1 comments about Maria Callas: In Her Own Words.

1. The best parts of this bio are the interviews with Callas: you get a feeling for her emotions about events as they unfolded in her life. This is especially true close to the end of her life where the grief from her failed relationship with Onassis is so evident in her voice. Generous samples of Callas's key performances are also woven into the bio. I had never heard Callas sing so these samples were welcome and helpful in understanding Callas. (Her antics on the stage and behind the curtain are how you get to know Callas best. Not to mention that the samples allow you to witness firsthand the fiery, brave voice that made her famous). Overall, this was a strong, unconventional bio on a tragic heroine of the stage. I enjoyed it in its entirety.

No comments about Bloody Knife: Custer's Favorite Scout.

5 comments about Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Movie-Tie In: An Unauthorized Autobiography.

1. Some fantasize what they would do if they win the lottery and some fantasize being a hitperson for the CIA.
   
   One should most likely take this book with a few grains of salt. Even if it isn't true it is still entertaining. Quick reading.



2. Very good and interesting but of course I am a Chuck Barris fan. It is especially interesting to read the book and see the movie in the same week. The BIG QUESTION of course is: is it true or another Barris Production? And reading the book will still keep you guessing. I have a BA degree in Psychology and JD degree in law and still I cannot figure out if it is fiction or non fiction - the only disappointment I had was (after reading his first book) I wanted this book to be longer AND I wanted updated material and to know more about Penny (his wife). I hope he writes again!



3. Forget whether or not it's real. It's a good yarn that is convincingly told. Funnily enough, the parts of the story that concentrate on his role as a CIA agent are probably less interesting than his life as a gameshow producer and his own inability to be content with anyone or anything.



4. I saw the movie "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" first and then I read the book. As interesting and well made as the movie is, the book is actually better. I was a regular viewer of Mr. Barris's television programs and watched them quite a bit when I was growing up along with millions of other boomers.
   
   It is a strange leap from producing "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game" to being a contestant in Barris' real life version of "The Homicide Game." Yet, this is precisely what this story from Mr. Barris asks the reader to believe. Yet something in the back of my mind tells me that it is not actually all that difficult to imagine Mr. Barris actually saying, "And now here's a prize selected especially for you. It's a three-eighty hollow-point!"
   
   I always thought Chuck Barris did not deserve all the vile and spiteful things that were said about him during his television producer days by critics and so-called media experts. He was just giving America what it wanted. Compared to the infantile sitcoms of the day, his game shows were far more mentally engaging. The first book I read by Barris was "The Game Show King: A Confession" and I was amazed at how well he wrote. But then again, this is a well educated, well traveled mature man who has lived life above and beyond the everyday Joe since 1965, so I should not have been as surprised as I was. "Game Show King" is a better insight into his complex and fascinating personality than "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and does not get into the CIA angle at all.
   
   That Barris is just plain wired differently from normal people is obvious to anyone who ever saw "The Gong Show." However accepting that what he wrote in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" could all be true is certainly a stretch. Yet Mr. Barris is clever enough to make his story very convincing and extremely entertaining. There are very few clues here that he could be making the entire thing up, but they are there for informed readers. For only one example, he writes about CIA operations which happened in the USA. Of course, this is specifically forbidden by law and they simply wouldn't do that. They would get the FBI to do it. There are other very minor details that are also questionable.
   
   The true mystery of this book and its sequel "Bad Grass Never Dies" isn't whether or not the CIA angle is true. The real mystery is that since Barris doesn't need the money why does he bother to write these books at all? As of yet his true motivation remains a mystery, but I wouldn't be surprised if his next book is about why he wrote the "Sunny Sixkiller" books. I've seen him interviewed and he's been extremely evasive when directly questioned on the story's validity. None the less, this is one very enjoyable book that I had trouble putting down and finished in no time flat. I was left wanting more. I really enjoy Barris's writing style. I think he could have been an everyman's Tom Clancy or Ian Fleming if he'd really wanted to be. Instead of carving a literary legacy for himself, he will be remembered primarily as "Chuckie-Baby" Barris, the apparently deranged master of disaster on "The Gong Show." This is a pity as he writes so well. The ending of this book is really very good. The ending of the film it is just not as good. I would have enjoyed reading an entire "Sunny Sixkiller" series if he had written one.



5. Though I read this account two years ago, I still vividly recall of my impressions. This is not a book you soon forget. Though some say this is hype or improbable, I found it believable and think it was accurately written (however,I am sure certain details were left out). Mr. Barris makes no apologies for his behavior, which I found particularly interesting because to do what he did one would have to be able to be an emotionless sociopath or psychopath. He is obviously highly intelligent and for someone who created many of the game shows we still watch 40 years later, this was the ultimate game! Anyone who favors the genre of murder mysteries or finds True Crime intriguing, would not want to pass up this book. I also think those in law enforcement and the psychology professions would gain insight into the motivations of a hired killer.
   If you enjoyed the movie, the book is much better!

No comments about Diana, Princess of Wales (BBC Radio Collection).

5 comments about Babe.

1. This is a complete and thorough examination of the life and playing career of a baseball icon. The author has done a commendable job of separating the facts from the fanciful fictions that have grown up surrounding George Herman Ruth. While his home run record has been surpassed, I still think one can argue that Ruth was the greatest baseball player when one considers that in addition to his hitting abilities Ruth was an outstanding pitcher. He was shifted to the outfield when his managers determined that he could be of greater value as an everyday player rather than pitching every third or fourth day.



2. As author of the yet to be published "Babe Ruth: The Man Behind The Legend," I have read every book I can find on the subject of Babe Ruth. The more I read, the more I appreciate Creamer's exhaustive account of Ruth's playing career. This one is, by far, the best of all and I keep it with me at all times when I am in need of reference material. It is the most thorough and comprehensive. It is easy to see why this book has endured the test of time - an amazing 33 years in print. Thank you, Robert Creamer, for your truly wonderful contribution, and may you enjoy many more years in print! Sincerely, Rebecca Rau



3. Legends transcend time. The Stories get better, the adjectives get bolder, until they become passé. Ruth was the only athlete who was already at legend at age 21. There was no reason to exaggerate, and no words to describe his ferocious dominance. And the timing of his nuclear assault on history couldn't have been better planned. Fresh from the Black Sox crisis of 1919, America's greatest sport teetered on extinction. To this day, this baby faced Neanderthal had more athletic dominance over his peers than anyone in history...and more charisma than ten W.C. Fields. He changed the sport. Some say he changed the world.
   
   Home Runs were non-existent before him. Baseball runs were earned one base at a time; singles...sacrifice bunts...a sport of hard drinking pitchers, and gritty base stealers led by Cobb. After Ruth arrived, the physical dimensions had to be rearranged just to accommodate his abilities. Mammoth stadiums were built with double the capacity, replete with awe inspiring 450+ ft fences. All because of Ruth. But the parks were no match for him. He was the all-time home run champion at age 25, HR champ 13 times in 15 years, and in his 17 years as a hitter, he hit 235 home runs 450 ft. or further. By comparision, Bonds was HR champ just twice, and hit just 3, count em, 3 450ft HRs his first 15 seasons pre-roids.
   
   I've just read the new Ruth book out called The Big Bam, but afficionado's like me still choose Beamer's documentary as the voice of record. Unlike the rest, he best captures Ruth's massive power and abilities, childhood innocence, great sense of humor and rebelliousness, and rock star image. Ruth was the real deal. He was a true legend in his own time, and wore the badge humbly on his sleeve. He lit up every room he entered, and lit up every pitcher he faced. This book is a classic, like the man himself.



4. Some personalities are too big to be contained in a single book, especially one who exemplified bigness like Babe Ruth.
   
   Ruth was not much into analyzing the whys of his greatness. As retold in Robert Creamer's 1974 biography, when asked the secret of why he hit so many home runs, he replied: "Just swinging." Asked about "the psychology of the home run" by the same reporter, Babe responded: "Say, are you kidding me?"
   
   Creamer seems to feel the same way. He's not the prose version of Jack Webb exactly, but his "Babe" is heavy on facts and remarkably light on the sort of thing modern sports writers like to fill their weighty tomes up with, cultural impact and inner-self profiling. Creamer presents teasing glimpses of Babe's revelries, and some hints of who he really was beneath the legend (one close friend says "I don't think he really loved anybody"). But his focus is on Babe the baseball player, his statistical brilliance and his awesome, game-breaking power.
   
   He broke into the majors as a pitcher, developing into "the best lefthander in the game" before it became clear, in this blessed time before the advent of the designated hitter, that he could do more to win games with his bat than his arm. What followed transformed baseball from a slightly noisier and faster version of cricket into the National Pastime. Babe Ruth didn't invent the home run, but he might as well have deserved the copyright, hitting 54 homers in 1920, more than any other entire team produced except for his Yankees, red-haired stepchildren to the fabled New York Giants until Babe arrived and changed everything.
   
   Even though his career home-run record was in the process of being broken when "Babe" was published, Ruth was about so much more than that. Creamer gets at a lot of the on-field stuff, especially, like the fact he once led the American League in batting average and, as a pitcher, produced the longest stretch of earned-run-free innings for more than 40 years.
   
   The book does come across as dry at points, though, focusing on Ruth's more measurable accomplishments and ignoring the less tangible stuff. Creamer doesn't overwhelm you with a lot of flowing prose, which is a good thing, but he leaves a lot of things alone that seem fertile ground for exploration. Possibly because the last bio I read was Robert Caro's "Path To Power," it felt like Creamer was light on sourcing, but that's probably because his method of research was a lot less formal, chats at the bar with old-timers over the course of decades condensed into the iceberg we get here.
   
   What Creamer wrote, he got right, though, something I know as a fact. My grandfather covered the Yankees and was Babe's favorite ghostwriter, and my father, who saw Babe in the Yankee clubhouse, swore by Creamer as one of sportwriting's best for giving the honest, unvarnished truth. It's not a book for boys, as Creamer notes, but "Babe" will make you feel like one reading about this real-life giant who walked the earth.



5. That was written for boys & swallowed every legend whole. Robert Creamer has written quite a bit on baseball. This may be about the best biography of its time. You can't do much better than Tom Parker if you take the audio route. I've read or listened to other works by Mr. Creamer & they are consistently good. That said he has alway seemed a bit to attached to the numbers. Baseball is the most satistical of sports & I do enjoy them. Ever year there is a new on that can be applied however unofficially to players of other eras such as the Babe. One of the newest ones now in vogue is the quality start.
   Six inningss minimum with three earned runs or less is a quality start. Having said that sometimes the numbers overwhelm the story. Stats on the Babe's minor league years will be forgotten about 2 seonds after you hear them. Mr Creamer endeavors to be accurate & may knock down some of the legends, or reduce them to believable proportions. The belly-ache heard round the world & The Babe hitting three home-runs in his last game are examples of the hype at the time. Creamer gets real & lifts, in the end his biography to a more adult level. I think Mr. Creamer dwells a bit more on Babe's other appetites, as well, such as women. His various ailments, injuries & suspensions have surprisingly depressed records that could have been even greater than they eventually were. Babe's juvenile behavior in his early years & the number of people in the baseball world that he irritated by his sometimes arrogant attitude through-out his career thwarted him in the thing he wanted most: to be a big league manager. That is sad & we'd have a lot more to talk about since he lived for another 10 years after he left baseball. He died relatively young but he was & still is (despite his numbers being slowly
   eclipsed) the greatest. If you wanted a truthful biography this is is a pretty good one & its available in the audio version.

5 comments about Heart of America, The.

1. Don't bother with this one if you want to read about his experiences cycling. Get it if you want to reinforce your Christian faith, or be converted. Unfortunately, I was interested in the cycling angle. This book is not much more than an advertisement for Focus on the Family, the author's employer.



2. Even though I am a fan of Focus on the Family, and Mike Trout was the co-host of the broadcast when I read this book, I found it did not hold my attention. His descriptions of the places he stopped could have been enlarged, as well as the people he met and the sights he saw. He was accompanied by his son in law, and planned the coast to coast route which was not necessarily the easiest, but one which passed through Colorado, home of Focus on the Family.

   I agree that this could have been a full length magazine article instead of a book and certainly I would encourage readers to borrow it or check it out of the library. It is not a keeper in my opinion. Sorry Mike, I liked you as co-host, but as author, well, you are just so so.




3. If you are looking for a technical/tour guide type manual about crossing the country by bicycle, skip this one. If you are looking book written by an evangelical Christian bicyclist about his journey across our great country, this is the one. Mike Trout, co-host of the Focus on the Family radio program, shares his experiences as he meets other Christians while doing something many of us only dream about. The hospitality and graciousness of the people he met along the way, gave me as a reader a renewed faith in the values that made this country such a great place to live. Some readers may be turned off or offended by the continual reference to scripture through out this book. But to the true believers, it is an example of how we should do all things in our lives with reverence to God and scripture. This is a book to be enjoyed be both cyclist and non-cyclist alike. The only criticisms I can find, I wish this book had more technical information, i.e. a route map, etc. and more detail about the eastern half of the trip. But as said before, there are other books written for those purposes. Another excellent book about cross-country bike travel is Over the Hills, by David Lamb. Written by a newspaper journalist, it also chronicles the trip of a man approaching mid life and unbarring on a life-changing journey. Very similar to Trout's book, but with out the religious overtones.



4. Living life to the fullest is something we all talk about but rarley do. This book is a great testimony of a man who actually did just that. My husband and I are coming up on age 50 and have talked about doing something adventurous for the past several years. Mike's book has definitely encouraged and motivated us to step up our plans. There is so much to experience in life if we just take that first step. We have made arrangements to backpack across the entire Appalachian trail next year. I can't wait. This book is a great tribute to all of us who dare to step out of our box a little, and to the great people of this country. I highly recommend it!



5. I purchased this book with interest since I, too, have taken cross-country bike trips. And I did find that two of Trout's messages rang clear. Those being that a person does need to pursue challenges of some kind or risk being absorbed by our spectator society, and that at heart people are basically kind and good-willed. I also found that some of Trout's "people he met" stories were interesting to read, and did bring back some personal memories. I was, however, disappointed with the overall flavor of the trip and the book. Trout's concern with getting to the end in as few days as possible was a little disconcerting to me. He needed to "stop and smell the flowers" a little more. Also, his constant mention of who was paying for his nightly motel room and the frequent credit given to the Focus on the Family ministry was a little too self-serving. In addition, I would have to agree with a previous reviewer in that there was too much relianc! e on Scriptural quotes and sharing of the Focus on the Family/Christian party line. This 190-plus page book would have been a much better magazine article than a book since there were not nearly enough fresh insights or stories to fill a book. I wish that Trout would have spent more time writing about his feelings as he looked up at a New Mexico sky, or as he talked to a Kansas farmer. I encourage Trout to keep journeying and writing. Only next time, I hope that he writes a little more for himself and not for the Walmart/Focus on the Family audience.

5 comments about The Iacocca: An Autobiography.

1. Suprisingly, the life of a CEO can be just like our own. The numbers are bigger. But I don't mean money. Lee Iacocca doesn't come off as someone living in luxury, even though I'm sure he's rich. Rather, that when he would get up in the morning to solve a problem for Chrysler employees, he was thinking about 420,000 of them. Still, the same worries: career progress, don't get blindsided by personal politics (he did, by Henry Ford II), and make sure to be home to enjoy family. And do a good job. If you want an uncompromising paean to capitalism, read Ayn Rand. But if you want a successful view, balanced by doubts and compromises, Iacocca's your man. The book's a page-turner too, and with all credit to William Novak, I sense that it's Iacocca's real life, and real character, that make for the exciting plot.



2. Lee Iacocca is best known for bringing back Chrysler from the brink of bankruptcy and taking $1 a year as a salary to show his commitment to the cause.
   
   This is an important part of the book, it needed to be told. Also, Iacocca is a story of a man driven to work hard and become a leader. It is a bit egocentric at time, but that can be forgiven with the richness of the material. I found the book enlightening, entertaining and inspirational.
   
   The inspirational part of the book is that when Chrysler is faced with impending tragedy the people all put together as one. It is disheartening that tragedy has to be a huge element in the success equation for many companies. This would be a tremendous book to explore.
   
   Iacocca has some strong common sense weaved through this work. For example, Iacocca would prepare to hit the ground running by preparing for the week on Sunday evenings. Also, he notes that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.
   
   In another telling example during the almost collapse of Chrysler, Iacocca reduces his own salary to $1.00 a year to get support from the Chrysler workers and management. He says:
   
   "Leadership means setting an example. He goes on to say: "I didn't take $1.00 a year to be a martyr. I took it because I had to go into the pits. I took is so that when I went to Doug Fraser, the union president, I could look him in the eye and say. "Here's what I want from you guys as your share," and he couldn't come back to me and ask: "You SOB, what sacrifice have you made?" That's why I did it, for good, cold, pragmatic reasons."
   
   Overall, an excellent book with many powerful ideas worth embracing. Highly recommended!
   
   The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking



3. Lee Iacocca was a brilliant salesman, a workaholic, and a resourceful businessman. Throughout history, at the heart of the American automobile industry there have always been men of advanced practicality that shaped the nation as a worldwide power; Iacocca clearly belongs among its best.
   
   Iacocca's autobiography details early childhood, his entry as a salesman into the auto industry, time with Ford including overseeing the development of the Mustang, and saving Chrysler including details on the government bailout loan he negotiated to save the flailing company. There is no doubt the auto industry would look far differently had Iacocca never existed. His footprint will be forever felt and his life lessons should be part of any business study. Iacocca presents his life story in detail using a presentation style that is both appealing and unrestrained. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in business history.



4. He supported Bush, while saying Gore was a nut for believing in global warming. Thanks for your help, Lee... you Republican imbecile.



5. I have been playing golf for over 45 years and have read many books related to the golf swing. Joe Laurentino in his book takes a lot of the "mystery" out of teaching the golf swing. He specifically puts you at ease by stating that you don't have to swing like a pro to play a decent game of golf. The chapter on golf club path and golf club face angle are particularly enlightening. This book is a must read for anyone considering trying to improve their golf swing without going through a major overhaul.

2 comments about Healing Lessons.

1. I read this book days after discovering my father has stomach cancer. I am so greatful for this book. There are not many books that deal exclusively with gastric cancer and that is what made this book so important to me. For me it was good to go through the entire process of before diagnosis to death throught the voice and eyes of a top Gastroenterologist. I thought the book was a bit over the top with the descriptions of their wealth and fortunes. I also skipped over the religious/god bit. But overall I was truly touched with the descriptions of her death. With reagrd to the alternative treatments I suppose it discouraged me from waisting money on it. It helped me focus of what does work and the thought that hope is a powerful motivator. It gave me and idea of what to expect for my father and for that I am grateful.



2. I recommend this book to those living with cancer and those who love them. This book reveals that those of us who care about someone with cancer, even a world-reknowned physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, are feeling many of the same emotions and drains. Sloan-Kettering is a wonderful hospital and Sid Winawer is amongst its many, many stars.

No comments about Michelangelo: Library Edition.

No comments about Wilbur and Orville Wright: Young Fliers, Library Edition (Ready Reader).