5 comments about She Went to War: The Rhonda Cornum Story.

1. I got this book after the First Gulf War. Rhonda Cornum's courage as a POW is inspirational, especially under the circumstances in shich she found herself. It is well-known how the Ba'athists rotinely employed torture (real torture, not redefined torture) in order to get airmen to make statements critical of the Coalition war effort. In fact, the enemy we were fighting against at the time were barbarians who had no scruples when it came to the men and women who fell into their hands.
   
   An awesome book about an awesome Soldier.



2. I thought I'd let readers know that now Col. Rhonda Cornum was nominated for promotion to Brigadier General today.



3. I express my deep respect, admiration and gratitude for Colonel Rhonda Cornum's service to our country and the medical profession. She is a soldier's soldier. Her book is as entertaining and as inspirational as her career. Read it and it will change your life forever.



4. I'd heard that there was a female soldier captured during the first Gulf War, but I didn't know anything about her until I read this book. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Rhonda Cornum's strong personality comes through the pages of this book. Just her description of how she coped with her untreated injuries is impressive, and I second the person who admired how she kept her spirits up by singing in her prison cell. I hope if I ever found myself in as adverse a situation as she did, that I would be able to remain as courageous and confident throughout. Her description of the struggles she faced as a woman in the military is blunt without sinking into self-pity. An interesting and impressive slice of the first Gulf War, and a courageous role model and heroine.



5. I pinched COL Cornum's book from my boyfriend, curious to find out more about his boss. She jogs by my workplace almost daily, she seems frail and full of girlish energy. Recently,I met her at a LRMC function and she IS full of girlish energy. As she's a former POW, I was unsure what to expect. Since then, I've been even more curious about the woman my old mentor COL Ron Blanck described as "a woman to watch". That was back in '91 - we'd been following her release on AFN-TV from FARMC HQs during Morning Report. I was hungover but jolted out of my stupor by the respect in his voice. He later made it 4-star and respect was never something he's doled out like party favors.
   I've just finished her book (coincidently on the anniversary of her release thirteen years ago). It was staunchly pro-military and pro-American without resorting to gush-mode. It made me laugh unexpectedly, it made me run to my PC and download Lee Greenwood, it made me understand my former mentor. I took it to bed, I took it to breakfast and finally, I took it in the tub with me where I cried so hard at the reunion passage that I dropped it in the water. It was the autographed copy which she'd recently presented to my boyfriend on his birthday. I hope her sense of humour has rubbed off on him. If not, I'm in big trouble. Buy this book. Buy your own copy and buy some for your family. Then buy some for your neighbors. I need the karma points.

No comments about Half a Pound of Tuppenny Rice: Life in a Yorkshire Village Shop (Ulverscroft Nonfiction).

1 comments about The Sun in the Morning (Charnwood Library).

1. I am quite a traveler, but have never really wanted to go to India...it sounded to intense for me somehow...but this book could possibly have changed my mind! I have listened to the Book on Tape and then I immediately found an out-of-print book version because I enjoyed it so much, The author, who wrote "Far Pavillions" and "Shadow of the Moon", (fiction books which incorporate stories from her childhood in India), tells of her idyllic life growing up in this beautiful land. THEN, at age 10, she is abruptly taken from everything she has ever known and sent to boarding school in England. But the book ends, thankfully, with her return to her beloved India after an absence of ten years. Can she "go home again"? Fortunately, her autobiography continues...in tape and book form... in the delightful, "Golden Afternoon"...hooray for M.M. Kaye! Oh, by the way, this book-on-tape features an absolutely wonderful reader, too.

5 comments about The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie (Charnwood Large Print Library Series).

1. Charles Osborne was chosen by the Christie estate to convert some of her plays into novel form. Last week we saw the first production of "Chimneys" a long lost play adapted from the novel, THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS. Some times this works, but not always.
   THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF AGATHA CHRISTIE is a great reference work for checking publication dates and some story lines when so many titles are being reissued under a new title. It is plodding in its descriptions of the personal life of a very shy private woman. Some of the less than exemplary titles are given the same status of the great ones and any author has a flop, the one that just doesn't cut the mustard.
   A writer of Dame Christie's status is to be congratulated for having so few bloopers.
   Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War



2. Agatha Christie (1890-1972)is generally considered the single most widely published and read novelist in the history of publishing. Best known for mystery novels featuring such characters as Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, she was also a noted dramatist and memorable short story writer, and under the name Mary Westmacott generated several well-regarded works as well. But for all her fame, her private life--as Lady Mallowan--was indeed private: although she made the occasional public appearance for the sake of her latest venture, she resisted public intrusion; even her autobiography, although entertaining, is somewhat uninformative.
   
   Published in 1982, Charles Osborne's THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF AGATHA CHRISTIE is typical of the numerous "Life and Works" books re Christie: it tells you nothing you will not find in a dozen sources or more. But it does so in meticulous detail, covering what is known of Christie's life and tying it to her various works. From her earliest book to her last, the book offers dates, publishing information, plot outlines, character notes, and all the rest--and ties each work to what Christie herself happened to be doing at the time. It's a handy sort of reference.
   
   Unfortunately, I have some issues with Osborne's skill as a critic. Or more specifically, his lack thereof. Osborne is fond of shrugging off Christie's distinctly superior works in favor of her less successful efforts. He also "toes the line" in terms of what Christie fans want to hear (and in some cases prefer not to hear) about their favorite author. So while the book is interesting, useful, and even entertaining in a factual sense, it is considerably less so in an interpretive one. Recommended, but only just.
   
   GFT, Amazon Reviewer



3. This book is pretty well summed up in its subtitle: "A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie."
   
   It is also one of those useful and occasionally indispensable volumes compiled by a natural-born plodder. Osborne is the chosen scribbler given the task of producing novelized versions of some of Christie's plays. He clearly is held in high favor by the Christie Trust. As a biographer, it very quickly becomes clear that he is concerned with presenting the Establishment picture of Dame Agatha May Clarissa Miller Christie Mallowan. There will be no surprises and no probing beneath the respectable (save for nearly two weeks in December 1926) life of the public figure.
   
   The one lurid episode in the lady's life, her mysterious disappearance, is wrapped up on pages 51 to 57 of the hardbound edition with no more factual material than that contained in Christie's famously uncommunicative autobiography. Of speculation, there is even less. So little, in fact that the existence of "Agatha," a popular mystery novel by Kathleen Tynan that offers amusing conjectures about Christie's actions and motives, is willfully ignored. This is even more true of the movie based upon the book that featured Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha and Timothy Dalton as Archie. The index of Osborne's book does, indeed, have an entry for Ms. Redgrave, but it refers to a small part she had in the movie of "Murder on the Orient Express," not to her portrayal of Agatha Christie herself.
   
   This ultra orthodox approach to biography does no particular harm. The essentials of Christie's public life are laid out well enough. In all probability, the inner Christie was as respectable as the outer one--but we don't know and with biographers like Charles Osborne, we never shall.
   
   Osborne's treatment of the "Works of Agatha Christie" is that of a mystery fan, not a critic. He provides a sketch of how a work came to be written, identifies the main characters, establishes the premise of novel, story or play, but he never outlines the complete plot and he never, never identifies a culprit.
   
   There are, of course, some critical trappings. Poirot's French, we are informed, is sometimes less than idiomatic. Christie occasionally gave voice to the casual and unthinking anti-Semitism of the class and time into which she had been born. (That deplorable fault faded away with time, particularly after a pre-World War II encounter with a Nazi official stationed in the Middle East. He was perfectly charming to her and her second husband until he shocked her by going all Dalek while talking about the Jews then in Germany: "Exterminate them!") Christie had a thrifty, want-not-waste-not bent for recycling useful plots and details of action, such as three or four occasions in which one character looking over another's shoulder suddenly observes something that will lead to grim results. As Agatha became elderly, her books became less tightly plotted and her dialogue more diffuse. All this is widely known and perfectly acceptable to the Christie Establishment. On the other hand, there is no insight offered as to why, in particular, Christie's prose continues to sell books at a quite remarkable rate while her great contemporaries, Marsh, Allingham and even Sayers have largely fallen by the wayside.
   
   This is not a great book but, for all its plodding ways, it is a useful guide and reference. I assign four stars to it in the sure and certain expectation that I'll give it a toss when something better comes along. I don't think that will be soon.



4. Charles Osborne's book offers a fast-paced chronicle of Dame Christie's life and unbiased critique of her works. The book highlighted many interesting tidbits of Christie's private life (engrossing account of Ms. Christie's famous disappearance in 1926; her work as an archaeologist's assistant; her love for dogs; idiosyncrasies like forever munching on apples while she wrote) to her characters (from her intolerance over sleuth Poirot to her favorite character, Caroline Sheppard, not least her alter-ego, Adraidne Oliver).
   
   While in general affectionately and reverently written, Osbourne remained impartial and did not skim over Agatha Christie's limitations as a writer of sorts:
   
   (1) As a Poet - "...talent for poetry was genuine, but modest and of no startling originality..."
   
   (2) Grasp of French language - "...despite her Paris finishing school, Ms. Christie's French was to remain obstinately unidiomatic..." in reference to Poirot's characterization.
   
   (3) Heavy-handedness - "...construction of English sentences a trifle more exotic than needs be".
   
   (4) Subjectivity - "...you won't turn people into angels by appealing to their better nature yet awhile - but by judicious force...."
   
   (5) Occasional propensity to not play fair by non-disclosure - "I have a certain amount of rules. No false words must be uttered by me....but it's not unfair to leave things out".
   
   (6) Carelessness - "Mrs. Christie's carelessness again? Or simply a misprint in certain editions? Or has Poirot moved without telling even his creator?" and "She tells us that Ackroyd is nearly 50 years of age,...later it becomes clear that he could not have been older than 43" and "now in the 80s, Dame Agatha is more careless than ever. Improbabilities are not explained, certain things do not quite add up....".
   
   (7) Recycling of plots - "Variations of one of the plot of one of the stories....will be presented in...Murder in the Mews and in the novel, Evil Under the Sun....the plot of another story...will be made use of again in the novel...an element in the plot of ....will re-occur in ....".
   
   (8) Limited literary range - "....examine various aspects of human behavior that is impressive, rather than the actual quality of her writing, though her prose is never less than adequate to convey mood and meaning..." and "...Death by Drowning which is also one of the few occasions when Agatha Christie strayed into working class territory".
   
   (9) Monotony & Repetition - "...for they are (Miss Marple's tales) all very sedentary stories whose action is recounted in retrospect..." and "...the reader is plunged again into Christiean nursery rhyme syndrome: a series of murders committed concurrently with the progress of the images in a nursery rhyme".
   
   (10) Anti-Semitism - "The mandatory racial slurs...have been edited out of more recent American editions....".
   
   I disagree with reviewers who criticized Osbourne's book for being biased for he has ostensibly studied and researched the subject matter to the point that he could thoroughly cross-reference both the good and the bad in Agatha Christie's works (read: inconsistencies/flaws/negligence/carelessness, or that of her editors*). Having personally read the entire oeuvre of Christie's crime novels, I believe Osbourne's conclusion that "the plotting of some of Poirot and Miss Marple novels which Agatha Christie wrote in the last 15 years of her life is a more than a trifle lax" is more than justified.
   
   *Not only did Osbourne not give away the plots, he also painstakingly forewarned would-be readers of Christie's crime novels to be wary of untimely revelation of plots/true identities of murderers - "...Cards on the Table quite gratuitously reveals the solution to Murder on the Orient Express. Readers of "Cards" who have not already read "Murder" should get a friend to block out the sentence..." and "In Chapter 18 (of "Dumb Witness"), the author allows Poirot to mention the names of four delightful personalities, all of whom were murderers....the danger could be avoided by deleting 5 or 6 lines...".
   
   It has been 20 years since I last read Agatha Christie's books. With a keen mind and depth of knowledge, Osbourne fairly documented ideas and goings-on pertaining to the Queen of Detective Stories, not least enunciated many of the thoughts and views I (and probably representative as one voice of those of her fans) concluded in passing while reading Christie's books.
   
   In fact, Osbourne's excellent biographical companion has since reawakened my desire to re-read Dame Christie's selective works, her creme de la creme - "Murder of Roger Ackroyd", "Murder on the Orient Express", "And Then There Were None", to name just a few - written during her most prolific years in the 1930s and 40s.



5. I have enjoyed reading and re-reading Agatha Christie's novels for many years. In my opinion, she truly had an original mind and a keen understanding of human nature that made her characters seem to come alive, no matter what "carelessness" may have existed in the plotting out of later novels. It is in this regard that Mr. Osbornes highly analytical mind goes a bit too far in summarizing her stories (they are, after all, just stories). It is also why I did not like his "novelizations" of her plays at all; they still read like scripts, the characters moving stiffly from one side of the set to another.
   But beyond delving too deep into the meaning of mystery novels, my biggest issue is that his over-analysing seems to have created plot inconsistencies where there were none. For example, when outlining "Murder on the Links" (1923) Mr. Osborne writes about how the face of the murdered man is described in detail, then Poirot tells Hastings that a piece of lead pipe discovered near the body was intended to disfigure the murdered man's face. "Poirot's theory of the crime, fortunately, does not hinge upon this point!" Mr. Osborne writes. In fact, his theory DOES hinge on that point. The man who was killed was not the intended victim. The victim had brought the lead pipe himself in order to disfigure another man's face to fake his own death. Then, ironically, he was murdered himself. This is made absolutely clear, and it was baffling to me that Mr. Osborne could make this and other such a misinformed statement about the book. It was almost as though he had been skimming through the novels for the sole purpose of discovering flaws to "catch" her at. "Look! Nobody else noticed this mistake she made but me!"
   So while it is interesting to read about what was going on in her life while she was writing each work, it just feels like Mr. Osborne is trying too hard to be more clever than Agatha Christie. Sorry Mr. Osborne, but there is a reason why more people have heard of her than you!

5 comments about A House in Sicily.

1. Phelps' style doesn't seem quite right for a book about Sicily/Italy. It's a little to sparse and long winded for my taste, and I found myself forcing myself to finish the book.



2. We liked this book so much that, while on a cruise that stopped in Sicily, we arranged to go to the lovely town of Taormina and climbed all the way up to Casa Cuseni. It was wonderful to find it, although the view of Mt. Etna now includes views of apartments, hotels etc.
   
   Daphne Phelps wrote this book when she was 89, and only died last year at the age of 95. As far as I'm concerned, to be productive and lucid enough at that age to produce this engaging book earns her the right to express any opinion she likes. That's how she experienced it, and she describes it well.



3. Despite comments from some readers who obviously feel insulted in some way(which I can only describe as ignorant) I recommend this book to everyone, sicilians and others. As a Sicilian myself I can affirm that the picture ms Phelps paints of Sicily and the Sicilians is truthful, in every detail !! It was like that in the fifties, a lot of Sicilians were illiterate and peasants. The fact that ms Phelps writes this down does'nt mean she is arrogant or superior.In fact she describes the people she 's met during her life with much love.



4. Hey guys why beat up on poor Daphne. I give it 5 stars because she was truthful about how she saw things and people. It wasn't that bad, just a look at Sicilian life from a different generation. Her take on the characters around her was very interesting.



5. Antonina LiCastri-Boocock would like to respond to Salvatore, who in his review of A House in Sicily, refers to my review from a male perpective, and to leave the Machismo at home.
   Please note that I am a woman and my perspective was from a
   Sicilian woman, not that of a man.

   Thank you,

   Antonina LiCastri-Boocock

5 comments about Marlon Brando.

1. "Marlon Brando" by Patricia Bosworth is a well written and intriguing biography. I enjoyed reading it very much and I enjoyed that it was fairly nicely balanced and included details of Marlon's on-screen and off-screen life.
   
   I think Marlon took some serious and unfair hits in his life - personally, with tragedies that befell him and his family and, professionally, as a result of other peoples' misjudgments regarding his having taken stands for important humanitarian causes and against social injustices. He was a human being that cared deeply for others and one who tried to put that caring into positive action. He was also the greatest actor ever to grace the stage or screen.
   
   It is sad to me that Marlon was alone at the end of his life. He had his children who loved him and cared about him, but he reportedly lived alone. I have always wondered if the rejections he suffered throughout his life marked him so deeply that he felt unworthy and, thus, rejected the idea of having someone there loving him, caring for him, and supporting him physically, emotionally, and spiritually through his illness at a time in his life when things may not have been as "pretty" as they once were. He WAS worthy, despite his possibly not knowing that at the time.
   
   I appreciate Marlon's statement that people who are deeply sensitive are more easily brutalized than most. I think this is very true. Pain is felt much more deeply and is more deeply internalized by those who are the most sensitive. It can leave one feeling unworthy and untrusting and all of the money and fame in the world cannot repair the damage. It is a spiritual thing, not a thing of earthly possessions or material accomplishments.
   
   Marlon was a sensitive soul who needed to be cared for differently than he was during so many parts of his life.



2. Hey, I like Brando tremendously as an actor and have read his biographies for years. I particularly like his autobiography SONGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME. There is certainly nothing wrong with Ms. Bosworth as a writer. The book is an interesting, easy read. My objection is not to Ms. Bosworth but to the constraints of the format of Penguin LIVES. It appears to me that a writer cannot do an in-depth examination of someone's life in such a short book-- assuming that anyone will ever get much into the inner recesses of Mr. Brando's mind. Perhaps his private life should remain private. For instance, do I need to know that he has taken the drug librium for years? I think not. Additionally I would have liked to see footnotes. Ms. Bosworth makes a lot of statements about Brando with not the slightest hint of where shes got such information. Granted, she does list other biographies she consulted as well as the people she interviewed for writing this bio. I assume that extensive footnotes would have make the book too long. Having said all that, I am now in need of a Brando film festival, having finished the book. Ms. Bosworth made me want to revisit the Brando movies I've seen and see others for the first time.



3. A vivid portrait of the man and his acting genius. Bosworth does a bang up job depicting his life and the development of his enormous talent. He is one of the world's greatest artists and we get a clear unencumbered picture of the man and his life in clear, practical, prose. Really fascinating.



4. This was a revelation - a wonderful, wonderful biography
   for which I am extremely grateful. It's touching, deft, and
   I liked the fact that she focused on Brando the artist. I'm
   sure he would like this book - I would, if I were him. It is
   not at all condescending nor overly fawning.

   I really felt for the man and the brilliant communicator of emotions, whose movies have always taught me about being an artist myself. Now I want to go and see all his films again. especially Mutiny on the Bounty. And my heart goes out to Marlon Brando, the neglected child of alcoholics, the big-hearted giver, the best friend of some very special people, including Wally Cox and Stella Adler,
   the co-dependent son and father, the compulsive overeater who really should join O.A.

   The book zips along, thanks to Bosworth's fine writing. And I'd like to say that it's a lesson in the efficacy of the brief biography. I'm so sick of trying to wade through tomes that tell you about everything from the kindergarten teacher who inspired the star to his toenail clipping habits. This little
   book synthesized a complex life in a very dignified way.
   Hats off to Patricia Bosworth.




5. This was a very quick and engrossing read. If, like myself, you know very little about Brando's life, this book will be a revelation. Brando is one of the most fascinating personalities of our time. This book does a good job of shedding light on the forces that helped shape his personality. His alcoholic mother and philandering and bullying father created a depressing family environment. It seems that he could never quite break free from their destructive influence despite years of psychotherapy. A sad story.

1 comments about Fighter Pilot: A Personal Record of the Campaign in France 1939-1940.

1. This book covers the often forgotten air war over France in 1940, which preceded the Battle of Britain.

   I cannot praise "Fighter Pilot" too highly. Written by a pilot who served throughout WWII it is a vivid and often moving first-hand account of the tragedies and exhilaration experienced by those of the RAF who supported the British Expeditionary Force.

   I have read quite a few books covering the same ground and none come close to this.

No comments about A Pride of Tigers.

No comments about First Finds: A Yorkshire Childhood (Reminiscence).

No comments about Slightly Foxed: By My Theatrical Family (Transaction Large Print Books).