No comments about Jolene: A Fiery Redhead Who Loves Talking Dirty.

4 comments about Satchel Paige's America (Alabama Fire Ant).

1. Lots of writers have praised William Price Fox's work: Walt Kelly (the creator of Pogo), John Updike, P.G. Wodehouse, Pauline Kael, and, yes, even Bruce Springsteen (Springsteen's song, "Darlington County", was based on Fox's book, Dixiana Moon), Richard Yates, Michael Murphy (Golf in the Kingdom), and then some.
   
   And now the Library Journal (the number one publication for Libraries in America) has ranked Satchel Paige's America as one of the top 25 books to read in 2005.
   
   Hopefully more and more people will take notice of his great work once again. For those who have never been introduced to Fox's work, I highly recommend reading his collection of Short Stories: SOUTHERN FRIED. (Shel Silverstein wrote the music for a play based on this work of fiction.)



2. This rather unflattering portrait of a self-indulgent and motor-mouthed Satchel Paige adds little new to either the Paige legend or the history of the baseball era he represented. It also raises some serious questions about the author's journalistic approach. Why does Paige--so lucid in memory on all other matters--boast of facing Mickey Mantle during the 1948 pennant race (Mantle was a rookie in 1951), clinching the tight pennant race by defeating the Yankees (Cleveland won in a playoff with Boston), or facing manager Casey Stengel that year (when Stengel didn't arrive on the Yankee bench until 1949)? If Paige is simply forgetful or chooses to purposely distort historical facts, was doesn't the author/interviewer point this out in a footnote, or perhaps in his postscript? And how could Paige's several days of detailed and colorful ramblings be here reported in such word-for-word detail and in Paige's supposed own words if the author/interviewer made no tape recordings (something Fox claims in the postscript)? One leaves this book wondering how much in its pages is actually Satchel and how much is a fictional character dreamed up by Bill Fox?
   
   The treatment of this supposed 1970 in-depth interview with Paige is also quite repetitious in spots (much of the Postscript is a reprise of Chapter 1) and thus the treatment seemingly lends itself far more to the original intended magazine piece and not to a full-length book. There is also little here (despite the book's misleading title) that captures the flavor of America during the 1930s and 40s eras in which Paige played.
   
   There are far better portraits available of Satchel Paige, especially those written by Negro leagues historian John Holway.



3. Theb book was interesting and informative. I enjoyed it very much.
   The price was reasonable and the service was timely and satisfactory.



4. As already noted, this work is the results of a seven day or so interview of the great Satchel Paige by the author in 1970. It is far more than simply a book of "baseball war stories." The interview clearly illuminates the personality of one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived (beyond a doubt the best pitcher). There was much more here, to this man than just a great arm. The author captures Paige's somewhat erratic personality. The man, Paige, was certainly a character and much more that a simple "jock." On the other hand, reading between the lines, there is a whimsical sadness ever present. As you read, you cannot help but wonder what might have been had the times been different. You get the feeling that Paige knew, ergo, the sadness. Recommend this one for any baseball fan or those simply interested in or countries history, warts and all.

2 comments about One Asian Eye: Growing Up Eurasian in America.

1. One Asian Eye: Growing Up Eurasian in America is the true-life memoir of an Italian/Korean woman and her effort to find a place for herself in midwestern America. From being a latchkey child at age three due to economic necessity, her conflicts with bullies including slur-flinging children and backstabbing secretaries vandalizing her office workplace, to witnessing the cutthroat office politics of a savings and loan firm ("If they think I'm going to teach that college bitch everything I know just so she can take my job, they've got another thing coming" says the woman assigned to train her), to the heavy burderns of family responsibility and duty, One Asian Eye vividly pictures very real personal challenges, and vividly renders the particular difficulties of maintaining Asian culture and heritage in a predominantly non-Asian society. A remarkable true testimony of a strong and principled woman; the vivid illustration of struggling with self-centered and racist individuals, as surely as the kindness and compassion of the well-intentioned, makes One Asian Eye highly recommended, unforgettable reading. This is one memoir that once picked up, cannot be put down.



2. One Asian Eye is a quick and enjoyable read about a Korean-Italian girl raised in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The stories of her life are broken into compact chapters that read like their own short stories. The reader puts the pieces, these chapters, together to understand how she grew up. I liked this approach because I think we all remember our lives in snippets rather than a complete linear account. This book will appeal to readers who like a conversational writing style, and who avoid long, over-descriptive prose.

   One thing that is interesting is it shatters some people's notions of what it is like to grow up in Ohio. This is not the farmer's daughter story. The author grew up in an urban area that was not racially tolerant. You will read about school busing and violence in schools.

   Another cool thing is we get to hear the voice of a Generation X author. Too many people think of Generation X as slackers. Giovanetti, the younger sibling of baby boomers, tells her side of this generation's story with dealing with race and class issues.

   Probably the best thing about the book is its freshness. Too many books about race, class and gender are 'whoa is me' tales. The book shows a range of emotions. The intersection of topics means it will appeal to wide scope of readers, so it is a good buy.

1 comments about Pierce Brosnan: The Biography.

1. Let me start off by saying that I am a huge Pierce Brosnan fan. I loved him in "Remington Steele". I loved him in "Evelyn". I love him as Bond. I've seen and read every interview I've come across, and was looking forward to reading his biography.

   York Membery's statement that the biography is unofficial and was conducted without the direct support of the actor is probaby the biggest understatement I've seen in a long time. After reading the book for a few pages, I flipped to the acknowledgements, where the National Enquirer, Sun, and many other tabloids were listed as helpful sources of information.

   Though some parts seem to be true, compared with what Brosnan has said in recent interviews, the majority of it reads like an over-dramatized soap opera. It's not that Pierce's story is bad. His biography, I'm sure, would be immensely interesting to read. However, this book feels like nothing more than a rumor mill of over a hundred pages. Some things that supposedly happened Brosnan has blatantly denied in recent interviews, and this makes me want to take most of what's in it with a grain of salt. Certain suggestions that the book makes seem unreal compared with what has been printed and screened by credible sources, such as Entertainment Tonight.

   Honestly, I would have loved to have read a biography about my favorite actor. This, however, is not that. The sleazy suggestions the book makes belong more on the cover of a tabloid than in the biography section of a bookstore. The writing is atrocious, and the sources seem only somewhat credible at best. If you're a Brosnan fan, as I am, I would wait for an official bio to come out - or watch something like E!s "Pierce Brosnan Revealed", which condcted actual interviews with Pierce and his family. Pass on this one. You'll be glad you did.

1 comments about Black Foremothers: Three Lives, Second Edition (Women's Lives/Women's Work).

1. Ellen Craft, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell should be familiar names to anyone interested in women's history or black history. Unfortunately, too few are aware of all three women.

   The author accompanies brief (40 pages) well-written biographies of each woman with photographs and a timeline of key events in her life. The introduction provides an overview of the significance of each woman, and there is an excellent bibliography.

No comments about African-American Autobiography: A Collection of Critical Essays (New Century Views).

5 comments about Sugar Ray.

1. To talk about the grandness of Sugar Ray Robinson may seem a commonplace, but in the annals of the boxing there has not been such kind of boxer who has displayed such style, refinement, effectiveness and elegance. 109 KO along his life and the fact to have recovered four times the World championship have become a true myth in this sport.



2. A champion among champions. One of the greatest of all time tells you his story - he is a fighter, not a writer. Don't expect pretty prose, expect a deep, moving look into the life of Sugar Ray Robinson.



3. it is what it is. you get Sugar Ray's story right from the man himself. its concise and thorough and entertaining and inspirational



4. Sugar Ray - 3.75 Stars
   
   I wanted to love this book. I wanted to love Sugar Ray - he was Ali's hero and in a lot of circles he is considered pound for pound the greatest boxer of all time!
   
   I wanted to love this book and Sugar Ray - but unfortunately I didn't.
   
   I almost feel like I'm committing some sort of sacrilege here - and I'm sad to say - I found Sugar Ray Robinson somewhat unlikable.
   
   The story is a great story - a very poor family's struggle and their support and love for each other - Sugar Ray's discovery of boxing and his rise to fame and fortune and the phenomenal and heart breaking comeback and the sad decline in the end. His story really is very interesting, but the book doesn't capture it. It doesn't capture the Sugar Ray magic and I felt that Sugar Ray wasn't 100% honest - he and the book were truthful, but I felt that there was something missing - that he wasn't completely honest.



5. Sugar Ray Robinson was One Of THe Greatest Fighters Ever.Very Uplifting of How He Overcame SO Much.He was a Great Warrior Inside of The Ring.Muhammad Ali called Him The Greatest.A Must Have.

5 comments about Burning Down My Masters' House: My Life at the New York Times.

1. Where is the no star option? Blair is a pathological liar--even his book title is a preposterous lie; it has the audacity to imply that Blair is some kind of a crazy rebel who is fighting power/symbolic slavery by breaking out of a slave role and destroying his masters abode. This is plain sewage. He is a fool, an arrogant nutcase and so full of himself that he cannot see past his own privilege, abuse of power and narcissism. He is an insult to every journalist who actually takes her or his job seriously. Instead of blaming drugs, depression and suicide attempts, (he is not the only writer on the planet who has some kind of psychiatric struggle - did Poe, Tolstoy or Churchill lie their way through life?) he should look into his soul and see that the emptiness and broken moral compass within is his own job to fix.



2. The "victim" approach is not acceptable when you're a discovered liar. This book is nothing more than an attempt to blame the entire Blair disaster on something or someone other than himself. His actions are because he is black, pressured, a drug user, depressed, etc. Reality should set in now, he did what he did because he is a sociopathic liar. If you want to read a book that gives you insight into nothing, this is a good choice.



3. Holy Moley!! Blair is the narrator of the audio version of his book. He speaks in such a passionless, monotone voice that you run the risk of falling asleep while listening to it in your car. James Earl Jones he's not.



4. 
   For the record, I HATE the New York Times!
   
   But for this clown to play the race card,
   
   Jayson Blair is a turd,
   
   and a severe discredit to his race.
   
   by that I mean, of course, the human race.
   
   He will burn in hell forever.



5. To say it is poorly written would be too much of a compliment. You don't have to get even halfway through before you can figure out exactly what happened here. Some publishing house obviously offered him a large advance to write a book, and he threw together whatever he could think of off the top of his head, very little of which is probably true, threw in some "woe is me" for cohesion, and tossed it onto the editor's desk. Whether or not anyone even tried to edit this thing, I don't know, but if they did, they should be fired. This is slop, worse than those celebrities who try to "write" books. To think of all the talented people out there who receive small advances and modest printings, while this thing has done better than it ever should have can make you sick to your stomach.

5 comments about To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown : An Autobiography.

1. Like his main protege' Diana Ross' book SECRETS OF A SPARROW, I found this autobiography, TO BE LOVED, a bit too self-flattering and unapologetic.
   
   Berry Gordy's story is extremely fascinating, his accomplishments in, and contributions to, American music are absolutely gargantuan. He deserves a great deal of credit for having created the conditions for an unmatched musical legacy to flourish. The lore surrounding the founding and early development of his great musical empire is almost as wonderful and engaging as the music itelf. You DO get some of that here.
   
   Gordy also explains many of his business decisions. From most accounts, Mr. Gordy and his family were astute business people. However, Gordy's single-mindedness could often cause him to ignore or underplay some of the artist's gifts, appeal and marketability. For example, great as Diana Ross' star potential was, other female artists, even within the Supremes, were not as fully developed as they deserved to be, while Diana was given "special" opportunities in the way of extraordinary classes [beyond Motown's famous Artist Development]in modeling, etc. Was this purely a "business" decision? In the meantime, artists such as Kim Weston and Brenda Holloway, both quite gifted vocally, and very attractive physically, basically languished at the label.
   
   Gladys Knight and The Pips, while having had moderate success at Motown, but not given that "extra push," absolutely exploded after they left the label, had huge sales, and were awarded several Grammy awards.
   
   The Spinners fared even worse at Motown. But after they left the label they had phenomenal success in the early-mid seventies with singles and album sales. Many of those singles are considered r&b classics.
   
   Was there just too much talent at Motown for all of it to be promoted as deserved? Was Mr. Gordy too hands-on during those years?
   
   I wasn't satisfied with Mr. Gordy's take on some of these situations. As a huge Supremes' fan, I was especially dissatisfied with his matter-of-fact comment that, within the original group, Diana had the "sparkle," and Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard didn't, to paraphrase. People loved all 3 Supremes, and us fans recognized the magic and potential in all three. The fate of Florence Ballard is especially sad. She was dead [of a broken heart?] at age 32, just about 9 years after her ousting from that group. Her replacement within the Supremes was literally waiting in the wings to take over, between the early evening and later performance at a Las Vegas casino in July, 1967, when Flo was fired from the group. Was this also, a purely business decision? Was Mr. Gordy willing to hear Flo's grievances about being relegated more and more to the background, when the fans loved her to be featured, and by many accounts, she was the "founder" of the group?
   
   I really prefer Mary Wilson's unvarnished take on the Supremes' story, as presented in her wonderful books DREAMGIRL and SUPREME FAITH [both available in one volume]. She tells it like it is, and, along the way, exposes her own warts and blemishes, but also comes across as a rounded, real, fallible, wonderful person. TO BE LOVED didn't have nearly enough of that.
   
   DREAMGIRL sold like hotcakes, while Mr. Gordy's book did rather poorly. Ms. Ross' book also sold poorly. A lesson??? If you're going to do a memoir, people will really relate more the more real you relate.



2. It is always hard to believe autobriographies, especially in the music-biz where people are fighting others constantly for power, money and all those things. Since Berry Gordy is a controversial figure, we have to doubt it.

   Doesn't take away the fact that is interesting seeing the rise of his Motown label through his eyes. He discoverd many acts and also wrote and produced many hits in the 50's through 80's. Jackie Wilson, Martha Reeves, Mary Wells, The Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations and Miracles all are very much part of the Gordy legacy.

   He started as a boxer, admiring Joe Louis before turning to music. One of his earliest friends was Smokey Robinson, someone who he also admired and who never turned his back to him. Something the Jackson 5 did, though they were almost part of his family.

   His familymember were often married to people from his company. Jermaine Jackson and Marvin Gaye for example. He himself married often and had more than 8 children with 4 different wives, including Diana Ross.

   It is very interesting to read about how he felt about the music business and Motown, but doubt the honesty




3. This was one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. I couldn't put it down. So many awesome characters and people that everyone knows. Definately recommended. Highly



4. I'm amazed at the almost uniformly positive reviews of this book by other readers here. Berry Gordy accomplished a great deal by founding Motown Records, no question about it (what he did for African American culture in general is immeasurable); what I object to is his (predictible, but no less shocking) glossing over of many unpleasant facts in this book. The fact is, Gordy was a mean and ruthless businessman who stomped on countless others in his rise to the top (the part he played in the downfall of Florence Ballard alone is unforgivable); his warm and fuzzy recounting of his and Motown's story simply reads false to me. Better books on this subject are J. Randy Taraborelli's Motown book, his biography of Diana Ross, and the two Mary Wilson autobiographies. Those read quite a bit more convincingly.



5. Glad to hear from the man who made Motown. If you are a fan of the music than this is a must read!!!!!

3 comments about Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery.

1. Editor and compiler B. A. Botkin wrote the first of its kind comiliaton of the over 3000 interviews of ex-enslaved African Americans done by the WPA in the 1930s. As the subtitle suggests, he provides "A Folk History of Slavery." Read excerpts from first hand accounts of the horrors of slavery and of the remarkable resilience of the enslaved. For a more detailed compilation (those contained here are brief snippets) consider Blassingame's "Slave Testimony").
   
   Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction." He has also authored "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming "Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors."



2. I read "Lay My Burden Down" by B.A. Botkin, almost forty years ago. Botkin's collection of these narrative is indeed a national resource. It's a great book for researches of American History. People of every ethnicity should read this book. These narratives so confirmed the slave stories passed down from my great grandparents when I was a child, that I was overwhelmed for a while. The ex-slaves spoke freely about what freedom meant to them. Moreover, they spoke about how the lack of freedom made thier lives a living hell. The first portion of narratives illustrate that nothing, not even slavery can blot out humor or the opportunity to find joy in some aspect of life. One felt like rejoicing when slaves excaped thier horrific exsistence. Then, there was lasting sorrow tinged with hope for the ones who were not freed until the end of slavery in 1965 or a few years after.



3. A friend of mine once described slave narratives as the equivalent of the library of a foreign culture. Reading one is embarrassingly simplistic. Consider Botkin's book a whirlwind tour. Although I believe every American should be exposed to these narratives (above and beyond the historical representations from textbooks), the stories in Lay My Burden Down are so powerful, so full of intensity, I gave the book 4 stars because it is almost brutal in its power. The humor of the first sections soon fades, and the grim truths of slavery become more and more difficult to face. Proceed, but with caution.