1 comments about One Two Three.

1. Extremely entertaining, well written, author had a broad knowledge of history which he used to infuse humor into the various stories of his childrens' lives. A MUST READ!!!

No comments about Transitions: Stories of Our Journeys.

1 comments about Exodus II The Promised Land.

1. This book describes faithfully how the Jews have suffered under the dictatorial regime of Nasser the humiliations, discriminations, jail imprisonments and the confiscations of all their assets for the sole crime of being Jews. During all that period from 1952 to 1977 the western world turned a blind eye and a deaf ear on what was going on. During the peace talks between Egypt and Israel in 1978, the state of Israel didn't submit any claim for compensation or indemnity for the Jews of Egypt and the reason for that is they didn't want to deal with a similar claim against Israel coming from the Palestinians who left their homes in 1948. The book relates the political history of events which ultimately led all the Jews to escape from Egypt. The author also writes about the easy and comfortable life during his childhood. I particularly liked the chapters dealing with the Mediterranean summer resort of Ras El Barr, the winter villa at Helwan and how the author's Grand father got his nickname of Canon. I highly recommend this book.

No comments about My Home is in the Smoky Mountains.

No comments about His Name Was Amy Mable: A Lifetime of Memories.

No comments about Fetched-Up Yankee: A New England Boyhood Remembered.

No comments about Young Victoria.

1 comments about Speaking Volumes: A Dublin Childhood.

1. "In this highly original genre-defying book, the author remember her childhood in Dublin in the 1930s and 1940s as a poor Protestant living among even poorer Catholics. She tells of her strange home in the gate lodge of Jonathan Swift's hospital for the insane, and of her increasingly strained relationship with her devoted but undemonstrative father. Reading was her salvation, and in novels like Jane Eyre, Hard Times and Anna Karenina she found her own inarticulate experience better understood and better expressed. Pithy, illuminating commentaries on the emotional truth of great literature alternate with chapters of strong personal memoir to make this unique book as universal in its reach as it is individual in its telling." (reviewed by Read Ireland Book Review
   Issue 119)

5 comments about Native State.

1. I'm quickly approaching the end of this book and already saddened by that fact. This has got to be one of the best books I've ever read. I'm principally a fan of non-fiction and this memoir has really touched me. If you fancy yourself as musical, nostalgic, cosmopolitan, idealist or perhaps, simply human in the least bit, you will undoubtedly find yourself attached to this book. Maybe I relate to it more than others will but the wanderlust, the music, the cast of shadowy figures, the distance (figurative and literal) between self and family all tug at my heart with a true, visceral immediacy. I found it extremely thought-provoking and wisdom-imparting. With jazz in my ears, misadventure on my mind, and a bittersweetness in my heart, I will be reading this one again and again.



2. Tony Cohan's attempt to cope with the father who dominated his life has produced this splendid tale of escape into adventures literary, musical, and romantic in lands far and near. Mr. Cohan's abundant talents enabled him to find acceptance among musical and literary figures whose names will surely inspire threads of memory for readers of a certain age, say 60 and older. The memoir thus opens many more windows than would the ramblings of a less gifted protagonist.
   
   The writing is more than equal to the images it is called on to create, and the influence of Mr. Cohan's father is delineated touchingly and understandably as it evolves from early days in New York and Hollywood up to the day of the elder Mr. Cohan's death.



3. This is a favorite for me - a retrospecitve on real life adventures of a man experiencing life with reckless abandon, yet searching for something - meaning, fulfillment, legacy...
   
   Tony Cohan bares his sole, show his flaws, character strengths and character failings. No glossing over the facts, just tells it like it was. Easy to relate to for those with a sense of wanderlust. His failings are our failings. We experience his adventures as if we were there.
   
   A really good read if you like biographies, adventure, character studies...
   
   Cohan's "On Mexican Time" was also a very good book.



4. I purchased this book based on the author's experiences with many artists that have touched my life. I found this to be a slow read and not particularly thought inducing. Perhaps someday as my father is aging I will re-read it and find a new appreciation for it, but until then I would suggest avoiding this one.



5. Tony Cohan, an incredibly gifted writer - his account of finding a new life in Mexico, 'On Mexican Time', is a superior contribution to the genre of literary travel memoir - has written a sort of early prequel to that book, a fascinating and heartrending story of one man's search for a meaningful life. This is played out in retrospect as he watches his father die in present day Los Angeles. He takes us back to his boyhood in the shadow of a belittling and domineering man, who shaped him for all that was to come. Young Cohan was an accomplished jazz drummer playing with greats like Dexter Gordon in Copenhagen - and pre-Ringo Beatles in Hamburg! - but he gave this up to follow a trickier path of self-expression as a writer. This led him through the early days of the counterculture that began in the late 1950s and flowered into the sex,drugs, rock and roll, Buddhism of the 60s. Cohan hung out with Paul Bowles in Morocco, Jim Morrison in LA, Burroughs in Paris. But this is much more than a name-dropping memoir. It's the paradigm voyage of a generation, and Cohan is its very best, most moving explicator. A great and moving book.

4 comments about My Father Was A Bit Player.

1. In the airport recently, I picked up the Los Angeles Times and came across a review of this delightful book, which will appeal to movie buffs, history buffs or anyone whose family experienced the Great Depression. I quote from Jonathan Kirsch who wrote the review: "The next time a 1930s gangster flick called 'Kid Galahad' shows up on cable, take a close look at the guy in the spectacles and the fedora standing next to Humphrey Bogart. 'If you are familiar with many B movies of the late '30s or '40s,' writes Joan M. Cunningham, 'you would probably recognize my father's face, if not his name.' Joe Cunningham was one of the character actors who are the unsung heroes of old Hollywood, and his brief but memorable career is detailed in an unabashedly sentimental memoir by his daughter. Joan Cunningham recalls a childhood on the margins of Hollywood." The review goes on to highly recommend this fascinating book about the other side of Hollywood during it's Golden Age. I picked up the book and couldn't put it down.



2. Just returned from a tip to California where I learned about the Hollywood moguls who founded the movie industry. What a joy, when I returned, to discover this little book--the other side of the coin--that told what it was like for families to live and work amoung the famous in Hollywood of the 30s and 40's. The author takes you back with her to walk the streets where Jackie Cooper was her neighbor and little girls adventured out to get a peek at the big studio lots. You feel the highs of dining at Chassens when dad has a bit part and the lows of moving to a smaller house when bits are sparse. A love story from a daughter for her father, forever a featured player in her life.



3. A delightful read. I was transported back in time to an era of "B" movies as seen in the lives of the players, a family that shared love, and tough times with humor and strength.



4. A revealing, surprising, delightful look at bygone Hollywood by one who was there: the daughter of the "Bit Player" in the title. This personal remembrance is sprinkled with the famous--and not-so-famed--personalities and events that have shaped our impression of Hollywood's "golden age." Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Ginger Rogers...they're all here, but in small roles, supporting the star: Joe Cunningham.

   Snap this one up for an insider's look at a special time in our nation's cultural history. You'll be rewarded with page after page of anecdotes about life on the edge of the spotlight, and in the middle of how things really were. (Check out the photo of the author at Shirley Temple's birthday party--she's adorable!)

   I was fascinated by the star-studded stories, and touched by the loving look back at a uniquely American family. I recommend this to all who appreciate good movies, good writing and good reads.