5 comments about A Gift from Brittany: A Memoir of Love and Loss in the French Countryside.

1. Other reviewers have told the story of this memoir: a young American water-colorist goes to France in the 1960s to study and falls in love with a handsome, caring and gifted French painter whom she marries and with whom she has a child. They move to a remote Breton village and as the husband's behavior grows more erratic, suppressive and then violent from mental illness, his young wife finds stability and a deep friendship with an old Breton peasant woman who has seldom been more than a few miles from her village, cannot read or write, and would not speak on a telephone if she had one. The friendship grows to a rare and unexpected love.
   
   The author's tribute to her peasant friend whose support gave her the strength to go on with her life and work is absolutely beautiful. It gives me great faith in what life can be. I number this among my most treasured books and will soon be reading it again.
   
   I am the author of MARRYING MOZART and several other novels.



2. One of those rare books that you cannot put down, knowing as you are reading it that you will be sorry when the book ends. I don't normally keep many books after I am finished reading them, but this one is a keeper. A beautiful story of a woman discovering herself and also that of her friendship with someone you would think she had nothing in common with.



3. This is one of those books you just don't want to put down, and my only complaint is that it isn't longer!! Price is a skilled writer who can describe a scene as carefully as I think she could sketch it (she is an artist by profession). I'll try to constrain my remarks to my impression of her book because I don't want to give away the twists and turns in the story. As mentioned in the publishers review, this is the story of a woman in the 60's who marries and has a house in rural France, her marriage falling apart at the same time her bond with a country woman who on paper she has nothing in common with grows. Her descriptions are so vivid you think you were an eyewitness, which is doubly fortunate because she is present at the close of an era. As she remarks, when she first moved there many people were living not that much different than people did in the Middle Ages, but electricity and the modern conveniences changed all that. As mentioned, a lot of the story centers around her friendship with a neighbor who lived her whole life within perhaps a 3-mile circle of the village. This is a double-edged sword. While her elderly friend is a bridge to a past that is fast disappearing in the 60's, I think the author still harbors some guilt about not being present for her friend at the end. But as the subtitle says, a memoir of love and loss. To sum up, Price is a gifted writer and I hope she is penning another book as we speak!



4. This is a profound and touching memoir of the joys, sorrows and personal growth of a young America artist. Marjorie Price's life is changed in ways she could never have anticipated when she leaves Chicago for Paris in the 1960's to enhance her art and to experience all things French. She marries a French artist, and together they buy a centuries-old farm in a tiny hamlet in Brittany. As her marriage unravels, Price and her young daughter become more comfortable with their new neighbors and their rural, unmechanized way of life. A central theme, and for me the most touching one, is the way Price forges an affecting relationship with a remarkable older woman who has lived all her life in the hamlet.
   
   Events and dialogue are recreated in a flowing dramatic narrative, laced with elements of sadness and humor. Every scene, every venue, is real and present, drawing the reader in as if witness to a staged play. Always the artist, Price perceives her natural surroundings in their ever-changing light and array of colors and forms, and paints it all with words as effective as brush strokes.



5. This is a wonderful story of the coming together of cultures and generations. I woman finds herself abandoned in a foreign land, without friends or resources, yet her own love for others provides the friendship and support she needs. She learns to find love right where she is.
   
   Fred Andresen, Author of Walking on Ice, An American Businessman in Russia.

5 comments about I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History (Wisconsin Film Studies).

1. This is a book that should have been filled with fascinating stories but instead is the Dragnet ("Just the facts, maam") version of one Hollywood producer's history. After working with some of the greatest movies stars, you would think Mirisch would have some great insight into the egocentric business or some incredible stories. But what you get in this book is just a year-by-year, movie-by-movie, bare-boned, accountant-like recollection of his films.
   
   The first hundred pages involve a little of his background and the large number of insignificant films he made in his early years. As mentioned in another person's two-star review of the book, Mirish seems ultra-sensitive to perceived anti-Semitism, twisting a comment made by a professor at University of Wisconsin to mean Jewish Mirisch wasn't welcome there (if you read it carefully, the professor was actually offering him a scholarship that Mirisch was dragging his feet on accepting and was giving him some needed honest advice).
   
   There are a few interesting stories in the book, mostly about casting decisions. Tina Louise as the Marilyn Monroe role in the TV pilot of Some Like It Hot. Peter Ustinov originally signed to be Inspector Clouseau before Peter Sellers.
   
   He spends only 8 pages on West Side Story but 17 on the now insignificant movie Hawaii. He also has some memories mixed up--he claims Billy Wilder made "The Fortune Cookie" because he "was a great football fan and a regular viewer of Monday Night Football." Yet Monday Night Football didn't start until four years after the movie premiered!
   
   There are a few in Hollywood who don't come off looking so good--Steve McQueen in particular--but even then the author handles them gently and obviously doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings with this book. He never takes advantage of the chance to go back and rethink some of his casting choices (such as the miscast leads in West Side Story). Instead almost everyone he worked with was talented or wonderful.
   
   For what sounds like a fascinating life, this book is suprisingly dull. You will not learn much that hasn't been told better elsewhere. Mirisch sounds like a really nice guy but in the end he's just in a business where the numbers are what matter. And he really wasn't making much "history" as the title claims.



2. Although I have yet to finish reading this book (I am about 1/4 way through it), Mirisch tells the history of his family and how they came to carve out careers in different aspects of the movie industry. Along the way, Mirisch relates anecdotes about various well-known stars of yesteryear and gives details as to how several of his films came into production. For anyone who has an interest in the film businesses and its related history, this book is a 'must read' that accomplishes remaining clear of bogging the reader down in any superfluous technicalities.



3. This book contains some innaccurate references to films and people Mr. Mirisch worked with and my copy didn't contain an index. Very little is information is given about Mirisch's early childhood or his teenage years as a film usher. In one passage, he states that he turned down a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin because he thought the head of the department was anti-Semetic. Mirisch thought a remark that "there are very few other jobs open for an Academic like you" supported this idea. Often the reader can get lost in some very technical jargon about film financing and investing. In simple terms this could mean: If the film flops, the director and the cast take the blame and if the film is a success, the producer makes the most money and takes credit for it. A researcher should read this book to check the accuracy of film titles and names mentioned. Example: Monogram's film series was The Teenagers, not "The High School Kids."



4. This is an amazing recollection of how movies became a business and magic happened with humble beginnings by the Mirisch family, especially Walter.
   
   Enjoy your incredible reading journey.



5. Here is one of the most successful producers in the business who started from the bottom and worked his way up to having the biggest, best, independant company in the world. The Mirisch Company. I cannot say enough about reading this book, I was riveted, I received the book on a Sat.and couldn't put it down till I finished it. Wow, what an education I got. Can you imagine having the foresight to have on your regular staff.
   Billy Wilder, Norman Jewison, John Sturges, Blake Edwards, Fred Zinnemann.
   
   John Moio

5 comments about When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided By Race.

1. Firstly I have to admit that I haven't finished reading the book, I will edit my review when done. But I was curious about what other have said about it, so I paged to this review page.
   
   I bought this book because I vaguely remember the story of Sandra Laing from newspapers etc. as a kid growing up in South Africa. She is quite a bit older than me, I was rather young when the incident happened, and I cannot remember much about all the controversy.
   
   I mainly bought this book because I am quite interested in the genealogy of Afrikaner families. I have spent several years now documenting my own heritage. Frankly, I am surprised that the case of Sandra Laing stands out so much, as we Afrikaners are a creole nation who speaks a pidgin language - and I say this with pride. After 356 years in Africa, I don't believe that any of us are "pure whites" whatever that means. I guess it is not a well known fact (even amongst Afrikaners) that Afrikaners have on the average 6 to 12% of non-European blood (depending on which researcher's works you read). However, the majority of that proportion is Asian blood (particularly East Indian). In my own case I have verified this through DNA testing and genealogy - only because I was curious - my self-guestimate is 1/16th. I am sure the situation in the USA is not dissimilar.
   
   It is well known that people were formally classified as belonging to a race after 1948 (though I submit that Apartheid existed long before that). Physical appearance played some role. This was one of the stupidest acts of the then National Party. My family looked European, and we happened to have been classified as white. Though I know that we are not - completely.
   
   So why in the case of Sandra Laing was her appearance more African than many others? I don't know enough about biology to answer that question, as much as I don't know why my son's eyes are blue when neither my eyes nor my wife's eyes are blue. However, the way this family (and others) were treated due to physical appearance was certainly one of the many tragedies of the era.
   
   Flipping through the book, what really irritated my immensely, was the atrocious spelling of Afrikaans phrases in the book. They don't even resemble any language I am familiar with. Was the editor out to lunch? Could the author not spell-check her phrases in her word-processing program? My version of MS Word (purchased in Canada) can spell-check Afrikaans, why can't hers? Such poor attention to detail really diminishes the professional image and academic merits of the book.
   
   Another thing that irks me quite a bit are blanket racist statements by people like the first reviewer from that Bookclub - based on well-meant, but utter, ignorance (did she get her "facts" from the book?). While I agree with her summary and 'apartheid was bad' sentiments, she made too many factual and historical errors in her "review" for me to address here.
   
   In short. Afrikaners blood was never pure to start with - well-known fact - whatever they say or said. Afrikaners merely look less coloured than the coloureds. There were not 3 classifications (she goes on to mention 4) but many more initially. Afrikaners have much (about 20%) French blood as well, but never conquered the country. They may have conquered parts of it, but it was the British Empire that conquered the whole country (almost the whole continent!) for the "Queen" (for the mineral wealth, more to the point). While Afrikaners had a big role to play in institutionalising apartheid (unfortunately), they hardly invented it. They merely took over that role from the British in 1948. Williams talks about the American south - I believe that Afrikaner leaders actually studied laws in the American South before institutionalising apartheid in South Africa. There were several study tours by many to the American south (rather than to nazi-Germany as some believe). Etc, etc.
   
   Many Afrikaners were (and still are) racist, some Afrikaners supported the system, just like some Americans/Germans etc supported their systems. But the Afrikaner National Party could never stay in power without the English vote. Fact. So please don't blame the entire Afrikaner nation for the acts of some - even if the majority.
   
   Anyway, while a few historical and grammatical errors are clearly in need of being corrected, I am glad that someone wrote down the story and sad circumstances of Sandra Laing. This is a story that needed to be told again, so many years later, in context. It is worth reflecting on it and remembering it. Sadly, the country is not out of the woods. Today (2008), the future still don't look rosy, never mind that Afrikaner power left the scene 14 years ago after 46 years of running things. But I guess the problems are new and different today.



2. This was a great book! To see the struggle of this woman's life during aparteid in S. Africa rattled me to the core. And it brought to light some of our issues with race in this counrty. This is truly a book for the strong and I think we can all learn something from it.



3. I found Judith Stone's book on Sandra Laing wonderful as a chronicle of the history of race in South Africa. The book is a reminder, though, that people don't easily fit into categories. Sandra's white parents wanted her to be classified as white. I felt that the book presented convincing evidence that Sandra, despite her appearance, was the natural daughter of two white parents. Sandra herself felt more comfortable with blacks and wanted to fit in with them.
   
   Judith Stone clearly wants Sandra to be a victim of apartheid and a symbol of the new South Africa. Stone has a hard time making Sandra fit into this, though. Stone talks a lot about the hardships Sandra faced, and sometimes it seems she is bending over backwards to make excuses for Sandra's behavior. Although Stone doesn't say so, it seems clear from the story that Sandra is either borderline mentally retarded or somewhere close to it. Sandra claims she didn't know at the time she was expelled from school at nine that it was because of her color. Her parents homeschooled her until age 12, while working endlessly to get her the legal right to attend a good school. When they finally succeeded and Sandra returned to school, she was put back two grades, then found it difficult to pass even that. Sandra went on to fulfill every black stereotype in existence. At 15 or so, Sandra left school to move in with a black man who was already married to someone else and had three children to provide for. The thought that maybe it might be a good idea to finish school seems never to have once crossed her mind. She went on to have five children out of wedlock with three different black men, again without the slightest forethought. Three of Sandra's children were turned over to foster parents for nine years. Money Sandra received, both from working at menial jobs and from payments for her story, flowed through her hands like water. I frankly felt sympathetic with Sandra's white parents and brothers, who eventually cut off contact with Sandra and her train wreck of a life. Yes, there are plenty of white girls in the world who act just as foolishly. But making a heroine out of Sandra is difficult, no matter how much color prejudice she experienced as a child.
   
   This book presents good evidence that race classifications are superficial. Unfortunately, removing racial classifications is not enough to create responsible citizens.



4. I want to commend Judith Stone for the phenomenal work she has done in discussing a number of difficult subjects: Sandra Laing herself, the history of South Africa, and the nature of memory, family, and the examined life. Clearly, Sandra's lack (repression) of memory, and her inability to articulate her feelings, left Stone with an enormous challenge. She works through this brilliantly by marshaling the journalistic reports from the time and later, interviewing people who know Sandra, and sensitively explaining and exploring Apartheid's tortured history. Stone uses her knowledge of studies of PTSD, false-memory syndrome, and other relevant fields in psychology to examine Sandra's individual and South Africa's collective forgetfulness/refusal to admit reality. All in all, Stone has done a stunningly professional and sensitive job in illuminating one person's life, the cruel and terrible absurdities of Apartheid South Africa, and, more broadly still, what it means to live in a world where an ideological rigidity based on lies and hypocrisy sucks the life out of everyone--oppressor or oppressed.



5. When Sandra Laing was born in 1955 to a pro-apartheid Afrikaner couple in South Africa she was registered as a white child - but upon entering a white boarding school, was persecuted by students and teachers because of her brown skin. Her parents believed an interracial union back in their family history was to blame, but neighbors thought Mrs. Laing had committed adultery with a black man and the entire family was shunned. She was reclassified as 'coloured', her parents fought the South African courts to reverse the determination, then as a teen Sandra eloped - with a black man - and her parents disowned her. WHEN SHE WAS WHITE: THE TRUE STORY OF A FAMILY DIVIDED BY RACE crosses back and forth along discrimination lines and is riveting. Impossible to put down, it will enhance any general-interest lending library and is an emotionally charged, highly recommended pick.

5 comments about Sit, Ubu, Sit: How I went from Brooklyn to Hollywood with the Same Woman, the Same Dog, and a Lot Less Hair.

1. A TV producer thinks his oddball life story is more interesting than the TV shows he worked on in this poorly-written book. What could have been fascinating insight into the production of Family Ties or Spin City is instead a mish-mash of unconnected stories about his life that change from year to year. So the first chapters are titled: 1985, 1972, 1954, 1972, 1982, 1969, 1982, etc. They are short and skip around to unconnected events, such as his trip through Europe, his minor jobs as an actor or his producing a TV show. The hyperactive writing style may be "clever" to those within the Hollywood community but it's FRUSTRATING when trying to read a cohesive narrative. By page 60 he hasn't really said anything worthwhile and it makes it difficult to want to finish the rest of the book.
   
   The author was told by his future wife that he was "self-centered, shallow and vain." And much of that comes out in this book. He has the Hollywood-style "humility" where he says he wasn't a very good actor, is gracious enough to admit that he didn't want Michael J. Fox cast in Famiy Ties and wants us to believe that he is just a normal person. Yet in revealing his past we discover that his is totally abnormal and incredibly hippie-like.
   
   The book details quite a bit of his inappropriate behavior--immoral to some, ahead of his time to others. It makes sense when you read that his daughter went on to produce a show like Friends that doesn't have a moral center to it. The reader will see why his is highly thought of in the Hollywood community, but in middle America he is very fringe. It's hard to believe one of the greatest conservative characters on television was created by this man, but even he admits that he created Alex Keaton to come across negatively. It was the casting of Michael J. Fox (that the author had to be talked into) that changed how America perceived the character.
   
   There is an interesting section on Spin City, which makes Micheal J. Fox look like a real bad guy. There are a couple stories where Goldberg admits to violence or being nasty. There is also some quasi-spirituality--such as the opening story in the book where he consults with a psychic! He fits the stereotype of the California rich radical. By the end of the book this is not a guy you want to know.
   
   Like many other books from TV producers, this proves that most of what you see on the screen comes from the somewhat narrow life experience of those who write the shows. There are a few interesting stories here and a couple of nice Familiy Ties tidbits, but nothing out of the ordinary.
   
   He also doesn't have a good sense of television sitcom history. He claims that the sitcom format was "invented by Lucille Ball" and that Seinfeld was "the most successful TV comedy of all time." He is so far off that it isn't funny. And this book isn't particularly laughable. It's just a guy who thinks that because he created one or two successful TV shows a long time ago that people will be interested in hearing about mundane things in his life such as his Frisbee-catching dog.



2. Goldberg writes like people think -- at least people from Brooklyn, the Bronx and those other boroughs. Simple words, simply wonderful. The Goldberg's adventure through life is a map for life.
   Lopriore



3. The thing that surprised me the most in this breezy, charming bio by Goldberg, who made Michael J Fox a star when he created 'Family Ties', is how choked up I got while reading it. It reads like those light, smart sit-coms you're watching and laughing hysterically at, and then suddenly something happens that's so touching, so human, you're welling up before you know it. A large portion of the book is, like so many have previously stated, a love letter to his wife, and it's nice to see Hollywood endings can come at the end of a romantic fairy tale.



4. What a refreshingly funny, sincere, and insightful read. I laughed out loud so many times I lost count. I loved the way he included just the right amounts of different aspects of his life, none dominating the story - his work in television, his adorable chocolate Lab Ubu, his friendships, and his heartwarming relationship with his wife Diana. It was simply delightful cover to cover. I read few books more than once; this will be one of them.



5. I've read sooooooo many books in my day, but this one has the charm, warmth and insight into Gary's humanity, that I couldn't put it down. Now what do I read????!!!! Please, Gary, write another one!!!

5 comments about 100 Missions North: A Fighter Pilot's Story of the Vietnam War.

1. The book arrived on time and in excellent condition.
   It will be a good read.



2. Ken Bell's story of a tour flying F105 Thunderchiefs in Viet Nam is a masterpiece of the technique of making things dramatic by being understated.
   Although, like a number of military writers, he tends to put exclamation points after quoting an order from somebody, none of his own writing hits you in the head. Not in any one sentence. It's the accumulation that is gripping.
   Bell, although an experienced fighter pilot, had had no command time and no combat time when he was ordered to Southeast Asia. So while we don't hear much about his problems just keeping the aircraft aloft, we do see him feeling his way through demanding staff jobs in addition to his flying.
   This contrasts with Jack Broughton's book, "Thud Ridge" where Broughton is immediately immersed in the problems of command--he'd had earlier command slots--along with the flying.
   Very shortly after arriving, Bell was put in charge of standards and evaluation, a job in addition to his flying. It appears that most pilots had such additional taskings. Stan/eval meant keeping the pilots and their flying up to Air Force scratch, modified for local conditions. This had Bell monitoring and evaluating others, sometimes during combat missions, and some of them his seniors. Later, he was put in charge of developing and selling technical and operational modifications to the higher ups. Obviously, his seniors had confidence in him.
   The book gives us, as do Coonts' fictional story of Viet Nam flying, and Broughton's books, one each of various missions. We get to see how it all goes.
   Bell sets out the immense effort it took to put some bombs in Pak Six. A dozen and a half tankers, a squadron or two of F4s for Mig Cap, SAR on standby, electronic warfare aircraft, recce either before or after. If it works out right, a couple of dozen Thuds put two or three tons of bombs apiece on a target.
   Which brings up a point. Some of these major efforts of a major industrial and military power were devoted to a ferry landing site. A ferry landing site!? You could bomb one of those for generations, and until you changed the course of the river by the accumulation of bomb craters, nothing useful would happen.
   Lose guys for a ferry landing site?
   Or a steel mill. A generating plant?
   This was not Germany or Japan during WW II where they were making their own stuff and the manufacturing assets could be destroyed.
   Bell only hints at what Broughton explains in outraged detail. Some or most of the targeting decisions were made by non-military geeks playing war games back in the White House.
   While we were pissing away men's lives on ferry landing sites, the important targets, Haiphong Harbor, the Hanoi-Haiphong transportation axis, the railroad up to China, were all left alone. It would seem that the propensity to leave a good target alone was directly proportional to its use to the enemy, to the prospects of victory, and the number of American lives which would probably be saved.
   Broughton, having a bigger picture as a commander, got sufficiently outraged about such things in "Thud Ridge" as to make that part of his book, and all of his later book, "Going Downtown, The Air War against Washington and Hanoi".
   Another point that Bell makes, not meaning to, I expect, is the incredible complexity of flying combat.
   He speaks of landing just behind his lead. Lead reminds him to pop his drag chute immediately and to tell him when the chute is working so lead can pop his. If lead goes first and decelerates quickly, number two runs into him. So Two pops the chute first and tells lead who then pops his. There are a million little ways to screw up and get somebody killed. And you have to be watching all the time. It puts one in mind of Kipling's poem about the extremely young naval officers of WW I, referring to the "drowsy second's lack of thought that costs a dozen dead."
   Great book to learn about the war in Southeast Asia and the men who flew in it.
   And it also gives us, inadvertently, an insight into fighting a guerilla war with conventional tactics. You end up losing guys to bomb a ferry landing site.



3. I was mechanic on the F-105 in Thailand when Major Bell was flying his missions there. I believe he has written a superb account of the trials, skills and frustrations the Thud pilots had during Viet Nam. He brought back many memories of the two years I spent in Thailand.



4. My dad, a Wild Weasel 105 pilot who was there around the same time Bell was, recommended this book to me and once I started, I literally couldn't put it down. As other reviewers mentioned, you really feel like you are experiencing it firsthand. I think it's important to mention that it is written in a way that your ordinary person can understand exactly what is going on (something I feared before I bought it). It is an outstanding book and while I've always respected what my dad did, I feel I have 100% more insight into the extent of what he, and his fellow pilots, were up against-how they were able to face those odds day after day is almost unbelievable. The (physical and mental) strength and bravery of those men leaves me speechless and in awe. Thank you Ken Bell.



5. I first learned about the F-105 strikes against Hanoi in G.I. Basel's masterpiece; "Pak Six". Prior to reading that book, my concept of the air war over North Vietnam were the B52 strikes that were publicized, in the popular media, in the late sixties. The breavity of "Pak Six" left me hungry for more which Ken Bell delivers in " 100 Missions North" "100 Missions North" fleshes out the details and gives the reader a better idea of what the job, and life, were like for the pilots who flew the dangerous missions into Hanoi. While life, planning and debriefing are covered in more detail, there is still plenty of in-the-cockpit action, rocketing toward earth in full afterburner through clouds of flak to put the bombs on target.

5 comments about First Light.

1. Simply put. I could not put this book down. i felt i was in the cockpit at times with geoffrey.I finished the book wanting more.



2. 
   I have read many flying books including many dealing with WWII.
   
   The author brings life to an incredible odyssey from a young college student to RAF ace. In a matter of a few months he went from an aviation cadet to reporting to a front line fighter squadron. Wellum brings life to arriving at the Spitfire equipped squadron without ever having seen one up close much less having any flying experience in them.
   
   His arrival marked the desperate struggle to evacuate trapped British and French troops from the beaches at Dunkirk. Within a couple of days of his arrival 25% of his new squadron members lay dead at the bottom of the Channel.
   
   What some may find redundant is really the exhausting, terrifying daily routine of continuing aerial combat over England and then the Continent. Wellum's descriptions of aerial combat are fascinating. Some battles are against vastly superior forces of ME 109's while in others weather becomes a deadly enemy.
   
   The author's humble writing style makes all the more impact. For those who fly or are history buffs this is a must read.



3. I served in the RCAF durin ww2. I later flew fighters in th USAF, served as captain on USAirways for 28 years.I have written 5 books on aviation.Jeoffrey Wellum's book is a master piece.His breath -taking descriptions of aeral battles puts you right in the cockpit of his BEAUTIFUL Spitfire.
   " The narrow legs of it 'undercarrage give it a delicate apperance.It has the air of a thoroughbread---It's ellipitical wings and sleder body give it an air above all other fighters,the sound of it'sRR Merline engine produces a sound ,like nothing else in the air.I firmly believe that the Spitfire was the most beautiful fighter of ww2, and I as jeoffery said ,I would also give my arm to fly it.
   I don't know which was his most dangerous flying conditions were,weather flack, or bullets. He did a yomans job in all these instances.
   I have read dozens of books by RAF fighter pilots, This book is at the top of my list.Great job " BOY"



4. Excellent first person account of the Battle of Britain but not the best I've read. If you're looking for something with a little more of the overall picture, try Fly For Your Life by Robert Stanford Tuck. Tuck's book is definitely the best memoir on the Battle of Britain I've come across and one of the best WW II books I've ever read.



5. This is one of those books I pick up again and again just to read a random chapter. It is that well written. It tells a story of a generation of people and there unbelievable courage & humility. I know because my own father was one of them. The deeply humourous and self depreciating strong and silent type. I doubt we shall see there like again.

5 comments about Lindbergh.

1. I've read parts of this book, and from what I can tell, it is similar to other biographies of deceased controversial figures in which the biographer works too closely with the family of the subject to be objective. In reality, there were three points to Lindbergh's life that everybody should know who wants to know about him. This book covers the first two points well and glosses over the third.
   
   1) Aviation Pioneer: He did much more than become the first person to fly the Atlantic solo nonstop. He was a talented aeronautical engineer, a tireless advocate of air power in defense circles, and an explorer who risked his life again and again to chart new air routes for the world to follow.
   2) Son Kidnapped and Murdered: However, Lindbergh's initial fame had a tragic downside. He was the most famous man in the world for a while, and Time Magazine created its "Man of the Year" award for him. But renown brought disaster on his family when his son was kidnapped - apparently for a ransom, which was paid - and then murdered. This was known as the "Crime of the Century" at the time, and was not eclipsed by any other crime until the JFK assassination in 1963.
   3) Anti-WWII Activist: Lindbergh and his wife travelled to Nazi Germany in the thirties, ostensibly as tourists, but covertly to gather information on the Nazi air force, the Luftwaffe. Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering tricked Lindbergh into reporting back that the Nazis had a tremendous advantage in air power by flying the same planes over his head and around in circles to make them appear more numerous. Also on the this trip, he accepted a medal from Hitler's government. Upon his return, Lindbergh became the most famous figure in the movement we now know as "isolationist," which was mottled with anti-Semitic and Anglophobic prejudices. He wrote a number of articles and gave speeches in which he criticized - fairly or unfairly - supporters of America entering the war, most specifically Jewish groups and FDR's government, as selfish and more concerned with the welfare of their demographic group than that of the U.S. This created a tremendous backlash against Lindbergh, who was widely pereived as "defeatist" and, for many, openly pro-Nazi. After this backlash, Lindberg's star fell and never rose again, and this was because of his own political naivete in perceiving the fascist movement as nothing more than a reaction and counterbalance to Soviet communist power.
   
   Berg's book does not deal adequately with this third point, merely presenting basic facts without exploring deeper motives and intentions that, for someone like Lindbergh, were often readily apparent through his statements and actions. I do not mean to endorse the case that this book errs in not presenting Lindbergh as a potential fascist dictator, as Phillip Roth has recently done in novel form, but simply that Berg's book seems to ignore the reality that Lindbergh was an anti-Semite, that he openly espoused fascism as a suitable form of government for Germany, and that the amount of bad publicity his enemies and even neutral observers marshaled against him effectively ended his importance in American history during and after the war.
   
   And if you want proof of how far his star fell, consider the facts I listed above about his pre-war fame, and then count the number of full-length Lindbergh biographies of any modest stature that have been produced. Aprroximately one, this one, and this one simply fails to acknowledge the reality of the magnitude of his fall from celebrity into obscurity over the WWII intervention issue.
   
   Then do an Amazon search for "Howard Hughes," Lindbergh's only competition for aviation fame in his heyday, and see what you get. There are many, many biographies of Hughes, and almost all of them are openly muck-raking works, but still far superior in quality to Berg's book. The fact that this one got a Pulitzer is clearly indicative that that literary honor has become meaningless in the real world, almost as meaningless as Lindbergh became to history after he vacationed in Nazi Germany.



2. ~Lindbergh~ is an astute an well-written biography by acclaimed writer A. Scott Berg. Berg captures the life of this most fascinating character. What unfolds is an amazing tale of the aviator turned adventurer turned statesmen turned war hero.
   
   Aviator Charles Lindbergh, gained acclaim for the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight across Long Island, New York to Paris, France in 1927 in the famed "Spirit of St. Louis." Not long after, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. At the time, Lindbergh was seen as a man of seemingly impeccable character. He became an American hero overnight.
   
   A. Scott Berg casts light on Charles' complex marriage to Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the daughter of the famed J.P. Morgan investment banker. His marriage had its ups and downs due to his indiscretions, and it was not a fairy-tale marriage by any stretch of the imagination. Though, public perception certainly believed the marriage as a storybook romance in 1927. Berg also illustrates how tragedy hit the Lindbergh family and the whole nation in 1932 with sensitivity.
   
   Lindbergh, being an acclaimed aviator, was invited to Germany in the 1930s, where he subsequently received a medal. It was an opportunity that intrigued him, for the Germans were renowned for their innovation in aeronautics. With the approval of Nazi chieftains Hermann Goering and Ernst Udet, Lindbergh was permitted to inspect and tour German Luftwaffe facilities, and view some of their latest innovations such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Junkers Ju 88. He became enamored of German aviation technology not coincidentally thereafter. He believed that German aviation was superior to that of the Americans and British. Why? Probably, because it was. His trip to Germany, however, soon soiled his reputation, particularly after 1939, despite the fact that Lindbergh returned the commendation awarded by the German government. When misguided historians like Max Wallace present Lindbergh as a Nazi sycophant, he conveniently forgets, either out of ignorance or obfuscation, that Lindbergh came to Germany at the urgent request of the U.S. military attaché at the American embassy in Berlin. The military attaché was charged with learning everything possible about Germany's new warplanes. In other words, Lindbergh was covertly providing U.S. intelligence, and playing off of his reputation as an aviator of international fame to gain a warm reception by the Germans. He might not have brought back stolen 1:6 scale airplane models from the hangar offices and secret James Bond snapshot pictures, but he was doing his country a service nonetheless.
   
   His political odyssey took some strange turns, and it put him at the helm of the American First Committee which pressed the case for keeping the United States neutral and out of World War II with Germany. While his patriotism and motives have been brought into question, Berg gives us a few reasons not to question Lindbergh's sincerity. When the war began, Lindbergh was quick to uphold his honor, and be a part of the Army Air Corps unofficially. Unfortunately, being the bitter partisan, President FDR, stripped him of his opportunity to fly in dress ranks, and he flew unofficially as a contractor. But Lindbergh earned much success dogfighting against Japanese over the Pacific. He was denied his deserved commendations because of politics.
   
   This book is a marvelous journey into the life of aviator Charles Lindbergh. Berg sculptures a sensitive and astutely written account of the life of this acclaimed American. If read, in tandem with Lindbergh's on autobiographical journal "The Spirit of St. Louis," one can certainly get a fascinating picture of his life. The superb prose is matched by the fascinating insights of the author who had direct access to the Lindbergh family's personal archives.



3. This book is extremely readable, which is why everyone gives it 5 stars. But it fails to mention the fact that Lindbergh fathered at least 3 illegitimate children in Germany in the late 50's-60's. In 2003, 3 German siblings took a DNA test vs. one of Lindbergh's legitimate grandchildren and paternity was proved. Lindbergh kept their mother as a '2d family,' and he possibly fathered others. This book was extremely well-researched, so I can't see how Scott Berg can continue to sell this book without an update that talks about this.



4. If you want the most complete look at the life of Charles Lindbergh,then read this book.There are many glowing reviews on [...],about this book.Yet,the section about the famous kidnapping is NOT the full story.You are just getting a good historical account of Colonel Lindbergh,however,from an outsider looking in.I have yet to read a Lindbergh biography that comes as close as to the truth as this book does.Scott Berg did not research enough about the kidnapping,and as well as millions of other biographical book-readers.They just accepted the Bruno Hauptmann guilty verdict. World War Two is long over.And the Anti-German hysteria is mostly forgotten,by modern Americans. Lindbergh accepted Hauptmann's guilt because Bruno was a former Berlin communist,who helped kidnapp the Berlin burgermeister's infant son.And for ransom.When Hauptmann jumped off the 'Friedrich der Grosse',he swam to shore.He married Anna Schuffeler,who worked at Frederiksen's Bakery.Hauptmann invested heavily in the stock market,during the 1920s.And reaped the benefits,of the easy profits.Then Wall Street laid on egg,and Hauptmann's goose was cooked.Hauptmann's business partner ,Isidore Fish,also lost everything.These former left-wing radikals turned American capitalists may have discussed Lindbergh's fortune. Fish may have hatched the plan to kidnapp America's number one eaglet,the Lindbergh Baby. Fish died of TB ,a short time after the March 1st,1932 kidnapping.Hauptmann alone faced the electric chair.His only guilt was that of association with Isidore Fish.Updated-12.Jan.2007.=If the decomposed child's remains had a DNA link to Charles Lindbergh,there may be some truth, to the corpse being an illegitimate child of his.Elizabeth Morrow was believed to be a jealous sister-in-law of his.Did they have an unwanted child that Colonel Lindbergh sadly refused to accept?Lindbergh did have three German children from a secret affair.The mistress was a Bavarian milliner. If Dr.Bill Bass of the Knoxville 'Body Farm', does not have any DNA proof,then he is a "Quack".The story thickens.+Updated=June/10/2007 There is another guy that has been claiming he is the real Charles Jr.His website is 'Charleslindberghjr.com' and he was on the coasttocoastam.com show.He may be the real deal and Harold Olson may be the real son of Charles Sr. and Elizabeth Morrow.The direct Lindbergh children,Jon and Reeve, have refused to do DNA testing for him.The story continues.



5. Excellent. I enjoyed this book because of the ease of reading it. It was very informative and interesting.

4 comments about Essential Vonnegut Interviews CD (Caedmon Essentials).

1. Even though his latter books seemed to be re-workings of earlier material I bought and enjoyed most every one. This series of interviews provides some insight into changes in Vonnegut over time. Each interview is fairly short and has a focus specific to the year it was taped. Some relate to specific books, others to specific events. Each interview reveals a calm and humorous Vonnegut filled with political satire. The interviewer often provides Vonnegut with insight on the relationships between Vonnegut's fictional characters and other works and events.
   Worth the price.



2. The interviews give priceless insight into the workings of Vonnegut's mind. As I listened, I kept hoping that the interviews would never end.



3. It seems to me that Kurt Vonnegut's work is growing in popularity, and this CD allows us a peek at his point of view in writing some of it.



4. This CD comprises 3 interviews conducted by noted author, editor, translator, NYU English professor, and Vonnegut confidant Walter James Miller. Covered here are 33 years from 1973's discussion of Slaughterhouse Five to 1981's talk about Palm Sunday and ending with 2006's Man Without A Country. Each interview runs at about 25 minutes, giving the listener approximately 74 minutes of critical analysis and conversation. This CD is a joy, providing valuable insight into Vonnegut the man and the writer. Part of an intended series, future volumes are to cover other Vonnegut novels, interviews culled from the Walter James Miller Audio Archive.

5 comments about Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait.

1. As a Holliday cousin, I bought Karen's book for family information to pass on to my children and grandchildren. This book is a very detailed and historical account of "Doc," and gave me another perspective of the man I knew little about save the movies and a few tales inside the family. I have been in touch with Karen, and passed on to her information regarding his famous, and infamous, bloodline which will surprise many in Karen's upcoming book on Doc. I hope it is forthcoming soon. A MUST HAVE for every history enthsiast or researcher.



2. This book was a good read and quite informative. The author (related to the Hollidays) did an excellent job on researching Doc Holliday. There was much to be learned about the real Doc Holliday.



3. I really enjoyed this book. The author did a wonderful job on researching the family tree.



4. I was very disappointed in this book. It is not well written nor does it have much, if any, depth. Tanner uses the word "probably" way too often. "Doc 'probably' shot Old Man Clanton" or "Wyatt 'probably' killed John Ringo." Doc "probably" did quite a few things, but Tanner does not quote any source information for much of this, although she does have several pages of notes.
   
   Tanner races through many moments in Holliday's life, skipping over important details. A lot happened between the infamous gunfight in Tombstone, the attack on Virgil Earp and the murder of Morgan Earp; but Tanner tells of all three incidents within a matter of a couple of paragraphs. Tanner barely mentions Curly Bill Brocious and does not mention Fred White at all.
   
   Tanner goes into great detail about how Holliday was born with a cleft palate, but many doubt he ever had such physical challenge. Also Kate Elder is a source for much of the latter part of the book, but Elder is not a very reliable source of information, having claimed to have married Holliday in the 1870's. (No record of Holliday ever getting married exists.)
   
   Tanner is related to Holliday and that seems to have softened her view. Gary L. Roberts' biography is much better, much more detailed.



5. Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait is well researched and written. Karen Holliday Tanner draws on family history, papers, albums and oral stories to augment hard research.Through her exhaustive efforts, Ms. Tanner puts to rest some of the wild exaggerations of killings, life of a con man, and criminal schemes supposedly perpetrated by Doc during his life.
   Young John Henry Holliday's early days were spent in Griffin, Georgia with his father Henry Holliday and mother Alice.
   Henry Holliday was a prominent Griffin citizen, first clerk of the court of Spalding County, and was involved in real estate and land speculation. The elder Holliday had a military background and had fought in the Mexican War. Early in the Civil War he served in the Confederate Army in Virginia. However, camp life and cold weather conspired to damage his health and he was discharged and sent home. After Henry Holliday regained his health he purchased a large parcel of land in South Georgia near Valdosta and moved his family there in 1864.
   Alice Holliday contracted tuberculosis and died in September of 1866. John Henry mourned the loss of his mother and felt that his father had betrayed her name when he married Rachel Martin less than three months after the death of mother Holliday. The marriage caused a schism between father and son that never quite healed.
   John Henry was a bright student and eventually chose dentistry as a profession. He graduated from The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1872 and returned to Atlanta where he practiced dentistry until he contracted tuberculosis and traveled west in search of a dryer climate.
   While in Dallas John Henry stayed with the dental profession, but added another to augment his income. He spent time at the gaming tables and eventually became a skilled Frontier Gambler. After several years in Dallas he joined the gambling circuit and traveled to Denison, Denver, Deadwood and points in between.
   He became known as Doc Holliday and using his charm, wit and gambling skills Doc made a name for himself and collected an array of friends Kate Elder, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short and Eddie Foy just to name a few.
   While in Dodge City Doc saved Wyatt Earp from an angry mob of drunken cowboys and Wyatt never forgot it. Doc and Wyatt were both well known in gambling circles, but the incident that turned them into legends was the shootout at the OK Corral.
   Doc stood with Wyatt and his brothers on the side of law and order against Cochise County's political ring muscle known as cowboys. The Earps and Holliday won the gunfight, but ring outlaws caused a bloodbath that eventually, in order to get out of the line of fire, Doc and Wyatt moved to Colorado.
   Wyatt dug for silver in the Gunnison and Doc played the tables at Leadville. But due to failing health Doc eventually quit the games and retired to Glenwood Springs, Colorado where he died of tuberculosis on November 8, 1887.
   A must read to get the full Holliday picture.
   
   Tom Barnes author of "Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone."
   "The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle."
   "The Goring Collection."
   
   The Hurricane Hunters And Lost in the Bermuda Triangle
   Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone: The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday
   The Goring Collection

5 comments about Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent.

1. There are things that I didn't expect, that surprised me a little bit about his character, but if anything, seeing Anthony come through all of these situations only upped my respect for him as an actor, as a writer, and as a person.



2. This book really moved me with Rapp's emotional honesty, and I echo the praises from previous reviewers. I rate it as 4 stars because, like a previous reviewer suggested, I feel it tended to drag a bit at the end and could have ended a chapter earlier. I strongly suggest the audio recording, especially for fans of Rent and of Anthony. Hearing him read the story himself (particularly for the small and poignant personal moments, like the frequent "Hi, Mama"--"Hi, Tonio" exchanges with his mother--it broke my heart every time) was an intimate and powerful experience, and when I finished I felt I had just had a long and passionate conversation with a friend--which i was very sorry to end.



3. Anthony Rapp tells an emotional story about personal life, love, and loss as he describes the years surrounding the phenomenon that is Rent. This is a book no Renthead should be without. Afer reading this book, I feel like I have gotten to know Anthony as a person, and gotten a rare glimpse through Anthony's eyes of the man that was Jonathan Larson.



4. Anthony Rapp was in on the creation of the masterpiece which became the Broadway sensation "Rent," almost from the beginning. He has written his memoir of that experience with great sensitivity and insight.
   
   This book is a riveting tale about the creative process, how a play goes through its evolution to get to Broadway, and how every once in awhile a theatrical miracle can happen which changes everyone's lives. "Rent" is such a miracle. I just saw the play once again on Broadway this past weekend. I took my teenaged daughters to see it. After eleven years, it is finally closing down some time this year. If you cannot get to New York to see the play, rent the movie. It's not as good, but almost.
   
   I loved this book, and recommend it to anyone who has ever overcome adversity to pursue a dream.



5. This book is amazing. It's a great read, easy to follow and really hits at your heart. I would reccommend it to everyone.