5 comments about Miss Mapp.

1. This was my first exposure to Miss Mapp, and my first trip to Tilling. I cannot wait to visit again. It took me to a place that no longer exists, with such hilarious characters. Take your time and read this slowly when you have time to savor the atmosphere. Just find it a little frustrating that now I am hooked, other books in the series are not available on Kindle - at least here in the USA.



2. I had the same initial difficulty getting into this book as I did Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster. However, once fully immersed in it, I became wholly converted to the cult of Mapp and Lucia. This volume only has Mapp but Mapp is quite enough on her own! This is small town life as depicted with a sly wit by E.F. Benson. The time period is between the two world world wars and it is set in England. There is no tv so life is one endless round of get togethers with one's townspeople with the favorite past time being bridge. This book opens by exploring how ideally Mapp's house is situated so she can spy on all of her neighbors and quickly moves into the one-upmanship practiced by virtually everyone. If one is in any way slighted, the plotting for revenge is intricate and then executed with the fervor of a hard won military push into enemy territory. This reminded me very much of my New England grandmother and her hey day in her small town.
   
   I also listened to this on audio as read by the wonderful actress Prunella Scales. She played Basil Fawlty's wife in FAWLTY TOWERS. Listening to her interpretation helped me greatly on easing into this whole world.



3. Preposterus, silly, vain and oh so human the characters all remind you of people you know far too well. Reading this book is settling down for a long and wicked gossip.



4. Miss Elizabeth Mapp -- malicious, snooping, miserly and snobbish -- serves as the social center of Tilling, a thinly veiled portrait of the English town of Rye, Sussex, in the 1920s. Determined to maintain her position and to one-up her neighbors, Godiva Plaistow and Susan Poppit, MBE, Miss Mapp resents others' success and devotes hours to planning how to elevate herself. Aside from social-climbing, bridge parties and gardening, Miss Mapp's only other concern is the long-shot scheme of entrapping her neighbor, an Army captain and middle-aged bachelor named Benjamin Flint, into matrimony.
   
   Sounds like an outdated bore? In fact, E.F. Benson's biting satire on upper-middle-class pursuits proves hilarious, sort of a more cynical version of a P.G. Wodehouse novel. If you're a fan of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series or of Julian Fellowes' "Snobs," you'll love all of the books in the Mapp & Lucia series.



5. I love the whole Mapp and Lucia series by E.F. Benton. Love it even more in Kindle format.

5 comments about Paul Harvey's America: The Life, Art, and Faith of a Man Who Transformed Radio and Inspired a Nation.

1. This book presented Paul Harvey exactly as he was: the standard-bearer for excellence in political journalism. It's an inspiring read, challenging all Americans to consider their politics, their faith, and their civic responsibilities.



2. Paul Harvey was there my whole life (well, till now). While I never actively
   listened to his programs, or even knew when he was on the air, I ALWAYS
   enjoyed hearing him speak whenever I happened upon him on the radio. His
   "rest of the story" is a touchstone for virtually all Americans older than (I'm
   guessing) 30, and his delivery was unmistakable. To repeat ... an American
   Treasure.
   
   So when I ran across this book at the library, I couldn't resist.
   
   I enjoyed learning about the man and his life. Can't say I wholly agree with
   all his "beliefs" (a prime example: I can't agree with one of his quotes that
   seems to be representative of his unbending support of ANY (?)
   business/corporation ... "I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their
   money where my mouth is"). That said, he certainly seemed to be all about doing
   the "right" thing, and not tearing people down (like so many talk show personalities
   today).
   
   Recommended reading!



3. This book was a little American History and a little Paul Harvey history. I learned things about Paul Harvey I didn't know and also got some insight into world events in the 40's, 50's and 60's.
   Interesting to read how Mr. Harvey got into broadcasting and how his wife was such a big part of his career.
   Paul Harvey=R.I.P.!! I miss his daily broadcasts.



4. I've read most of Stephen Mansfield's stuff before. This did not disappoint.
   
   Filled with the more than the expected tidbits of trivia and biography, the book gives a glimpse into the personal life of Paul Harvey from childhood all the way through his career. I was surprised to learn the extent of involvement his wife and son had in his business.
   
   Even more fascinating were the parallels of Paul's values and experiences with modern American history. It seems he was a legend in his own time because he was a true barometer for the heartland and the people whose love, sweat, and prayers made this nation so great.



5. This is a very interesting book, easy to read. If you listened to Paul Harvey's radio program, you will appreciate the book even more. You will
   glean many wonderful sayings of Paul and will want to keep them in your memory.
   Learn from Paul how wonderful our America really is!!!
   
   I purchased my book from Amazon at a very reasonable price.
   
   This is a book you will want to keep!!
   
   Dottie P hayes

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 Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life.

1. the editors of this book have apparently forgotten that most of us read to be entertained, and if you're trying to entertain, you need something that looks at least vaguely like a plot. characters aren't enough. the book is an endless collection of people's impressions of Peter Jennings. "i remember, he was always reading... he was movie-star handsome... he just tried to present a fair view ..." on and on. really, i expect he did a few things and i'd like to know, and i'd like to find out from a text that's a lot less jumpy than this one.



2. The thing I loved most about Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life was all of the contributors. Without them, I would not have enjoyed this book as much. This book is in chronological order and tells about Peter Jennings childhood, up to his death. Before reading the book I had never known what he went through in the broadcasting industry. Reading this book has given me hope and courage, because I am an aspiring broadcaster. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants to read about a man who has gone through many struggles and became successful. The editors couldn't have done a better job on this biography.



3. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2U13952LMAG8U The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!
   
   Not your standard biography, A Reporter's Life provides reflections, memories, and comments from Peter Jennings' colleagues, competitors, family, and friends. We learn what only they knew. For example, during commercials for World News Tonight, he would alarm his friends by calling them or e-mailing them, even though he was only seconds away from the camera's return. Readers will admire Peter Jennings as a top-tier professional, and as a grand person.



4. Peter Jennings was taken from us at the pinnacle of his
   career. He shaped the news in many areas like the
   ABC Nightly News. The book provides many specifics about
   his life and career. There are memorable pictures
   contained throughout the book. i.e.
   o The Miss Canada Pageant of 1965
   o various political conventions
   o the Munich Olympics
   o the Clinton Presidential Inaugural of 1997
   o a meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991
   
   The acquisition would be perfect for persons interested
   in journalism, politics and government.



5. This book is purchased for our Book Club for next year's books. Several of our members had read it to be sure it was okay. It was difficult to purchase - first we had to wait till it was published (you know how THat goes!) and then the price was exhorbitant (that was overcome) and finally it joined the other books we purchased for the Club. Oh, and say, did I mention that this is a book for next year's selections? and that it will be much like "saving it for dessert?" I haven't read it yet either - just scanned through it, and therefore I know it to be the "icing on the cake."

5 comments about Left Illusions: An Intellectual Odyssey.

1. I understand, there's already 30 other reviews on this book; and what else could someone say about it? You should already know (from reading other reviews) that the author is an ex-communist from the sixties who had to reevaluate his life after the Black Panthers murdered his close friend, Betty Van Patter. And you should already know (from other reviews) that this book is a weighty tome describing his upbringing and political switch to the conservative way of thought. That's all well and good. But I'm going to tell you a personal anecdote about this book.
   
   When I was in college I was apolitical, my parents were registered Republicans but never got involved either. Bill Clinton didn't seem too bad and, we were of course in peacetime in the nineties... right? In my second semester I took INTRO TO AMERICAN POLITICS where I was told that George Bush Sr. was a racist war-monger, our founding fathers were rich, white land-grabbers and that A People's History of the United States was a must-read for anyone wanting to know the truth about our nation's oppressive history. I assumed, back then, that a college professor knew better than most and had my best interests at heart. Boy, was I wrong.
   
   A couple years later the World Trade Center was hit by two commercial airplanes and, like everyone, I was struck by the immense lack of knowledge or context as to why 19 Muslim extremists would want to do something so heinous. When I heard the name Osama bin Laden, I was like -- who? Why haven't I heard that name before? What else don't I know? I immediately wanted to know everything on the subject but I knew that I couldn't just start there. I would be starting halfway through the story.
   
   A little later I happened upon Left Illusions at the local bookstore knowing nothing about David Horowitz or conservatism in general.
   
   I have to tell you -- this book completely opened my eyes to what I had been missing. Horowitz's thesis, that the same radical leftist ideologues who marched against the war in Vietnam are the same ones who now hold tenure and administrative positions at colleges (and now public office in 2010) working hand over fist to reshape history in order to control the present absolutely shocked me. But this came from someone who marched among them back in the sixties, someone who set about openly subverting the United States in order to bring about a socialist utopia here on our soil. The counterculture movement of the sixties was way more than some weird, old concert at a farm in Woodstock. It was a revolution openly culminating in antiwar protests and then, when the war was over, going underground into the colleges -- but never stopping.
   
   My political views and philosophy began with this book. For those of you searching like I was for answers, Horowitz's account from the counterculture movement to the present will provide those and much more. Once you become aware of what was really happening in the sixties, you will begin to understand what's happening today.



2. This book is not easy reading but it helps one to understand the true motivation of the leftists who are trying to turn the greatest country in the world into a socialist disaster. Horowitz has spent enough time with leftists to know their history intimately and to understand and expose their true goals. Anyone who wants to understand the political battles taking place across the country should read this book.



3. There are only a few noted writers who have chosen to abandon long cherished beliefs of one end of the political spectrum to embrace the tenets of the other. Some, like David Brock, clearly chose to do so for political expediency. Others, like David Horowitz, had to undergo some pretty intense personal introspection over an extended period of time. In LEFT ILLUSIONS, Horowitz details the pain of alienation from his long held association with the left that began with his very earliest childhood and ended with the scarring experience of the murder of a close friend that caused him to re-evaluate some troubling aspects of his leftist ideology that this murder forced to come to the forefront.
   
   LEFT ILLUSIONS is not a new book in the sense that he wrote it specifically to outline his conversion from a dedicated socialist to a rational pragmatist. Rather, he felt that he could better trace his regeneration of self by reprinting articles and chapters from previous published works that delineated how he felt at that time. He begins with his childhood. He was a Jewish boy whose parents were committed communists. As he grew to maturity, he immersed himself in the totality of leftist ideology, which he saw up close and personal. He knew all the big names of the left: Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda, Bobby Seale--anyone who counted as an anti-Vietnam war chanter. He was considered one of "them", a trusted socialist/communist. But Horowitz had concerns that began with the murder of Betty Van Patter by the Black Panthers and ended only after taking ten years off from politics to think over where he came from and in what direction he wished to go. When he began to publish tracts that questioned the philosophical underpinning of his erstwhile socialist comrades, they replied with a series of non-stop and vicious cutting remarks that suggested that even then Horowitz was not fully one of "them."
   
   One can read the title as a pun on "left" as a verb or an adjective, but the total impression that one gets is of sadness mixed with anger. Sadness in that his previous leftist ideologues even now refuse to acknowledge their role in the numerous Killing Fields of the twentieth century caused by their acquiescence to the various failed socialist states of Russia, Cambodia, Cuba, North Korea and others. Anger in that the collective heaps of corpses and rotted skulls cry out for a justice that was and is impossible to receive in any of these failed socialist states. The Odyssey of the subtitle is a clarion reminder that for Horowitz, he has spent decades trying to explain to the corpses who cannot hear and the living who can that this painful regeneration of self is ongoing and public. LEFT ILLUSIONS is one of the most important books of this or any other decade.



4. The book is a compendium of articles,and most of them were published before. It gives us an intellectual history of his rise in the Left, and his eventual disaffection with it. It thus includes some of his earlier left-wing pieces and includes some published in the radical Ramparts that he formerly edited. However,the bulk of the articles here come from his new found conservatism, and they feature some of his best writings.
   
   Howorwitz has already covered his previous thoughts in book form, especially in The Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties, and Radical Son (1997). In those he covered a wide range of issues, with all of the conservative battlegrounds given a run. So, three decades worth of controversy are covered; there are articles on Solzhenitsyn, Nicaragua, racism, political correctness on campus, AIDS, free speech, multiculturalism, the Middle East crisis, terrorism, and the Clinton years all given judicious treatment.
   
   It was not really a religious conversion that led to this change of heart. It was an increased awareness that the Left was simply hypocritical, constantly denouncing supposed atrocities of capitalism and American foreign policy, and it ignored or condoned the barbarism of socialism and leftist dictators. A tremendous amount of human blood had been shed on the altars of leftist utopianism, Horowitz discovered.
   
   Thus as someone who has been there, his criticisms of the left should be heard. Not very many have renounced their leftwing past. Irving Kristol said that a neoconservative is a liberal who had been mugged by reality. Most leftists prefer to live with their illusions than take a stand for reality.
   
   Horowitz outlines the extreme reactions of fellow leftists to his realignment. He hoped that others would see the light; however, Horowitz instead received vitriol, censure, and abuse. He hoped that other radicals would make this acknowledgment: "We greatly exaggerated the sins of America and underestimated its decencies and virtues, and we're sorry". But such confessions were few and far between. Virtually all leftists stuck to their utopianism, to the "god that failed".
   
   There exists a left-liberalism dominance in the US that makes it hard for other views to be heard. Horowitz documents the uphill struggle in promoting a conservative voice in such a climate.
   
   For example, in US colleges there is a new McCarthyism of the left. Horowitz visited 200 such campuses in the past decade, and he knows that most have repudiated their liberal arts origins (which saw freedom speech and genuine intellectual inquiry as virtues) and have embraced political radicalism instead. Now censorship, political correctness and leftwing ideology predominate in these campuses.
   
   Feminists, gay rights activists, radical socialists, and haters of America and democracy can all freely speak their minds at American campuses; however, conservatives do so at their own peril. It is rare for conservatives to manage to get a speaking engagement. Horowitz has received hatred and abuse when speaking as a conservative; more than he ever did as a Communist or socialist. At the U of Wisconsin, for instance, Horowitz notes that while a $500 grant was given to a conservative student group, and $1,000,000 in grants was given to various leftist extremist groups.
   
   Horowitz also documents that real difficulties conservatives face on campus, and he outlines the overwhelming leftist slant summoned up against them. For example, Horowitz examines the faculty of a number of leading universities; he shows that on average only around five per cent of faculty identify as Republicans. It is very difficult for conservative students on campus becasue they are up against a stacked deck.
   
   The media is no better with its left and liberal domination that routinely censors out conservative voices. The prejudices of a leftist media are well-documented in this book. Of course this radical leftwing domination of these institutions of power and influence is not accidental. Italian Marxist Gramsci urged fellow communists in the 1930s to do this very thing. And they have succeeded very well in achieving these goals.
   
   Thus one has to ask the reason that a person would want to surrender an apparently winning position for what seems to be a lost cause. Horowitz has asked himself this very question numerous times. His final lines in this book address this question again, and he asks whether the truth will continue to remain in the shadows. He hopes that it will not. Truth is very powerful, and truth will prevail.



5. In reading these other commentaries, it never ceases to amaze me that so many Leftists or Leftist sympathizers fly into paroxysms of rage, vitriolic insults or meandering diversionary accusations whenever someone points out their own ideology's record of crimes and deceptions.
   As a former Trotskyist myself, I can say that the anti-Horowitz comments here are a "flim-flam" diversion from the specificity of David Horowitz's book. The absence of evidence against someone being a "fifth columnist" is not evidence of absence. One need only READ much of the propaganda put out by the Left to understand that many on the Left -- either wittingly or unwittingly -- have created a "propaganda alliance of convenience" with Jihadists when they frequently portray Islamic fanatics as some sort of "liberation" resistance fighters. It is manifestly obvious that many of the opinion-makers on the Left have crawled into a temporary propaganda "bed" with Islamic partisans, because the Left and Islamists are both opposed to American market capitalism and American commercial dominance, and many on the Left, with their usual tunnel-vision, see modern market capitalism as a greater "evil" than any other evil . . . no matter how immediate or real other evils may be. Islamists and Jihadists like to portray themselves as "revolutionaries" against western "imperialism", but the Islamic agenda is EXPLICITLY imperialist, and pursuing that agenda (spreading the RULE of Islam by any means necessary) is considered a sacred duty in the Quran. I know, because I have read the Quran in its entirety, more than once, as well as many commentaries from Islamic scholars. It is NOT equivocal . . . despite frequent claims to the contrary by the "useful idiots".
   Trotsky spoke about the "useful idiots" . . . those naive and soft-hearted liberals, pacifists and "progressives" who helped to promote Bolshevism in the minds of fools because they were all too willing to make excuses for its extremism, to sympathize with its "motives", to rationalize its terrorism under the claim of helping the downtrodden, and to promote the "working class" goals of a totalitarian ideology through the press. When the dust had settled, and Bolshevism had seized control, many of those same liberals, pacifists, anarchists and other assorted bleeding hearts, who had served as useful idiots, were the first to be shot. Islamist/Jihadist propaganda machines are now making use of the current useful idiots in the western Left. Most of the population of western Europe, in a hallucinatory fog of "multiculturalism", seem to be refusing to come to terms with the fact that their secular democratic societies are being gradually eroded by a continuous stream of Muslim immigrants bearing a high birth rate, and, who are collectively led by opportunists with a decidedly un-secular agenda. Why do so many people on the Left, and even some on the Right, seem to be incapable of taking extremist Muslims seriously, even when the fanatics OPENLY declare their intentions in the midst of the democratic societies which have, idiotically, given them refuge? Do the useful idiots think the fanatics are kidding? Do they think they are simply engaging in hyperbole?
   David Horowitz has long been trying to emphasize that naive and gullible people, who have been ideologically brain-washed to despise and demonize their own Constitutional republic and its social system, can be "traitorous", "subversive" . . . acting like a "fifth-column", etc. . . . without realizing that they are being manipulated as useful idiots. I know, because in my own mis-spent youth, I was being used by fellow Trotskyists and other Marxists to promote and actively aid the despotism of Fidel Castro . . . until I came to my senses and stopped believing the lies of his apologists. Horowitz is not saying that people should be jailed simply for having naive opinions and a complete lack of a sense of proportion and analytical discrimination in distinguishing lesser evils from greater evils. It is, however, imperative that they wise up and come to an understanding of how they are often used by those with a totalitarian agenda. David Horowitz's parents were indeed fortunate that they were not living in a true totalitarian society . . . especially one with genocidal punishments against those with their ideology. It is wrong to jail someone for merely having an opinion. However, if two people I knew had gone so far as to actually break the law in order to undermine the traditional Constitutional democratic structure of the U.S., just as I blindly and foolishly did in my youth, I would turn them in even if they were my own parents.

2 comments about Royko in Love: Mike's Letters to Carol.

1. You don't have to love Royko to love 'Royko in Love.' You don't even even have to know who he was. That's the beauty of Royko's words and the beauty of this terrific book. It's a great read from start to finish. It's a love story from Mike to Carol and from their son right back to his parents. These are vibrant, heartbreaking, funny, funny letters written by one of our nation's finest writers. Nobody tells a story like Royko. What a rare treat to read him telling the toughest, and softest, story of all -- his own.



2. A couple of months after his first wife's death, columnist Mike Royko wrote a piece that commemorated her birthday. It was heartbreaking and moving in its simplicity and provided a small window into their relationship. This collection of letters from Mike (or Mick as he was then known) to Carol provides greater insite into their relationship as Mike (then an airman stationed in Blaine WA) begins his distant courtship of Carol in earnest through letters.
   They were an unlikely couple. Carol was movie star beautiful with many suitors and Mike was an ordinary guy who loved her from afar from the time he was nine and she was six. The letters represented a slice of life from the perspective of Mike's military career and a snapshot of the '50's mixed with words of love that were so tender that they must have worked. Within a year, Mike and Carol were married and he received a transfer to the Chicago area and they hegan their married life together.
   Their son assembled this collection and with mimimal narrative that serves as a point of reference lets this collection speak for itself. It was an interesting and affectionate read from a modern day Cyrano to his beloved it. I loved it because it was real chick stuff, but any faithful Royko reader would enjoy it as it gives the reader a look at Royko unedited.

1 comments about Tim Russert, We Heartily Knew Ye: Wonderful Stories from Friends Celebrating a Great Life.

1. This is a collection of stories - eulogies - written by Tim Russert's friends. Rich Wolfe is the author, but really he is the editor. Or just the one who asked people to write the stories and put them together. If you loved Tim Russert like I did, and want to know more about him, you will enjoy this book. If you want to be a great journalist and learn more about one of the greatest, you might benefit from this book. It is better than a lot of books that get thrown together quickly after someone dies.
   There are so many authors in this book - people who knew him in high school, college - some of them are good writers and some don't have a very polished style. They use unusual sentence construction and some of the sentences are not complete sentences. It is like the authors were talking into a tape recorder and then someone typed up what they said, maybe cleaning it up a little, but leaving in some of the words and phrases that are not used in good writing.
   Wolfe admits that there is repetition in the book, and there is - two or more people shared the same experience with Tim and wrote about it. That's not so bad. The book seems pretty honest about Tim. One of Tim's friends from college described how Tim cheated on a final exam and how he stole meals from the dining hall when he was living off campus. Yet on page 170 it quotes Tim saying in a John Carroll University publication, "You can read all the books...you can know all the facts...but the emphasis on ethics and values are what matter with an education." Those stories lowered my opinion of Tim Russert and his college. But you have to give credit to the book for being honest about it. These stories were included to highlight Tim's social skills - he was able to talk the janitor into opening the professor's office for him, he was able to get the dining hall staff to let him have meals that were not paid for.
   If you already read Big Russ, you will recognize some of the material, but there is a lot of new material too. Woodstock and his trip to Washington D.C. after Woodstock are fun stories. There is not much in the book about Tim's wife. There's more about his father and his son.
   Several things come across in these stories. Tim was enormously intelligent and energetic. He had terrific social skills. He was genuinely kind and generous with his friends and also with strangers.
   When he first joined Meet the Press, I never watched it because I was always in church when it was on. Then I found out how good it was, and started taping it and watching it after church. Now, I still watch MTP, but it isn't half as good as it was, and you can't trust David Gregory to tell the truth.
   I'll tell you a secret - the last story in the book is the best.

5 comments about Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown.

1. Before Mary Richards and Ann Marie (of That Girl fame), before Gloria Steinem and Candace Bushnell, there was a different sort of champion for the single girl: Helen Gurley Brown.
   
   You may know her as the long-time editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, but as Jennifer Scanlon recounts in her very entertaining biography of HGB, Bad Girls Go Everywhere, she's also a prolific writer, media maven, and feminist (of sorts) that was way ahead of her time.
   
   I picked up Scanlon's book after reading about it in my college alumni newsletter (Scanlon is Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College), thinking it would be a fun, "Summer" read. What surprised me was that it was much more academic in nature - providing fascinating insights into both gender roles, the media landscape, and pop culture in the 1960s - but still eminently readable, like one of Carrie Bradshaw's columns.
   
   What I found so interesting:
   
   The paperback wasn't introduced until 1939. Before that, few people owned books, as hard covers were too expensive. The paperback democratized reading in America! I'm now interested to read another book Scanlon cites in her notes, Two Bit Culture: the Paperbacking of America.
   
   Helen Gurley came from humble beginnings in Arkansas, which taught her to live frugally and use her - ahem - feminine wiles to get what she wanted in life. She was (and is) a huge advocate for working, independent women.
   
   She spent years as a secretary (one of the few professional roles available to women in the 1950s) before her employer at ad shop Foote Cone Belding noticed her writing skills an made her an advertising copywriter.
   
   She played the field for years, celebrating her singledom and advocating for other women to follow suit. It was not until she was 38 (a dinosaur back in the 60s!) that she decided to find a husband...and she did so, in a very matter-of-fact way, by meeting and marrying successful film producer (and twice-divorced) David Brown.
   
   David is another fascinating character - he is the producer behind such hit films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, M.A.S.H., Jaws, Cocoon, A Few Good Men, and Driving Miss Daisy. The idea for Jaws actually came to him via HGB - a Cosmo reader submitted the story idea to her, she passed it on the David, he read Peter Benchley's book and then secured the movie rights.
   
   David encouraged HGB's writing, and made all the right introductions for her in Hollywood. In 1962 she published the wildly successful (and controversial) Sex and the Single Girl, the precursor to our modern day Sex and the City. In fact, she wrote a monthly column called Step into my Parlor just as Candace Bushnell would years later.
   
   Besides numerous books, HGB also penned several reality TV show ideas that were eerily similar to current-day programming. In one, celebrity chefs face off with a list of ingredients to see who can prepare the best meals; in another, celebrities weigh in on everyday-peoples' marital problems. Sound familiar?? While these sorts of shows are a dime a dozen today, they were considered uncomfortable material for television viewers in the 1960s. Basically, if a show didn't depict a Happy-Days-like nuclear family, it didn't air. There was even some controversy when real-life loves Lucy & Desi Arnaz filed for divorce and would no longer work together on the I Love Lucy show: rather than portray Lucy as a divorcee in later episodes (socially unacceptable!) they chose to make her a widow.
   
   Although HGB no longer mans the helm at Cosmo, she was named the 13th most powerful American over the age of 80 by Slate magazine. Her beloved David died earlier this year at age 93, but Helen is still going strong at 88.



2. As in 'good girls go to heaven ....' Helen Gurley Brown was editor of Cosmopolitan and author of Sex and the Single Girl. Brown is an original feminist, vehement in her stance that woman can decide what they want to do with their lives. She created and identified with what came to be known as the "Cosmo Girl". In her own words, "[the Cosmo Girl is] still the one who loves men and loves children but doesn't want to live through other people--she wants to achieve on her own--and to be known for what she does." (page 161-2) Her Cosmo Girl became so popular an icon that the magazine eventually became copied out of much of it's market. Most print and other type of media want to tell women how wonderful they are, how to have the best sex, how to present the best aspect of one's self in the world, and so on. This didn't used to be the message.
   
   Brown's less than appealing aspect was her ruthless acceptance that men had the power and so therefore woman were obliged to get power and prestige by sleeping with men and accepting/demanding money or gifts. The book cover calls it 'pragmatic feminism'--sure sounds like the oldest profession to me. Brown was fairly realistic in her understanding of power in the 1950s world, and she worked the cards she was given. While I applaud her forthright acceptance of 'the way it is' and her determination to work the rules as she saw fit, I had a hard time accepting her ruthlessness about sex and what I would call using people.
   
   Brown and the biographer should be applauded for showing that women's physical needs (ie, sex) are just as great as men's. The blindness of the 50s attitude of men toward women really comes out in the book.
   
   Another major theme is that being single is great. A woman does not have to be identified as a wife to be a whole woman being. I hadn't realized how many of these concepts, much taken for granted by women these days, were hard-won.
   
   So, I'm conflicted about the book. I would recommend reading it. Fascinating. However, I didn't like some of Brown's major premises, despite taking advantage of the sea change that she helped create in my world.



3. The cover and publisher's blurb for this book certainly make it seem interesting and exciting. The book, itself, however, was fairly boring. Unless you are a hard core feminist or actually enjoy reading someone's thesis in their Women's Studies course, I'd skip it. I was bored to death, as the author drones on and on about 2nd wave feminism, etc. A big "BOO!" to the publisher for marketing this book as exciting and fun. It's neither.



4. I saw this book sitting on the library shelf and then memories flooded back: the first few issues of Cosmo were so controversial. We'd hear people say, "Nobody in New York reads Cosmo; it's just a fantasy for young women in the boonies." I remember when we had the big discussion about the Cosmo centerfold. Now it's like, "Who cares?"
   
   The book jacket identifies Jennifer Scanlon as a women's studies professor, so it's not surprising to find meticulously referenced details of every aspect of Helen Gurley Brown's life. For ordinary readers, these details will be way too much. I got bogged down in the background of Helen's childhood.
   
   A major premise behind this book is that Helen Gurley Brown deserves attention as part of the history of women, at least in the US. Yet it's hard to see her in the same realm as, say Gloria Steinem. Steinem created her own role in the women's movement; Helen Gurley Brown held a job. The debate between the two now seems quaint and irrelevant. I wasn't even aware that it was going on at the time.
   
   What comes through most is Helen's drive and ambition. She had a true "whatever it takes" attitude, even when the "whatever" croosed the line for many women. In the end, the real story seems less about her contribution to feminism than about how she managed to go from a hardscdrabble Arkansas background to a glittering New York professional career.



5. "Bad Girls Go Everywhere" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Scanlon's book interview ran here as cover feature on May 29, 2009.

5 comments about Advertisements for Myself.

1. This was one of the strangest and most engaging fictional works I have ever read. An autobiographical narrative consisting of novel excerpts, social commentary, reviews and short stories. Brutally honest and at times hilarious, I find myself regularly rereading many parts of the book and I'm always stunned by ,above all else, Mailer's humor and the vivid and unforgettable stories and characterers that he creates.

   One reviewer remarked that Mailer's reputation in somewhat up in the air. Certainly Over the years Mailer has suffered much harsh criticism, from charges that he is misogynist to claims that he never fulfilled his own potential.

   Nonetheless, Ancient Evenings and this book are his best works and I'm sure they will survive the test of time.




2. Originally appearing in 1959, "Advertisements for Myself" remains one of the most unusual books ever published by a novelist. Containing stories, essays, reviews, interviews, novel excerpts and poems, all with detailed, italicized annotations courtesy of the author, this book displays a massive, raging talent assessing itself and the world around it. It is sometimes poignant, sometimes maddening, but never less than compelling. I love this book.

   Today, Mailer's reputation is rather up in the air. To me, his career is an example of an artist constantly pushing himself, writing with breathtaking ambition even if it exceeded his skill. There has never been another writer like Norman Mailer, and it is touching to read here of his desire to write a novel on the level of Dostoyevsky, Mann and Tolstoy, and to read his pithy, sometimes hilarious assessments of his contemporaries. His commentary on the ups and downs of his career and his disgust and sadness about the decline of American literature are illuminating, but his self-aggrandizement and egocentricity are often difficult to stomach. However, one has to stand in awe at the monument of his talent and his passion.

   Reading this book today, one has to ask, "Did he fulfill his expectations?" I think so. "Harlot's Ghost," "Ancient Evenings," "The Executioner's Song" and numerous other works, both fiction and nonfiction, will endure, in my opinion. But I, for one, would like to know whatever happened to the self-promoted masterpiece of a novel he excerpts here. The small sections make for very stimulating reading.

   All in all, "Advertisements for Myself" is a required text for everyone who loves great literature or aspires to write it for themselves.




3. All during the 1960s, when authors still appeared on The Tonight Show, The Dick Cavett Show, etc, the two authors who had the most exposure and most proclaimed their "genius" were Norman Mailer and Truman Capote. Both fizzled miserably. Their dwindling fame will be filed under "Celebrity" rather than "Literature." Mailer is the better of the two, but he has not worn well.



4. Advertisements for Mysel



5. This book is filled with fiction, essays, and, literally, advertisements for Mailer. The ad he took out for "The Deer Park" is the classic of classics. There is a great work in here called "The Time of Her Time." Sergius O'Shaugnessey is the hero, and I got the idea he would appear again and again in Mailer's future fiction, but it never happened to my knowledge. This is a great book!

5 comments about Beyond Bogota: Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia.

1. I definetely recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn about the reality in Colombia.
   The book arrived in perfect state



2. I found the book to pretty much on the mark, as some one who spent several years in the Central and South American area or operation, the only thing that I find distrubing is the author's options on the subject, I felt he was leaning to the left on many of the issue, while he does address many of the issues in the area, he missed the main mark. Corruption is a way of life in the area from the top to the bottom, until the Government is fixed, the issue will continue. I suggest reading "Hunting Pablo Escobar", another good read, both should be read to give thought too



3. I would love to just sit down with the author and talk to him about his time in Colombia. This book ranks up there with the best. Read It!!!



4. I think this is a very good book about conditions in the Zonas today. A few stories seem anecdotal but by and large, it describes Colombia very well. It hasn't changed much in 40 years.



5. Mr. Leech has been on a multi-year mission to report on the U.S. government's "escalating role in Colombia's civil conflict and military interventions", and on the atrocities committed in Colombia's war on drugs and the FARC, Colombia's largest leftist guerrilla group. To accomplish this goal, Mr. Leech has spent most of his time in rural areas and outside of the relatively safe capital of Colombia, Bogota, where most mainstream foreign media confine themselves to. Mr. Leech believes the mainstream media report news that is predominantly influenced by the Colombian government and military, the U.S. embassy, and business elites.
   
   Once again, as has been the case in numerous other countries both in South America and elsewhere, Washington's foreign policies are rife with militaristic reactions to undesirable conditions such as coca cultivation, and there is little done in the way of addressing the root causes of rampant illegal cocaine production and distribution which are almost always social and economic in nature. Thrown into the mix is the ill conceived and aggressive displacement of locals, often by the paramilitary forces to pave the way for multinational corporations to conduct their operations, e.g. Occidental Petroleum, Drummond Company Inc. et al. As a result, Colombia is host to the world's worst population displacement conundrum.
   
   Five billion dollars of aid and eight years of the controversial Plan Colombia announced by then president Bill Clinton has failed to reduce cocaine production. Plan Colombia was originally proposed by Colombian President Andres Pastrana in 1999. With the U.S. involvement and aid to Colombia's government, the focus quickly shifted to counternarcotics and the strengthening and utilization of military forces.
   
   Unfortunately, Mr. Leech comes across as a FARC sympathizer, and his coverage of the crimes perpetrated during the decades old war between the FARC and the Colombian government and paramilitary forces is lopsided. An armed struggle against any government almost always leaves all parties, including innocent bystanders worse off.
   
   Mr. Leech's stories are told in the backdrop of his capture and eleven hour detention by the FARC, in a simple diary format. Whether one agrees with his scathing criticism of the U.S. and Colombian government policies or not, Mr. Leech deserves much respect for his courageous journalistic effort with great personal sacrifice and risk to his life.