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5 comments about I'm Not Slowing Down: Winning My Battle With Osteoporosis.

1. Not only is the information in the book completely out of date since the hormones (Provera) have been shown to be dangerous and not to help bones or heart, but to my deep disappointment, Ann Richards, it is disclosed, was a spokesperson for the pharmaceutical company who manufactured the hormones!



2. This is an excellent, very current overview of this all too common disease and its treatment. Let's face it--we're all responsible for our own health, few of us use the same physician for our whole adult lives, and education is a must. Most of us are generally aware of this disease, but did you know: that hip fractures are really breaks in the femur neck, the top of the thigh bone? that there are several drugs out there to treat this, not just fosamax? that osteoporosis can result from lack of calcium or exercise during childhood? This book explains what those T-scores from your bone density test really mean. Lots of info here too on exercise and diet. A bit less interesting is the personal discussion from Ann Richards on her own life, but that doesn't mar this extremely useful work.



3. While I found this book to be useful and Ms. Richards' style to be non-technical and engaging, I wish that, before I bought the book, I had seen the statement which is on the reverse of the title page: "Ann Richards is a spokesperson for Eli Lilly, which owns the patent for Evista. Dr. Richard U. Levine, M.D. has been a member of the speakers' bureau for Eli Lilly."



4. I could not put this book down. One would expect a book on Osteoporosis to be a bit dry but Ann keeps it real! You go girl.



5. I just finished this terrific book. I watched my grandmother, and now my mother suffer from osteoporosis. I never totally understood this issue and the fact that it is preventable. I always believed there was nothing that could be done. Now I know the truth. This book explains EVERYTHING! I am calling my
   doctor today to schedule an appointment to discuss the various options. I am 47 and just entering menopause. Please, please, everyone reading this review, buy a copy for every woman you know, regardless of their age. Thanks Ann.

5 comments about Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way.

1. I was absolutely amazed by the method of writing. I have never read a book in which the ancient past, the near past, the present and the future are all contained in one sentence...and this actually makes sense. This is an amazing book at any price.



2. Kristoffer Tabori did an outstanding job reading this book. He captured the essence of John Paul II and it felt as if the late pontiff was telling me his story. A great performance -- such feeling and warmth. I loved the book. Thank you for such a beautiful performance.



3. The cover of this remarkable book, published less than a year before Pope John Paul II's death, shows the Pontiff nearly hidden while looking up at Christ's cross. It reminds us again the man called "John Paul the Great" raised Christ even as the world raised him during his legendary papacy's final months.
   
   "Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way" could not have arrived more timely. Here the Holy Father (once Archbishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow) wrote for and about bishops, a position and vocation many lay Catholics see as administrative and hierarchical, and others criticized after Church abuse scandals. In easily readable, autobiographical meditations he addresses bishop's roles as shepherds and emphasizes relationships they need to have with their cultural influences (philosophy, science) along with diocese, parishes and people they serve.
   
   Many Catholics will find JPII's description of ceremonies and ceremonials associated with the bishop (metier, crozier, ring, his Install Mass) intriguing and informative, especially when many only see their bishop at sacramental events like Confirmation. But JPII's reflections on his years as bishop make "Rise" a must read.
   
   The Pontiff writes warmly of years nurturing and growing Church traditions and feasts amid Nazi, then Communist occupation and hinderance (even attempts to marginalize St. Nicholas and disrupt church processions). He refers to saints he admired and who inspired him: St. Stanislas (to whom he wrote a poem quoted here), St. Leonard, St. Queen Hedwig. He mentions saints he recognized and canonized: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, St. Maximillian Kolbe and others murdered at Nazi hands in WWII. He then saves kind words for Joseph Ratzinger, his successor. (Of the future Pope Benedict XVI he writes, "I thank God for the prescence and the assistance of this great man...a trusted friend.")
   
   Pope John Paul II also reflects on pilgrmages to young people in the Philippines and Krakow's Oasis movement(quoting a still-popular hymn sung to him on that trip.) Love for and outreach to the young, a theme of his papacy, leads to a dissertation on St. Joseph as model for fatherhood and leadership for laity and bishops alike.
   
   It also leads the Holy Father to a philosophy eschewing the anonymous crowd for a more personal term "multitude," and removing "my" from his vocabulary to focus selflessly on Christ. When he says, "Personally, I have never felt lonely," you can only sense the closeness to Christ allowing few, especially in a position the world reveres, to feel such.
   
   The title quotes Christ's words to His apostles as they go from the Garden of Gethsemane to His Passion and death. As with nearly everything Pope John Paul II wrote, spoke, and lived, it's reflection on the past and call to action. This book comprises quick, easily readable meditation, reflection, teaching, and philosophy, and merits space in any Catholic library.
   



4. This book follows up where Memory and Identity had left off, through the episcopacy of John Paul II up to his pontificate. Like all his writing it is beautiful. There were only a few passages where the style changed somewhat and it became more of a laundry list (and then I did this, after that I did that, then I did that) rather than a flowing narrative. Overall though this is a beautiful book. It's amazing to see so clearly how God acts in any given life. It is a useful reminder though, that just as freely and clearly as we can see his actions in the life of John Paul, so too must he be acting in our life, it may just be more difficult to see.



5. This would be a great book if written by any other person. But, relative to other books I've read that were written by other Popes, it fell short of my expectations - but, it certainly rates a sound 'good.' One might consider the other side of the 'John Paul Coin' - the liberal side - Albino Luciani or John Paul I - the valiant champion of basic human dignity for women, the handicapped. orphans, homosexuals, the remarried and others who are scorned in their everyday lives by doctrine. I would suggest a look at Lucien Gregoire's PAUPER WHO WOULD BE POPE - the only existing complete biography of John Paul I. Two good men - two very different sides of the coin.

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5 comments about Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power.

1. Willis's book is interesting when he's relating history, but all too often he diverts from that to attack other historians views, or try to defend his against perceived attacks from others. That gets old after the first few times.



2. With Jefferson on the cover and a provocative title like "Negro President" you'd think the book would be all about Jefferson.........but instead, it's mostly about Timothy Pickering's fight with pro-slavery forces during his time in Congress. Not an unimportant topic by a long shot, but I was expecting Wills to tease out the complexities of Jefferson's mind on the subject of slavery.



3. This book suffers from the common Wills characteristic of rambling. You'll learn about Tim Pickering, Aaron Burr, J.Q. Adams, but I thought the book was about Jefferson. Most of the book isn't about Jefferson at all, except the concluding paragraph of some chapters that try to address the central thesis. There's nothing new about Jefferson in this book. Someone could write a great book about Jefferson's blatant hypocrisy on slavery. Wills certainly didn't do it with this big disappointment.



4. I was required to read this book for a graduate history class and came away enlightened. In response to those who say the book is not about Jefferson, it is. Pickering and Adams are used as lenses through which Wills examines Jefferson (I have read other books like this). This style of writing may be over-the-head of novice readers not accustomed to reading material that is geared towards professional historians.
   
   This book is intended to make the reader reconsider what they think about Jefferson and what they have been taught about the early republic. Wills shows Jefferson as a mere man and not the giant that celebratory (and earlier) literature would have him be. This may be disconcerting to readers that have been taught that the founding fathers were the paragon of society and humanity.
   
   In response to reviewers claiming that Wills misses this or that, you are right, but miss the point. Wills did not intend to discuss every aspect of Jefferson's political career. He was interested in examining Jefferson's defense of slavery in-so-far as slavery gave Jefferson and other Southerners an advantage over Northern politicians.
   
   You might not like what Wills has to say, but it is hard to argue with his argument.



5. This book strikes me as a fairly typical Wills effort. Take a gander at his oeuvre. Is there any public intellectual on the American scene at the moment that casts a wider net? Wills has written about Augustine, Chesterton, Reagan, John Wayne, Jefferson before (see his Inventing America- his study of Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence), Madison, Nixon (Nixon Agonistes contains one of the best explanation of American presidential politics that I have ever read), the role of religion in American politics, conservatism, and the American distrust of government to name just a few topics.. He writes like a prodigy- quickly, sometimes a little sloppily but based on a deep reading of Western culture. I have never read one of his books without copying down a passage or two into my commonplace book (a habit I took up long ago on reading Will's Inventing America). I have also not read any of his recent books without feeling that it was unfinished. He writes quickly and it shows. Some of his work is a little sloppy and needs development. Some of his arguments are brilliant and some are forced.
   Consider this volume. Wills is trying to emphasize some of the ways the three-fifths clause of the original Constitution distorted the workings of antebellum politics.
   The three-fifths clause was not about voting. In spite of some of the reviewers below, slave owners did not get three extra votes for every five slaves. It was about representation. Slaves were included in the population data that determined the number of representatives a state received in the House of Representatives. But they only counted as three people for every five slaves. So if a state contained 100,000 slaves, it would add a total of 60,000 onto the figure used to determine the number of representatives. In 1800, over 91 % of the blacks in America, free or slave, were in the southern states (this figure is from The South as a Conscious Minority by Jesse Carpenter, p.14). Obviously, the three/fifths clause worked to boost Southern representation. It had enough effect, according to Wills and many others, to provide the South with the decisive votes needed to elect Jefferson president, to pass the notorious gag rules of the 1830s, and to force through many of the so-called "compromises" that spread slavery throughout the Old Southwest.
   I agree with Wills, William Freehling, Leonard L. Richards and the others who have been writing about this issue of late. But one weakness of Wills' presentation (as opposed to someone like Freehling in The Road to Disunion) is that Wills fails to bring out one very important point. Even with the three/fifths clause, the South was a minority in the House. The 1800 elections brought as large a proportion of Southerners to the House as they enjoyed in any time in our history. In 1800, the South had 65 Representatives to 77 for the Northern States or 46% of the total (Carpenter, p. 22). Even with the completely unfair boost of the three-fifths clause they still needed northern allies. There were always Northerners or Westerners who had to vote along with the South on ALL the issues that Wills mention. This is perhaps the saddest part of the story of all. The Southern Representatives acted with great unity throughout this period and either found collaborators or were able to bully other Representatives to go along with them. My point is simply that the Slave Power was not just a Southern phenomenon. It was an American phenomenon. Wills does get at this sometimes. I cannot find the quote now but at some point in the book he does mention how many national politicians were willing to compromise with the South in order to further their careers. Even one of the heroes of his tale, J. Q. Adams was guilty of this early in his career.
   If you really want to explore thoroughly the Slave Power in early American history then I suggest Freehling's book over this one.
   That does not mean that you shouldn't read Wills. He clarifies some of the confusion I have always felt about Jefferson as a politician. In many ways, Jefferson was a modern politician. He knew how to work others to his ends while staying behind the curtain (this may be the only way we can compare Dick Cheney to Thomas Jefferson). Jefferson was also so sure that he was right that to oppose him was treasonous. He was in many ways a not very likable man. None of which diminishes his greatness except for those who can admire only saints. Personally, I find that if you allow yourself to provisionally admire sinners that there are a lot more people to admire.
   Wills also shows us Burr in a very different light and makes it clear that in regards to Burr (e.g., Burr's behavior during the 1800 election), that history really has been written by the victors. And while the other reviewers express appreciation for Wills' bringing back Timothy Pickering into history's good graces, I appreciate the way that he tells us the story of J.Q. Adams' struggles against the Slave Power in the House during the 1830s. This is one of the best stories in American history and deserves to be told again and again.
   So, yes, read Wills by all means. He may not be a detail guy but he will give you many great insights and will point in the direction of others like Freehling who are great detail guys. Along the way, you get to spend some time with one of the most interesting thinkers currently writing on the American scene.