5 comments about Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time (Thorndike Press Large Print Americana Series).

1. A well written piece with good research about the life of this great man. Good book for any sports fan.



2. This is the story of Lou in more than just baseball terms, from his humble upbringing, to his marriage and untimely death. The book is full of great stories and insights by someone who has obviously done their homework on the topic. Alot of fact-correcting with regards to the Ruth-Gehrig squabbles, and sets the record straight on aot of issues. It is not a "pageturner", but I came away feeling like I learned a great deal about a baseball legend I thought I knew alot about.



3. Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig In His Time charts the life and accomplishments of a truly legendary ball player, plus author Ray Robinson provides the reader with a wealth of background details on the era of baseball through the Depression years. Most of all, it's a recreation of the man who played over two thousand consecutive games before he was diagnosed with the fatal disease named after him. A lively writing style blends history and biography, setting the times and baseball events for newcomers to the sport and providing a vivid account of a legend. Highly recommended: even non-baseball readers will find it engrossing.



4. Lou Gehrig is a baseball legend. He played on the dynastic New York Yankees teams of the 1920s and 1930s alongside Babe Ruth. He had a .340 lifetime batting average and 493 career home runs. He set a record of 2,130 consecutive games played, a record that stood for decades. And he died of ALS in 1941 at age 38, a disease that now bears his name in the recollections of most Americans. His story, with proper dramatic license, was portrayed in the classic baseball movie, "The Pride of the Yankees," with Gary Cooper as Gehrig in what many consider the actor's greatest performance.
   
   Ray Robinson, a sports journalist and editor, tells this story in "Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig and His Time." It is a book very much in the genre of many other conventional sports biographies. It is a serviceable biography at best, and far from great. In it we learn about one of the greatest stars of major league baseball in the pre-World War II era. If you want a basic introduction to the life and career of Lou Gehrig this book is fine. If you want a well-researched, thoughtful, and sophisticated biography of the Yankee great go elsewhere. This work is very much a "once over lightly" treatment of a person who deserves better.



5. In "Iron Horse", Ray Robinson gives the reader an introduction to the Lou Gehrig persona. More than a list of records and triumphs of the baseball star, we meet the human being behind the records. I always had the impression that Gehrig was a good man, whereas Babe Ruth was only a good baseball player. This book confirms that impression.
   
   Growing up the son of German immigrants, Gehrig had the disadvantage of being something of an outsider in his own world. Baseball was just one avenue he traveled in his efforts to advance himself. Various jobs and Columbia University were other options pursued by Lou. His parents discouraged him from playing a game which they did not understand. When Lou had to choose between Columbia University and baseball, his parents urged the University, while a professor recommended baseball. Going to work every day was not extraordinary for Lou. That was how his parents raised him.
   
   In his chosen trade, Lou achieved excellence and attention wherever he played. Lou lived the thrill of playing baseball, and as a Yankee to boot! Lou always considered himself the luckiest man alive, even as he lived in the shadow of two giants, Babe Ruth at the start of his career, and Joe DiMaggio toward the end. Through it all, Lou considered himself a lucky man.
   
   Robinson leads the reader through a character study of his boyhood hero. We see Lou's relationships with his loving parents who could never understand the stage on which he strode. His wife, who gave him joy while suffering his mother's resentment, would be his solace in his illness. His relationships with his team mates, particularly Babe Ruth, get much attention. In this book we see Gehrig as a man not only driven by passions and wants, but guided by a sense of right and wrong. He was the moral compass of the Yankees. This trait prevented him from ever being the close friend of Ruth with whom he is so commonly associated in the public mind.
   
   Driven, perhaps, by contemporary interests, Lou's earnings are frequently reported. We are brought to understand that even a star of Gehrig's luminance earned a large salary, but still needed to work when he retired. Lou found post baseball employment in a department of the city in which he grew up, achieved stardom and gradually deteriorated and died.
   
   The illness of the only patient to give his name to a disease forms much of the latter sections of the book. Robinson tries to give an accurate report of how the disease affected Lou without over exaggerating its effects. We travel with Lou throughout his slump, ending of the streak and his gradual deterioration. At the end we have seen all 37 years of his remarkable and admirable life.
   
   Although the reader is introduced to the persona of Lou Gehrig, there is plenty of baseball too. This is an excellent book for any baseball fan with a desire to into the soul of one of baseball's most noble knights.

2 comments about Don't Shoot, It's Only Me: Bob Hope's Comedy History of the United States.

1. This book is hilarious. I was laughing out loud from the very first page. I think that even people who don't consider themselves big Hope fans will be able to read this and find it funny, entertaining and insightful to a time gone past. It's a great part of American history; Bob Hope has his place therein. He was the perfect man to pull off all the things he accomplished during his amazing career. Entertaining the troops, putting himself in dangerous situations, making people laugh and forget the real world for a short time through films, radio, stand-up performances, Hope did it all and was the true king of all media. The book is very well-written and easy to follow the stories and jokes. You can just hear Hope's voice as you read his narration of events. I strongly suggest this book.



2. This is an interesting combination of autobiography and history lesson. Hope (with co-writer Mel Shavelson, who was one of Hope's joke writers) tell Bob's show-biz career story through the lens of world events. It's not straight storytelling- jokes come at a quick clip, which makes for amusing reading.

No comments about More Than Seventy Summers: Notes on Rural Life (Isis Reminiscence Series).

No comments about Dear Alec: Guinness at 75.

No comments about Over My Shoulder (Ulverscroft Large Print Series).

5 comments about A Different Drummer LP: Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan.

1. Michael Deaver's book is not an biography of President Reagan, instead it is a story of a 30 year relationship of loyalty, friendship and mutual respect. It is a story that can only be told by someone who was truly close Ronald Reagan and trusted as well.
   
   Deaver has achieved what others who have written about President Reagan have not. He has provided the insight as to what really made Ronald Reagan tick; what he truly believed, what was important in his moral make up and why Reagan was so able to connect with the American public, like no president before him and none since.
   
   Because of his closeness to both the President and First Lady, Deaver reveals to us Reagan's decline into darkness due to Alzheimer's Disease.
   
   There are others who have written about Ronald Reagan but non have the insight into this President who made us proud to be Americans. Deaver's book should be on any must read list of Reagan books.



2. About the greatest president of the last century. Well, that's my take anyway on Ronald Wilson Reagan. The characters in the current election cycle showcase the rarity and exceptionality of the 40th President due to how poorly they bear comparison with him. The recently departed Michael Deaver was an insider's insider and Nancy Reagan writing the Foreword to his memoir is a testament to this fact. When asked whether he thought of Deaver as a son, Reagan responded "Son no, brother maybe." And the would-be brother's narrative shreds a great many myths and reveals Reagan's true essence. Reagan was disciplined and devoted. He also had an unshakeable belief in American greatness and felt that anything was possible for our citizens. As a manager and leader he was completely functional. He sought out strong employees and was never threatened by a subordinate's abilities. Deaver's recapitulation of the great man's humor and style on pages 70 to 75 was a real standout. Really though, A Different Drummer is a wonderful first hand account and marvelous piece of history.



3. Long-time Reagan aide Michael Deaver has written a very good book on his thirty years with the man who changed the world. Deaver tells of meeting Reagan in the mid-60's when Deaver was an junior political operative and Reagan was considering a gubernatorial run. Deaver then took a ring-side seat for the greatest political run of our time, from Sacramento to Washington, including near-fatal encounters with John Hinckley Jr. and Matthew Ridgeway in Bitburg.
   
   Deaver also tells the story of the end-game, his last two meetings with the Gipper. By 1995, the President did not know him, and by 1998, the President had lost his social skills and grace. Fortunately Ron had Nancy, and she took care of him for better or worse. Deaver played a key role in the Reagan administrations as Nancy-handler and became a key allie and friend of the Fist Lady.
   
   Deaver makes this book light-reading, it is reminiscences of his boss and friend. He leaves the unpleasant stuff to others. There is a brief mention of Iran-Contra; it is explained away as what happened when the Californians were not there. Also Deaver leaves out most of the story of his indictment, although he deals at length with the demons of his alcoholism.



4. People close to great men for a long time--aides, valets, advisors--tend either to write hagiographys or they turn on their former employer with a "tell all" intended to cut the great man down to size. This book, refreshingly, is neither. Michael Deaver, in addition to being Ronald Reagan's longtime political advisor, was also Reagan's friend. And a friend tells it like it is, which is what Deaver has done.
   
   Deaver lets us know of Reagan's mistakes and shortcomings--he had a volcanic temper (despite others' testimony that he didn't), he had a hard time apologizing even when he knew he was in the wrong, he trusted people to a fault. At the same time, Deaver credibly tells us where the media and political pundits went wrong in their assessments of Reagan. Most of the book, however, is a thematic presentation of Reagan's character. It was a joy to read, and I highly recommend it.



5. It is wonderful for history that Michael Deaver has put together this collection of his thoughts and recollections of Ronald Reagan. As you read about Reagan, one theme keeps coming through; he was nearly impossible to know well or truly understand. The President that so many strangers felt like they knew proved to be much more of a puzzle to those who were close to him. For this reason, it is great that Michael Deaver, one of Reagan's closest advisers, has shared his insights on Reagan with anyone who wants to understand the man better.
   
   What he has given us is a deeply personal tribute to his friend and his hero, but also a lens through which we can view Reagan that helps us to understand what kind of man he is.
   
   So who was Reagan? I highly recommend you read this book to find out, but in the end Deaver introduces you to a principled optimist and a very shy man. I was deeply touched by the obviousness of Deaver's affection for Reagan and for the role Nancy Reagan played in the President's life.
   
   I highly recommend this book for anyone trying to get a full perspective of who Ronald Reagan was and what made him the President he was. Excellent book by that can truly add something unique to anyone's study of Ronald Reagan.

No comments about Ask Sir James (Ulverscroft Large Print).

No comments about Tangye.

2 comments about Flights of Passage: Reflections of a World War II Aviator (G K Hall Large Print Book Series).

1. "Flights Of Passage" by Samuel Hynes. Subtitled: "Reflections Of A World War II Aviator". Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1988.
   
   Samuel Hynes flew for the United States Marine Corps in the Second World War. God bless him. His personal memoir follows the usual pattern for many servicemen of World War II, where an entire generation left high school, received aviation training in some forsaken Southern state, and then went overseas to fight the war. Much of his book, however, is devoted to how these individuals, this special generation, grew from teen-aged youths into mature individuals: "The Flights Of Passage".
   
   With excellent writing, Hynes recounts his leaving his home state of Minnesota, his passion for flying that lead him into Naval Aviation and, incidentally, his encounters with different people, persons, as an example, with "...soft-slurring speech that at first we couldn't understand". Shopkeepers welcomed the Naval Pilot trainees as if they were old friends and said good-bye with "Y'all hurry back, heah?" As training progressed, Hynes began to sort out individuals, as an example, the city slicker and the rube. His telling comment about the know-it-all from South Dakota was how could you be a city slicker if you were from a state that had no cities? His most astute writing deals with the classification of the newly winged pilots into "Crazies" and "Sanes". Happily, the "Crazies" stayed back in the States and the "Sanes" carried the war to the enemy.
   
   Too much of the book is devoted to sexual encounters and to drinking. Samuel Hynes reflects the mores of his time when he begins with "Alice' who was pretty and in a sorority (both good), but who was a Catholic (bad). His characterization, not mine. The book is then littered with accounts of attempted sexual conquests, (not going-all-the-way), sexual conquests and then marriage. Explicit encounters with whores are described, as when "Green" tells how he got his money's worth from a prostitute. What ..."you might expect from a guy from New York who had gone to CCNY and wore a lavender sweatshirt".
   
   (City College of New York, along with Brooklyn College, Hunter College and Queens College, as part of the City University of New York, all had the colors of purple and white...NOT lavender. Further, Jesuit Fordham University and private New York University had the colors of purple and white. However, my alma mater, Manhattan College, a Catholic college in The Bronx, had the colors of Kelly green and white.)
   
   Also, there were many tales of drinking bouts and drunks. The locals were tolerant of Navy Fliers, as Hynes narrates: a drunken Naval Aviator climbs up an awning to get at a pretty girl. While climbing, he pulls down the awning and then simply walks away. No charges were pressed by the townsfolk.
   
   Little enough action is reported in this book. One pilot finally shots down a Jap plane by using air-to-ground rockets. Another pilot goes slightly daft and begins to paint everything blue: his Mae West, his helmet, his flying suit, and finally, his tent. Perhaps the most interesting event is when Hynes, and his two crew members in the TBM, wake up to find the engine off, due to lack of fuel. Hynes switches to another tank to fly safely home. Good for him.



2. Since I first read this book back when it first was published in 1988 by the Naval Institute Press, this review is not based on immediate memory.
   The story covers the author's service as a fighter pilot in the Central Pacific Theatre, both on carriers and on dusty tropic atolls. It is excellently written and is one of the few aviation personal narratives in my collection as most of my interest is in the ground wars in the Pacific and SW Pacific Theatres of WW II.
   I remember it as well worth my reading and it should be sought out if you are interested.

No comments about A Pullet on the Midden (ISIS Large Print).