No comments about As It Was.

No comments about Endurance: Shipwreck and Survival on a Sea of Ice (High Five Reading).

5 comments about The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope.

1. A box that will make you cry, make you want to be a better person BUT if you have ever read a book written by Richard Paul Evans, you already know that..
   
   Betty Graham



2. I SEEM TO LOVE EVERYTHING RICHARD PAUL EVANS WRITES .VERY WELL RESEARCHED ,I ALWAYS HAVE TO KEEP READING TILL I FINISH ,NO BREAKS .



3. I am a big fan of the Christmas Box books, but when I saw this book I thought UHHHHHH I guess he needs even more money. RPE must have realized that he was a flash in the pan, and was desprate to hang on to his falling fame. This book does have its moments though, but it sounds like a broken record. They were giving this book away.. a free copy with every $10 purchase. I wish RPE would get over himself he's no Charles Dickens!!!



4. this book is really eye opening as to faith and where it can lead you if you let it.



5. Unfortunately I read this after reading "The Light of Christmas" so I knew most of the story line but it was still worth the read. It is a simple story with a powerful message about the importance of our individual lives and the lives of those who love us. The Christian message of hope in life is prevalent but subtle and doesn't come across as 'preaching' while still delivering its impact.

5 comments about Edison: Library Edition.

1. I liked this book a great deal. You should consider that this is not a fictional story, and is the very essence of a research work.
   
   Great insights about his life, religious views, and his business of invention. Well treated subject and a great read.



2. This book is very authoritive and well researched, and even more important is that it provides end notes for the reader to verify the author's assertions. If you want a quick overview of Edison's life or just the highlights, this is not the book for you; but if you need to know the man, this is the best book I've read. Paul Israel presents Edison's achievments and failures, in inventions, human relationships and finances in a dispassionate manner.



3. I've always been interested in reading the biographies of famous inventors. Edison was one I knew little about, so I purchased this book. It is very interesting and takes you through his entire life. You see how Edison begins as a skilled telegraph operator. But he is not content with the status quo, he is always improving what he is working with. But he is also a businessman and gets his ideas patented, and forms partnerships and businesses to profit from them.
   
   The book also includes many pictures form different periods in his life. If you are interested in Edison, this is a great book.



4. Reading this book has been an experience for me. I wanted to find out more about the life of one of America's most famous inventors, and this book has helped me along the way, so I give it credit for that. However, I have felt like I am trudging into a mighty windstorm, reaching deep into my soul to plunge each forward step as I slowly turn the pages in this book. There are pockets of enlightenment throughout the book, but it really is a relaying of facts about Edison's life, which is technically what a biography should do, but this book does not come alive in my hands like others have.
   
   To be fair, I did accomplish my goal of learning more about this great man. I learned that a lot his inventions were a result of not just great intellect, but of great work ethic and stick-to-it-iveness. Also, one of his greatest contributions was a corporate model for delegating work among his subordinates. The speed of the development of his inventions was the key, as several other inventors were working on similar ideas at the same time.
   
   Anyway, I recommend the book as a good introduction to the life of Tom, but I am sure that there is a book out there that will give you the same enlightenment without making you feel as though you've crawled on your hands and knees through the Sahara, with a canteen full of lukewarm water that leaks at a very slow rate.



5. I was given this book for a writing project and dutifully plowed through it over the Christmas holidays. Overall, I must say that it was an absolutely excellent holiday book as well as chock full of useful ideas for my scholarly purposes. This is an extremely difficult balance to strike and Israel has done it better than I thought possible - I was prepared for a long dry slog and instead found a great and exciting story.

   Edison, Israel argues, was not just a lone little-educated tinkerer of genius as he is often portrayed, but the creator of the prototype for the modern corporate research lab - he knew how to find talent, how to organize it to get the most out of people, and how to beat the competition by both speed and in the creation of entire new systems of technology. He also knew how to manipulate the media and build on his fame, creating a myth to which he had to live up. That being said, he had a pitch-perfect intuitive sense not only of potential new markets, but of how to create technical solutions to exploit them. He learned from his failures and strove to apply his less-successful inventions elsewhere, often to great effect. Taken together, this was true business genius and Israel explains it all succinctly, including the exposure of Edison's many weaknesses in management and his financial affairs and his many flops (such as the mining experiments that nearly bankrupted him). Furthermore, the basics of his major inventions - improvements to the telegraph and telephone, the light bulb, commerical electricity generation systems, to mention a few - are covered with competence, always with an eye to the management of it all and what it took, all of which are of great use. This adds up to a masterpiece of scholarship and popular writing in my view, crossing a plethora of disciplines in very readable prose and at a good pace of storytelling.

   However, there are many things that make this a challenging read and in some ways disappointing. Even though I know a lot about science and engineering from my own writing, I found the many passages explaining the nuts and bolts of his inventions hard to follow and ultimately rather dry. If the reader is not interested in these highly technical details, he can skim them without losing the narrative thread. Moreover, Edison as a person does not always come thru, though really he was his work and not much else. You also do not learn much about the fate of his enterprises or even his personal financial fortune after his death, which is also a part of his legacy that should be explored. Finally, Israel addresses somewhat rarified questions in the concluding chapter regarding whether Edison was a "scientist" and how industrial research was changing (developing specialties that required far more education than inventors of Edison's "heroic invention" epoch) to make the emergence of generalist, self-taught inventors like him far more difficult and with limited horizons; while I enjoyed this a great deal, it is of limited interest to those who were never steeped in "science policy."

   All in all, highest recommendation. It is a great achievement and will stand as one of the definitive biographies of this great and difficult man.

5 comments about I'm Only One Man!.

1. Regis is one of my favorite celebrities! He is a down-to-earth family man who approaches life with good humor and a likeable manner. I enjoyed accompanying him as he talked through some typical days in his very busy life. Listening to him more than a decade after he shared these reflections gave the story an outdated feel, as a lot of the pop-culture personalities he mentions have disappeared from the scene, and the old-timers he reminisced about are way before my time. As well, now that he is paired with Kelly Ripa, he seems younger, hipper and more light-hearted than he was at the time he recorded this memoir. She brings out something special in him that Kathie Lee never did.
   
   The book is a nice representation of the entertainment business and pop-culture, made all the better when expressed by a personable and respected celebrity like Regis.



2. Regis's book logs many of the days(incl some holidays) between 6/15/94-5/19/95 with some of the yesterdays prior to 6/14/94 .....Good intro by the Regis and Cathy Live staff at that time( Michael Gelman and Cathy Lee Gifford) Gelman still Gelman and Cathy Lee ,has moved on for even better someday.. ,plus there is much levity through out( It was given as a gift to me for Xmas 2000,I've skimmed through the entire book and got a few chuckles without even getting to much into the NY ,NY details(photos were great,& joke about Perry Como quite funny). It ends with smoothness and ease:as Regis, in his biography says to the reader" I've got to find my plane tickets,back my bags and get ready for the next show.After all,I'm only one man". 12/27/00 abj



3. Reading this book is like sitting down with Regis and listening to him tell you stories. You will be able to look deeper into the man that engages in Host Chat with Kathie Lee everyday. This book is an example of how far Regis really came in life and how hard he had to work for it. This can almost be a self-help book in a way because it portrays the commitment to excellence put forth by Regis to achieve his dream....and did he ever!



4. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I learned things about Regis that you won't learn by watching him on TV. I enjoyed reading about his trials and tribulations of his career, from his early days to the present. I have recommended this books to others. Whoever has my copy, please return it! This is one book you can read again.



5. I watched my father write this -- longhand, in a spiral notebook, no less. (Dad can barely find the "on" switch for the computer.) I learned things about my family that I never knew. Anyone familiar with him, even if only through his work on television, can absolutely tell that the words are his. Poor Bill Zehme had the unenviable task of keeping him focused. And, he did a great job! It's a good, quick read. Get it. Read it. Pass it on.

5 comments about Queen Victoria.

1. lytton strachey is my favorite non-fiction writer. he writes non-fiction that is flawless and beautiful. some of the writing in this book is as good as any writing i've seen anywhere. but who cares? who cares? what a shameful culture has been fashioned that has no room for this.



2. This life of Queen Victoria set a new standard for biographies when it was written and it still reads very well today. To the modern ear some of Strachey's language may at times be a bit dry. That aside this is an excellent study of the development of Victoria from infancy to old age. The entanglement's of family and the influence of key ministers is well covered and documented . Especially interesting is the treatment of Prince Albert and the Queen's relationship.
   I found this to be quite an informative book and would highly recommend it to anyone with a curiosity regarding this period of British history.



3. I purchased this book at a library sale and it has no copywrit date other then the 1921 date published by Harcourt, Grace & World,Inc and renewed by Jame Strachey, with no renewal date. The copy I have has 434 pages which include an index of subject matter. The only other used books mentioned for sale have a copywrit of 1981 and have 100 less pages. This book is in very good condition and has the original cover jacket. It begins its historic tale in 1817 and includes footnotes at the bottom of the page.



4. strachey became famous for his 'eminent victorians' which has the reputation for being a hatchet job-but he was looking at the previous generation from the disillusioned, post-WWI perspective, and he treats florence nightingale et al more like prodigies than monsters. when he undertook to write about the eponymous queen herself, people expected it would be another exercise in target practice-even his mother tried to discourage him, saying that 'if she was stupid, it was not her fault.' But in the event what he produced is one of the most sympathetic, if slightly condescending, biographies ever written-and absolutely one of the most accomplished. it is a chronicle of victoria's 60+-year-long political career and emotional life, a series of portraits of all the personalities in her life-including albert, his curious replacement john brown, disraeli-him, it is true, strachey clearly did not like-a completely non-pedantic reflection on the growth and eventual shrinkage of the british empire during her reign-and the whole thing is done so subtly, so gracefully-and, at the same time, so forcefully-that you may find yourself talking about nothing else but this book and queen victoria for days afterward. one of the most successful marriages of rigorous scholarship and beautiful style in english literature.



5. A readable and fairly brief account of Victoria. Frequent passages from Victoria's girlhood diary and letters make Victoria's early life particularly vivid reading. Also fascinating is Victoria's relationship with her government, and her tendency to cling to the current prime minister and despise the Opposition, whoever they might be.

   The enigmatic Prince Albert, and his evolving relationship with Victoria, is presented well. Strachey makes some startling suggestions about what Britain might have turned into, had Albert lived longer (answer: Prussia).

   This book is elegantly written, and free of the psychobabble one might expect from a more modern book.

   The book is not boring. Although Victoria is always proper, there is plenty of adultery and dysfunctional family behavior among her many adult children.

No comments about Davy Crockett: Young Rifleman, Library Edition (Ready Reader).

No comments about A Harvest of Sunflowers.

No comments about Mika Hakkinen (Grand Prix Heroes).

5 comments about No One Here Gets Out Alive.

1. This book helped fuel a serious revival of interest in the music of the Doors and the late Jim Morrison, the band's lead singer. One of the coauthors, the late Danny Sugerman, was a long time employee of the band.
   
   Almost simultaneous with the release of this biography in paperback, director Francis Ford Coppola made extensive use of the Doors' song "The End" for the soundtrack of the Viet Nam war film "Apocalypse Now." Rolling Stone magazine took notice of the trend and putting Morrison on the cover of an issue with a reminder to its readers that he was dead. In a few years time, director Oliver Stone adapted the same story for his feature film "The Doors." It should be noted that Stone's screenplay credited drummer John Densmore's book, "Riders on the Storm," as his source material rather than this title.
   
   Morrison and his band mates, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore, made some interesting music that combined lyrics adapted from the poetry of William Blake, the classic Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex and, seemingly, from the labels of countless empty bottles of whisky.
   
   For myself, it was a heady time, playing Doors records on a college radio station, watching "Apocalypse Now" in its original theatrical release, and hearing Manzarek's keyboard synthezier and Krieger's guitar in the dormitories. The title of the book is, of course, taken from the song "Five to One." This is an extraordinary account of a significant band and the decline and fall of their lead singer.



2. If you like the doors, if you are interested in Jim Morrison , this is the definitive biography. Heavily researched, readable, a little sick, its a rock and roll reading classic. Get it.



3. Rock biographies can be wonderful things - Guralnick's two volume life of the king Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley and Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley; the Gillmans' Alias David Bowie; and anything by Lester Bangs rank amongst the best biographies written about anyone - but despite having an undoubtedly fascinating subject in Jim Morrison and good pedigree in the Rolling Stone credentials of its authors, No One Gets Out Of Here Alive fails to impress on any level.
   
   For me a decent biography has to have a thesis: A (perhaps controversial) view of its subject that the authors, having immersed themselves in research, can present, backed by evidence, to put a new perspective or shed some new light on a familiar subject: to tell a new story for a casual reader. Hopkins and Sugarman make no such effort: Morrison is portrayed as a clever, well-read alcoholic with an authority problem and a pretty apparent (but entirely unexplored) general social unease. The events of his life are thus trotted out is a somewhat patchy fashion, without the attempt to stitch together some overlying narrative or explanation where it feels one is called for: after all this phenomenon still occupies some (diminishing) part of the collective consciousness nearly forty years later. Yet James Morrison comes across as no more worthwhile or interesting a figure than Robbie Williams or Amy Winehouse, and while that may be true, I doubt it, and it doesn't explain the eerie and evocative content of nearly all the Doors' records. I can't imagine a Robbie Williams over the opening credits of Apocalypse Now, nor coming up with an album closer like Maggie McGill or Riders on the Storm.
   
   This book doesn't even pretend to be a story about the rest of the band, and therefore leaves this fascinating artifact we still know as The Doors pretty much uninvestigated, let alone unexplained. Ray Manzarek is, at least, a peripheral figure: poor Robby Krieger and particularly John Densmore are barely mentioned, and the relationships, dynamics and creative processes of the band - which led to some undeniably memorable and haunting music, after all - are wholly unexplored. In any case Jim Morrison, even in his own right, can't be understood properly except through that prism, so this feels to me to be a dramatic failing.
   
   Lastly, Hopkins and Sugarman indulge in absurd speculation about Morrison's demise - or more accurately the lack of evidence for it. Yet all of Morrison's behaviour before his, er "disappearance" - as patiently documented in this volume - points to exactly the sort of early death he apparently suffered, and the idea that such a publicity seeking (and utterly recognisable) drunkard could suddenly, miraculously, vanish without trace from the entire planet's conscience simply beggars belief.
   
   There must be more rewarding accounts of The Doors than this.
   
   Olly Buxton



4. I coulnd't stop reading this book once I started, I was truly spellbound by the book. If you love the Doors and Jim Morrison, you will have a blast reading this book. It is pure entertainment for true Doors fans.



5. I just finished this book and loved every page. "No one here gets out alive" really puts the reader into Jim Morrison's and the 60's life. After reading this i am given a much deeper understanding of Jim as a musician, poet, artist and brilliant man. A truly revolutionary and visionary soul, this book does Jim great justice.