5 comments about Fly Fast...Sin Boldly.

1. Normally Bill Lear Jr. is described in books about his famous father THE Bill Lear (Learjet) as somewhat a playboy who crashed a lot of planes. Perhaps this is the curse of having a famous father? Bill Lear Jr. has his own say here and comes across a bit of an a@#hole but he did fly a lot of high-performance aircraft, starting from an early age. His experiences doing the early air shows and air races are worth reading about. It was a different time when business deals were a bit loose and so I will give Bill Jr. the benefit of the doubt. Even his military experience is notable. Later in his career he seems to have become a successful aircraft and avionics salesman. Like his father, he had problems/opportunities with women and I lost count after wife #3. I find it a bit strange that he writes very little of his relationships with his children. All in all, a good read about a pilot with opportunity and balls.



2. A friend loaned me the book. Having been in the aviation field all my life I found the book to be very entertaining. If you are merely an aviation Buff or involved, like I am, you will relate to much of the story. It's a fast read with hilarious anecdotes.



3. Owning and flying a WW II P-38 Lightning at age 17 is just one of the many episodes of his life that Bill Lear vividly brings back to life in this autobiography of his life. His knowledge of all aspects of aviation, his insight into life and relationships, combined with his great sense of humor, make this a book that is hard to put down once you start reading it. The only thing better than reading about his experiences is to hear him tell about some of them in person and I feel fortunate to have been able to experience that.

   Non aviation enthusiasts will enjoy this book as well as aviation enthusiasts. It is a great gift idea and everyone of our friends who have read it have enjoyed it.




4. A book that once you pick up you can't put down. A wonderful insight into Aviation and the adventures of a truly remarkable man.



5. A great book from one of the coolest guys I know!!
   It is a "must" for anybody, who has something to do with aviation.
   I would appreciate it, when this book will be continues published.

No comments about Gracie and the Mountain: Growing Young Climbing Mount LeConte.

5 comments about ONE WAVE AT A TIME.

1. Bill Brown is a con man who has written a book full of lies and half truths. He has brain washed his children and taught them to lie cheat and steal. Everywhere they go they leave a pile of trash and a line of enemies. I know this first hand. If they should ever cross your path go the other way. They lived in houses with the windows boarded up and wouldn't let there children associate with any other people.
   That is the sad truth.



2. One of the best books I have ever read. The human spirit never ceases to amaze me, and the nature of that is captured in this book. I am awed.



3. If you have never read a book you could not put down, you need to start reading "One Wave At A Time." This is one tremendous and heartwarming true story of one man's tragedy, saga, perseverance, survival, and the sheer will to live and provide for his close knit family. Each of the heart-stopping chapters would make a wonderful book. If you think you have problems, read this book and you will be thankful that your problems are just minor. I am thankful that this man put his story into print. My heart and admiration goes out to him and to his family.



4. ONE WAVE AT A TIME
   I had the pleasure of reading this book right after it was published. I couldn't put it down once I had cracked it open! The adventures, tests and trials the Brown family survived were a testament to how powerful love and determination can be in the face of huge experiences - some wonderful and some so frightening that it seems impossible to fathom. The Browns are truly an amazing family. They are close-knit - not just out of necessity, but out of an authentic, unwavering devotion to each other.
   
   When Billy Brown lost his parents and sister as a teenager (as if that wasn't bad enough) then to top off the horror, the Texas court system, his father's advisors and business partners failed the boy miserably, taking anything they could get their greedy hands on, he could have completely shut down, immobilized by what I can only categorize as a most justifiable anger. Instead, he embarked on the journey of a lifetime - one which I have to say I envy - even during the overwhelmingly hard stuff.
   
   One thing I noticed throughout the entire read was the unabashed love the man has for his wife and kids. He has a right to be proud of them all. They are a force of love, purity, and innocence in a world gone mad with trivialities. Billy Brown and his beautiful family are a treasure in and of themselves. He has taken me in my dreams to the vast Alaskan wilderness and has shown me the majesty of her nature, the value of family and the capacity of the human spirit for unity, survival and continuation. My hat goes off to them and my heart goes out to them.
   
   To Billy: You did good. Your legacy will continue through the amazing family you've shared with us and the life stories you have left with us.
   
   In a nutshell, theirs is a story not to be missed!



5. This book would read as a wonderful fictional tale, however, realizing that it is indeed a non-fiction reading makes it even more impressive. A wonderful story emphasizing family values that so often seem over-looked in society today. This is a 'must read' for any person looking for an uplifting, spiritual story that doesn't harp on the common cliches that so many new releases seem to in the present.

3 comments about Hemingway in Africa.

1. Ondaatje is one of my favorite writers. In Hemingway in Africa he takes the reader on a journey that Hemingway himself did not reveal. The photographs are wonderful and the writng is engaging. I truly enjoyed this unique book. Highly recomended.
   
   Also Recomended: Woolf in Ceylon, Traces of Eden



2. The best thing about this book are the repro photos of Hemingway and his contemporaries. Sadly, the author's own photos, scavenged from his previous trip files, are mostly poor stock. The same can be said of his writing. There are no new nor creditable insights into Hemingway here, in fact you will mainly learn about author Ondaarje's own quirks and predelictions, ad nauseum. Ondaatje is not a hunter, knows nothing of hunting, and yet presupposes his ability to dissect "Hemingway in Africa" when in fact hunting was the sole motivator for Ernest's 1933 trip to the dark continent. It's like a medical biography penned by a chimney sweep. You will get very little insight into Ernest Hemingway as the book wanders hither and yon. Even worse, the book is full of factual errors and shaky assumptions as Ondaatje waddles over the landscape searching Hemingway's trail. Ondaatje had previously been in Africa for a book on British explorers Speke and Burton. It is apparent he decided to capitalize on that experience and become a literary critic. He has failed miserably. Buy the book for the pictures, nothing else....



3. I enjoyed Christopher Ondaatje's book from beginning to end. It is well worth the price, and the sheer weight of the book is impressive, for although it is not a big book in height or in number of pages, when you pick it up youu feel the tension in your wrists and lower arms, for each page is extremely thick, creamy and rich, and most of them have photographs placed in them. Physically it is a luxury object.
   
   And it certainly tells us a lot about Hemingway, particularly a facet of his life that I had never cared to peer too deeply into, thinking that his mania for hunting game revealed a side to his character even more contemptible than the others. But oddly enough reading this book had the opposite effect, and one winds up with a queer sympathy for Hemingway, and his adventures in the wild both during his early (30s) trip with Pauline Pfeiffer his second wife, which resulted in the stories, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and "The Snows of Kiliminjaro"--and then much later (20 years later), he and Miss Mary embarked on an ill-fated sequel to this safari that caused them both much grief and physical pain and he wound up writing the God awful TRUE AT FIRST LIGHT and during which he clearly went a little insane. All of this Christopher Ondaatje followed, the exact same footsteps, and his journey into the heart of Africa seems to have caused him no cavils at all.
   
   I expect you'll like this book. It reveals a lot of truth and a lot of delicacy of perception.

1 comments about 1968 and I'm Hitchhiking Through Europe.

1. This book is a riveting read, full of drama, tension and joy, and good and evil. It was one of the best reads in years.
   The book is an exciting travel story, but more, it engages us in a search for values. Everywhere Joe goes he engages people in a debate about society and politics. An underlying theme is what kind of society do we want; a society based on war, money, greed and arrogance, or a society of understanding, sharing and caring. For me the book is very relevent to the present moment, and the dark direction America is taking in the world.
   
   Peter Kinney
   Pennsauken, NJ

5 comments about Scotland Is Not for the Squeamish.

1. This is a great book. I couldnt put it down! - riotously funny in places but very poignant in others. Dont let the title put you off - this is a very memorable book and you will be glad you took the time to read it!



2. Bill Watkins' second book is at least as good as the first('A Celtic Childhood'), and continues the 'History of Bill' through his young adulthood with great adventure in Scotland('Course, he has to get there first). I rated this book five out of fibe stars only because that is the limit. It's easily a 10!



3. Bill,
   Delighted to purchase Scotland is not for the squeamish. I'm buying a celtic childhood again to give as a gift, what a riot reading this book on the plane,with the headphones on and "Laughing out loud."well, its that sort of funny book



4. This continues Bill Watkins's autobiography through his time at sea, and in the Scotland of the late 60's and ealy seventies.

   As well as the humour, you'll love the evocative prose, which with a surprisingly few words summons up as vivid a picture as any I've ever read.

   Especially clever is his rendition of the Scots tongue.

   His stories of the start of the Celtic music revival, of living "on the broo" in Edinburgh and the start of the "Silly Wizard" folk group will make anyone smile.




5. Watkins has only got better. This second of a trilogy has it all.To quote " a smile that would free anyone's soul from gravity. " Read on.

No comments about Under the shadow of Pioneer Peak.

1 comments about Red Serge and Polar Bear Pants: The Biography of Harry Stallworthy, RCMP.

1. Lifetime Achievement Award-winning Canadian historian William Barr presents Arctic Hell-Ship: The Voyage of HMS Enterprise 1850-1855, the true story of Richard Collinson's sea voyage to the Arctic in search of the missing Franklin expedition. Collinson and his crew approached the Northwest Passage from the west, hoping to find and rescue the Franklin expedition; yet as time passed, relations between Collinson and his officers deteriorated so badly that three of them spent much of the voyage under arrest, though they were later exonerated of wrongful charges in the UK. A handful of color paintings by the ship's assistant surgeon, Edward Adams, illustrate this absorbing true story of bitter and unpredictable survival on the harsh arctic seas.

No comments about Henry Hudson His Times And His Voyages.

1 comments about La Salle: A Perilous Odyssey from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

1. This recent book by a very talented writer, Donald Johnson, lacks some of the marketing gimmicks of modern exploration books - there is no breathless blurb on the front cover and there are no obseqious peer reviews on the back. Nevertheless this is an excellent history of LaSalle, the French explorer who discovered the Mississippi - only to lose it. In 1682, LaSalle was the first European explorer to sail (by canoe) all the way down the great river, all the way through the Delta, to modern New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico itself - and then go through the labor of paddling all the way back up to French Canada. He named the newfound Mississipi country "Louisiana" - a label that has stuck to this day, albeit for a smaller geographic zone. La Salle's voyage was a simply staggering feat, and Johnson tells the story very well indeed.
   
   Perhaps more remarkable is the tragic story of La Salle's attempted return to the river in 1684, sailing this time from the west coast of France, via Haiti and into the Gulf of Mexico from the open sea - seeking to create a new French colony there. Despite all efforts, La Salle was unable to locate the river mouth, and his expedition ended up marooned in a particularly difficult stretch of Gulf coast in what today is Texas. La Salle ended up being murdered by his own shipmates.
   
   A masterful account of La Salle's voyages, with an interesting end-note on the recent efforts to locate the site of his Texan camp.