5 comments about Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found.

1. I received a copy of this book along with enthusiastic reviews from two of my co-workers. I both expected and wanted to share their enthusiasm, but for me the book lacked credibility. The first section of the book dealing with her mother's progressive illness, her brother's anger, and her father's growing physical and emotional absence resonated with me. However, the later parts of the book concerning her relationship with her stepmother and her abandonment in the commune seem so exaggerated as to be false. (What about her elementary school teachers? Would they be indifferent to her absences, illnesses and obvious neglect?) I doubt very much that the author has verified her account either by interviewing any of the other participants or revisiting any of the places in the story. For me, this tarnishes what should be a powerful story of overcoming loss, anger and estrangement and abuses the term "memoir". I suspect that had this been submitted to her publishers as a work of fiction, Ms. Lauck's editor would have demanded a "truer" story.



2. This book was simply amazing... As a person that has had the chance to meet Jennifer and talk to her the book it just makes it that much more amazing. This story is all true and it is amazing that one person can go through so much.



3. I kept thinking, "This has to get better, this downward spiral can't continue."
   
   And yet it does. And it does again, and oh Lordy, not again... and yes, there it goes again.
   
   Ms. Lauck's beautiful writing is what carried me through. I tried to read this title once and had to set it down, it was simply too much heartache encapsulated in one read for me. On my second attempt, I devoured it in three days and I am hungry to read the sequel.
   
   Many of the reviewers here have synopsized the story of "Blackbird" - Jennifer Lauck's story opens as she is a little girl, preschool aged child, with a very sick Mommy and simply doing the best she can - idolizing and learning from her Mommy, quoting her Mommy's favorite self-care mantras... and attempting to understand what is happening while following the rules-of-life-according-to-Mama.
   
   Her handsome, hardworking Daddy does what he can, and little Jenny (who he calls Juniper) does her best to keep things afloat even when Mama dies and brother Bryan creates mayhem and insta-wicked-step-Mom sends her to a cult camp... it is one sad (yet life-affirming, somehow) tale after another until at the very end when fate turns... or so we hope.
   
   Fabulous writing from a child's point of view.... and if it is hard for you to get through on your first attempt, try again later. You will be glad that you did.



4. Jennifer's memories of her childhood contains the detail and emotion that captures readers and draws them into her early life. At a too-young age, she assumes much of the care of her terminally ill mother. You are drawn into the vivid scenes of her mother's illness, the all-too-brief attention from her father and the cruelties of her brother.
   Her life becomes increasingly difficult as first her mother dies, her father remarries and the stepmother resents and mistreats her. After her father's heart attack, Jennifer suffers greatly from neglect and malice from her stepmother and step-siblings.
   You can't stop reading, but at times it is hard to keep going as you relive her life through her words. You fear for the child and hope it doesn't get worse, but it does. If you've read The Glass Castle and Angela's Ashes, then add this book to your reading list. It's a memorable account of a dreadful childhood and the ability to endure and overcome hardship.



5. I this book inspired me. If a 11 year old girl can move her own bedroom furniture a crossed town all by herself then I can surely handle things in my life! I fully intend on getting the next book in the series to see how Juniper handles the next years of her life.

No comments about The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood.

5 comments about Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood.

1. Anyone who grew up in a small town in the 40's and 50's will enjoy this book, especially if that small town was in the South. Willie Morris was a brilliant wordsmith. I have read several of his books and this one may be my favorite.



2. I am from Yazoo City so this book has always been one of my favorites. I saw Willie Morris at a car wash in Jackson, MS not long before his death. I was shy and didn't want to bother him, so I didn't introduce myself and have a chat. I would have loved to have spoken with him. Now I regret my shyness - should've taken the chance. Yazoo City has an enduring quality and charm that shows in all his books and stories. No matter where I live, it will always be home. There is a great feeling of safety and warmth whenever I drive into the city limits. It is a feeling of home. Not many people have that sense of home these days. I feel blessed to have grown up there.



3. I was born 2 years after Mr. Morris. My childhood was not at all like Mr. Morris'. I recognized some of the events of the times, but the adventures he told of going through came across to me as gross exaggerations; just think of the 8 foot+ tall Indians he mentions. And the story about the race - very, very unlikely. His tales remind me somewhat of the character in the movie "Bigfish". Even thinking about Tom Sawyer, the incidents in there were not as outlandish as those in "Good Old Boy". To me this book was entertaining and well-written, but not really enlightening regarding growing up in the 40's. I watched baseball in those days, I went into a haunted house, I had my run-ins with a teacher's pet, etc. but I enjoyed Salinger's writing about this stuff much more.



4. This was a great memoir about a "typical" southern boy's childhood. I wish Willie Morris had not died so young because I found his work so enjoyable, and it would have been wonderful to read even more of his writing.

   I would not put Mr. Morris up on the same level as Mark Twain (and he probably would not want it either), but this book reminds me in a lot of ways of Tom Sawyer--a young boy's life on the Mississippi Delta. Everyone should experience these memories, whether in real time or vicariously.

   He tells of his childhood in Yazoo City, Mississippi, with all his childhood friends, including Spit McGee (the forty's Huckleberry Finn). He recalls their baseball games, football games, hunting on the Delta with his father, practical jokes played on anyone and everyone. He recounts the story of the Witch of Yazoo and the broken chain. One of the best and most humorous of his stories is the tale of the haunted house and what the boys found in it one dark and stormy night.

   I best remember in this book the chapters of a typical day in the life of a boy his age in Yazoo City--a day in the summer and a day in the fall. These are great vignettes and very poignant pulling in the reader to want to recall his or her own childhood memories.

   This is a great memoir and can be enjoyed by all.




5. This is one of the best books that I have ever read.Mr. Morrishas a beautiful writing style, and captures the beauty of the southperfectly.

5 comments about I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story.

1. The tragedy of losing someone as close to you as your first love is unimaginably painfull. It is made even more grueling if it is under the conditions that his fiance passed away in. There are those reading this book that forget that message. I am not one of those individuals. Thank you for sharing your story with the world. Nothing could ever bring her back but maybe telling her story will make you whole.



2. This book's title is very misleading. It should of been titled I Lost Myself In Baghdad. He talks about himself and very little about Ms. Parhamovich. I wonder how her family feels about his vague reference to her.



3. I teach high school history. This book gives an awesome over view of the war in Iraq. Giving heartfelt dipictions of the social consequences of war. I would encourage all to read.



4. This book is a ruse.
   
   The title of the book implies a love story for a woman who died in Baghdad. The reality is this book is the woman's death is used as a catalyst for the author to express his views about the Iraq war. Over 75% of the book is about him and less than 25% of the book is about her. Bottomline is Hastings is quite self-centered and he uses much of this book to tell you how good of a guy he is. The sad part is Ms. Parhamovich is more interesting.
   
   Now, I have no problem if this author does not like the Iraq war. If this is the case, then write an honest book about your political views and title it as such. But, the reality is this man used a dishonest tactic to express his politics.
   
   If someone ever decides to write a book about Ms. Parhamovich, let me know. Her boyfriend did a terrible job.



5. This truly amazing book tells two stories. The main story is of course the beautiful, modern love story between Michael and Andi. Everyone that has been in love can relate to the stories of their first couple dates, the playful yet intense arguments that you get into when first finding out about each other and the overall feeling of just wanting to be next to the person you love. The tragic end to their relationship literally made me break down and cry. It only took me a couple days to read most of the book, but it took an additional couple days just to read the last couple chapters. The final chapters are so overwhelming that I needed to stop reading every so often just to collect myself.
   
   The second story is about the war in Iraq. I have read hundreds of books and stories about the current conflict and no other book so fully explains the war better than "I Lost My love In Baghdad." Everyone should read this book in order to fully appreciate what is happening on a day to day basis to our troops and the Iraqi people.
   
   I fully recommend this book and encourage everyone to read it. You will not be able to put it down.

5 comments about Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer.

1. As good as anything Ann Rule ever wrote--and maybe even better.
   
   About the only complaint: author could have delved deeper into Unterweger's mother's life, as well as what exactly the killer's life was like as a young child, as he was raised by a grandfather who evidently was a mean drunk, etc.
   
   Other than that, a fine job of writing as well as research.
   Author John Leake definitely has a career in this field.



2. I bought this book based on the glowing reviews. I love true crime stories and was excited when this arrived. I tore into it, and it was off to a pretty good start. Then it started to drag...and drag....There were so many little details and names and places that I was bored stiff. I found myself daydreaming and having to reread passages on numerous occasions. I ended up skimming the final few chapters and then picking up at the end. I could not relate at all to the main character, Jack, and I had zero sympathy or empathy for him. He was purely evil and narcissistic and unlikeable, which, according to the author was the opposite of how many people in Vienna's society would have described him. I just didn't get it. Maybe the timing was wrong for me and this really was as great a book as the other reviewers claim. For me it was a borderline painful reading experience.



3. Congratualations to John Leake on this outstanding work! Having been directly involved with Unterweger's extradition to Austria, I can report that women lawyers, law enforcement officers, and diplomats were instrumental in every aspect of this fugitive's return to Austria to answer for his hideous crimes against women. This gives new meaning to the words "poetic justice."



4. A murderer gains celebrity and has the intelligentsia spring him. Only in America? Apparently not. This horror story is a wonderfully written account of an Austrian serial killer who used and abused the system and all its bureaucrats to do what came naturally for him. Author John Leake knows how to piece together a jigsaw puzzle of incompetence, luck (good and bad). This is a early page turner that will keep you shaking your head for a long time to come. Bravo.



5. Reading this horrifying account of the life of mass murderer Jack Unterweger, reminded me of the parole and subsequent incarceration of Jack Henry Abbott. You may recall that author Norman Mailer championed Abbott's cause and was instrumental in helping the convict gain freedom. The day before his book, In the Belly of the Beast, was reviewed in the NY Times, Abbott stabbed a waiter to death in a Manhattan restaurant. Unterweger had been jailed for the brutal rape and murder of a young girl. After writing a book, his cause for parole was taken up by the Austrian literati. He then proceeded to murder seven Austrian prostitutes, one in Prague and three in LA, all the while, making friends with the police, writing books and producing plays. Unterweger was incredibly narcissistic, sadistic and a sexual predator. The author painstakingly reconstructs the investigation from Austria, Prague and LA often jumping back and forth in time. It was not easy to bring all these threads together to form a cohesive whole, but I believe he did a fine job. This book is not for the squeamish, but should prove impossible to put down for readers of serial killers and also crime buffs.

5 comments about Max Perkins: Editor of Genius.

1. Berg's work rallies all aspiring authors to the cause of sainthood for Max Perkins...maybe even deification. He tracks Perkins's career vis-a-vis the literary careers of important 20th century American authors. Gives a peek at the largely ignored man behind the curtain...and stands as a monument to his contributions to our literary heritage. A must read for anyone who enjoys books.



2. Scott Berg's biography of Max Perkins is a warm, sparkling account of America's greatest editor in the prewar period, the midwife for works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe in the twenties and thirties, when big-time publishing converged on New York. Berg's book is cunningly organized: the reader steps at once into the rough and tumble of editorial work at Scribner's, leaving Perkins' early life, marriage, and family to be described in concise digressions taken only after we get another satisfying dollop of publishing history. Unhappily, once Perkins has delivered his discoveries to the public, the rest is mostly about their boozy extravagance (Fitzgerald), bullying ego trips (Hemingway), and petulant indiscipline verging on insanity (Wolfe). So even if, for this reason, you stop two-thirds of the way through, your curiosity about this key figure in modern literary history will be very well satisfied.



3. This is a wonderfully written book, very informative and inspiring for authors, editors, agents and anyone else involved or interested in publishing. Berg does a terrific and subtle job of painting these larger than life characters, allowing their own letters to speak for them. He shows remarkable restraint and good taste and yet has created a book that is enriching and very difficult to put down. Highly recommended!



4. Max Perkins was the great editor at Scribners who handled quite a few of the finest writers of the twentieth century, F. Scott Fitzgerad, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe being especially noteworthy (and dealt with at length in this biography). One might envy such a man with such a job, but Berg makes it clear that having to deal with the likes of these authors was like walking around with a huge millstone around Max's poor neck. His job was endless and thankless (Wolfe actually betrayed him). You see from the many letters quoted that many of them are blatant pleas for money. Saying that Perkins had to coddle some of these authors like children would be putting it mildly. Berg does an admirable job relaying Perkins's life and hard times. Recommended.



5. Scott Berg has written a wonderful biography on one of the most important men in American literature, Max Perkins. Berg's book is well-written and very entertaining. It is more than a biography of Perkins, it is also a biography of Hemingway, Scott Fiztgerald, and Thomas Wolfe, and a portrait of America during the first half of the 20th century. This is one of those books that I could go on and on about. It is a book that everyone should read.

5 comments about Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption.

1. I ordered the book Broken on May 19th and I still have not recieved it yet, can someone help me or give me a number to call. Thank you



2. Having walked through the hell of having a child with profound substance abuse issues, I found this book a biography I could identify with. Congratulations to Cope and his family. No one gets sober in a straight line and without help and support.



3. I really appreciated this book. I found it to be honest and moving. It shows a very accurate and powerful picture of addictions and what it takes to get into recovery. William Moyers really helps people to see the power of addicitons and the power of recovery. I really appreciated all he had to say. I do believe that we need to share our stories and educate the public as to the truth about addictions.



4. I had the opportunity to hear William Moyers speak at SECAD. His presentation moved me to purchase his book, BROKEN. This book was so powerful that I was unable to put it down once I read the prologue. As a recovering person and therapist in the mental health/drug and alcohol treatment field I immediately purchased a dozen more copies of BROKEN to give to clients and family members who struggle with addiction. Anyone interested in issues of addiction and recovery will be equally moved if they pick up a copy and read the 3 1/2 page prologue. BROKEN is powerfully candid and written is a straightforward manner that results in the reader being captivated and most importantly....inspired by William Moyers' journey of recovery.



5. I started this book but couldn't finish it. I guess I found it to be a bit
   boring and too detailed. Perhaps a big exaggerated? I do applaud Cope Moyers however for writing the book. I'm sure it will help MANY who have struggled with addiction. As a literary piece, though, I think it needs more work.

5 comments about Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir.

1. This is a book of Gellhorns recollections of trips thru China, Africa and Africa.
   Her writing is such,... so lacking in substance that you feel she is making it up. It doesn't feel genuine. PLUS! and here's the real killer... SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER!. All through the book she states how she doesn't remember this or that, so often that the whole book comes onto question. The trip to China with her then husband Ernest Hemingway was a total blow out. She wasn't sure about anything.
   The second story, her first trip to Africa, was the best in the bunch.
   The last trip to Africa was totally unbelievable. Fiction.
   
   She can not remember enough to make a coherent record of her journeys.
   
   Also for someone who loves to travel and has spent her life doing so all around the world-- she has no camera! No interest in them. No pictures.
   
   I've also read 'The View from the Ground' and wasn't impressed.



2. This is a truly delightful read...Gellhorn's wit and courage shine through. Her observations and insight are so interesting. You will enjoy this book.



3. As a traveller and a reader, this is one of the best books i have read in a very long time.



4. One of the finest books I have read on the subject of travel, in a class with the best of Theroux and Chatwin. Take on your next trip along with a battered straw hat..!



5. This wonderful travelogue of "bad trips" to politically important places takes the reader on an incredible range of journeys to many world hot and "cold" war spots. China and a meeting with Communist leaders in hiding during WWII (with the writer's then husband (Ernest Hemingway) looming large but quietly in the background and a poignant trip to an aging Russian writer in the days of Soviet rule transport us through time and space. Martha Gellhorn, as journalist and fiction writer, needs to be "recovered" with the very best of war correspondents of any gender and the adventuresome and unbelievably courageous woman travelers of the 20th century. The section on Gellhorn's travels in Africa, because it is so "honest" and forthright on matters of race, will strike some as politically incorrect, but her descriptions of modes of transport, race, missionaries and the search for exotic animals are among the most vivid anywhere. This book moves the reader -- through time and space, brain and heart.

3 comments about Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography.

1. This collection of little essays by Buckley proves gravely disappointing. Subtitled "A Literary Autobiography," one searches in vain for anything resembling an autobiographical thesis, and there is nary a discussion of books, or literature, in the entire tome. In fact, the lion's share of the text concerns the author's sailing voyages. (One wonders whether he considers his genteel life, based on vast inherited wealth, to be his greatest accomplishment.) I don't recommend anyone purchase this book to develop an appreciation of Buckley's life and thought; if anything, the material here is just the outtakes with which a cult figure, knowing he would have an audience for his grocery lists should he elect to publish them, pads out one more book. In fairness to Buckley, I expect his "other" autobiography, "Nearer My God," to be much better. I look forward to reviewing it in coming months and allotting quite a few more stars.



2. I always thought of Buckley has having four careers. He was of course that TV fellow that talked funny and look down his nose at his guests and viewers on a show that was very successful - Firing Line; he was that business man, writer, and publisher that started the National Review; he wrote fiction spy novels, and he wrote his sailing stories.
   Most people would be happy and content to achieve just one of those undertakings. One might imagine that running the National Review for all those years and keeping it fresh was an enormous challenge. I never agreed with all the stories in the NR and conservatives are now much more complicated people but if you think it is easy to start something like the NR, try starting your own national magazine.
   
   In any case I read many of his books and very much appreciated his sailing books. His book on crossing the Pacific "Racing Through Paradise: A Pacific Passage" was one of the best sailing books ever written. Hence the quote by John Kenneth Galbraith, who "consistently writes pleasant tributes to my own books, inevitably advising the reader that my political opinions should be ignored, my fiction or accounts of life at sea appreciated". Maybe you have to be a sailor to understand his books but it is unlikely.
   
   In terms of a biography it would be very difficult for Buckley to achieve the same level of literary excellence in a biography that he might write today as compared to some of his many past writings. So in the end his collection of selected writings speak for themselves and are most appropriate. He does not need a conventional autobiography - his writing for those of us that have read his books are perfect. We understand that was always his strength.
   
   How can one really criticize this book? The CD for myself was not needed. Incidentally and it is not really the same but George Plimpton came out with a similar series of stories which he called - a readers collection - in the book "George Plimpton on Sports" also available at Amazon.com, published in 2003. I read that book also and thought it was excellent and often very funny but less autobiographical. It is the same idea but for some reason it was never a best seller as the present book appears to be.



3. Thanks to this marvelous (as usual) piece the miles gone by are still with us. I don't know why but I find myself contrasting this favorably with W. V. Quine's "The Time of My Life". While I might occasionally read Quine's autobiography for insights on his philosophy, and find his life much like the rigorous mathematical logic of his books, "Miles" represents much more the sort of days I would imitate had they not already gone by. This is a comfortable book that leads to comfortable hours.

5 comments about Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement.

1. Linda Bridges gives us the background on how Buckley and his magazine helped transform the American political landscape. In witty fashion shows how this individual could help save the world while having a lot of fun on the way. Young people may not realize how lonely and beleaguered conservatives felt forty and fifty years ago. Those were heady times for young conservatives as well as the rabble-rousers of the New Left. People took ideas more seriously back then, too, not just the slogans and PR cliches that are our diet today.
   
   Janis Starcs



2. I was very excited to read this book. In fact, I asked for it as a present. I have been following WFB since I was a teenager and couldn't wait to get a full picture of his professional life and his role within conservatism and the Republican Party.
   
   Unfortunately, this is not the book for that.
   
   The book is written from an insider's perspective, but a completely uncritical, cloying one. There is more time spent of social details about NR parties and what type of hostess and decorator Buckley's wife was than on editorial debates and business decisions. I was dumbfounded to have to wade through minute details of who skied with who and which daughter of this important person used to ride horses with this other important person when they were young. You will learn nothing about Firing Line, but a great deal about chateaus by the time you're finished. As another reviewer mentioned, it's also surprising how much space is given to each Buckley novel, including excerpts.
   
   The authors, who were both involved in NR and Republican politics, can't resist being a substantial part of the story, turning it into more of a memoir of their experiences than a true account of Buckley's life and impact. You'll wonder throughout why so much time is spent on Spiro Agnew, who one of the authors worked for. Additionally, they reference themselves throughout with the odd device "one of the present authors" such as "one of the present authors recalls". You'll also find pages of shallow American history, such as a retelling of Vietnam.
   
   Again, I truly wanted to love this book. I hesitate to write such a negative review, but I really feel like you should have a better idea of what to expect. For people who were supposedly such insiders, I don't know that you will gain any actual insight into WFB or learn new details that have not been made public elsewhere. It reads more like a scrapbook for former employees of NR, with an emphasis on staff personalities and health problems, the social calendar and the authors' own experience.



3. I was quite disappointed. From its title I was expecting more details about Buckley's influence on the movement but instead there were tidbits with filler about his novels, his ski trips, and his sailing. Those details would have been important in a WFB bio. A reader curious about Buckley's influence on the movement would have instead been looking for what was not found in the book, which is more details about his conflict with the Birchers and the Randians, perhaps his differences with libertarians over immigration, with social conservatives over drug policy. I am hopeful that Hart's book will have more meat to it than the present study.



4. There have been a number of books published in the last few years tracking the influence of "National Review" on the rise of the American conservative movement. And while all have their merits (at least, the two or three I've read so far all do), this was the most entertaining of the three. That's because in addition to being a history of "Buckleyite" or "National Review conservatism," so-called, it's also -- as the blurb on the back cover says -- "an affectionate portrait of the man who started it all."
   
   The authors are long-time NR writers and editors and close associates of WFB, and so they don't claim to have produced a work with the olympian distance and objectivity (real or feigned) modern historiography seems to require. "Strictly Right" is a candid, relaxed, and very personal look at a man, a magazine, a movement, and the close ties between the three.
   
   Fans of the man and the mag will certainly enjoy the authors' storytelling abilities and their recounting of interesting and half-forgotten episodes. Readers interested in the history of conservatism would, I think, do well to pair this book with Jeff Hart's "The Making of the American Conservative Mind: National Review and Its Times" (2005) which, I think, does a better job placing NR in historical and political context (Bridges and Coyne cite "The Making..." in their bibliography). Hart is another NR insider, of course, and so his book too is fundamentally sympathetic to the people and ideas discussed. He, however, has a jaded view of the magazine's relevance to modern conservatism that -- at least to judge by this book -- Bridges and Coyne do not share.
   
   From uniting selected strands of the Old Right in the 1950s to charting a course between neocons and paleocons today (the authors devote several pages to David Frum's 2003 NR ukase "Unpatriotic Conservatives," which read people like, well, me, out of conservatism ... at least as David Frum defines it), Bridges and Coyne do a fair job showing how NR has shaped how "conservatism" has been defined and understood on the American political spectrum.
   
   When you get right down to it, though, this is a book about William F. Buckley, Jr. And in the absence of any full biography of the man since John B. Judis' "William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives" in 1988, it's about the best look we've yet had at the man who can justly claim to have had as much influence as anyone on the political and cultural direction of America in the second half of the 20th century. The admiring tone of this book may put off readers not already sympathetic to man and cause, and certainly points out the need for a more scholarly volume or two on the subject. But conservatives and even libertarians -- particularly the young conservatives Hart argues are disconnected from their historical and philosophical roots -- should find much in these pages to appreciate and enjoy.



5. I've read everything he's written and looked forward to a book like this. I was hoping for more inside stories. Of course, anyone who has read every sailing book and the two "day" books knows that no one tells inside stories better than WFB himself. This book didn't offer much that I didn't know already. It did chronicle the history of NR well, and for that matter, a good chronology of the conservative movemement post 1960, but not much new info here. All that said, read this book. You will enjoy it, it reprints some very memorable pieces from his books and retells stories that you'll be glad to hear again and it connects the dots on NR and the conservative movement pretty well. Not sure that this is the definative work on WFB, I think I'm still waiting for that.