5 comments about Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo.

1. I bought this book after re-watching the movie taken largely from this exhaustive biography. As someone who has read many bios, let me say that this is a refreshing and encouraging alternative to the fawning and excessive grocery store drivel and/or the dull and fact-filled dissertations that describe most biographies. Hayden Herrera manages to combine a staggeringly comprehensive detailing of Kahlo's life with an easy prose that makes for an engaging read. I know far more about this artist than I could've imagined and it is largely first-hand accounts either from the pages of Frida's own diaries and numerous letters or the people who were there. Herrera keeps her personal opinions regarding the events to a minimum and allows the events to speak for themselves. The life of Frida Kahlo needs no additional padding or maudlin tricks to engender a connection to anyone with a heart and soul. When the author does speculate, it comes from someone who has clearly studied her subject thoroughly and backs up her theories with a wealth of compelling evidence and sensible arguments. While her appreciation for Kahlo is obvious, Herrera does not stop short of being critical, questioning Kahlo's motives, and revealing the stark humanity and insecurity that Kahlo tried to obscure with her public persona as the confident, outspoken, provocative enchantress sporting her exotic Tehuana finery.
   However, the best use of Herrera's research and the clear compassion and empathy she has for this incredible woman is when she analyses Frida's paintings. I found myself continuously turning back and forth from the detailed observations and interpretation to the paintings and trying to understand what the author is talking about. It was fascinating reading and a wonderful exploration that shed light into the depths of Frida's intensely personal art.
   Two last notes: First, the version I bought does not sport Salma Hayek on the cover but instead one of Frida's many self-portraits. Apparently the publishers corrected this unfortunate decision based on movie marketing. Second, I was fortunate enough to take in the amazing exhibit of Frida Kahlo at the Philadelphia Museum just a few weeks ago and it was a moving and special day. Seeing the actual frames dripping blood, the size and grandeur of some of the works juxtaposed with the smaller works, and the sheer emotionally gravity of her art was something I'll never forget. Having read much of this biography by that time, I was able to bring that much more to that exhilarating opportunity.
   Frida Kahlo was not just an extraordinary artist but was moreover an extraordinary person. Herrera's heartfelt, deeply researched, and brilliantly written biography allows those of us who never knew her to feel as if we have and to share in the universal quality of her painful work. That alone makes us better people for having experienced it.



2. This is a paintakingly detailed biography, yet rather than making for tedious reading, it flows smoothly from the pages...Hayden Herrera has done an incredible job with the story of Frida Kahlo, the most famous Mexican artist in history.
   
   Written in the late 1970s' (when many of Frida's friends and intimates were still alive to interview), this excellent book combines letters (to and from Kahlo), first person anecdotes and historical records (along with a decent selection of photos and paintings), to create a sweeping portrait of a very, very interesting life.
   
   Everything you ever wanted to know about Frida (and maybe some stuff you didn't), is in this book.
   
   "Frida" is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys Frida's work or just wants to know more about an interesting, talented, brutally honest (yet very vulnerable) woman.



3. I learned about Frida when I took art history in college. I always wanted to know more about her because of her art work. She was so passionate! Although she was considered an abstract artist. Her art was very REAL. You can feel what she feels by looking at her art. This book really helps you understand what happened in her life and attached the painting that went along with that specific period in her life. Very well written.



4. Since her death, Frida Kahlo has become something of an exalted icon, representing for millions of people the alegría of a life fully lived. Hayden Herrera's insightful book both supports the artist's status, and provides devotees who never met Frida the chance to know their idol in depth, to familiarize themselves with her happiness and suffering, to experience her highs and lows.
   
   The book's mixture of intimate biographical details (a thorough chronology and evocative descriptions of events), psychological analysis and art criticism create an intensely vivid picture of Frida Kahlo, the world in which she lived, and the means by which her art conveyed her mind and body's pain. Objectivity is retained throughout; unflattering and negative aspects of Frida's personality are discussed with attention equal to that devoted to the subject's positive traits.
   
   As Hayden Herrera's biography shows, the benefits to Frida of putting brush to easel - with her deliberate, small strokes - were manifold: not only was painting a solace and diversion, it was also a visual expression of the pain resulting from a terrible bus accident in which she was involved when she was 18, miscarriages, and the hurt of her husband Diego Rivera's infidelities. She also used painting as a means of earning money and limiting her financial dependence on Diego after they married for a second time. (While during her lifetime one of Frida's paintings might fetch $200 from a private buyer, nowadays even small-scale works have sold for over $1,000,000 at auction.)
   
   To me, an appealing aspect of Herrera's bio is its lack of pretense (appropriately, as pretension is something Frida disliked in any form): you won't find any flowery, purple prose here, nor do the author's analyses and assertions smack of arrogance. It is quite apparent that Hayden Herrera knows her subject top to bottom, but I never felt as if facts and dates were crammed into the text superfluously, simply as proof that she knew them.
   
   If it happens at all, it will be many years before Hayden Herrera's "Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo" is replaced as the definitive biography on the subject. Having read it cover to cover three times, I can't imagine a better-written or more stimulating study of this truly unique, truly gifted person.



5. An inspiring Biography of famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It was comprehensive, read like a documentary and at some points was long and boring with gory details. Frida was such an interesting person it was worth the struggle to get to the end. I now understand her and her works so much better. I think she was an odd and eccentric person that was gifted with natural artistic talent. I recommend looking at her paintings at the same time you listen to the audio since the audio is so descriptive almost like a narrative from a museum. It doesn't make sense unless you see the works at the same time. I found them on a website dedicated to her. There is nothing like her art, she is truly original!

No comments about A Sportsman's Life: How I Built Orvis by Mixing Business and Sport.

5 comments about John Adams (The American Presidents).

1. Excellent read. A new appreciation for John Adams' contribution to the founding. Once again, Jefferson comes out as the original "conniving politician."



2. John Adams (1735 --1826) was rescued from relative obsurity by David McCullough's popular and accessible biography. Engaging as it is, McCullough's work has little on the thought and writings of John Adams and on the impact of his thinking on American government and on Adams's own presidency. John Patrick Diggins's short biography, written as part of the American Presidents series, helps remedy this lack. It provides a deeper picture of an American political philosopher and president. Diggins is a distinguished professor of American history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has written widely on American intellectual history, including books on Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, pragmatism, and the American left.
   
   Adams was born to a family of modest means in Massachusetts. Following graduation from Harvard, he became a lawyer and married Abigail Smith. Adams early became involved in the Revolutionary movement and served in the Continental Congress. During the Revolutionary War, Adams was abroad where he made vital contributions to the war effort in France and Holland. He helped draft the treaty by which the United States secured its independence. Adams served restlessly as Washington's vice-president and then became the second president in a close election against Thomas Jefferson, who became vice-president. After his narrow defeat by Jefferson for reelection in 1800, Adams retired to his home in Quincy.
   
   More important than these external events, Adams was a writer and a thinker who wrote works in support of American independence in the 1770s and books expounding his political philosophy and his understanding of American constitutionalism in the late 1780s and continuing early into his tenure as vice-president. Adams continued his writings in his long retirement, particularly in a wonderful series of letters he exchanged with his former rival, Jefferson.
   
   Diggins gives a good overview of a complex body of thought. Adams was opposed to the French Revolution and to writers such as Thomas Paine whose works helped to spearhead the American Revolution. Adams developed a philosophy based upon the unreliable and depraved nature of the human heart and its ambitions for power, wealth and success. He argued that a diverse government structured to allow for the wealthy classes and the common people, headed by a strong executive, would be the best way to restrain human greed and folly and to channel these traits for the common good. He objected to the French Revolution for its levelling tendencies -- for its attempt to obliterate distinctions, which Adams thought, were ingrained in the human desire to compete and excel, and which could not be artifically supressed. Adams also objected to the French Revolution because it was not properly succeeded with a solid institutional form of government. The American Revolution, which unlike the French revolution, was not based upon classes within the United States, and the American Constitution, with its separation of powers and strong executive were, for Adams, the antithesis of the French Revolution.
   
   During his presidency, Adams was excoriated by his fellow-Federalist Alexander Hamilton, who found Adams too weak and vacillating and by Thomas Jefferson, who attacked what he claimed were aristocratic and monarchical tendencies in Adams. Yet Adams worked carefully and delicately to avoid a war with France, the most significant accomplishment of his presidency. He established a tax system and pardoned a group of protesters who had been found guilty of treason by opposing it. Adams strengthened the military and left the budget with a surplus at the conclusion of his presidency. During his presidency, Congress enacted, and Adams enforced, the Alien and Sedition Acts, which Diggins somewhat downplays in his account.
   
   In 1800, under attack from both Hamilton and Jefferson, Adams came in a close third to Jefferson and Burr in the presidential race. Jefferson prevailed in the House of Representatives when Hamilton lent his influence and support. This hotly contested and little-known election marked a watershed in American politics as it marked a peaceful transition from Adams to a leader and a party with a far different stated political agenda. The American era of party politics, based upon images, perceptions, and the pursuit of power, had begun.
   
   Diggins is not afraid to state his own positions, and he shows a marked sympathy for John Adams over his rival, Jefferson. He sees Adams as a unique example of a president who tried to govern based upon principle rather than party or power. Together with Lincoln, Jefferson, Madison, and perhaps Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson, Diggins places Adams in a small group of American presidents who demonstrated intellectual leadership and accomplishment prior to and in the Executive Office.
   
   For Diggins, Adams's strengths as a thinker, together with his curmudgeonly disposition, led to the weaknesses of his presidency. He writes (p. 174) "At times the sin of pride cursed the Adams presidency. He often preferred to work alone, rarely sharing his thoughts or seeking the input of others as we was making up his mind. ... Adams was one of America's most solitary presidents, and the isolation of the mind, while healthy for poetry or phiosophy, is fatal in the sphere of politics.... politics dwells in the present, in bargains and distortions, naneuvers and manipulations, and other strategies of exigency that had no appeal to a thinker better at analyzing power than dealing with people."
   
   Diggins has written a thoughtful introduction to a thinker and president who remains incompletely understood. This short book should inspire reflection on Adams and on the nature of the political system which he helped bequeath to us.
   
   Robin Friedman



3. This isn't much of a biography. It gives just a quick history of Mr. Adams early life. It mainly focuses on his political and philosophical career and his feuds with Jefferson and Hamilton. It does a good job of reviewing his term as second president and the policies and precedents he initiated. This book may be a stepping stone to a more comprehensive analysis of Mr. Adams's personal and political life.



4. It hasn't been hard to notice that John Adams's reputation has been undergoing a serious rehabilitation in recent years. Joseph Ellis in particular has been dedicated to revising our understandings of both Adams and his nemesis/friend Thomas Jefferson. In his PASSIONATE SAGE: THE CHARACTER AND LEGACY OF JOHN ADAMS, FOUNDING BROTHERS: THE REVOLUTIONARY GENERATION, and AMERICAN SPHINX: THE CHARACTER OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, Ellis has been challenging a long established scenario in which the arch conservative John Adams was pitted against the populist liberal Thomas Jefferson for the political destiny of America, and the hero Jefferson triumphed over the mildly villainous Adams. Ellis has been questioning whether any part of this scenario makes any sense, whether Adams is at all a villain, and whether Jefferson is nearly as heroic. He has done this not by asserting the virtues of conservativism, but whether Adams has been correctly understood at all, both by his contemporaries and by subsequent generations. This reevaluation of Adams was continued by the spectacular and unanticipated mega-bestseller by David McCullough of 2001. This process of reassessment is clearly carried forward by John Patrick Diggins. For the record, I find the rehabilitation of Adams by these and other writers to be both welcome and highly convincing.
   
   For two hundred years, our view of Adams came very much through the lenses of his critics and opponents. The truism that history is written from the standpoint of the victors is perhaps truer of Adams than any other major political figure in United States history. Adams was said to be a closet monarchist, a favorer of aristocracy. In the face of this criticism, Adams explicitly challenged Jefferson to point to a single passage in any of his writings that endorses monarchy or aristocracy. In fact, if one reads extensively in Adams works, as argued by Ellis, Diggins, and McCullough, one finds instead a powerful and subtle critique of the dangers of the development and influence of an economic elite, placing him at the opposite extreme of Alexander Hamilton, whose ideal of government came very close to the espousal of plutocracy. Adams did hope for the emergence of natural elites, but this was based on ability and character, not on wealth. Contained in the reassessment of Adams is implied a questioning of whether Adams is the arch conservative he is often portrayed as being. The case for Adams's conservativism is based largely on his belief in monarchism, his favoring aristocracy, his support for a bicameral Congress, his looking to the past for guidance, and his opposition to the French Revolution. As these authors have shown, Adams transparently did not favor monarchy or the growth of an aristocratic class and a bicameral legislature in the United States has not resulted in the Senate being a sort of House of Lords. Today many leftist historians have found grounds for critiquing the French Revolution, and a host of leftist political figures have found inspiration for their beliefs in the past (not least Karl Marx, who was a student of the Greeks and Romans). Furthermore, Adams was hardly a passionate capitalist, and was suspicious of a life devoted to the acquisition of wealth. In fact, if you compare Adams and Jefferson to that modern conservative icon Ronald Reagan, it is hard to find many issues that Adams would not differ sharply on from Reagan, while one can see a number of points of contact between Adams and Reagan. Diggins, in fact, finds numerous points of contact between Adams's political writings and many French radical writers of the late 20th century. I will say that as a leftist myself, I find much to love in Adams's thought. I share his fear of the negative effects that economic elites have on the democratic process, his belief in the need for a strong central government to protect citizens from the pernicious influence of greed (Adams would understand my fear of deregulation), and his instincts that government rather than less or no government is a better safeguard of individual liberty. Diggins rightly states that the American president who would most closely incarnate Adams's principles would be Teddy Roosevelt, who envisioned government as the means of breaking trusts and promoting economic justice.
   
   Of all the books in the Schlesinger series on the American presidents, this is probably the one that I found most provocative intellectually. It is a dense, rich book, in large part because Diggins focuses more on the thought of Adams than his life. Diggins is more intent on explaining Adams ideas than the various events in his life. In one sense this is a weakness as a biography, but because his discussion of Adams's ideas is so clear and interesting, it more than makes up for the lack of biographical detail. I do regret some of the sketchiness of the biographical narrative. For instance, he doesn't' deal in any detail on how Adams became either vice president or president. This contrasts sharply with the rather deep discussion of Adams's ideas. This is in line with Diggins's role as apologist for Adams. On the purely historical side, most of Diggins's effort is put into dispelling the myth that the election of 1800 represented the defeat of Federalism by Republicanism (that's Jeffersonian Republicanism, not what we associate today with the GOP). I personally found this section less interesting that the sections dealing with Adams's thought.
   
   I would strongly encourage anyone reading this volume to consider picking up the new volume THE PORTABLE JOHN ADAMS, edited by Diggins. I completely agree with Diggins that Adams's writings are more interesting than his presidency, and that he may be the most unjustly neglected political writer in American history. This new volume contains a wide ranging collection of his writings, not merely from his theoretical writings, but his diaries and letters as well.



5. To start with and to avoid disappointment for those looking for something other than what this is, some of the trade reviews are just plain wrong: this is not a biography focusing on Adams childhood and youth. In fact, it isn't really a biography at all. What it is is a short, to the point but nevertheless fairly deep analysis of Adams' political thought with a particular emphasis on the politics of his presidential administration. It is written from a very positive view point (one shared by David McCullough) and from a view point that is quite hostile to Thomas Jefferson. As such it is an invaluable read for anyone interested in the development of presidential politics in America as well as anyone seeking the "rest of the story" regarding Adams, Jefferson, and their relationship.

5 comments about Nicole Brown Simpson: The Private Diary of a Life Interrupted.

1. This book was well written. It was about a lifestyle very different from most people. It is Faye Resnicks perception of events surrounding Nicoles life. I thought it was very insightful and a good read.



2. People who thrash and despise this book fail to understand something--Faye Resnick wrote it in order to warn other women involved in violent and demoralizing relationships about what CAN happen to them if they remain in these tragic relationships. The stories about O.J.'s viciousness and cruelty toward Nicole and his ruthless manipulation of her family are (in retrospect) 100% true. I admire Ms. Resnick very much because of her courage and willingness to tell and talk about truths that many were not prepared to face or accept. This book is as real as can be and highly recommended for anyone wanting to know more about the painfully tragic relationship between Nicole and O.J. and the events that led up to this horrific double-murder.



3. I thought this book would be a chronical of Nicole and OJ's relationship from the get-go, and how things eventually devolved to the sad state they were in at the end, but instead, it focused more on Faye Resnick's scatterbrained rantings about restaurants, clubs, sexual partners, vacations, and utterly soulless, vapid "friendships"...all provided in non-chronological order! There was relatively little information about the relationship between the famous couple: strange in a book that purports to be about that very subject. I feel sorry for Faye and Nicole, because I come away from reading this disjointed, rambling, bizarre account of seemingly disconnected events with the impression that both of them were seriously emotionally damaged women. So at least that was conveyed well.



4. Poor Faye Resnick. I really feel sorry for this lady. It must be a hard life, being a Beaverly Hills socialite. At what restaurant do we eat? Who do we have affairs with? Can we go to Cabo San Lucos next week? Such are the mighty questions Faye asks in her book. All that stress must have forced the breakdown of her marriages and the cocaine and alcohol habits.
   As the previous reviewers have already noted, there is not much sympathy for this kind of lifestyle.

   I read this book for the simple fact of gaining some insight into Nicole's husband. O.J. is indeed a great actor. His facade has masked what he really is. In this, the book suceeds in giving some glimpses of a very troubled person. At the same time, it gives a poor view of the lifestyles of the rich and idle.




5. I read this book, from the librbay, and it is quite infuriating... Firstly, Resnik lists her occupation is "socialite"????? Give me a break!!!!!

   Her whole claim to fame is name dropping... (and,this is her only claim to fame...) When you read this book you realize how fake and pretnetious people like Bruce Jenner, Kris Jenner, Faye Resnik, and Nicole and O.J. Simpson really are/were. Its almost as though Resnik was more upset about Nicole's death because ahe lost her "link" to the "inner circle".

   I also think that the things she wrote about Nicole were SOOOO disrespectful, not only to Nicole, but especially to Nicole's childre, I cant imagine them reading such awful things about their murdered mother, Didnt they go through enough??.... There are extremely private things that Faye discusses about Nicole that are so cold and hurtful (if they are even true) I cant imagine that this was Nicole's best friend. If she cared anything for Nicole she would have kept her collagen-enhanced mouth shut.

   She is a brat, she has done NOTHING worthwhile for this country, her "best frined" or those poor children that she left behind.., I can not believe that the publishing co. allowed her to write such trash about a person that was brutally murdered. With a friend like this, who needs enemies?

   Believe me

5 comments about Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood (Nova Audio Books).

1. Too bad Wood's story-book career is overshadowed by the many unanswered questions surrounding her death. How ironic, I suppose, that the high-profile, high-pressure industry she so excelled at also had a lot to do with many of those questions going unanswered. The sorry fact is that LA's biggest industry has long influenced police investigation when scandal threatens the Hollywood image, all the way back to the murder of William Desmond Taylor.
   
   In fact, the book's best part is what I take to be the author's no-punches-pulled, eye-witness testimony surrounding that fateful November night. Two particularly damaging aspects of the investigation emerge-- no sheriff's effort at putting together a time-line surrounding Wood's sudden disappearance (p.441), and the sheriff's refusal to even contact credible witnesses overhearing cries for help during that time frame (pps. 431- 432). Couple that with Frank Sinatra's effort to get respected county coroner Thomas Noguchi removed from the case (p.435), and a classic instance of industry string-pulling takes shape.
   
   This is not to insinuate that criminal behavior was necessarily involved in the drowning. Neither the book nor I am implying that. However, there is a clear implication of botched procedures that remained remarkably incurious about conflicting accounts and details surrounding the death. Efforts to spare family feelings are understandable. But such factors should not impede justice from being done. Then too, I wonder if family feelings would be such a factor were the deceased from poverty-ridden East LA. In my view, this is another instance of investigation being boxed-in by big money, big reputations, and big industry. After all, as the fan mags liked to brag, Natalie and RJ were Hollywood "royalty". Nonetheless, the little girl many of us grew up with deserved better, royalty or not.
   
   Natalie Wood had what amounts to an amazing Hollywood career. Unlike the great majority of child stars, her career remained uninterrupted from childhood through mature adulthood. This was a testament both to her talent and her ability to stay employed through life's inevitable changes. Author Finstad pinpoints the central conflict in her life-- the tension between the person herself (Natasha) and her carefully crafted show-biz persona ("Natalie Wood"). After all, she was a professional actress from age six, so it's not surprising that the real person had little chance to develop and that what there was remained submerged under the movie star creation. Mom comes across as the real culprit behind this split and something of a dark Rasputin-like force in Wood's life.
   
   Curiously, little mention is made of the turbulent Vietnam period when old Hollywood was eclipsed by the new, so-called counter-culture. A glance at Wood's movie credits shows a sharp drop-off after 1966, the first big year of the war. Yet, there's not a single mention of Vietnam nor (I believe) of the war itself. This seems odd given the cultural and commercial impact on the movie industry of social and political forces then on the march. It would be interesting to know her reaction since the movement rejected the whole glamor factory concept. I don't know if the absence of material means Natalie and her circle simply floated above the national trauma or what. Anyway, I find this a curious silence in what is otherwise a pretty exhaustive text.
   
   All in all, Finstad's biography is a close account of Wood's personal life. I wish there had been more on the business side, but probably sources there were hard to find since insiders play the business dealings pretty close to the vest. Also, the text could have used tighter editing since the detail at times gets somewhat repetitious. Nonetheless, the book is an insightful look into America's great game of celebrity worship and the ups and the downs of a fairy-tale life. I'm just sorry that if a body had to be pulled from the water, it wasn't Natasha's-- it was Natalie Wood's. And from that moment on the interests of the Hollywood glamor factory took over. Even in death, Natasha was suppressed.



2. Natasha: The biography of Natalie Wood was written by Suzanne Finstad. She claims to be a die-hard fan of Wood and that part is probably true but the way she writes about her favorite star is calculated and contrived. We know Natalie drowned, which was her biggest phobia and she married three times, twice to the same man. This book is a real page turner but you can't help but wonder what is fiction and what is real, even Wood's eldest daughter called this book trash, decide for yourself.



3. If you are over the age of 25 in America, you have heard of Natalie Wood. The tragically deceased movie star is akin to an icon in our nation's past. This thoroughly researched biography gives insight into her early life and behind the scenes information about her movies. With quotes from original sources, such as Wood's family members and staff, and second hand sources, such as magazine articles, the details of Natalie's life are spread before us.
   I was only semi-knowledgeable about this actress prior to reading the book. I had only ever seen her three most famous movies, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story, and Miracle on 34th Street. Since this book, I have been compelled to familiarize myself with more of her work.
   The author is, I believe, I first-time biographer, and although I haven't read terribly many biographies, I found her style somewhat heavy-handed. She also needs to familiarize herself better with the concepts of "foreshadowing" and "irony." One thing I found very annoying about the writing was that the author felt the need to remind us, over and over, of who people were. For example, she introduces us to Debbie Reynolds "who was originally considered for the part of Judy." Then, a paragraph later, she quotes Reynolds again, identifying her as "the actress who almost got [Natalie's] part." Scarcely a paragraph later, Reynolds "who almost played Judy" is quoted again. I did not need these reminders, as I (and I would imagine most other reasonably intelligent readers) can remember what was written from paragraph to paragraph. Also, I am quite unfamiliar with movie stars and directors from this period, so I would imagine people who were alive during this time or more well-versed on in this subject might be even more frustrated than I was.
   Finstad also kept pushing the idea that "Natalie Wood" was a "composite" of Natalie herself and her mother, Maria. I was willing to accept the assertion at first, as Maria pushed Natalie into stardom, but later, as Natalie grew up, it seemed Finstad was massaging the facts to support her claim.
   In conclusion, I learned a lot from Finstad's thorough research and interviews with close friends and family members of Ms. Wood, but I would not read a book by her again. I have wish-listed another biography of Natalie Wood, and would be interested to see whether this concept of the "composite" Natalie Wood is more pervasive.



4. This book read more like fiction than fact.I was horrified at the things Natalie went through to become and remain a star. I was thrilled by her ability to overcome all and become one of the most respected actors of her time.I wanted to lash out at someone about the way she died and I wanted someone charged with a crime.With that said, I thought too much time was spent describing her early years and her background but that is a minor complaint.Natalie was a favorite of mine so I enjoyed the book.Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister



5. This is one of the very few biographies where i was left feeling i knew the subject intimately and deeply. I have always felt that Natalie Woods life was a highly fascinating and karmically complex one.
   The author certainly confirmed that and i didnt find the prose to be overly dramatic at all.
   She is a talented writer as well as a biographer and for me, that makes a huge difference.
   I like depth, insight, and good writing,
   a wonderful subject is of course important and this book had it all.

3 comments about Character Above All, Volume 2 (Character Above All).

1. I don't even normally listen to audio tapes like these, but being a fan of Harry Truman and David McCullough, I had to get this. I do want to say that I am VERY, VERY hopeful that this comes out on CD. It is absolutely enthralling. Very fun, very educational. As has already been said - every leader should listen to this.



2. Truman. An entertaining one hour speech peppered with anecdotes covering the failures & successes of Truman. There may never have been a person to succeed to the president as unprepared & in such a time of national crises. We were about to invade Japan with perhaps two miilion men & 600,000 casualties. One thing he did know. He could not be Franklin Roosevelt. Nobody could. He had to be Harry Turman. He knew himself, grew into the job & ranks as one of our near great presidents. Apparently the most important experience of his life was World WarI which he could have avoided in several ways. He found he was brave, he could lead men in adversity & he liked it. He had known disappointments, hated farming, failed as a businessman & was largely ignored as "The Senator from Pendergast." He was honest, stubborn to a fault, loyal, humble but most of all confident in his abilities. You get a flavor of all this in a much too short tape. Read McCullough's "Truman."



3. This cassette should be compulsory listening for ALL leaders. I have heard it dozens of times and it never fails to keep me on track. McCullough's great voice speaking about the character of a great man has produced the finest short audio tape on leadership that I have ever heard. I bought several hundred copies and gave them to managers. Put the character traits of Truman into today's business world and what an improved world it will be. BUY THIS TAPE!! Listen to it many times. It will have a HUGE effect on your life.

5 comments about Bouncing Back.

1. I read the book and I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with Joan.



2. The audio book version of "Bouncing Back" is WONDERFUL! It's read by Joan Rivers herself, the way she intended for it to be read :-) Her moving message of survival comes through loud & clear & of course FUNNY! What a lady! What a TALENT! THANK YOU Ms. Rivers for being so forthcoming with us. Your story is truly INSPIRATIONAL!



3. Joan has some helpful advice on how to overcome obstacles in life. While she is not a psychologist, she has been through many painful things in her life and has always "bounced back."



4. Joan Rivers presents herself as the most put upon victim in the world, the ultimate survivor. Heartrending. I'm sure that the AIDS victims, the cancer patients, the Christopher Reeves of this world, will join me in sympathizing with this martyr.



5. I can't believe that those who are putting down this book have gone through much of a crisis in their lives. Having gone through the fire myself with losing a father, nephew, and son in addition to illnesses and financial troubles, I found this book to be very inspirational. This may be because Joan was echoing what I have come to believe on my own, but sharing it with the world takes a huge amount of courage. I never cared much about her as a comedienne but a person's work does not necessarily reflect who they are inside. I felt very sorry for her when her husband committed suicide and, at the time, I remember wondering if she was just going to shrink into herself and go off on her own to lick her wounds. Well, she didn't and I say, bravo, Joan! Edgar is gone but you and Melissa are still here and to keep plugging away at life takes strength. I have had so many people ask me how I go on and say they couldn't do it. Well, you have two choices: you either give up or you go on. We are big on humor in our family and a bit of black humor does come out now and then. I am just very careful as to who I allow to hear it. You need to separate Joan from her work to get what she is saying in this book. And, if you can do so, and if you can learn from it, you will go on and you will be stronger. Those who nitpick specifics like decorating your house and all will be well are totally missing the point. What she is saying is to find what makes you feel better and get up off your bum and do it. Don't sit and wallow in self-pity and pain. Believe me, when a loved one is no longer there in your life, just vegetating can be SO attractive. It takes a huge amount of strength just to get out of bed in the morning. Who says we aren't supposed to laugh after someone dies? My son loved to laugh and to not do so would be to dishonor his memory. I know he is out there laughing with us just as Joan's Edgar is applauding her efforts to get on with her life.

5 comments about The Kennedy Men: 1901 - 1963.

1. Didn't like it. Basically refers to President Kennedy and his time in office. Too boring.



2. I give this book a borderline 3 - 4 stars. It isn't bad - it explored all of the Kennedy men adequately but none very extensively. Leamer does do a great job of explaining the relationships among the Kennedy men, especially the complicated relationship that Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. had with all of his children.

   The author offers up stunning and excruciating details about Joe Kennedy Jr's. death, as well as Kathleen's death. These instances were painful to read, but very insightful about the patriarch's emotions.

   I feel Leamer did concentrate a bit too much on JFK's sexual trysts, but that is a topic that no book on the Kennedys will neglect, so it's not really a complaint.

   It would have been nice had the book ended in 1968 and not 1963. Another 100 pages would have given the reader much more great reading on RFK following the president's death and also his run for the presidency in 1968.

   All in all, this is a good book for diehard Kennedy aficionados.




3. In the years since John F Kennedy was elected President two kinds of "Kennedy Myths" have developed. The positive one portrays John, Robert and Ted Kennedy as liberal "saints" committed to a progressive revolution in America. The negative one shows the Kennedys to be rapacious libertines who throw off all social conventions in their personal and political lives. Leamer's book transcends these over-simplistic views and covers the lives of patriarch Joseph P Kennedy and his four sons, bringing out the complexity of this unique group of people.

   Those who hold a negative view of the Kennedys will find much material to confirm their beliefs. In truth, Joe Kennedy seems to be a man with almost no redeeming virtues, a virulent anti-Semite and pro-Nazi, greedy and miserly, manipulative man. The second generation of Kennedys learned not to ask where the family's money came from. Yet Joe Kennedy went on to implement needed reforms in the Security and Exchange commission to which he was appointed, supported the progressive FDR and became the most powerful Catholic in the US.

   Similarly, JFK went on to be an incredibly reckless philanderer who possibly compromised the very security of the US with liasons with women involved with organized crime and possibly even East German intelligence, but at the same time, he inspired young people to volunteer for the Peace Corps and set American on course to landing on the Moon. RFK goes to work for family friend Senator Joe McCarthy and works with the Mafia in order to destablize Castro's regime in Cuba, but then also works vigorously against the same Mafia and institutionalized racial discrimination (and somehow escapes the taint of his association with McCarthy).

   Leamer show that JFK and RFK were definitely not "soft liberals". JFK was the best friend the "military-industrial complex" ever had, pouring unprecedented amounts of money into defense and space projects. They supported a very tough anti-Communist policy in Cuba and Vietnam which almost led to nuclear war and did lead to the quagmire in Southeast Asia. One important point about the book is that Leamer does not demonize various "bad guys" from the positive Kennedy Myth, such as General Curtis Lemay and other military men from the Cuban Missile Crisis, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover who was friendly for many years with Joe Kennedy and showed great forebearance with the many indiscretions of his sons and had good reason to be concerned with JFK's behavior and finally Lyndon Johnson who loyally served the Kennedy Administration and yet was treated with contempt by RFK and many of JFK's advisors (although not by JFK himself).

   Finally, the author has come to the same conclusion that other investigators have arrived at regarding JFK's assassination, namely, that it is very likely that the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald was motivated, either with or without the knowledge of agents of Fidel Castro, to kill Kennedy in revenge for the Kennedys' attempt to kill him.

   It is not easy to cover the lives of five different men in a singel book, and much had to be left out, but as an introduction to this remarkable tribe of American aristocracy, this book is indispensable.




4. I've read 64 biographys and it's one of the worse.
   There are a few photos.
   some informations are odd, because the author invents them.
   buy not this book, but buy better book like a common good, the thirteen days, the kennedys and the fitzgerald, robert kennedy and his time...



5. I read The Kennedy Women a few years ago and found it to be one of the most impressive biographical works that I had ever encountered. I was most impressed with Leamer's ability to fully chart the lives of so many diverdse characters.

   I eagerly awaited the Kennedy Men. If I had not read his previous work, this probably would have seemed better. I felt that the Kennedy Women had a broader scope dealing with a longer (and earlier!) time frame and more individuals. This started, really with Joe Kennedy and didn't focus on too many others. A very minor complaint, is that the Kennedy women had a comrehensive time line in the beginning. It would have been useful to include one here as well.

   Otherwise, this is an extaordinarily well rearched volume. What I enjoyed most was the conversational approach taken by Leamer. It is a pleasure to read. I wish that the final chapter "Requiem for a President" was slightly more detailed, but this was a chance to learn not about invididuals, but about complex family relationships and bonds.

   I am glad that I read it and look forward to volume 2!

5 comments about The Journey of Crazy Horse.

1. 
   The murder of Crazy Horse occurred one hundred and twenty-five years ago. The story of his death has been become a legend in the Lakota tribe. Our author tells the story of Crazy Horse and his work to have a fair peace with the United States. This is a sad part of our history. Our forefathers took what they wanted and on their terms. There have been some efforts where later generations have tried to compensate but most of the benefits have been eaten up in our bureaucracy. I don't have an answer and we cannot correct the past. This was a very well written and interesting book. By Ruth Thompson author or "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"
   
   Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelsSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NoveltTravelersTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War



2. This is a wonderful offering from my favorite Lakota author, Joseph M. Marshall, III. I also purchased the audio book, and would recommend that as the best way to "read' this book. It is read by the author, and the reader can hear the actual sounds of the language, the way it was meant to be presented.
   
   My favorite of all his books, so far!



3. As a history instructor at a junior college, I highly commend Mr. Marshall for his first class work on the esteemed Crazy Horse. Based on the centuries-old tradition of oral history that is passed down from one generation to the next, Marshall relies on the many traditions of his youth and adulthood.
   
   He has created a work that goes far beyond the idolization of heroes of the past. He presents Crazy Horse as the magnificent leader of his day but the author also tells of a mortal human being with strengths and weaknesses, as all leaders have been throughout history.
   
   Marshall takes us to a time and place in our minds that is both vivid and revealing. The author has written a masterpiece, providing maps and an index explaining the various names given by the Lakota of the months and how they coincide with the Eurocentric definition of the calendar year. This was most helpful.
   
   Marshall closes his book with a very moving story that I hope is not lost on American Indian readers of his book. The insights of his last chapter are so needed today.
   
   "The Journey of Crazy Horse is the fourth book by Marshall that I have read and his works are gems. I highly recommend any and all of Marshall's books and I plan to continue reading his entire collection of works. He is a superb writer and captures the reader. He was also featured in the film productions "How the West was Lost" and the PBS special "The Native Americans."
   
   Mr. Marshall, never put that pen down!



4. This book is too lacking in the analysis of Crazy Horse's political and military strategy, it lacks references (its prime source is Indian word-of-mouth) and it is too much an hagiography. Nevertheless a decent introduction to the man and, much more importantly, his predicament.



5. The Journey Of Crazy Horse (2005) is a biography/history of the Lakota Sioux legend, from the perspective of a Lakota Sioux historian and storyteller. Joseph M. Marshall III was raised on a Sioux Indian reservation and Lakota is his first language. He has collected an oral history passed from Lakota generation to Lakota generation, and combined that history with his own research on this fascinating, but reticent, warrior to give us a personal look at a man who has been a symbol of pride and excellance for generations of Native Americans. It's all here, from his lively and free boyhood days in the North American plains to the Battle Of The Little Big Horn and his eventual capture and death at the end of a soldier's bayonet. Light Hair, as he was originally known (he later took the name Crazy Horse, also his father's name) was a man who lived with a wounded heart. He had lost his birth mother as a young child, and the love of his life, Black Buffalo Woman, was politically influenced into marrying another, who she eventually left for Crazy Horse, but returned to the marriage when violence erupted over the matter. As the white man advanced from the east, and made his way into Sioux territory, some of the Indians exchanged their way of life for "land", cattle, and other goods that were offered to them. Crazy Horse would have nothing to do with it, and resisted that comprimise right up to the very end of his life. Revered by his own people and the whites as a great and courageous warrior, his humility and compassion were also legendary. With colorful images and authentic emotional narrative, The Journey Of Crazy Horse reads like a historical novel, but also provides an education on the the life of this remarkable 19th century Lakota Sioux warrior and his people, as they bravely fought to maintain their way of life. This is a book that anyone who's interested in the history of America should read.

1 comments about In Their Own Words: The European Theatre.

1. Nothing can really substitute for listening to the accounts of the soldiers themselves who fought in war. Much has been written by former soldiers of their trials in combat but rarely are they recorded in an interview. This is an excellent compilation, well recorded and produced, of such accounts from a cross section the various campaigns of WWII. Not many veterans open up to discuss war to their family or anyone so listening to these heroes is a rare exception. My father, a veteran of the ETO, saw horrible combat as he battled through France and into Nazi Germany but never mentioned a word of it to his children. These interviews help fill in some of the gaps in understanding the war from their perspective. Thanks to those soldiers who reopened those painful moments to be recorded for others to hear. Even if you are not a student of history I recommend these just for the inspiring stories themselves.