No comments about The Final Score.

No comments about Murder and the First Lady.

5 comments about The Road to Wigan Pier (Classic, 20th-Century, Audio).

1. Contrary to my expectations, this is Orwell's most personal book. He bares his soul to us. At least I think he seriously tries to be perfectly honest, if not complete.
   After his success with Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell got commissioned by the influential Left Book Club (Victor Gollancz one of the editors)to write a book about unemployment in the industrial and empoverished northern part of England. This was the mid 30s, the recent depression had led to high unemployment and endless misery in England as elsewhere.
   GO went there and dug in and lived with workers and in boarding houses and crawled through mines (though he was about twice as tall as a miner should be) and talked to people and read statistics and reports.
   The outcome is an oddity. Part 1 is a solid piece of investigative reporting and journalistic sociology. Chapter 1 is along the lines of Down and Out, an account of life in a boarding house in the North. Start with chapter 2 if you are squeamish. The hygienic conditions are worse than anything in Down and Out.
   The following chapters in part 1 give us decsriptions of the life of miners and work in the coal mines, of the miners' leisure time, health, work safety, accidents, the housing conditions in the fearful northern slums (worse than the slums in India and Burma, says GO, because of the cold dampness), of unemployment and malnutrition, of food and fuel, of the uglyness of industrial countries at the time. The strongest chapter in this part, in my opinion, is the one on unemployment and its psychology. This subject is timeless. Even if the slums have changed, the essential condition of unemployment is surely unchanged.
   So far so good and in line with the job description.
   But then the man went and added a second part which deals in first place with himself, an autobiography and history of the thought of GO. Having grown up as a son of shabby genteels, he was raised on contempt for the working class. Public school education enforced the attitude. After school and after WW1, GO took a job in the imperial police in Burma and there learned to hate the system. He quit after 5 years and went into a personal crisis, a kind of horror vacui and hatred against his self. He goes on search of redemption as told with some embellishment in Down and Out. He tries to anihilate his social persona, but learns it does not work that way. The North England job gives him a chance to reconsider his position. He philosophizes about socialism and the classes. Interesting to us (at least to me), but shocking to the Left Book Club.
   They decide to publish it anyway, but Gollancz adds a foreword where he thinks he needs to warn his club members that here is somebody who does not walk the line of good doctrinarism. Very odd.
   By the way, did you know that quite likely fish and chips and the football pools have averted revolution in England by providing 'panem and circenses'? Says Orwell, and I love him for that kind of insight.
   (This concludes my Orwell cycle, unless I decide to re-visit Burma and Catalonia.)



2. THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER is a fabulous bit of muckraking journalism by the most important political writer of the 20th century, George Orwell. O was an accomplished novelist in his own right, but it was in his capacity as an agitator for democratic socialism that his pen was at its sharpest, and in this revealing, often appalling look at the life of British coal miners, he was at his brutally honest best.
   
   WIGAN is actually two books in one - the first half deals with his own experiences in the industrial north of England, where he investigated not only what happened at the mines themselves, but how the miners lived, or rather subsisted, in conditions of disgusting squalor and privation (he also spends a good deal of time examining the fate of the unemployed and "pensioned off"). In the latter half, he offers a pitiless criticism of British socialism, which he sees is the only positive solution to Britain's social and economic injustices, but regards as hopelessly clumsy and dogmatic in its approach, and doomed lose out to fascism unless it changed its message and won over the ordinary British worker.
   
   Orwell's concerns in the book were severalfold. He wanted to expose and improve the lot of the common man; he wanted to make suggestions for how that lot might be improved; he wanted the Left to understand just how bad its image problem was in the eyes of the ordinary British citizen (their target audience); and he wanted, above all things, to hammer home to the world that Socialism stood for "justice and common decency" and not some watered-down version of the Russian Revolution. His greatest fear was that the fascists, by virtue of their superior propaganda and understanding of human motivation, would steal away the common man from the one system that could truly offer him a fair shake.
   
   THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER was commissioned by the Left Book Club, which wanted Orwell to write an Upton Sinclair-esque exposé of the life of the British worker "without whom everyone in England would soon starve." They got what they wanted, but on the bonus plan; his criticisms of Socialism, and by extension, the Club itself, were so vitriolic that the Club inserted a forward in the book which essentially refutes everything in it. The forward is worth reading, if only to unintentionally demonstrate that Orwell's attack on the Socialist leadership was dead-on: they did lack common sense, they had no understanding of the common man or of how badly they themselves were regarded by him, and their propaganda was appallingly bad. Luckily for them, they had Orwell...though my guess is at the time they weren't feeling so lucky when they read it. The reader, on the other hand, will.



3. George Orwell is the man. This is for sure one of the top 5 best books i've ever read. Even if I tried, I couldn't come close to doing the book justice with this review.



4. This work commisioned by the Left Book Club, a socialist group in England in the 1930's contains an incredible description of the miserable working conditions of coal miners in the northern industrial areas of England. Orwell's power of description brings home the awful condiditons to the reader in a very tangible and palpable way. Reminiscent of Jacob Riis' "How The Other Half Lives" or Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", Orwell's account is unforgettable social historical writing.
   
   The remainder of the book is a polemical piece critical of socialists of his day. To the modern reader that will not have as much relevance except as an example of Orwell's pursuasive writing but the earlier sections of the book are incredibly memorable.



5. The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell is a book requested by the Left Book Club on the issue of poverty and mass unemployment in the industrial north of England. Mr. Orwell does a great job of investigating the harsh job conditions in the coal mines, the foul lodgings, the bad diet, the pitiful wages and the struggle to feed a family. He points out that much of the conditions can easily be changed IF people wanted to change them. The wealth is there it just needs to get to the lower-class.
   The other part of the book is Orwell trying to explain why, if Socialism seems to be so logical, so reasonable, everybody is either turning away from Socialism and, in many changes, turning to Fascism. It seems that while people might agree with many ideals of Socialism they don't like the Socialists they meet. Orwell points out that Socialists need to work on the delivery of their message - less about class systems and more about justice and income.
   When you attack the middle-class you put them on the defense. Why would they join up in a movement that is insulting them? He says the Socialist should drop the idea of the class war and focus on the basic ideals of increasing incomes, better housing for everybody, justice and liberty. He also says that Socialists are linked to progress which many people link with a machine-civilization and therefore a dark, bland future. Funny I also linked Socialism with slowing down progress and Fascism with speeding it up.
   Even while the facts in the book are outdated the problems that many parties today face, such as Libertarians, are the same. How can you take a Libertarian seriously when he is dressed up as a butterfly? In print the ideas of the Libertarians and Socialists and even Democratics look good but sometimes the PEOPLE of these parties make the voters go running to the Republicans. I know many people who did JUST that - they didn't like the Republican's ideas but hated the people the Democratics had picked to run for President. Left-wingers sometimes come out, because of the terms they use or they way their come out as attacking almost everything, as nuts.

3 comments about Mothers & Daughters.

1. I received this book as a gift when it was first published. Thanks to Amazon.com I was able to find a new copy of an out of print book for a Christmas gift to give to someone special.



2. I purchased this book as a holiday gift for my child's teacher. She has a close but intense relationship with her mother, and I thought she would enjoy the topic. Now, I have my fingers crossed and am holding my breath a bit. The black and white photography is beautifully compelling. At times, it is excruciatingly sad (for example, the photo of a woman who has lost her daughter to a drunk driver sits alone in her child's room, another of a daughter hugging her mom's gravestone.)

   The accompanying short profiles/ stories are tersely, crisply written. They can be truly uplifting, like one very personal tale, which recounts a woman's battle with breast cancer and how she later overcomes her shame in her daughters seeing her post-surgery breasts. Another tale tells of a daughter who has cared for her ailing mother at home for decades, changing diapers and preparing pureed food. Virtually all of the relationships, however, reveal palpable strains of deep-seated anger, regret or misunderstanding. Many of the women have suffered intensely; many have healed from their own bad marriages and divorces.

   For a young woman like myself who now has a small daughter and who recently lost a mother, the book was absorbing though it strangely lacked hope. My favorite profile was of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; she seems like a type A mom but happy with her family and the personal and career choices she has made. Her daughter teases her mother, but seems secretly grateful for the upbringing she received. You sense that they appreciate each other, despite differences.

   If you are considering this book for a friend, it would probably be most appreciated by someone who has survived many ups and downs with her mom. Those mother and daughter pairs who pal around together and who consider themselves good friends may be strangely put off by the tragedy and simmering warfare in between many of the pictures.




3. This book is special to me because my Great Grandmother and her daughters (as well as my grandmother who raised me) are in the book. My "Granny" will be 100 years old in 1999 and has been an inspiration to us all. I've often thought her story should be told and while this is a very short version among many I was pleased with the gentle way they captured her essence.

5 comments about Amy Fisher My Story.

1. The thing about this book, is, Fisher tries to come across as someone
   with more knowledge about why people act the way they do, than she actually has.
   Frustrating read.



2. Have you ever wondered what Amy Fisher was thinking? If so, this is the book to read. She tells you exactly what she was thinking and when she was thinking it. She doesn't sugar coat it. I thought the story was well written and very insightful. Highly recommended.



3. They picked a great actress to recite Amy's book in authentic Lawn GUY-land dialect. Indescribably hillarious! BUY IT!!!



4. "Amy Fisher: My Story", shows how a young sixteen year-old got trapped into a prostitution ring; an adulterous affair; and an eventual crime charge. It is easy for one to absord all the negative press; however, after reading this book, one sees an innocent sixteen year-old that was taken advantage of by an older man's charm. She fell for his charm's sweet-toned voice and false love for her. It was this false love that made the fall of Amy Fisher. I related to her book because I was once taken advantage of in my former Amish religion. I know how easy it is when you are young and inexperienced in the world. You keep hearing things like a tape-recorder. Then they become reality. If you want to know the real Amy, buy the book. I also recommend her new book, "If I Knew Then." For Amy is now a wonderful mother and a wife.
   Teresa Phillips,
   Author of, "Leaving Lancaster County."



5. My what a few years does for Amy. Her new book is so much better than this one. I think we can all forgive her tresspasses since Joey's wife has forgiven her.

No comments about Strawberries and Cheam.

No comments about Stark Naked.

5 comments about Den of Lions: Memoirs of Seven Years.

1. Mr. Anderson's book is a lesson on how to maintain sainity in the most horrible situations you could every be in; kidnapped and the lose of personal freedom.

   This book is not a pleasant read. It is very important though in that it allows the reader, who is probably very comfortable while reading, to feel the sense of dispair that Mr. Anderson went through.

   The political reasons as well as the climate in the Middle East in the 1980's is very interesting and this account allows us to see it from a totally different perspective.

   Plus it has a happy ending, I highly recommend it.




2. I do not want this to sound insensitive, but the one thing I kept thinking as I was reading this book is why was he there? The U.S. government was telling U.S. citizens to leave, the Lebanese government did not care, his employer wanted him to leave, and there were increasing hostage incidents. The book his the story of his capture and the seven years he spent as a captive of this militant group. He does a good job in describing the locations he was in, the people that were his captors, and the other persons that he was with. I thought the most interesting parts of the book detailed his conversations with some of his captors and their views on the situation.

   The book is a very interesting view of what happened to the author. The details are rich and he does a good job of painting the scenes for us. He also did a good job of explaining the depression of being a captive and what it is like to loss seven years of your life, although I do not think any author could truly express the emotional pain that he must have gone through. If you are interested in this part of the world or this story, this is a great book. It is also interesting given the current climate in the Middle East to read about what was happening 20 years ago.




3. Den of Lions: Memoirs of Seven Years by Terry Anderson is one of my favorite books. The book grabbed my attention and kept it. I read the book in one day. Learning of Terry Anderson's ordeal through his eyes and in his words was amazing. Having been only 4 when he was taken hostage, I did not really know much about him until he was released from Lebanon in 1991, when I was 10. I grew up watching the news with my parents and I can remember seeing his return on television.
   When I decided to study journalism in college, I chose the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. When I heard that Terry Anderson was going to be joining the faculty at Scripps, I was truly excited. I read his memoirs and then had the opportunity to hear him speak about his ordeal. Having him as a professor at Scripps was a wonderful experience for all journalism students. I have the great privilege of saying that I met one of my role models and I am grateful for that.
   Den of Lions: Memoirs of Seven Years is one of the best books I have ever read. It is touching and wonderfully written. It tells Terry Anderson's story in a way that only he could.



4. Terry Anderson's Den of Lions is a den of insights into the radical bi-polar terrorist mentality in which he was trapped for over seven years. His descriptions of the bombings, shootings and random daily violence that permeated around the non-citizens and the citizens of Lebanon, make this a classic Middle East hostage survivor's story. Anderson's poems of his cruel incarceration are filled with searing depth that transport you to the various scummy basement cells which he shared with other Westerners. Den of Lions and Hostage by David Jacobson go hand in hand and are important contributions in the collection of Middle East books that help those of us citizens who were not there or too young to remember, the horror that Beirut was during the eighties and early ninties. Very highly recommended!



5. I am a Westerner who has lived in Lebanon for many years and yet I gleaned new knowledge of the Middle East from reading "Den of Lions". Terry Anderson is a wonderful writer, and the addition of his fiancee's thoughts and feelings adds depth of insight into the agony of hostage-taking. There are interesting looks into the interaction between hostages and into the daily frustrations of the waste, and yet somehow the not-waste, of almost seven years away from freedom of choice. This is a book that has stayed on my mind.

1 comments about Rachel Carson: Voice for the Earth.

1. This is a good book for lower level readers. Also kids who are intimidated by longer books. Also good for higher level readers in earlier grades, 2nd to 3rd, for example. Very accessible telling of Rachel's life, the author blends well the details of her personal life with her professional life, weaves a good story. Quite poetic in parts, disadvantaged, introspective or nature loving kids may find it inspiring. The only gripe I have is that it is a little short on details, but for some kids, less is more.

5 comments about The Last River.

1. Great book! Unbelievable attention to detail, I felt like
   I was on the river with them. The story has a great flow
   and ease of readindg that makes it a joy to read from the
   first page to the last! I am looking forward to reading other
   books by this gifted author. In my opinion Todd Balf is one
   of the best authors of our time.



2. Todd Balf did not do himself a favor by allowing the editors to include phrases such as the above into the dust jacket reviews. While "Into Thin Air" was certainly has its merits, Balf struggles with a number of limitations that keep his book from attaining the popular standard that was set by the aforementioned.
   First and foremost is that Balf's account is not first hand, and as a result, lacks the authority and clarity of Krakauer's book. Second, is that there are no photographs. Descriptions of the big water, the individuals, and the challenges they faced would have been a lot less abstract than the scenarios created by Balf (tho I recognize the National Geographic's contract with the team probably did not allow photos from the trip to be used).
   
   A different level of writing might have corrected the above ills - his prose was sometimes difficult to plow thru, and often times his descriptions of the rapids and environs, which were meant to envoke, only served to dull. To boot, on numerous occasions he would reference an event or conversation in the book as tho it was the first time, when in fact it had been referenced before.
   
   Lastly, the photo of the kayak and the skull on the cover appears contrived and sensationalistic.
   
   All of the above could be passed off as minor irritants to be sure. However, having journeyed to some remote corners of the globe, and being a sucker for anything that intersects my interests in Tibet, travel and kayaking with extra-ordinary individuals, I expect a more adept handling of the subject.



3. Like others, I wondered at the number of people who slammed this book, which I found to be gripping, enjoyable, and in places hard to read for all the right reasons. The answer is simple: this book is not written for the armchair adventurer, for someone who will watch the Discovery Channel but never actually go to any of those places they'll see on the screen. It tells some hard truths, and I can easily understand why those who bought the book hoping to be entertained by someone else's tragedy would be greatly disappointed. If, however, you've ever been closer to real adventure than picturing yourself in an SUV ad, I have a feeling this book will work for you.
   
   It is not a fun book. No book with a tragedy at its center should be fun or light reading, really. But it is fascinating, compelling, a page-turner. It is highly educational, particularly for those who are inclined to view adventure athletes as brain-dead adrenaline junkies. By taking the reader through the expedition members' hard work and preparation, the hassles and hardships they endured, the book forces us to see them as being in many ways the antithesis of the stereotype: they are patient, painstaking, and thorough.
   
   The bottom line is that this book isn't the literary equivalent of America's Most Death-Defying Videos. It's not written to titillate the folks back home. It seeks to tell the truth about a pursuit that many people find simply incomprehensible. If read with an open mind and without an expectation of being thrilled by death-defying feats, I think it will give the reader that understanding.



4. "The Last River - The Tragic Race for Shangri-la".......Tragic. Yes I'd agree that this book is tragic.
   Tragic that I bothered reading it.....tragic that I paid for it in order to read it.....tragic that Todd wasted his time writing it......tragic that I disliked it so much that I can be bothered writing a review.
   The warning should have come upon examination of the back of the dust jacket. "Advance praise for The Last River" it reads. In retrospect this means no one is prepared to recommend the book after they have read it.
   It seems that Todd had a vision of how big a book needs to be, and went to great lengths to flesh out the story to reach his goal. So much of the content has so little relevancy to the story, that you soon tire trawling through it.
   This was my third Tsango experience. I do recommend the Outside documentary on the Lindgren expedition. "Hell or High Water" is not outstanding, but is worth a read, but on this book, my advise to Todd is please make this the Last River that you drag through the wringer.



5. My comments come after finishing the books "The Last River" and "Courting the Diamond Sow", both of which I read over the last 2 weeks, and was provoked to write by a couple of factors. Reading the existing reviews for "The Last River" particularly, I was struck by the number of people who felt it necessary to slam the book.

   First, after reading these books I have a better appreciation for the writing skill needed to write a book that is entirely engaging, brings the personalities to life, allows the reader to become part of the adventure, all the while being true to its subject.

   Second, I appreciate that the writers made the story available so that we could learn about this trip and I don't mean to suggest that either effort was a waste of time and that the writers should hang up their quills.

   Sadly, in my opinion neither of the books written about the same 1998 Tsangpo journey is terribly engaging. Last River is an easier read while I found the first half, particularly, of Sow a literary slog. Not sure if it was bogged down in description or what; I just found it slow going.

   Neither book had much of an ebb and flow in the narrative. Even as the tragic events of Doug Gordon's death neared, there was nothing to indicate that one's blood should be heating up and that now was not the time to put the book down. They were very flat in that regard. I differentiate between sensationalism and a literary tidal cycle; perhaps the authors were extremely cognizant of avoiding the former.

   The Last River spends a greater percentage of ink relating the experiences of the 4 paddlers on the river and off while Sow balances more equally the stories of both paddlers and support team. Also, Wickliffe Walker in Sow deals with the `fallout' from Gordon's death much more comprehensively than does Todd Balf; Walker spends several pages relating the effort needed to battle rumours and judgments that were circulating at home half-way around the world.

   While the actual journey and the salient events I expect to remember, these books I expect to forget quickly (but then, I forgot Into Thin Air fairly quickly also). If there are poignant moments from the tale and thoughts to come away with, the one I recall most easily is the second-guessing of Gordon's paddling buddies as described most clearly in The Last Rivers account of Roger Zbel's "What if" self-flagellation. As a paddler, I pray that I am never faced with that.
   .
   It was disappointing that The Last River did not have any photos at all of the area and only a minimalist map. On the other hand, Sow's small collection of photos was hardly comprehensive though the satellite photo was helpful in placing the story.

   Nether book rates more than a 2.5 - 3, in my mind, nor does one stand head and shoulders above the other.

   My context: Canadian class IV kayaker; 3 Himalayan river trips in Nepal (in fact and unbeknownst, I was on the Tamur River at exactly the time this group was on the Tsangpo); read years ago the American Whitewater article of the Gordon/McEwan trip down the Homothko in BC.