5 comments about No More Words: A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

1. Reeve surely has Ann's gene for writing. This book should be read by all who still have parents alive and will be faced with their eventual death and by those who have already lost a loved one. Alzheimers and dimentia are a death before dying. It is hardest on those left behind and gilt and worry are only some of the emotions one has to deal with during the dying process. Reeve caught the essence of her mother and was fortunate to be able to have 24/7 caregivers to help her through this ordeal.
   This book is a tribute to Ann and to Reeve's Sister.



2. This is a touching memoir of the time when Reeve Lindbergh was helping to take care of her aging mother, the famous Anne Morrow Lindbergh in the last year(s) of her life. This book is a look inside the private lives of a very well known family during a difficult transition in their lives.
   
   The story is about how Reeve is trying to make sense of this time. It contains her thoughts and reflections and fears about the change in her mother's condition. I appreciate the honesty in which this book is written, I feel like the author held nothing back in relating her story. I was surprised and delighted at the openness of it. She wrote about things in dealing with this situation that people think, but would rarely admit to.
   
   I found this book to be very comforting, as I recently experienced a similar situation in my own family. There were so many times, as I read this, I was shaking my head thinking....I know exactly what you're saying. Throughout the ordeal, there are sad times, but there were also light and funny times as well. Dealing with the aging and decline of a loved one that you have known so well all of your life is difficult. They change, and when it happens, we don't always know how to deal with it or what to think, and we wonder what they are thinking. It's hard and it's confusing when you are trying to guess at what is going on in their world. Reeve writes beautifully about it all.
   
   I had not picked this book with the intention of experiencing what I did...the comfort of reading about someone else going through a similar situation as me. I initially picked this book because I love Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book 'Gift of the Sea' and I wanted to read more about her life. Once again, as I am a firm believer of...the right books come along at just the precise moment that we need them and so often they come in an unexpected way as this one did for me.



3. Reeve Lindberg has succeeded in giving us a marvelous journey through the last two years of her mother's life. It is also a very helpful description of what it is to deal with someone who is deep in the fog of an Alzheimer's like state. I plan to give copies to many of my friends, most especially those with elderly parents. Reeve's language is lovely and crisp in the strokes of its portraits. It is easy to see she that is her mother's daughter. I am so happy to have discovered this book and I would recommend it to anyone who is seeing or will see an elderly parent or friend through his or her last days and months. Tasha Halpert



4. This is a fast reading book concerning Mrs. Charles Lindbergh's last few years of life. Written by youngest Lindbergh sibling, Reeve, she tells of living on her own farm in Vermont, with a smaller house on the property her mother lived in during that time. Reeve Lindbergh is a wonderful writer - she doesn't need the famous last name to prove that. When she isn't writing about her mother, which is riveting for some reason, her writing of anything else in the book has such a fresh, emotional spirit behind her words. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a legend in her own time both in flying, her husband, and her many published works, did not talk much in her last years. It is a story of how the family felt and coped with her condition, letting go of the vibrant mother they once knew. An excellent book for those who have been a caregiver to a parent or sibling. Anne M.L. was such a famous figure, it was both interesting and heartwrenching to have the privilege of reading about her day to day living. Thank you, Reeve Lindbergh, for sharing this story that you could have kept to yourself, but chose to share. It's a book that will be remembered long after it's read.



5. I have read Reeve Lindbergh's work before in her memoir, "Under A Wing". I was surprised at her candor regarding her father, and what was equally clear was her fondness for her mother. "No More Words", which records the last 17 trying and rewarding months of her mother's life, is a tender tribute that is notable for what it includes and for what it omits.

   The only photograph of Mrs. Lindbergh is the one that appears on the cover. The photograph depicts a young woman at the start of what would prove to be a life as fascinating as it was lengthy. The closing months of this woman's life are chronicled above all else with a great deal of respect. This is a most private family event, and just as the book is devoid of any pictures for the voyeur, the narrative too is informative without taking away any of the dignity of her mother. This would seem to be an obvious manner to write of one's parent, but a person does not have to look far to find books written with sales as the first goal, and exploitation of the subject left unconsidered.

   Reeve Lindbergh is a poet, she is reflective, and these aspects of her personality provide a narrative that is unique. This book is not simply a diary; it is not a chronological description of the systematic health decline of her mother. It is more of a story that is driven by the limited interactions she was able to have with her mother, and the memories that were either hers or recollections of her mother's life. This is not a sugarcoated story of what was a very trying time. The book is a balanced memoir about how difficult it is to deal with not only the death of a parent, but also the very real difficulties and frustrations that caring for an elderly, ill parent involves. Mrs. Lindbergh had the best care available which took much of the moment-to-moment care off of the family. It did not remove many of the difficulties, and the reader can easily imagine what it would entail to care for a parent with little, or no outside help.

   This is a very contemplative book that moves at an associated pace.

No comments about Vet in the Vestry (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series).

5 comments about Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman.

1. If you love to travel, love to learn, or love great writing, Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman, is just the book for you. Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Steinbach quit her job as a journalist to pursue her dream of combining travel and learning. She spent eighteen months taking breathtaking trips and seeing the world in ways few of us will ever be able to emulate. When she returned, she wrote a memoir of her experiences. Readers share her adventures as she takes lessons and courses in gourmet cooking at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, Japanese culture in Kyoto, art at the British Institute in Florence, the life of Jane Austen in Winchester and Exeter, art and architecture in Havana, gardening in Provence, writing in Prague, and Border collie training in Scotland.
   
   I love all traveling, learning and great writing, and I love this book for many more reasons:
   
   Steinbach's mastery of the writing craft is evident in every story. Although each trip is an independent story capable of standing alone and she gives no details of her life before, between, or after these trips, she quilts them together into a unified account with the thread of her evolving long-distance relationship with a Japanese widower she met on a train in France sometime before this story began. She lets us glimpse flashes of intimacy in fragments of letters to him. Thoughts of him twinkle like fireflies throughout, and we meet him in person in Kyoto.
   
   Steinbach attracts spontaneous adventures that supplement her planned activities, adding depth and intrigue to her tales. In Kyoto she is unexpectedly able to meet and interview geishas. In Florence she wanders into an old church and is drawn into the mystery of the flood that nearly destroyed it. The life of a Jewish girl who perished in the Holocaust intrigues her in Prague. Twining serendipity and mystery with the predictable adds spice to what could be a bland tale.
   
   Everyone has experienced flashes of memory that pop into awareness at the strangest provocation. Steinbach's stories glitter with such sequins, recalling moments with her dearly beloved grandmother, a woman of style and dash, and moments with her mother. These personal anecdotes endear Steinbach to me, revealing her own personality and humanity.
   
   Steinbach herself emerges gradually into view as the stories continue. I felt as if I were seeing the view from behind her eyes, listening to the conversation she carried on with herself inside her head. She shares her reactions to things she sees, and describes the memories they evoke. She writes as freely of words uttered by her "thinking voice" as she does of spoken dialog. She's a master of metaphor and simile, using phrases such as, "If Louisa Jones were a garden, she would be the garden of the Martin-Ragets."
   
   A writer myself as well as a leader of writing workshops, I was especially drawn to the section on Prague. Steinbach had little good to say about the writing workshop she took there, finding it intimidating and less than helpful. It seems the participants felt an obligation to tear apart each other's work rather than suggesting ways of building on what was working. Though she never directly states this, the chapter is a strong warning to be careful where and with whom you study writing and avoid competitive critiquing.
   
   Steinbach's work sizzles with rhythm and a variable beat. This is no formula travelogue. On some trips, she goes into detail about the tribulations she overcame to get there. On others, she starts further into the trip and works her way back. She generally, but not always, follows a chronological approach within each story. The constants throughout are the memory sprinkles and juicy descriptions.
   
   This book went beyond teaching me all sorts of exotic and fascinating tidbits about life and history in far-flung places, and inspired me to seek nontraditional ways of learning in my own travels. It nudged my imagination to new levels as I think about creatively compiling assorted memories around a theme. Now I'm eager to backtrack and read her two earlier works, Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman and The Miss Dennis School of Writing and Other Lessons From a Woman's Life.
   
   by Sharon Lippincott
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



2. I have been reading Educating Alice at night before I go to sleep. The chapters about studying in Paris, Japan, and Italy were interesting enough to keep me awake for a while. I love the writing about Cuba because I know nothing about that country. However, I'm on the section about the gardens of Provence. I've been stuck here for a while, and I'm having no trouble sleeping now! Alice takes all of these classes around the world, but none seem related. I'm wondering why we should care about these classes. I wish she would have focused on her relationship with Naohiro, her romance from the first book. Her adventures weren't as exciting as the first book.



3. I enjoy reading travel writing. I am an arm chair world traveler, knowing one day, I too will be fortunate enough to write my own travel memoirs.
   I enjoyed this authors approach to travel, since I too, love to learn new things, why not incorporate the two, travel and learning together. I was encouraged by how open and responsive people were to her visits and to her questions. I could only hope that people would be so receptive to me while traveling-of course she opened herself up to strangers and I would guess it was her "good-naturedness" and postive and humble demeanor that drew people to her as well.
   I could have done without the sentimental flashbacks and even more sentimental love letters to her friend, but that is just me. Overall, I enjoyed reading about Ms Steinbachs travels and experiences.



4. I enjoyed reading Alice Steinbach's "Without Reservations" immensely that I looked forward to reading this book with the same intensity, but I became disappointed with it towards the middle of the book and I even skipped some of the later chapters because it was making me sleep. I am reading her first book though, "The Miss Dennis School of Writing and Other Lessons from a Woman's Life", which is a collection of her articles in the Baltimore Sun.



5. I too really enjoyed Without Reservations, however, this book is Borrrinnng. I suppose her list of things to do/learn is vastly different than mine. She definitely has a Jones for the Ritz [in both books], which does nothing for me. I love Jane Austen, but have no interest in the all-things-Jane vigil. Gardens in Provence? I did enjoy the Havana story, but still am unsure how she went from the states to Cuba...I thought this wasn't legal. Upon reading other reviews right now, I've decided to skip her holocaust non-fiction writing [nothing like an American going to "holocaust country" and writing a story. sheesh.], and the apparently ever so REALLY boring sheep herding education.

5 comments about The Way You Wear Your Hat: And the Lost Art of Livin'.

1. Great book, fast reading, it had to be a great life. What this book does is it describes what it was like to be a man before the days of sensitivity training, and equality for all...



2. This is a great book; I echo all those positive reviews that came before. But it left me seriously jonesing for a guide like this for women. I really wish there were a parallel book for us dames. Does anyone know of a biography or a guide that looks at "the lost art of livin' life" for my gender?? **Please** let me know.



3. This is a fun read. It's not really biographical; simply a collection of anecdotes and memories that paint a picture of a man over the years. I get a real sense of Frank Sinatra -- we all knew him, and yet perhaps no one really knew him at all.



4. This book takes a turn away from Sinatra the Musician, and focuses on Sinatra the Man. Sure, he had a temper. Which one of us doesn't? Sure, he made some mistakes in his life. Which one of us hasn't? The flaws that FS had were overshadowed by the good qualities, with one that stands out in particular - LOYALTY. He stood by his friends just as fiercely as he stood up to his enemies.
   
   This book doesn't take the angle of a biography like so many others do. It only gets into biographical details as they relate to how Frank lived his life. It's full of great stories told by his friends and family on how Frank lived his life. It was a different time, and while all the specifics may not apply to today, the ideals are still very relevant. Everybody should take a least a page from Frank's life through this book, and apply it to their own life.
   
   A flower's not a flower if it's wilted.
   A hat's not a hat 'till it's tilted.



5. I bought this book for my boyfriend. He loves Frank Sinatra. I gave it to him at Christmas along with a fedora (like Frank wears on the cover of the book). He read the whole book on Christmas. He said it was great!
   
   "Cock your hat- angles are attitudes"~Frank Sinatra

5 comments about Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)).

1. Yancey, sadly, is not out of the woods yet. He has stopped short of true Christianity and has adopted a heretical form of it. His book portrays the gospel as God making ridiculously impossible demands upon humanity. When they strive tirelessly to measure up, the good people admit to being miserable failures. The bad people also fail but won't admit it and become hypocrites. God pours his greasy grace over the whole mess, forgives them all and bids them keep on uselessly trying. Yancey evidently knows knows nothing about God's supernatural power working within us, producing His divine life and righteousness in us. Yancey is on the way but hasn't arrived yet.



2. Although it was subtle, this book is a balm for those who have been rubbed raw by the church. And through several mentors, Philip Yancey gives us his testimony of how he survived his struggles with the issue of the church. Some people are familiar characters and others I was meeting for the first time, but the book was entralling all the same. I added many books and authors to my wish list as a result of this book and I will definitely read many more by Yancey himself.



3. This book validated so many feelings I had about Christianity.
   
   It is an inspiring witness as to why it is so vital for Christians not to judge others. We are all imperfect.
   
   Read it.



4. This book is amazing. Gets to the heart of Christianity through the lives and actions of people that have shown God's love to our world. They are unlikely mentors but each one gave me a new or renewed faith in the one living God.



5. Phil Yancy gives credit to 13 people for demonstrating to him how God made them impactful in his life for securing his faith. Telling their stories also provides to the reader a challenge to similarly allow God to use her or him. Although these 13 people are Yancy's favorite heroes of his faith, they are also effective role models for the rest of us. Even though we may not have the opportunities for the unusual impact that these 13 people had, we are challenged to use what we have and the opportunities we are given to serve God as He wants. There is also an encouraging variety of people types and demonstrations of faith.

5 comments about All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy.

1. I enjoyed listening to ALL TOO HUMAN: THE LOVE STORY
   OF JACK AND JACKIE KENNENDY--written and read
   by Edward Klein.
   
   Yes, it's gossipy, but that's a large part of the fun . . . also,
   I do believe that Klein had his facts straight (or at least most
   of them), in that he had once worked for Jackie . . . and she
   became, thereafter, a lifelong friend.
   
   You'll find out more about such interesting tidbits as the
   following:
   
   * Jack had one of the worst attendance records when he was
   in the House of Representatives;
   
   * His back problems were not the result of war and/or sports
   injuries;
   
   * Their respective families had too much control over their
   adult lives (in fact, Joe Sr. even picked out the engagement
   ring that Jackie got);
   
   * While Jack was indeed a womanizer, Jackie also had
   her share of male admirers; and
   
   * Jackie had perhaps as big an impact on modern culture as
   did Jack.
   
   If you're new to the lore of the Kennedys, then you'll find ALL TOO
   HUMAN a very readable introduction . . . others will appreciate
   being given the opportunity to revisit what seems to have been
   mythical times in the White House.



2. The Kennedys may have lived in the White House but in many respects were just like the neighbors who seemed like the perfect White Picket Fence family. Both the myth and fascination with the Kennedys is shattered here. It's an intimate take on the family politics of one of the most intriguing American political dynasties.



3. I am wildly into Jack and Jackie Kennedy and their mythical 1000 days of "magic" in the White House. After hearing all excellent things about this book, I gave it a shot. It was rather disappointing, not in the effort but in the actual biography/story it tries to tell. Looking through the author's notes, it is obvious that Edward Klein put his all into researching this colossal and intimidating subject. Klein's awe and admiration for the Camelot couple is felt, and parts of his narrative brings tears to your eyes, but you still feel as if there are tremendous holes that, I suppose, can't be helped when writing about such an elusive subject as Jack and Jackie.
   
   Klein basically took all relevant parts out of available books already written about the couple and stringed them into a narrative along with inputs from interviews that he mostly conducted himself. What you get is a rough, distorted gem that is beautiful in its own way but not what we were really looking for...basically meaning that while it does shed light on some touching, intimate moments in their lives we were not aware of/did not understand before, it is still just a composite of information gathered from interviews and other books TRYING to be "the love story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy." Maybe I am being too harsh (and this is not to say I did not enjoy the book--I did), but a good love story shows clearly and distinctly who and what the main players are--gets inside their heads so that afterwards, you feel as if you have personally met them and experienced the tribulations and joys in their life too. This does not quite accomplish that. It simply left me wanting for the more, more of the truth.



4. Jackie was Edward Klein's editor at Doubleday. The book opens with chapters that present a detailed biographical sketch of Jackie's pre-JFK life and then proceeds into how Jack and Jackie came to be. Joe Kennedy needed to find a suitable wife for John if he was to advance in politics. He turned to his good friend Arthur Krock of The New York Times who suggested Jackie Bouvier. Joe approved so Arthur contacted newspaperman Charlie Bartlett, Jackie's friend, to arrange an introduction.

   John was the [fun loving person] of Washington with one of the worst attendance records in the House of Representatives. He found girling and parties much more interesting. Jack liked the challenge of conquest but once conquered he soon lost interest and was incapable of sustaining a prolonged relationship. He stated that he wanted to have children but he wanted to marry a woman who was chaste because he was worried about being compared to other men.

   Both Jack and Jackie's families had way too much control over their adult children's lives! Joe Sr. even picked out Jackie's engagement ring. At the luncheon where the mother's were to discuss their wedding, Jack acted like a scolded child. It was pretty clear that he didn't want to kiss bachelorhood goodbye and that he wasn't in love with Jackie.

   Janet Bouvier Achincloss, Jackie's mother, felt her daughter was marrying beneath her and was putting up a fight with Rose about how the wedding should go. Joe Kennedy intervened. He sneered at the Archinclosses because they were old money but were unable to maintain it and keep living in style. In the end, Joe got his very public very politic wedding.

   Jack treated Jackie as the means to an end: the White House and children. Jack even had a brief fling with Jackie's sister Lee while Jackie was in the hospital. Friends implied that the Cuban Missile Crisis caused Jack to take a renewed emotional interest in his immediate family and that he and Jackie very close. Yet he still had a mistress? Please!

   This book has it all scandal, [physical attraction], drugs and lies! It takes an intimate look inside the world of old money WASPs and of the newly moneyed and their views of each other. Klein used primary sources including interviews with many of the people in Jack and Jackie's life. One thing Klein never discussed was what Jackie's feelings and beliefs were surrounding the conspiracy theories that have grown up around JFK's murder. A great companion book to this is The Day John Died by Christopher Andersen, which focuses on really both JFK's children's lives before and after the assassination. I simply could not put either book down!




5. ALL TOO HUMAN is a touching history of the marriage of John Fitzgerald Kennedy to Jacqueline Bouvier.

   In hindsight, Jacqueline had as big an impact on modern culture as did her first husband, perhaps simply because her life lasted longer. Yet this is not to belittle her actual influence; an entire generation of women modeled themselves on her style. Her dignity, her educational standards, her appreciation of the arts, all proved to be an inspiration to the world.

   Author Edward Klein has turned writing about the Kennedys into a cottage industry. This particular biography is a nice balance to many other harsher reports, focusing here as he does on the good points of the marriage of this President and his First Lady.

5 comments about Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth.

1. The NASA version of the Apollo moon landings is one thing (see the 5 DVD compilation: NASA The Story of America's Courageous Space Explorers!). 'Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth' is another. The cover says a lot. It shows Gene Cernan, Buzz Aldrin, John Young, Neil Armstrong, Charlie Duke, James Irwin, Alan Bean, and Jack Schmitt as heros worthy of being on collectible bubble gum cards. The author Andrew Smith was the perfect age when Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon. He was a kid. The moonwalkers are his heros. I was born later and equivalent heros for me are Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Yoda. The amazing thing about Andrew Smith's story is that he's able to actually meet those space-men and to come face to face with the realities of their lives after having walked on the moon. How much was an astronaught's salary? If I were standing on the face of the moon looking up at Earth, what effect would that have on my sense of God? What does a landscape devoid of atmosphere really look like? How does it feel to be alone inside the vehicle in orbit around the moon waiting for your colleagues to return from the moon surface? Especially when you're on the back side of the moon and you have no radio contact with Earth and you're more alone than any other human being in the history of our existence? What do you do with yourself after you return to Earth, after you retire from NASA, after your fame begins to fade away? Maybe you go into liquor sales, start your own religion or maybe you take up a career as a painter obsessively painting scenes from your lunar memories. Andrew Smith is a down to Earth writer who infuses wit, humor, and astute observation into this amazing book that I couldn't put down. Moondust ranks high among my favorite true account books which would also include Al Santoli's 'Everything We Had' and Joannis van Loon's 'The Life & Times of Rembrandt van Rijn'.



2. This book was very disappointing for all the reasons already stated, factually inaccurate, rambling, author being self absorbed, etc. The title is misleading and should have been "Andrew Smith: My thoughts on the Apollo Program (With an a few astronaut interviews thrown in)".
   
   I give it two stars because some of the interviews were interesting.
   
   Thankfully I borrowed this book from the library and didn't pay for it. I suggest if you're really interested in reading this book that you do the same...



3. This book turned out to be more about the author than about the astronauts. It was disappointing. The book was also hard to finish. It was uninteresting in most parts. Not recommended if you are looking for insight on the astronauts.



4. This particular book does a great job of getting into the insights of the astronauts when they were front page news. Apollo was truly the pinnacle of NASA and Andrew Smith does a great job of creating the aura that still surrounds the 9 men still living, that walked on another world.
   
   I could've done without some of his personal musings, as he paints a picture that you would rather he keep to himself. I have my own personal perspectives and if you didn't grow up in U.K. or CA, you'll probably agree that Andrew should've kept some of his memories out of the pages.
   
   Even with the author's anecdotes, the book is 5 stars and worthy reading for any space history buff.



5. It's hard to review this book. Everyone agrees that it offers a fascinating insight into the astronauts who walked on the moon. This book isn't really asking "what was it like?" because that's been done too many times. Instead, it asked "what was it like for you?" to each astronaut, and got some interesting answers.
   The remainder of the book is mostly about the journey of discovery that the author takes as he realizes that it had a relatively profound effect on his own life. Some reviewers (myself included) buy into this concept and found it made the whole package very engaging. Others (including some of my friends) found it annoying and distracting.
   So, if you would rather just read biographies of astronauts, try the book about Pete Conrad. If you ever wondered, "gosh, whatever happened to those guys?" or "well, what did it mean for the US to go to the moon anyway?" I think this is an entertaining, engrossing and ultimately enlightening read.
   I only gave it four and a half stars because it's not the best book I've ever read, merely one of the most memorable.

5 comments about El comando tribulacion : el drama continuo de los Dejados atras.

1. Esta continuacion de Dejados Atras, es estupenda, me he encontrado leyendo la biblia y el libro al mismo tiempo cuando hacen referencia a las citas biblicas. Soy una dominguera y les puedo decir que este libro deja mucho que pensar y decidir si cambiar el modo como vivimos. Lei este libro en tres noches. Es ESTUPENDO.



2. Este libro es la continuacion de la serie Dejados Atras. Aqui podemos ver de una manera real como los autores nos meten en un mundo apocaliptico, al cual tu y yo bien podemos identificar. Con fundamentos biblicos y dando vida a versículos del libro de Apocalipsis, el Comando Tribulación se conforma, integrando 4 vidas que no tenian nada en comun bajo un mismo fin, encontrar las respuestas del por que han desaparacido sus seres queridos y conocidos. De seguro no podras dejar la lectura hasta terminar y salir a buscar el siguiente volumen...



3. Este libro me parece aun mejor que el primero ya que empiezan a darse las señales del comienzo de los primeros 7 años de tribulacion.

   Me gusta como el lider de el Comando Tribulacion hace mencion a los pasajes Biblicos del Apocalipsis, pasajes que antes de leer este libro deberiamos de tener en cuenta.




4. Excelente presentación de la necesidad de unirse para luchar al inicio de la Gran Tribulación. Parece importante entender que El Señor unirá a personas claves como Raimundo, Bruno, Camilo y los demás con el fin de luchar contra el Anticristo y llevar más almas a los pies del Señor. Es uno de los mejores libros de la serie.



5. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have written another great book in the "Left Behind" series. The authors make the Book of Revelations come alive. After reading this book, I ran and got out my Bible and looked up these verses. This book is a must read if you are curious about end-times.

No comments about Mary Slessor of Calabar (large Print Edition): Pioneer Missionary.

5 comments about When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi.

1. This is the complete Vince Lombardi book. The author has left no stone unturned it seems and goes into great depth in looking at what made Lombardi tick.
   
   It is not a shrine to the greatness of Lombardi book, the author does write about the Coach's flaws (lack of attention to family) but it is so engrossing that I was upset when the final chapters on Lombardi's death were being read.
   
   Maybe the book is a smidgen too long, there were times that it seemed to drag a little but all in all, a great book.



2. Presidential biographer David Maraniss ("First in His Class") turned his attentions away from Washington, D.C., and towards Lambeau Field in this remarkable book. His subject was Coach Vince Lombardi, who took over a losing program and turned Green Bay, Wisconsin, the smallest market in professional sports, into "Title Town, U.S.A."
   
   Immediately prior to Lombardi's acceptance of the head coaching position, the Packers managed to win only a single game in an entire season. In short order, Lombardi made Green Bay synonymous with victory. The trophy given to the team that wins the Super Bowl is now named for Lombardi. The Packers won the inaugural Super Bowl and repeated the following year under their celebrated head coach.
   
   Lombardi was a star player for Fordham when that university still had a football program. He developed and refined his coaching abilities at the high school level and he was promoted to assistant coaching positions at the United States Military Academy (West Point) and with the New York Giants of the NFL.
   
   As Maraniss demonstrates, Lombardi enjoyed influence throughout the country during the Sixties: he became a much sought after business conference speaker and Richard M. Nixon even contemplated offering him a place on the political ticket of the Republican Party for a brief time.
   
   This is a superior biography and a document of a time that now has gone.



3. This is the best sports biography that I've ever read, and is the gold standard by which I rate every other sports bio. I originally read the book when it was published in 1999 and decided to read it again. I didn't realize that I had forgotten so many details. Many of the games discussed I remember like it was yesterday. If you were a Packer's or NFL fan from the 60s this is a must read book.
   
   I'm very skeptical of Amazon's public reviews as I find 80% +++ of the reviewers are too easily impressed (especially business/investment books). Most grossly overrate books. With such skepticism, I did scan through a page or two of the now 138 reviews to see why anybody would give this book < 5. Two compliants said it had too much minutia and wrote too much about Vince's early life. I find that most if not all biographies talk too much about the person's early life and the person's lineage. I usually scan the early chapters of a biography until I get into the person's adult years. On my second reading of this book I picked it up around Vince's time at West Point.
   
   One last point about the author. I've also read First in His Class & his book about Roberto Clemente. Both were excellent books. However, Maraniss did co-author a book with a younger woman, who's title I forget. It was obvious from the reading that the woman had written most of the book and Maraniss wrote little of the book. His name may have been listed as a co-author to sell books.



4. I couldn't help feeling that I was right there in frozen Green Bay, in the 1960s, at one of the Lombardis' Sunday post-game cocktail parties, and everywhere else Vince Lombardi went in his life, while reading this great book.
   It's a great read, very vivid, about a great coach and (as Maraniss illustrates) not the greatest father in the world. In other words, a portrait of a human being who did great things with his work, but who had foibles like everybody else.



5. I picked up this book after hearing a strong recommendation. I knew next to nothing about Vince Lombardi, other than that he was an excellent football coach. Very glad I bought the book as this was a particularly engrossing biography.
   
   The author was very thorough in his research and traces Lombardi's life in detail for his full nearly 60 years. He provides a lot of detail on Lombardi's strengths and weaknesses. At times I wanted to slug him and tell him to quit being so intense about football and pay more attention to his family. Other times, I found myself admiring the daylights out of him. It is astonishing to think he could take the most losing team in football and turn them into major winners in just one season.
   
   There's a lot of food for thought in this biography. Is winning really so important that you should sacrifice your family and your health? Is success really success if you never enjoy it? As a recovering perfectionist, I saw many powerful examples from Lombardi's life about why I DON'T want to be a perfectionist! Nothing is ever good enough, and you never, ever get to be happy. That is one lesson in Lombardi's life that really comes blasting out of every story.
   
   If you like biographies, you will really enjoy this one. Glad I decided to pick it up.
   
   Jan Dahlin Geiger, author of "Get Your Assets in Gear! Smart Money Strategies" Get Your Assets in Gear! Smart Money Strategies