No comments about Boss of Bosses CST.

5 comments about Obstinate Heart - Jane Austen: A Biography.

1. The punchline of Valerie Grosvenor Myer's 1997 biography "Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart" is delivered in its preface. Contrary to the warm and contented portrait in family memoirs, Myer asserts that romance novelist Jane Austen knew a life of genteel poverty and personal disappointment, yet showed her "obstinate heart" by refusing to marry a wealthy man she did not love. This interpretation of Jane Austen's life is certainly a plausible one, but it has been told by other biographers with more flair.
   
   Every biographer of Jane Austen must confront the challenge of the limited material available on her life. Myer chooses a conventional approach. Readers familiar with Austen's surviving letters will recognize that Myer has adapted excerpts into a chronological narrative, rather freely mixing Jane's comments to her sister about domestic matters with her own interpretations of Austen's state of mind. The result emphasizes Austen's limited personal possibilities as the dowerless daughter of a middle-class cleric. The failure to marry ensured that Austen would live a frustrating life as a family poor relation; recognition for her remarkable literary talents came only in the very last years of her life.
   
   Myer devotes surprisingly little energy to speculation about Jane Austen's personal romances, whatever they may have been. She spents more time on Austen's interactions with her immediate family and various in-laws and cousins, although without generating any unusual insights. This reader wishes Myer had explored in more detail the dynamics of Jane Austen's intimate relationship with her sister Cassandra or her rather difficult relationship with her mother. Myer limits her literary criticism to drawing some parallels between the characters and locations in Austen's novels with their possible counterparts in life. The book includes a nice selection of family portraits.
   
   "Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart" is a conventional and serviceable biography most likely to appeal to readers new to Jane Austen and not prepared to wade into various academic controversies about her life. Devoted fans of Jane Austen already familar with her life and letters can find more challenging biographies elsewhere.



2. I must say that I am in shock after having read this "biography". The author clearly does not understand irony - so then why bothering reading Jane Austen at all? Writing about her and being so unappreciative of her qualities must be considered an abuse by any true Jane Austen fan. Why is V. G. Myer so eager to make Jane Austen look like a bitter spinster that never experienced love end therefore hated every women who did marry and have children? Is the author that kind of lady who becomes very frightened when she meets with an intelligent woman with a sharp tongue - because she clearly can't stand Jane Austen's sense of humor. And, on top of it all, she has not done a good work when it comes to the research. I strongly doubt that she has read James Edward Austen Leigh's "Memoirs", she misquotes him and misunderstands him on some very crucial points. She just one of these authors trying to make money out of Jane Austen without making any effort whatsoever.



3. This is a very good biography for readers who want a fairly straightforward, reliable, moderate length account of Austen's life. Among the seven biographies that I have read so far, I think that this is the best first choice for readers who want more than Carol Shield's well-done Jane Austen, part of Penquins short biography series, but who don't want to tackle a book as long as John Halperin's Life of Jane Austen, nearly twice the length of this. Halperin weaves a lot more quotes together to build his narrative,something that I found disconcerting when I was younger, although I like it now. I leave the reader to determine their own taste. (As a teenager, I regarded books made up largely of quotes as most people regard books with mathematical formula.)
   
   
   Myers organizes her work both chronologically and thematically, discussing all of JA's romances and potential romances in one chapter, and then alluding back to them when she returns to chronological order. She recounts standard interpretations, but allows for some alternatives; she duly records that Mrs. Austen was regarded as a hypochondriac, but notes that her frequent pregnancies may have left her with problems of which we are unaware.
   
   Some of the reviewers have complained that Myers does not contribute any new research, but frankly I think that there are probably few facts to add to what is already know and a readable biography is itself a great accomplishment, and preferable to inventing wild theories to gain a little publicity. Some other authors that have produced more research into the minutiae of Georgian-Regency life thereby scant JA's life or hare off on tangents that may try some readers' patience. While I personally adore all this somewhat extraneous detail, it is best preceded by reading a book like this that gives one a solid grounding regarding JA's life. Others make up for a lack of new information by posthumous psychoanalysis and mindreading, not something that I encourage.
   
   The reader should be aware that the book is serious flawed by a lack of notes. I don't know if this was the author's or the publisher's choice. The book generally accords with what other biographers write, so I am fairly confident of the facts, but when Myers makes an unusual assertion, such as the claim that Cassandra Leigh didn't really want to marry George Austen, this is very irritating.
   
   In all, I think this is a good choice for entering into a study of JA's life, one that can be enriched by reading other books later.



4. I think Valerie Grovesnor Myer has made a nice stab at trying to write to a biography of Austen and she succeeds relatively well. The only trouble biographies of Austen are all drawn from the same material - very little new material has been turned up in recent years and so biographers are forced to reinterpret the old sources to find a new angle. And that really is what this author has done - with only moderate success.

   She has 24 chapters, mostly chronological although really the complaint that this is mostly about Austen's family than Austen herself bears through - especially in the first nine chapters.

   To make her book different again Myer has attempted to find biographical incidents from Austen's own life to explain incidents in her novels. Not a bad thing to do - but I found it overpowering at times - as though she were just going from one incident to another - and sometimes I felt her examples used weren't good ones. For instance she likened Jane Austens' brother Edward's adoption by the Knights as being like Fanny Price's living with the Bertrams in her 'Mansfield Park'. Which is not at all the same situation. In the novel Fanny lived with the family but was never adopted by them. In real life, Edward adopted the new surname of Knight and eventually inherited a large estate and fortune from it. The whole situation in fact reminds one of Frank Churchill in 'Emma' - Frank Weston is adopted by his aunt, Mrs Churchill, adopts her name and becomes her heir. It seems that is a much better example - why did Myer use the much less satisfactory one?

   Another point is that she shows that she has read various books on Austen (for instance Deidre Le Faye's collected letters of Austen) but doesn't seem to have done much research outside of those on the history of the period. Myer cites a letter from Austen to her neice Fanny Knight in which she talks of the whole race of 'Pagets'. Myer has clearly used the footnote which is in Le Faye's edition of the letters to explain this remark about Austen's dislike of the Pagets - explaining about Lord Paget's (later Marquess of Anglesey) elopement with Lady Charlotte Wellesley. What both Le Faye and Myer miss is that the year before this elopement there was another High profile Paget elopement when Lord Paget's brother eloped with Lady Boringdon. A little extra research on Myer's part would have revealed this fact.

   I found the book interesting though for Myer's interpretation, but I wouldn't pick it by choice. If you are looking for a really good biography of Jane - Park Honan's is much better - or Claire Tomalin's. There are other great books on the history of the time you can read - Maggie Lane is great - and Deidre Le Faye's collection of letters is fabulous. So there is a lot of much better material out there. But if this is all you can get hold of - well it would do in a pinch.




5. Just above her grave in Wincester Cathedral is written, "In the beginning was the word..." I am convinced that no one has ever written English prose narrative as well as Jane Austen. In her book, 'Jane Austen, Obstinate Heart' Valerie Grosvenor Myer takes the reader behind the scenes into the private life of this remarkable author. Using correspondence, diaries, and the memoirs of Jane Austen and her family and friends, Ms. Myer constructs a biography that helps the reader understand Austen's day-to-day existence 200 years ago--the environment that formed her and inspired her creative process.

   She lived a life of genteel poverty--barely made genteel by the kindness of her brothers and friends. She worked hard--in an age when the mangle was just invented, irons were heated on the fireplace, and woman's work was never done, she and her mother and sister could not always get the help they needed. She worried about money, reworked old clothes to make them last, lacked good food at times, was cold at times, and wanted for many material comforts. And yet, she managed without the aid of a computer or even a typewriter, to produce six of the world's greatest novels.

   This book will appeal to women more so than men because it concerns issues that have affected women more. Most women have faced some form of discrimination or deprivation, or know of the deprivation of other women--lack of food, lack of clothing, fear, depression, an inability to control one's reproductive life, and poverty. Austen was aware of women's struggles--her own and those of family and friends. She watched five sisters-in-law succomb to early deaths owing to childbearing.

   Austen's books center on the struggles of heroines to make lives for themselves in what is essentially a man's world. Although this book doesn't discuss Austen's books in any depth, it certainly illuminates the links between the life of the author and her characters. It's an excellent book. It made me cry.

5 comments about The Autobiography Of Henry VIII (Part 1).

1. This book was different from any other book I have read about Henry VIII (and there have been many books over the years). Finally a good book about how Harry saw things. There is no sympathizing with any of his wives here. Well, maybe Jane, since she didn't live long enough to do any wrong in his eyes... But, then again everything I have read in this book was very believable that the story was being told by Great Harry himself.
   
   I especially enjoyed the witty and comical notes by his fool, Will Somers. It was even interesting how the book suggested pointedly that Catherine Knollys, (Catherine Carey before her marriage and daughter to Mary Boleyn, and supposedly her first husband William Carey), was the illegitimate daughter of the King. I have heard refference to this in other Tudor Fiction stories as well, but I also know how careful Maragret George is about sticking to facts or only entertaining rumors that appear to be most likely fact.
   
   This is a very entertaining book and is very thorough in introducing all the key players in the Court of Henry VIII. When I imagine what Henry VIII must have been like or how he would have thought, I think of how he was in this book. I recommend this book to anyone new to Tudor novels and the seasoned vetrans! It's a very big book and may seem intimidating, but I read it all in 3 days. It was so good I couldn't put it down. In fact I will be buying the hard cover edition now, because I've re-read my big paperback copy so much it is falling apart. 5 Stars From Me and Kudos to Maragret George!



2. I have just finished the magnificent book by Margaret George about King Henry VIII. It was the tenth book I have read since last October (2007),among them "Crime and Punishment", "War and Peace", The Count of Monte Cristo", "The Last Cavalier", "The Idiot",etc.,etc.,(see my new listmania that will be ready,soon) This book by Ms. George is a superlative history of those turbulent times. She has taken some liberties with some of the facts, as noted by other reviewers,but it tells the story as Henry himself would have done, if able. Some of the intrigues of the Privy Councillors reminds me of latter-day politics. ( Somethings never change.) That may have been the start of the Whigs and Tory Parties in its historical context.
   
   I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in 16th Cent. English History. Dont see the Showtime miniseries before reading this book. It will whet your appetite for more, more more!!!!



3. I have to say that I went into reading this book hating Henry VIII. I thought he was a power-mad egotist, as well as a cruel misogynist with no respect for human life. I was prepared to read the book and joyfully hate Henry as the pages flew by.
   
   This book made me see the man behind the crown. Yes, Henry was hasty and foolish in his choice of partners. Yes, he was manipulative of the people he claimed to care about. Yes, he used the church to finagle himself out of more than one marriage, and what the church couldn't do for him, the scaffold could. All these things went pretty much along with my expectations of Henry, but Margaret George rendered her Henry on a much more fulsome background. This fictional Henry was mercurial, yet he could also be doting and affectionate. He was sometimes reverent and humble. He even had moments of intense loyalty and repentance. His relationship with Jane Seymour, in particular, was extremely touching.
   
   As I read and read and read (and this book topped out at about 900+ pages), I became aware of Henry as a confused man who looked all around him for people to tell him the truth and to love him for himself. Although all he got was a profusion of compliments and flattery made for a king, he never stopped looking for that genuine appraisal. Yes, at times he was a petulant child, but at times he had to make and live with decisions no mortal man should ever have to. At times, the breadth of his naiveté (especially regarding his cuckolding wife) was sad.
   
   His struggles with God were particularly moving and interesting because he never could seem to figure out what God made of him, and what he made of God. He seemed to genuinely believe that his actions (including divorce and beheadings) would somehow make God find favor in his life. He seemed to be fighting with God most of the time, either for his approval, or against his perceived cruelties.
   
   Though this portrayal of Henry VIII was able to let the reader see the more human side of the famous king, I would be remiss to leave out the cruelty that he dealt out so generously. He seemed to have a problem with everyone sooner or later, and the easiest way for him to solve his problem was by execution. The list of the executed was so long that I lost count. It was clear that he was particularly unjust at times. Although his punishments were legendary, towards the end of his life he grew extremely remorseful and anguished by these horrible acts. Some would even say haunted. It was then that he moved me.
   
   I found it very interesting to find Henry such a contradictory character. Most of the time, he was an insufferable bastard and a spoiled child. Sometimes though... he was a touching man who didn't ever understand his place in the world, or how he got there.
   
   The interjections by Will, his fool, were scanty and didn't really shed a lot of light on Henry the man. Those parts of the books were irrelevant and almost pointless. It may have been better had she left them out.
   
   I got used to having Henry around. I became accustomed to hauling him all over and reading scandal after scandal. Now that it's done, I miss the old [...].



4. I first read this book when I was just starting to get pulled into all things Tudor, and I quite liked it. It's no easy thing to try and tell the story from the villain's point of view. I thought Henry's vulnerability and endless capacity for self-deception were well written.
   
   Flash forward 5 years. I crack it open again, now as a hardened Tudorphile, and I find it sadly lacking. For so thick a book, it seems to breeze through key events (the courtship of Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, among others), and lingers far too long on others. Historical inaccuracies abound (forgiveable perhaps to those looking for more of an Tudor "ambience" in the style of Showtime's series, but glaring to anyone who is well-versed in the period), and Henry's complete lack of responsibility for any of his actions becomes tedious. Perhaps if the second voice of Will Somers the Fool had been a little more critical, this wouldn't feel like a 900 page "Vote for Henry VIII in 1536" pamphlet.
   
   A decent read for the casually Tudor-curious. But very obviously fiction, and only moderately successful.



5. I have owned this book since I was a teenager and I have loved it for a very long time. It is one of those that I read over again. I highly recommend it. I am a huge fan of Henry VIII and his poor wives. This book was my first introduction into the Tudor history and I have been a facinated fan ever since. You will not regret reading this book.

5 comments about My Story.

1. I liked this book, although it did seem Ferguson seems to be feeling sorry for herself and putting herself down through most of it & making lots of excuses for her behavior. However, it was very interesting to hear a behind the scene perspective from one who used to be part of the royal family & how the courtiers try to rule the palace and court. A good read for those who love bios or books on Britian's royal family.



2. Highly readable and I came away with a new respect for the Duchess. Too bad Andrew can't come to America, re-marry Sarah and live incognito. A must read for anyone who sympathizes with the Duchess.



3. As a lover of biographies this one was not about a person who achieved greatness through some great talent but was more a chronicle of the ups and downs of life in the house of Windsor. I think that red headed exuberant Sarah caught our attention twenty years ago when we watched her walk down the aisle with her prince and we all thought it was sort of neat that a real person was in this situation. I think that this is a lady who is VERY media savvy and knows how to market herself but there is still something rather refreshing at her forays into writing, her ability to fly a plane and her trek across the deserts of Quatar on horseback. I am not an unabashed fan but I was interested enough to read this book. It was enjoyable but also a little self absorbed. Like it's subject, a bit contradictory.



4. Unlike the previous reader, I really enjoyed this book and came away with real affection and admiration for the Duchess of York. Admittedly, certain things are left out, but that's probably as much to do with protecting others as about Sarah's own feelings. Let's face it, a no holds barred 'kiss and tell' story would hardly be dignified coming from a former Royal Duchess.
   
   I've read the two books by Starkie and vasso, and even if everything they say is true, I still see Sarah as a flawed but fundamentally decent person. She may have been a little naive about the demands of her position, but royalty would be an alien condition to most people who are not born into it. She's made mistakes as we all have, and its how you learn from them that counts. Though extra marital affairs are not to be treated lightly, we should remember that Andrew spent months away from his wife, abondoning her in an environment in which her Royal status isolated her from emotional contact. Her romantic encounters can be seen as a search for support and self-affirmation.
   
   The suggestion that she is in any way a bad mother I find incredible. One thing that comes over loud and clear in the book is Beatrice and Eugenie mean more to her than anything - she loves those girls. Sarah has been constantly victimised over the years and deserves some sympathy and understanding. Her charity work alone demands respect, and her work with Weightwatchers makes her a constant inspiration to many people. She has turned her life around and good luck to her.
   
   To read Sarah's point of view, read this book. Approach it with an open mind and you'll find an engrossing and inspiring story of a woman struggling againstlow self-esteem, press hostility and the demands of her Royal status. Look at her now - I think she won the battle.



5. If you're going to tell "your story", then you should tell the whole story, not half of it.
   
   Fergie would have us believe that in a country where prominence and position mean EVERYTHING, that it meant nothing to her from going to an unattractive, overweight, needly, penniless NOBODY to becoming a Royal Duchess. Give me a break girl. While there's no doubt she really loved Andrew, she most certainly also loved all the perks of being considered "royal". Unfortunately, she didn't like the self-discipline and responsibility that went along with it.
   
   She was, and is to this day, a TERRIBLE mother. It seems to run in her family: her grandmother was a lousy mother, Fergie's own mother took off with another man half way around the world and literally abandonned her own children. She tells of skiing down a "black run" when she was 5 months pregnant with Beatrice and falls down. What kind of person would ever risk miscarrying their child by doing something so insane??!! In this book she tried blaming the Grey Men for her decision to leave Beatrice when she was 6 weeks old for her trip to Australia, but by her own admission, she never listened to them when they gave her any other advice, so why did she listen to them then? Obviously she didn't WANT to take the baby with her, another indication of her extremely poor mothering skills.
   
   And she out and out lied about her relationship with Steve Wyatt. In this book she says that they were "just friends" which is simply not true. Madame Vasso, Lesley Player, Allan Starkie, John Bryan among other all verified independently that she had an intense sexual relationship with Steve Wyatt. She glosses over this fact in her book when she claims that "a friend" asked her to receive Dr. Salaman Rushdi for a brief drink at the palace. She neglects to say that this "friend" was her lover, Steve Wyatt. And if they were "just friends" as she claims, then why did she have to have his apartment (or "Flat") "searched from top to bottom" when he moved out? She said that it was the "danger of a frame up" and indeed there were more than 100 pictures taken of her and Steve Wyatt that proved to be her downfall found in the apartment. And if she was "just friends" with him, then there should have been absolutely NOTHING that would indict her in an extra marital affair.
   
   I think the answer lies in Allan Starkie's book "Fergie--Her Secret Life". He tells of her lying to anyone and everyone about everything and this is her greatest weakness: she's a liar.
   
   Once again, it's not surprising really, given her upbringing. Her mother abandons her, her father was a complete loser pig, so it's no surprise that she turned out this way too.
   
   Fergie was a disaster for the Royal Family and is still, to this day, nothing more than trailor trash.

3 comments about Valvano They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract and They Declared Me Dead.

1. Very engaging and motivating story. You didn't want to put it down after you started reading. Valvano was not treated fairly. Too bad he had to leave NC State prematurely. The school would probably have had another championship had he stayed.



2. This is one of the best books I have ever read it should be a inspiration to us all this will be a book that will move you




3. The Audio cassette version of Jim Valvano's book, THEY GAVE ME A LIFETIME CONTRACT AND THEN THEY DECLARED ME DEAD, features the inimitable voice of Jim Valvano telling (not reading--TELLING) the story of his life with all the enthusiasm we remember and cherish. There is a laugh in his voice and genuine humor in his stories, most of it at the expense of the author; there is sadness, of course, and hurt; but there's no cynicism.

   The listener will be, perhaps, surprised by Valvano's early desperation to achieve goals he set for himself--and entertained by the lengths to which he went to reach them. The result is both inspiring and enlightening, considering the cloud under which he left his position as the head basketball coach at N.C. State.

   The brew of life, joy, and good humor at the top of the sports world has made this tape a favorite among my family and friends. It's the only one we can all agree to hear in the car on long trips; I can't keep a copy in the house. That's why I'm ord

1 comments about How Was It for You? (BBC Gold).

1. Add a star if you are an Anglophile. Current readers are familiar with Bombeck, but Lipman more closely resembles Jean Kerr (Please Don't Eat the Daisys) in that she combines the domestic humor with show business (Kerr was the wife of a prominent theater critic; Lipman is an actress). Lipman describes her struggles with her plumbing or her car interspersed with trying to make it to auditions, rehearsals or meetings. Some of the show business names she drops are familiar to British Comedy fans, although her own shows do not appear to have crossed the Atlantic. The domestic humor should be accessible to most US readers, although appreciation increases if the reader has a working knowledge of recent UK politics and theater. Some comments depend on a knowledge of the personalities of UK politicians who are practically unknown to most of us.

2 comments about Lost Honor.

1. John Dean's follow-on to Blind Ambition is an interesting self-examination punctuated with commentary on Dean's suspicions regarding the true identity of Bob Woodward's source Deep Throat. The latter is the reason the book sold (if it did) while the former obviously was Dean's motivation for writing the book.

   I listened to rather than read the book. The recording was well done, and the topic lends itself to the book on tape approach. Dean's tone is conversational, although the material may be a bit impenetrable unless one has a basic working knowledge of Watergate and its players.

   Dean's self-examination is illuminating not only of his own feelings but also of our media culture, which presumably has only gotten worse since this book was published 20 years ago. Dean's predictions about presidential scandals of the future and the media's handling of it were prescient. I would like to see a book by Dean on Monicagate.

   Dean's analysis of the Deep Throat question is incisive. He starts with the obvious, but he also examines the obscure, behind the scenes players who may have had the information necessary to be Deep Throat. His commentary on the shoddiness of the Washington Post's reporting is a bit self-serving; he prefers to see himself as the one who broke the story. That said, it is a thoughtful and seemingly fair rebuttal of the conventional wisdom that "Woodstein" brought down the president.

   All in all, a satisfying trip to an earlier time.




2. It has been several years since I read this book, however it was a very good follow up to John Dean's book on the Watergate affair and his role in it.

   I have found that many times over the years after I read a book, and become intrigued with the main character's life, hoping for a sequel. This book filled that need for me.

   John Dean is a very intersting, multi faceted, much misunderstood individual. Reading the second book, helps to understand him and his motivations in the Watergate affair.

5 comments about Madonna.

1. I quite enjoyed Andrew Morton's take on the life and career of Madonna. From her modest Italian-American upbringing, to her days as a dance major in Ann Arbor (who knew?), to her early days in New York (which sound like something out of "Rent"), the book's first half reads like a Horatio Alger success story. Once a recording contract and MTV come calling, her career trajectory is pure nostalgia for any kid of the '80s. You'll remember where you were when you first saw the video for "Lucky Star," first heard about (or saw) the MTV video music awards performance of "Like A Virgin," and recall the monstrosity of her marriage to Sean Penn. Most likely you didn't see her movies... I know I didn't... but her music will act as a soundtrack to her life and yours.
   
   What's not to love? Although I am not a particular fan of Madonna (Ray of Light and Confessions on the Dance Floor are two exceptions), her career is certainly interesting. And, like any icon, her life is connected to your life. That is what makes these bios fun.



2. Andrew Morton's fascinating biography of Madonna is well researched and elegantly written. Her life has been thoroughly chronicled in several lesser biographies, but Mr Morton, during a candid interview with the Archbishop of Dublin, was given unprecedented access to a previously unpublished letter that related to the star's earliest attempt to unsuccessfully adopt from Ireland. Handwritten on parchment and in immaculate Gaelic script, it is a literary light illuminating Madonna's sincere desire to embrace not only the concept of adoption but also the selfless act itself. It is in stark contrast to the raunchy, erotically-energized Madonna seen in explicit videos and heard in steamy lyrics, and for the first time we are able to glean the 'real' Madonna; not the vixen of popular culture but a vulnerable woman in search of fulfilment. Morton himself describes the letter as 'a celebration of this saintly songbird's empathy and passion.' The poignant document, quoted on page 78, reads:
   
   'National Council for Adoption
   26 Kildare Street
   Dublin 2
   Ireland
   October 27 2003
   
   Dear Ms Madonna
   
   The National Council for Adoption would like to thank you for your recent enquiry expressing interest in adopting.
   
   Unfortunately, there are no 25-year-old Irish males registered with our organisation, and even if there were, we would be slightly hesitant to supply the '157 strong-shouldered, six-packed, sun-tanned, slow-loving, shamrock-shaking sugar-studs' that you so generously offered to nurture.
   
   To mitigate your undoubted disappointment, the Council has arranged for the Eveready Company to send you a truckload of AAAs and a download of Enya singing 'Batteries Are A Girl's Best Friend'.
   
   Yours sincerely
   
   Phil O'Pastry
   
   CEO National Council for Adoption
   Dublin'
   
   The pathos embodied in this unique correspondence brought a lump to my throat and a stye to my eye.



3. Fiona Apple once sang "everybody wants to be Madonna but no one wants to pay the price". And the price Madonna/Madge PAID - Oh dear! Since her 1981/2 club hit "Everybody" to the very first video "Burning Up" ... no other female singer has been able to eclipse Madonna. Not Britney, Jessica, Pink, Alannis, J.Lo, etc... They have come close but Madonna is the genuine article for which no replica is possible. Madonna is the Patron Saint of Ambition. Nothing less. Her numerous incarnations and transformations keep us getting and intrigued.
   
   The teenage Madonna ate the whole Big Apple before becoming the Queen of the Pop World. And she inspired alot of fresh faced girls just out of high school to say YES to their dreams and have the courage of heart to jump on a plane to big cities all around the world, never looking back!
   
   When the 17 year old Madonna Ciccone ran off to New York in the summer of 1977 ... a cab driver dropped her off at Times Square, the center of everything. Now she remains in pop culture the epicentre of what it means to be cultural icon. She inspired the Spice Girls (based on various versions of herself), Sex and the City, and many other attempts to be versions of her.
   
   Madonna was once called the Gold Standard of Timeless Blonde Ambition. And it's obvious why. The material girl is still strong over 20 years later! She was born under one hell of a lucky star!



4. I really liked this book. I thought that the book was well written without a slant either way. It was really insightful
   to the ambition involved with achieving a goal.



5. Andrew Morton will always be known as the guy who wrote a groundbreaking biography of Princess Di. And he will be known for nothing else, apparently. At least, he won't be remembered for "Madonna," a quickie biography that covers no new ground and -- horrors! -- makes a once-controversial pop icon... boring.
   
   Madonna Louisa Ciccone started off as a motherless child, whose mom (also called Madonna) died of breast cancer. But she rapidly turned from pitiful to outrageous, travelling to NYC to become a dancer. Instead, she became a blossoming singer, an aspiring actress, and one of the first big stars to grace MTV.
   
   But more than her music was the controversy that surrounded her: Madonna dated men such as Michael Jackson, JFK Jr., Prince, and then-hot rapper Vanilla Ice, and married actor Sean Penn, while still pursuing relationships with other men and women. After their tumultuous union fell apart, she created the then-shocking book "Sex," the peak of her sexually-charged career. But then her life took a more domestic turn, with children, marriage and religion (in about that order).
   
   It's not hard to have an opinion on Madonna -- either you love her or hate her. But if the only exposure to Madonna was through this book, it would be difficult to decide which. Morton paints Madonna in bland hues, describing her exploits, affairs and then-shocking concerts in the most uninspired prose imaginable. However, not once does he reveal anything new -- despite input from lovers and friends, Morton can only add detail to what people already knew.
   
   There are some interesting facets of her rise to stardom, particularly how she and her pals changed the NYC club life, and the odd details of her first recordings. For example, she wasn't pictured on her first album, in the hopes that she would be thought to be black. But once we get back to Madonna's personal life, things get dull.
   
   Morton himself seems to presume too much on his knowledge of Madonna: he constantly claims that she was miserable, depressed, et cetera. Apparently he disapproves of her wild past. Entertainingly, he claims that Madonna is just a "Catholic girl who wants to get married." If that is how "just Catholic girls" live, then I want to know why I'm not having that much fun.
   
   Yet, at the same time, he glosses over most of her present, peaceful, monogamous life -- when she gets involved with Guy Ritchie and has her second child, he loses interest and crams the last several years into a matter of pages. One would think that her first solid relationship and her children would be worthy of a little more attention.
   
   Nobody expected Pulitzer-worthy journalism in "Madonna." But surely Andrew Morton could have done better than a tepid recounting of what her fans already knew.

5 comments about Bravo Two-Zero.

1. Lots of details about tactics and also about the author's thought process. Very honest; the author is pretty humble, which is nice. Lots of action and adventure, all of it true.



2. This book was given to me as a birthday present and it was certainly a very sobering read. A mission behind enemy lines goes pear shaped from the get go and our highly specialised SAS team is straight into a fight for their lives.
   
   The bulk of the book is around the capture and subsequent torture over a long period and you have to wonder just how much the human body can endure. Andy witnesses and experiences incredible brutality at the hands of his captors and loses close friends.
   
   If you want to read something that is a small snapshot of a greater scenario, still true to life but not bogged down in any politics of the situation, then give this a go. But I hope you have a strong stomach.



3. Eight men with relatively low-tech equipment and minimal planning go out into the desert to destroy a communication cable and Scud missile launchers. Although their preparation is detailed, the mission itself is vague - go blow stuff up.
   
   Like Spartan graduates of the Agoge, they are adept at improvising and eager to take whatever they need (especially if it is something new and shiny). These are great attributes for people in this profession, but it comes across as these skills were also necessary to obtain basic materials needed to accomplish their mission instead of having basic materials issued by their government.
   
   Some of the mistakes are difficult to comprehend, especially since the British have a long history in the Middle East. Anybody who has been to the desert knows that it can get very cold at night and inadequate cold weather gear caused them a lot of unnecessary hardship. Having the wrong radio frequencies is completely inexcusable.
   
   Overall this is an outstanding book about an amazing group of soldiers that many will breeze thorough very quickly. The abuse they took from the Iraqi troops after their capture is terrible, but their sense of humor was unfazed. As they said, "at least they can't make us pregnant".



4. Whatever you believe about the amount of fiction vs. fact in this book, there is no diputing that it's an entertaining page-turner. The incredible account of the endurance that it took to survive this event makes you really appreciate just how unique special forces servicemen are. I'll be reading some of the other books about this event just because I enjoyed the tale and I'd love to get the other perspectives, but if you are reading for entertainment you won't be let down. I just wouldn't necessarily base a factual report solely on this one work.



5. This is a well known story and there's no point reviewing events. It's pretty well written and does tell the story of a patrol that certainly went wrong.
   
   Some other SAS folks disagree with this description of events and especially don't like that two of their friends died avoidably. But stuff happens, the SAS are not gods on earth, though they do have an outstanding reputation.
   
   There are details in this book which are probably fabricated, mistaken or overstated but it is one view of the action that occurred and should be read in context with the books of the other patrol members, their disagreements are relatively minor really.

5 comments about I Rode With Stonewall.

1. Seeing some of the Civil War battles through the eyes of a soldier is extraordinarily insightful. The writing here is excellent and the feel of the action quite real.



2. Written by a man who was close to Jackson, but published over 75 years after the fact, this account may or may not be totally factual. Nevertheless, even if it contains a modicum of BS, it is still first-hand BS, and to me this is so much more interesting than accepting someone's perhaps biased "interpretation" of the same events well over a century later.



3. I read this book in 1979, and would rate it highly as a good read.
   However, I was disappointed a few years ago to learn that the entire thing is a fabrication, a string of lies from beginning to end.
   A lot of men lie about their military service. Apparently Douglas was one of the more flagrant exemplers.
   
   Unfortunately, I can't back up what I'm saying. I have no source. I forget where I read it.
   
   While re-reading a passage in Shelby Foote's narrative history, I came across the account of Stonewall sitting on the fence, eating the lemon. Douglas is, I believe, the main, if not the only source for the "Lemon Legend."
   I wondered to myself, "Now where did I read that Douglas's memoir was an utter fabrication? I'll check the Amazon reviews; surely someone will have debunked this book."
   
   So here I am. My only point is, don't believe me or Douglas.
   Let the Reader Beware.
   
   Can anyone shed some light on this?



4. "I Rode with Stonewall" is one of the finest personal narratives of the Civil War, America's most decisive and costly conflict. The author, Henry Kyd Douglas, began writing this memoir soon after the conclusion of the war, but put it aside for more than thirty years while he practiced law and raised a family. At his death, his book about the war had not been edited and it wasn't until a descendent discovered the transcript and found a publisher that it was finally released in 1940, on the even of another great martial struggle. I purchased my first copy on a visit to the Fredericksburg battlefield more than twenty years ago and after reading most of it on a flight back from Washington D.C. to California, left it on the plane and in the days before the Internet, it was hard to secure another. Fortunately, on another tour of Civil War battlefields and museums, I managed to bring a copy back for my library - it's that memorable a book. Henry Kyd Douglas was a native of Maryland and a dashing young officer who served on Stonewall Jackson's staff in the early stages of the Civil War. And, like many other Confederate officers and enlisted men, he was devoted to the stern, brilliant artilleryman. Douglas later had a field command and despite being wounded no less than six times, he survived four years of brutal war. Unfortunately, other young heroes of the Confederacy, friends of Douglas like John Pegram, Sandy Pendleton and John Pelham did not. Douglas was handsome, dashing, brave and outgoing and because of these qualities, he was popular with officers on both sides in the war and a favorite of the Southern belles. His account is peppered with fond encounters, but always chivalrous, he abbreviates the names of the women he flirted with. Although the book is full of death, of lives lost in the ill-fated cause of the Confederacy and the abominable institution of slavery, it also shows that there was an idealistic and romantic side to the war. Even in the service of a bad cause, the terrible conflict between North and South brought out the deeper qualities of the men that served. Jeffrey Morseburg



5. This book, first published in 1940 - long after Douglas' death - is based on Douglas' war-time journal and personal papers. Douglas began to assemble them into book form several times, but never had them published; his relatives did......What emerges are wonderful portraits of Douglas, Jackson (for whom Douglas was a staff officer) and many other well-known (and not so well-known) soldiers and civilians caught in the Civil War. Douglas is decidedly pro-Jackson, but Douglas also shows us the real Jackson: a man who could be cruel to the extreme and then gentle and kind a few moments later. The book is fill with humorous anecdotes, which make it a "fun read" - I could not put it down. Yet there is an underlying sadness in the book, as one watches Douglas' many friends being killed off, sees the homes of his family and civilian friends burned or otherwise destroyed. Douglas never explicitly states it, but the reader can feel the anguish that Douglas - and many others - experienced....... One thing Douglas did not do was go into great detail about each battle. He reasoned that later historians, with a better overall view of things, would do a much better job. What he does do is "put you there" - whether in battle, in camp, or on some small adventure. This is one fantastic book! Along with the memoirs of Gen. E.P. Alexander, these memoirs are about the best I have ever read. Simply a great book!