No comments about Richard Ramirez - The Night Stalker (Biography).

No comments about Diario de mi cautiverio/ Diary of my Captivity.

2 comments about The Black Donnellys: The Outrageous Tale of Canada's Deadliest Feud (Amazing Stories).

1. This new book on the Donnellys is an interesting read and a fine place to start for anyone new to the story of Canada's so-called "Black Donnellys." However, as someone who does know the story quite well, I was a little disappointed that this book didn't really explore any new territory or offer any new angles or extra information we haven't already seen before. However, in most cases it is clear that Hendley has researched the subject enough to know when to say certain dates or facts are still in dispute and when to write them down as historical fact. The only other criticisms I have are over a few minor historical details. For instance, he writes that James Donnelly had heard about a place called Southern Ontario from other immigrants. I find this hard to visualize since he and most other immigrants were illiterate. Back then a trip to North America was 99% one-way so if his illiterate friends did want to write to him about it, how would he have read it? Tales 'about' or 'of' other immigrants would be more accurate. In fairness though, James Donnelly would definitely have heard stories about a place called Upper Canada, or, increasingly by the mid nineteenth century, Canada West. However, he would not have heard of a place called "Southern Ontario", a name which wouldn't have been in use until a few more decades after he arrived. He also writes that Grosse Isle is north of Montreal when in fact it is east of Quebec City. Another geographical error is one where he writes that The Roman Line road led to Lucan. It actually goes in a more southerly direction to London. To get to Lucan, one must turn right off the Roman line in a northwest direction. There is also another part where James Donnelly on his return from a 7 year stint in the pen, returns to his home on the Roman Line. Right after he greets his family, the Donnellys then parade around streets of Lucan as if Lucan where right outside their door. The farm was over 7 miles from Lucan and horses would have been needed to accomplish this. Hendley does write that later on that evening after dinner, the Donnellys do ride into Lucan which doesn't really add up. None of these things really affect the overall accuracy of the book so I guess I am nit-picking a bit here. I would definitely recommend this book as a good introduction to the story of the Donnellys and as a generally easy, entertaining read.



2. This new book on the Donnellys is an interesting read and a fine place to start for anyone new to the story of Canada's so-called "Black Donnellys." However, as someone who does know the story quite well, I was a little disappointed that this book didn't really explore any new territory or offer any new angles or extra information we haven't already seen before. However, in most cases it is clear that Hendley has researched the subject enough to know when to say certain dates or facts are still in dispute and when to write them down as historical fact. The only other criticisms I have are over a few minor historical details. For instance, he writes that James Donnelly had heard about a place called Southern Ontario from other immigrant. I find this hard to visualize since he and most other immigrants he would have known would have been were illiterate. Back then a trip to North America was 99% one-way so if his illiterate friends did want to write to him about it, how would he have read it? Tales 'about' or 'of' other immigrants would be more accurate. In fairness though, James Donnelly would definitely have heard stories about a place called Upper Canada, or, increasingly by the mid nineteenth century, Canada West. However, he would not have heard of a place called "Southern Ontario", a name which wouldn't have been in use until a few more decades after he arrived. He also writes that Grosse Isle is north of Montreal when in fact it is east of Quebec City. Another geographical error is one where he writes that The Roman Line road led to Lucan. It actually goes in a more southerly direction to London. To get to Lucan, one must turn right off the Roman line in a northwest direction. There is also another part where James Donnelly on his return from a 7 year stint in the pen, returns to his home on the Roman Line. Right after he greets his family, the Donnellys then parade around streets of Lucan as if Lucan where right outside their door. The farm was over 7 miles from Lucan and horses would have been needed to accomplish this. Hendley does write that later on that evening after dinner, the Donnellys do ride into Lucan which doesn't really add up. None of these things really affect the overall accuracy of the book so I guess I am nit-picking a bit here. I would definitely recommend this book as a good introduction to the story of the Donnellys and as a generally easy, entertaining read.

No comments about Dark Spaces: Montana's Historic Penitentiary at Deer Lodge.

3 comments about Thief! The Gutsy, True Story of an Ex-Con Artist.

1. I bought this book because I'm interested in learning more about the Las Vegas-mob connection. I've had my fill of books chronicling the New York mob scene. I must it's a heck of story and has much more to offer the reader than just what it reveals about the Las Vegas scene. Writer Cherie Rohn should be commended for her literary mastery in harnessing Slick's energy on the written page, and I highly recommend "Thief" for anyone thirsting for a good read. I look forward to more books by Cherie Rohn, a new literary talent on the true crime scene.
   --Ron Chepesiuk, author, "Gangsters of Harlem" and "Drug Lords"



2. THIEF!, published by Barricade Books, is the gutsy true story of William `Slick' Hanner, an ex-con artist with mob ties, who grows up in "the toughest neighborhood in the world," 1940's Chicago , and makes his way into all kinds of trouble. From childhood pranks such as shoplifting for zoot suits, to getting entangled with the Lucchese Crime Family in Miami, where he almost becomes fish food. THIEF! takes you back to a bygone era where people could do things for kicks, rob casinos blind, and end up in the wrong places without becoming a "made guy." In fact, Slick was on the fringes of all the hottest scenes throughout the last half of the 20th century, whether it was working in Las Vegas as a Stardust dealer, serving as Jerry Lewis' bodyguard, driving a limo for the infamous Chicken Ranch in Nevada, or celebrating New Years in Havana the night Castro took over Cuba. You name it and Slick has lived it.
   
   Cherie writes the book in a fast-paced tone, true to Slick's voice. If I didn't know her, she would be invisible; she writes that well. And we as writers know that is one of the toughest things to conquer when writing a biography; yet Cherie does this with ease. The book is a hard-hitting adrenaline rush with a lot of laughter. She can tell you a story in a sentence; she knows how to cut the fat. This is an epic with a lifetime of story and well worth the read.



3. Crime is a dark subject, but this is one colorful book about a thief you just gotta love. A Mafia insider with a good sense of humor and a bad attitude, Slick Hanner is now talking. His life is high-speed, often perilous and always entertaining. Much of the action is set in fascinating, Rat Pack era Las Vegas. Readers of true crime, organized crime, the Rat Pack days and biographies are sure to enjoy.
   
   Rick Porrello
   Author of Superthief - A Master Burglar, the Mafia and the Biggest Bank Heist in U.S. History
   [...]

5 comments about Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, the Spy Who Ushered in the McCarthy Era.

1. This foolish book attempts to make the case that Bentley initiated the age of McCarthy. According to that thinking, anyone who unmasked a traitor was a McCarthyite- that is beyond stupid. What Igor Gouzenko and Bentley and Whittaker Chambers did was to expose the extent of Soviet espionage in the US. With the publication of Venona and the previously secret KGB files we know now that there were more Americans who betrayed their country than we ever suspected. They were traitors to the US and seriously damged this country. They were the real villains of the age.



2. This is the story of Elizabeth Turrill Bentley. No one suspected a "well-bred, Vassar educated descendent of Puritan Clergy" would join a communist party and run "two of the most productive spy rings in America." That is exactly what Bentley, code name Clever Girl, did. Equally unexpected was her transformation from spy to FBI informant.
   
   It all started in March of 1935 when Bentley was lured to an American League Against War and Fascism meeting by a neighbour. It turned out to be a front for the Communist Party. Kessler's descriptions draw the reader into the setting and give an idea of the atmosphere, as well as Bentley's mentality. Clever Girl attempts to shed light on the motivations of the most important woman to affect the McCarthy Era.
   
   Bentley's early dealings with the party made her feel important and independent. She lived in a one room apartment and was unemployed. She was lonely. Going to meetings may have started off as a social event but it turned into something more. A calling. She was impressionable. In the opening chapter I felt she had been brainwashed and lured into the fold because of her loneliness, desire to have a family and ties with others.
   
   Shortly after joining, Bentley met and fell in love with soviet handler Jacob Golos whom she affectionately called Yasha. Golos was the glue that attached Bentley to the party for years despite him not being as loyal to her. She let him interpret the world for her through his communist eyes. Regardless of what she gave up for him, it is because of her association with Golos she was able to move up through the ranks. After only 6 years (1935-1941), Bentley was running things.
   
   When it was discovered he was no longer in control she had to fight to maintain her status. She quickly became deemed a problem and after Golos death her status was taken away. Although Kessler doesn't come out and say it, I think this had more to do with her being a woman than the fact she was an American in a high ranking, Soviet spy position.
   
   When things started to look worse, she decided it as time to go to the FBI for help. In exchange Bentley named hundreds of Americans involved with the party. It is incomprehensible, the number of people who willingly supplied sensitive information from the Treasury Department to the party. It isn't so hard to believe or see the Soviet Union (the US wartime ally) as an "evil-doer" but what is difficult to believe is that Americans could be spies against their own country.
   
   What I found most interesting was not Bentley's plunge into the depths of communism but her relationship with the FBI and media after she became an informant; as well as her flip flop between a secure, independent woman of means and a neurotic paranoid, probably brought on by the alcohol abuse.
   
   Bentley played a game with both sides, never winning in either. She survived under a short-lived spotlight in each. Being an FBI informant wasn't as glamorous as being a Soviet spy. As a spy she basically worked alone and had control over what happened to her. As an FBI informant she was constantly scrutinized by the FBI, congress and most indignantly by the media. Her life was never normal. While most days I think she reveled in the limelight I also think that she longed for privacy, but mostly I think she longed for their respect.
   The stereotypes of this time period are evident and well known. Bentley was a woman in a male dominated society. She held a high-ranking position but she was never really respected for it. Not by the Soviets, the FBI, nor the media who directed lots of name calling her way. If she had been a man I wonder what their views would have been of her and how she would have been handled. Clever Girl shows the life of Elizabeth Bentley, the past she couldn't outrun and the price she paid for the choices she made. Kessler's interpretation of the facts is worth reading both for its historical and entertainment value.
   
   Review Originally Posted at http://www.linearreflections.com



3. Liz Bentley was born in a society that had limited opportunities for women. In the 1930's with the Great Depression this Vassar graduate had only the socila outlet of the Communist party.
   Kessler documents the importance that Bentley played as a Communist spy. Indeed before this book was written I always had the impression she was a courier or a bit player. Kessler documents that when bentley's lover got sick that she ran the spy ring. I always thoguth of Communist espionage in the 1950's as male driven from Greenglass, Julius Rosenberg, Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. But this book docwement without Bently the FBI would not had the collaboratiog evidence for the secret Venona intercepts. Because these tapes were secret ,Bentley had no collaboration and only one person -William remington went to jail arising directly fromn her accusations.
   Bentley had to endure the hatred of the far left for being a rat , a liar and worse. She contributed to rise of McCarthy and for J Edgar Hoover getting more powerful. Benley was years ahead of herself -running a businees (admitedly a Communist front). She was sexually expressive and her lover -Jakob Golos (whom was married) was her boss in epsionage. Benley exposed 2 spy rings the Perlo and Silvermaster ring and in doing so performed a patriotic duty.
   Where I fault this book is that more details on the spy ring could have been given. Kessler seems to weant to defend Bentley against the far left but is uncomfortable delineating the extent of Soviet infiltration of the US Government. Such a thing sounds like McCarthyism (proof of the validity) and she may be showing her poltical bias in not making this connection. This book is a quick read and gives this fascinating part of US history. This book should be included in a Women's Study group.



4. Although the life of Elizabeth Bently deserves a bigger book, I enjoyed this first biography of the enigmatic but fascinating commie spy, Elizabeth Bently. The author attempts to explain this Vassar educated American woman who became a Russian spy, but Bently still remains a vague phantom. Since I'm fascinated by that whole period--of Joe McCarthy, Alger Hiss, the shocking presence of real-life commnists in American government back in the 30s and 40s--I found this book very readable. You might also enjoy related books, especially Ann Coulter's best-selling, "Treason," which really delivers the goods about how the Communist scare of the 40s and 50s was not the imaginary fear of paranoid Americans. It really was something to cause genuine fear. Elizabeth Bently revealed just have intensive this spy network was.



5. As indicated, I have mixed sentiments about this book. The story is engaging enough, and Kessler delivers it in a readable, comfortable manner. However, it often seems as if she is acting more as an apologist for Bentley, rather than giving a fully candid evaluation.
   Bentley's career as teacher, communist, spy, and FBI informant is enticing and worth investigating, but there are some irritating flaws. Most prominent is the lack of footnotes; there is an endnote page, but no numbers in the narrative that correspond with it. There is also the unnerving sense that something is constantly amiss. For all her organizational skill, and apparent value to the Soviet spy network, Bentley is repeatedly duped, manipulated, and outright naive. The author never adequately resolves this paradox, and thus somewhat undermines its historical credibility. In fact, she ( Bentley) almost never seems to understand the implications of her actions, and is striking for appearing so intellectually shallow. Indeed , not very clever at all.
   Despite these limitations, it is entertaining, but should be read with the cautionary anteenae in place.

No comments about Mackman! Forced Into The Game.

1 comments about Justice Restored: The Gary Geiger and Wayne Blanchard Story.

1. Justice Restored depicts the life of two men who meet one morning in 1981, one young man is a nationally ranked amateur athlete working the graveyard shift, the other young man is a high school dropout on parole, he and his 5 friends wanted to commit a simple robbery which escalated into something much bigger. Years later the two men would meet again and that meeting would garner worldwide attention. It is a story of victimization and what victims of crime and life go through, something we don't much hear about, the nightmares, the PTSD, the anger, the unresolved questions as to why me. It is also a story of why the recidivism rate among offenders is so high, the book takes twists and turns, too unbeliveable at times to be true, it's shocking and dramatic and gives society another way to look at our retributive criminal justice system, I recommend this book to anyone who has been or knows a victim or anyone interested in crime.

5 comments about Brothers and Keepers.

1. John Edgar Wideman has composed an interesting take of two lives gone wrong in his memoir, "Brothers and Keepers". In the memoir, Wideman explores the causes and consequences of his brother's life sentence in jail for murder. Wideman speaks his mind about the whole affair, but also lets his brother do his fair share of the talking through a series of interviews the two shared in the prison visiting room. Though the basic goal of the memoir is to determine how two brothers followed such radically different paths, it delves into the broader topic of African-American men and society.
   
   Even though it overall is a great experience, two problems I had with the novel was its lack of structure and Wideman's tendency to rant. It seems that Wideman tends to build up a subplot, but then just as suddenly dashes away to discuss something new. This makes the book difficult to read more than a few pages at a time. As for the ranting, it's like Wideman tries to use the text as a way to vent his frustrations about racism in America. His whining can get excruciatingly annoying. But, despite these problems, "Brothers and Keepers" is an excellent look into the lives of two African-American men, while reflecting on the role of the African-American race as a whole.



2. Brothers and Keepers is a fantastic memoir written by John Edgar Wideman that explores how the narrator and his brother, Robby, end up living extremely opposite lives. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Wideman and his brother are not given all of the best opportunities but Wideman does what he can to work hard. His efforts result in a well educated, middle class man, while his brother ends up a convict. The memoir explores where the two divulged and what influences they've had throughout their lives.
   In terms of actual material, the memoir is ordered in a way that keeps the reader riveted throughout all of the text. Wideman tells the story of his brother's crime, divulging from that plot to reflect upon their family's life as a whole. These unique reflections provide valuable insight into both John and Robby's most inner thoughts. The pace of the novel is fairly rapid; although, sometimes I found myself losing interest in Wideman's reflections, anxious to hear the next part of Robby's tale.
   What makes this memoir most unique is the frequency with which Wideman acknowledges what few or many details he is capable of recalling from his past. Not only does this make the story even more believable, it allows the reader to make many of their own decisions about what really happened in John and Robby's lives. The reader also gets to hear the voice of Robby, who also often fails to remember specific or important details. Wideman writes, speaking for his brother (the text uses no quotations), "Must have passed out or gone to sleep or something, cause it gets blurry round in here. Don't remember much but they gave back my clothes and took me Downtown and there was a arraignment next morning" (103). On one of the most important and emotional days in Robby's life, he can't seem to remember how the day ended. It is these sporadic inclusions and omissions keep the reader inquisitive throughout the text.
   Overall Brothers and Keepers is a very well written memoir that forces readers to dig deep into their own mind because most humans struggle with very similar life dilemmas, although probably not to the same extent. Although some may argue that that some memories ramble on too long, each provides a unique perspective about Wideman and the human race as a whole.



3. In a sentence: This is an excellent book about honesty and fact and fiction. It blurs the lines between truth and lies, real and fake, memory and what happened v.s. what really happened. Beautiful. Wideman puts himself and his family front and center and at the core of the story. One is not quite sure which is fiction and which is non-fiction. Also, when persons speak there are no quotation marks and the reader distinguishes who is talking by the choice of vocabulary and flow of the language. You can really hear the difference in your head.
   The basic discription is: It's Wideman trying to make sense of his growing up and how his broother ended up in jail for murder.
   This is a great book for lovers of Paul Auster in that "what is the truth of the matter?" is a recurring question......



4. wideman tells an excellent tale about how two siblings of the same environment can go on to lead totally different lives. One brother is a world reknowned novelist and professor. The other brother is a convict serving a life sentence for murder. Wideman explains and analyzes how culture, including racism, classism,and self-identication, influences a person's lifestyle. At times the memoir seems reminscent and nostalgic. Other times, wideman tends to get lost in his own thoughts while writng, which makes the work appear as therapeutic writing not intended for others to read. The issues he raises in the book such as racism, self-identification, and guilt, helps us as readers to recall our own issues with these subjects and how we can work through them.



5. As a proponent for art that breaks the rules, I was both impressed and confused by Wideman's foray into creative nonfiction. He explores the relationship with his brother, Robby, who was involved in criminal activity and subsequently sent to prison. Wideman engages the reader with detailed descriptions of not only the physical barriers between himself and Robby but the emotional canyons that separated and then, ironically, brought them back together. This work also examines the ways in which race and class affect those most at risk in America, specifically African American men.

   At times, the scenes between brothers are eloquent and endearing. However, much of the writing seems stream-of-consciousness, with Wideman switching voices and recalling seemingly random memories. Understanding that this book is Wideman's attempt at answering questions that have plagued him his entire life - self-exploration - as readers, we work through his issues with him. The journey is an arduous one for both writer and reader and if you plan on picking up this book, be prepared to work.

No comments about Outlaw Tales of Idaho: True Stories of the Gem State's Most Infamous Crooks, Culprits, and Cutthroats (Outlaw Tales).