5 comments about American Caesar (Part I).

1. Manchester is unequalled as a biographer. He is clear, detailed, thorough and readable. It is difficult to determined whethor or not he liked, admired, or respected MacArthur; he presents all sides of MacArthur's personality and deeds and leaves it to the reader to judge the merits.



2. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Manchester's biography of the great General. Manchester writes in great detail about Mac's early history of West Point and his great successes in WWI. He covers Mac's early marriage to his first wife and how he tried to hide his affairs from his mother. Very interesting.
   
   Then, we are treated to his great island-hopping tactics in the Pacific during WWII, and then it's on to Korea.
   
   I enjoyed the book even though many consider it too praise-worthy of Mac. That was one of things I enjoyed...that it was praise-worthy of the general, but that it did cover some interesting points (some not so good) about the general...like his hero-worship of his mother; his obstinancy at wanting to do this his way (his arrogance...but that it most always seemed to work out); his infighting with President Truman and more. With respect to the Korean conflict, Manchester did not go into specific details with respect to the war itself, but dealt more with Mac's fighting with Truman and some of his disrepect for his civilian boss.
   
   I think it unfortunate that we do not have more generals of his caliber. This book makes you appreciate the generals we did have that brought us through a terrible global conflict. His comments about Vietnam and fighting wars to win are most appropriate even today, especially considering the threat we have from terrorists today.
   
   An excellent book and worthy as an addition to any library.



3. One of the first Military leader bio's I read - back in high school - and still one of the finest.



4. William Manchester is one of the greatest biographers to have put pen to paper, and his portrait of Douglas MacArthur is another fine example. The Second World War was replete with genius, many were said to have it; Churchill, Roosevelt, Patton, Marshall, Rommel, Eisenhower, the list goes on. William Manchester has written biographies of the two most unique men from amongst the many that period produced, Douglas MacArthur being one, and his more well known two-volume work on Churchill.
   
   It is still debated today, was MacArthur the real deal, or some kind of media hype? Manchester ably fills in the blanks, from MacArthur's service in WW I, to his time at West Point, the Philippines, and on from Australia through to his stewardship of occupied Japan, and later the Korean War. Manchester leaves no doubt that MacArthur was the real deal, he was of all commanders during the Second World War the most economic in terms of casualties. Rather than go straight at 'em like Patton, MacArthur out-maneuvered and flanked his opponents in the Pacific, utilizing combinations of amphibious and aerial tactics that others soon copied. As successful as the Normandy invasion turned out to be, several military historians instead cite MacArthur's amphibious assault on Inchon to be the finest of its kind, as an assault on a fortified harbor was reckoned impossible after Dieppe. Like many great men MacArthur had his flaws, but it is notable how many who were under his command also rose to greatness, Eisenhower amongst them. Many of the innovations that MacArthur introduced are still in use today, the Katusa program in Korea (Korean augmentee to the US Army) or the physical education program at West Point. There is no more thorough or readable account of one of the most interesting American military leaders.



5. William Manchester mentioned in the acknowledgements that Jean MacArthur was a contributor, but did not see the manuscript before publication. There was a good reason for this: he didn't want people to think she agreed with his criticisms of General MacArthur, her husband. The book, as a matter of fact, was equally unflinching in its criticisms of the great general as it was in its praise of his outstanding work as probably our greatest soldier ever.
   
   Here was a man that was much bigger than life. He was always on stage, completely fearless, a military genius, winner of almost a dozen medals including the Medal of Honor, and an entrancing speaker with the poetic style and the presence of the great actor John Barrymore. (By the way, he and his father are the only father/son to win Medals of Honor. His father won his at age 18 in the Civil War.) He was all but worshipped in Japan as he led their astonishing reconstruction after WWII, and earlier in the Philippines as he freed them from Japanese occupation. In fact, even today in the Philippines, some barracks still call his name for roll call and he is declared as 'present in spirit'. His conduct of the Pacific War in WWII was nothing short of amazing, as he dazzled with his daring courage, speed, and knowledge of the terrain. But after 14 years abroad, he was relieved of command because of battles with the Truman Administration over the scope and goals of the Korean War; the Administration was understandably alarmed at his proposals of starting a nuclear war, or of utilizing nuclear waste as a line of defense, with the Communist Chinese. On his return to the US, he was lionized everywhere as he took his victory lap and millions lined the streets just to get a glimpse of him.
   
   It's hard to get know the real MacArthur, but you can't help admiring the man despite his gigantic ego. He was one of a kind in American history, and maybe even world history. This book does a great job of giving you the straight, unflinching dope on him, both good and bad.

No comments about Age and Guile Beat Youth and Innocence: 25 Years of P.J. O'Rourke.

5 comments about Saint Augustine (Penguin Lives).

1. It's hard to love St. Augustine. Even as one of the most influential religious thinkers in the history of Christianity--the image of heaven as a holy city, the City of God, was his idea--and as the author of his Confessions, arguably the first confessional biography (and a model for many of the literary memoirs we've lately been swamped with), he presents a cold and prickly figure. It's not so much that he doesn't give us the goods about his early, sinful life--he does, sometimes in great detail--but the guy who ranks his theft of a cartload of pears among his greatest mistakes is unlikely to impress our jaded sensibilities. What we want in a biography of Augustine, is an interpreter--not of his works, but of his life: we want to know the drama of this man's life, and to feel afresh his importance today.
   That's just the issue here. Throughout the Confessions, which Garry Wills, in his new short biography of St. Augustine (one of a series of excellent short lives published by Penguin Putnam) more accurately translates as Testimony, we find ourselves in the presence of a man who has a lot to say, but speaks in a voice that sounds alien to most late-twentieth-century ears. The child of a pagan father and a Christian mother who would later be venerated as St. Monica, Augustine grew up on the fringe of the Roman Empire, in Africa. Torn between his mother's strict Christian discipline (legend has it that she allowed her child only two small cups of water a day, in order to mortify the `sinful' flesh--a story that Wills, perhaps wisely, omits) and the lure of the old pagan order which still held sway in much of government and civic life, it's small wonder that Augustine went where the money was. For the first part of his life, the part he would later describe as gravely sinful, he followed the career path many young Romans aspired to--to great effect: at the time of his conversion to Christianity, he held an advisary position in the court of the Emperor.
   Along the way, however, he picked up an interest in philosophy, particularly the fashionable (and most unchristian) Manicheanism, which holds that the universe is a battleground between equally-matched and eternally-opposed forces of good and evil. It was his misgivings about the truth of his beliefs--no doubt also the influence of his mother, whom he brought along on his travels to Italy--that prompted his conversion, famously described in the Confessions. Sitting under a fig tree in his garden one day, reading the letters of St. Paul with a friend while wrestling with his doubts, Augustine heard what sounded like a child's voice from a nearby house, repeating the refrain of a nursery rhyme or game: Tolle, lege; tolle, lege--'Pick up and read, pick up and read.' He opened the book he had laid aside, read the first sentence on which his eyes fell--"Be clothed in Jesus Christ"--and a saint was born.
   That's the famous story, the part of his Confessions most often read and retold today. But Augustine's long life (he would live another thirty years, eventually becoming the Bishop of Hippo in northern Africa, and writing his monumental book The City of God), would be spent amid the spiritual and political controversies of the Church in the fourth century A.D. Unlike our recent spate of memoirs--and of much less interest to contemporary readers--Augustine's biography here is a political one, less concerned with his personal spiritual transformation that with the religious politics of Roman Africa in the years just before Rome's fall. This is where, and largely why, Wills' biography loses its interest and pales beside the testimony of the saint.
   It does not help that Wills repeatedly fails to enliven Augustine's story, keeping the flesh-and-blood man behind a scrim of political reportage and undoubtedly learned commentary on Augustine's theology, and a critical reading of his many written works. The composition of The City of God, for instance, is clouded over in background detail:
   "Augustine spent fifteen years writing the twenty-two books of The City of God, that `great and trying labor'.... They were years of increasing desire for some measure of temporal peace. Augustine's hopes for enlightened leadership, first lodged in Marcellinus, then cruelly disappointed, were partly revived when another Christian official, Boniface, came to Africa in 417 as commander (count) of the Roman military force. Augustine sent him a long statement of the Donatist policy he had created for Marcellinus. Since Boniface had important frontier duties, keeping the Saharan tribes from Christian Africa, Augustine wrote for him in 418 a little treatise on military morality--war should be waged only when it is necessary to peace, and then with the minimum necessary violence; truth should be observed even toward the enemy; mercy to the vanquished precludes use of the death penalty."
   
   And so on, and so on--making a short book feel long and dry. It's hard to remember, while we read this, that one of the most splendid conceptions of divine grace ever committed to paper is taking shape in the background--the scratching of Augustine's quill is drowned out by the noise from the street outside.
   Not that we lose sight of much that Augustine wrote: hardly any of the saint's extant sermons or treatises are left unmentioned here, but few are actually summarized to the point of intelligibility, or quoted at length enough to allow us to get a flavor of the man's thoughts. In fact, so much discussion is spent here on the meanings of texts not quoted, or on the interpretation of single words and phrases, that Augustine, the man whose Confessions have unjustly earned him a rather scandalous reputation, gets lost in a fog of worldly detail. Often it's difficult to tell just where our hero is, what he's doing in his daily life, and why it matters in the larger scheme of things. The tone of the book is dry enough to make Augustine's common-law marriage--at the age of sixteen, making him a father a year later--and his eventual spurning of the woman he called his `concubine,' first for the prospect of a socially advantageous marriage, then for God, all seem rather dull. Where, we want to ask, is the drama of the sinful life that Augustine himself conveys in his Confessions?
   And this is the saint we want--and perhaps the saint we need. There's no shame in admitting that when we read his biography, we want to know not the brilliant prose stylist and theologian, not the provincial magistrate and church politician, but the man who sinned, suffered, doubted and finally found his faith--a faith that would change the world for centuries to come--in the voice of a child overheard in a garden. If Wills' book can be said to have failed this task, it is because he has given us the words of Augustine, but not his voice.



2. With so much to say about Saint Augustine, it is difficult to include all of the facts in one book. It is impossible to include all of the facts in 144 pages. What makes this book disappointing is that this book has little to say about this magnificent man.
   
   At times, Wills focuses more on the writing of Saint Augustine than in his life. Obviously, there are not first hand interviews of this saint available. Instead, Willis interprets the writings on Saint Augustine. The product is so concise and scattered that it is often hard to makes sense of it. This is a tremendous injustice to Saint Augustine. The greatest shame is the fact that Wills focuses so much time on Saint Augustine's views on intercourse and celebacy rather than his defense of the Christian faith.
   
   There are so many better books to learn about Saint Augustine such as "Confessions" and "City of God". While the authors attempts to draw points from these books, the point are too scattered to interpret.



3. Any biography on Augustine will always linger in the shadow of the great Peter Brown's work, which is a classic treatment of the philosopher/bishop without rival in the English speaking world. Therefore, anyone desiring a complete portrait of St Augustine must first behold the masterpiece found in the pages of Brown's Augustine of Hippo. This being done, Wills book can be fully appreciated. Some notable aspects of this compact but wholesome biography are (1) his ability to bring into focus some of the more obscure details of Augustine's early life, as they are found spilled out on the pages of the Confessions. (2) Wills cleverly renders "confessions" into "the testimony," thereby greatly enhancing the meaning of the entire text of Augustine's Confessions. (3) The author also does a fine job discussing the various individuals who impacted his life: in particular, his overview of Augustine's relationship with his concubine, who Wills craftily names Una, is fantastic, just as it is with his son Adeodatus and others who were close to him. (4) The authors' brief but profound discourses on the key revolutions in Augustine's intellectual and spiritual odyssey, and on his literary and ecclesiastical exploits, will also be welcomed by the reader for all their insight and terseness.(5) Wills also makes some rather innovative--but stunning--assertions such as the down-playing of the role of St Monica and St Ambrose on Augustine's conversion. (6) Possibly the best aspect of Wills work, is the revelation of the optimistic, pastoral and compassionate side of Augustine--a characteristic that most scholars don't care to spend too much time cultivating. Overall it would be safe to say that this is not a good introductory work, however it will be very stimulating to anyone who has previously read Brown's classic or a lot of Augustine's writings first-hand.



4. Wills' essay on Augustine was written for a series of new introductions for use by students and the public. But unlike Peter Brown's superb biography, now stronger than ever after its revised 2000 edition, Wills does a very poor job introducing big chunks of Augustine's life and background. If you don't know about Donatism and Pelagianism, or have never heard of Julian of Eclanum, Wills won't help you. His selection of themes and angles is almost eccentric and he skates over way too much. This is an essay for the specialist who knows the background and wants another pungent point of view. It is not a beginner's survey. If Augustine interests you, try Henry Chadwick's short, superb "Augustine" from Oxford, or dive into the warm, deep waters of Peter Brown's book.



5. On the positive side, it contains none of O'Donnell's tendency to cast petty motives on Augustine's life. It is a nice short read, and it contains many interesting facts in a short space. I liked the discussions about the symbolism in the Confessions very much. The information about Augustine's sexual life was also interesting.
   
   Still, it is not very good. As another person here has pointed out below, it would be better if Wills had not injected his own ecclesiastical politics into the book (he is not very generous in his treatment of the Papacy, and he omits important facts about Augustine's attitude towards the Apostolic See). The treatment on nature and grace was disappointing, as was his treatment of Augustine's position on the sacramental efficacy. Wills rightly pointed out that we cannot approach Augustinianism as if it was some consistent system, but on the other hand it would not have been bad if Wills had attempted to outline Augustine's theological development in more detail. I would not recommend this as an introductory volume to Augustine.

5 comments about Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela.

1. 
   I recently finished a leadership training course sponsored by my company. One of the activities that we did in the class was to reflect on great world leaders and think about what qualities made them great. It came up during the session that some years ago the teachers had led a similar exercise, but had actually asked the participants to try to communicate with a living leader who had personally affected them. The idea had been for people to get in touch with a former manager or teacher. However, it happened that one of the participants (not having a manager who he or she had admired) contacted Nelson Mandela by email. To everyone's surprise, he responded quite kindly and shared some thoughts about leaders and leadership.
   
   When I was traveling in South Africa, I heard many similar stories. Tour groups who told about Mandela coming out of the parliament building to greet and talk to the tourists. Employees at Robben Island talked reverently about how he had taken personal interest in their lives based on the briefest of acquaintenceships. Every story emphasized his humbleness, his respect for others, and his basic approachability.
   
   Long Walk to Freedom, for me, confirms that image of Mandela as a man who is great in part because of his humbleness, and his resistance to myth. He emphasizes his role as the man in the middle, pushed by circumstances and common decency into greatness. He consistently avoids overdone bragging (the little that is there is surely allowed him) and looks hard at the actions that the ANC took in their quest for freedom.
   
   While it would have been interesting to read this before going to South Africa, I actually think that I got more out of it now after seeing the country first.
   
   I really enjoyed the book. It is not a perfect narrative. It suffers in parts from being written over a period of years. There are some little repetitions and awkwardnesses along the way. None of those things matter at all in relation to either the reading experience or the importance of the book. I liked it very much, and would recommend it highly to others. Do not be daunted by its size (625 pages, in my edition). It is actually a very quick read and kept me intensely interested the whole time. Genuinely inspirational.



2. This is a fantastic book that provides great insight into one of the most inspirational leaders in modern history. His story in particular and the anti-apartheid struggles in general are fascinating and provide extremely valuable lessons. With his humbleness and incredibly lucid and organized writing style (which admittedly did surprise me), this could be the best autobiography out there. One can only imagine how different the continent would be if other African Nations had such strong leaders with Nelson Mandela's courage and integrity.



3. This book recounts the life of Nelson Mandela beginning in childhood up to the present age. It is written by Mandela himself - it's honest, straightforward style seems to be an honest attempt by Mandela to portray himself objectively, avoiding the tendency to be self-serving.
   
   A fascinating book. It begins with Mandela in his young childhood living in a pre-industrial society of native Africans in the countryside of South Africa where white settlers have dominated industrialized society. It is an engaging society, - perhaps more advanced than our own - as one must reconsider what it means to live in harmony and in cooperation; A true democracy, based on the ideals that all are equal.
   
   Mandela undergoes culture shock when he runs away from his traditional homeland to seek his fortunes in the big city of Johannesberg. Here is encounters white society up close, and is mortified at the inequity that exists between the native blacks, and the immigrant whites that make every attempt to dominate their country and exploit its indigenous peoples.
   
   Mandela encounters a small group of educated, free-thinking educated blacks, and joins the African National Congress. Here he encounters several other oppressed peoples: Indians, Communists, and liberal whites. He slowly makes his life's objective to be a freedom fighter. A fighter for civil rights for all people. A life of struggle, where one must be willing to pay the ultimate price. And he nearly does.
   
   He becomes the inspiration for downtrodden average black citizen, nearly enslaved within their own country. He willingly faces grave danger, is tried several times for his political ideals, denounced as "treason" and is eventually sent to prison "for life."
   
   Mandela's life in prison is austere. But he and his colleagues never yield in their commitment to freedom for all South Africans. His wife, Winnie is an example of true dedication - equally a woman of integrity and worthy of the highest praise. She undergoes severe hardships being married to a "freedom fighter."
   
   Mandela avoids the tendency to give up in the face of severe conditions, showing true mettle as he remains dedicated to the rights for all people to live free in racist South Africa. 27 years later having risked his life and surviving harsh prison conditions, he emerges a national hero.
   
   A must read for anyone - Mandela is history in the making.



4. Full of humanity, integrity, sacrifice, humility, and character. This is an uplifting book about the power of the human spirit to overcome great adversity. I loved it and I do agree that this book should be required reading for everyone. Parts of this book brought tears to my eyes. It illuminates a great man and the struggle people had to endure to overcome a great blight. To think that the U.S. did not place sanctions on South Africa until the mid 1980's, when men like Mandela were fighting and dying for the right to be considered human. I read recently that Pat Roberston, the great American evangelical, was a supporter of apartheid. How incredibly inhuman. If you know anything about South Africa, you will know that by the end of his long incarceration, even Mandela's captors had acquired great respect for this man. A must read...in many ways, this is a life changing, life affirming book. Powerful.



5. I read this before my recent trip to South Africa and I'm so glad I did as it made me appreciate this amazing country and its people even more. I think anyone who visits Robben Island without reading this first misses out on an incredible history lesson. This should be required reading in all high schools.
   
   I will admit that it was a long read and difficult to get through at times, but it really demonstrates just how long of a road Nelson Mandela had to travel for his freedom. Amazing, amazing man. I only hope there will be "another Mandela" to lead this country in the future.

5 comments about Black Elk Speaks.

1. I personally didn't mind the interpretation of a white man (Neidhart) translating Black Elk's legendary stories into a published work of art. The book was a very easy read and insinuated deep emotion and spiritual awareness. I higly recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest interest in Indian culture and tense relations between Indians and Cowboys (Federal Government)



2. Both Thomas E.Mails and John Niehardt have brought to life the true nature of the Native American in their masterly renditions of their interviews with these Medicine (Holy) men, both Fools Crow and Black Elk. The result is an understanding of the simple honesty, good nature and trust that initially left them so open to exploitation. More importantly, they demonstrated a sincere belief in God that the 'White Man' was singularly lacking in the early pioneers. Their beliefs ran parallel with the Primitive Church as established by Jesus during his ministry in the Middle Ages.Fools Crow



3. _Over the years I have read this book in the wilderness and in the wasteland. Every time that I have reread it I have come away renewed.
   
   _There are just so many levels on which this account can be appreciated. It is one of the best first-hand accounts of plains life- from camp life, to the march, the hunt, courting, healing, etc. It is also one of the best first-hand accounts of historical events- the Fetterman Fight, the Wagon box Fight, Red Cloud's Treaty, the Custer Fight, Wounded Knee... It is also a first-rate autobiography of the deepest thoughts of a man who fears that he may not have lived up to his God-given destiny. But, above all, it is a legitimate Revelation from the world beyond.
   
   _At times Black Elk seems to despair that he didn't live up to his great vision. Personally, I do not see this. He did what he was supposed to do. First, he brought his vision to his people in the form of the magnificent Horse Dance. Then, in his twilight years, he wisely brought the same vision to the outside world in the form of this book. This was too powerful and universal a vision to be confined to one people alone. Every part of it resonates with the Perennial Philosophy, the eternal religion that underlies all true Tradition- from the World Tree at the center of the people's hoop, to the certain knowledge that the things of this world are but a shadow of the true Reality of the next.
   
   _As far as the sacred herb of four blossoms is concerned that he saw at the end of the forth ascent- that was the rebirth of the sacred tree from sacred seed. This book is that seed.



4. This is an exceptionally moving book for anyone yearning to know more about Native American spirituality. Black Elk was truly a man filled with the holy spirit. It reminds me of the book, Walking the Trail, One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. Both are highly recommended.



5. It says on the jacket of this book that Black Elk Speaks belongs in the company of 'religious classics'. Maybe so, but even if you regard his visions as indicative of a religious experience, the parts of the book dedicated to the description of these visions make for rather tedious reading. The real meat of the book is his decriptions of the last of the major indian battles at Rosebud, Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand), and Wounded Knee. Black Elk and his friends were there, and lived through those harrowing days. A must-read book for anyone who wants to know how it really was.

5 comments about Ava's Man.

1. If chronological order is important to you, Ava's Man should be read as the first in the series of Rick Bragg's three biographical novels. Charlie Bundrum's story is the first of what we will learn is two family's lives in the rural south during turbulent times. Then, as now, when life is hard people find many different ways to survive. Generations later, we have the luxury of looking back with a critical eye. That's easy. When you're cold and hungry, the view is different.
   
   In this book, Bragg shares with us the life to Charlie Bundrum who, along with Ava manages to rear a house full of children who survive with him and sometimes without him. One of those children is Margaret, Bragg's mother. Hard working and hard living, Charlie did all he knew to do to get by.
   
   More than in either of the other two books in Bragg's trilogy of his family, Ava's Man tells us more about the history of region, industry, and the impact of war, all of which contribute to the making of the man, Charlie Bundrum.
   
   While Bragg writes, he always manages to let the characters tell the story...in their own words. That language, and the crafting of the true tale he tells, leaves this "their story." On the other hand, Bragg's own turn of a phrase is "my language," that upon which I was reared. And is that which makes me feel like going home.



2. I have read all of Rick Braggs books and thia was the best. I felt like I just wanted to keep on reading. He is such a powerful writer. I just wish he had more books out there, but the ones he has written are the best. You will not be disappointed reading any of his books. There is no wondering why he is a Pulitzer Prize winner.



3. I have only read one other book from this author (about Jessica Lynch). This is a very personal story of the author's grandfather who died an early death before Bragg was born. It is heartfelt because the author describes both the qualities and faults of his granddad. His grandpa liked homemade corn mash moonshine and sometimes was dead drunk when he came home. However, he provided a loving family life for his wife, sons, daughters, and grandkids. This man set a certain morality to how he lived and died. His was a small tragedy that he never lived to see how famous one of his grandchildren became.
   
   Along with his grandfather's life, one also discovers the hardships of life in the depression era South. People who lived in the country did not go hungry if they knew how to hunt and fish. However this family was frequently evicted or moved from their rented home. This is a nice little story about a true family.



4. I've never much cottoned to white male Southern writers, not even to Mr. Faulkner. They too often seem swollen, full of machismo, overly conscious of their Great Literary Tradition. But not Rick Bragg. Bragg is a real story teller without all the Southern Writer baggage.
   
   Take his Ava's Man. That man is Bragg's grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, dead before Bragg was born but still living inside people who knew him. Using their memories, Bragg rebuilds his grandfather's life and the life of the woman who loved him, Ava.
   
   I cherish Bragg's book for four reasons:
   
   1) It's well-paced, written in short chapters that often left me with a swift intake of breath.
   
   2) It has marvelous characters, vividly drawn. My favorite minor character is Hootie. Bragg writes, "He had a face like a pickax. His nose was long and hooked, and pointy on the end, like he had bought it at the Dollar Store and tied it on his face with a string, and it curved all the way down past his lips."
   
   3) Bragg has a instinct for apt comparisons, often as striking as these:
   
   of Bragg's great-granddaddy: "[He] moved like a shadow through the forest, his hobnailed boots soft as velvet slippers in the dry leaves."
   
   of his ancestors: "they grew in [that culture] the way a weed grows in a crack."
   
   and my favorite, of Ava: "there were spiders and broken glass in her voice."
   
   4) To top it off, Bragg writes with clarity and compassion about his grandparents and their world. This book features Brundum, Ava's man, but it also paints a glowing picture of Ava who is just about as feisty as they come.
   
   Read Ava's Man. You'll like it.
   
   Marilyn Coffey is an award-winning writer of poetry and a widely published author of prose. Read her work: Great Plains Patchwork, Marcella, or KANSAS QUARTERLY Vol. 15 No. 2.



5. Rick Bragg has done a great job in telling it exactly, and I mean EXACTLY like it was in the South in the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's. He takes a seemingly insignificant character- an illiterate carpenter, roofer and moonshiner- and brings out the full flavor of the man.
   
   Laughs? Plenty. Like coming home drunk on his mule, trying to get the mule to rear back like Tom Mix's saddle horse, but instead having the mule dump him off on his head. Heartache? Having to bury an infant daughter because there was no money for medicine- let alone doctors. Character development? No shortage at all.
   
   The book slowly hooked me, and I just couldn't put it down. His staying one step ahead of the "revenue men" (who never did catch him), his trying to find steady work to support his large family, the descriptions of the kids growing up in a series of small houses with no electricity, and all in all, the pure fun in a man who loved to entertain.
   
   If you can, get the audio book version of this excellent book- Rick reads it himself. "It don't get no better than this."

5 comments about Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier.

1. You can't go wrong with a biography by J.Randy Taraborrelli! Again very well researched and again you get hooked after the first sentences.For all who want to know more about the actress Grace Patricia Kelly who became the Princess of Monaco and her life with her husband and family behind palace walls,I highly recommend this book.



2. Taraborrelli was clearly fascinated by his primary subject, Grace, but it appears it was Prince Rainier whom he truly fell in love with.
   
   He never once mentions Rainier's notorious infidelities, which began as soon as Grace married him, and continued until she died. According to Wendy Leigh's new book "True Grace", she strayed too, but her affairs started off as quid pro quo for Rainier's constant mistresses (and continued from isolation and loneliness).
   
   This omission is profoundly prejudicial to Grace because it makes it look like she was just too shallow to give up her attachment to her movie career and thus made herself morbidly unhappy with her new life in Monaco. In fact, she did struggle with that loss, but her greatest heartbreak in Monaco was that she married a philandering, obnoxious, overbearing, insensitive and dismissive popinjay of a prince.
   
   Taraborrelli should have waited for Rainier's death to write Grace's biography. Maybe then he wouldn't have been so tempted to whitewash Rainier into the caring, tender, appreciative and supportive husband he most certainly was not.
   
   Shame on you Randy.



3. This book details the lives of Grace Kelly and Rainier Grimaldi otherwise known as Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco both before and after their "marriage of the century."
   
   Grace Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1929 to Jack and Margret Kelly. She had an older sister Margaret (Peggy) and older brother Jack Jr (Kell) as well as a younger sister Elizabeth Anne (Lizanne). From the time that she was young she wanted to be an actress. When she was a teenager she modeled to pay for an acting school and thanks to her uncle George got some early work on the stage. Soon after she started making movies such as High Noon (with Gary Cooper), Mogambo (with Clark Gable) and won an Oscar for her portrayal in The Country Girl. It was because of this that she was offered the opportunity to go to Cannes to the Cannes Film Festival. During her time in France she also was offered the opportunity to go to Monaco to visit Prince Rainier little realizing that the visit would change her life.
   
   Prince Rainier was born in 1923. His mother was the illegitimate daughter of the Prince of Monaco and married a French Duke in 1920. Rainier had a younger sister named Antoinette. When Rainier was six his parents divorced and he and Antoinette were mostly raised by their grandfather. Rainier was educated in England and France and in 1949 became heir to his grandfather's throne after his mother and sister renounced it. He became Prince of Monaco in 1950. During this time he was single, but dating an actress. Shortly before Grace Kelly's visit he and the actress broke up.
   
   Several months after the meeting between Grace and Rainier he came to the United States. Grace and Rainier used this time to better know each other and shortly after Christmas they became engaged. After several months of negotiations they where married in Monaco. Nine months later they had their first child, Caroline, and five months after that Grace was pregnant with Prince Albert. They later added to the family with princess Stephanie.
   
   The marriage between Princess Grace and Prince Rainier was not always the best, but ultimalty they loved each other and their three children. When Grace was killed in 1981 after a car crash Rainier mourned her for the rest of his life.



4. This book gets 5 stars for research, 5 stars for presentation (simply a photo of Grace in THAT wedding dress justifies a book existing) and 4 stars for a good read; It's not that it could have been any better, it's just that the story is ultimately sad. However, I think the subject matter was taken very seriously by the author, and unlike other reviewers here, I consider the thoughts expressed to be well thought out and supported by the material that was uncovered in the process, including that from interviews. What other material is ever likely to be uncovered on this subject?? This book is better than 3.5 stars.



5. Like Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly was born to a very privileged life in Philadelphia and was a debutant before she was a Hollywood Star. Cool, poised, aloof, and classy she was the blonde counterpart to Kennedy's dark mysterious allure. But her fairytale life had no happy ending and despite its glamour was all too human.

5 comments about Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out into the Real World.

1. This book would make a wonderful graduation gift. I wish I would've read it back when I was eighteen-years-old. Although I purchased this book over three years ago, I still come back to it from time to time. She offers so much insight and wisdom, but she also humanizes herself as a woman and teaches her readers that even she has experienced self-doubt and has strived to reach 'perfection' (something she teaches you not to do). She writes about how important it is to start at the bottom because it's where you learn the most and gain character. I especially liked reading about her husband and children. She and her family are so much more normal than anyone would ever think.



2. I am 56 and had I had this book to read in 1968 when I graduated high school I might have had the tools to do things a little better through my 20's and 30's. She gives you a rundown on what realistically to expect out of live, love, career and everything in between. I may have even been able to avoid my ex-husband!!!
   
   This is a must gift for any young person, maybe even younger than a high school graduate. It could actually put a kids expectations into the realm of reality without putting a damper on any of the joys of life. This is not a book that a conservative religious advocate would have to avoid. It contains simple comman sense about life and how it differs from what kids would often see on TV, movies, or any other media they would encounter. It doesn't tell you what belief system is best, just what life is most apt to hand you on any given day.
   
   It is easy reading and not very beefy, so even non-readers would benefit. They could use it as a reference book for a specific situation.
   
   Great Birthday or Graduation or Holiday gift and reasonable priced, too.



3. I bought Maria's book "What's Heaven" for my Granddaughter when her Grandmother (my mother) died 6 years ago. Now my Granddaughter will graduate from high school next year and Maria has followed her to college, with her last 2 books. Next I will buy my Granddaughter the Marlo Thomas books. As a Grandmother I believe it does take a Village. My Granddaughter will take 2 real good role models with her to college and now we have to set her free.



4. Maria did have some excellent points. The majority of the book is just an autobiography, though, and I skimmed through those parts. My advice would be to stop by the book store and look at the table of contents and then the very end where she gives a list of some other things she wishes she knew, because they explain themselves. A lot of her things I already knew, and she points out that she's not trying to help us avoid those things, just let us know we're not alone. If the great, talented Maria could get through life, then we can too! That was sarcasm.



5. After seeing and admiring the interaction between Maria Shriver and her mother on the Oprah Winfrey show a few months ago, I decided I wanted to read her newest book, "And One More Thing Before You Go." My library didn't have it but they did have this one and so I decided to take it home.
   
   What I appreciated most about this book were the tidbits of wisdom about humility, and the ways we should appreciate ourselves and not allow others to beat us down. I like how Shriver says that humility is about having a realistic self-image-- not beating ourselves up for not being good enough and not settling for mediocrity. I liked Shriver's advice that we are not superwomen (or supermen) and we can not be excellent in every area so we should decide what areas are most important to us and make realistic goals to strive for. It inspired me to think about what areas of my life I'd like to improve in and what areas can wait until a different phase in life.

5 comments about One Ranger: A Memoir.

1. After listening to the CD's, I wanted to become a Ranger or at least a Texan! A riveting story of One Man, One Ranger, you will be totally engrossed in one man's story of his law enforcement career with the Texas Rangers as they were during the latter half of the Twentieth Century. The narration by Rex Linn is first rate and, at times, spellbinding. Don't miss this great epic! If Hollywood doesn't make this into a movie, they will miss the chance of a lifetime to chronicle this Ranger's journey as the last of the old west's Ranger's.



2. This Texas Ranger's life story is a review of how one man made a difference, and a journey through Texas history. Told in forthright, vivid prose, the book is an easy, interesting read.
   
   Mr. Jackson's experiences are things many of us have gone through. He describes what a man thinks about when life is upon him. Parents, siblings, children, bosses. His honest acknowledgement and acceptance of the turns of his life are a lesson for all in this age of feeling sorry for yourself because of hardship.
   
   Mr. Jackson ties together the history of Texas, and the hisotry of crime and criminals in Texas, with his love of the land and resulting adventures trying to explain why things happened while describing his law enforcement actions as consequences that cannot take the why's as excuses.
   
   His talent, hard work, and rugged upbringing provide Mr. Jackson with special opportunities we all would enjoy. He clearly revels in them as he spins the yarns.
   
   It was a joy to read this Texan's story. It is an American story, for all to experience.



3. Our dad had been wanting this book for some time and we were able to get it through Amazon as no other local book store had it and he just loves it, in fact he went home right after getting it and didn't go to bed until late due to wanting to read it. It came just in time and was in great shape.



4. Former Texas Ranger H. Joaquin Jackson is a rarity in today's world. A man of courage, an honest man, a family man, a man that can fight and love in equal measure.
   
   His book reads like a dramatic thriller and I know somewhere there's a screenplay in the works. If you're even remotly interested in Southwestern culture (especially Texas) and the history of the Rangers then buy this book!



5. I'll keep this short. The book is awesome.... Joaquin Jackson is John Wayne with a real badge.

5 comments about Black Boy - ABRIDGED.

1. Often when you see books written about the life of black people in any point and time before the 1960's its main message is "My life was hard because white people are terrible," and that gets very redundant. However this was quite refreshing, as he did not harp on racism on every page. This is a very well written and intresting account of this man's unique life experiences and all the strange, crazy people he encountered within his family and outside them as well. People who have a few or several nuts on their family tree will be able to relate to Black Boy.



2. The best autobiography EVER, in fact I am not even sure it should be called autobiography because it is much more than that for many reasons. Autobiographies are often flat and either self pitying or glorifying, but this one is completely at another level. I was so impressed by the brilliant mind that shines through all obsacles, and his writing is just so natural, logical and insightful, not just about his personal life experiences, but about human suffering, senseless oppression, and unyiedling human spirit. Wow!



3. I ordered this book because it was on my nephews book-report list. It's a good book. But it is full of bad language. I think it's an adult book--with a very compelling story. But completely not for kids. I know kids hear bad language all the time. But to have it presented to them by a 'trusted' adult--gives it a kind of condoning that it doesn't need.



4. Every time I read a book about the plight of blacks in the South in the early part of the 20th century as Jim Crow society solidified I have to shutter in disgust. I have just finished reading communist Harry Haywood's autobiography Black Bolshevik. I have read Malcolm X's words on the fate of his forebears in the post-bellum South and now I have read Richard Wright's autobiographical sketch Black Boy. I will make no defense of the unequal treatment of blacks in the North. There is none. However, Wright's descriptions of the physical and psychological damage, as presented by his own experiences of Jim Crow, done to blacks by Southern whites are positively feudal. There was no room for illusions about the goodness of humankind in that world. To believe so was to face personal humiliation, or worst-the lynching tree.
   
   Wright, after great personal struggle within himself, is able to reflect on his experiences and to articulate the effect that Jim Crow had on him as a black, as a man, as a human being. It was not pretty. One can only image the fate of those less articulate than brother Wright as they try to comprehend a world not of their making but which they early on must learn to navigate. The description of this grinding struggle is heart of the first part of the book.
   
   Wright goes back to the mist of time in his early youth to dissect the hunger, psychological as well as physical, than never was far from his door; the effects on him of a sick and helpless mother; of an absent ne'er-do-well father; and, an overbearing and religiously-driven grandmother on his early development. And those are just the problems in the house. Once Wright steps outside those comparably comfortable confines he faces the outside world of Mississippi reality that he must put on a mask in order to survive in a world that will literarily cut him down if he does not learn the code. Although Wright gives many examples of how this system robbed blacks of their personality the most graphic descriptions, by far, are those that deal with the need to have to put on the mask when whites are around. And the consequences if one did not.
   
   And what of the great escape to the North (via Memphis) to Chicago-the Promised Land that forms the basis for the second part of the book? We have seen that urban story portrayed in other locales as well, for example, in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Claude Brown's Man-Child in The Promised Land. That is where my statement about the treatment, or rather mistreatment, of blacks in the North comes into play. In effect, Wright articulates the contours of a psychological feudalism in the North where the special oppressions of blacks as a race are met with indifference by whites. What makes Wright's case special is that through self-education and willpower he breaks out of the endless and destructive turning in on oneself to articulate his experiences and those of other blacks like him displaced from the rural life of the South to the uncertainties of urban life.
   
   On the face of it seems incongruous that Wright would find a solution to his angst in the American Communist Party during the heyday of the `third period' in the early 1930's. I have mentioned elsewhere, most recently in my review of Harry Haywood's Black Bolshevik (part of which also deals with this period in the American party), that on reading memoirs and autobiographies of the older generations of radicals and revolutionaries I am looking for the spark that broke them from the norms of bourgeois society. I have found that there is a great range of reasons from racial and class hatreds to intellectual curiosity. I find that in the end that Wright's relationship to communism, not without some bumps and bruises along the way, came from intellectual curiosity as much as any sense of racial or class injustice.
   
   In Chicago, in many ways the embryonic black proletarian core of the country in this period, Wright continued his struggle for physical daily survival and for intellectual understanding. His fortuitous linking up with the local John Reed Club helped, at least initially, stabilize his intellectual life. His description of the inner workings of the Communist Party and its role in its own front group creations, like the Reed Club, jibes with other accounts that I have read. The tremendous pressures to conform to party life and the party line are chilling for what, in the final analysis, was a voluntary political organization and not a cult. Moreover, one of the characters portrayed in this section bears a striking resemblance to the above-mentioned very real Harry Haywood. Wright's take on Haywood is very, very different from how old Harry portrayed himself in his autobiography. Surprise.
   
   One of the charges brought against Wright by fellow black party members was that he was an intellectual. Self-taught, yes, but an intellectual nevertheless. One would think that recruiting such a fairly rare person, black or white, would have had the comrades spinning cartwheels. No so in Wright's case. Tremendous pressure was placed on him to conform to party dictates. Or else. This seems counter-intuitive. The relationship between communism and intellectuals and artists has always been a somewhat rocky one. But know this-then and today we need as many intellectuals as we can get our hands on to write, think and lead the struggles of humankind. Ignorance never did anyone any good. Enough said on that. If you want to get a real feel for what that old expression Mississippi God Damn from Nina Simone's song really meant read this well written and thoughtful book.



5. Not only did I reaceive the book on the promised delivery date, but I found it to be in perfect condition. It was purchaed for my grandson who is really enjoying it.