5 comments about How to Be French.

1. There are so many reasons I didn't enjoy this book, all of which have been mentioned by other reviewers. I almost stopped reading after a particularly nasty scene in which Margaret's friend explains that her potential French lover has downs syndrome: "He's retarded ... he even put a picture of himself with the photos of my friends! ... He wants to be my friend!" To which the ever eloquent Ms. Ambrose replies: "Oh. My. God ... But what about all those dates? Who was he going out with, retarded girls?"
   
   This 'novel' reads like a note passed between bitchy teenage girls during class.



2. I agree with all the one-star reviews above: narcissistic, self-indulgent and plotless. For an alleged journalist her style is inelegant, and her grasp of grammar tenuous. And she thinks she's mastered French? Well, it's the subjunctive mood, dear, not the subjective tense.
   
   All-in-all, a very poor read which makes me, too, embarrassed to be Australian.



3. This book took me on a wonderful voyage to paris without leaving my home! All the sights and sounds of Paris are captured and written with some flair. This is not a totally beautiful portrait of france or the french and I can imagine some french having their national pride wounded, but it will ring true for anyone who has ever travelled and everyone who loves paris.



4. How to be French is a pathetic and thinly disguised autobiographical exercise in narcissism. Margaret, the book's heroine (and funnily enough, its author), seems to have one word in her vocabulary: 'glamorous'. The book is a collection of petty snipes at others (unfortunate enough to have been in the same French class as Margaret) attempting to learn French, while the author firmly plants herself on a pedestal above all the rest. Reading this book was a waste of about 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Save your money and instead try Sarah Turnbull's well-written and highly readable 'Almost French'. Margaret Ambrose has succeeding only in proving herself more vile than even the most 'French' Francais. Dans un mot: c'etait merdique.



5. Author Margaret Ambrose takes us on a tedious and self-indulgent journey as she describes in detail her double quest - to learn the French language and to "be French". Page after page we read of Margaret and her girlfriend as they attend language classes at the Alliance Francaise in Melbourne, Australia, sneering at their perceived less fortunate fellow students and attempting to ingratiate themselves with their teachers. Self-proclaimed French expert, Margaret, tells us of her visit to Champagne country and the delightful town of "Eperney" (sic.) and then a visit to "the shopping centre Galleries (sic.) Lafayette", one of the leading high-end department stores in Paris. My irritation increased as I persevered, reading the book from cover to cover. May I recommend instead the thoughtful, informative and enjoyable read, "True Pleasures - A Memoir of Women in Paris" by another Australian writer, Lucinda Holdforth. This is a gem. Charming, personal, honest, well-written and with no airs or pretence, it is an intelligent story of self-discovery, inspiration and connection with the great women and places of Paris.

1 comments about The Last Days of T.E. Lawrence: A Leaf in the Wind.

1. I have read several books about TEL, but none, outside of Jeremy Wilson's bio of Lawrence, present such a minutely detailed and meticulously researched collecton of information as is shared by the authors of this gem. Extensive description is given regarding the work he performed at his last RAF station at Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast, and about the route he apparently took bicycling south to Dorset after retiring. Somehow they even found and reproduced a supposed diagram of the damage exhibited on the wrecked cycle. Listed in it's pages, even, are details about the arrangement of rooms and furnishings in the Clouds Hill cottage, and a more extensive roster of the names of attendees at his funeral service at the Moreton church. It is a veritable mine of recollections about TEL which only those ever fascinated by this complex, gifted, and enigmatic hero can truly savor.

2 comments about The World's Richest Indian: The Scandal over Jackson Barnett's Oil Fortune.

1. This book was interesting but BORING!!! I do not like books that hash out court trials and in particular when it revolves around money. That was 85% of this book. How many times can you go over what was done with this money or those funds. Penny pinching in print. I'm not interested in financial reports. I was interested in the world's richest Indian. I got very little of him, but I suppose there wasn't much to say about him. They gave his wife a really bad time, but like witnesses for the defense said, she gave him a better life than he had when she found him and helped him use his money to live a life someone with that much money should. Who was hurt by it? Why did everyone care so much? They wanted their share which they didn't deserve. It was really something how people acted. No different than today, 2006! But when EVERY page had some dollar amount on it-how can you keep track of what's being discussed? How many times can they doubt or affirm the sanity of Jackson Barnett??? The poor old guy lived to 90, so I guess you could say that 'living well is the best revenge'.



2. With some writers, an abunce of detail is mind-numbing, as in the "begat" passages of the Old Testament. In contrast, Tanis Thorne uses a myriad of details as would a pointillistic painter to create a vivid and poignant biography of Afro-Muskogee Jackson Barnett, "The Richest Indian in the World".

   Barnett had belonged to the Muskogee faction opposed to individual land allotment, known as Snakes. On the Snakes' refusing to designate choice homesteads, allotments were issued in their names in the hardscrabble hills of Oklahoma. Barnett's 160-acre allotment ironically turned out to be centered over one of the world's great oil pools. Barnett was thereafter placed under state court conservatorship to limit the enormous flow of oil royalties to a meager living allowance.

   An attractive "adventuress" heard of Barnett's wealth, located his modest home and eloped with him the following day.

   A three-way battle erupted between the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Oklahoma state courts and Anna Barnett for control of the fortune. Anna Barnett succeeded in prying free enough income to finance a move to a fashionable suburb of Los Angeles, where Jackson Barnett passed many of his days directing traffic. He became a regular tourist attraction.

   Anna ultimately lost after Jackson Barnett's death. The marriage was judicially annulled and Anna was evicted from the home. She died in poverty years later.

   Dr. Thorne uses the biography to portray the inherent clash between Creek values of generosity and sharing and the dominant culture of selfishness. Using this theme, Dr. Thorne segues into a brief discussion of today's Cobell litigation challenging the entire federal trust accounting of American Indian funds.

   This book is a valuable contribution to American Indian history. Beyond that, the book sets a high standard for combining historic writing with lively and accessible prose.

No comments about Edgar Allan Poe - Poet of the Macabre (Biography).

No comments about Bad Hair Day: Celebrities as You've Never Seen Them Before.

No comments about Clark Gable - The King of Hollywood (Biography).

5 comments about A Reporters Life (Random House Large Print (Paper)).

1. Walter Cronkite who at one time was among the most famous and celebrated Americans tells his life- story . He does this with the dry and clean prose of the good reporter. He tells of his childhood and early years in Kansas City and in Houston, of his work with UP and later on with CBS, his adventures as a war- correspondent. He traces his career in television including the dramatic coverage of what would be the most politically well- covered in his judgment convention of all, that of 1952. He also writes about his wife Betsy their three - children and his family. He in the end provides an analysis of TV journalism and where it has gone wrong, been replaced by considerations of entertainment. This is a decent book by a very decent and modest man.
   In his final chapter he says that he asked himself whether he could say he had really made a difference. Surprisingly and modestly his answer was 'no'. But for many Americans for many years he was the embodiment of the honest and reliable journalist.



2. To live the life of Walter Cronkite is to live a thousand years. For nearly half a decade Walter Cronkite served as the voice of reason to millions of Americans who looked to his print, radio, and television reports for information and reassurance. This autobiography covers the life of Walter Cronkite from his early life as a lowly radio announcer to his ultimate stand at the pinnacle of journalism.
   
   As usual, Cronkite's wit is second-to-none and comes through clearly in his prose. Still, he never pulls punches and minces no words regarding the multitude of famous and powerful men and women he met along the way. His engrained honesty and objectivity is a refreshing look to when journalism was an honest art, plagued not by corporate sponsorship.
   
   Cronkite's work not only serves as an interesting look at "Cronkite, the man," but is a work of modern American history, written by the man who lived and reported it all. For a readable, enjoyable look at Cronkite's America, "A Reporter's Life" is one of the best.



3. In a fascinating and thought-provoking autobiography (1996), Walter Cronkite reflects on his career in journalism, from the earliest days in which he listened to radio on a crystal set, through his own participation in world events as a television journalist. Without the ego one usually associates with newscaster-celebrities, Cronkite gives the history of journalism--radio, newspapers, news syndicates, and television--by giving anecdotes from his own long career, always showing what he learned from his mistakes (which he is remarkably candid and often humorous in describing), and giving ample credit to the people who helped him. His thoughtful observations about the impact of television and its negative effects on voting participation, along with his predictions for the future of this country, offer a broader perspective and warning about our national vision.
   
   Cronkite's sense of excitement about journalism is obvious from the earliest days of his career, when he used brief, coded teletype messages to invent play-by-play accounts of football games for his radio audience. By career's end, he was participating in world events, his interview with Anwar Sadat and its follow-up bringing Sadat to Israel in a precedent-setting meeting with Menachim Begin and an eventual peace treaty. As he takes the reader step-by-step through this career, he describes his goals as a young man, his earliest jobs at local newspapers and radio stations, his work with United Press, his press responsibilities overseas during World War II, his work in Russia, and his early foray into television, when other serious journalists were avoiding this medium.
   
   The landmark TV coverage of the 1952 political conventions opened the eyes of the country to how the political system worked in reality. The Nixon and Kennedy interviews in 1960 (and Theodore White's book, The Making of the President), show the power of television to affect outcomes. He gives candid, personal insights into various Presidents, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt through George Bush Senior, including fascinating insights into Eisenhower (far more aware of issues than often thought), JFK (with whom he had mixed experiences), and Jimmy Carter (in his view, the most intelligent President).
   
   It is Cronkite's candor and his ability to see himself as a facilitator of communication, rather than as an ego-driven reporter looking for the landmark "scoop," that makes this autobiography so compelling. When, in his conclusion, he modestly offers his own observations about the end of the twentieth century, based on his experience, the reader pays attention. Mincing no words, Cronkite describes the social, political, and economic evolutions taking place around the world and their potential as revolutions, warning, "They have man's dreams on their side. We don't want to be on the other side." Elegantly written, this is a landmark book in the history of journalism. n Mary Whipple



4. For me who watched Walter Cronkite almost every night from the 1960's to the 1980's when Dan Rather took over, this is most enlightening book. Behind the scene stories were given for a lot of news stories. Unlike Eric Sevaried, Cronkite never stated any of his personal feelings and comments on the air. Quite a lot of them were found in this book.
   
   Two things bother me. None of the chapters in this book had a topic so the reader is completely unaware of what is in there when he/she starts reading a chapter. In addition, no index is avalable and locating a topic or name is very difficult and time-consuming



5. This book contains the memoirs of Walter Cronkite, pioneering television journalist. Cronkite begins by describing his childhood briefly, noting that even as a youngster, he was pulled to journalism. He credits a volunteer journalism teacher in his high school for introducing him to the rigors of print journalism, but once started, he was hooked. It was this teacher who taught him the prime importance of getting the facts correct, a value that he would hold primary throughout his career. As a high school student, Cronkite competed in statewide journalistic writing tournaments, and won. After high school, he enrolled in college for a while, but decided that pulling in an income was more important than getting a degree (this was during the Great Depression), a decision which he later came to regret. On a lark, he landed a radio news announcer job in Oklahoma City. Later, he worked for UPI, where he honed his collating and rewriting skills under pressure of constant deadlines. The experience from all of these jobs was to prove invaluable later when he landed a job announcing the news on CBS television. Cronkite was not only one of the first early TV news broadcasters, but the word `news anchorman' was even invented just to describe what he did (or so he claims).
   
   In this book, Cronkite reminisces not only about his career, but also about the big news stories of day. He discusses how television came to play a strong role in politics, starting with the 1952 party conventions, which were the first to be televised. He enumerates the presidents he has known, from Hoover through George Bush, senior, and he compares the effectiveness of each, as well as their relations with the media. He analyzes the forces behind the fateful American build-up in Vietnam, and the eventual pull-out. He also relates how he inadvertedly became involved in negotiating peace between Egypt and Israel. All in all, his tales are fascinating. I usually find political discussion hideously tiresome, but Cronkite manages to make even politics interesting.

5 comments about Seinfeld: The Making of an American Icon.

1. It seems obvious that Mr. Oppenheimer is no Seinfeld fan. Facts and blatant innuendo are merged into a less than flattering portrait.



2. What was the point of this biography, why was it written and why would anyone feel the need to read this book? The last question is obvious, Seinfeld could be called the greatest entertainer of our generation. What i found ironic about this book was the fact that Seinfeld put so much time and effort into his career, and it appears as if the author of this book did no more than conduct three or four brief interviews, and thype sienfeld into a lexus nexus database. What i found irritating about the biography is how the author mention the quotidian nature of seinfelds love life, and then he writes and entire book about his dull and unremarkable lovelife. I dont understand why he chose seinfeld as a subject.



3. Oppenheimer takes a very cynical and negative view on Jerry and his lifestyle but through all of it Jerry just seems to shine through and show how much of a driven and goal-oriented and aloof person Jerry really is. Overall this book gives you insight into who Seinfeld really was. It tries not to talk too much about the show, which is good. You get to know Jerry's childhood, college, and stand-up friends. The author gets many insights from people close to Jerry, but one thing that he never gets is any insight from Larry David or anybody else involved with the show. Not talking about the show is one thing, but those people saw him everyday for nine years, yet they're not included. A very insightful read, if not too specific (A whole chapter is devoted to Jessica Sklar and her growing up and moving and her childhood friends).



4. What a boring read. For a story about a man who made his name largely from the show Seinfeld there were only 82 pages(out of 362)and 8 chapters(out of 41)related to the show. The rest was a boring soap opera about his relationships and lack of commitment in those relationships. All the information was gathered through anecdotes, largely from people Jerry had crossed in some way so they were generally not complimentary. I found the last few chapters particularly tedious telling the stories of the leaked Vanity Fair article and the "theft" of his future wife. I realise a biography needs to tell about the person outside of what has made them famous but this was over the top in that area and gave me almost no behind the scenes information about the show that most of the world loved.



5. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars is that it is about Jerry. I took it from the library because I'm a huge fan and was interested in learning more about how he came to where he is now - what I found instead were tedious details (not in a good way) from acquaintances and not much soul to the book. The book also doesn't seem to give credit to the amazingly hilarious Larry David, who is responsible for so much writing on the show. How can someone write an entire book about Seinfeld without once even speaking directly to the person you're writing about? This missing link was definitely a huge gap in the book, leaving only mundane details and a want for something authentic from Seinfeld himself.

5 comments about Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister.

1. I can't believe all the reviews that call this a candid touching tribute to Natalie. While this book is thoroughly readable and offers a unique look into Natalie's life (which accounts for my high rating), Lana Wood comes off like a fame whore self-serving jealous bitter backstabber who just can't understand why everybody hates her. Hello! Maybe it's because you exploited your sister endlessly, made money off her (pictures, clothes, movies, book), sponged off her, etc. Does Lana seriously think she comes off well here? Please! Sad and pitiful. But, I won't lie, the book is a gossipy, juicy pleasure. But it's no tribute to Natalie.



2. Lana Wood's tribute to her sister Natalie is a poignant, heart-wrenching and engrossing book that sums up the love/hate, resentment and longing often applied to siblings, but in this case, the older sister was a Hollywood superstar and the little sister was a wallflower continually in her shadow. Their mother, Maria, was an overbearing, fanciful and sometimes downright cold parent who wanted fame and fortune for herself and pushed Natalie into show business, forever relegating her husband and other two daughters into the background, to the point where she considered them virtual non-entities. Lana recounts the years of her family's life in Tinsletown, penning both her love and admiration for her famous sibling as well as her resentment and frustration. Although they had their disputes in later years, their sisterly bond brought them back together, fortunately, before Natalie's tragic death. It amazes me that Lana is still increasingly loyal to her mother, who ignored her and compared her to Natalie, and who inflicted such pain on her children. It can't be easy to have your mother neglect you, your father so distant and an alcoholic, and have to try to measure up to a sister who is a major Hollywood talent. As much as they feuded, Lana clearly loved her sister dearly, a loss that she undoubtly feels to this day. Her estrangment from Natalie's husband Robert Wagner (who seems to delight in slamming her), and her nieces continues to the present, no doubt causing her a great deal of anguish.
   
   "I cry for her often. I expect I always will."



3. For a book about Natalie Wood, Lana Wood talks about herself alot, more so than she talks about Natalie.



4. ...but Lana Wood has a very autobiographical writing style. I found Wood's memoir to be incredibly gossipy. She speaks for pages upon pages about her own feelings during pivotal times in Natalie's life. Every here or there, it's nice to have an eyewitness account of what happened at certain times, but I'd rather read about the Academy Awards for which Natalie was being nominated instead of the powerful men in Hollywood with whom Lana was sleeping. There is a lot of name-dropping as well as a lack of substance in the book's context. After reading this, I read Suzanne Finstad's NATASHA and found it to be very thorough and much more detailed about both her personal and professional life. I was not a fan of this book in any respect.



5. I bought a used copy at a thrift shop with the idea of listing it on eBay, but I wanted to read it first. Now that I have, I'm not sure I'm ready to part with it just yet!

   The first Natalie Wood movie I remember having seen was "Inside Daisy Clover." At the time (the early 60's), I was too young for the star's name to make an impression - my cousin, who was a year older and whose idea it was to see it, no doubt knew who she was - but I do know that I really enjoyed the movie. I had also forgotten that she had been in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

   The pictures throughout the book helped tell the story as well as the narrative. No one but Lana could have told the story in this kind of detail.

No comments about Adventures of a Polyglot: My Life in Two Worlds.