5 comments about The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy 1915-1963.

1. This is an excellent book with lots of interviews with Les Paul and others who were part of the development of the Les Paul guitar through the early years. The photography is excellent with photos of significant Les Paul guitars. It is a beautiful book with lots of inside scoop for the Les Paul aficionado.



2. I really wish it were possible to review products at Amazon without assigning a rating, because pinning a number of stars on The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy: 1915-1963 is no easy task.
   
   It must be said right off the bat that the book is a veritable treasure trove for fans of Les Paul and the famous solidbody guitar that bears his name. The images alone are worth the price of admission, and the author brings a unique perspective to the book that's deeply appreciated. The book is extremely well-written; there's no denying it.
   
   Unfortunately, though, it's extremely poorly edited. I searched for an editor to blame -- it's hard to fault Robb Lawrence, because even the best of writers need an editor -- but I could find no such credit. As a result, newer fans will often find themselves lost in the course of reading the text. Sometimes lesser-known information is presented matter-of-factly on one page, only to be explained sufficiently four pages (or two chapters) later, as if it were being introduced for the first time. It's as if Lawrence wrote the book in chronological order, then someone else cut-and-pasted paragraphs into chapters by subject, without ever going back to tidy up the text.
   
   Honestly, though, that's the only blemish on an otherwise brilliant and one-of-a-kind book. None of the other texts on Les or the Les Paul model guitar come close. The layouts are unparalleled, the images are simply breathtaking, and the personal anecdotes are priceless.
   
   Seriously, though, Robb? If you're reading this, please find an editor before releasing the second volume! The quality of work you're putting into this project deserves that last 5% of polish.



3. Anything written on the grand master of the guitar is worth reading. This book has plenty of pictures and interesting history on Les. I'd recommend it if your a fan of Les Paul or of the guitar that bears his name.



4. A long awaited insightful look into the legend and his famous axe. I have several books on vintage guitars, as well as ones specifically on the Les Paul. This one is my favorite. I think this is a great book full of tons of facts and an enourmous amount of eye candy. This is the type of book I keep around close and look at again and again.
   A great job done, and I cannot wait for part two!!



5. This is the definitive must have book for any Les Paul fan. Thoughtfully written and well researched, this book has it all. Information about the man, the history and the guitars. Tons of photos, facts, trivia and details. Do not pass this one by! Great job Robb!!!

5 comments about Just a Geek.

1. I've never really thought too much about Wesley Crusher to tell the truth. Yes, enjoyed the heck out of Star Trek TNG (if you watch my home movies of when my son was small in the '90s always in the background is either STTNG or NASCAR, depending if my husband was home or not), but I was never a Trekkie inspired to dress up and go to conventions or pay more than passing interest in the fact that this character moved on to other things. However, from reading this book I guess Wesley's desertion of the Enterprise was a much bigger event, world changing even, to those who loved and/or hated the character respectively and particularly to Wil Wheaton, who has been emotionally reeling from his decision for all these many years. I never knew!
   
   Although the title claims Unflinching honest tales of the search for life, love and fulfillment beyond the Starship Enterprise this is primarily a story of how Wil Wheaton has come to terms with the effect Star Trek has had on his life and really doesn't move very far past that. His blog, also featured here, is a large part of how Mr. Wheaton is accomplishing this. But, this is just fine with me because if it hadn't been for the Star Trek aspect I would have never picked this book up considering the thing I remember him for most other than the big 2 (STTNG and Stand by Me) is his appearance on The Weakest Link where he acted like the world's biggest a**hole. Frankly, in the part that touched upon his Weakest Link appearance I was shocked that he made no mention of this and I read through the rest of the book thinking, "if he doesn't realize how much of a jerk he was then, I can't really take this book at face value." Thankfully, in one of the Appendixes he addresses a question about the appearance, and said he was "acting" the part since the studio just wanted to make the host look good anyway *big sigh of relief* I was very happy about this considering how much I enjoyed the book.
   
   I absolutely do not pity Mr. Wheaton for the decision he made that so irrevocably changed his life, he manages to do this quite well all on his own without my assistance. He does do a lot of bellyaching about being haunted by the ghosts of his consciousness, "Prove to Everyone That Quitting Star Trek Wasn't A Mistake" and "Self Doubt". Actually, considering the amount of complaining, you would think this memoir would be a miserable read. It Is Not. No, I didn't find it exceedingly hilarious (except for the part about Jonathan Frakes running into the door during a scene), but it was interesting. Mr. Wheaton managed to keep me hooked, the writing was smooth and entertaining and I loved his honest declarations of his feelings towards his fellow actors and the acting industry. In fact, I can totally empathize with a lot of what he's feeling. The pettyish overreactions to slights (real or imagined, will we ever know?) by ST producer Rick Berman rather mirror my own reactions in comparable situations and the resentfulness towards those who criticize you or worse, ignore you. I could totally feel for him.
   
   Overall I thought this book was really "cool" :-) I read every last word right through the appendixes and into the acknowledgements, which I would usually never do with a biography. Although I probably won't be an avid daily reader of his blog as I found the other parts of this book more interesting than those entries, I wouldn't completely discount the possibility of a little look-see. I am now curious to see how things are going with this conflicted man, he is an interesting character in and of himself, even without a script.



2. Wheaton has an interesting perspective on things due to his experiences as an actor, writer, voice actor, parent, spouse, and unabashed Geek. He uses his entertaining story-telling skills to share his observations and lessons learned.
   
   As a regular reader of WWdN:In Exile, Wheaton's writer's "voice" has a conversational tone that I really enjoy. I am submitting this review primarily to reply to what several other reviewers have said about his conversations with his brain/himself. Others have said they find these annoying, but they're a part of Wheaton's delivery that I really enjoy. If you aren't sure if you'll enjoy his writing style, pop over to his blog and read a bit.



3. Wil is a great writer, learning to write about what he knows. This book provides a fascinating insight in the behind-the-scenes of Wil's life and of Star Trek TNG.



4. Like Mr. Wheaton's other book, I was very pleased with this one as well. I could relate to the "geekness", being a recovering geek myself.
   Wonderful book.



5. I bought this book because I started reading Wil Wheaton's blog and some of the articles he's been writing for various internet sites and found them to be very funny. So, I thought I was going to get a funny, behind-the-scenes look at Star Trek:TNG. I didn't get that. What I got was excerps from his blog over the past 5 years or so. And it really wasn't all that funny. I actually cried (yes, cried) a lot more than I laughed. But you know what? I wasn't disappointed. It turns out to be a peek inside WW's head and his journey from seeing himself as a washed up actor to being happy being a writer, family man, and "Just a Geek." It's really a much more human story that the average person can relate to (I know I did!) instead of being a gossip-fest.
   
   Wheaton writes in an easy, conversational style sprinkled with interesting, occasionally brilliant descriptive turns of phrase. Is he the next F. Scott Fitzgerald? Probably not. But it is an easy, enjoyable read about a guy coming to grips with his life taking a big left turn that he didn't intend to take. Even if you don't know Wil Wheaton from Adam and have never seen a Star Trek episode in your life, you will enjoy this book, because it's not about being a Trekker. It's about being a human.

5 comments about Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam.

1. it took a while to get here, but it was in good condition when it did.



2. Zainab Salbi's life seems idyllic, but even as a child she senses the tension felt by her wealthy parents as they entertain and are entertained by Saddam. Salbi's story shows two sides of Saddam: the cruel and abusive despot and the genial manipulator. In spite of the web Saddam spins around her family, Salbi experiences adolescent rebellion, ignorant of the danger her parents see threatening her, just as it threatened her mother and eventually ruins her parents' marriage. Salbi's story is a fascinating portrayal of a family living in luxury under tyranny and the dangers faced whether the choice is to endure or to escape.



3. There was not one moment during this book that I wasn't totally captivated. The author puts a human face on the struggle of those in Iraq who lived under Saddam Hussein. And throughout, you are constantly reminded that she was among the "fortunate" by comparison. I found it to be an excellent education in the history of the country and the evolution of it in recent decades as well. I read this book on a recent camping trip in New England when I should have been mesmerized by my surroundings. Instead, I found I could not put this book down.



4. Wow! This book knocked me out. I could NOT put it down. It really helped me understand some of the conflict within Iraq, but more importantly, the author and tone of this book is just very human, real, and accessible. As a youngster, and for all of her formative years, Saddam Hussein is in the background as a family "friend". Though her parents resisted his friendship, they found it more and more dangerous not to be his friend. It's like living with the devil! However, the author eventually gets out of Iraq and away from Saddam Hussien, due to an arranged marriage. I won't say how that goes as I don't want to ruin the ending.
   
   I do feel that this is one of the absolute BEST memoires I ever read and it was written with a lof of grace and humility. For me, it was an important book, and I highly recommend you read it. I think it will become a classic memoire.



5. Short and sweet.. This is an awesome book. You see so many sides of Suddam. His dark side certainly made him a candidate for his execution!

5 comments about The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science--A Memoir.

1. I'm perhaps being a little more generous than some of the two-star reviewers. I did find information about her timeline and some other things interesting, but, contra her own accounts, I don't think her obsessive journaling necessarily has anything to do with her hypermemory. Certainly, it's not a direct part of her hypermemory, or the more technical, hyperthymesia.
   
   Now, might it be part of an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder? Certainly. There's other facets of her life, that if you connect the dots, could one wonder, at least, whether Price doesn't have OCD and/or other mental health issues.
   
   But, she and coauthor Bart Davis don't talk about that.
   
   Nor do they talk about the report of the UCI medical and neurological professionals. After all, Price herself wonders if her hypermemory isn't connected to how she has dealt with her childhood.
   
   Nor does she mention that she has taken Prozac and Zoloft as high as 200mg/day, and that she reported having numerous phobias, including phobias about medical professionals, to McGaugh et al. Or having hit her head at age 8.
   
   Given the studies ongoing of links between PTSD and memory, and the fact that the Neurocase study is readily available on the Internet, it's chintzy at the least to not have discussed these issues in the book.
   
   Available here in full: http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:n_iEEyk5ROcJ:today.uci.edu/pdf/AJ_2006.pdf+%22A+Case+of+Unusual+Autobiographical+Remembering%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
   
   The full study also mentions some other mental functioning diagnoses; some linguistic problems, including word list problems (hence her memory problems) is one; perseveration is another, and it's linked to brain trauma. Interestingly, Price doesn't mention having had a head injury at age 8, as documented in the professional study, and which is about the time her memory started ramping up.
   
   It's time to quote from that report:
   
   "AJ may have a variant of a neurodevelopmental, fronto-
   striatal disorder putting her at risk for her hyperthymestic syn-
   drome. Deficits in executive functioning and anomalous lateral-
   ization are both found in neurodevelopmental frontostriatal
   disorders which include autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder
   (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette's syn-
   drome and schizophrenia."
   
   I write none of this to put her down or beat her up, but, as I suspected at the start of this review (written before I Googled the Neurocase report), there's more behind the scenes than just a world-record autobiographical memory.
   
   Finally, re her memory itself, and without diminishing her incredible autobiographical memory, it should be noted that she is, in some types of specific episodic memory, nothing better than normal.
   
   In short, we didn't get anywhere near the full Jill Price in this book. And, nobody forced her to write anything at all in the first place so, sorry, it doesn't deserve more than two stars.



2. Ditto to others who complained about the writing. It might have been a far better book had it been written and edited more skillfully. Repetition, poor sentence structure and inconsistent organization made it hard to wade through. As it reads now, it's pretty boring and I didn't even find myself liking her very much.



3. The Woman Who Can't Forget introduces Jill Price, the first person diagnosed with the condition "hyperthymestic Syndrome" the continuous, automatic, autobiographical recall of every day of her life since the age of fourteen. Once you get over the parlor trick aspect of this condition ..."what happened Monday, September 25, 1978....the crash of PSA flight over San Diego" and on and on and on. What fascinated me were her feelings of being held hostage by memories that were as fresh on recall as the day they occurred. When a memory arises, she feels the emotions of the event with the same vividness as the day they occurred. Memories from a child's perspective are remembered as such, not tempered through the lens of adult understanding. It wasn't until she contacted Dr. James McGaugh of the University of California at Irvine, a renowned memory specialist, did she find someone who understood and could explain the condition. She tries to explain to the outside world what she struggles with every day. Her goal is to become the caretaker of her memories, not their hostage. Written with insight and humor Jill recounts a life where she felt imprisoned by her memory, her struggles to understand and cope and the change love brought into her life.



4. While the author's autobiographical memory is nothing short of remarkable, she comes across as an easily controlled, whiny woman. The book is also filled with grammatical errors which slow down the story, and the portion about her husband makes this reader wonder why she thought such a self-centered man could be considered a catch. He didn't even think enough of her or her family to take his diabetes meds and stick around to enjoy old age.
   
   Of course, what's engrossing about his story is the author's ability to recall even the must mundane of facts, and is worth reading because of that.



5. Having listened to all of the unabridged audio version of this book, I second both of the earlier 2-star reviews.

5 comments about Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood.

1. I love memoirs, and so many are about child abuse, sexual abuse, or the like, and this one has all that and more. With parents who were both severely mentally ill, being forced to manipulate doctors with her mother in order to get attention and treatment. This book has another aspect in every memoir like this, that people never really change. In fact, they stay the same, which is both comical but sad. This is better than the Glass Castle memoir.



2. Like several other reviewers, I could not put this book down. I was horrified, but kept reading because I wanted to see her prevail. The ending wasn't quite as satisfying as I had hoped; it left me with many unanswered questions.
   
   The tale of twisted abuse is quite disturbing. In addition to the medical abuse, Julie, her brother, and the foster children were physically, verbally, and psychologically abused. Julie's mother also neglected to care for veterans she housed (to get the money).
   
   Julie's mother and father were also abused in childhood. Hopefully Julie will end this cycle.



3. i have heard many sad stories of munchausen syndrome by proxy. when i picked up this book i read and read thinking the situations would be getting worse soon... but then it was done. not that i want someone to endure the abuse of this disorder, i was just hoping it would be more graphic, more touching. to make me want to reach out and hold the poor child. it was an ok read, i was just expecting more.i gave it to my aunt to read who has similar interests as myself, and she thought it was just 'ok' too.



4. This was a very interesting book. I wish the author had included a little more detail of how she pulled herself together, how she discovered fruit and vegtables (vice fixing chocolate cake batter for breakfast) I would also have appreciated knowing how she persuaded the child protective services in Montanna of the truth of her mother's 2nd round of "Munchausen by Proxy" with her 2nd family and foster children.



5. This is the most powerful and shameful example of parent abuse I have ever witnessed. Apparently Julie is unable to tell the difference between real life and her drug/alcohol induced hallucinations. I read this book and I was totally 'sickened' by the ridiculous lies that were written about her mother, Sandy. Absolutely nothing is true in this book, not even her father's occupation. What a horrendous shame. I know this family extremely well, since early childhood, and I can tell you this book is all lies, written only for sensationalism and profit. Julie was a troubled child who has grown into an even more troubled adult that does not know the difference between good and evil. Even her credentials are fictitious. She has no degree and has not graduated from any college. As a child, she was given everything she ever wanted by a mother who wanted her to have the things she was deprived of as a child. The damage Julie has caused her family is unfathomable, personally, emotionally and monetarily. The entire family have been shunned by the community because of the vicious lies, including the innocent "adopted" children. There was an intense investigation done on this family as a direct result of this book. All charges were unfounded...period! Physiological evaluations were performed on all involved. The children were credited with making tremendous strides under the love and care of Sandy and they love their adoptive mother. Sandy herself has been absolved of any and all possibilities of being Munchausen by Proxy. Sandy, nor the family was ever interviewed by Marc D. Feldman, MD. Therefore, he cannot be considered a valid co-author of this book as he has no basis for his opinions. There was no verification of fact done by Random House before this book was published, unfortunately. Had any been done, this book would not exist other than in the imagination of a very sick person.

5 comments about Big Horses Good Dogs And Straight Fences: Musings of Everyday Ranch Life.

1. Good book very well written. I would have liked some stories about the "old man" if you are familiar with Mark's other work you know what I mean. But still lot's of fun and great stories !!!



2. This book is true to Mark Rashid's simple and entertaining writing style with some nice stories. It is a very quick read. Not fine literature, but a nice way to spend a lazy afternoon. It is not a training manual, just some nice stories about Mark's life with animals.



3. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. My only complaint is that is was too short. I finished it in 1 setting and could not put it down. I am on Amazon now searching for his other books and will add to my collection very soon. Highly recommended!



4. This was a fun book to read. Being 'part' of Mark's life through his stories is such an adventure as well as offering wonderful teaching points. His tales of the draft horses has given me a new fondness for these hard-working giants. I'd recommend this book to not only horse lovers but also those who love to 'listen' to a good story. Mark's style of writing puts the reader right there with him in the thick of things.



5. A typically written Mark Rashid book. Very witty and leaves the reader with a little more insite than he started with. Recommend for most ages.

4 comments about The Wow Factor: How I Turned One Idea and My Unbridled Enthusiasm Into a Golf Revolution.

1. Barney Adams' determination and personal sacrifice is clearly articulated in the book. Following a complete accounting of how Adams Golf finds itself and reaches stability the book fails to take the next step in the life-cycle approach to strategic management with a discussion of how Adams has and will continue to re-event itself to prevent decline and future failure. Part Two "Inside the Golf Equipment Industry" was not very "inside".



2. As one reviewer already noted, the message regarding the WOW factor is simple, but too often overlooked. Anyone in sales or product development should ask themselves what their WOW factor is. Answer that question and you'll increase your market share, as Adams did.
   
   Beyond the business case, the book was a fun and interesting read. I'm a little biased, as I was an early adopter of the Tight Lies club, so I immediately knew what Adams was referring to when I saw the title of the book.



3. Always nice to read about the golfindustry. Not just instruction or history is interesting so a nice read for all those who are interested in stuff like this.



4. "The WOW Factor" is a well-designed business book that tells the story of how Barney Adams, the creator of the Tight Lies fairway wood and the founder of Adams Golf, turned a career of missteps and disappointment into a stunning success.
   
   I call it "well-designed" because it's not too long, not too serious, not too heavy and remarkably, if discreetly, candid.
   
   Adams ties his experiences, starting with his unremarkable years as a manager for Corning and ending with the realization that his executive leadership was not what his own company needed to be able to prosper, together with his WOW factor theory. Simply stated, he says hard work and a good product is not enough to crack into an established industry. The essential ingredients, he maintains, are the ability for your product to cause consumers to say, "WOW!" and the marketing technique to get that product into consumers' hands.
   
   While this may not be earth-shaking, he does offer it as caution to all those would-be entrepreneurs who believe they can make it in the fickle, trendy but inbred golf business.
   
   It's refreshing to hear a successful executive recount how he helped run a small company into the ground by taking too high-altitude a view of its operations. And it's intriguing to read how he desperately searched for a way to get golfers to try his innovative Tight Lies fairway woods.
   
   For business purposes, what the book lacks is analytical detail. Adams can tell you what, in hindsight, he did wrong and what turned out to be right. He really can't tell you why, except as a matter of empirical result.
   
   For insight purposes, Adams reveals little about his personal life, except for his obvious passion for his work. While the development of his golf businesses apparently cost him a great deal in his personal and family relationships, he touches on that issue only a bit.
   
   Still, it's a remarkably pleasant, quick read. Adams may be a seat-of-the-pants contrast to the standard modern MBA, but he seems right on target in the fashioning the kind of book that golf fanatics would enjoy.

5 comments about Memories Are Made of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes.

1. WHAT A PLEASURE NOT TO SEE HIS DAUGHTER BAD MOUTHING HIM.
   SHE TELLS IT HOW IT WAS.
   FAST GREAT READING



2. Memories Are Made of This, well she's not a pullitzer prize author but it was good reading for the summer, or I guess anytime, nostalgic and fun to read if you remember the rat pack era...



3. I read this book as well as That's Amore by Ricci Martin. I have written a review of both books. For me, it was often like I was reading two very different perspectives on Dean, one that was bittersweet and full of yearning for a father's love (Deana) and one that was more adoring, although still open about some of Dean's flaws and secrets (Ricci).
   
   Of course, Deana was the daughter of Dean's first wife, a woman he left to marry Jeanne. People judged him harshly for that but even Deana notes the various emotional and other challenges faced by her mother -even before Jeanne entered the picture.
   
   Deana was then put in the very difficult position of having to deal with her biological mother as well as try to find a place in the home of Jeanne and Dean Martin. I don't want to include too many spoilers here but I do want to add that I think she expresses the pain, confusion and anguish of a lifetime of challenges - as well as GREAT JOY AND PRIDE in being Dean Martin's daughter. This book is remarkably open and honest. It was a revelation to read.
   
   Also, the foreword to this book is written by Jerry Lewis, a fact that is significant. I was a bit surprised by this because Deana is not always glowing when she writes of Jerry. However, Jerry is definitely very proud of her and this book (or appears to be, in his intro).
   
   I would recommend that people read That's Amore because both books share similarities but also some significant differences about key parts of Dean's life. Two children, each going through watershed moments (the Martin divorce from Jeanne) and seeing some of them very differently. Each gives a slightly altered perspective on Dean and I do feel that Deana felt more outside the family than Ricci for a good part of her life.
   
   Anyway, read the book and see what you think. In case you think I sound too negative, I'd like to end this by noting that I felt in awe of Deana's resilience and honesty as she wrote her memoirs of her father. I didn't expect the book to be so revealing so it was quite riveting to read it.



4. This is an excellent book revealing to the people who love Dean Martin the husband and father who happened to be a great performer and entertainer through the eyes of one of his children. Well done.



5. This was a gift for my husband. He loves the book and has read me some of the passages. He also loves the pictures.

5 comments about All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C..

1. Back in the early 1990s, a handsome, young, and affable African American graduate student and teacher found himself nervously attending his first gay strip club to see a live performance by his favorite porn star. Here, customers were allowed to freely fondle the naked dancers. Openly gay but a gay-sex virgin, nervous and slightly apprehensive, Craig Seymour gets his good friend Seth to accompany him.
   
   Excitement soon replaces apprehension and Seymour finds himself falling in love with the clubs as well as his good friend Seth, to whom he ultimately surrenders his virginity. They become live-in lovers.
   
   But as the strip clubs are becoming an ever growing obsession, our hero is able to appease both his lover and his jones by making strip clubs the topic of his master's thesis, with the cautious approval of his school advisor.
   
   Now a club regular, Seymour interviews and gets to know a cast of characters as colorful and crudely affectionate as anything in a Bob Fosse musical.
   
   His first interview subject is dancer Jake the Guess Model, a straight `gay-for-pay' former construction worker who tells his customers he is bi `because [they] like to think there's a chance.'
   
   And then there is Dave, a customer just out of a twenty-one-year monogamous heterosexual marriage and now having the time of his life hanging at the clubs and fondling beautiful young male dancers dangling their eye-level rock hard jewels for his perusal approval.
   
   Dave's favorite dancer is Matt who sports leather chaps publicizing everything usually known as `privates.'
   
   Sassy drag queens, dirty old men, sugar daddies, and dis-effected club owners abound throughout this breezy, affectionate tome.
   
   Author Seymour also learns of and writes about D.C.'s rich gay history, dating back to the 1800s. Then, knowledge of fifty-year-old poet Walt Whitman's love affair with Irish immigrant Peter Doyle, thirty years his junior, was as casual as the then published stories of sexual liaisons between black and white men in Lafayette Square "under the shadows of the White House."
   
   The story of how the gay strip club scene began in the 1960s, where dancers could legally bare all, is beautifully told. The owner of a local bar on O Street, Chesapeake House, offers a pair of sailors $50 each to strip down and dance for his patrons. Soon the club is drawing huge crowds that include the likes of Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and Rock Hudson. Other clubs (as well as bath houses) soon open and prosper on O Street, the city's gay red light district.
   
   Although Mr. Seymour's depth and fascinating chronicle of how this charmingly tawdry industry evolves is both interesting and informative, it is his personal transition from thesis writer to booty dancer that makes his memoir a thoroughly entertaining read.
   
   Likable and self-effacing, the author writes thoughtfully, ironically, and humorously about his second job:
   
   "...get on stage, disrobe quickly, try to get a hard-on, and then walk out among the customers, who for a tip--generally a buck--got to stroke, fondle, poke, and prod [your] bod. It was more like sex than dancing, and it had become my job."
   
   He also writes with great care and much soul-searching about maintaining his monogamous relationship with Seth while almost every night allowing strangers and regulars to feel him up.
   
   Seymour's partner is more trusting than most, and it is admirable that the author repays that trust with honesty and a form of fidelity.
   
   However, after six years of being with the only man he's known sexually, the author approaches his partner with a proposition that dooms the romance, if not the friendship.
   
   With the cocaine bust of Mayor Marion Barry, a champion of D.C.'s liberal sexual exhibition laws, restrictions are shortly thereafter imposed on the strip clubs. Customers are no longer allowed to fondle dancers, and dancers aren't allowed to fondle themselves. This, of course, cuts into everyone's income, and author Seymour, now single and sparked on by the success of his thesis, embarks upon a career as an entertainment journalist, which eventually takes him to New York. Thanks to his unique literary gift and ability to ask his celebrity interviewee's frank and probing questions, he quickly ascends the ranks.
   
   His ability to get such stars as Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, and Mariah Carey to open up and discuss such things as masturbation, size-queendom, secret babies, cheating boyfriends, and mental depression are shocking, revealing, and often quite poignant. His discussion with TLC's Lisa Lopez regarding her romance with Tupac, his death, her premonition of her own death, is particularly moving. Craig Seymour's keen observations of human behavior, particular with regards to his celebrity subjects, are empathetic and caring, always intelligent, never fawning.
   
   Eventually, Mr. Seymour's busy schedule--writing for The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Vibe, the Buffalo News, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, to name a few--become all-consuming, making it nearly impossible for him to have a personal life.
   
   He re-thinks academia, and eventually returns to the University of Maryland to finish his Ph.D. While working as a professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, he hears that the old strip clubs on O Street will be torn down. He returns for a bittersweet farewell that brings him full circle. The year is 2006.
   
   Craig Seymour's warm, witty, and honestly rendered self-examination of his seemingly unlikely but totally plausible life as grad student turned gay stripper, turned journalist, turned college professor, is quite the odyssey, and quite a lesson for us all. There is so much life out there for all of us to enjoy. This story reminds me of the famous quote from Auntie Mame: "Life's a banquet but most poor sons-of-bitches starve to death!"
   
   Author Craig Seymour definitely heard the dinner bell.Looker: A Novel



2. This was a very well written and entertaining book. This was the type of book I couldn't put down once I started to read it.
   
   I feel that Craig is very brave writing this book seeing he teaches at the college level. I get so tired of people writing stories after they retire and have nothing to lose. It is great to see him write this type of autobiography.
   
   I also learned several things I didn't know before so this book was also educational in a way. I never knew about the strip clubs being cracked down on the patrons touching the dancers at the end. I am ashamed to admit this, but I had no idea about Frank Kameny until I read the book and also learned a couple other things about gay history when he mentioned his research.
   
   This is a very good book to read and you might even learn a few more things about gay history like I did:)



3. I just finished reading "All I Could Bare," and what a great read it was: poignant, smart and informative all at the same time. It's a genuine contribution to cultural studies about the sex industry but also a very moving portrait of what it's like to be in a relationship as a gay man. It' a rich book on so many levels and the run ins with Mariah and Janet don't hurt! You'll love this book.



4. This book was an instant favorite with me and several friends - its quick, witty prose and dialog was engaging and unique. Craig Seymour works in personal observation, history and commentary to make the memoir more entertaining than any other I've read in recent memory.



5. This was a excellant read. Now, that I've got that out. Let me quickly backtrack. I had the pleasure to sit on a PCA/ACA [popular culture association] panel with the author [Craig] at the annual conference hosted in San Francisco this past spring. Out of all four of us on the panel, his topic, at the time this soon to be released memior, captured everyone's attention in the small but packed room. And, let me just say, Craig is just as engaging in person, as well as his memior reads. If you looking for a memior thats, fun, light-hearted, insightful and filled with witty humor, then look no further. Craig bares it all and then some. Craig, and I only use his first name because I actually met him, introduces you the to the other side of stripping, the one that as a gay man myself, I [we] often forget exist. He puts a real human face to the eye candy filled world of stripping. In baring it all, Craig carefully crafts a memior that is deeply personal,and still scholary in nature. He meticulously devlops everything from his club days in New York, to his stripping in D.C, to his interviews with pop music royalty--working for Vibe Magazine. Lastly, all his experiences nicely merge and congeal to give his journey the most interesting flares. This is a must read for anyone interested in queer studies and enthongraphic research.

5 comments about Loving and Leaving the Good Life.

1. For the reader who is interested in principled people who made a series of transitions out of choice and necessity. The Nearing's rugged individualist days of trial, triumph and living in ways they wouldn't trade for other compromises are defining and provide an excellent source of perspective on values and points of conclusion.



2. Scott and Helen Nearing spent half a century building stone houses, growing their food, and making a living on primitive homesteads in Vermont and Maine. Scott died at age 100 in the 1980s. Helen lasted another 10 years or so and this is her account of her life before Scott and their life together.
   
   Helen was born into a well-to-do family but had a rebellious streak that led her into music, astrology, the occult, and philosophy. In the 1920s she was the lover -- at least on the mental plane -- of an Indian philospher named Krisnamurti who was apparently famous in his day. Helen assumes that the reader knows who this "world teacher" was. I confess I never heard of him --and more explanation as to who he was and what he taught would have been helpful. Later Helen took up with Scott and they moved to the country and spent the rest of their lives as homesteaders.
   
   Scott was a cantankerous communist and I didn't grow any fonder of him by reading Helen's account. He was rigid and narrow-minded. Helen quotes some of his letters. He wrote her in a tone that would inspire my wife to respond, "Buzz off, you old goat." Although she wouldn't say "buzz." Scott's wrote savage letters to his son by a previous wife. Small wonder the boy dropped the last name of Nearing. In Scott's eyes, his son committed the unpardonable sin of criticizing the Soviet Union -- and Scott refused even to go to his funeral. One wonders whether Helen might be getting a bit of posthumous revenge on the old radical by publishing letters he wrote that show him as less than benign.
   
   However, the bulk of the book is a a highly favorable account of Scott and Helen and their life together. They were the gurus of the back to the land movement in the 1960s and the 1970s and their books about their life in the country are minor classics. Read "Living the Good Life" first and if you are interested in learning more about the Nearings read this book. Whatever you may think of them the Nearings were an interesting couple. Their homestead can be visited near Castine, ME.
   
   Smallchief



3. When your 100-year old husband of 55 years has passed on and you, at 88, can see your own end, and when you have spent most of those years seeking and living the good life, and when you take the time and trouble to record your thoughts for posterity, it is surely worthwhile for us, the readers, to take note and reflect on what might be of value in our own goal of living the good life. This is not a biography of the husband, Scott, nor an autobiography of Helen but it is offered as a tribute to Scott's being as Helen knew it. She wants Scott to be remembered as an unassuming, kindly, wise, husband as well as a principled, uncompromising, intellectual radical; she also wants to share with us his peaceful, intentioned, and premeditated ending.

   Born in the upper echelons of society, he worked alongside immigrant laborers in the Pennsylvania mine run by his grandfather. This was a formative experience that resulted in his speaking publicly in his early twenties on liberal reform. '''Even before I began the study of economics,' he said in an early lecture, 'I was impressed by the monstrous inequality which exists between the rich and the poor in modern society. The rich enjoy wealth, leisure, and boundless opportunity. The poor are overwhelmed by misery, overwork, and insanitation. The rich have a heaven of opportunity; the poor a hell of misery, and the heaven of the rich is founded upon the hell of the poor. If I was impressed by these conditions before I had studied them, I was appalled after having given them careful consideration. I had heard of poverty; I believed that misery and vice existed, but I was not aware that they were prevalent in every town and city of the land. Ability and capacity were suppressed; together with the progress which might well be attained, were opportunity more universal ... The poor are ignorant of the fact that by standing together at the ballot box, they might revolutionize conditions in a decade.'"

   Very soon he had offended the powers that be with his outspoken views and he would never teach again in the United States. From that point Scott's life can be summed up in these sentences: "The living of an ideal involves payment of a certain price ... the further the ideal is removed from the common practice, the higher the price that must be paid for it ... If your ideal is to live a mentally active, mentally honest life, to seek the truth, then you may have to sacrifice even food, clothing, and shelter to get it." and "The majority will always be for caution, hesitation, and the status quo - always against creation and innovation. The innovator - he who leaves the beaten track - must therefore always be a minoritarian - always be an object of opposition, scorn, hatred. It is part of the price he must pay for the ecstasy that accompanies creative thinking and acting." Scott was aware of the price he would have to pay for his convictions; he regretted enormously the loss of the day-to-day contact with his university students who lost an outstanding educator; but he never regretted standing alone. One of his file cards clearly defined the problem: "If a man is one step ahead of the crowd he is a leader; if two steps ahead, he is a disturber; if three steps, he is a fanatic and not to be trusted." Scott was too many steps ahead of those in authority and he was a danger who had to be removed. At the age of 34 his chosen career was in ruins; his books that had been standard textbooks in public schools were banned and royalty income ceased. He was at the low point of his life and that was when he met Helen.

   Helen, born in 1904 into a family of high principles and adequate means was the unconventional child, always reading and addicted to the twelve volumes of the Book of Knowledge at a young age. She had a talent for the violin, preferred the company of trees and rocks, drew and wrote poetry. She did not accept unquestioningly the world in which she lived. As a teenager she felt there was a power and a purpose in the universe and queried what we are here for and what life is all about. At seventeen, she sailed to Rotterdam to study the violin, met up with the Theosophists and the young Krishnamurti who she followed for several years on his mission to be a world teacher. But she saw the vast abyss between the ultra rich and the homeless in Bombay and Calcutta while Krishnamurti surrounded himself with the well to do, the famous and the influential. It was time for her to strike out on her own path. She returned to Ridgewood and there received a phone call from Scott.

   The formative years for both of them were over; they were ready for each other; they were ready to build a life together; they were ready to create their version of the good life. We have much to learn from this couple because their life together was built on high principles. We are indeed fortunate that Helen left us this book.




4. Having encountered the Nearings in Mother Earth News in the 70's I quickly became an avid admirer as well as a sincere follower of their wisdom. Thus I was overjoyed to buy Helens book because it allowed me to see a side of both Scott and Helen I never knew that well. The man whom I had admired as a wise soul but a tad put off by people, comes across as such a loving and yes "romantic" soul which made me like him even more. And Helen sharing how she was raised and the experiences she had and how she was encouraged by Scott to spread her wings and not allow him to fence her in, is a must read for any woman who questions where she belongs in the whole life circle.

   We must own a good five hundred books that we love, but this book is amongst a handful that get read and re-read over and over, with something new being learned each time. I also think the book like all their books is a must read, because it reminds us how fascists this country (united states) has been and can be and the price sincere patriots often pay. As well as the value of taking the path less traveled and not relinquishing ones personal integrity or perseverance. And that in the end the good guy can win.




5. In today's youth-obsessed contemporary culture, it is a rare treat to be able to find a book so full of loving wisdom written by someone so involved socially, politically, and spiritually in the events of the 20th century. Therefore, I was enthralled in reading Helen Nearing's moving, absorbing and often quite disarming recollections and reflections on her life, both as an individual and as the lifetime partner of one of the most celebrated critics, iconoclasts and individualists of our time, economist, philosopher and social critic Scott Nearing.

   The two lived lives singularly devoid of apologies, half-efforts, or excuses, living it largely on their own terms, based on their own labors and ingenuity. Early in the 1930s they struck out from New York City to escape the Depression and social convention by starting a revolutionary experiment in rural Vermont. In many respects the experiment succeeded, yet they were never able to transform it from a personal adventure to one more largely social and community-based in the Vermont setting. With the coming of ski resorts and encroaching exurbia in the early 1950s, the Nearings moved once again to rural Penobscot Bay in Maine to start again.

   Of course, in due time they were suddenly "discovered" by the baby boomers and the counterculture in the late 1960s, and became the elder statesmen of the `back-to-the-land' movement of the late sixties and early seventies. In all this, Scott and Helen continued in their commitment to a socially aware, civically responsible, and environmentally sustainable way of living. By the time Scott died at age 100 in the early 1980s, thousands of curious counterculture hopefuls made the pilgrimage to visit with the Nearings at their celebrated farm in rural coastal Maine.

   This is a lovely, thoughtful, and wise book, full of the almost endless love and care and compassion Helen Nearing brought to all of her endeavors for her many decades of purposeful and socially responsible living. This book is no small treasure; it looms large and lovely for those who are aware of the incredible journey the Nearings made as fellow citizens, and also of the loving and special relationship these two rugged individualists shared. I have read it several times, and love having it on my bookshelf. I suspect you will too.