5 comments about Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa.

1. While traveling on an overland safari, I ran out of books to read. (Although I brought plenty, as an English teacher, I was devouring them as we drove through the African countryside.) Fortunately, one of the French girls in the back of the truck had just finished a book and was willing to lend it to me. She said that Mukiwa was captivating and that I wouldn't be able to put it down, and she was right. Having already visited Zimbabwe several times, I was fascinated to learn more about the white experience there, especially since I had recently read Catherine Buckle's African Tears, which also describes the current land invasions. Because many tourists don't delve deeper into Zimbabwe than a quick jaunt to Victoria Falls, Godwin's memoir is an important read. Godwin describes the reality of living in a country as tumultuous as it is beautiful. The reader can't help but gain a love of the country himself and come to understand why Godwin would risk his life in returning. Fortunately, I was able to experience a glimpse of the beauty of the country myself while visiting some of their game parks. It was on one of these drives in Hwange that I first fell in love with Africa and can understand why Godwin's parents would risk their lives by choosing to remain. I enjoyed the book so much that I purchased the sequel When a Crocodile Eats the Sun at the Johannesburg Airport. I follow the news in Africa online every day--especially the news of Zimbabwe and South Africa, and cannot express how much I value the insight that Godwin provides in both of these books. I also developed a fondness and empathy for his family as they endure the turbulent times that face Zimbabwe. Despite the many problems that face the continent, I am looking forward to my eighth trip. I have been discussing Godwin's book with my honors students and told them that I plan to read his other three--Wild at Heart, The Three of Us, and Rhodesians Never Die--before I leave.



2. All Peter Godwin's book, this one,and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, are fabulous, easy to read, and so informative!



3. Our choice for April was especially meaningful to one of our members who had lived in Africa for over 12 years as a missionary. She was aghast at the author's mother leaving him while she did her medical duties and this was cause for a great discussion both of Africa and the decisions parents, especially mothers, so often have to make. We all thought the beginning chapters were the very best writing, just made us feel as the author had felt growing up. Especially powerful were his writing about wanting to live where it wasn't so dangerous for little boys! Lots of grief in this story, but lots of love, too.



4. Peter Godwin displays great skill in recounting his life and coming of age in Rhodesia. His personal life story touches many aspects of Rhodesian life from the UDI era through to the early parts of the ZANU(PF) Mugabe led Zimbabwe. Via his memoir you join him as a fly on the wall during the late years of Rhodesia through to the early years of Zimbabwe. Now I must say Peter Godwin weaves a beautiful narrative without interjecting any over bearing political beliefs. An excellent read!



5. Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It's a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad, as well as quite disturbing account of a life lived thus far. Mukiwa, by the way, is Shona for white man.
   
   The setting for Peter Godwin's early years was a middle class, professional and, crucially, liberal family living in eastern Rhodesia, close to the Mozambique border. I had relatives in that same area, near Umtali and Melsetter, and they used to do exactly what the Godwins did regularly which was to visit the Indian Ocean beaches near Beira. We used to get postcards from there every year, usually in the middle of our north of England winter. Envy wasn't the word...
   
   Peter Godwin's mother was a doctor and this meant that his childhood was unusual in two respects. Not many youngsters in white households had liberal-minded parents and even fewer helped their mothers conduct post mortems. Unlike most mukiwa, Peter Godwin had black friends. He learned the local language and got to know the bush. He also grew up close to death and then lived alongside it during the years of the war of independence. He describes how the war simply took over everything and labels himself as a technician in its machinations. It's a telling phrase, admitting that he did not himself want to fight anyone. Like everyone else, he was caught up in the struggle, required to actively perpetrate the violence and that is what he did.
   
   His education was disrupted. His family life was effectively destroyed. And how he managed to keep his sanity during the period I have no idea. He served most of the period in Matebeleland alongside other members of the Rhodesian armed forces and police who were not, to say the least, as liberal as he was. So in some ways he was already doubly a foreigner in that he was working in an area where he could not speak the language and was accompanied by fellow countrymen with whom he shared no beliefs or ideals. And yet he had to fight.
   
   I have never served in a war and hope I never will. But my relatives from the same area as Peter Godwin were also called up into national service and also fought the war. I had not seen them for fifteen years or so when we met after they, along with many thousands of others, as recorded by Peter Godwin, had already fled south. But for them also memories of war were deep and resented scars. It was a bloody and dirty war where, if you were lucky, you could at most trust your closest colleagues. It was a vicious conflict at times and left everyone angry. No-one won. Everyone suffered.
   
   Having eventually achieved the education he sought, Peter Godwin attempted to launch a legal career. But then, almost by default, he became a reporter. After independence, he learned of atrocities perpetrated by the Zambabwean army in the area where he had served during the war. He investigated. He reported. And then, on advice, he fled.
   
   But he did eventually return to all of the areas he knew and the last part of the book is a moving and deeply sad account of how little he recognised in the places he loved as a child. But within this, there is a moment of hope as he meets a former freedom fighter and, with humour and new friendship, the two of them realise that they had not only been enemies, but had actually been two commanders trying to kill one another on opposite sides of the same skirmish.
   
   But in the end, Peter Godwin is changed man, and his home and homeland, at least as he had experienced them, were no more. War had changed everything and everyone. No-one won.

5 comments about The Virgin Kiss and Other Adventures.

1. The personal anecdotes in Frank's gambling books make them come alive and set them apart from other gambling books. Readers get a sense of who the man is who wrote the books.
   
   Now the Wizard throws the curtain wide open and readers get to know the stories that only friends and family have heard. I am fortunate to have known Frank for about 10 years now and have heard some of these stories. Now you can learn about the decline of Tunica, astral traveling, Frank's childhood and his other careers too.
   
   In the section on his teaching career, Frank tells what I think might be his first advantage-play move. He formed a cross-country team out of mostly non-runners, some of whom would even stop for a smoke during a race. The kids got their varsity letters, he got the coaching stipend, and the school got a cross country team, albeit one that never won a match.



2. As a frequent traveler to Tunica Mississippi, I found Scoblete's discription of his time there to be both halirious and informative. Once in a while you can have a bad or funny experience there, but he seems to have had them all in one trip. I think his was a trip I would have enjoyed, after we were back home, safe in Missouri.
   His other events in his wild life are well told, and anyone with an intrest in teaching, or writing, or gambling, or in astral travel will enjoy this book, and I highly recomend it to all.



3. Wonderful Book
   
   Frank Scoblete's "The Virgin Kiss" does what so many books can't do, it grabs you from the very first paragraph and doesn't let go until you finish the last sentence. If you are looking for belly laughs, sprinkled with first love, innocence, sexuality, and amazing adventures this book is impossible to put down. Scoblete has written a great book for us to truly enjoy.



4. What can I say that hasn't been said already?
   
   This is a terrific book. You run the gamut when you read it. The book is surreal, humorous, outrageous, side-splitting, frightening, uproarious and thoroughly entertaining.
   
   I just bought a whole bunch to send to my family and friends. I think anyone would find this book completely enjoyable.



5. A chilling, funny, yet serious journey through the life of "Scobe". From his teenage years, to his years as a teacher, through his latter adventures in the casinos and on television. There's something for everyone in here. Prepare to laugh out loud and get chills down your spine!

5 comments about Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood.

1. The book was a very easy/quick read. The stories are heart breaking and tragic but good information for others to know. It is hard to imagine a mother like the one in the book but there are a lot of very sick people in the world that pass for 'normal.' Good to know that the author made it out and is recovering from the trauma.



2. It amazes me that this was allowed to go on as long as it did. Doctors, Nurses etc.. Just sad, and this is far from an isolated case, my heart goes out to this girl who is now a woman and I hope she has been able to truly put this behind her, but I'm not sure that is possible. Children are innocents and need protection, just sad.



3. I loved this book! I couldn't put it down! It really showed how this disease affected one family. The pictures in the book made it all very real!



4. Horrible story and yet inspiring that this little girl who suffered such abuse and missed so much valuable education came out the other side to become an educated, talented writer, and a normal, healthy person.



5. I was hoping for a better-written, more insightful story. It was okay, but not a keeper.

5 comments about The Man on Mao's Right: From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square, My Life Inside China's Foreign Ministry.

1. Ji Chaozhu was involved in some of the great moments, people, and institutions of the twentieth century, growing up partly in the U.S., attending Harvard, and then returning to participate in Mao's government. Through the magic of memoir writing, I learn about the entire span through his eyes.
   
   This is the third book I've read about the Cultural Revolution. First, Nien Cheng's Life and Death in Shanghai. Second, Apologies Forthcoming a book of short stories by Xujun Eberlein, and now this book. Obviously his view of the Tiananmen Square massacre is apologetic. And he doesn't even bother trying to explain the Tibet invasion, one of the great human and cultural tragedies of our time. I had to take a deep breath when he said the actions of the U.S. in Korea and Taiwan were perfidious. Do I really have to look at yet another U.S. policy from the other side's point of view? Oh, what the heck. How do I expect to ever understand the world unless I see it from other points of view?
   
   The book is remarkably simple and straightforward. Good writing stays out of the way and lets the reader enter. When I finished, I realized with some astonishment how much history I had just walked through, in an engaging, and page-turning story. The book flew by and enriched my life.



2. Couldn't put this book down, it was such a riveting, dramatic personal story. By the end I felt I understood China for the first time, and especially important periods like the Cultural Revolution. What makes this story so unique is that the author grew up in New York before returning to China as a college student, and his improbably amazing story intersects with everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt, who served him cookies and milk in her Washington Square townhouse, Mao and Zhou Enlai, plus six US presidents. The story is told not in a stuffy official way, but in a very human and observant voice, and a sly sense of humor. If all the Olympic attention has you wanting to "get" China and the Chinese, this is a great place to start. But it's also just a great tale.



3. I knew Ji back in the 70's. At that time none of us, I suspect, had any idea the hardships he had endured in China, particularly during the Cultural Revolution. Toward the end of the book, however, when he gets to Tiananmen, I felt he was trying to set up his readers to conclude (incorrectly) that the Tiananmen demonstrations were essentially a reenactment of the Red Guards/Cultural Revolution excesses and as such deserved to be suppressed by whatever means necessary. This of course is the party line in China and it was disappointed to see someone like Ji parroting it. Toward the end I even began to wonder if the whole purpose of the book was to justify the Tiananmen massacre.
   I was also disappointed that Ji denigrated Han Xu, his colleague and sometime superior in the Foreign Office. He depicts Han as hard line, but it was Han (now dead) who was disillusioned by the Tiananmen suppression and, according to people I trust, contemplated seeking refuge in the United States or some other democratic society.



4. Ambassador Ji Chaozhu's personal journey in the Chinese Foreign Ministry provides vivid and rich details for our understanding of the inner working of Chinese foreign policy-making establishment. From this book, we learn not only real stories of top leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping, but also personal relations between Ambassador Ji and other senior PRC diplomats such as Huang Zhen, Han Xu, Zhang Wenjin, Nancy Tang and Wang Hairong, and etc. This book is a major addition to the growing literature on PRC diplomacy, and will become an essential reading for any one interested in 20th century China, especially its diplomacy.



5. A good relationship between China and America is crucial for the future of the world. Period. Therefore, learning the history of recent Chinese politics and the historical relationship between China and America should be mandatory for all Americans, young and old. And what better way to start learning than by reading this very entertaining factual book. This book, written by an interpreter for various high-ranking Chinese officials during the Mao era, is a must-read for those who want an insiders view into the momentous events that occurred in China from the 1950's through recent times. The author is humorous, occassionally self-depreciating, and brutally honest in all he recalls about the great historical events he witnessed close-up in China. Riveting and memorable are two words I can use to describe this book. After reading it, I have a better understanding of what was going on in China when China was "closed" from 1949 to 1976. And, I have a desire to read more from the author. I sincerely hope China and America can grow old together, clean up the environment and always be friends. Nothing less than the future of our planet depends upon it.

5 comments about The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order.

1. Joan Wickersham's The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order is best described as engaging, gripping and candid.
   
   Wickersham leads us through her father's final moments. She reveals details of this confusing tragedy in a family's life--suicide. Those who commit suicide leave loved ones with a black hole of unanswerable questions. Anyone who has been touched by suicide knows the pain of never fully understanding or resolving this aspect of life.
   
   The author seeks to unravel the mystery of her father's suicide by investigating anyone who knew him. She reflects on her own memories, both as a child and an adult to find reason for his drastic act of selfishness. As much as we'd like to know everything about those closest to us, there are limitations. Can we really comprehend the mind of someone else?
   
   Gently and transparently Wickersham reveals her phases of denial, anger, hopelessness and grief. She searches for a murderer, rejecting the idea that her father would have ended his life. She wishes blame on her mother, her father's business partners and associates. Was it a jealous neighbor? A so-called friend? Finding no answers, she settles that her father did take his own life-and he left no clues.
   
   Wickersham struggles to live daily life as a mother and wife, sister and daughter, as everything comes into question. Is it all a lie? Does she view her father through rose-colored glasses? Did he suffer an undetected medical condition?
   
   Walking the high road of inspection and low road of introspection simultaneously, I must agree with the author that suicide is difficult to understand. The search for answers is evasive and frustrating. I discovered along with Wickersham the conspicuous void in my family album left by one who committed suicide. Nevertheless, life goes on.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: A book worth reading for anyone whose life has been affected by suicide.



2. Looking at the book's title and the reviews, I couldn't bear to think anyone out there might miss out on the Suicide Index or think it's not for them if they haven't experienced the suicide of someone close to them. This is a beautiful, most real account--I can't shake it--of all that's human, family, love and loss, being a child and a parent. Joan Wickersham has found a brilliant way to tell the truth about one of the hardest things for human nature to tell the truth about: We can't make sense of death, attempts to index are futile. Which is why this perfect book is anything but. I went back and bought her novel the Paper Anniversary and can't wait to see what Wickersham can do with fiction, too.



3. One of the edgiest topics for the human being to explain to oneself, let alone set down for an audience : suicide. Perhaps easier if one's own intended is the story but this is a father's suicide taken on by his eldest and perhaps favorite daughter.
   
   Joan Wickersham does something brilliant and highly original in what is both a journal and a once-upon-a-time consideration of a man's life.
   
   In compelling yet often dispassionate and sometimes hilarious chapters, Wickersham considers the facts about her family's biographical and social, bodily and geographical conditions as clues to the inevitability of this death.
   
   In an almost seamless and well-paced manner, Wickersham makes it possible for the reader easily to join her in turning over pieces of clothing, pastry, furniture, or trinkets with the possibility always present that there is not just an explanation for this tragedy but an (imaginary) reversal of the fact that this man has willingly removed himself forever from life.
   
   This is the story of a mid-20th century individual set before us by the writer's ease with which she slips contemporary events in with narratives about a disparate cast of artistic, impractical, cruel, aristocratic, and forceful forebearers. She offers us the earnest 1950's Americans and their aspirations in the post WW II business world alongside the disengaged WASP yacht and horse set of 1980's; the uncertain intimacy of the psychiatrist's quiet, with a tremulous, frustrated mother's voice to an inarticulate, depressed young child.
   
   And we are taken to both dark or comic corners : the anatomically specific autopsy report read by a daughter of her father's body, an unconventional Dance institute performance by an aging doyenne observed by an embarrassed father and granddaughter; we meet the dopplegangers of her father who Wickersham embraces, as well as her plump, self-deluding mother who perpetuates failures of romance even in her years of decrepitude.
   
   Wickersham has a particularly clever but highly original take on certain quarters of American life - early 20th century cultural immigrants, the educated and aspiring of the Eastcoast, the perserverance of children faced with the incomprehesible, with abandonment. But this is not a sappy tale nor leaden, but it's a dense one which moves quickly and somehow, like the daughter-writer, we want one more chapter; we don't seem to want an end to the facts of a suicide.
   
   Helpfully, she incorporates a strong bibliographic epilogue of Western writers on the topic of suicide, couching the auto-biographical issue with which she is faced, in sturdy, graceful objectivity.
   
   The reader easily comes along on every page with this reluctant, brave, and highly intelligent daughter as she attempts to assume and then banish responsibility for her parent's suicide.



4. I love memoir. Many memoirs deal with difficult subject matter, and this is no different.
   
   Suicide: it's very "in your face"--unresolved, scary, disturbing. The author is writing trying to make sense of the fact of her father's suicide. The chapters are organized as an index would be, for example
   
   Suicide
   Numbness, and eating
   
   It's very well-written and the author straddles that line between biographer of her father and writer of her own memoir.



5. 
   
   Wickersham takes a very tragic experience, applying a logical index to ungovernable feelings, penning a memoir of her father's suicide that is honest, painstaking and filled with emotional landmines. From the morning she receives the call from her distraught mother, to years later, still grappling with the complicated feelings- acceptable and unacceptable- that plague her life after this loss, the author exquisitely describes the long, dark torment of those left behind by such an act of self-annihilation. The first response, of course, is numbness, a soft-lensed vacuum that allows the family to survive the early days of shock, the outpouring of support from friends and relatives, with the occasional flash of inexplicable rage that lurks beneath the surface. It is the following years that dominate her grieving process, thinking and rethinking what could have been done to prevent the suicide, to intervene.
   
   The elephant in the room, of course, is the undeniable violence of such an action, so heinous and selfish as to belie any daughter's memories of a loving, slightly eccentric father, a man carrying the scars of a brutal childhood and a lack of business sense that adversely affects his family's financial security. The bonds between this eldest daughter and her father are like steel cables; she favors him over her mother, with whom she has an uneasy, somewhat antagonistic relationship, especially after the suicide, the mother flapping wildly through her own jumble of confused emotions, both guilty and self-defensive, left pondering the interminable, unanswerable question: why? Although the author has a sister, it is the nature of such a loss that the sibling is hardly mentioned. This is an intense, solitary journey, an anguished, chronically self-obsessed need for answers, a patient husband dealing with the fall out years later.
   
   Wickersham catalogs every nuance, every instinct, every possibility, trapped in a dilemma not of her own making, her life haunted years after the pivotal event. She is stuck, unable to move forward, happiness no longer a viable expectation. It is to this writer's credit that I continue to read this memoir: I didn't particularly like her father or have empathy for his cowardice. On the other hand, neither have I experienced the kind of bond shared by this man and his daughter. No, I was in it for the experience, willing to follow wherever Wickersham might lead. If she has the courage to flay her soul in search of answers, who am I to shy away? "It's a crooked, looping, labyrinthine story." Indeed, it is and one with no easy answers or facile resolutions. I hope this troubled man appreciated his extraordinary child and her capacity for compassion. I doubt I would have been as forgiving. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

5 comments about Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir.

1. I can tell you that this author has embellished little. I avoid four letter words in my books simply because I think they distract. Nevertheless, I understand Flynn's reasoning here, and at least for me, the language in this book was palatable. What I found most interesting about this work was how different street living is in Boston compared to Las Vegas and East Los Angeles. Then East LA is a 24/7 war zone. While Boston and Las Vegas are similar in the fact that it's the police in these two cities you had better be wary and respectfully of; in East LA, as bad as the police are, badges are a welcome sight compared to MS-13.



2. The assertion a life worth writing about by an individual who can write well proves to be simply that, an assertion. Flynn's talents (?) are mediocre, the book tiresome, repetitive and unfortunately like most of the other 'my childhood was the pits' by which I mean it may self serve the author.
   
   None of the characters were likeable despite being deeply flawed (which often makes the person likeable).
   
   I doubt Flynn's daddy was worth writing about.
   
   It's done now.
   
   Do yourself a favour. Spend your money on a more worthy book - that's just about any other book so the choice is massive.
   
   As for Flynn being a poet, that is still open for debate. If his prose is at all similar to his poetics, his poetry would suck.



3. Good, effective memoir/story of the author's father's struggle with homelessness and alcohol and drug use. Very well-written and compelling. A good read.



4. I was very interested in the title of this book and when I picked it up, on further examination, I had to read it. It was a fast read for me.



5. I was directed to this strange book because of another recommended work here at Amazon. Much to my surprise, I absolutely enjoyed this strange twilight or maybe it's--"permanent midnight " ? view of a mixed-up and gifted son looking at his life from all these bizarre angles.
   
   One being the fact that the son, (here the author himself) as a young adult, ends up taking a job at a homeless shelter and in a voyeuristic vision into his own possible future, sizes up the very man who brought him into the world as he wanders his bleary-eyed way into that very shelter one late, inebriated evening.
   
   Chilling depictions like this, along with Flynn's dark-humored view of his father in all of his guises (house-painter, check-forger, would-be writer, etc.) keeps you turning the pages. At its core is the fact that all this grit is true. And as a memoir, it is so beautifully rendered and it's one that's so worth reading. (surpasses the James Frey, Augusten Burroughs fare by a long-shot!)

5 comments about Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph.

1. I was so moved by C. Vivian Stringer's account of her rise to stardom in the competitive world of college athletics. The predjudice and personal tragedies she endured and her ability to keep balance in her life and focus through it all is truly inspiring. She is an amazing woman.



2. There are 2 things I absolutely HATED about this book...I hated having to put it down, and I hated when I finished it! Vivian Stringer's story is truly an example of courage in the midst of challenges. It's not just for sports fans. Anyone can be inspired by it.



3. I enjoyed the book. Not life changing but there are some life lessons to be learned through the reading



4. This book was absolutely fantastic. I'm not really into sports but have enjoyed basketball from time to time. Though, I've never really been into college basketball and didn't even know who C. Vivian Stringer was before the Imus incident, I was able to gain a tremendous insight into the life of a strong, confident, and resilient woman and the women she lends a hand in raising. To learn all that she has been through and how she mustered the courage to "Stand Tall" through every adversity was so inspiring, and not just for Black women but for every woman and human being. I certainly recommend that every person take the time to read this incredible story.



5. How important it is to have women, young and old, to know the power and authority that lies within and that you have the perfect example in
   "the Coach" of all times. Ms Stringer has given us this jewel at a time more important that any other that I can remember when so many young women are suffering from low self-esteem and rejection and so many older women are caught in the throws of life. Thanks to Ms. Stringer we have renewed HOPE!!!

5 comments about It's All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life.

1. First of all, I do not believe Denise and Alan Jackson were compatible from the very start of their relationship. Initially it was a physical attraction at best - more so on Alan's part. As time marched on in their marriage, they began to drift apart and then later fell apart due to Alan's infidelity.
   I sensed that Denise would have liked to share more concerning Alan's unfaithfulness but showed great restraint in choosing not to cast him or his career in a bad light.
   It was upsetting to me and countless others to see Denise blame herself for Alan's betrayal or trying to pull herself down to his level for a few impure thoughts she may have had back when - whenever.
   Denise fought long and hard by exhausting every avenue to restore her relationship with Alan until finally surrendering it all to Christ, the Author and Finisher of Our Faith. I to have been there until I did exactly what Denise did in crying out to God to not only save my marriage but to save myself and by divine intervention, my marriage was spared. That was over 25 years ago and we are still going so very strong.
   
   In all honesty, I do not think Denise would have fought so long and so vehemently to save her marriage if it were not for the extravagant and opulent lifestyle she had come to know and love, for herself and for their children. I appreciate Denise's honesty in making mention in her book before the fame and fortune she said, "I don't remember any woman chasing after you when you worked the second shift at the local K-Mart." I truly believe that Denise would have shown Alan to the door had it not been for all the wealth.
   
   It is my hope that they will both stay on the straight and narrow path that leads to everlasting life and their children as well.
   The scripture does say, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
   Denise closed her book by quoting the passage, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him."
   However, for the readers sake I would like to add the very next passage that states, "But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes the deep things of God."
   I'll close by sharing this thought, "It is Christ Himself who empowers us to forgive those who have violated our trust, all we need do is ask and by the Holy Spirit he will enable us to forgive all."
   
   For a truly extraordinary story of love and redemption, check out D. W. Gutridge's "Captured by a Smile." You will not be disappointed.Captured by a Smile "Imprisoned by Love": A Memoir of Young Love that Refused to Die



2. I cannot recommend this book enough for every woman. It truely changed my life. I read it in half a day, and think about it weekly. It truely taught me forgiveness and for those struggling with hurt and betrayal, who need a way to faithfully overcome the hurt and to forgive, this is an excellent book!



3. I bought this book for my mom last Christmas. She read it in two days. She loved it and it made her respect Alan Jackson all the more.



4. I picked up this book and could not put it down. I got it from the library but had to go buy my own copy. Denise is so open and honest and I learned so much from her story. Thanks so much for opening up yourself and sharing your joys and heartaches. I cried and laughed. I wasn't really an Alan Jackson fan but I am now! Great story!
   Shannon



5. I was shocked when I got this product, as I thoutht I was getting a used copy and it was brand new and had never been opened. I received it in a very short amount of time. I would purchase from them again.

5 comments about Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock 'N' Roll Survivor.

1. What a remarkable story of a near miss star. Al Kooper was some of the glue that held early rock together. While never a star in his own right he added so much to what he did play on, that is, more ground breaking hits than anyone I know of. Just being the first organ in Rock is enough plus the horn band idea with BS&T, wow! His work with Leonard Skinered was a career in itself. Too bad he let his ego take him away from the limelight he deserves. He seems bitter in the end. Truly a story of Rock and Roll itself with Al as a matrix. He doesn't seem to know just how lucky he was. Can't say he let any moss grow on him though.



2. Great book - I couldn't put it down. Here's some insight into some of the greatest acts in rock - Dylan, Mike Bloomfield, Hendrix - it's all there. Al Kooper is a funny guy and I enjoyed the book tremendously!



3. I recommend this book for everybody interested in the rock scene
   of the 60`s and up !
   Al Kooper has a lot to tell of the early days in rock music and is
   a great writer .
   A lot of good reading and dont forget:
   Mr Kooper is still making really good music, listen to the newest
   album Black Coffee and see what I mean...



4. One of the great rock musicians of all-time. This guy should definitely be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in fact he should have his own wing. Great writing throughout, this is the most entertaing rock and roll book that I've ever read. One of the finest memoirs I've ever read for that matter. I wish he would write more.



5. I did not want this book to end. I have been a fan of Al's since the Blood,Sweat,and Tears days and this book filled in so many unanswered questions I had. I recommend that anyone who likes him in any capacity read this book and see him live.

5 comments about The Way of Transition: Embracing Life's Most Difficult Moments.

1. 
   I often list the pros and cons of the books I review. This book, like most others, has a few drawbacks, but they are not important enough to list. What is important is to know that this book is one of the best guides possible for those who are going through losses and do not know where to turn. If you or someone you know is reeling from a major life set back this is the book you need to turn to. This book will help you process the loss, understand the empty feeling that follows, and will offer hope for a new beginning. This book is a first aid kit for the emotions.



2. William Bridges revisits the topic of transitions after the death of his first wife. This is an emotionally powerful book and Bridges is brutally honest and open about his own personality and relationships. I give it 4 stars, though, because I'm not sure that he adds a whole lot to his orginal work on transitions.



3. William Bridges surprised me with this extremely well-written and personal book. I am an executive coach who had read many of his other books and have often recommended Bridge's Managing Transitions to clients and friends in the business world. I opened the book expecting to find a how-to manual on getting through midlife in business,or through the loss of a job or some other similarly difficult but containable business transition. What I found was a deeply personal (and to me intensely meaningful description of) William's own life transitions through his job changes, marriage difficulties, and most significantly the death of his first wife and the transition that ensued. This beautifully written book reads more like a novel than a self help book, but the fact that it describes real transitions at a very deep level is exactly what makes it helpful. I congratulate the author for having the guts to write it.



4. The author is very professional in his knowledge of tranistion vs. change and the merging of the process so that one understands the need to understand transition and that understanding to facilitate change. It is a very personal account of his understanding of the value of "letting go". His wife of 48 years is about to pass and the culmination of their realtionship and acceptance of the change to come and the phases of tranistion. To me personally, the acceptance of "letting go" allowed me to move further into my life and relish the anticipation of what could be. But not until I "let go". To me that was an exceptional development. And it all had to do with understanding transition. I am deeply grateful as is my wife who is reading it now.



5. This is a engrossing book about what happens when a person who has made a career out of understanding "transitions" (and helping other people and organizations through times of transition) comes face to face with a gigantic transition. As Bridges dealt with the death of his wife and the concomitant end of a lengthy marriage, he found himself wondering if he really understood transitions at all. This book is the story of how he navigated that period in his life, how he achieved a new understanding of everything that had gone before, and what it has meant to him since.
   
   There is a lot going on in this book. On one level, it is the story of a marriage. On another level, it is the story of how truly immersing oneself in the transitions one encounters can deepen a person's relationship both to the self and to the personal history that has created that self. And then there is the general philosophical musing about how a person can open himself to the possibilities that come with major life changes. It's not a book of ideas about what to do (for that, the same author has a couple of other books on transition), but instead it's a deeply personal reflection on the meaning of life and life's transitions.
   
   Highly recommended for anyone who is of a contemplative turn of mind.