No comments about Pacific Microphone (Texas a&M University Military History Series, Vol 8).

5 comments about Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941.

1. He was there at the nazi rallies;He followed the invasons,and most importantly, heard and saw the writing on the walls of the average german as the madness grew..The proaganda by goerbells is commented on regularly, etc. I have the original spring 1941 edition before the US declaration of war,so it appears even more valid somehow.Every WW2 history buff must read this book to round out any education. I also recomend it to all journalists,and history teachers.I recall his comment in 1938 (as the nazis annexed Austria)that 20 or more Jews committed suicide that day as a german army entered(Salzburg or Vienna? It's a book I couldn't put down.Some reviewers shouted "he's prejudiced". Ha! Shirer was not an umpire calling games at Yankee stadium" in 1938,-these 'thugs'were sending all opponents to concentration camps or worse, Shirer comments how by 1940 these bas_ards were going into the hospitals to remove the mental cases and send them to death camps.Thank g_d he was 'prejudiced enough' to write it down.



2. A well-written contemporaneous account of a correspondent's life in Nazi Germany up to 1940. Shirer is almost prescient in his assessment of Hitler's actions and their consequences. It is unfortunate that he could not continue his reporting after 1940, because an account of this caliber of the years when Germany was at war with America, made from inside Germany, would have been a valuable historical record. Shirer is a true journalist; while he offers opinions, they are clearly labeled as such, and do not get in the way of dispassionate reporting of the events he witnesses.



3. The author makes a large number of observations about what is happening and how it is done. This is along with the historical recording of events. These observations have stood the test of time. They explain the German's rapid success in the early years.



4. This book is an excellent account of the early years of WWII from the perspective of Mr. Shirer who was stationed in Germany as a print and radio journalist. There is quite a bit of history in this book and I found that it functions as a good introduction to the early history of WWII. It is also enlivened by some of Mr Shirer's personal anecdotes regarding broadcasting. Mr Shirer's close access to many of the leading figures in Germany and his observations of some of the war torn areas of the early German invasions gives a very realistic and graphic portrayal of how the war evolved in Europe. It is also fascinating to hear the speculation about which path the war would take. This is one factor that makes Mr Shirer's book much more interesting than a standard history text which has the benefit of hindsight. In the Berlin Diary, the reader sees history literally being created and develops a better understanding for the difficult choices the allies faced at that time.



5. This is a great book on a number of levels. You know how WW2 came out, the author does not. This book was completed months before Pearl Harbor (last entries were December 1940). So it is a great page turner watching mediocre politicians blunder their way to war.
   Also the inside story of the founding of broadcast journalism.
   
   The only type liberal most Americans know is a "Make love, not war" stereotype. Shirer was a different type. The type that was willing to fight facism in any form straight up, blow for blow, shot for shot. (Yet, he also personally knew Ghandi and was a great admirer. I guess Shirer could recognize the limits of non-violence.)
   
   Some other reviewers were upset by Shirer's opinions of Nazis and Germans. I recently read "My Four Years in Germany" by ???? Giraud who was the USA ambassador to Germany from 1913 to 1917. His observations dovetail and add validity to Shirer's observations about the mindset of Germans and their ambitions to dominate Europe, if not the world. He also had chapters on the German education system and Prussiaism which explains the Kaiser Cult. Nazism was a direct descendant of Kaiserism and Pan-Germanism. I spent ten days in Germany and Austria in 2004. While at the Dachau concentration camp I observed 100s of 16 year old German students. One of them told me all German students are required to go to a concentration camp. My son's school field trips are to Disneyworld or Busch Gardens, theirs is to walk through gas chambers. I doubt those bright, active German children regard Slavs as subhumans to be treated like cattle, but that does not mean their grand parents and great grand parents did not.
   
   Another reviewer slammed Shirer for describing with relish the food he ate on short trips outside of Germany before the War in contrast with the rationed poor food in Berlin he had to live on. Obviously that reviewer has never missed a meal in his life.
   
   This is going to turn some people off, but I was also struck by similarties between Nazi propaganda and Fox news. (Techniques, not Jew baiting.) Keep up a particular slant for years and that perception becomes people's realities.
   
   This is a great book which drives home Jefferson's observation, "The natural manure (fertilizer) of the Tree of Liberty is the blood of patriots." This book diary entries shows how Austrians, Checks, Dutch, Danes, Belgiums, French, and (except for the English Channel) the British one by one all refused to fight for freedom and lost all.

5 comments about American Son: A Portrait of John F. Kennedy, Jr..

1. Richard Blow is a good writer (see Harvard Rules, Greatest Game). This is a very strange book in which the author waxes more about him and his place in JFK Jr's world, than the Man himself. Blow comes across as an educated posse; he thanks Bernard Bailyn in the acknowledgment section. But unfortunately, the author is no Kennedy. He is a Blow (now Bradley).(At one point, the author waxes poetically about how he wanted his own wedding to be as good as John's, a wedding which Blow was never invited to). In the end, Blow writes as if nothing would make him happier than being John John's full time jock strap sniffer.
   
   As for George Magazine, the advertisers fled in droves for a reason.
   
   This book will entertain you for the three hours it takes for you to read.
   If you buy this book for a $1 (plus $3.99 shipping), the book is worth your investment.
   
   On the other hand, I highly recommend Harvard Rules and the Greatest Game.



2. Richard Blow is a former coworker of Joh F. Kennedy Jr. who seems to be attempting to make a couple of bucks off of a respected celebrity who has passed on with this book. While Richard obviously knew John, after reading this book it is apparent that he barely knew him outside of work. Judging by the cover and name of this book one would suspect that it is about JFK Jr. In reality this book is about George magazine and Richard's experience working there, with tales of dinner with John placed randomly about. If you are looking for a book that will give you an idea of what type of person JFK Jr. was, I would recommend "The Men We Became" by Robert Littel. He was John's best friend and knows far more about John than nearly anyone else ever did.



3. After reading the sleeper by Robert Littell"The Men We Became", this book wins hands down. First "Littell" criticized "Blow", because he (Blow) signed a confidentiality clause when he signed on for George Magazine. First Littell was a friend of JFK Jr.'s, and he NEVER should have written about him.(He should have had his GOOD friends sign waivers too I guess) As I stated in my review of his book, his REAL friends would never write about his personal life and I do not think that John every alluded to him (Littell) that he wanted him to write about him, he threw that line in to cover himself. However, Mr. Littell is the reason I read the book by Mr. Blow.He trashed his book, so I had to read it. This book I bought, the book by Littell I borrowed. Richard Blow does not hold himself up to be John's best friend, but rather a friendship developed through work.( He was not one of the people invited to the wedding, but certain relatives were not invited because of the small place where it was held.) Mr. Blow does not delve to much into the private life of John, or his marriage to Carolyn Bessette. What is written about Carolyn and John's marriage to her, I think were positives in the book. He painted Carolyn as a nice woman, taken off guard by the complete fasination of her. She seemed to be a helpmate in the beginning of the magazine, but is not portrayed as an overbearing instigator,( again Littell makes her out to be a shrew, weeding out friends, calling people freaks etc..) nor does she come off as cold and indifferent again, the way I felt that Mr. Littell had portrayed her. He showed that the world of journalism is a tough nut for anyone to crack, even with the Kennedy name behind it.After awhile it seemed that even the staff of George were coming to terms with their "celebrity boss". Would the magazine went on if John had lived? No one can ever answer that....but all that were involved really tried to make it work, everyone, not just JFK...



4. This book was a non-exploitive story of JFK's last few years in relation to his "George" efforts and peripheral personal and professional life. There are no shocking revelations or cutting evaluations, just an honest presentation of an interesting piece of that young man's life. Be forewarned, however (and the reason I rated this as 3 stars instead of 4): there is not one single photo within, and I believe this is a serious oversight in any biography.



5. Is this book about JFK, Jr. or is it about Richard Blow? After reading this book, it appeared to me that the author just wanted to make sure that in remembering JFK, Jr., that we all remembered that Blow worked with JFK, Jr. It's sad that someone like Blow, who is obviously talented in his own right, would decide to cash in so openly on his association with Kennedy.

5 comments about Life's Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom.

1. If you already know Lisa Belkin's column, this book is for you. As a compilation book of previous columns, it's a quick romp through balancing work and life and, at times, parenthood. However, after ten or so essays, you feel stuck in the 850-word column world and are left wanting more. I would have loved her to expand each "story" for the book form and add more meat to it.



2. I really enjoyed Lisa Belkin's book about the difficulties and successes of balancing work and family. She divides the book into short, dynamic, well-written chapters that capture the point quickly. You don't need to be a working mom to enjoy this book, as she touches upon quite a few interesting topics, like the relationships between adult children and their aging parents and choosing love when one's career is booming.
   
   I have one quibble though - her book overall focuses on what I would deem the upper middle to upper classes of society. People who are CEOs, orthodontists, attorneys, New York writers and the heads of Internet Start-ups. I'd love to have heard the voices of those who likely have a harder time balancing work & play - folks who work two jobs to make ends meet, waitresses, college students with part-time jobs and young children, etc.
   
   Other than that, I found the book to be a delightful read!



3. Being a new mom and managing a high stress career, Lisa Belkins' book was very eye opening for me. There are several times when I wonder how I can have the energy and motivation to keep this lifestyle going long term, and how long I will survive in the professional world while being a good mother to my child .Lisa Belkin gave me a peep into the future and opened options that I knew only vaguely about. Very well written and enjoyable as well.



4. I received a copy of this book to review for my website. And the book changed my life.

   When I first picked up the book Life's Work I put it down, deeming it not appropriate for BlueSuitMom's working mother audience. How wrong I was. Initially in the introduction I was put off by this sentence "Not a one of us seems to be able to give 100 percent of themselves to their job and 100 percent of themselves to their family and 100 percent of themselves to taking care of themselves." I read the line and decided she was wrong ... there are so many of us that can and do have it all. However, I didn't get the point ... the point she was making is that inevitably there are times when our balancing act glitches. When sometimes "life and work collide."

   Had I finished reading the introduction I would have read that the point is that we can work, have a family and take care of ourselves but sometimes they all can't happen at the same moment in time. Sometimes one has to come first. Sometimes there are dare I say "sacrifices."

   However, when I finally picked it up again I read that "No one can do it, because it cannot be done ... So let's start forgiving ourselves when we can't do it ... So what if the house isn't as clean as it should be? So what if that last business report was not the best you've ever written? So what if you're eating takeout for the second night in a row, or haven't been to the gym in weeks, or sent your children to school in crumpled shirts on school picture day? ... I'm not saying that none of these things matter. They all matter, but not all the time ... even I know that 100 percent plus 100 percent plus 100 percent equals more than any one person can do in a day. So what?"

   This might have been the most powerful message I've read in a book -- ever. Because today I vow that this will change my life. From now on, I'm not going to stay awake until 3 a.m. stressing out about why I'm not good enough. Why do I have to spend countless hours worrying that it isn't good enough. Some days I send out newsletters to BlueSuitMom readers with typos. And probably no one notices (okay maybe some of you do since you write to say hey this link is wrong or this tease didn't actually exist in the newsletter). And today I am saying "So what if it wasn't the best." This is a radical thought since normally I will agonize for hours that heaven forbid Rachael made a typo or put the wrong link in. In fact, I profusely apologize to those who write in ... but from now on I will give you the right link and repeat to myself "So what." I've learned that sometimes our best work can't be perfect.

   It isn't that I don't care about producing the best source for working mothers on the Internet; it is just that sometimes I will remember that no one can be perfect. And for years I've always strived to be that exception. I'll work until the middle of the night and then wonder why I don't have as many friends as I want or have the time to religiously stick to the gym.

   But from reading "Life's Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom" I've now decided that I can't have it all 100% of the time. I can maybe only have 95% of it all. And for today ... that will have to do.
   And I hope that Belkin's message will get through to all of you as well. Sometimes we can't do it all. Sometimes we have to skip out of a meeting to attend a child's play ... sometimes we have to fake being sick ... sometimes we just need to give ourselves a break.

   I'm sure that all our readers will enough reading Life's Work ... the best part is that the chapters are only a few pages long. It's the type of book to keep on your desk and read when you actually find that five minutes of time for yourself. And if you are saying you don't have that five minutes I encourage you to read the chapter entitled "September 11, 2001." I certainly needed the reminder that there are some things in the world that we can not control ... but what we can control is our reaction to things like guilt.

   I want to hear what you have to say. How do you deal with guilt? Am I the only one awake at 4:30 in the morning because I've only slept for 4 hours tonight? Feel free to write me at .... Let me know if I can publish your response in one BlueSuitMom or better yet share your "So What" moments on BlueSuitMom's message boards ... and don't tell yourself you don't have the time ... since we all have the same amount of time. It is up to us to decide how to use it. And if you don't want to start the dialogue ... that's okay my response is now "SO WHAT?"




5. Lisa Belkin's reflections on life and work are a joy to read for any veteran of the family/work balancing act. Her strong message resonates equally well for those in the corporate world to those working at home or the full-time stay at home parent -- trying to balance the demands of our lives can trap us in the unreasonable expectation we can please everybody all the time.

   Life's Work is about the emotional conflict we all feel whether we have to work at a despised job for the paycheck or need to work in a beloved field for personal fulfillment. We know that family and friends matter most in life but the devil is in the details -- juggling the mechanics of getting through each day when there is more than one person (or even two) can reasonably accomplish, coping when the unexpected overwhelms the system, deciding how best to care and provide for those we love who depend on us.

   The essays are short enough to read in five-minute bites (great to tuck in your bag for that wait in the doctor's office or the long line at the bank) and is also fun to read straight through. It's an especially great book for any parent (Mom or Dad) trying to write professionally at home. Lisa Belkin's take on combining a writing life with a family life had me laughing out loud.

5 comments about The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America's Great White Sharks.

1. Couldn't put it down. One of the most fascinating and well written books I have ever read. If you have any interest in sharks at all you will be blown away by how interesting and evocative this book is.



2. Awesome book! Loved every page and found a new interest in sharks. I would recommend to anyone who gets a thrill from adventure and is curious about these amazing mysterious creatures. You will learn a lot of fun information.



3. Journalist Susan Casey visits the Farallon Islands shark project. The Farallones are rugged islands off of the Golden Gate, often visited by Great White Sharks. Casey visited the place, presumabley wrote an article for OUTSIDE magazine where she was editor, and then tried to go back to the islands for more... More research? Time with the shark guys? Time with the sharks? Words to fill out a book-length manuscript?
   
   At any rate, she manages to insert herself into the story, helping to kill the project, get shark research people fired, lose a sixty-foot ship at sea, and in the second half of the book destroy any reputation as a writer she might have.
   
   It always amazes me when liberals try to pose as "outlaws", as Casey does. It always turns out to be a childish pose, "Laws for thee, but not for me." Laws to keep the Farallones owners, the American taxpayers, from visiting the island? Good laws, stick'em with a "six-figure fine"! Laws to keep her from visiting? Bad laws, try and sneak in with the shark research guys cooperation! Keep idiot swimmers and divers from swimming in the Farallones? Good law! Keep idiot shark research boy from surfing the Farallones? Bad law!



4. "The Devil's Teeth" is about more than just sharks. Let's get that out there first and foremost. It should be rather obvious, actually: the book's title refers not only to the animals (though Casey would NEVER refer to them as "devils," and neither should you), but to the islands they inhabit: the Farallones, a mysterious, rugged set of islands off San Francisco, which have, throughout the centuries, repelled any attempt at civilization.
   
   Of course, the sharks are the main draw, and there are plenty of them--as well as info on their habits, some of this knowledge previously unknown, gleemed from the research that Susan Casey observed during her somewhat-legal "internship" with scientists Peter Pyle and Scot Anderson. Though some of the details given are mundane and annoying (do we really need to know that one scientist's arm muscles were perfectly formed?), much of the information is, if not relevatory, then at least pretty darn interesting. The entire book is filled with fun, rivetting info about great whites, seabirds, local history, and even a few funny--and somewhat disturbing--annecdotes about the ghost that supposedly haunts the island.
   
   The book's only real setback: it feels unfinished. Granted, that is life, and this is a true story...but still, it's a bit of a letdown. Of course, can take this another way: this story absolutely had to be told, whether it was finished or not (and, I suppose, it HAS come to an end, and a rather unhappy one at that). It is important that the general public become aware that great white sharks are not devilish killing machines (it would have been nice if she'd gone with another title, one not intended to sell millions of copies). Great whites inhabit a realm of nature that man is only now attempting to understand; the info in this book goes a long way to informing the general public of recent developments that can hopefully clear the shark of many unjust charges. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), the book also provides a rivetting read for anyone interested in the natural world.



5. The author and her persistence to observe activities on the island leads the the demise of the entire shark research project. great.

2 comments about Memories In Translation: A Life Between The Lines Of Arabic Literature.

1. This is a very interesting recounting of one man's journey through life as an Arabic to English translator during a very interesting time in history. The text is peppered throughout with the names of well known Arabic authors of the 20th Century and in the course of reading I learned about authors and works that I was previously unaware of which will lead to some great reading. There are many photos, taken by the author's wife, of the author with some of the great Arabic language writers mentioned in the book.



2. Having lived an important part of my life in Morocco just like the author and having recently entered the world of translation from Arabic to my native language for the sheer love of literature with no hopes for substantial earnings to be gained from this endevour I found the book full of useful information. Great abbreviated chapters on some prominent Arab writers with so many interesting details. Deffinitely a joy to read for whoever is attracted by this so prolific but yet so underestimated literature. I definitely believe that in this era of quick-to-read books Arab writers could make a paramount contribution for the reestablishment of high literary standards still offering interesting plots.

3 comments about Let Truth Be the Prejudice: W. Eugene Smith, His Life and Photographs.

1. In the mid-70's, I attended a slide lecture by Smith at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. I didn't know a thing about him, but the presentation haunts me still. He was helped onto the stage, a very old man, and quietly, he narrated the Minimata work in a slide show. The audience, a bunch of party school undergrads and townspeople, were completely silent the entire time. It was almost as if Smith knew that if the slightest emotion showed in his voice, his audience would be lost in sobs. He didn't editorialize, he just spoke, simply and quietly. At the end of the show, he put up one last slide. It was of a blackboard with the words in chalk, "Thank you, all you lovely people." It brings tears to my eyes almost 20 years later.



2. The life of W. Eugene Smith is none the less; inspiring yet depressingly so... A reflection of the truth in life, man and society.



3. In the fall of 1985 I drove down from Northern New Jersey to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the retrospective show of W. Eugene Smith's work for which this book was the catalog. I walked through the rooms and people stood in front of his Minamata photographs, weeping. Smith paid for those pictures with his eyesight, probably the better part of his sanity. If he drank before, the stories are that after his return from Japan he plunged into the bottle full-bore. If one can talk of a man's life and work in religious terms, W. Eugene Smith's career was a prolonged and self-willed crucifixion, a sacrifice in the name of a Truth that I'm not sure we're ready for yet.

   I haven't photographed seriously in quite a few years, but whenever I made a print, there in the darkroom I could feel Smith's presence saying two things to me: "You're lousy at this" and "Don't ever stop."

4 comments about No Hurry to Get Home: The Memoir of the New Yorker Writer Whose Unconventional Life and Adventures Spanned the 20th Century.

1. Hahn tells of an exotic existence in a practical and clear voice rich with her honest observations of the people and places of Chicago, London, the Belgian Congo, and Shanghai. Not a memoir in the traditional sense, Hahn, with forthright economy, simply allows the articles she's written throughout her lifetime to illustrate tales of her travels. An inspiring read for woman and men who long for an adventurous life!



2. While approximately 30% of this book is taken up with interesting stories about life abroad in the early part of the 20th century, in no way, shape, or form is this book actually a memoir. It is a collection of her old New Yorker articles, most of which do not even deal with her life abroad. In fact, the majority of the chapters comprise uninteresting tales of her domestic life -- not quite what the title implies, either.

   The foreward states, in a fit of honesty that apparently didn't make it to either the title or back-cover copy, that Hahn was under contract to write a memoir, and instead, since she had already been paid and didn't much feel like writing anything more, took a bunch of her old New Yorker clippings and sent them in to her publisher. Anyhow, it certainly shows.

   I had heard of Hahn before, and was interested in reading about her China exploits in particular. One could understand, then, that I would be quite chagrined to find that fully the first half of the book is taken up with boring childhood reminiscences of St. Louis and Chicago, and that the last few stories are set once Hahn has become safely re-domiciled in NYC, and concern similarly banal domestic issues.

   This is not to say that there is no merit whatsoever in the book. At least a few of the stories are good and interesting: one or two about her life in the Congo, one about the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, another two about Shanghai and her opium addiction. But even, with these, her writing style is usually so insubstantial, so affectedly flaky, like Dorothy Parker after a partial lobotomy or a teenaged girl dumbing it down so the boys like her, that I would in all likelihood not have liked this book had it been what its title and packaging claimed it to be.

   This book is mostly just a collection of irrelevant, poorly written prose that was slapped together to pay the bills. The publisher should have demanded his money back.




3. In his lively and evocative Introduction to this book, Hahn biographer Ken Cuthbertson says that Emily Hahn "moved from here to there to everywhere, like some sort of multi-colored and quixotic literary butterfly" for around forty-seven years. Sheila McGrath, in her Foreword, looks through a different lens, seeing "an inborn and unyielding independence that must have been difficult to maintain," a wholly original woman who traveled, had adventures, made friends, and wrote about all of it with an unflagging energy and dedication. She lived exactly as she chose to, for her entire long life.

   This book is a collection of essays that Hahn herself assembled in 1970, in order to fulfill a commitment she'd made to a publisher to produce an autobiography, which she was loathe to write, according to Cuthbertson. There are several delightful pieces on Hahn's good childhood and school days in the American midwest, and then the rest bright and incredible travel pieces - letters home, really - that appeared in The New Yorker magazine, from 1937 to 1970. (One describes a cross-country trip she and a friend made one summer during the '20's, as undergraduates, in a Model T). Artful and sensitive ordering of these pieces supplies the reader with a chronology. Unfortunately, the pieces are undated, so you must guess as to date of writing, and date of publication.

   Hahn's adventures and quirky and strong views are fabulous and charming - and quaint at times. From "The Big Smoke": "Though I had always wanted to be an opium addict, I can't claim that as a reason I went to China." She supplies a witty and thorough description of how she did it. (And later, of how she kicked the habit.) In other venues she had a pet gibbon named Mr. Mills, she lived in the jungle for a while, and was literally trapped in Shanghai for a spell. Amazing things, reported in a calm - but playful - voice. The people she met and got to know are drawn less fully than her escapades. You, in turn, never really get to know them, either.

   Hahn does not go deep so much as range far and wide. She has a great ear, an even better eye, and is fearless. That she reported so dryly and well on her doings in the US, the Congo, China, Japan, England and Europe is the icing on the cake. A very good and atmospheric read.




4. 'Emily Hahn was an original--a first-generation feminist who chose not to be called one, a woman of courage who constantly underplayed it, a reporter of the acts of men and animals, whose peculiar likeness she grasped perhaps better than any other writer of her time. Above all, she was a prose stylist, a plain writer whose simplicities are never simple, and whose every sentence ends with a sharp, clean bite. Her (beautifully) episodic memoirs can stand alongside those of M. F. K. Fisher, who she in so many ways resembled, as a model of clarity, precision, calm sensuality, carefully weighed sadness.' --Adam Gopnik, New Yorker writer

5 comments about Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack: A Boyhood Year During World War II.

1. I loved this book and I'm sure I smiled all the way through it. Everyone loves nostalgia about the good ole days -- meaning, we ALL have our own good old days. But the times he writes about are especially delightful and innocent. The music was great and something everyone and anyone could sing along with. The movies were dreamy. The radio was great and innovative. And best of all were Mom's final words to the young on summer days: Be home before dark! Yes, we used to go out and play. We didn't have play dates; we just played with whoever was there on that day. Sometimes we played kick the can, or tag, or jump rope, or went on long bike rides, or went to town to the small store to look at magazines and comic books and drool over the candy in the glass counters. We may even have had a nickle in our pockets to buy something.
   
   In any event, I grew up in basically the same circumstances as young Charles describes in this book. The book is short and sweet, something to smile about on each and every page. I wish it was longer -- Both the childhood of the 1940s and this book. Both were great.



2. I envy Charles Osgood. He saw and experienced a Baltimore I never did. The stork didn't drop me off in B'more until 1955. I had such a good time in seeing things I remembered from a different perspective. If it's possible, I loved my city just a bit more after reading this. Thanks for the memories and insights.



3. I was drawn to pick up this book when I saw the cover--the picture of the author as a young boy is irresistible. Although the content was interesting, I found myself quickly becoming annoyed by the author's numerous slurs towards our younger generation. I found his words to be increasingly mean-spirited and I finally put the book down for good when he made light of both children and their parents who are faced with the struggle of bipolar disorder. The author reminds me of many older Americans who can't see that the world has changed greatly since the 1940's and that our younger generation has many redeeming characteristics.



4. This delightful read, one year in the life of a 9-year old boy, may be the most enjoyable book I've read in years. And I read a lot of stuff. The year was 1942 and Charles Osgood describes it magnificently as lived by most of us the same age. I laughed with tears in my eyes on almost very page. This book should be enjoyed by the children and grandchildern of those of us that were children during that incredible year, 1942. Memory lane was never better documented. Enjoy.



5. Osgood's wit and rich tribute to his 1940s boyhood results in an enjoyable, worthwhile read, even better if you get the audio version, read by Charles himself. I did find his criticisms of today's children (and their excessively competitive parents) a bit grating. It made me think of a book that could have been written when he was a child, something like, "Radio?! Who needs that! Why when I was a boy we didn't need all those special effects and people shouting at you from a wooden box! We had books, like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. And they were never spoiled by silly toothpaste or hair tonic commercials."
   
   The problem with nostalgia is that it can create an abnoral yearning for an irrecoverable past, and is often excessively sentimental. Tempis fugit...

1 comments about Ambivalence, a Love Story: Portrait of a Marriage.

1. Donatich explores his roles as son, lover, worker, husband, and father. He grapples with the concept of manhood by examining unemployment, religion, gender relations, the immigrant experience, the pursuit of identity through lifestyle, and family life. With openness and honesty, he shares the bittersweet feelings of a "middle-aged, married, mortgaged, and mortal" man to celebrate and define the book's title. Ambivalence--and a good relationship--means being of two minds; having moral strength, not certitude; mindfully loving, not clinging to the blind faith of being in love.