5 comments about Descent into Darkness Pearl Harbor, 1941 (The True Story of a Navy Diver).

1. Commander Raymer did a fantastic job setting the mood of this story in the first chapter as he described his first dive into the sunken Arizona (it was the first ever dive on the ship), months after it had sunk. His descriptions are so vivid, I often pictured (what he experienced) as if I were there.
   
   Other reviewers mention Raymer's escapades into early WWII Honolulu and his encounters with the the locals, but this story really focuses on what the divers did, hazards they overcame, and innovations they devised as they fought to return the heavily damaged warships back to the fleet.



2. what a great book! i couldn't put it down. commander raymer and the men working with him were brave heroes.this book gives a glimpse of life in hawaii in the early forties as well as the navy's diving program in its infancy.not to mention the unique problems of salvaging the ships that were damaged in the pearl harbor attack.i highly recommend this book.



3. 
   Most books on WWII center around specific battles. However, Commander Raymer gives the reader a somewhat different perspective of WWII. Although, Raymer discribes several important engagements and the sinking of his own ship by Imperial Japanese naval forces, he also concentrates on the overwhelming and depressing daily tasks of the Navy salvage diver stationed at Pearl harbor shortly after the infamous attack. His objectives; recover bodies, raise or salvage the flagship U.S.S. Arizona, and other capital ships such as the U.S.S. California, U.S.S. West Virginia, and others.
   
   His writing style is simple, and straight to the point. His ongoing descriptions of the scenes he saw and experienced in Hawaii and through the divers helmet port are well worth the read!
   
   If, you liked the movie; "Men of Honor" then I guarentee you will like "DESCENT INTO DARKNESS!"



4. This really is a first-rate account of a process that has largely been ignored by writers and historians. I think it's a "given" that diving around sunken, fully armed and fueled battleships would be dangerous, but until I read this book I didn't realize just how MANY different hazards there were. For example, who would have known that it's dangerous to enter a previously-sealed but empty compartment that contains rust? (the formation of iron oxide [rust] depletes oxygen in the space)

   The reader gets a firsthand account of the daily lives of salvage divers, and how frequently solutions to problems were devised on the spot. Rather unexpectedly, readers also get a firsthand description of what life was like "on the ground" during the Guadalcanal campaign.

   Anyone wanting to know more about the Pearl Harbor attack really should read this book. Many people tend to think of the battle as being over when the last Japanese plane returned to its carrier; in truth, the battle had just BEGUN.




5. I recieved Descent In to Darkness as a Christmas pressent from my sister. I could not stop reading the book. I have always been a huge history buff as well as a great interest in diving . Febuary of this year (2002) I went to Maui to visit my cousin. While in Maui I got my scuba certification. My last day we flew over to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona. It was very moving because I had more of a conection to the Arizona due to Raymer's detailed report on Pearl Harbor and the Arizona in the salvage eforts to raise our Pacific Fleet.

2 comments about Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1739-1762: Intriguing Letters by One of Colonial America's Most Accomplished Women (Women's Diaries & Letters of the Nineteenth-Century South).

1. Eliza Lucas Pinckney did almost everything. She was the daughter of a British Officer, making her a military brat, she helped run the plantation, developed the market for indigo that allowed Charleston, SC, to survive, wrote a cook book, educated some of her slaves, made sure her children were educated and fought cancer! Her letters are full of amazing facts, of both her daily life and the life of the colonists. Her letters cover everything from her own problems to wars, Indian attacks and taxes. It is a great addition to any library.



2. I thought I had written a review for this book awhile back but hadn't so here it is. Wonderful journal of information on Eliza Lucas Pinchney, a South Carolina woman of history who brought Indigo into prominence. Fascinating research within about this woman and her passion for nature and plant dye.

4 comments about Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 2: 1957-1969.

1. First, the recommendation is to read the companion book, and predecessor, Selected Letters: 1940 - 1956, before starting this one. Both books are really two volumes of the same story.
   Those familiar with Kerouac's writing will recognize the characters, scenes and events from the letters as the basis for his groundbreaking novels. Via his letters, you get the unvarnished versions of the later quasi-fictional accounts (and the legend aside, Kerouac's novels were quite polished in their own way - no syllable written by accident). However, these letters (and the excellent non-intrusive editing/comments by Ann Charters) serve as the best biography (auto-biography) written about Kerouac (and I've read them all). Perhaps no person in literature experienced as many self-inflicted highs and lows as Jack Kerouac. He could go from the highest peaks to the deepest vallies from one letter to the next. In addition, the ceaseless restlessness that gripped him his entire life has never been documented any better, or with more frustrating clarity, than in these letters. One day, Kerouac thrills at the prospect of a cabin in the woods in utter isolation(to get away from the partying New York scene); the next day he has plans to live on a commune type ranch with all his friends - or move to Mexico, or Colorado or San Francisco or any number of addresses on Long Island or Florida. Many of these moves he actually followed through on only to find, in very short order, that his urge to wander had returned. At these times you notice Kerouac dropping lines to friends outlining why his new paradise has been destroyed and how perfect the next paradise is going to be. Such was his self destructive path and, in reading these incredibly personal letters, one feels the end approaching as the America Kerouac immortalized dies a slow death, only to be reborn as an entity Kerouac is given partial credit for creating - a credit he had no interest in claiming. When all is said and done, however, the tragedy of Kerouac pales in comparison to his renowned love of life and his obsessive need to document the beauty (and ugliness) that surrounded him. These letters reflect a time when people - a great many people - got excited about poetry, literature, art and just being alive. A time before pseudo-hip irony made it impossible to get excited about anything. KEROUAC LIVES!



2. Ann did interview Jack & takes part in many literary forums..."beat'.The last great living 'Beat' hipster is...L. Ferlinghetti. The last,best bio on J.K. will be Doug Brinkley's..he has full access to archives,Sampas controlled estate,in Lowell, MA.



3. An excellent survey of the writer Jack Kerouac and recommended picks for any collection strong in Kerouac presentations. Ann Charters edits Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1957-1969 presenting his late letters. her first volume contributed to a new understanding of Kerouac and his work: this volume also includes the same attention to notes and detail, furthering her goal of presenting his life via his writings.



4. Good book. I knew that Jack had his problems later in his life but this book really shows that he got off track in the late 50's rather than the 60's. This book reads real fast in that you can't put it down. It reveals the relationships that Jack had with the other Beat Poets among other people. I recommend this book to all interested in Kerouac and the Beat Generation.

5 comments about Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady (Modern Library Paperbacks).

1. I agree with the other reviews who say there should be a movie about Edith Roosevelt. I didn't know much about her at all but the biography was well written and very informative. Everything about her would make for a great movie. Edith was an intellegent woman and possibly one of the best first ladies we ever had. She seemed very well organized and very efficient whether she was running her family household or the White House staff. I highly recommend reading this biography.



2. Being an admirer of the Roosevelt family (Theodore and his kin), I was amazed at how I much this biography. The insight into her life, the little they know (from diaries and a few letters she did not burn) is amazing and her love for Theodore (and his love for her) is so incredibly romantic, showing intense it became over the years as opposed to just dying out.
   Edith was an amazing woman, probably the epitome of the First Lady, wife, mother and a woman in general. She stood by her husband, helping him along, while still standing for what she believed in and caring for her large family.
   It's an excellent read about an excellent woman.



3. During a recent visit to Sagamore Hill on Long Island (the home of the Roosevelts), this book caught my eye because it gave a such a different perspective of Roosevelt history. Though I am now only about 3/4 of the way through, I cannot say that I am at all disappointed. It reads like a novel and is extremely well written. I cannot put it down. While it is true that there are other books which better cover the details of TR's colorful political career (Sylvia J. Morris's husband's books accomplish this) and even TR's earlier family history (try "Mornings on Horseback" by David McCullough for this), this book is must for those interested in the story of Edith and her remarkable family. Also, the story does have a great deal of romance and some poignancy -- particularly in the death of TR's first wife, Alice Lee, and his troubled relationship with his daughter, Alice's namesake. I agree with one of the other reviewer's -- Edith's story would make a marvelous motion picture.



4. Her lifelong romance with Theodore Roosevelt is certainly the stuff that films (or at the very least, TV movies) are made of. She never stopped loving the brilliant, bellicose, captivating, exasperating "boy" she had fallen in love with at a very young age. She helped mold him into a man. How two strong-willed persons of such opposing personalities thrived in such a successful marriage is even more reason why their story in film would be interesting. If Edith, certainly one of the most private historical figures in our country's history, had not the burned thousands of letters from her "Teedie"/Theodore (wishing to keep their lifetime of thoughts and passions to themselves), their romance might be up there with John and Abigail. TR also destroyed most of the letters from "Edie"/Edith because of Edith's constant pleading to him to do so.

   What has survived through thousands of letters that friends and relatives did not destory and through Edith's 40+ years of private diaries (left to her daughter Ethel) is a portrait of a iron-willed, intelligent, passionate lady who survived many family crises and lived through enough U.S. political history for a couple of high school textbooks.

   She was often the mother AND the father of her large household of children and pets as TR would often leave to go on hunting trips, safaris, and political campaigns. She ran the household in every area mostly because she had to get control of the family finances. (TR almost had to sell Sagamore Hill before he married Edith because he had lost so much of his inheritance in the Badlands. His older sister helped him get through some lean financial years.)

   But, she knew that he would always return to her bed and to no one else's. She often looked down at her sisters-in-law, nieces, and female friends who had married "safely" and did not have a passionate, romantic partnership such as the one she shared with TR. In many ways she was as contradictory in her beliefs as her husband. She was certainly Victorian in her moral strictures, yet one of her closest confidants and friends in the later White House years was the not-so-in-the-closet homosexual chief military aide to her husband (and this gentleman, Archibald Butt, would later help many of the Titanic's passengers to safety before he perished).

   One of the most poignant chapters in the book deals with the sons getting ready to go off to fight in the Great War. Quentin, her baby, is eighteen and falling in love with the daughter of one of the anti-Roosevelts, the Whitneys. Edith and TR are concerned with their son falling in love with one of the "plutocrat" Whitneys. However, once they meet Flora they fall in love with her and take her into their family as one of their own. Quentin has to leave the safe environs of Sagamore Hill and the Long Island air training centre and be shipped off to Europe. The elder Roosevelts try to get passports for themselves to travel with Flora so that Flora can marry Quentin in Europe. They can't get passports to travel overseas during the war. Quentin is shot down over France, and TR & Edith have to break the news to her at Sagamore Hill. Flora would remain close to some of the family members until she died many years later.

   In short, this is a detailed biography of a great lady, First Lady, wife, world traveler, mother, and grandmother. The vivid detail of the White House during TR's electric eight years at the head of the country is worth the price and time alone. The Kennedys and Camelot had nothing on the intellectual and artisic salon that the Roosevelts inspired and supported during their many years in Washington.




5. I read this biography as a companion to "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and "Theodore Rex" -- partly because I wanted a different perspective, and partly because I wanted to know what happened to Theodore after 1908 and volume III of his biography isn't likely to be out in the near future. In the end I am glad I read the book, and I learned a great deal more about President Roosevelt and his family -- but I think for the serious or dedicated history buff you must also read the aforementioned books to get a more detailed, nuanced view of the Roosevelts' life and the times in which they lived.

   Morris's writing varies markedly from section to section, perhaps due to inconsistent editing rather than her own writing.

5 comments about In Her Sister's Shadow: An Intimate Biography of Lee Radziwill.

1. I found this book interesting if somewhat depressing. However, I still liked it. I feel that Lee Radziwell could have done so much more with her life. This was an objective study of a truly wasted life.



2. In terms of writing, this book is full of run-on sentences and obscure phrases such as "ran her homes like a seventeen-jewel Swiss clock." If one focused on the subject, one would find a bitter and disillusioned woman, whom I think is really more beautiful and more stylish than the late Jacqueline Onassis was. Sadly, someone who has gone from one professional disaster to another, as Lee Radziwill has, is not worth writing about. Here is a woman who never learned her lesson - that success comes with hard work. Diana DuBois shows that perhaps Lee was too conscious of who Jackie was that she could not pull herself together, even for her own ambitions' sake. One more catastrophe, as shown by the book, is Lee's relationship with her children, that her maternal love "came in spurts." Now, even in that regard, she does not measure up to her sister. I think, I would not have known who she was if she had not been Jackie's sister in the first place...but that does not mean she was not capable of carving a separate niche for herself. Lee Radziwill, as depicted in the book, is a portrait of what a woman envies (for being beautiful and stylish and elegant) and what a any human being would not want to be (still lost in the middle age)



3. If Lee Radziwell is ever referred to, it is usually in minor passages in Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis biographies; a minor character in the overblown legend of the Kennedy dynasty. Yet "In Her Sister's Shadow" offers a new view of Lee Radziwell and the parallels to her more famous sister.

   The book covers Lee Radziwell's three marriages, two children, and multiple careers ranging from an author to an interior decorator to an actress. It also covers the unspoken rivalry between her and Jacqueline Kennedy. Though Lee was often considered the prettier and more interesting of the two, her sister became an internationally beloved figure. Lee's quest for happiness, glamour and fame is the central focus of this biography.

   Upon finishing this book, it is easy to see parallels between Jackie and Lee: both married powerful men, both were reputed to be difficult to get along with, both thrived in glamour and fashionable circles. Yet Lee often seems to be the more interesting of the two, simply because she did not have the "Camelot" myth and the Kennedy aura paving her way. She stumbled and fell more often than Jackie, and her repeated attempts to pick herself up make her a more real and interesting person.

   The writing style is somewhat gossipy, though not as explicit as is usual in Kennedy-related biographies. When love affairs and marriages are referred to, the references are usually tasteful and discreet, except for the description of an obscene art exhibit made by Truman Capone. The photos are excellent, displaying Lee in a variety of places and settings and in the different stages of her life, as well as ones of her children and ex-husbands.

   Overall this is an intriguing read about an interesting woman who has been overshadowed for years by her sister. While readers may not truly like Lee when they are finished, it is difficult not to admire her.




4. lee may not have been as famous as her sister, jackie, but her life in ways was more fascinating than that of her sister. lee took risks, and lived life to its fullest, not really caring what others thought. i hope there are more book about her in the future, and i hope some she write her autobiography. excellent read.



5. As a rabid fan of these sisters I rushed to order this book the minute I heard it was available. I was never so dissapointed in a book. The pictures of Ms. Radziwell are all of the hazy, far off stare variety. Little or nothing of her famous sister. No new information here. I returned the book the same day I received it. Author strives so diligently to protect her privacy that she ends up telling nothing which is of any real interest.

2 comments about Co. Aytch : The Classic Memoir of the Civil War By a Confederate Soldier.

1. the best diary of a civil war veteran i have ever read!!



2. This fast, short read is a Civil War memoir written by a private in the First Tennessee Regiment of the Confederate army, the "Maury Grays", about twenty years after the war. Channel surfers and Ken Burns fans may recognize "Co. Aytch" as a favorite source of quotes for War historians, and for good cause. The book is not a history of the war - Watkins is at pains to make this point - but rather a view of what one private saw. And by his telling of it, he saw a lot. He was at or around half the Civil War battles you ever heard of - Manassas, Shiloh, Chatanooga, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta - and a bunch of others of which you probably never heard. By the end of the war he was one of seven men still living from his original company of one hundred twenty. Watkins's classic front-porch, army veteran style was likely developed over the course of many retellings, during which - just perhaps - one or two of the episodes were a tiny bit stretched. Taken prisoner three times - followed by three escapes - grazed or hit by bullets innumerable times, once having his hat removed by a cannonball, Watkins is occasionally hard to believe. A special strength of Watkins's style, however, is his abilty to switch from, for example, a lurid and breath-taking description of men in battle at the "Dead Angle" of the Hundred Days Battle northwest of Atlanta to scathing sarcasm in his assessment of General Hood's performance in that campaign. Humor abounds in this book, some of it uproarious - as in the description of a preacher who was courageous in his sermonizing but not in battle. Much of Watkins's humor, however, is gently sardonic: "Well, reader, let me whisper in your ear. I was in the row, and the following pages tell what part I took in the little unpleasant misconception of there being such a thing as north and south." "Co. Aytch" has many qualities reminiscent of "The Red Badge of Courage". The two works - the former an extroverted memoir and the latter introspective fiction - convey strongly the private's nearly constant condition of not knowing the big picture of an army's movements - a knowledge reserved for generals and for historians. The two works also offer scenes of battle which bring the reader into the action through judicious choice of descriptive detail. Watkins writes: "We were charging through an old citizen's yard, when a big yellow cur dog ran out and commenced snapping at the soldiers' legs - they kicking at him to keep him off. The next morning he was lying near the same place, but he was a dead dog." Elsewhere Watkins writes: "The sun was poised above us, a great red ball sinking slowly in the west, yet the scene of battle and carnage continued", which recalls a famous, and stronger, concluding sentence from a battle scene in "The Red Badge of Courage": "The red sun was pasted onto the sky like a wafer." It is difficult to know, finally, what to make of Sam R. Watkins. His judgements of his contemporaries are trapped in contradiction by the values of his region and era. His acceptance of the south's aristocractic ethos causes him to retreat repeatedly from his own trenchant, plainspoken criticisms of this or that general's performance; and yet the criticisms, once stated, do remain. Likewise, Watkin's patriotic and religious convictions mix with his stright-talking nature to produce contradictory opinions. All any incompetant soldier need do to be rehabilitated in Sam Watkins's eyes is to get killed in battle for his country. This triggers an immediate suspension of criticism and lengthy sentences of praise, with flowery references to reunions to come in the blessed hereafter. Watkins's most troubling conflict, however, is between his graphic depictions of the senseless brutality of the war - which of themselves amount to an argument for pacificism - and of his refusal to finally reject war either generally or in this instance. He of all human beings has seen enough to take the shine off chivalry - but he will not give it up. Sam Watkins stays true to the cheers of the ladies and of the preachers who sent him and his friends off to war in 1861. Watkins's social background triumphs over his own moral sense; and so, in the end, we get not a moral document but a wonderfully colorful description. "The tale is told. The world moves on, the sun shines as brightly as before, the flowers bloom as beautifully, the birds sing their carols as sweetly, the trees nod and bow their leafy tops as if slumbering in the breeze, the gentle winds fan our brow and kiss our cheek as they pass by, the pale moon sheds her silvery sheen, the blue dome of the sky sparkles with the trembling stars that twinkle and shine and make night beautiful, and the scene melts and gradually disappears forever."

5 comments about Financier: The Biography of André Meyer: A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business.

1. Andre Meyer is the ephytome of the investment banker, like J.P. Morgan or Sidney Weinberg before and Felix Rohatyn around the same time, Andre Meyer embodied what many aspiring bankers use to idealize when picking that career. He was the master of Relational Banking, which is now reemerging as the way to go for top tier brokerage and banking houses. Although, not a husband or father role model the details about his personal life are very interesting to read too.



2. This book should be required reading for all employees of Lazard. As an employee I found this book very informative and useful in understanding my firm culture and history. The book is well written, and full of interesting trivia about Lazard and Andre Meyer.



3. Overall this book provided great historical details into the mind of one of Investment Bankings greatest personalities. Andre Meyer's networking skills were 90% responsible for his success with the remaining 10% being attributable to his sheer tenacity.

   The book does drag in some spots, but the author definitely did his homework.




4. 1) If you've ever thought about going into the investment banking/ Venture Capital business 2) If you enjoy history - of any type 3) If you enjoy well-written books that are more than a dry summation of the "agreed upon" facts 4) if you want a book that is more interesting and has more plots and schemes than any detective/spy thriller



5. A great read with a facinating mix of famous characters ranging from fiancial world to the political world from the 1940s to the 1970s. The book offers great gossip about New York society as well as the wheeling and dealings of the M&A world. Mr. Meyer is portrayed as a strong, determined and respected man who was certainly not saint but the author offers a truthful perspective. The book is a easy read, and focuses on Meyer's business and personal relationships rather than heavy finacial jargon. It's a great read, I couldn't put it down.

No comments about Walt Disney The American Dreamer.

5 comments about Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution.

1. this is a historical work on the american revolution that revolves principally around the figures of washington, jefferson, and john adams. it a book the casual reader can delight in, filled with lively prose and a narrative thrust missing so much in other historical works. a highly recommended read for anyone interested in the american revolution.



2. anyone new to the early history of the republic should consider reading this book. while it is quite brief, ferling does a decent job of telling the tale of the revolution through the eyes of the first three presidents. at times he is heavy handed with jefferson, but any student of the american revolution should know that jefferson's greatest contributions came after independence was secured. the reverence for the declaration of independence came long after it was written; its impact at the time is highly debatable. ferling spends a great deal of time trying to pull adams from the depths of obscurity-his bias is evident-but does make a compelling argument that adams is worthy of the praise. it should be noted that this book ends, for all intents and purposes, and the end of the war, and is merely an assessment of the contributions that washington, adams, and jefferson made during the revolution, and is not an evaluation of their presidencies. nevertheless, it is worthy of your time.



3. This brief (300 pages) history of the American Revolution, as seen through the actions of Adams, Jefferson, and Washington, is a thoroughly enjoyable, pool side type of read. Granted, it is a superficial history of the Revolution, but provides an interesting perspective of the motivations, interactions, and rather different personalities of the three founding fathers. Mr. Ferling's work does seem to be at times rather colored in favor of Washington and Adams, which might be expected, as he has written biographies of our first and second presidents. He makes some rather interesting comments about Jefferson's personality; comments which come close to a psychoanalysis of our third president. Overall, if you are searching for a history of the revolution, this work is not for you. If you are ready for a relaxing narrative of the revolution, and the actions of these three individuals, you will not be disappointed.



4. As an avid reader of the American Revolution, I had heard great things about this book. Unfortunately, it was terribly disappointing. Ferling spends too much time raising Adams to god-like status, in an apparent attempt to continue his sole rehabilitation of Adams' place in our history (see Ferling's other writings). In short, it's a shame that an author that is a history professor spends so much time in the present analyzing what Washington or Jefferson should have done instead of telling us what they did keeping in mind the time period and atmosphere of the late 18th century. If you are looking for a critical analysis of our Founding Fathers, this book is for you. However, if you are looking for, heaven forbid, a book about history, skip this one.



5. This is the finest book I have read about the Revolution. Ferling is the best at making pure history great. He doesn't engage in phsycho stuff unless he has to. He is very sophisticated and somewhat difficult in the sense his vocabulary is amazing.

   He admires washington. He presents the great soilder with a few faults. He makes a god out of Adams and a Demon out of Jefferson.

   Great book!!!

No comments about AP U.S. History For Dummies (For Dummies (History, Biography & Politics)).