5 comments about Race.

1. I first encountered Studs Terkel's fascinating oral histories through his book "Working." In "Race," he creates a richly textured study of one of America's great obsessions--and taboos--in the early 1990s. His interviewees represent a wide range of perspectives, including both "experts" and ordinary people of many socioeconomic backgrounds, and their testimonies are remarkably candid. Although they encompass several ethnic groups, the focus of the book is race relations between blacks and whites, as the subtitle indicates.
   
   For the most part, the book is centered on Chicago, a city with a troubled history regarding race. Infamously, the violent response to a 1966 civil rights march in Marquette Park prompted Martin Luther King to remark, "I have seen many demonstrations in the South, but I have never seen anything so hostile and so hateful as I've seen here today." Chicago is also a pertinent site for such a study because of the devastating impact the decline of manufacturing has had upon the city's black population. Terkel's interviewees discuss the effects of this decline upon the economic status of many of Chicago's black residents and the resultant disintegration of the family, in addition to the interracial tension caused by the loss of jobs (a tension that often manifests as a debate over affirmative action). Many interviewees, both black and white, seem to agree that overt racial prejudice became more socially acceptable during the Reagan years, reversing a trend that began with the civil rights movement. Many also discuss the popularity of Louis Farrakhan, with varied feelings.
   
   Another frequently recurring theme is that of interracial dating and marriage. Some support interracial relationships or are themselves in one, while others confess to feelings of resentment when they see an interracial couple. Interviewees of both races talk about the deep-seated insecurities (especially male insecurities) that often surround the issue.
   
   Although aspects of the book are grim, showing how blacks and whites have actually grown farther apart due to a widening economic gap and diverging cultural (particularly linguistic) courses, there are some rays of hope. One especially memorable section is the story of C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater of Durham, North Carolina. A former Ku Klux Klansman, Ellis eventually comes to feel that, as a poor white, he has more in common with poor blacks than with white members of the elite who exploit them both. Although he knows he will be stigmatized for his change of heart, he reaches out to Atwater, a black activist, and the two become not only colleagues but close friends.
   
   What makes this book unique is the sheer variety of voices it contains, each offering a completely different perspective. Despite the unfortunate reluctance of many Americans to discuss race, Terkel succeeds in drawing out the people he talks to. Their observations remain very relevant over a decade later.



2. Studs Terkel's "Race" is another in a series of books that provides an excellent oral history about subjects that few feel free to talk about. If you like oral history, then you'll love Studs Terkel. Famous for his classic book "Working", he seeks out common "unfamous" Americans and simply asks them to talk about what they think about Race and race relations, in this book. Written in 1990, the book is a little dated, but still holds largely true. There are around 100 interviews in this book. He interviews about an equal amount of Blacks and Whites with some other ethnicities mixed in, and like in all of his books, he interviews about the same number of old and young, men and women, and middle-class and poor. (No mention of anyone's sexuality though.)
   
   Some highlighted stories are from a white former Ku Klux Klan member and a black former civil rights leader are interviewed some two decades later. The Ku Klux Klan member has become a hard-core anti-racist radical who is President of his union which is more than 80% Black. The former civil rights leader has become a conservative republican (though he still believes in limited Affirmative Action). Many of the other stories are interesting because when you put the white point of view and the black point of view right next to each other, there are clearly some huge gaps in understanding each other, and usually the faults and ignorance seem to lie on the white point of view (though some of the interviewed are trying to change their understandings or admit they've changed). There is a lot of frustration on both sides, but at no point do you get an opinion exactly the same as another individual.
   
   I have a belief that you should have 10% theory and 90% action, and lately I've been reading a lot of theory. Books like these are a good antidote to too much theory in your life. I love oral history, because it's straight to the point and doesn't require any detective work by the reader to find out what the author is talking about. Something like the subject of Race, being so linked to how people in the United States relate to each other, you need some straight-forward answers. People too often dance around the issue of race and in order to build a social change movement that brings real improvement in all people's lives; we can't squirt around race anymore than class or gender or sexuality or anything else. Most often, the real battle is the battle for the hearts and minds of people, and to understand what that is exactly. Oral history is important.
   
   In conclusion, Studs Terkel is my favorite non-fiction writer of all time, because his work involves the words of thousands of ordinary people.



3. Growing up in Detroit in the 40's and 50's I remember the respect we were taught to adults be they black or white. If you were on a street car and a lady got on and you were the youngest you would surrender your seat. it didn't matter if the lady was black or white. Then came the riots in the 60's and the flight to the suburbs, which we all made. It has remained. Whites and blacks have gone further and further out, some driving up to forty miles to work in Detroit. It is not as much a race thing as disrespect from black and whites in the city. There is not respect for the law, elderly or even themselves. In turn this is where all our large citys are failing.The drug dealers run the citys and it is in plain view. Ask anyone that lives in the City. Drugs are big money and it works its way up the line to the politicians. Without law and order no one will return no matter what race they are. That is my opinion to the problem with the only answer I can see.



4. Studs Terkel has done some very good things with this book and he clearly is a talented interviewer with a strong grasp of the state of race relations in the US. I don't know that this book was particularly well written as he really did little more than aggregate a lot of (often, not always) interesting interviews. I'm not sure the book is still contemporary and I do feel that race relations have come a good ways along since this book was written. That being said, I do think this book is very worthwhile for most anyone, even today. While it was very interesting to gain insight into minority views on the Reagan administration, Farrakhan, etc., I think I honestly gained more from the every day stories and perspectives that were related. It will certainly get you to think about race relations from an entirely new perspective and that is far and away its most valuable aspect.



5. rst a few parahprases from the interviews in this book which was published in 1993:"

   Professor Douglas Massey points out that relatively stable jobs such as in factories, steel mills and auto plants have dissapeared in black communities. These jobs have largely dissapeared for this generation. Blacks cannot move to where decent jobs might be because of their difficulty in entering the housing market. A person working in the service economy, say at Macdonalds, full time at minimum wage, can't stay above the poverty line.

   Alex Berteau, a partner in a law firm, says that it's tough for him to talk to young successful whites who say that they have nothing to do with the injustices done to African Americans in the past. Berteau says, no, it's not them, it's their fathers, who profited while paying black people subsistence wages so their children to go to Harvard. This young individual says "Don't lay it on my doorstep" yet he is getting all the fruits of it. Berteau, says that this youngster has a college degree but the black man who slaved so his father could get everything cheap is illiterate and can barely speak English. To get rid of Affirmative Action, is to ignore history, he says.

   Maggie Holmes, retired domestic worker, refers to a painting at the Chicago art musem in the mid-80's of Chicago's black progressive mayor Harold Washington in a bra and panties and apparently an exhibit consisting of an American flag on the floor which people were invited to walk on. To judge by her comments, it appears the white population ridiculed the anger of blacks at the first, but raised an uproar at the second. She also says that the American flag is just an old rag that dosen't mean anything to her, because white people burned things and wrapped themselves around that flag when Dr. King was marching.

   Mike Wrobleski, former police captain in Chicago is interviewed. He got a lot of viscious harrassment from his fellow officers during the 80's because he would not tolerate racist posters and other expressions, many about Mayor Washington, in police stations under his watch. He got one letter which contained a picture of a naked black man and a white woman with her mouth open that said "You nigger-lover. This is what my wife is doing when I'm not at home." Terkel notes that this lout actually meant to say "your wife" instead of "my wife" and Wrobleski comments that there is probably some deep Freudian stuff in that case, the fear of the alleged sexual prowess of black men on which he based his racism.

   Fred Hampton, is only refered to once in this book, in the very last interview. Terkel says in a footnote that in 1990 the Chicago city council voted to have a Fred Hampton day but after that sixteen white alderman objected on the grounds that they thought they had voted to honor Dan Hampton the Chicago Bears football player.

   Most of these interviews take place with people from Chicago, Terkel's hometown, which has always been pretty volatie racially. Marquette Park is refered to several times early in the book. This was where Dr. King tried to have a march in 1966 but instead got assaulted with rocks several times by rampaging white mobs, whose hatred terrified him. He said that it had surpassed anything he had seen in the South.

   Then there are a few like C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater from Durham North Carolina. Ellis was a poor white klansman who battled the black activist Atwater in the racial strife of Durham in the 60's. Ellis started to lose his enthusisasm for the KKK when he realized that the big politicians and economic elite of Durham who provided funds and expressions of racial solidarity to him and his chapter of the KKK during the nightime were embarassed to associate with a poor white like him during the daytime. He realized that poor whites had a heck of a lot in common with poor blacks. He became close to Atwater and speaks about her in his interviews (one in 1978, the other in 1989) with great emotion. He became a multi-racial union organizer. C.P. Ellis is an example of what Dr. Kenneth Clark of Brown Vs. Board of education fame refers to, in his interiview, about poor whites trying to get feelings of self-worth in this society by stomping on poor blacks below them in the class system.W

   ill Campbell, a White Southern preacher says in his interview regarding the origins of the term "redneck. It was from a Edwin Markham poem which refered to the poor white farmer taking a break from his slavery, putting his hands on his hoe and looking on the ground. All the while the scorching sun beats down on the back of his neck. Thus he gets a redneck. Unfortunately, says the reverand, we've equated that with racism.

No comments about A Thirst for Life.

3 comments about Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered.

1. In this easy to read volume Russell Kirk provides a succinct biography of "the first conservative of our time of troubles." Burke's political philosophy is clearly explained and Kirk introduces the reader to Edmund Burke the man.
   
   The book basically deals with the four major issues of Burke's life: his resistance to Jacobinism, England's relationship with the American Colonies, the prosecution of Warren Hastings, and the stifling of George III's domestic authority. Kirk provides wonderful quotes throughout the book and thorough, balanced analysis.
   
   Those looking for a critical assessment of Burke will not find it here, as Kirk, the great conservative thinker of our time, was a proponent of Burke and felt that his voice was still applicable in today's political climate. However, this does not compromise the integrity of this volume.
   
   This book is a must read for anyone interested in political theory, politics, and/or history.



2. Edmund Burke deserves better than this biography. The author Russell Kirk is full of admiration for Burke, but his unqualified praise of his subject is more deserving of a 19th century hagiography than it is a modern work. At no point in the book that I can remember does Kirk ever put anything but the most positive spin on the 18th century statesman/philosopher's actions. Burke is undoubtedly everything Kirk claims -- a great man, a genius, and his influence in both England and the United States largely underestimated - but even the greatest and wisest of men have blind spots and moments of weakness. Was Burke perhaps overzealous in his sixteen-year pursuit of Warren Hastings? Did Burke hide his Irish Catholic roots out of fear for what they could do to his ambitions if brought out in the open? Was his political philosophy less than consistent? Not according to Kirk.

   Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered" does have its good points. It's well-written -- far more accessible than the Conor Cruise O'Brien biography "The Great Melody". (To be fair to O'Brien, his biography is not a straightforward work, but presents Burke's life thematically.) Kirk's book also makes some valid points about Burke's legacy, convincing the reader that Burke's philosophy is underappreciated by modern audiences. But a more balanced approach to Burke's life - without all the Great Man gloss -- would have made this point just as effectively.




3. Kirk's introduction to the life and politics of Burke is essential to understanding Edmund Burke in his time and ours. More of a Political biography than a general biography, it is still a book whose prose is very readable and understandable. A biography of a great man by a great man.

1 comments about Supreme Faith: Someday We'll Be Together.

1. Supreme Faith begins in 1970. Barry Gordy has long been paving the way for his lover, Diana Ross, to shed the Supremes and claim her solo stardom. But what happens next wasn't what Gordy and Ross had planned. While Ross has only one Top-10 hit in the next four years, the Supremes (now with Jean Terrell) see hit after hit climb the charts, with songs like "Up the Ladder To the Roof" and "Stoned Love." But then Gordy turns his attention to making movies instead of records, and all the Motown artists - such as Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and even the Jackson Five - find their instant success no longer so instant as the unstoppable Motown hit machine grinds to a halt. The record company does nothing to help the Supremes develop a new, more contemporary style, stops promoting their albums to radio stations, and when there is a hit, does nothing to keep the momentum going. Since Motown won't do it, Mary tries to keep the group going herself, but as each new member learns the truth about Motown, she ends up presiding over a revolving door of singers.
   
   Mary's private life is both wonderful and tumultuous. She has memorable romances with Flip Wilson, Steve McQueen, and Duke Fakir of the Four Tops. Then she falls deeply in love with and marries Pedro Ferrer. Pedro has the strength Mary needs to keep fighting on behalf of the Supremes - and the strength to become a wifebeater. At the nadir of her life, the Supremes are forced to appear at an oldies show at Madison Square Garden and are booed off the stage when they present new material. Days later, Pedro throws a glass at Mary, ripping away her ear.
   
   Mary gets away from Motown, divorces Pedro, and launches her solo career, only to find both her ex-husband and the record company dogging her every step. Always in the shadows is the percliar Miss Ross, whose erratic behavior, sudden phone calls, and alternately hot and cold treatment of Mary - a friend of twenty years - baffle everyone. The climax to all this occurs at the Supremes' reunion during Motown's silver anniversary special, when Diana, tired of Mary and Cindy Birdsong keeping pace with her stage movements, shoves Mary aside.
   
   Now Mary Wilson is a free woman, successful working mother, and a best selling author who does just what she loves best - singing and performing. SUPREME FAITH is the vibrant and extraordinary story of a woman surviving against impossible odds and achieving, ultimately, the triumph of a lifetime. It is a book that explores, as no other has before, the screaming roller coaster of fame, and it is a book that will open your eyes to the truth about what being a star in the entertainment business is like today.

No comments about I Am Potential: Eight Lessons on Living, Loving, and Reaching Your Dreams, Library Edition.

5 comments about Silent Running: My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine.

1. This book is a real page turner. I couldn't put it down. Calvert really pulls you into the action. I picked up this book after reading "The Terrible hours" and found that I enjoyed reading about submarines. I've also just started playing "Silent Hunter III" and wanted to delve into the WWII submarine environment. This books definitely puts right along-side Calvert. I really enjoyed the growth that the book follows as Calvert graduates from the Naval Academy, gets assigned to a new submarine as it is being contructed. His writing style that takes you from a young green officer to an experienced submarine warrior is a very nice touch. This really portrays the building of his character. After reading about Swede Momsen and James Calvert, I am ready to start building a WWII submarine library.



2. I'll echo much of what has already been written. This book is an excellent account of one man's experience with WW2 submarine operations. The author made it to the level of executive officer on a sub by the end of the war (and went on to even more interesting events as told in his other book "Surface at the Pole").
   
   The author writes clearly, interestingly, and honestly. The author covers most of his patrols (of nine if I remember correctly) in detail and even some of his personal events while on shore. He covers everything from the horror of being depth charged to the boredom and tedium of patrol.
   
   Overall the author provides an interesting and enlightening account of US Submarine operations and what it was like to serve on a US submarine in WW2.



3. Great read.
   
   As the only prior reviewer who failed to give it five stars noted , it is written in a very straightforward style. Most of the discussions regarding emotions are off the boat. It is not Tom Clancey but rather an account of real heros, fighting an extremely dangerous war, 8,000 miles from home and often hundreds of miles from any friendly ship.
   
   I found the book captivating but it does require the reader to put himself into the account rather than having the book reach out to the reader with pages of descriptions of fear soaked sweat dripping from frightened sailors.
   
   It is a book about the true meaning of being a warrior at sea, combat leadership, life aboard one of the best attack submarines, wartime love and the emotional conflicts and the technology of the era.
   
   The book is also about the endurance of the men who sailed on the submarines. Although the author does not dwell on the issue, due to the importance of their effort the subs were only allowed to remain in port for the few weeks it took to attend to the most critical reparis and replenishment. Then they returned to a very dangerous mission which began almost as they left port.
   
   It's also a reminder of how much the strategy of submarine warfare has changed as our WW2 subs had very limited range and speed while submerged.
   
   The author's story of their premature entry into Tokyo was great.
   
   He only devotes a few words in the afterword to cover the balance of his distinguished military career which had seemed doomed by their prank trip to Tokyo.



4. This memoir is particularly well-written. It accomplishes the expected by displaying day-to-day life on a US submarine in WWII, but it does more by really capturing the voice of an innocent young man who still has a lot to learn about the world.
   
   Calvert went on to quite a distinguished career in the Navy, but this book never hints at that, instead it paints a portrait of a very specific period of time in the author's life and doesn't bog the reader down with too much 20/20 hindsight and reflections, instead relaying the feeling of being in your early 20s and being involved in one of the highest-stakes contests ever fought in human history.
   
   If you like memoirs, history, or WWII, this is a very well-told story that will appeal to you.



5. This could have easily been a dull and difficult read, but Calvert was not a dull man. To the contrary, this story puts you right in the action. Just like the AAF's B-24 Liberator bombers, the naval subs were often just as dangerous to our soldiers as the enemy was. Especially at the beginning of their service, Calvert shares how the Jack had many problems with its engines, at one point nearly getting stranded with no operable engines. On top of that, they had to endure intense depth charging. With all of this action, it's hard to relax - even while in the comfort of an armchair.

   More than just a military tale, however; Silent Running has a real human side. Calvert takes the reader deep into his personality, allowing us to share in his fear and his courage. It is also a story of love and a sailor's struggle to stay faithful to his wife while facing death in a cruel war far from home. As he prevails over all, we are shown the tremendous character and tenacity of the men and women that fought and won the "Greatest War".

   If you like this book, you must rent/buy/watch Das Boot (The Boat) directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Although, it is told from the perspective of the German submarine crew, it is a great aid to visualizing the experience of 1930-40's submarine warfare conditions and technology. It is, also, considered one of the greatest WWII movies made to date.

4 comments about After the Fire: A True Story of Love and Survival.

1. I read so much about this book, including the reader reviews on this website, and could not wait to read it. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed. This book was based on a poignant, emotional and traumatic actual event. To tell the story exactly as it occurred would have packed an emotional wallop; however, the author chose to use overly-dramatic phrasing and storytelling techniques, which for me took away from the experience of reading it. For me it was overkill; I actually felt my teeth aching while reading certain chapters. This is not to take away from the horrific experience these men went through, and I admire their courage and strength. I just didn't enjoy the soap opera-style telling of their story.



2. After the Fire: A True Story of Love and Survival is based on true events. It is under sad and unfortunate events that this story comes about. The day was January 19th, 2000, a day that no one will ever forget. On this fateful day a fire spread throughout the freshman dormitory halls of Seton Hall University. The fire claimed young three lives and injured many more. Robin Gaby Fisher tells the story of two room mates Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos and the angels of Saint Barnabas Hospital, who helped saved these two friends.
   
   After the Fire: A True Story of Love and Survival makes you feel raw, heart-wrenching emotions of sadness, joy and triumphant. After the Fire: A True Story of Love and Survival is such a powerful book that it is beyond words on how to explain it. I credit this fact dooly to Robin Gaby Fisher's talent as not only an author and writer but as an amazing story teller. I was blown away from the first moment I picked this book up to read it. If Mrs. Fisher's goal was to show how with lots of strength, determination as well as setting a goal for yourself you can achieve anything; then Mrs. Fisher accomplished that with After the Fire: A True Story of Love and Survival. If there is ever one book you must read in your life then it has got to be After the Fire: A True Story of Love and Survival by Robin Gaby Fisher.



3. Buy this book. Robin Gaby Fisher takes you on the heart-wrenching and heart-warming journey of two young men, who nearly died in a fire at their dorm. People magazine got it right in its four-star review of the book, saying in part: " While the descriptions of the burn treatment are horrific, the revelation that the fire was ignited by two pranksters who nonchalantly partied afterward is heartbreaking. Unimaginably moving - readers will want to keep a box of tissues at handy - and deeply compassionate." I agree, I know I used up my fair share of tissues, too, and I couldn't put it down until I'd read the last page. - marilyn and brian



4. I LOVED this book. It's the true story of two young men, terribly burned in a dormitory fire at Seton Hall University a few years back. Living overseas at the time of the fire, I had no knowledge this tragedy ever occurred; but I bought the book on the recommendation of a friend and immediately found that I couldn't put it down.
   
   It's an incredibly well-written story that will draw you into the lives of these two courageous young men and the medical staff who helped bring them back from the brink of death.
   
   I was completely moved by this story and it touched my heart in a way that no book ever has. This is easily one of my favorite books of all time.

No comments about The Great Chase.

No comments about Greg Dyke.

5 comments about ME AND MY SHADOWS: A Family Memoir.

1. I recently read this book. Although it is not the best autobiography I have ever read it is not the worst either. It is a good interesting read. Ms. Luft is honest and straight forward with how she saw things. I have read other posts blasting her for false statements. And I have to ask those blasting her: Where you there? Did you live it?
   
   One reviewer is under the mistaken idea that Judy was forced to live in London at the end of her life. Not so. She went there quite often to do concerts and I believe was there to do a concert when she passed away. No one forced her out of the country if you read the book no one forced her to do anything no one dared!
   
   Frankly if you want to know the real Judy read this book from someone who loves and cares about her and was there with her constantly. As for cashing in on her mother I don't find that is the case here. I think she just wants to tell her side of the story. After all most books about Ms. Garland are full of false stories and written by people who really did want to cash in on her name. One that comes to mind is her last husband Mickey Deans, who only knew her for a few months not years. Talk about a garbage book.
   
   I didn't find that she was trashing her mother at all on the contrary she was trying to set the record straight. I had no doubt while reading this that she loved her mother very much. It had to be very painful to write this book. On many occasions in the book she says her mother was a great mother. These people blasting Ms. Luft are obviously people who have never lived with someone this dependant on drugs and this mentally affected by those drugs. As one reviewer says "sure she could be difficult, what addict isn't?" Difficult? She threw knifes at people on at least two occasions! This is a reviewer who has never had to deal with this type of problem. Thirty years of the volume of drugs Ms. Garland ingested is going to generate someone that is more than just difficult.
   
   To get on Ms. Luft's case for moving in with her father 10 months before the death of her mother is ridiculous. To say, as one reviewer did, at least the "sleazy hanger-on" were there at the end is ludicrous. Ms. Luft was a teenager. She should not have had to continue to live in that environment. It was not her responsibility to take care of her mother at that age. She did for many years, but it took its toll on her. It showed great strength to walk away.
   
   Reading some of these scathing reviews leads me to believe the people didn't really read the book. They are just Judy fanatics that cannot stand that there icon was not a saint. She was human with human frailties.
   
   Another reviewer blasts Sid Luft and his treatment of Judy and how he pushed her too hard. The book clearly says that Sid Luft did not want to be her manager that Judy wanted him to manage her, so he did. The book also states he watched out for her and monitored her pill intake so she would not take more than perscribed. From what is decribed in the book he had nothing but her best intrest at heart and would not do anything to hurt her.
   
   Everyone has a point of view. Growing up my memories are not the same as my sisters or brothers, but that does not make mine or their memories false just a different point of view. This is true of all families, whether you are famous or not, so the same holds true for Ms. Luft's memories of her family. She was there. This is her point of view on actual events that occured in her life; the reviewers here were not there, so if you want to learn about the real Judy Garland as seen through the eyes of someone very close to her read this book.



2. What is incredible about this book is Lorna Luft's first becoming acquainted, in her mid-thirties, with the theory of alcoholism as a family disease.
   
   It brings to mind Liza Minnelli's appearance on "Inside the Actors Studio" a year or two ago. She told the audience to look up alcoholism, because it actually is a disease!
   
   It makes one wonder whether these two were living under glittery, spangled rocks, or something.
   
   The book is an interesting read, but the many, many pages devoted to Ms. Luft's late-in-life revelations about her mother's and her sister's addictions are like patiently watching a child play with color crayons: You know you're doing the polite thing, but Gawd, it's boring.
   
   Finally, I wonder who edited this book. "Me and Joey," and "Me and Mama," and "Me and Liza," and so on. After the first few dozen, it's like reading a letter from camp.
   
   Is it to remind the reader of the title of the book he already has in his hand, or is it just plain bad grammar?



3. Its difficult to believe that anyone anywhere would get anything out of this auto biography. her whole point seemed to be that Sid Luft was the greatest man and has gotten a bad rap . Her book vindicates him, and she has a way of portraying her mom as a nightmare without actually coming across as being a rotten daughter. Very clever of her but unfortunately her book isnt as clever or well written to make up for the denial and genuine lack of insight or honesty in the book.
   Talking about your drug problems is NOT honest. its just common knowledge and quite acceptable in todays society.
   Lorna seems to reduce everything in her life to addiction, her mothers, her own and her sisters.
   As for Liza, well, i agree with another review, Lorna manages to talk alot about Liza's addiction while glossing over her own.
   And as for the quote on the back of her book
   " Lorna is the most talented of us all"
   Judy Garland
   well, i dont want to state the obvious but
   We know who we're talking about when we say
   JUDY or
   LIZA
   how many trys would someone have to come up with when they heard
   Lorna
   before they said Luft?



4. This is a great book and being a Judy Garland admirer, nothing about her life would make me not be a fan but it's more refreshing to hear what happened from someone who was there instead of a biographer who "makes up" stories of what he/she has heard.
   
   This is a great book - it's truthful, compassionate and real.



5. I read Luft's version of her own mothers story. A very good book, told from someone close enough to feel the total pain and agony that the rest of the world felt- only amplified as her daughter.
   Luft's book does paint a little fairy tale into the mix, but is a shocking story of watching your mother slip down a long dark slope.
   Luft tells about Judy's start in Hollywood which is equally as interesting as the photo's in the book. Luft paints that love story between her mother and father and leaves you feeling his loss for her.
   She also explains the relationship between her and sister Liza Minelli.
   It's a great boigraphy.