1 comments about The Lady Upstairs: Dorothy Schiff and the New York Post.

1. I really enjoyed this book. Nissenson tells a fascinating story of the life of one of the most powerful women in American journalism, a woman who had a huge influence on politics in New York City and the nation. Dolly Schiff was a mover and shaker who came from a rarified, super-affluent background but became a champion of mid-century liberalism. In one well-written volume, Nissenson acquaints us with the history of New York City reform politics, the history of the Democratic party, and the history of American journalism, as well as the story of a woman who led an extraordinary life. I highly recommend this book.

No comments about Palestine: A Personal History.

5 comments about How to Be French.

1. There are so many reasons I didn't enjoy this book, all of which have been mentioned by other reviewers. I almost stopped reading after a particularly nasty scene in which Margaret's friend explains that her potential French lover has downs syndrome: "He's retarded ... he even put a picture of himself with the photos of my friends! ... He wants to be my friend!" To which the ever eloquent Ms. Ambrose replies: "Oh. My. God ... But what about all those dates? Who was he going out with, retarded girls?"
   
   This 'novel' reads like a note passed between bitchy teenage girls during class.



2. I agree with all the one-star reviews above: narcissistic, self-indulgent and plotless. For an alleged journalist her style is inelegant, and her grasp of grammar tenuous. And she thinks she's mastered French? Well, it's the subjunctive mood, dear, not the subjective tense.
   
   All-in-all, a very poor read which makes me, too, embarrassed to be Australian.



3. This book took me on a wonderful voyage to paris without leaving my home! All the sights and sounds of Paris are captured and written with some flair. This is not a totally beautiful portrait of france or the french and I can imagine some french having their national pride wounded, but it will ring true for anyone who has ever travelled and everyone who loves paris.



4. How to be French is a pathetic and thinly disguised autobiographical exercise in narcissism. Margaret, the book's heroine (and funnily enough, its author), seems to have one word in her vocabulary: 'glamorous'. The book is a collection of petty snipes at others (unfortunate enough to have been in the same French class as Margaret) attempting to learn French, while the author firmly plants herself on a pedestal above all the rest. Reading this book was a waste of about 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Save your money and instead try Sarah Turnbull's well-written and highly readable 'Almost French'. Margaret Ambrose has succeeding only in proving herself more vile than even the most 'French' Francais. Dans un mot: c'etait merdique.



5. Author Margaret Ambrose takes us on a tedious and self-indulgent journey as she describes in detail her double quest - to learn the French language and to "be French". Page after page we read of Margaret and her girlfriend as they attend language classes at the Alliance Francaise in Melbourne, Australia, sneering at their perceived less fortunate fellow students and attempting to ingratiate themselves with their teachers. Self-proclaimed French expert, Margaret, tells us of her visit to Champagne country and the delightful town of "Eperney" (sic.) and then a visit to "the shopping centre Galleries (sic.) Lafayette", one of the leading high-end department stores in Paris. My irritation increased as I persevered, reading the book from cover to cover. May I recommend instead the thoughtful, informative and enjoyable read, "True Pleasures - A Memoir of Women in Paris" by another Australian writer, Lucinda Holdforth. This is a gem. Charming, personal, honest, well-written and with no airs or pretence, it is an intelligent story of self-discovery, inspiration and connection with the great women and places of Paris.

No comments about All in the Day's Work.

3 comments about Nothing to Declare: A Memoir.

1. Not Reading Gaol.
   
   This is a wonderful book about Taki's period as a guest of Her Majesty. For those looking for prison memoirs, read "Nothing to Declare" and Jim Goad's "S**t Magnet" for contrasting tales told with amusement and panache. Throw in "manchild in the Promised Land" in you want another colourful voice.
   
   Reading Taki is like a good tennis game with an attractive partner, a warm summer afternoon in beautiful surroundings, and a perfect cocktail answer to the slur of Eurotrash. Taki is glamour without the glitz, wealth combined with anonymity, privilege and comfort without meterosexual softness, and manliness without burlesque or misogyny.
   
   An unapologetic elitist gentleman, ever giving communists and the spineless a fair punch in their clownish noses. Pure delight.



2. A great book, maybe a little slow at the end. If you like Taki, I highly reccomend this collection of his writings.



3. After seeing the film, 'American History X', I was hooked on finding out about what it's really like in a prison without the added drama of films. Taki gives an honest, undramatised description of his short time in prison for attempted drug smuggling. He explains the torment of being alone and not being able to walk around freely, 24 hours a day, as well the the disgusting conditions prisoners may put up with. It was certainly different to the the image that films like 'shawshank' gave. It showed the human side of prisoners as well as the goodness that the guards were capable of. It also gave interesting descriptions of the social code that inmates followed. For example the unspoken rule that a prisoner never uses the lavatory when the other prisoner is present, as this is 'home'. A recommended read to anyone interested in prison and the loyalty inmates share.

5 comments about The Cat Who Covered the World: The Adventures Of Henrietta And Her Foreign Correspondent.

1. An absolutely delightful book. I enjoyed it so much, I passed it on to cat lover friends and have just received an e-mail telling me how much they enjoyed it.



2. I love this book , by Christopher Wren about his beloved cat Henreitta and their travled together as a news correspondent around the globe. It's a must read for any cat lover. It's funny in many parts, moving , touching and sad as well.
   I'd recomend it to anyone. It's am enjoyable read for adult and children as well. For anyone who lvoes there feline baby very much this is the book for you.



3. Being a cat lover, I've read a few books about the mischievous trouble making creatures. My personal favorite is The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren. Wren, being a writer for the New York Times, travels the world with his family, including the cat.
   From Cairo, to Paris, to Beijing, there's not a place Henrietta, the cat, hasn't been. Henrietta is the most amazing cat I've ever heard of. She has very prototype catlike qualities, intelligent, resourceful, cunning, just to name a few. She's like super cat. Her qualities as I've just listed, are doubled compared to any normal cat. She even has a refined taste; she'll only eat certain kinds of fish and other meats, not like other cats that just eat whatever is in front of them.
   Wren's style of writing is very interesting. He's very descriptive, and seems to know exactly what word would fit where. It seems like he's memorized the dictionary. He uses a lot of bigger words that I couldn't even figure out from context, for example the word "eschatological", which has some thing to do with death and what happens after. I've never heard of that word in my life. You definitely need to be an experienced reader to read this. I love how he describes the actions of the cat, and the cat herself. Everything he says about her is catlike and very descriptive, giving people a clear picture in their minds.
   People can learn things from this book. Like how people in different countries treat cats, and their opinions and superstitions about them. One example of superstitions would be that I learned that some people in China think cat's eyes have magical features. I now know more about customs of people in different countries and their views on Americans and reporters.
   One thing the Wren's had to consistently go through were baggage checks and customs every time they entered a new country. This seemed to be a problem for Henrietta. In some countries they made her visit a vet and were very suspicious about her having foreign diseases. The veterinarians at these places would poke and prod at her as if she was a stuffed animal. In other places they would love her to death and let her go through without a problem.
   Wren adds a sense of humor to his book as well. I think that's one thing that made it so captivating. Knowing the behavior of cats is an important thing to have stored in the brain to understand some of the humor. If people have never owned a cat they may not understand why something would be funny. Such as in one part of the book he has the schedule of Henrietta in the morning. It talks about what a cat does in everyday life. People can't possibly understand the humor of the cat's schedule unless they've lived with a cat or an animal with the same kind of behavior.
   Overall Wren did a great job on this book. I would recommend The Cat Who Covered the World to any cat lover or cat owner. I only wish more people would write books like this about their cats.



4. When my local bookclub picked this book for our monthly selection, I wasn't sure what to think. I mean, how much discussion can be generated by a cat book? Thankfully I am a die-hard cat fan, so at least I'll have some funny cat stories to share.

   The Cat Who Covered the World tells the true of story of New York Times Foreign Correspondent (and author), Christopher Wren, as he travels around the world with the family cat in tow. Not a born cat-lover, Chris took his time warming up to Henrietta. Eventually, however, she became an integral part of the family. And when Chris was dispatched to his first overseas assignment, Henrietta was sure to tag along. This book paints a sweet picture of a man just doing his job and the cat who made it bearable for 18 years.

   As for the book itself, it's cute. The writing is for the most part simple, but I did tend to get a bit confused when the author reminisces about certain political happenings in the countries he lived in. If you're not up on your foreign history, be forewarned! However, the story as a whole is good; the cat, Henrietta, is a very endearing and sweet character, and I see much of her in my own two cats; and the different countries discussed will allow the reader to do some armchair traveling of their own. I recommend this book as a quick weekend read, but I believe it was written solely for the cat lover. All others may not find it as endearing or sweet, or may not relate to the relationship between author and family pet.




5. Wren's story nicely captures the hectic pace of his family's life and of the often exotic atmosphere of the far-flung places to which Wren's work as a journalist took them, along with their apparently indestructable cat Henrietta. Wren's description of the exhausting, time-consuming and frustrating paperwork that goes with the territory of traveling around the world with a cat is mind-boggling. Because the family willingly took on this added burden in order to keep Henrietta with them, it's clear that they loved her dearly and that she was without doubt an important member of the family. I cheered their efforts on her behalf (even though I look askance at allowing a cat to roam busy city streets or tropical landscapes where predators may lurk), but I would have liked to have read more about personal interaction between Henrietta and the family. We're told she curls up on the daughter's bed at night. But we don't hear her purr, we don't see her lick the girl's cheek or nuzzle her neck. Henrietta certainly comes off as independent, resourceful and resilient and I got a kick out of her, but with a little more detailed description of her interaction with the family, she would have seemed like a more loveable and huggable cat.

5 comments about Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York City Culture.

1. One of the most interesting parts of this book is Schwarz's examination of how Runyon created the special language of his 'Runyonese', of how he put together the language of vaudeville, of the radio, of the criminals slang, of New York City street talk, of Yiddish mamaloshen, to build an idiom all his own yet reflecting the energy and vibrancy of his special world of gamblers, sportspeople, Broadway characters , of all types.
   Schwarz is also interested in examining how Runyon contributed to the shaping of our image of New York City, of urban life in general.
   An outstanding study especially for those who know who Nicely- Nicely and Harry the Horse are.



2. "Broadway Boogie Woogie" is a fascinating read, both for anyone who finds New York City a fascinating city and for anyone with an interest in the origins of today's debate about how American journalism does and should shape the popular imagination. In "Broadway," Schwarz convincingly and vividly portrays an early-twentieth-century urban world of celebrity journalists and criminals, those who set the stage for that part of today's popular culture embodied in the celebrity cult phenomenon.
   At the same time, he paints the true American Dream story of Damon Runyon, a man who used words--from his newspaper articles to his short stories--to pull himself out of humble beginnings to attain wealth and fame. But while Runyon took full advantage of the elevated status he reached in early 20th century society--somewhat in the tradition of William Randolph Heart--he never forgot where he came from: his highly entertaining stories about humble men and women were suffused with a great deal of sympathy and sometimes even glorified shadowy and desperate lives. Anyone who ever loved "Guys and Dolls" and "West Side Story" should read this book.



3. "Broadway Boogie Woogie" is a fascinating read, both for anyone who finds New York City a fascinating city and for anyone with an interest in the origins of today's debate about how American journalism does and should shape the popular imagination. In "Broadway," Schwarz convincingly and vividly portrays an early-twentieth-century urban world of celebrity journalists and criminals, those who set the stage for that part of today's popular culture embodied in the celebrity cult phenomenon.
   At the same time, he paints a true story of "the American dream," embodied in Damon Runyon, a self-made man who used words--through his newspaper articles to his short stories--to pull himself out of humble beginnings to attain wealth and fame. But while Runyon took full advantage of the elevated status he reached in early 20th century society--somewhat in the tradition of William Randolph Heart--he never forgot where he came from: his wrote about humble men and women with a great deal of sympathy, sometimes even glorifying the lifestyles of the shadowy and desperate. Anyone who ever loved "Guys and Dolls" and "West Side Story" should read this book.



4. Schwarz has written a fine book that captures the energy and excitment of high life and low life in Manhattan in the first half of the twentieth century. He discusses Damon Runyon's many short stories--including those that were incorporated in the musical "Guys and Dolls"--setting them in their historical context and drawing our attention to Runyon's gift for conveying speech in writing. Schwarz also discusses Runyon's life and his work as a reporter who covered many of the major events of the day, especially showcase trials like the Lindberg trial. If you liked "Seabiscuit," you; will like this book: as with "Seabiscuit," you will come away from Schwarz's book feeling that you have vacationed in the twenties and thirties and have been enriched by the experience.



5. BROADWAY BOOGIE WOOGIE situates Runyon's stories and reportage in their New York, circa 1929-1946, context and tells us why Runyon's work still matters. The seriousness and skill that Schwarz used in earlier books to examine the writings of High Modernism (Conrad, Joyce, Woolf, Wallace Stevens) he uses here to illuminate the "wiseguy" world of BROADWAY BOOGIE WOOGIE. With insight and compassion Schwarz re-visits this world of gamblers, gangsters, swindlers, womanizers, and cheats and looks at America's ever present yearning to "take a walk on the wild side." The book should appeal to not only students and scholars in American Studies, 20th Century American History, Urban and Immigration History, Working-Class Studies, and American Literature, but also to anyone who simply loves New York.

5 comments about Right from the Beginning.

1. "Right from the Beginning" is the enjoyable autobiography of Pat Buchanan. His account of growing up in the middle decades of the twentieth century in Washington, D.C. is a page-turner, and he stresses how growing up in the pre-Sixties era was much different from doing so afterward. Some of the anecdotes that Buchanan relays in the book are laugh-out-loud funny.
   
   The book continues with Buchanan's path through college and graduate school to his days as an editorial writer in St. Louis. He tells the story of his hiring by Richard Nixon.
   
   The closing section of the book concerns the political situation as Buchanan saw it when the book was published in 1988. He believed that the moral climate of the country was far more important than the state of the economy, and was an unceasing advocate, not of détente, but of the defeat of the Soviet Union.
   
   Buchanan also has one of the best writing styles ever, and the fact that this book is still in print twenty years after it was published is indicative of how good it is.



2. This is #100 on the reader's choice non-fiction, of the Modern Library's Top 100 list. It's basically an autobiography of Pat Buchanan, who is as right wing conservative as they come. He grew up in a traditional, staunch Catholic home, and ended up becoming extremely influential in right-wing politics. I'm happy he never became president. Most of his political ideas stem from his religious up-bringing. He definitely would not be able to separate church and state, which would be dangerous.
   
   I don't agree with most of ideas politically, but I think it's important to understand all sides of politics and would therefore recommend this book as a great way into the mind of the religious conservative. It shows how dangerous religion is when mixed with politics. The fact that Buchanan proposes we hold a second constitutional ammendment, that would basically violate all kinds of individual rights is appaling. If it was up to Pat we would all be living under a government run by the Pope. It didn't work out very well for his twin Darth Sidious, and it would have an even worse outcome in real life for the Pope, or any other religious crazy man.
   
   So, that's why I found the book important in furthuring my understanding of the right-wing. I definitely learned more than I ever would have imagined.



3. Because I have thoroughly enjoyed Patrick Buchanan's columns criticizing President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, I decided to catch up my reading of Buchanan's books by reading _A Republic, Not an Empire_ (1999) and _Where the Right Went Wrong_ (2004). Having been favorably impressed with these two books, I turned my catch-up reading next to _Right from the Beginning_ (1988; 2nd ed. 1990). It is a remarkably well-written and remarkably honest autobiography. At times it is very funny.
   
   As a boy and a teenager, Patrick J. Buchanan (born November 2, 1938) was a fist-fight waiting to happen. Being expelled from Georgetown for a year (1960-1961) enabled Buchanan to overcome his earlier proclivities toward fisticuffs and turn his energies instead toward verbal combat.
   
   Buchanan does an excellent job of explaining his cultural conditioning in the 1940s and of explaining how this cultural conditioning posed great difficulties for him in the 1960s:
   
   "Americans who had grown up in the late 1920s and early 1930s had memories of a time when the United States was denounced at home and abroad as an unjust and failed society, a country that exploited the poor and sided with the exploiters. We [who were children in the 1940s] had no such memories. The 1960s were thus more of a shock to us than to them." (p. 30)
   
   This is a remarkable admission. Buchanan here acknowledges that he is the product of his narrow cultural conditioning in the 1940s. He also states that "[b]etween 1941 and 1945, that idea of America [as "a glorious and militarily invincible Republic"] was stamped upon us for life" (p. 30; also see pp. 139-140).
   
   But hold on! In his epigraph to chapter 7, Buchanan quotes St. Paul as saying, "When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spake as a child, and I acted as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put off childish things" (quoted p. 175).
   
   So when is Buchanan going to recognize that his cultural conditioning as a child in the 1940s is something that he now as a man needs to put off, rather than cling to it?
   
   From the evidence that Buchanan himself presents in this book, it is possible to argue that his cultural conditioning in the 1940s skewed his consciousness too strongly toward brashness -- that is, toward an over-developed tendency to get angry and want to fight. When he returned to Georgetown after having been expelled, one of his teachers asked him, "Why are you so angry?" (p. 229). I would argue that at least in part he was angry because of his cultural conditoning as a child in the 1940s.
   
   --Thomas J. Farrell, author of Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication (Media Ecology)



4. The man is brilliant and an extremely talented writer and TV commentator. Another great asset this author has is a sense of humor. He does not take himself seriously. He is loyal to his friends in good times and bad. He does not apologize for his ethnic heritage,his deep love of his native land, his deep religious faith, his Jesuit education. He is a well rounded person. I am always impressed with his TV appearances in that he never raises his voice or tries to speak over another guest. His manners are genuine. We need more Pat Buchanans!



5. A very insightful and readable biography
   of American perpetual Presidential Candi-
   date Pat Buchanan, who used to be very
   good on the McLaughlin Group. Buchanan
   got my vote in 2000 when he ran on the
   Reform Party tix and I was 4th District
   Delegate in Ches., VA. Buchanan's troops
   marched off with the matching funds, Buch-
   anan started a silly Newsletter and a new
   Third political party of hacks and started
   using that stupid 'judeo-Christian' moniker
   again. I threw in the towel on him after
   trying to talk sense into his brainwashed
   followers. His sorry Newsletter was always
   late and I ordered a bumper sticker from
   his website store and got his Amer. 1st
   Party Newsletter instead. What a bunch of
   idiots he has working for him! Poor old
   guy. His follow-up books are not very good.
   They all leave out the United Nations /N.W.O
   connection to everything. How the mighty have
   fallen. I can't beleive a man this intelligent
   is involved in the Knights of Malta and his
   heroes are Reagan [one of the worst Presidents
   of all time] and Nixon [one of the worst men
   ever in the Whitehouse. Can you believe that
   Nixon had Joe Namath on his enemies list? JOE
   NAMATH?!] What could have been...Sigh.

No comments about Politics of the Meiji Press: The Life of Fukuchi GenrIchiråO.

1 comments about "I'Ve Seen the Best of It": Memoirs.

1. As a staunch Cold War and extraordinarily connected political columnist in Washington for forty years, Joseph Alsop has many fascinating and amusing anecdotes to relate.

   Moreover, the issues of the period between 1945 and 1965 (the period of his greatest influence) were far more momentous than the mostly tittle-tattle of much of the last decade of Washington journalism: the Cold War, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the recurrent Berlin crises, the creation of NATO, SEATO and CENTO.

   Alsop's connections with the high and mighty (even family connections such as Eleanor Roosevelt or former Connecticut neighbor Dean Acheson sent to Groton as a boy on Alsop's father's recommendation), and others are astonishing. He had much "inside" knowledge of how the "greats" and "near greats" dealt with global issues.

   Alsop is also amusing and interesting about his WASP privileged background - his education at Groton and Harvard, the anticipated dress and social etiquette.

   Although Alsop's close friendship with JFK may have given him the most pleasure in writing this memoir, it is his experience in China during W.W.II, about which he writes at wonderful length, that is truly historic.

   In Chungking (China's war-time capital), Alsop played a central role in the corner of famous Flying Tigers' leader General Claire Chennault and T.V. Soong (sometime Foreign Minister and Chiang kai-Shek brother-in-law) in the great feud with the Stilwell-State-War Dept. - foreign correspondents over the proper political and military strategy for China. Alsop's accounts of what occured are memorable and truly valuable. (The heated feud persisted - so that long after Stilwell's death, Chennault was testifying before Congress that Stilwell was a traitor!).

   Alsop actually secretly drafted the demand for Stilwell's recall for the Chinese government! He was convinced that Stilwell harmed the American cause by his unconcealed contempt for Chiang, by a proposed Burmese campaign military strategy that would divert needed resources from the more potentially fruitful air war, an unwillingness to allocate sufficient supplies to Chennault (and later to those seeking to defend Eastern China, particularly the forward-most airfields), and too great an openness to the possibility of allying with the Communists.

   The China story is fascinating - in part because these are views that are in direct contradiction to most American accounts which are quite pro-Stilwell and anti-Chiang.

   The memoirs convey throughout the sadness implied by the book's title. Alsop was suffering from cancer at the time of writing - and had felt increasingly out of the mainstream of American journalism and political opinion in the early 1970s due to his more conservative views on the Vietnam War. (E.g., Alsop is mentioned mostly in derision by Vietnam correspondent, David Halberstam in his book, The Best And the Brightest, a view that seems to have been shared by other journalists in Vietnam).

   Alsop seems to have been of a rare breed - born into privilege, greatly enjoying his physical comfort(his man-servant astounded the Flying Tigers pilots) and yet who seems in his memoirs to be actually without any snobbery whatever and to have been irritated when he encountered it.

   Smart, loving the battle, very opinionated (the opposite of an "objective" journalist or even soldier), the memoir is highly enjoyable and recommended - even if to be read by some as the reminiscences of a great contrarian.