5 comments about Charles Kuralt's American Moments.

1. This book is filled with short accounts of diverse "American Moments" grouped in ten areas. This is a sampling. Each reader would do a completely different review as there is so much to choose from to make an interesting account.
   
   The Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, built in 1914, was a beautiful railroad palace through which half the soldiers of this country passed Dec. 7, the day word came of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The interior, from the insert photograph, looks a lot like the magnificent station in Washington, D.C. Back then, the idea was to create grand buildings for everyday citizens. At the street entrance, there on the sidewalk, stood a tall ornate black clock like the one which graced Knoxville's Gay Street for several decades. Ours was recently moved by the owners of a jewelry store to the new location west of town, a lavish edifice, and yet the clock has yet to be put up. They claimed it because it had stood in front of the downtown store. There is now a campaign to replace it there among the brew pubs, martini bars, and loft apartments where the downtowners hang out. Somehow, it will lack the 'dignity' of the original.
   
   There are two photos of Becky Davis of Tennessee making cotton candy at a Fair. Invented in the 1920s (Karault says by a dentist), it is sticky spun sugar in pretty colors. It takes experience to flip it just right to keep from being covered by the gooey stuff. He wonders what folks ate at fairs and carnivals before cotton candy came along. In the 1980s, funnel cakes made an appearance at the World's Fair in Knoxville. I have yet to eat my first one (not even a taste), though I was tempted at the 2004 Fair -- missed the chance as time was short and I had to run to catch a bus.
   
   The country's smallest p.o. is shown free-standing about the size of a well house in Ochopee, Florida. It may be tiny but has its own historical marker on a stand right outside on the road; a regular size postal drop box is beside the building wher it is encouraged the customers use for mailing their post cards and envelopes. Inside, of course, Naomi Lewis will be glad to sell stamps. From the photo, I see they had room by her counter for the "most wanted" criminals pictures, a staple of post offices everywhere. Our smallest here is at Knoxville Center mall in a corner beside the offices where you can get your driver's license and car tags. It even has room for packages which I usually mail there, as one of the two 'old' postal clerks told me, "here, you can be first in line." Now, that's a plus.
   
   Before that, U. S. A. had The Pony Express which began in St. Joseph, Missouri, to deliver mail overland all the way to California, 2,000 miles in ten days. At the Pony Express Museum, on the wall is an early want ad: "Wanted -- Young, Skinny, Wiry Fellows. Not Over Eighteen. Must Be Expert Rider. Willing to Risk Death Daily. Orphans Preferred." This enterprise lasted only a year and a half until the completion of the telegraph. There is a bronze statue of a young rider on a horse (in flight) there at St. Joseph where Gary Chilcote, director of the Patee House Museum, explained: "they rode through Kansas and Nebraska, dipped into Colorado, and across Wyoming, Nevada, Utan and dropped down into California.
   
   This historian tells the story of Jesse James' demise. Jesse was the first outlaw in the American West, right after the Civil War. He and his gang robbed trains and banks. There is a photo of the small house where Bob Ford, one of the gang members, shot Jesse behind the right ear as he attempted to straighten a picture on a wall on April 3, 1882. Kuralt wrote, "Die a law-abiding citizen and you will be remembered for a time. Die a desperado and you will be remembered for all time." The last of Jesse James, killed by one of his own gang, was an American Moment to Remember.
   
   It looked bigger than life in the movie version. A hatmaker he interviewed shows a bow being put on a cowboy hat for which the movies made popular. "All self-respecting cowboy hats have bows on them" (similar to those little things you see on the front of most bras). They have to or you're not a cowboy. That's as close as you can get to the meaning of this symbol in a word. A cowboy hat demands respect.
   
   My favorite cowboy, Lash LaRue, included me in his program at the East Tennessee Fair when Al Curtis brought him here (a big thing back then). Lash dressed in black and always wore a black hat. Our local cowboy, Marshal Andy Smalls, advises his t.v. fans to 'wear a white hat, so we will know the good guys.' I've always yearned for a blue one, but bought it for my little cowboy (Justin at age 4 or 5) whom the girls all liked at the library costume party.
   
   This fact-filled book, published after Charles Kuralt's death (7-4-97), was edited by Peter Freudlich, his friend and writer-producer for CBS News, where Charles worked for 37 years. He won many honors for his "on the road" journalism, and I enjoyed his features on 'CBS Sunday Morning.' In the Foreward, written by Charles Osgood, he calls Charles Kuralt, native son of North Carolina, an 'explorer' as he covered the back roads of this country to find real Americans and their unique stories.



2. The editing for 90 seconds of television was too severe for the treasured scenes to work as effectively in book form. Am I just still too sad at our loss to fill in the gaps? Though disappointed I read on and on. No doubt you will too. Kuralt was a quintessential American treasure himself.



3. Great reading! As I read the pages of American Moments I canhear the voice of Charles Kuralt. I recommend it for all ages and it is very uplifting.



4. Great reading! As I read the pages of American Moments I can hear the voice of Charles Kuralt. I recommend it for all ages and it is very uplifting.



5. Kuralt is an American treasure. His essays, word pictures ofAmerica, take on a special quality when heard on tape. All of his essays are his legacy--to remind us of the amazing nature of American society and of the need for a new crop of American writers to find the hidden jewels of Americana.

2 comments about Doctors War (Ulverscroft Large Print Series).

1. This short autobiographical account of an Irish doctor's World War II experiences is so riveting that I stayed up way too late to finish it. Dr. MacCarthy served in Europe and was then shipped out to the Asian theatre where he endured the unthinkable. The most striking things I took away from this book is how strong human beings can be in the face of terrible events and how good can triumph within each of us. As the preface said, if you went to a movie and saw all the things portrayed which Dr. McCarthy lived through, you'd think it too far-fetched to be true.



2. This book has been re-printed.
   
   New ISBN is 1903464706

4 comments about Life Work.

1. I am a big fan of Donald Hall's writing, both poetry and prose. This is my favorite and the one that made me think the most. It allows one to put one's life in perspective, realize the importance of life and work. We all aren't as lucky as Hall has been to work at what we love, but the book makes you think about how work can become more worthwhile. Deep and enjoyable.



2. Reading this book is work -- in the Donald Hall definition, for to read it is to become absorbed in each word to the exclusion of all else. Hall writes of his ancestors, of the rocky farms of New England, a small dairy, his father's early death, his wife's gardening, and then quite suddenly as his colon cancer recurs, of the possible end to life and the very prosaic tasks of cancelling readings, putting papers in order for survivors. Throughout, he achieves a sense of time, place and self which crosses generations. He charts both the constants and the increasing changes of the farm which has been in his family for more than a hundred years and the country around it. Hall, like God, love and grace--all of which are found in abundance in this book, abides.



3. Donald Hall's memoir, The Old Life, is beautifully crafted in prose form. It is full of personal recollections as well as literary references. It is intense, deeply personal, funny, and wonderfully readable. One has a very real sense of who Donald Hall is - his views of life, his passion for baseball and his family, his trials with his own ill health, his love for his wife, Jane Kenyon, also a poet, and his agonizing grief when she dies quite unexpectedly. A beautiful, poignant, literary triumph



4. Poet Donald Hall somehow manages to talk about the craft of writing and, even in prose, wondrously shapes a poetic work. This book is an excellent depiction of the author's life, as well as a fascinating historical account of Hall's life and background. Contrary to the popular romanticized view of writing or the "anyone can do it" mentality, Hall shows the reader just what his writing has entailed, and it is clearly WORK

2 comments about Fantastic Fables (Large Print).

1. This unique book is filled with 245 "fantastic fables" as Ambrose Bierce termed them. Each one is a classic of Bierce's bitterness and insight into such things as greedy politicians, not-so-holy holy men, legislators, doctors, judges, dogs sheep, lions and diplomats. Many read more like anecdotes, but in true fable style, he personifies animals as well as ideas, and even creates his own fantastic characters, such as the Pahdour of Patagascar and the Gookul of Madagonia. Bierce attacks each fable with much of his own sarcasm and satirical style. He even re-works some of Aesop's reknowned fables to suit his needs. Fans of Bierce's work will want to add these little gems to his or her collection.



2. This book stands with the Devil's Dictionary and In the Midst of Life as one of Ambrose Bierce's finest achievements. Dozens and dozens of short - sometimes very short - fables, each one a small, sharp needle in the backside of respectable hypocrisy. Some are simply written-out jokes, like the one about the baby ostrich who swallowed a bottle-cap ("Go quickly, my child, and swallow a corkscrew", says its mother); but the best of them to my mind are those featuring metaphors or abstract concepts as characters, like the one about the Moral Principle and the Temporary Expedient which met on a narrow bridge one day with predictably humiliating results. All the usual suspects are here - corrupt politicians, pious hypocrites, daffy judges and members of the Women's Press Association snarl, whimper, wheedle, preach, cheat and sneak alongside various Pairs of Hands making unauthorised incursions into Treauries, Streaks of Lightning failing to match the speed of Politicians Running for Office, and Blotted Escutcheons doing what Blotted Escutcheons do. Readers of the Devil's Dictionary, with its numerous improving anecdotes and rhymes, will know what to expect; anyone else is in for a treat, or possibly a coronary.

5 comments about Robert E. Lee.

1. Obviously, to get a REALLY good idea of who someone was, one must read more than one biography, but Roy Blount, Jr.'s "Robert E. Lee: A Life" is a pretty good start for anyone who has slight trouble wading through the heavy stuff. It keeps a lighthearted air while still managing to be extremely informative. I learned some little things about Lee, which I hadn't heard anywhere else before, and it was presented in such an enjoyable fashion. I already have two people asking to borrow this book, and I'm confident that they will come out of it with no complaints, just as I have. Enjoy. There's no way you can regret this purchase.



2. This book fails Gen. Robert E. Lee.
   
   It's noble in intent and confused in reality; like the Confederate army, half of which deserted, it greatly misses its full potential; like Lee's ability to overawe Northern generals, the topic seems to have overawed Blount; and like the Confederacy itself, it's a sadly flawed effort in defence of a doomed cause. In other words, it's a fitting portrayal of the Slave-ocracy itself, all smoke and mirrors and little substance. People who live off the labour of others are rarely noble, decent, competent or useful; that is why the Confederacy failed, not due to the shortcomings of General Lee or any of his soldiers.
   
   Again and again, Blount approaches fatal flaws in Lee's character and comes away uninspired; he writes "Lee was a great defensive general but on offense he got away with murder." It's an astute assessment. But he doesn't suggest the outcome had Lee fought a solely defensive war instead of wasting his best troops in futile attacks.
   
   Even his assessment of Lee as a "great defensive general" can be questioned. At the start of his long retreat to Appomattox Courthouse, Lee had 64,000 troops. He inflicted 63,000 casualties on Union forces; but, at Appomattox, his army was less than 10,000. Lee lost 53,000 men, or 83 percent of his army. Had the Germans lost the same proportion in Normandy in 1944, World War II would have ended by Thanksgiving.
   
   Blount touches major issues again and again, then retreats without a single thought. He spends more time psychobabbling about Lee's shoe size, a 4 1/2 C, than discussing Gettysburg. Surely, in a 206-page book about one of the great flawed figures of American history, there is more intellectual depth than to report, "We have no evidence that Lee and his wife, Mary, ever massaged each other's feet."
   
   "No one has ascribed any psychological significance to this socks fixation," Blount writes later about Lee's complaint that his wife sent only 64 pairs of socks, instead of 67 pairs. Although his soldiers often subsisted on mule meat and green corn, Blount can't find any psychobabble to explain Lee's order to have a soldier at Antietam shot for carrying a "stolen" pig. But he explains in great detail Lee's murder of a Canadian "snake" early in his career.
   
   When it comes to pure babble, Blount says Lee's joining the Confederacy "is one of the most famous American decisions." So, he compares it to the purely fictional decision by Huck Finn to help Jim, a runaway slave, to escape. Such insight is surely equivalent to saying Roosevelt's action after Pearl Harbour was inspired by Superman's decision to save Gotham. This is history? Or is it Blount's sense of humour, testing the acumen of readers hoping for anything more serious.
   
   Having wrapped up Lee's life in 163 pages, perhaps the strangest element is three Appendix afterthoughts that fill up the otherwise blank space from page 165 to the end. Maybe those pages should have been left blank for readers to fill in their own notes, observations and ideas. Or he could have psychobabbled about 'General Lee', the Dukes of Hazard car.
   
   Regardless of anyone's opinion of him, Lee deserves better.



3. I came away from this biography of Robert E. Lee feeling that the author didn't like his subject very much. It was almost like he wanted to prove that General Lee was just another man with more than his share of faults. He kept trying to pick Lee's personality apart and gave meaning to every gesture and casual comment that Lee had ever made. I felt that the historic facts in this book seemed accurate as far as I could remember from other things that I had read, but I also felt that there was not enough information given to substantiate some of the negative comments. He painted Lee as somewhat of a flirt, ignoring his wife, and being a cold and indifferent father to his children.
   
   If you want to read about General Lee, there are better biographies available.
   
   



4. In the pantheon of American history, few figures are as elusive and unknowable as Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the Army of Northern Virginia and the principal Confederate military leader in the Civil War. To try and encapsulate his life into one small, concise little book is pretty much impossible, but Roy Blount Jr. tries his best. And for that, he is to be applauded.
   
   Over the course of less than 200 pages, Blount examines Lee's life from his troubled past (Light-Horse Harry Lee, his Revolutionary War hero of a father, abandons the family and leaves his mother to raise their children), to his early military career (including brave missions for Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War), up through his Civil War generalship and subsequent retirement to a small college to live out his last years. And Blount does it with the charm and wit that make him one of America's (and the South's) most treasured writers.
   
   Robert E. Lee, more a marble giant than a man in most other biographers' attempts, is fleshed out by Blount as a stoic, almost Calvinist man with some unusual attributes that make him more attractive than before. Blount does not try to apologize for Lee's decision to side with his state over the Federal Government, he also tries to illuminate Lee's human side with interactions with his children and various ladies other than his wife over the course of his life. The Robert E. Lee that emerges is a man who had a hard life, with little hope for more than a passing whiff of happiness, who saw his duty to his state and his class overreaching that of the nation he served so gallantly before. And he paid the price for that in the end.
   
   Blount is at his best when describing Lee's human side (such as his flirtations with other women, his relationships with his children, his care of pupils while in charge of West Point), and also in showing that Lee's military record during the Civil War was less than perfect. Indeed, the book focuses on what Blount calls Lee's "instinctive" generalship and how his inability to communicate with his subordinates cost him victory at Gettysburg. Lee's war is not a success in the end, but his image as a fatherly leader of his men helps to cement the postwar elevation to Godlike status among the defeated Southerners who clung to the ideals of the Confederacy.
   
   Robert E. Lee is too complex a figure to be summed up in the space of 200 pages, but what Blount does is provide a quick survey of his life and infuse it with enough detail to make for a great brief appreciation. In appendices to the main book, Blount also discusses Lee's humor (his fondness for a certain, almost obscene phrase a highlight) and his attitudes to slavery (Lee was sadly a product of his times, no matter how "kind" he may have been to his own slaves). Blount, a southerner himself, takes pains to show Lee in real terms, not as the demigod he has been promoted to in the wake of postwar nostalgia. Robert E. Lee was not an easy man to know, and Blount makes no attempt to act as if his is the "definitive" study. But through clever and interesting sidetracks into Lee's personality, Blount comes as close as anyone yet to getting a handle on the man behind the curtain, the real Robert E. Lee and not the myth.
   
   Roy Blount Jr., through the auspices of Penguin's Brief Lives series, gives us a portrait of Robert E. Lee than transcends the myth and looks at the facts behind the myth. The result is a man that emerges as a troubled and complicated leader of men whose failings had as much to do with his legend as his successes. Blount makes Lee human, something that other more esteemed historians seem to miss. For that, he should be commended. The Marble Giant comes alive, however briefly, and fans and detractors alike can find something to treasure in Roy Blount's honest appraisal of his life and times.



5. I like the Penquin series of short biographies but this one was too much of a strange psychohistory. As other reviewers have pointed out, author Roy Blount seems to have a need to go into details 9at fairly great legnth) such as Lee's small feet and that he liked to play games with his children where they tickled his feet. First of all, I knew this because as a Civil way buff, I have read a lot about Lee so I come across such material. However, someone who knows less about Lee who is reading a very short biography would want to know more substance and less psycho nonsense in those few pages.
   
   There is not a lot of military history but, then again, this is a short book. Still, military history is basic to an initial understanding of Lee, therefore, perhaps Blount should have been more carefully in allocating scarce page space in this short book. In general, I have enjoyed reading short biographies of historical figures I am familiar with. I have read several biographies of Grant, for example, and I found two short biographies to be worthwhile in that in the few pages, they added insights. I suppose this book is OK for someone who knows nothing about Lee but it would be better to include more of the military and political facts. However, I found that it didn't really add much to my personal understanding of Lee.

5 comments about Sunday Nights at Seven: The Jack Benny Story (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. I really enjoyed this autobiography of Jack Benny. It is based on an unfinished manuscript that his daughter Joan found when she was going through her mother's house shortly after her death. Since it was incomplete, Joan contributes roughly half of the book's contents and Jack contributes the other half. There are also a few paragraphs written here and there by other people who knew Jack, including George Burns, his lifetime friend.
   
   Jack gives quite a bit of the details of his personal life from his childhood up until the beginning of his radio career. At that point, most of his comments concentrate on his comedy, how he built his radio show, the transition to television, and various anecdotes on how people often mistook the personality they saw on TV or heard on the radio with the real Jack Benny. Jack was always a generous fellow, so there is much information about the other performers on his show and what went into making each performance.
   
   Joan's half of the book fits nicely with Jack's since she gives many personal details of what it was like being Jack Benny's daughter and talks about the goings on in the Benny household in the years that Jack basically omits from his autobiography. The only thing that is a little off-track about the book is that Joan goes into considerable detail about the problems she had with her mother. From the book it appears she never talked to her father about these problems in much detail, so it really doesn't have much to do with Jack's story.
   
   This is a very detailed portrait - not from the standpoint of retracing every step Jack took, but from the standpoint of getting a real feel for the man in his own words. He was truly one the great comedians of the twentieth century and a genuinely nice guy. Highly recommended.



2. I was very happy after reading this that I purchased this book. I have always enjoyed the Jack Benny Show, the radio show even more than the tv version, (even though I was not born until 1961 and the tv show is in my immediate memory---I later in life "discovered" the radio shows on old time radio show programs and cd's) To hear the story of his career through his own memories and then to have them reflected by the point of view of his daughter was indeed a treat and a fascinating view into his life. I highly recommend this book for the serious Benny fan.



3. Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco, I have heard Joan Benny on various radio programs over the years and she truly was blessed to have Mr. Benny as a father. Unlike many of the Mommy & Daddy dearest books written by the children of celebrities this books tells of an enchanted childhood growing up in Hollywood's golden age, Many of Mr. Benny's insights on his contemporaries like Fred Allen & George Burns as well as his defense that the Rochester character was NOT explotive of African Americans are insightful. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson was one of the highest paid comedians of his generation and owned a large house with servants, numerous automobiles, & large chunks of California real estate. Eddie and Jack were great friends for many years and Eddie was very broken up at Jack's funeral. The numerous radio interviews Joan Benny did on Larry King and several other stations are usually found on Jack Benny radio show collection CDs sold on Ebay & elsewhere and make for a wonderful companion for this book.



4. Don't expect some exhaustive book on Benny (like the recent mega-biography of Bing Crosby) and you won't be disappointed. This book consists of light, amusing anecdotes - show biz fluff and recollections. It is great fun for Jack Benny fans and can be consumed in one afternoon. Enjoyable.



5. Jack Benny wrote an autobiography entitled: "I Always Had Shoes." Though complete, it was never published, and when Jack's daughter Joan found it she decided to take excerpts from it and publish it with her own reflections on growing up in the Benny household.
   
   Jack Benny's text is highlighted in bold type, while Joan's is in regular font. The average reader will no doubt very soon begin skipping Joan's writing and will read only Jack's text. Jack was apparently a surprisingly good writer.
   
   Why not just publish Jack's autobiography? I'd give it five stars in a heartbeat.

5 comments about Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story.

1. I'm not American so I was not well acquainted with Condi Rice and her life, both private and political. I came to admire her very much after reading the very detailed book which contains a lot about her private life, and a lot about her professional life which takes up most of her time and energy. She would be a great president, she has the guts and the intelligence and the sobriety to represent America in a very positive way.



2. I thought this biography of Condoleezza Rice was very informative and enlightening. Particularly interesting to me was the fact that she had excellent guidance from her parents who encouraged her to pursue her education to the fullest. The books talks of her pursuing her diverse talents and her ambition to succeed. Although I felt that the book glamorized her life a bit too much and indicated that she rarely made mistakes, she is one who deserves everything she has worked hard for. She is truly an inspiration.



3. This account of Condoleessa Rice is most helpful in understanding her upbringing, her motivation and her significant abilities. The author appears to have interviewed a large number of persons: 27 in number. However, no persons of highest notoriety were interviewed. Instead those notable persons were quoted only from other sources. The author typically did not write about Ms. Rice's personal views which was disappointing.
   
   The book unfortunately leaves several important questions unanswered, namely:
   
   1. How was it possible that Condi could have leaped over the normal path of ascension that others historically were required to endure and instead be awarded the esteemed position of Stanford provost?
   2. Why did Condi leave her position as Stanford provost for the significantly lesser position of Hoover Institute senior-fellow? The author's answer given in the book is not credible.
   3. Why did the author never interview Ms. Rice for this book? What was Ms. Rice's response when she was asked for an interview?
   4. How did Ms. Rice's notable but inadequate credentials of being a college provost qualify her to be appointed as head of the National Security Agency of the most powerful country on Earth?
   5. Why did the author not discuss negative issues regarding Ms. Rice as that would have given the book a balanced assessment?
   6. How was Ms. Rice's pro-abortion stance received by the conservative presidents that she served?
   7. Why was Ms. Rice's step-mother interviewed instead of her father, especially considering her step-mother was not even mentioned until 3/4 of the way through the book? Since Ms. Rice gave her father the highest credit for her success, would he not have been the preferred choice?
   
   While the book is enjoyable, it does leave some hard questions unanswered.



4. Condoleeza Rice is unquestionably one of the major minds of our day. Her life history and accomplishments challenge any parent to love and support thier child to the best of their ability with God's help.



5. It was an incredible biography. It was especially poignat in that my children went to St, Mary's Academy in Denver. The book was well written and clear complete and concise. It was a testiment that blacks can compete and be sucessfull if the right environment and attitude, is present.

No comments about A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee (Large Print Edition).

1 comments about Ava's Men: The Private Life of Ava Gardner.

1. i am not a big fan of the author's especially after the book on grace kelly but her book on ava gardner was very engaging...she tells of some very interesting stories, especially the one of the time in africa when they were making mogambo and she lifted the natives cloth

No comments about Isaac Bickerstaff (Large Print).