1 comments about Circling My Mother.

1. Mary Gordon's mother, Anna Gagliano Gordon, married late in life and gave birth to Mary when she was forty-one years old. Her husband, Mary's father, died when Mary was seven. Anna lived to be ninety-four. She spent the last years of her life in a state of severe dementia and couldn't even remember who Mary was.
   
   After her death in 2002, Mary felt compelled to try to understand more about this woman that had been her mother-a woman she had almost come to hate in the last difficult years. As a writer, the best way she could think of to come to terms with her mother and her own feelings about her was to write. Thus, she wrote this book. It is a combination of memoir-Mary's memories of how she perceived her mother at different stages of life, and also biography of the woman for whom motherhood was only a part of her lifelong personhood.
   
   The chapters in the book each approach Anna Gordon's life from a different perspective. They describe her in relation to her sisters, her friends, priests and the Catholic Church, her husband and others. Each of these vantage points offers a bit more insight into the woman-and gives Mary Gordon a deeper understanding of her mother.
   
   Anna Gordon was a victim of polio as a young child and having her left leg six inches shorter than the right put her in the disabled column her whole life. It also caused her to become rather misshapen in her later years. Nonetheless she was a lovely woman and a competent woman in the working world, supporting her family, including her husband, until she retired.
   
   Mary Gordon paints her mother's personality with care, but not with sentimentality. She is trying to understand the woman she loved and hated, and in the telling also shares a great many insights about herself.
   
   It's is an interesting book, though probably not everyone's cup of tea. It would not be on my list of favorite memoirs.
   
   (Originally in hardcover by Pantheon Books in August 2007)
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Unique point of view.

5 comments about The Senior: My Amazing Year as a 59-Year-Old College Football Linebacker.

1. The author, Mike Flynt is a fifty-nine-year-old former high school and college football player whose senior college season was cut short when he was kicked off the team and out of school... after a fight... that may or may not have been his fault... but this fight... when added to the already accrued total of fights and arrests on his record... tipped the scales to the point... that the college, Sul Ross State... didn't care... they just wanted him gone from the University. For thirty-six years after the ending of his college career, this one incident festered like an open wound in his soul... and Mike always felt it was the biggest mistake in his life... he felt he let his teammates down.
   
   The author leads you through his life starting with his Father a grizzled World War II veteran who taught his son to box at an early age... and to always be "MENTALLY-READY" for life on the "streets". His Dad had **THREE-RULES**: "IF I EVER HEAR OF YOU STARTING A FIGHT, YOU'RE GOING TO GET A WHIPPIN' WHEN YOU GET HOME. IF I EVER HEAR OF SOMEONE STARTING A FIGHT WITH YOU AND YOU DON'T FIGHT BACK, YOU'RE GETTING A WHIPPIN' WHEN YOU GET HOME. IF I HEAR OF YOU FIGHTING AND YOU DON'T WIN, YOU'RE GETTING A WHIPPIN' WHEN YOU GET HOME." Mike definitely followed his Dad's rules, and probably fought a lot of times even if it didn't have anything to do with his Dad's rules. Mike went to high school at Odessa, Texas Permian High School... the school that was the inspiration for the book, movie, and TV series, "FRIDAY-NIGHT-LIGHTS". In fact Mike was a member of the 1965 Class 4A Football State Champions... the first championship team at that now famous school.
   
   In 2007 he was coerced by his former Sul Ross University teammates to attend a class reunion. When he attended the Reunion, and while having a few beers and celebrating the "Glory-Days"... the conversation led to the fact that Mike still had a year of college athletic eligibility left. Though fifty-nine-years old, Mike was in tremendous physical shape... and one thing led to another... and Mike was eventually approved to try out for the current Sul Ross team... even though he was older than the coach... and had children older than the players. Being that sports was the center of my existence during my school years and after... and the fact that I got kicked off my team in my junior year for the same offense as the author... I related very well with Mike's plight. But since it was my junior year... I got to make amends in my senior year. Mike saw a fleeting shot... albeit thirty-six-years later... to put a permanent bandage on an old wound. Obviously at fifty-nine-years old Mike was not going to be a major player... if he made the team... but to me making the team is the "sizzle"... not the "steak"... in Mike's life. The "steak"... and heart and soul of this story... is Mike's journey... from brawler... multiple arrests and nights in jail... to successful man... successful Father/husband/Grandfather... and a man who found G-d.
   
   This book is about a tremendous journey... the destination is simply what got the story told!
   
   P.S. I've been called a lot of things in my life... but the two best were SON and FATHER... and because of that the most touching words in this entire book, was the dedication that Mike made in the beginning of the book:
   
   **TO MY DAD**
   "FOR ALL THE THINGS HE TAUGHT ME, RIGHT OR WRONG, NO FATHER EVER LOVED A SON MORE THAN MY DAD LOVED ME."



2. This is a story about a man who tells how much he loved football and his father. His father had a hard life and he wished his son to be able to take care of himself. Mike took his father's rules with him a long time until they began to stand in his way. He still wanted to play football at 59. His life fell into place where he had the opportunity to talk about this to his old school, Sol Rush. I believe the book has many life lessons with Mike's journey the road of Redemption.



3. Mike Flynt, Don Yaeger
   Thomas Nelson, 2008
   ISBN: 9780849920639
   Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com, 10/08
   5 stars
   Inspiring...
   Mike Flynt grew up in a tough family. He learned to fight when he was young. During his senior year at Sul Ross State University, he was the Captain of the football team. Unfortunately, he was kicked off the team for fighting.
   Flynt married and raised a family, but was filled with regrets for not completing his senior. Friends and family encouraged the 59-year-old man to return to college. Flynt is a man to be admired. There are few true heroes in today's world; Flynt is one of them. He demonstrated courage, humility, perseverance, and willpower.
   It is never too late and we are never too old to capture our dreams. The Senior is an incredible story. I am not a football fan (sorry Mike), but I am a Mike Flynt fan. His story is a true inspiration. The photographs add much to the story. The writing style is conversational and enjoyable. Whether you are a football fan or not you will enjoy The Senior.



4. I couldn't put this book down. Read it at one sitting. Althought many people won't understand Flynt's mindset about fist fighting it is one shared by many of us that were raised in West Texas. The book was excellent and I invite everyone to read this. Quite inspirational.



5. A thoroughly enjoyable read! Being over 50 and an ex-jock, the cover got my attention right away - a 59 year old guy going back to college to play football, give me a break. The first few pages pulled me in and I was hooked. I appreciate Mike's authenticity in sharing his early years, warts and all before growing into a fine man and inspiriation. Way to go Mike - glad you were able to redeem yourself and share your story with the rest of us!

5 comments about Walking in this World: The Practical Art of Creativity.

1. This book is an excellent follow-up to Julia Cameron's first wonderful book. Again, easy to read, full of spiritual insights that have assisted me tremendously in my quest to find creative fulfillment.



2. Known for her best selling book THE ARTIST's WAY...Julia Cameron is the author of 19 books both fiction and nonfiction. She bills this book as a sequel to THE ARTIST'S WAY...and says it is the 'nextstep in her course of discovering and recovering the creative self. She urges writers and all creatives to inhabit the world with a 'sense of wonder' -- to not just observe. By dividing the volume into 12 weekly 'chapters' she lets us 'rediscover' the wonder of her "morning pages-- a type of journaling --to get the juices flowing' and helps us map our interests. Each 'chapter' or week works on a different aspect of Discovering -- ranging from 1 -- A sense of origin, to 2 sense of proportion to 3 a sense of perspective 4) a sense of adventure 5) a sense of personal territory to 6) a sense of boundaries to 7) a sense of momentum, to 8 -- a sense of discernment and 9 a sense of resiliency and 10 a sensse of comraderie and 11) a sense of authenticity to 12) a sense of dignity. Julia explains in her intro that "walking and talking humanize her life...they draw it to an ancient and comforting scale...and it is on these walks that her best ideas come to her...and no you don't have to walk every day-- she suggests a weekly walk. In the afterword which follows a short epilogue she explains about her 'creative clusters guide"...she noes that there are no franchised or accredited Artist's Way Teachers...for "creative recovery' as she calls it is 'a nonhierarchial, peer-run, collective process"....something I too totally agree with...She also includes guidelines for a group....for many readers...this process could be much more productive than just a weekly book club...for others...the book is still a great guide to going solo--- to reawakening your creative spirit or just re-affirming that YES, you are creative...and that it's never too late to write that play, paint that canvas or sculpt that statue....We are all creative...we just need to recognize our styles and to encourage our innate ability to color outside of the lines and think outside of the box! THERE IS NO ENVELOPE....



3. As Julia Cameron has done so well in her previous Artist's Way books, the Artist is supported and encouraged on their journey to recovery. Although there is a sense of repetition in the exercises, her words read lyrically, as music for the soul. The Artist is lead page to page by inspirational quotes, reassuring in their absolute truth and direct application to daily life and vignettes from an artist's life fully lived. A must for the recovering creative spirit.



4. This is a nice continuation of the Artists Way program, but will not be as effective without having done the Artists Way first. There are a lot more references to "God" and "The Creator" than the first book, and a bit of repeated information in an identical format. That said, I think this book is a perfect continuation for both artistic recovery and artistic expansion, and is very useful.



5. I read the Artist's Way long ago and thought this would just be a rehashing of it, but it is an excellent book in itself and as a companion to the Artist's Way. It does cover some of the same ground as the previous, but expands on them, and covers some new territory and techniques for living a productively creative life (such as the Walks in addition to Morning Pages, which may sound simplistic, but the importance of them is explained with helpful insight here.) I consider this book as both a way to strengthen the lessons in the Artist's Way, and a small step forward from it. Both are great books to read thoroughly a couple times, then pick up now and then when needing some sage advice and encouragement in creative endeavors, reassurance in the midst of self-doubt, and just to raise the optimism. I also appreciate that Cameron does all this in a non-New-Agey, straightforward way. (While she does touch on spirituality, do not expect language like "the divine cosmic essence of your being" here.) I can imagine even macho tough guys getting something out of these books.

4 comments about Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865: The Diary of Sarah Raymond Herndon.

1. informative, and entertaining. This book is well written and proved to bea pleasant read.



2. This diary is well written and thoughtful. The detail is really vivid.



3. I found this diary charming and informative. Having always had a fascination with the time period and wagon trains, I couldn't put this book down. By the end of the book, I was saddened by the fact that Sarah didn't continue recording her life in Montana. I felt as if I had known her personally and was touched by the whole accounting of her travels.



4. Enhanced with a Foreword by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien, Days On The Road: Crossing The Plains In 1865 is the personal diary of Sarah Raymond Herndon, a young pioneer woman who, as the dust from the Civil War settled, left the battle-scarred state of Missouri with her family and traveled overland to the Rocky Mountains in search of a new place to live and a new life to build. Sarah's daily insights, her depictions of life on the trail, her descriptions of the hardships, the triumphs, and the evocations of her memories, combine to form a vivid and accurate image of pioneer life through the words of a pioneer who headed west to escape the ravages of the American Civil War to start her life anew. Days On The Road is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to 19th Century American Studies reading lists and history collections.

2 comments about Bear: My Hard Life & Good Times As Alabama's Head Coach with CD.

1. This book is an excellent depiction of a man (not a god). Underwood masterfully relays events and conversations first hand and resists the temptation to sensationalize. This is not just a book for Alabama fans but for any football fan or someone who simply wants to know how to win. Winning, for Bryant was an art of knowing your opponent and motivating your team. Underwood doesn't shield for Bryant's shortcomings and displays them almost as if Bryant himself were there to say "This is what not to do". Great read



2. Growing up in Tuscaloosa, and being around during the period Coach Bryant was coaching at Alabama, I can really appreciate this wonderful book. Over several years, the author spent hundreds of hours with Coach Bryant, and had the opportunity to record many hours of interviews with the Coach. These interviews cover his years of early childhood, his playing days at Alabama and his coaching stints at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M and of course, Coaching at Alabama.
   
   The book is written like Coach Bryant was dictating the whole book....you can just hear and see Coach Bryant telling the story as only he could tell a story. He talks freely and honestly about his early life growing up in Arkansas and his career as a Football Coach. He (Coach Bryant) talks about his misstates during his coaching career and his successes in coaching.
   
   This book and a book by Kirk McNair (editor of Bama Magazine) entitled: "What It Means To Be Crimson Tide" are two of the best books on Alabama football and its rich tradition. Both are a must have for any sports fan.
   
   
   Buy "Bear: My Hard Life & Good Times As Alabama's Head Coach" if you are a Alabama fan, a coach (of any sport), a businessman or if you just want to read a very good book about a true American Sports Hero.
   
   (The CD of Coach Bryant talking is worth the price of this book.)
   
   Great Trivia question from this book: What year did Coach Bryant first get a job offer to be the Head Coach at Alabama? (1957 or 1958 is wrong.) ......1946...page 107....this book is great!

5 comments about Where Rivers Change Direction.

1. These are two feelings I got from reading this memoir. Life in NW Wyoming is not easy. Days are spent with horses and one's life is taken by horses. In fact, if you love horses this is a great book.
   
   One thing that kept creeping into this book is the distance the author had toward his parents, especially his father. Little but dialogue is written about the father, but he comes across as callous and more worried of turning the boy into a real man. The boy, in turn, writes about his concerns about the man he will become. At times that dragged on too much.
   
   Still, it's wonderful prose written in a manly tone. For rugged cowboys and ranchers it's a perfect read.



2. What an unrelentingly gripping series of stories -- life, death, animals, boys, girls, men, women, horses, snakes, water, wind, earth, blood, fire and sky. Mark Spragg's style is a bit like David Hockney doing his photograph collages. He doesn't show you everything, just bits and pieces to make the whole. He lets you put some of the pieces in place. What a style. It's shot through with his own strong character and some compelling scenes of raw Wyoming life. The stories follow an amazing arc that you don't see coming until the last chapter and then you just kind of want to start all over again, and meet the boy that became the man. Beautiful stuff. Look, I'm not really out here trying to sell my book at every corner but the people who told me about Mark Spragg are readers of my book, "Antler Dust." I had three recommendations from "Antler Dust" readers to check out Mark Spragg, mostly because, I believe, of the detailed outdoors action and the fact that my book takes place in a neighboring state, Colorado. I am going to read more Mark Spragg but for others who like him, please also consider Antler Dust.



3. I'd worry about peope who don't hurt themselves laughing while reading Wapiti School. My goodness, these stories are terrific, sometimes tough and bitter, sometimes perfect poetry. Just wonderful.



4. Mark Spragg writes beautifully, even poetically, of teenage life in a Wyoming family struggling to make ends meet by catering to "dudes" come West for the seasonal fishing and hunting. His collection of stories is varied, but all are tied to the splendor of unshod love for the land and for the horses he rides through a journey that will steal your heart.



5. The author writes excellent prose with innumerable well turned phrases and descriptions. The subject matter is primarily his adolescence on a Wyoming dude ranch and hunting guide service that his family, Pennsylvania expatriates, operated in the 1960s, some vignettes from his adult life and descriptions of friends and conditions in windswept Wyoming. The chapters are actually a series of essays rather than a progressive narrative with the ones about life and work on and around his father's ranch, where he essentially lived as a hired hand in the bunkhouse with hardened wranglers from about the age of fourteen, being the most interesting.
   
   I enjoyed the book principally due to the excellent writing and colorful recounting of the author's experiences as a real "cowboy" in an era when most of us male baby boomers only experienced the same thing through ubiquitous western TV shows and movies of the 50s and 60s. It was a life in another era when so many of us grew up in boring suburbia. I recommend it for these reasons.
   
   But maybe I missed something because I never came across any explanation for the author's seeming sense of hurt, isolation, melancholy and general unhappiness that begins, for unstated reasons, during his college years.

5 comments about Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm.

1. Flawless - in every sense - absolutely incredible breadth of space - the view you get through your own eyes is truly very real and utterly horrific.... I grew up like this and I know what it takes to come out of it whole (or at least partly) - as you will never forget how and why we become the soil that makes us true ZIMBABWEANS.
   
   Thank you Alexandra - you are a legend.



2. I enjoyed Rainbow's End so much that I bought a second copy as a gift rather than part with my own. It recalled my own memories of Rhodesia at that time; nicely nostalgic. Highly recommended! --Barry--



3. Growing up in 1960s Rhodesia, Lauren St. John thought she was in paradise. Despite the ever-looming threat of terrorist attacks, Lauren lived immersed in breathtaking African beauty. She and her younger sister Lisa had dozens of exotic pets and ran freely across the land, while native Africans ran their farm and household. The world was Lauren's for the taking.
   
   Then the war ended, turning Rhodesia into Zimbabwe - and a completely foreign place. Suddenly the country's black citizens were in full force, demanding equality with their white neighbors. For people like Lauren, who had grown up believing whites were inherently in charge, it was an abrupt and bitter eye-opening. Was nothing the way she'd thought it was?
   
   Slowly but sincerely, teenage Lauren struggles to gain a grasp on her new universe - making friends with the black girls now integrated into her school, getting to know the family employees as individuals rather than generic servants.
   
   St. John's recollections are candid and well-written, capturing a memorable period in African history and offering valuable insight for readers all over the world.



4. This book is a beautifully written memoir of childhood that,importantly for me, does a fantastic job of evoking the time and place, scents and sounds of growing up on a farm in the bush. Perhaps more meaningful to me since I've traveled in southern Africa, but its a wonderful story for anyone not just those interested in that period and that place.



5. I grew up in Rhodesia and can relate to all the animals and the terrorists and see the Rhodesia troops know someone who was in the army. Fortunately for those who grew up in the Rhodesia Era, have a better understanding of the meaning of life. No computer games, but real life. One thing that I hope to pass on to my kids is the love of animals, and how to survive without all the time spend in front of the TV and computers and be a real kid. Living in Bannockburn, traveling to Bulawayo, or Salisbury, stopping in Gweru, the Victoria Falls, Kariba, and buying mealies cooked on the side of the road, the braais, Renaults, the food, the wildlife, the smells of freshly rain on ground, elephants crossing the road on the way to Victoria Falls, and Matopus, all the baboons and monkeys running around, the rhino, giraffe, the lizards stealing food. The good life.
   
   Growing up in Rhodesia makes me live life, like it were overflowing. The good times, the best of times, the real times.

5 comments about Traveling Music: Playing Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times.

1. Excellent reading. The concept of this book is solid, what music someone listened to at what times in their life (I should have thought of that!). This by a world class musician and writer, so its quite interesting learning what the author listened to, and when. I have been a Rush fan since I first heard them when I was 12 or 13 back in 1980, and as such have a lot of respect for Neil as well. Anyhow, I enjoyed the book, as well as his other books too.



2. Traveling Music was an enjoyable read. I have read Neil's first three books and this is the best thus far. The book's premise: Peart is traveling in his BMW Z8 (a very hot car) from California to Texas. Through his journey we are taken back to his past while he listens to his favorite music. I appreciated what he liked - especially how much he likes Sinatra. As a fellow motorcycle traveler - I enjoy `the road' stories.
   
   And now, the other side of the book: I did find it odd how many of the great icons in the music business - at some point or another start to despise their fans: the very people who spend the money on the albums and tours. The people who make these guys rich and famous. I know some of the radical ones can be annoying, I get that. It just that many of us that are reading this - don't have that experience. I was also a little shocked on his views on America. I don't understand why the African chapter was in this book - this should have been in the first book - Masked Rider.
   
   I hope Peart continues to write - and I hope that he would take some time to have a more direct approach on his life and his song writing in a book that is less about traveling.



3. I was a little trepidacious about picking this book up. I had just read 'Roadshow' and found it slightly disappointing at least when compared to 'Ghost Rider.' The synopsis on the book about Peart taking a drive and talking about his favorite bands didn't really appeal to me all that much despite being a long-time Rush and Neil Peart fan.
   
   I'm glad I decided to pick up the book after all. Far from being just a discussion of his favorite music, Peart weaves the music into details from his life creating the most autobiographical of all his books. I've always found it ironic that Neil is often considered the most secretive and private member of Rush, yet he has revealed far more about his life than any other member of the band through his writings.
   
   This is by far the most well-written book Peart has produced so far. Next to 'Ghost Rider' which is essential for understanding key tragic events in Neil's life, 'Travelling Music' is a must-read for fans of Rush and even fans of popular music in general.



4. Both the content and the cohesion of this memoir are clear, strong, and good. The overall architecture is better than Ghost Rider and Roadshow, actually coming full circle both literally and metaphorically.
   
   He's a fun person, and it's a blast to get invited along to travel in his Beamer (I wonder if his wife and his Mom are as scandalized of the speeds he drives at as I am) with great music for a nice hike and some bird watching. I found myself thinking, "I love that group, too!", or, "Hum, I've never heard that song, I'll have to go online and have a listen!" I'm amused and delighted he stays in cheap roadside motels, and buys pre-packaged sandwiches and peanut butter cups from convenience stores, because I hope and expect him to be more comfortable in life because he's worked so hard for it and deserves it. However, he's just a regular guy from a regular background, and harbors no snobbishness about such things.
   
   Neil relates happy and horrible life events in great detail from birth to the day he joins Rush on this drive. It's reaffirming to realize that a shy person from an average background can pen such moving prose after experiencing and observing his world. Few writers can observe a vermillion flycatcher on a plain moment in a plain bird watching trip and form it into a work of art with the tender, fleeting joy he and the others around him witnessed.
   
   I now understand what it is to be a "burning spirit", a musician that plays with such "intensity and vulnerability", so that they take "music from sidewalk entertainment to compelling art." (Sounds like somebody we know!) Neil's provocative chapter I nicknamed "The Superconductor Essay" (after the Rush song on the same theme) gives me a lot to think about in music appreciation, for I--a non-musician--never listened to music the way he does. I used to think I did, because like Neil I like a lot of diverse things, but I've never thought about why I like them. His thoughts on the intention by a musician or any artist that really got me thinking about his point of view. To his credit, a non-musician can easily follow. He is open-minded, and challenges himself to listen to musical styles that don't appeal to him, for example a country singer in a roadside restaurant that "really sang that song, from the inside out."
   
   Moreover, he doesn't name names in what he dislikes, so the tome doesn't come off as a bitchy-moany manifesto.
   
   It's touching how uncorrupted he is in the corrupt world of the music business. He befriends and encourages other artists, including young up & coming ones. He has no blinders on to music: caring nothing of the artist's age, race, religion, or economic status. And boy howdy does he love music--he shares how he tunelessly yelps along with Frank Sinatra CDs, or the fun he had at recent The Tragically Hip concert.
   
   As always in Peart's writings, great lessons in geology, history, vocabulary, and the music industry are included.
   
   If you've assumed `rock stars' have it `easy'-- you're wrong. It's amazing that he's the sweet man he is despite for how he's suffered in his personal life. Neil shares the secret: perseverance, grit, and hard work. Great memoir, give it a read.



5. This is the third book I have finished from Neil. The other books read up to this point have included Ghost Rider and Road Show. I couldn't comment on Ghost Rider because I felt the book was so very personal and considered therapy for Neil's experiences. I enjoyed Road Show. It was fun hearing about Neil's experiences on the road fetching National Park Stamps along the way.
   
   In Traveling Music, there is a bit more of Neil's thoughts on just about everything. My first assumption prior to reading this book was, okay, he is getting in a car, listening to various music on the road with comments. It is this, but Neil's broad view of the music business and his experiences as a real music listener, world traveller, book reader and appreciator of the arts lends itself to everything he comments on. He is the type of person I feel whom anyone could strike up a meaningful conversation about any subject. That is the feel of the book. When he hits on a piece of music he likes, you get some very insightful and sometimes researched infomation on it. I learned more about Sinatra from Neil's appreciation than I had from my own experience for example. Also, there is no confusion that Neil is a proud introvert and I feel he enjoys his time alone to think and experience things and get back in touch with himself. I can relate to this and it makes me more inquisitive to read his views and comments. He also has a very good book list on his website and I've taken on a few of his recommendations and enjoyed them.
   
   The only negative is the African Bike Ride area of the book towards the end. I kind of drifted in and out of that chapter because I felt I couldn't relate to that, and also because it seemed to move away from the initial car ride - music listening / comments area. But overall a very good read and I recommend it and look forward to another book from Neil.
   
   - David Carlin
   david.j.carlin@verizon.net

1 comments about My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem: Setting the Record Straight on My Life as Eminem's Mother.

1. I'm a huge Eminem fan ever since Slim Shady LP dropped back in '99. I was interested to hear what his mom had to say about all the trash talk from his lyrics, and gain some additional insight into the life of the young, unsigned Marshall.
   
   I read the book in one sitting, all I can say is, Debbie, if you're reading this, I'm sorry for the hate and want nothing more than to just give you a hug. If you thought Em's life was bad, his mom puts him to shame with her sad, terrible, tragic story. Violent husbands, endless physical abuse, drunken beatings, gunpoint robberies, and so far none of this involves young Marshall, who amplified the problems and made her a global target of hate amongst fans and followers.
   
   Turns out (assuming you believe her), the amount of times she's been intoxicated (on any substance) could be counted one one hand, she's always been a successful self-supportive business owner and owned the home Marshall and Kim lived in together, stating Marshall still hadn't left the nest entirely until he was signed to Interscope at 26. Speaking of Kim, Debbie has a deep hatred for her (you'll see why, dear god) but always loved and supported her son in everything he did, and is neither lawsuit-happy or a practicer of the Munchhausen-by-proxy behavior alluded to in the infamous lyrics. She just had a very troubled first son and a very sickly second (possibly the result of her being pushed down stairs by her drunken third husband seven months into pregnancy, resulting in a premature birth).
   
   I love Em, come on, his contributions to the hip-hop genre have elevated and evolved the artful expression of rap to new heights and inspired a legion of followers, but his crucifixion of his mom should have ended at the lyrics, in real life she just wanted to have a conversation with her son, talk to him, laugh and be with him and his family like the times before he was an icon. The money didn't interest her--she just wants to be an object of affection by the son she put so much work into raising and supporting.
   
   I really hope those two can make up, perhaps Relapse will address this.
   
   As for the writing and content, Debbie's voice comes across as a bit simplistic and at times naive, the edits and additions by her assistant are obvious and distracting, and many of her points are overstated and repeated, but overall it's not deterring, and there's plenty of interesting information to keep fans and the curious turning pages.
   
   In the end, I don't think she entirely 'gets' the Slim Shady persona and the 10 million dollar lawsuit (regardless of who's idea it was--she claims her lawyer made the decision to sue without her consent) probably didn't win her any bonus points with Marshall, but she still loves her son and Hailie and deserves to be part of the family after all this time, read this book and you are sure to agree.

5 comments about My Life in Porn: The Bobby Blake Story.

1. Bobby kind of confuses me. He seems contrary to what the Christian faith really says. He says he led the life that he was supposed to live more or less with God's blessing. I can't quibble with that exactly, as, "only God can judge". However, the things he did and the way he acted at times were completely unChristian in my eyes. Claiming to be a good Christian, he acted hostile, mean, ugly, physically abusive, etc. He didn't seem to act any different than any other person in many instances. Swearing, multiple partners, on and on - I just don't know how he justifies himself.
   
   Other than that, it was a very interesting story. He likes to think that he was a really big star, but let's face it, porn has a very limited audience and no matter how good you try to be or how ethical you try to act, it just about getting your rocks off. Exhibitionism at it's heighth. He just acted as if people threw their coats down in a puddle so he could walk over it. That life is not quite as impressive as he would want us to believe, in my opinion.



2. I would have thought that the last thing a book about a porn star would be is boring! But this poorly written and badly edited offering is like taking sleeping pills and then going to the opera. There are no revealed secrets, no juicy insider revelations, very little sexual titillation, and absolutely no self examination.
   
   If anything this book is full of self delusion. I found it interesting that throughout the book the author refers to others, in passing, as "Hos" ,and decries "Whorish" behavior. Yet he seems not to appreciate that the "escorting" he depended on so much is simply a nice term for prostitution. He never looks in the mirror to see the true whore reflected back at him. He is totally blind to the obvious anger deep within him that propells him to agressive and sometimes violent sex play. He simply explains this as his trademark "style". He makes all types of strange choices even before he becomes a pornstar; his explantion for all this is silly. The most glaring lapse is his failure to see that the same exhibitionism that led him to stand up as a southern preacher, may have lead him to the hyper-exhibitionism of the porn business.
   
   There are a few things in the book to commend the author; most noticeably his committment to fighting AIDS in the Black community, and his warning to young black gay men to be cautious before rushing into the porn business. While this book did not make for a good bedtime read; I would not, if I had a chance, kick Bobby Blake out of bed.
   
   This book was obviously written to make a quick buck. In this I wish the author well. I wish him well in the new career path he is now following. One day he may actually be able to write a truthful honest memoir. That day is not now.



3. Bobby Blake (Edgar Gaines) is a very interesting person. Of course,
   he looks good! However, this book allows the reader to get to know
   Edgar Gaines, the person.
   I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Edgar very briefly
   about ten years ago. I hope I will have the chance to talk with him
   in person again someday!
   Anyone who has enjoyed watching Bobby Blake movies should also enjoy
   this great book!



4. I absolutely adore Bobby Blake's "work," and as a young gay brotha I truly thought that reading about his story would be interesting, thought provoking and well informative. I was immediately taken back by the poor sentence structure of the novel. It is very hard and somewhat insulting to read a book that reads at such a remedial level. While I was not expecting a scholar's voice to come through, I thought that book would atleast read as if someone who completed high school constructed the biographical sketch.
   
   I found some of the events in the book to be unrealistic and sensationalized. I finished the book in one day, hoping that as I continued my reading that it would get better. Extremely dissapointed and do not recommend you to waste your money...even if it is ONLY $10 at the present.



5. Bobby Blake is a very interesting person, and that is revealed in his memoir. Although the memoir is written with British writer John R. Gordon, the voice of Blake is clearly in this work. Despite the stereotyping of porn stars, Blake is very intelligent, insightful and political. After hearing him in interviews, it is obvious that the man is quite articulate. This work is a candid look at his private life as well as his career in porn, and he makes it clear that working in porn was a career, and not the beginning and end of his personality. Blake allows the reader to see the person, or alter ego, of the porn persona, and one will find that interesting, controversial and enlightening. Blake provides a very insightful look at the porn industry, and this is very welcomed from a black person's point-of-view. Much of the literature about pornography is about white porn stars, written from a white point-of-view, which rarely handles any discussion of race. In addition, Blake explains his decisions made personally and professionally. I respect that he doesn't name individuals (unless they are already well known in the porn industry, for instance) because the work is about his life, not theirs. If there is a major message in this memoir, it is that by stereotyping people, and putting them in boxes, you don't realize the full spectrum of those various personalities. He is still a young man, and one might wonder if he decided to write this work too soon. Even so, the work is well timed, and include a wealth of information.