1 comments about Beethoven (Pocket Biography Series).

1. This biography of Beethoven is well done. However, I just ordered the
   Naxos biography because it has his music compositions within the story
   of his life. I ordered this because I just finished the Naxos edition
   of the life of Mozart. I then realized how much more enjoyable it is
   with the music included. This edition of Beethoven's life is complete.
   Whereas the Naxos edition is abridged. So I felt that both were necessary
   to have a complete picture of this complicated, talented composer.

No comments about Genome The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters.

No comments about Nixon: A Life.

5 comments about Audrey Hepburn: A Biography.

1. 
   She looked like a princess; she deported herself regally. Her life followed the fairy tale plot of rags to riches. Regrettably, it did not often have the requisite happy ending.
   
   Sent to boarding school in England, Audrey Hepburn rejoined her family in Holland prior to the German occupation in World War II. Along with her fellow countrymen, she suffered greatly. Virtual starvation permanently affected her health.
   
   How impossible it would have seemed to her during those war torn years that she would some day become a sought after movie star, sharing the screen with Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, and William Holden. A lucky break - she was seen by Colette in a hotel lobby - took her to the Broadway stage as "Gigi." Another lucky break won her the lead in "Roman Holiday."
   
   Although family was more important than career to Miss Hepburn, her two marriages failed. She found solace in motherhood, her friends and, in later life, through her untiring labors for UNICEF.
   
   Audrey Hepburn forever changed America's view of glamour. As a New York Times reporter wrote at the time of her death: "What a burden she lifted from women! Here was proof that looking good need not be synonymous with looking bimbo."
   
   This biography offers a wide-screen view of one of our favorite actresses.
   
   - Gail Cooke



2. With a face that still resonates over the McCarthy era of Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn was an elegant image of purity in a corrupt world. Unlike Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey's image never tanished and she a backseat only to Marilyn Monroe as Hollywood's most famous leading lady.

   Audrey's life is mostly public facts: she married a second rate actor, Mel Ferrer; won an Academy Award for her first film, Roman Holiday, and a Tony for Ondine; earned five Oscar nominations; had two sons and obsessed over her career and family; and remarried an Italian playboy. But only an Audrey insider like Harris can go beyond the well-known myth making and draw a complete picture.

   Previously it has only been the subject of major speculation, but Harris confirms that Hepburn had several affairs with her leading men such as William Holden. The biography isn't all gossip though. Harris covers the later movies and Andrey's work with UNICEF. Although this prjects her Mother Teresa side, what is really interesting about Audrey is not her war experiences, her rise to fame, or her post-Wait Until Dark family life, but the period between 1952 and 1967 when she made fifteen great films including Charade and Two For The Road.

   Harris recognizes Hepburn's peak in the 1960s and uses the bulk of the book to detail this period of her life, but his knowledge doesn't protect him from the obvious shortcomings in his own work. He does tend to be repetitive. He's not much of a prose stylist. Beyond that, there is another major gripe to raise: there are only sixteen pages of Audrey photos in this book, and they don't go far beyond the standard postcard set. Obviously, anyone reading a Hepburn biography craves that classic look and an illustration of the movement from film to film.




3. Warren G. Harris's biography on Audrey Hepburn is an unbiased, straight-ahead account that details her ups and downs, from her childhood in the war-torn Netherlands, her first starts at stardom in England, her breakthrough in Roman Holiday, marriages to Mel Ferrer and Andrea Dotti, to her declining movie career from the late 1970's onward, and to her work as UNICEF spokesperson.

   The initial quotes from Billy Wilder, Cecil Beaton, Hubert Givenchy, and Stanley Donen give what made Hepburn a star. Wilder says that God kissed her with that gift of stardom. True enough: that 5'7" height, slender birdlike figure, prominent eyebrows, squared off chin, princess-like elegance and beauty that continued in her fifties, a wistful fragility, and soft voice that spoke perfect English and ended a sentence in a girlish query. And that European sophistication she exuded no doubt came from a multinational heritage that included British, Dutch, Austrian, Hungarian, French, Scotch, and Irish. And she is very distantly related to Katherine Hepburn, as both traced their lineage to James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, the third husband of Mary Queen of Scots.

   And she was a professional actress, someone striving for perfection and a trooper when it came to her work. She took time studying her background material, whether it be reading Tolstoy's War And Peace, where she played Natasha Rostova, Kathryn Hulme's biography on her experiences as a nun, and even going to see Hulme, resulting in The Nun's Story, and her going to a college for the blind for her part as Susy Hendrix in Wait Until Dark. That's not to say Audrey was perfect. Her one vice, smoking, came from the cigarettes she saw American soldiers smoking when her homeland was liberated. She became addicted to life on them.

   Hepburn's wartime hardships in occupied Netherlands is given quite some coverage because the experiences affected her later in life. One was the closeness to her mother and brothers, one of whom, Alexander, became a "diver," people who avoided conscription by the Axis army by hiding. Second, being malnourished in the final years of war led to a metabolism that prevented her from significantly gaining weight. And finally, the suffering she went through made her empathize with the starving children in Africa when she joined up as a UNICEF spokesperson during the last years of her life. Her generosity extended to Givenchy, whom she fought to get him credit for his designs, and to William Wyler, to whom she felt indebted for Roman Holiday and thus agreed to star in The Children's Hour, which wasn't among her best movies.

   All of Hepburn's movies, from her bits parts beginning with 1948's Dutch In 7 Easy Lessons through her final performance in Always, depending on how significant the movie, is given 5 to 7 pages coverage, from a brief synopsis, recollections by Hepburn herself, the directors, and co-stars. So far, the only person who hated Hepburn was her Sabrina co-star Humphrey Bogart, who thought Audrey, Billy Wilder, and others were conspiring against him. Others, such as her Roman Holiday co-star Gregory Peck, were gentlemanly.

   Harris hits early on that actor Mel Ferrer, husband #1, was constantly being overshadowed by his wife, as he never got into the star tier and that led to a simmering resentment that finally ended their marriage.

   Harris's coverage on her career is unbiased. He gives what the critics thought of her performances and movies, even bad ones like Paris When It Sizzles and Always, where she was clearly the best thing in the film. But through it all, he makes it clear why many, myself included, grew accustomed to her face.




4. One and ½ stars.

   Tedious. Not recommended. Gossipy, but full of "facts", that do not flow. Each paragraph of this biography stops and starts alone. Though it seems well researched, it drips with small, but unmistakable unknowable ideas presented, again, as (gossipy) facts by the author. It was a pain to get through the initial pages. Page 13 - "Ella picked "Hepburn" because it wash the only noble name... [OK] That he may have also murdered Mary's second husband, Lord Darnley [she actually knew this? hmm. unsubstantiated], didn't seem to bother the Baroness when she borrowed the name". Well, she may have `shamelessly' borrowed the name, but the author clearly begins filling in supposed knowledge of the character and continues to do so with other ideas throughout the work. Page 14 - "Ruston and Ella made a strikingly and highly volatile couple.": [OK]. "Tall and handsome, he'd grown a mustache to compensate for his receding hairline." What? Is the author struggling with same? Back then a mustache was worn prominently for the display of its own sake, regardless of receding hairline - you've seen the photos. Clearly a 90's cynical filter on earlier facts gets in the way in these simple examples as it gets in the way throughout the text. The work is littered with the 90's addiction of showing us supposed belly-button lint as somehow interesting fact. This is not biography. Sadly, selection of photos here seems the real strength. Wonderful photos. But this historical reader would rather turn back to reading about settlers taking bloody hatchets, as long as truth is presented. A thought; should I reward this 2 stars for effort? No. In this day and age, anyone can muster forth the so-called facts of anyone famous. Don't let the titles, the initial script of the opening pages, and the prior works of Harris fool you, this kind of fact/gossip intertwined crud can't be polished. Sadly, there may not be an Audrey Hepburn biography that flows and captures all the interesting facts and heart of her life until the end. But there is hope




5. I didn't apprecite it. As I haven't had any information of Audrey's life, I enjoyed knowing facts of her life. But the biography misses her personal experience at all! She goes through four abortions and the writer doens't give any importance at all to those facts! He has very detals of her years in Holland and the importance of her mother, but when she becomes famous, the mother is suddently out of the picture. As I said, her personal evolution is suddently forgot. It seens as there was two Audreys, the one that grewn up in nazist Holland and the one that made fame on movies. The pictures are very poor and of low quality. I brought the book knowing nothing about Audrey, and I finish reading it knowing less. Don't bother to get that book, there are betters of her.

2 comments about The Lonely Sea and the Sky.

1. When I came across this book in the local library a couple of years ago and began reading it, I was amazed that it is not better known.

   This is a book of hair-raising early aviation adventure.

   Chichester describes setting off solo from the England barnstorming his way to Australia almost before he has learned to fly the plane.

   His flight from New Zealand to Australia, lost over the open ocean in blinding rain, low on fuel, flying and navigating with the charts in his lap while rainwater pours down is neck is some of the greatest adventure I have ever read.

   This book represents adventure on a grand scale--I will be surprised if some publisher does not re-release it.




2. This is an autobiography with adventure. It starts with the young Francis and his early life, which moves well and does not linger too much, but introduces us to his matter-of-fact style of writing. Francis tells of his major flying achievements, which are stunning considering they were done in the early, primitive beginnings of aviation, where a compass, a clock and sextant were the navigational tools. He also is not afraid to tell of his mistakes and mishaps too. He flew solo from England to Australia in the 1930's. Then onwards across the Tasman sea, knowing he would have to find a small island in the middle of the ocean or he would run out of fuel and perish, has the tension of the personal account of a kamikazee pilot. To do this he developed a new technique of navigating called 'dead reckoning' and proved it works by finding the island. The book also details his solo sea voyage around the world, and he tells of curious and amazing adventures while he does it. Mr. Chichester has made his mark in adventuring history with his achievements and has come back to tell about it in an exciting way. The book wastes no words and moves quickly, almost too quickly at times, but the tales he tells easily sit one on the edge of the seat anxiously reading on for more. I recommend this book as a wonderful adventure true story for all ages.

No comments about Playboy On the Move, v3 (Playboy on the Move).

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.

3 comments about L Leap over the Wall (Isis Series).

1. - is, unlike the ex-nuns of the sixties and seventies, she doesn't blame the church for her mistake. Ms. Baldwin readily acknowledges she was given every opportunity to 'test her vocation' and back out before commiting herself but failed to take advantage of them because she wished to avoid onerous responsibilities at home. She never says what Order or Congregation she belonged to but from the description of the habit I'd guess she was a Canoness Regular, probably Augustinian.



2. This is an interesting, plotless little book that focuses not only on the physical contrasts between life in and out of the convent but the psychological ones as well. Baldwin spends lot of time giving slightly abstract spiritual arguments in favor of the religious community she has left, which is fine, but as a story the book doesn't seem to work very well. Not only are several of the references to the changing times quite obsolete (although interesting), but part of the wonder of the book must have stemmed from seeing the world as it was then (in the late forties, would have been "is now"), but that world is gone and so what we are left with now is a look at a world that is even more distant from us now than it was from Ms. Baldwin then. I still give it four stars, because I enjoy the writing and was not bothered too much by the datedness of it, but if you are looking for a book on convent life and its effects, you may prefer "Through the Narrow Gate" or "In This House of Brede".



3. I'll be honest, I've read the book rather than listened to the tapes, but if they live up to the written word this is a fascinating insight into a very "human" woman who entered an enclosed convent before WW1 and came out during WW2. When you haven't been outside the walls of your convent for 26 years life must have changed. Monica explains how she adapted to a different world with great humour and humility. If you want to know why some people shut themselves up in religious communities, and can spend more than 20 years working out why they made a mistake, this will supply plenty of answers.

4 comments about True.

1. This book really surprised me. Martin Kemp (actor and ex-Spandau Ballet bassist), tells his story of life in the fast lane with a successful pop group, his life as an actor,the numerous dodgy acting roles that he took to establish himself to the life-threatening double brain tumour...He tells his story candidly and engages the reader. It you are looking for a warts and all account, you will not get it here. There is no dirt-dishing and no-one will be offended. My impression is that nothing would make it's way onto these pages that would upset his family. He is too 'nice' for that. There are references to drug-taking and excessive drinking but nothing to frighten anyone. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and Martin proved to be fantastic company.



2. I have to admit I'm absolutely addicted to autobiographies, but I never expected anything to be as good as Martin Kemp's True. This book is purely amazing - when you read it you just can't believe this man's gone through all this. It seems more like a novel rather than an autobiography, Martin could have had another career other than an actor and a musician to me. This book honestly makes you appreciate life and cherish what you've got. Anyone, and I honestly mean - anyone, would enjoy this book. I would rate it 10 starts if I could.



3. This book is much more than reflection of the Spandau Ballet years (though their story is very interesting when told here). It's about victory over adversity. It's sometimes funny and often sad. Worthwhile.



4. I just couldn't put this down. So enlightening to read. From initially finding his first brain tumour to recollecting on his childhood through years of pop stardom in Spandau Ballet. You honestly feel like it could be someone close to you when you read his heart opening account of his fight against finding another tumour. Such a good read. Excellent stuff Martin, now we want the follow up or how about Shirlie doing a book through her eyes. Absolutely great.

No comments about The Days of Rondo (Borealis).