredom surrounded by a few seconds of panic."
   
   A few seconds of panic set in the moment I realized Mr. Fatsis was barred by the NFL from participating in even a pre-season game. A few more seconds of panic followed as I read Mr. Fatsis' bitter and unjustified complaints about why the NFL was steadfast in its refusal to allow him to kick in a pre-season game. According to Mr. Brian McCarthy, an NFL PR personnel, "people are paying seventy, ninety, a hundred and twenty dollars and then having someone from off the street come in - it could have the appearance of an exhibition, which we fight. I wouldn't use the word joke, but..." In response, and a shameful one at that, Mr. Fatsis proceeds to call the NFL a fraud for forcing fans to buy tickets to pre-season games, and a joke because all the run-ins NFL players have had with the law and the criminals who are allowed to play. Yet, he, who has worked "assiduously" for months to prepare for this glorious moment is made to feel like a joke.
   
   Granted, Mr. Fatsis worked assiduously to play in the NFL, but he also assiduously shanked balls in practice, particularly during moments of pressure when players and fans were watching. Mr. Fatsis' length of experience in place kicking didn't extend beyond a few months. By his own admission, he was missing thousands of hours of repetition and observation that transforms athletes into experts. Just why he felt like he was so deserving of a chance to play in the NFL is baffling.
   
   Whereas in "Word Freak", Mr. Fatsis' participation in Scrabble and ultimately his rise to the rank of "expert" made the book a delightful read, in "A few seconds of panic", everything but his participation in Football took centerstage.
   
   "A Few Seconds of Panic" provides a glimpse of "what players endure to get there, and what they experience once they arrive. And it revealed the deep disconnect between what fans see on gameday and what happens the rest of the week.", but it fails to deliver on its promise of showcasing the efforts of an average Joe playing with the pros.



4. Wall Street Journal sports writer and uber-nerd Stefan Fatsis does a latter day George Plimpton as he becomes a 40-something place kicker for the Denver Broncos. What results is an absorbing on the inside narrative of what it is like playing in the NFL.
   
   Fatsis doesn't exactly have us (or at least me) feeling sorry for these athletes, but he portrays the grinding monotony, pain and job insecurity of a system that is always reminding the players of their expendability. Of course, mostly these guys are getting paid six or seven figures to put up with such hassles.
   
   Fatsis is a superb writer. (If you haven't read his book WORD FREAK on the world of elite Scrabble, you owe it to yourself to do so!)
   
   Whether you are a Denver Bronco fan or not is beside the point. If you enjoy pro football, you will find "A Few Seconds of Panic" a tasty delight!
   
   Fatsis kicks it straight through the uprights here....



5. In "A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL," Stefan Fatsis chronicled his journey to become a professional kicker for the Denver Broncos. Fatsis, a journalist with the Wall Street Journal, wanted to know how it was like to be a professional football player, and the Denver Broncos agreed to let him participate in their training camp. One of the things he learned was that he needed to kick like a kicker, and not like a soccer player. Fatsis provided insightful information about how it was like to be a kicker in the NFL.
   
   What I like most about "A Few Seconds of Panic" is that the author was able to show the "human" side of the players. Most of the time, we learned about the players from a statistical point of view, but we don't know much about the intense pressure that they faced, or how competitive the sport really is. The author also focused on the players we don't usually read about such as the fourth string quarterback or the third string kicker. In addition, Fatsis provided an insider view of the organization, from the perspectives of a player and a reporter. The author was able to cover the team in a comprehensive manner that makes this book such a delight to read. "A Few Seconds of Panic" is highly recommended for those who are curious to know how it's like to be a NFL player, and to learn more about the workings of a professional football organization.

5 comments about Black Like Me.

1. Before there was comic "Soul Man" etc., there was this 50's investigative memoir about a white male 'passing' as a black man to 'experience' black culture. Also, try Philip Roth's "The Stain" movie and book based on a real life BM passing for WM.



2. This book is the account of a white man, named John Howard Griffin, who turned himself black to study the real extent of racism. It starts out with his experiences in New Orleans as a black man. He knew about some of the things that are done to black people, but didn't know the full extent of how much white people try to degrade the sense of value or self-worth of all black people. He experiences having to walk miles ot get a drink of water, working for hours and having just eough money to eat that day, and the whites attempts at lowering all black's self worth, including the "hate stare." However, New orleans is relatively nice for Bkacks. When he reads that in Mississippi there was a lynching case the FBI had found tons of evidence for and the White grand jury wouldn't even open the packet of evidence. The mississippe folks claimed they had wonderful relationships with the Negros. Griffin had even met some of them before, and talked about there relationships with the Negros. He saw a whole new side of them when he went as a black man. He was horrified at how inhumanely people could treat other people and shares very insightful thoughts ion what racism was really like.
   
   I would highly reccomend this book for someone to read, although it's not for younger children. it''s more for tenns and audults. It has a plethora of large words that some with smallish vocabularies might not understand. Otherwise this is one of the best boos I have ever read and I highly reccomend you read it.



3. Though approaching the fiftieth anniversary of the events in this book, reading BLACK LIKE ME today shows both the inroads America has made towards erasing the blight of racial intolerance, as well as the limits that America has in truly educating itself about all kinds of Hate. Indefensible Hate still exists here, and there is no indication that it will make as great a stride in the next fifty years as it has in the last fifty.
   
   Without question, this book should be required reading for all teenagers (and adults) across the country. To understand another's perspective is the first, primary step in eradicating intolerance. This book (which is a slight bit didactic at points) is the remarkable journey of a man who bothered to really try to understand the life of the black man in the American South as best as he could. Of course he could never truly KNOW, but he certainly took pains to do what he could to understand the experience better than anyone before.
   
   Students (eighth-graders) in my Honors Language Arts class are required to read this book, and I hope they will discover from where we as a nation have traveled. Those who easily bandy about epithets or think unkind thoughts about others (whether because of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, or ability) might get an honest sense of perspective by taking the trip with John Howard Griffin.
   
   Better yet, after reading this book, ask yourself these questions (and I will ask my students): "If given the opportunity to change my appearance so dramatically as to appear to be from a different race for six weeks, would I do it? What would I fear going into it? Suppose I was told after four weeks that it was impossible to change back; how would it make me feel?"
   
   For a country that falsely prides itself on equality for all, I believe that our conversations about racial equality are sorely lacking in our public dialogue. BLACK LIKE ME would be an excellent place to start a meaningful conversation.



4. Originally published in 1961, Black Like Me is the account of how white journalist John Howard Griffin had his skin medically darkened and traveled through the Deep South as a black man in an attempt to explain the hardships black people in the South faced. It also covers the backlash against the publication of his story.
   
   Black Like Me is a concise, fast and engaging read. The reader is often able to see things through Griffin's eyes, even as Griffin tries to see things through the eyes of others. He does an excellent job communicating the cultures of fear and despair he encountered. The entire account of his travels as a black man is riveting.
   
   If there is any nit-picking to be done, let it be for this: at times, particularly early on, Griffin's descriptions of mundane, everyday objects and details seem forced and do not aid the narrative.
   
   While today's racial tensions are much less overt (and much less publicized), Black Like Me still has quite a bit to say about the universal elements of human nature and the culture of racism.
   
   HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



5. Here's something that often makes me laugh...
   
   People who seem to have no Black friends, don't know any Black people other than at a distance (say in another department at work), have none in their social circle and who have no knowledge of 'Black' history, the history of racist thought and practice or its persistent legacy of discrimination are quick to say those magic words:
   
   'I'm not racist'.
   
   I've observed this many, many, many times. It often precedes 'but...' and someone saying something that often reveals staggering ignorance. Now I'm no mind reader but I would ask the question of anyone who says 'I'm not racist' - how do you know?
   
   We all have opinions that we would do well to examine from time to time. I've heard people from different ethnic groups, countries etc say the most stupid things imaginable about 'other' people and even themselves. Men say stupid things about women, women say stupid things about men. Let's face it - stupidity is common currency all over the world.
   
   This book, if honestly read and understood, is an antidote to the abject stupidity of racism.

5 comments about Center Cannot Hold, The: My Journey Through Madness.

1. No review is going to do justice to this incredible book by Elyn Saks, an academic dean, tenured law school and medical school professor, psychoanalysis student, and, not incidentally, a raving (at times of stress or change) schizophrenic. For readers who assume schizophrenics live out their lives, if we can really call their bare existences lives, shackled literally by physical restraints or zombie-d by antipsychotic drugs, always perched to incite violence against themselves or others, or slinking along building walls muttering about being god and killing people with their thoughts, this is a must-read book unlike any other in the field.
   
   More amazing than the author's current positions in the academic and psychiatric world, the author has had "florid" schizophrenia starting when she was about 8 years old, although it didn't fully appear until she was studying at Oxford U. on a Marshall scholarship. She got her BA at Vanderbilt, graduating valedictorian, and after Oxford, got her law degree at Yale. This is no mediocre woman! Her vivid and precise descriptions of her hallucinations and psychotic breaks are like nothing I have ever read before. Her incredible ability to cover up "the voices" and disorganized thoughts to enable her to progress through life more successfully than most "normal" people, is unmatched, although change and stress will still make her rave like a maniac. It takes Ms. Saks almost 20 years of failures and forced hospital commitments to finally realize she needs to take medication for her entire life. But, unlike most people with schizophrenia one is likely to meet or read about, she was helped tremendously by psychoanalysis and talk therapy, treatments that have long been thought useless with such patients.
   
   I have never before encountered such a book nor such a person as Elyn Saks. She leads an amazing and courageous life and has published numerous academic treatises about the forced institutionalization, restraint, and medication of the mentally ill. I know there is a lot more to come from this astonishing mind.



2. Reviewed by Deb Gross
   on 07/13/2008
   
   Elyn Saks attended Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar, graduated Yale Law School, and is now a chaired professor of law at the University of Southern California. Saks also suffers from schizophrenia. THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD is a deeply moving story of Saks's struggle to live a full life while dealing with the trials of a chronic mental illness.
   
   Saks employs evocative prose throughout her memoir to bring the reader into her state of mind when the disease breaks through her defenses. Her description of the onset of her symptoms at the age of eight resonates: "I think I am dissolving. I feel - my mind feels - like a sand castle with all the sand sliding away in the receding surf."
   
   A recurring theme in THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD is the author's love-hate relationship with the medication that keeps her functional but leaves her less than her "authentic self". She also does an outstanding job of laying out the prejudices those with mental illness face, particularly when seeking treatment for physical ailments.
   
   THE CENTER CAN NOT HOLD is an inspiring story of a woman who fought the demons of her mind and the prejudices of society to achieve great personal and professional success.
   
   4.5 Books



3. Schizophrenia will impair the mind to where a person cannot process information clearly. Elyn has pretigous degrees from prominent universities. I think she has done this through her cultural backgound while finding therapists that built a rapport to where she can seperate a world of hallucination and delusion to root into a life of success based on reality. Her memoirs where detailed enough to keep the reader in constant struggle for her sanity. She actully demonstates real auditory halluciantion and how they are countered. She does share with the reader the onset and how this can happen to anyone. I think it is the best book about closet material that most people never realized about recovery and potential for someone living with Schizophrenia.



4. "The Center Cannot Hold" by Elyn Saks, is well written by a brilliant woman, herself a mental health comsumer. As a bonus, it is easy to read. I highly recommend it.
   My son has Schizophrenia and this book helped me to understand a lot of what he experiences but cannot or will not express to others. I immediately passed the book on to other parents whose child has this illness, to expend their understanding of what he lives with.
   No, our loved persons with mental illness are not lazy, nor to they deliberately ignore us nor our requests of them. They are heroes for getting through the day. Their every day struggle with Schizophrenia is unbelievable. The side effects of meds often make waking up a major accomplishment.
   The author shares in detail her experiences. She tells of the alternate approach to treatment she experienced in Great Britain, having been offered choices, to medicate or not, to be hospitalized or not. Throughout her life, she has engaged in ongoing psycho therapy.
   In this country treatments are forced on the person which in many cases, diminishing his/her personhood, even it we think it is for his own good. She talks us through choices, meds or not, therapy or not.
   Elyn Saks is the exception,



5. We often associate mental disorders with people who cannot function in life. Getting this insight from a person who is not only very intelligent but able to live a productive life provides the reader with a new outlook and understanding of this disruptive disorder. In addition it is well written and keeps your attention from beginning to end.

5 comments about Hero of the Underground: A Memoir.

1. A good book,I couldn't put it down. A very compelling insider's look at the little known partying/drug addicted world of the NFL. If you are a college or pro football fan who wants to dish a little dirt, this a must read.....Not for the faint of heart!



2. Great book!
   
   I'd personally never even heard of Jason Peter, but the backstory sounded amazing and I love the NFL, so after reading several reviews I decided to give it a try.
   
   Jason Peter is a prime example of how the NFL spits you out when your no longer worthy of playing, this book in no way puts down the NFL, it just once again brings to light just how harsh the system is, one of my favorite lines in the book best describes it,
   
   "When you put on your team colors, you are no longer a person--you are a cog in a machine. That is how a team operates, and that is what wins games. People are discarded in this game when their usefulness is at an end."
   
   JP's career was in jeopardy because of injuries, then he got hooked on pain killers, the pain killers led to cocaine, the cocaine to meth and crack
   
   his journey thru drugs/rehab is insane, he was an unemployed millionaire with a raging drug problem
   
   good, good stuff!!!!



3. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested reading about the ravages of (and redemption from) drug addiction as it impacts on someone who, to the naked eye, "had it made" as an elite college athlete and highly regarded National Football League draft choice. The book is presented in a raw style that offers the reader a "real feel" for the author's struggle and the impact of drug addiction on his family.
   
   The author did not find the "recovery, 12-step" model to be his treatment of choice, in the end. The extent to which his distancing himself from this form of recovery might dissuade others from approaching this source of help, is the only caveat I have for recommending this book, particularly for those who subscribe to or who might be helped by Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous.
   
   Yes, as the cliche goes "different strokes for different folks," but AA and NA have worked for so many, that his disdain for these models of recovery should be taken, as intended, as only one man's opinion.
   
   Overall, a very good read and fine profile of someone who has bounced back from the precipice of death.



4. Jason Peter, co-captain of the 1997-98 Nebraska Cornhuskers college championship team, recounts the improbable story of a jock that became a junkie. Peter's story reads as the anti-Peyton Manning story--fitting, since Peter's Cornhuskers crushed Manning in the championship game in 1998. It's part football memoir and part drug memoir, and a gripping read that I read through in two nights.
   
   Peter and co-writer Tony O'Neill write some of the best prose that I've ever read on the game of college football. In several chapters, it's difficult to distinguish Peter's rush from playing football from the rush of legal and illegal drug abuse. His story is all too common in the football industry, where young talent is bulked up, chewed up, and spit out when their bodies start to break down. The only difference is that Jason Peter filled the void left in his life with crack and heroin, whereas few players (and ex-players) ever reach such extremes of addiction.



5. I picked this book up ASAP after reading Peter King's mention in his superb MMQB column for SI.com. While "Hero" provides unique insights into the world of a college football star, NFL player, and emergent substance abuser following a series of injuries that end his career, the last third of the book drags on. And on. And on. "Are you still reading that thing?" my wife asked me the other night. Like the author, I couldn't quit the habit. It's good, but I honestly think the latter chapters could have been revised into just several. I liked it, but . . .

5 comments about Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth.

1. I read Black Boy years ago and wanted to refresh my memory of the book. The author has a way of taking you into his world. I was rivited to the pages as I was all those years ago when I first read the book. I would recommend this book to anyone, young or old.



2. Often when you see books written about the life of black people in any point and time before the 1960's its main message is "My life was hard because white people are terrible," and that gets very redundant. However this was quite refreshing, as he did not harp on racism on every page. This is a very well written and intresting account of this man's unique life experiences and all the strange, crazy people he encountered within his family and outside them as well. People who have a few or several nuts on their family tree will be able to relate to Black Boy.



3. The best autobiography EVER, in fact I am not even sure it should be called autobiography because it is much more than that for many reasons. Autobiographies are often flat and either self pitying or glorifying, but this one is completely at another level. I was so impressed by the brilliant mind that shines through all obsacles, and his writing is just so natural, logical and insightful, not just about his personal life experiences, but about human suffering, senseless oppression, and unyiedling human spirit. Wow!



4. I ordered this book because it was on my nephews book-report list. It's a good book. But it is full of bad language. I think it's an adult book--with a very compelling story. But completely not for kids. I know kids hear bad language all the time. But to have it presented to them by a 'trusted' adult--gives it a kind of condoning that it doesn't need.



5. Every time I read a book about the plight of blacks in the South in the early part of the 20th century as Jim Crow society solidified I have to shutter in disgust. I have just finished reading communist Harry Haywood's autobiography Black Bolshevik. I have read Malcolm X's words on the fate of his forebears in the post-bellum South and now I have read Richard Wright's autobiographical sketch Black Boy. I will make no defense of the unequal treatment of blacks in the North. There is none. However, Wright's descriptions of the physical and psychological damage, as presented by his own experiences of Jim Crow, done to blacks by Southern whites are positively feudal. There was no room for illusions about the goodness of humankind in that world. To believe so was to face personal humiliation, or worst-the lynching tree.
   
   Wright, after great personal struggle within himself, is able to reflect on his experiences and to articulate the effect that Jim Crow had on him as a black, as a man, as a human being. It was not pretty. One can only image the fate of those less articulate than brother Wright as they try to comprehend a world not of their making but which they early on must learn to navigate. The description of this grinding struggle is heart of the first part of the book.
   
   Wright goes back to the mist of time in his early youth to dissect the hunger, psychological as well as physical, than never was far from his door; the effects on him of a sick and helpless mother; of an absent ne'er-do-well father; and, an overbearing and religiously-driven grandmother on his early development. And those are just the problems in the house. Once Wright steps outside those comparably comfortable confines he faces the outside world of Mississippi reality that he must put on a mask in order to survive in a world that will literarily cut him down if he does not learn the code. Although Wright gives many examples of how this system robbed blacks of their personality the most graphic descriptions, by far, are those that deal with the need to have to put on the mask when whites are around. And the consequences if one did not.
   
   And what of the great escape to the North (via Memphis) to Chicago-the Promised Land that forms the basis for the second part of the book? We have seen that urban story portrayed in other locales as well, for example, in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Claude Brown's Man-Child in The Promised Land. That is where my statement about the treatment, or rather mistreatment, of blacks in the North comes into play. In effect, Wright articulates the contours of a psychological feudalism in the North where the special oppressions of blacks as a race are met with indifference by whites. What makes Wright's case special is that through self-education and willpower he breaks out of the endless and destructive turning in on oneself to articulate his experiences and those of other blacks like him displaced from the rural life of the South to the uncertainties of urban life.
   
   On the face of it seems incongruous that Wright would find a solution to his angst in the American Communist Party during the heyday of the `third period' in the early 1930's. I have mentioned elsewhere, most recently in my review of Harry Haywood's Black Bolshevik (part of which also deals with this period in the American party), that on reading memoirs and autobiographies of the older generations of radicals and revolutionaries I am looking for the spark that broke them from the norms of bourgeois society. I have found that there is a great range of reasons from racial and class hatreds to intellectual curiosity. I find that in the end that Wright's relationship to communism, not without some bumps and bruises along the way, came from intellectual curiosity as much as any sense of racial or class injustice.
   
   In Chicago, in many ways the embryonic black proletarian core of the country in this period, Wright continued his struggle for physical daily survival and for intellectual understanding. His fortuitous linking up with the local John Reed Club helped, at least initially, stabilize his intellectual life. His description of the inner workings of the Communist Party and its role in its own front group creations, like the Reed Club, jibes with other accounts that I have read. The tremendous pressures to conform to party life and the party line are chilling for what, in the final analysis, was a voluntary political organization and not a cult. Moreover, one of the characters portrayed in this section bears a striking resemblance to the above-mentioned very real Harry Haywood. Wright's take on Haywood is very, very different from how old Harry portrayed himself in his autobiography. Surprise.
   
   One of the charges brought against Wright by fellow black party members was that he was an intellectual. Self-taught, yes, but an intellectual nevertheless. One would think that recruiting such a fairly rare person, black or white, would have had the comrades spinning cartwheels. No so in Wright's case. Tremendous pressure was placed on him to conform to party dictates. Or else. This seems counter-intuitive. The relationship between communism and intellectuals and artists has always been a somewhat rocky one. But know this-then and today we need as many intellectuals as we can get our hands on to write, think and lead the struggles of humankind. Ignorance never did anyone any good. Enough said on that. If you want to get a real feel for what that old expression Mississippi God Damn from Nina Simone's song really meant read this well written and thoughtful book.