4 comments about Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor.

1. I think this is the classiest bio written about Elizabeth Taylor I really enjoy Alexander Walker as an author and biographer He presents Elizabeth's life as true to life as possible without resorting to foul language or any degrading comments about her life. His writing style will not offend anyone.



2. Elizabeth Taylor is a hard person to biograph -- she's been awash on controversy since her teens, and became infamous for her luxe lifestyle and many husbands. So it's an especial credit to Alexander Walker's "Elizabeth," which manages to be fair without fawning.
   
   Taylor was the daughter of American Anglophiles, who moved to Hollywood during WWII. Her mother Sarah (an ex-actress) managed to get her into films, and the rest is cinema history. She seamlessly made the transition from cute child star to teen idol -- right before marrying abusive hotel heir Nicky Hilton.
   
   He was the first of several husbands -- crooner Eddie Fisher, her late soulmate Mike Todd, Brit actor Michael Wilding, a congressman, and most famously Welsh actor Richard Burton. And her tumultuous life was full of gems, health problems, love affairs, and high drama in all she did.
   
   Alexander Walker seems to have a liking for beautiful, legendary actresses with personal problems, so it's inevitable that he would have written about Taylor. The difficult part is balancing her positive and negatives, without either fawning or dragging her through the mud.
   
   And Walker does an excellent job -- Taylor is not a vixen or a harpy, nor is she an angel. Instead, he studies her personality, with its tendency to replace one love with another, as well as seeking a controlling personality to make her feel secure. Whether it's adultery or financial problems, he doesn't judge so much as lay out the facts so readers can judge for themselves.
   
   Best of all, Walker puts a wealth of detail in here. There's plenty of information about her movies, including lesser-known ones like "Cynthia," and Walker describes scenes that mirror or reflect Taylor's talent in detail. He also frames her story with info about the audiences of the times. He even includes unedited, outraged letters sent in after Taylor got involved with Fisher.
   
   "Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor" is perhaps the best, fairest and most thorough biography of this living legend. Walker definitely hit the mark with this one.



3. I was mesmerised by this book. Of course, one often takes biographies with a grain of salt, but I was most impressed with the way that Taylor handled her career like a man -- how she was able to go on despite the pressures of her situation. The love story between Burton and Taylor shines through, and I think I understand a little more about love, even though theirs was a tumultuous one. She is a role model for people in the performing arts who turn their attention toward great and needy causes, and I respect her immensely. Also, the photographs in this book illustrate the fact that Liz was -- and still is -- the most luminous raven-haired beauty in Hollywood. Long may she rule as the last star of Hollywood.



4. In the book The Life of Elizabeth Taylor, Alexander Walker captures the extraordinary beauty's life in every way. Fans will absolutely love this book. It is a thorough in depth biography filled with more than 30 amazing photos of Elizabeth throughout the years.
   It starts from the beginning of her life in London where her mother's strong willed attitude pushes Elizabeth forward. Alexander focuses on her success in many movies such as National Velvet, A Place in the Sun, and Cleopatra. The Oscar winning performance she gave in Butterfield 8 and the two academy awards that made her a legend are depicted.
   Along with all the positive aspects of her life also came the long downfalls that have intrigued us over the years. Elizabeth's eight marriages are uncovered along with her conniving personality that broke apart other people's marriages. Her obsessions of jewelry, clothing, and sex are exposed. The truth behind her ongoing drug and alcohol abuse is revealed. Elizabeth's suicide attempt at age 29 along with the 73 total hospitalizations throughout her life is publicized. This book shows us the real Elizabeth outside of the glamour. The dramatic experiences with facing the public with the on going scandals and personal tragedies is drawn out for the readers.
   This book gives a true insight in Elizabeth Taylor's life. From the high points to downfalls, her life is captured by Alexander Walker to its fullest. Elizabeth's life has been an often-tragic fairytale that people have followed throughout the past 50 years.

4 comments about My Body Politic: A Memoir.

1. I would advise the person and the family of the person with a spinal cord injury (SCI) to learn. When you become able to read, that is. I found that I could not read anything at first. Partly because of denial and partly because I was suddenly pluncked down in an alien world, much like the world I had always lived in, just considerably taller. The simplest things I had done before my SCI became incredibly difficult, if they were possible at all. My mind, body and emotions were in such shock that I could not read anything. The information which was given to me became impossible to understand. I didn't ever think that I would just get up and walk, although my dreams were (and still are) full of running, climbing and even flying. I was dealing with pain that cannot be discribed and I got remarkably little help with it. Until my constant pain was somewhat under control, I didn't plan, for the future or even for the next moment.
   
   The idea of having some kind of normal life was not even a consideration for me. Just breathing and existing; in an odd sort of way a kind of Zen "being in the moment," was all I could achieve. And it was NOT a form of enlightenment; on the contrary, it was an "indarkenment."
   
   So I might not recommend this book for the newly injured. It is possible that it would not make sense, even if the newly injured person were able to read. For someone who is past that first shock and confusion, though, this could be very helpful. It is clear in pointing out that there are as many different people with a SCI as there are people without one. Very clear and helpful in pointing out the main directions which are still available for people with a SCI. Get this book for someone you love, but don't push it. Just make sure it is available and, when the person is really ready, it will be there for them.



2. I am happy to recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain insight into the daily, lifelong challenges faced by individuals with physical disabilities. It is a book which educates without slapping those of us without obvious disabilities in the face using the "you can't possibly understand how it is for me" method of "enlightenment." Instead it allows the reader to peer through a window into Ms. Linton's life, to develop an understanding of the many barriers and related challenges she and others with similar disabilities face related to what most people take for granted: traveling freely throughout one's environment, gaining an education, dancing, making love, making a life. The book educates by engaging the reader in the journey Ms. Linton has taken from her early days as an activist for peace to her later days as an advocate for equality.



3. This is a beautiful book that I couldn't put down once I started reading. Linton's account of her entry into the world of the disabled and her gradual movement toward activism answers questions I've always been afraid to ask. Besides being funny, angry, compassionate, frank, and always interesting--she's a wonderful storyteller. The book reads like a great novel. It's as powerful as James McBride's memoir, The Color of Water, and should become a classic. Read it and you'll see why.



4. I innocently picked up this book from the table at a relative's house, read the first page and could not put it down. The story of Simi Linton's internal and external struggles and revelations in a new world are presented in an effective understated tone that treats the reader as a partner in the adventure. Along the way we get to examine our own attitudes about disability. The book is so well written and real that I feel that I have been taken for that 'ride' the little girl asked about (you have to read the book).

5 comments about Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart.

1. I am writing my thesis (roughly 80 pages)on Mary Stuart and I have to say that, aside from primary sources, this book was by far the most valuable contribution to my research. Guy's treatment of Mary's life is balanced, detailed, and well contextualized. It's also beautifully written, so that reading it doesn't feel like research at all. I would recommend this book to anyone researching Mary Stuart, but more impressively, to anyone with a simply recreational interest. I wish I could thank John Guy personally. Superb.



2. This artful and unbiased treatment of the Queen of Scots, along with Antonia Frasier's earlier work, is a must for any historial, professional or amateur, who wishes to resolve, refine or at least consider the still debated questions concerning Mary, her ability to rule, her relationships with the scottish nobility, and of course, the dynamic of her relationship with Bothwell and her guilt or innocence of the killing of Lord Darnley. As a retired prosecutor of murder cases and somewhat of an expert on conspiracy, Guy's book provided me with the evidence I would need to review a case against her. There is enough well-researched detail to satisfy the close scrutiny required in reading a work on this already broadly treated enigma.



3. Guy's life of Mary Queen of Scots is written in a "Just the facts, ma'am" spirit that, while not slaking my thirst for a more judgmental approach, did allow me to form my own.
   
   
   
   The predominant tone is one of a knight gallant leaping to Mary's defense, such as in the lengths to which he goes to prove that the documents incriminating Mary in her 2nd husband Darnley's murder were forged, but to his credit he doesn't skirt over the unsavory details of her life, and in fact adds to them. But I must say, it is time for historians to discard the objective approach of the 20th century and let their belief in the supernatural once again reign, as we are once again entering supernatural times ( they all have been, really, but the devil's greatest trick -- you know the rest ).
   
   
   
   The six-foot, redheaded Mary -- too bad Nicole Kidman didn't play this part -- was thought by almost everyone in her time to be a "witch." I'm tired of this kind of accusation being glossed over as a mere superstition of the past, that feminist theory has rendered forever outmoded. Is it perhaps the heathen present and not the religious past which is ignorant? Why did this charge follow her so doggedly?
   
   
   
   It is clear to me, as a Christian who believes in such things, and has some experience with witches myself, that the relationship between Mary and Bothwell was indeed one that can only be described as a Satanic seduction, something that the Scottish nobles and even the populace immediately apprehended when they posted the famous drawing of the mermaid and the hare ( with, as Guy points out, phallic swords surrounding it ) all around Edinburgh. Bothwell was the Colin Farrell of his day, except murderous and unstoppably ambitious for political power, and there is no doubt that the relationship between him and Mary was based entirely on his sexual hold over her. He barely tried to conceal that he didn't even love her.
   
   
   
   It is fascinating to think that one of Catholicism's last, best hopes before the Protestant takeover was defeated by a mesmerizing appendage, but those who can read between the lines will clearly see the evidence of its truth. And what is a witch if not a woman who lets lust drag her and her countrymen into the abyss? Bothwell, who should be remembered as one of the great hommes fatales of history, had absolute power over Mary and within months destroyed her life and her hopes. His involvement in the assassination of Darnley is much less disturbing than an anecdote Guy relates where he literally kills with a single blow one of Mary's loyal retainers -- the old man had dared to wish her good luck on a journey.
   
   
   
   And yet even this didn't stop her from marrying him. Didn't even faze her. She persisted in her "love" for Bothwell even in the face of the unanimous disapproval of her court and of the people, until she was like a cornered rat, alone with her morbid obsession. The once-noble and cultured queen was reduced within months to a frumpy mess, her looks gone, being heckled by peasants and shouting crude obscenities at them from the roof of her castle ( Guy shows how Bothwell's vulgarity infected her ). The story ends with Bothwell and Mary being forcibly separated and pledging their eternal fidelity to each other -- which he instantly broke with a Danish woman, whose dowry he stole! This finally ended his rake's progress.
   
   
   
   What this book made me realize is that the rivalry between Elizabeth and Mary has been entirely trumped-up. They were not rivals; Mary was nothing more than a cautionary tale for Elizabeth, who was much more evil than Mary but also much more shrewd. ( Elizabeth's real rival was the ghost of Isabella of Spain, as she, with the help of her cryptic spies, undid the effects of Isabella's glorious reign. ) The real story here, which hopefully future historians will take up, is the stunningly rapid descent of Mary into blind sexual insanity, and how it forced the last bastion of the Catholic faith in the British isles to deliver herself meekly into the hands of her enemy. Catholics treat Mary almost as a saint due to her supposed piousness in captivity; she should be considered the greatest of traitors. Would history have been entirely different if she never met Bothwell, or is a witch is a witch is a witch?



4. It is harder to imagine a woman history has been kinder to than Mary Queen of Scotts. She is always the tragic women, betrayed by those she loved, and executed by her cruel, vicious, and nefariosu Cousin Queen Elizabeth. Guy does little to change this classic tale, despite the fact that history doesn't match up with it. Mary Queen of Scotts knowingly married her second husband's murderer and assented to the murder of Elizabeth who kept Mary alive, albiet in a very comfortable captivity, at great risk to her own [Elizabeth's] life. I don't think Mary, Queen of Scotts is a totally unsympathetic figure; she loved bad men and was betrayed by them. She was betrayed by her half-brother the earl of Moray, and she died with great courage. That said, she is not a flawless saint, no matter how much Guy wishes to make her one. (Also he makes the errenous assumption that if the the casket letters are fake, which he convincingly shows to be forgeries, Mary is automatically vindicated from the murder of her husband. Something on which the evidence is quite inconclusive.) For a more balanced look at Both Queens, I would reccomend both Jane Dunn and Alison Plowden's duel biography. And please do not say history has not been kind to this woman.



5. I thoroughly enjoyed John Guy's biography of Mary Queen of Scots. The only flaws are that Guy insists that Mary's prayers before death were for a public show of her Catholicism. I don't think so - people about to die don't act that way. Also, he says that when Mary was kidnapped and raped by Bothwell, she must have enjoyed it because she did not cry for help. Sorry, but studies of rape victims have shown that even today women are afraid to go to the police. In those days, a woman was heavily stigmatized when violated against her will. But other than those flaws, this biography is a work of profound scholarship, depicting the details of Mary's daily life as I have never before read anywhere else. Guy also shows that Mary was a clever and even a savvy politician, as clever as Elizabeth her rival, although she fell through treachery and one lost battle. Very sad but very enlightening. Recommended.

4 comments about Covered Wagon Women, Volume 2: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1850 (Coverd Wagon Women).

1. My great-great grandparents with an infant daughter journeyed overland from Missouri to California in 1850 and I read this book to learn something of their experience.
   
   As the editors point out few women made the crossing by land and thus their accounts have great significance. This book contains the diaries and letters of six women who traveled by wagon and horseback across the Great Plains and the mountains of the West to a new home in California, Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico in 1850. Amongst their descriptions of terror and hardship are also homely tales of life on the trail and often the generosity and nobility of many of their fellows.
   
   I was impressed most by the sheer numbers of the overlanders. Some 50,000 people took the Western trails in 1850, drawn mostly by the promise of gold in California. Accounts of the dust, the crowded conditions, and the inevitable cholera caught my attention. The journey across the plains and mountains was, as the editors note, the longest voluntary migration in history and one has to wonder why so many people left comfortable homes to journey west. The westward urge -- "Manifest Destiny" -- or whatever it might be called was a powerful force in 19th century United States. Indians and buffalo play surprisingly small roles in the accounts of the crossing. They were perhaps wise enough to keep their distance from the overlanders.
   
   The editors have contributed good introductions to the book and each of the women.
   
   Smallchief



2. Meaningful, first-hand chronicles from six westward women pioneers of 1850.
   As editor Dr. Holmes notes, Anna Maria Morris was the wife of a military commander and as a result was "treated with attention and care". Nonetheless, she describes the relentless heat, lack of water and wood, poor grass, etc. which was typical of travel to Santa Fe, along with daily routines.
   Mary Colby, Margaret Frink, Sarah Davis, Sophia Goodridge and Lucena Parsons all traveled the northern ,more familiar, Oregon Trail. These women give stunning details of wagon travel including: the phenomenal numbers of graves along the trail due to cholera, daily chores and mishaps, the vast numbers of emigrants along the route, dry ponds, abandoned wagons and personal belongings, river crossings, cutting grass for future livestock feed, etc.
   We feel the persistent, annoying stings of clouds of mosquitoes along the Platte, the disturbing sights of countless numbers of human graves, the unsettling smells of innumerable dead livestock left alongside the road, feel their Indian anxieties, the sounds of nerve-racking horrendous thunderstorms, the continual unwelcomed taste of trail dust. These women clearly illustrate what life was like traveling westward in 1850.
   A pleasure to read.



3. As Americans we have heard many tales, true and false, of tales of, and about, those brave souls who migrated across the country in wagons and on foot in the 19th century. Beverly's LTD has recorded The personal diary of one such woman, Margaret A. Frink.

   Mrs. Frink, along with her husband, whose first name we never know, and a boy named Robert leave their nice home in Martinsburg, Indiana, for the riches of the California territories. It's not only the promise of gold that spurs this couple on, but of the riches available to those who make the arduous trip.

   Mrs. Frink keeps a detailed diary of the daily distances traveled (how did they m ark this?), the price of provisions along the way, the weather, the many people they run into, and an acute observation of the fashions on the trail. I found that quite interesting, those detailed descriptions of fashion, in clothing, transportation, and supplies, and the daily traveling distance. I also found myself amazed at the mileage the wagons were able to make each day and the price of provisions along the way. In 1851, one onion costs the Frink's one dollar, which is astronomically even in the 2002 market.

   Susan Baxter, an actress at the Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado, gives life to Margaret. By the tone of voice she uses, I suspect that Margaret is a bit of a snob, but she handles the travails of the trail with remarkable good humor.

   It is particularly interesting that the diary does not end with their arrival in Sacramento, but gives a hurried account of life for their life as hotel owners and diary farmers. It is also interesting that the home they dismantled in Indiana and ship by boat, arrived in the new state at almost the same time they did.

   Thanks to the publication of this diary, I have a whole new appreciation of the Old West!




4. The second in the series is as interesting as the first.The immigrants now have a bit more knowledge as many have gone before them.There are still many misshaps, disease, lack of water and feed. We now are starting to see many oppertunists who prey on the people. It is interesting to note that the women and Indians seemed to get along quite well and shared hints about many things. We also see the diffrence in the trip for diffrent income levels.This is also where we start to see pollution,as the animals were allowed in the creeks and anything not needed was just left .These books show what life was really like on the trail and what the women went through each day.

5 comments about Alpana Pours: About Being a Woman, Loving Wine, and Having Great Relationships.

1. This book is not just for the ladies! Anyone who loves wine and would like to learn a few more basics (I've learned a lot reading this) in a fun, easy to read format will LOVE this book. It is a total page-turner...can't put it down. I'm ordering several more as gifts for all my win-loving friends! Highly recommend.



2. Yes, the writing style is a tad simple and breezy and yes, it's kind of a "chick book", but what I found fascinating was someone who is clearly passionate and near brilliant about wine (think how much she learned and how rapidly) sharing her conceptual schema of how to categorize and think of wines. The knowledge and memory skills inherent in becoming a master sommelier amaze me. Here you see how she learns and thinks of wine with absolutely zero pretense. Sure, I skimmed the ideas on bingeing wines, etc.; but the overall delivery was, IMO, outstanding.



3. Yeah, yeah, her writing style is simple. It can be read by anyone with a sixth grade education (well, maybe a ninth grade education, these days) And that's exactly her point!
   
   
   
   This wine primer makes the reader more excited about wine. And that was clearly her intent. So skim it, use it as a bathroom reader - each entry is about the perfect length for a quick visit to the, um "reading room". Then try some of the wines (and wine exercises) she describes.
   
   
   
   As a Master Sommelier, Alpana has serious wine chops. Her knowledge is among the top tenths of a percent of those in the wine world. For the fact she never shows off, because she never makes a reader feel bad for not knowing the secret handshake to her exclusive society, and because she chose to be a wine missionary instead of teaching masters courses, I give her kudos.
   
   
   
   (However, as an operator of a popular, premium wine club, I take umbrage with her views on such sampling programs. They really CAN be fun, educational, and offer good values!)
   
   
   
   Dave Chambers, Wine Merchant
   
   SidewaysWineClub.com



4. I've read three books on wine, and this is by far my favorite. Even though it is primarily geared toward women (and I'm all man, baby), male wine novices will also enjoy it, because the overriding theme is that wine does not have to be complicated - it only has to be fun and enjoyable. The prose is written in a lighthearted style that makes reading it a breeze. ALPANA POURS is educational without going too deeply into wine esoterics that only confuse most aspiring oenophiles. I will admit that some chapters - such as when Ms. Singh selects a wine for each zodiac sign - are a little airy, but all in all, this was a fun and informative read. Oh, and by the way - the wine chosen for my zodiac (Syrah) turned out to be a new favorite!



5. I agree with one of the other reviewers about the poor writing style. I really wanted to like this book, because I enjoy watching Alpana on Check Please, and admire how far she's made it in the wine world. But, a lot of the writing is pretty flippant, and while I think it's meant to be written for women, some of the stuff written about women is somewhat offensive. She does seem to think that many women are completely ignorant about wine and that we're depending on our all-knowing men to rescue us in restaurants, etc. In my own personal experience, I've found things to be quite the opposite. My girlfriends and I take the time to learn about wine, while our male counterparts couldn't care less. While I find some of the information in this book to be helpful in learning about wine, there's too much emphasis on gender stereotypes, and the writing can be grating at times.

5 comments about A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile.

1. Agate Nesaule has captured the horror of war and its aftermath on the life of a young woman who was there.
   She writes with the authority of one who has experienced the horrible effects of war on the psyche of one who is young and impressionable. Her realism is so that we feel the suffering that she experiences.
   Although a story of trauma and sadness it does have a hopeful conclusion.
   A fine story, well written, and intriguing.



2. Others have argued the authenticity of Ms. Nesaule's account of life in the concentration camps; indeed, the author herself voices her own uncertainty of her story, confessing to much she has forgotten. Still, it is a story worth reading. American born, I've never found myself, or even thought to imagine myself, in a situation where I have feared for my life and the lives of my family.

   Ms. Nesaule's account, which she manages to relate with frank detachment, is disturbing. Who among us, in America, can understand how it feels to be kept in a basement, never knowing when it might be our turn to be taken behind the partition to be raped, or taken outside to be lined up to be shot? To be cuffed or threatened for whispering to a sibling?

   During her ordeal, the young Agate learns the futility of prayer, that what doesn't kill you doesn't make you stronger, and that wounds such as those she endured never heal; although by the end of the book, after a failed long-term marriage left her the victim, she finds a semblance of peace.

   Despite its obvious flaws-among others, Ms. Nesaule's son Boris is virtually non-existent and her portrayal of her husband Joe is far too one-dimensional... his dialogue is stilted and comprised of only a few phrases, which she uses time and time again (perhaps these are all she recalls after two decades of emotional abuse-A Woman In Amber is a compelling read. Whether more fiction than fact is immaterial. Ms. Nesaule's simple message is this: her suffering, as is the suffering of all men and women since the dawn of civilization, is but a single page in the history of mankind. How sad that man cannot get along with himself, sadder still that he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again and never learns.

   Recommended.




3. The families of both of my parents fled Latvia and the invading Russians when my parents were young. This book actually is what got my mother and me talking about her childhood in Latvia and in the DP camps, so in that sense, it is a very important book. Everyone I've ever talked to, though, has had the same general opinion of Ms. Nesaule's book -- she exaggerates a bit. She makes things up. She does say this in the introduction: "I have forgotten some things..." This book leaves a good -impression- of what life was like, but it should not be read as Gospel.



4. Being of Latvian heritage myself, perhaps it is impossible for me to read Nesaule's book as anyone else of a different heritage might. I have grown up on stories that are but variations on a theme to this one. My first language was Latvian, my first book was Latvian, my own first efforts in creative writing were in the Latvian language. Indeed, I have just participated in a literary reading of Latvian authors at the 11th Latvian Song Festival in Chicago, Illinois, where I had the honor of sharing the podium with Agate Nesaule. Is it possible for me to turn the pages of "Woman in Amber" without a deeply ingrained bias? Perhaps not. But I can say that these pages, these words, these memories, resonated profoundly with me. The war experience in many ways, however, is a suffering and a horror that crosses all lines of ethnicity, all borders of nationality. For this reason, I believe this is an important account for a far larger audience than just the Latvian reader; I am thrilled that this book was written first in English, then translated into, I believe, seven other languages.

   Latvia is a tiny but beautiful country on the coast of the Baltic Sea. The Latvian language is one of the oldest still in existence. The country's history is one of the most war-torn and ravaged of any country anywhere - although it has existed for many, many centuries, Latvia has been independent, free of occupation by other armies, for only a wink in time. If this nation can be proud of anything, it can be proud of its ability to survive even the cruelest and most oppressive conditions. This memoir, "Woman in Amber," opens a small window of light shed on how such a people survive. Even more precisely, it gives an account of how a very young girl can survive - losing her home, losing her family, conditions of hunger, rape, pillage, exile, and the terrifying experience of being a stranger in an immense and completely alien country where the culture and language are all new and strange. Most memoirs of war and battlefields are written by men. It is particularly interesting to read a different kind of account, from the perspective of a woman. If soldiers on a battlefield suffer, there is a quieter, less evident suffering that happens behind the front lines, and this memoir reveals, painfully and movingly, the no less violent and scarring battles that happen there.

   Agate Nesaule's memoir is a couragous sharing of the experiences she endured - not just during World War II, but for many years following the war. Long after the sounds of war have died down, the wounds are still bloodied and pulsating with pain. Healing can often take a lifetime. My respect to this author for sharing her experience, and my hope that it has offered her healing. This is a book I am proud to recommend to both my Latvian friends as well as my non-Latvian friends.




5. Suffering is not good for the soul, no matter what anyone tells you. There is nothing redemptive about it. The pain continues long after the actual experience is over. You do not become a better person because you have endured much, though perhaps your patience increases. No, we don't learn lessons from reading about others' suffering, even from such a well-written book as Nesaule's. Her life is not an example to anybody. Certainly not an inspiration. If you keep your eyes and ears open in life, and don't watch too much TV, you cannot but become aware of a huge amount of suffering and pain in the world. Whether abroad---during World War II, in Korea or Vietnam, or in the myriad wars and dictatorships of the late 20th century-or at home thanks to racism, poverty, substance abuse or simple human cruelty, we should be no strangers to the tragedy of life on earth.
   
   A WOMAN IN AMBER describes a life broken by war, dislocation and brutality. Darkness surrounded Agate Nesaule at an early age, a gray cloud that did not begin to dissipate for nearly forty years. After early childhood happiness in Latvia, her homeland was occupied by Russians, then Germans, then Russians again. Obviously fearing the Russians more, when Soviet forces loomed on the horizon in 1944, the family fled to Germany, a refugee camp where Jews and Gypsies were sought out and taken away. Then came the raping, thieving Soviet forces, a dramatic escape to the British-occupied zone of Berlin, and five years of life in the DP camps. In 1950, the whole family, still miraculously together, emigrated to Indianapolis to begin the hard process of rebuilding a life in America. Life in the slums, little income, sub-standard housing, but at least the chance for education followed. Nesaule made a disastrous marriage to a repulsive, manipulative slob of an American, perhaps the worst choice possible, and stayed with him for over twenty years. Through everything, she longed for a close, open relationship with others, especially her mother, but could not achieve it, thanks to her own unfortunate choices. At last, divorced, she reached some peace thanks to an understanding psychiatrist and a decent, loving man. For years, the writer could not distinguish normal authority and everyday forms of social control from stark, cruel, and arbitrary forms found in squalid refugee camps, under foreign military regimes, or in the hearts of parents in the most extreme situations. At times, Nesaule seems to take a perverse pleasure in her pain, but I felt that this emerges due to her extreme honesty, her attempt to plumb the depths of her feeling in order to arrange it on paper, and remove from her psyche all those feelings warped and twisted by war, by the desperation of her childhood.

   The question a reader must ask, as does the author, is how many more Agates are there out there? In Bosnia, Kosovo, Palestine, Chechnya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Congo, Liberia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Timor, Colombia, Nicaragua, and dozens of other places ? A WOMAN IN AMBER is the moving story of a sensitive personality crushed by hardship and brutality, skewed to accept ruinous relationships because all self-confidence had been lost. The use of dreams to further self-understanding is extremely effective. As a Jew, whose extended family in the Baltic area was totally annihilated by the Germans (and their local minions) during WW II, I was not inclined to be sympathetic at first to a Latvian woman whose family, after all, must have lived comfortably through that same time, but I soon relented as I read on because self-pity is entirely absent. Suffering is universal, even if human brotherhood, of which we dream, is nowhere in sight. Perhaps sharing that suffering is, indeed, the very brotherhood we seek. Bleak conclusion. Read this book, you can't fail to be moved by the honesty and lack of nationalistic drivel.

5 comments about Lee Miller: A Life.

1. I can hardly believe that I knew so little about Lee Miller. Now remembered as primarily the uber muse of surrealism, the trajectory of her life was such that I found myself constantly backtracking to make certain I had read and recalled correctly the events, people, history, locations, lives.... She seemed to understand very early that to be an object of desire - to possess great beauty and elan - would not be enough. She made beauty work for her, took every opportunity to learn, to create herself in a way that showed amazing courage and strength. Lee Miller's life was certainly as madcap as that of Zelda Fitzgerald - with a lot of the same supporting characters. The same could be said of Lucia Joyce, also a contemporary. But Miller managed to transcend the American middleclass roots in a way Fitzgerald never could. The harrowing events of Miller's childhood were mitigated by a loving and supportive family, always denied Lucia Joyce.
   
   This is an intriguing look at a fascinating woman. Carolyn Burke does a great job setting the context for the early life of Lee Miller. It's possible to get a sense of Paris in the 20s and 30s. Everything is energy and light. The edginess and uncertainty of the war years is well described. I didn't have the same feeling about the post-war years. I got the sense of the crushing dullness of her life in contrast to the challenge of life as a war correspondent, but Burke misses in providing the context. Miller and her husband, Roland Penrose, are still very involved in the arts. Their home is something of a way station for artists, they run a gallery and museum, they organize exhibitions and write books. And yet the context is missing: the focus of western art shifting to the US after WWII, abstraction displacing surrealism as the art of confrontation and change, the overwhelming movement from old to new and how the once avant-garde was reinterpreted as the establishment. The book touches on it, hints at "troubles" with younger artists' questions of relevance. To have glossed over this period actually robbed Lee's story of the thrill of triumph when the surrealists were rediscovered in the late 60s and 70s by a new generation of "flaming youth" -
   
   OK, so that's a quibble. Overall, a good read. I know people have criticized the paltry selection of photos but that is true with many biographies and especially true with artist bios. Burke does a good job labeling and describing images: remember, the internet is your friend. If you aren't familiar enough with the players to visualize the works in question, take a few minutes every 50 pages or so and google the artists. You will be happy you did.
   
   Two quotes come to mind which seem particularly apt for Lee Miller. From Tennyson, " I am part of all I have seen." From RL Stevenson, "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." At some point toward the end of her life, Lee Miller says she wishes she had been more free with love, affection, sex, creativity, etc, etc. That's Miller in a nutshell: MORE!



2. Like so many individuals over the ages, Lee Miller grew up in a relatively small community in what the media currently refers to as "Fly Over Country." A member of a talented middle class family, she enjoyed every advantage that her parents could provide, which was considerable. From an early age she displayed a thirst for adventure. She fled to Paris to study and fell in love with the Latin Quarter before returning to America. Moving to New York City she stepped into the path of and on-coming car and was pulled to safety by a well-dressed stranger. In shock, Lee babbled in French causing the stranger, Conde Nast, to take a closer look at the young woman he'd just rescued. He was impressed and asked her if she would like to come to work for one of his magazines--Vogue.
   At age of 19 Lee became a cover girl for Vogue and was dubbed the embodiment of the modern girl. She was the official model for the legendary "flapper." Soon she was in demand by most of the most famous photographers in America including Edward Steichen and Arnold Genthe. Tiring of being just a New York celebrity-model Lee was soon back in Paris where in a single day she became the traveling companion, mistress, model, muse, photography assistant and student of photographer Man Ray. Through him she became a member of the Surrealists and lived and moved among the great artists and writers living and working in Montparnasse at the time.
   Her early associations with these world famous artists would change her life. Under Man Ray's tutelage she slowly began a transformation from being in front of the camera to being behind it. She eventually received additional photographic training at the Clarence White School along with another soon-to-be-famous woman photographer Margaret Bourke-White.
   After marrying a wealthy Egyptian and going slightly crazy as a member of the "Black Satin & Pearls" expatriates living in Cairo, Lee found her mission in life by another unlikely event rivaling her earlier "Grace Kelly-like" discovery by Conde Nast. World War II broke out while Lee awaited its predicted arrival in London. Unbelievably she was soon working as a war photographer for Vogue magazine. Through her good looks, charm, talent and stealth she was soon the only woman photographer covering the front lines of the European battlefront.
   World War II was the highlight of Lee's photography career. She took to being a successful war correspondent like a duckling takes to water. She was tireless, talented, resourceful and finally fulfilled through accomplishing important work. Changed by her war experiences, (an early example of Post-Traumatic Stress) she never quite received the same sense of satisfaction for her later work, but she was no longer as restless after having fulfilled some indefinable need in her naturally adventurous personality. For a beautiful woman (Picasso painted six bare breasted portraits of her during one summer), she was able to shake off the handicap of being a NY celebrity and actually accomplishes some important work that fulfilled her innermost needs. She was no longer just Lady Penrose, but her own person with her own considerable accomplishments. When Queen Elizabeth knighted her husband fellow Surrealist Roland Penrose in 1966, it didn't turn her into a snob. She sometimes jokingly referred to herself as "Lady Lee of Poughkeepsie." There is a lot of humor in this biography. Here are two choice lines, paraphrased, neither of them by Lee: ..."brevity is the soul of lingerie" (Dottie Parker) and on the subject of a new brand of women's underwear for the well-dressed wartime English women, "One Yank and they come right off."
   "The Art of Lee Miller" by Mark Haworth-Booth is an excellent companion book to Burke's biography because it reproduces many of the photographs discussed, but not shown in the biography. Lee Miller was notable for her beauty, her famous artist friends, her photography, her sense of humor and her infamous sexual exploits. Except for a few boring moments during her "Black Satin & Pearls" experience in Egypt, this exhaustively researched book is difficult to put aside. During the hours spent reading the WW II segments I would stop reading and find myself disoriented to be back in the present time and not on the European battlefields. That's powerful writing at work.
   Lee Miller was much more than Vogue's personification of the "quintessential flapper." The reader can have fun comparing the Vogue cover of 19-year-old Lee as the epitome of the stylish modern New York woman with another picture of her washing off six-weeks of hard-won war correspondent grime while bathing in Hitler's personal bathtub in his captured Munich home. Unfortunately, she reported the bath reminded her too much of her recent, terrifying photo coverage of the liberation of Dachau and it's "bathhouse gas chambers."



3. Our book club selected this and NONE of us were disappointed. And we had two photo books from the library to supplement our evening--which I highly recommend.
   
   Personally, I loved this book. Like other reviewers, I never felt I got to know who Lee Miller was. But this wasn't an autobiography; Lee Miller may well fit a profile of child sexual abuse (detached from her feelings); or she may not have been very in touch with her feelings or very demonstrative emotionally to begin with. Perhaps photography was her attachment...but this is a book review.
   
   What Carolyn Burke does so well, is bring the history to life thru the eyes or lens of a very extraordinarily talented woman. The book has many photos in it as examples. But I long to see the photos Carolyn Burke went to such great detail to describe. Photos by Theodore and Ray Man as well as one's by Lee herself.
   
   While portions of the book read more like text or a guest book of the A list, I also think, perhaps if fit with the detached, perhaps emotionally isolated Lee herself...This book takes the reader into a bit of the limelight of 20's New York and 30's Paris. A different perspective on WWII and our modern times since.
   
   I was clueless before someone in my book club had the good sense to suggest this book, and we all had the good sense to read it! It sent me to the library for more information and photographs.



4. I really enjoyed this book BUT FOR this little irritating phrase that cropped up throughout the last 1/4 of the book. If she "lost her looks," then...where did they go? The implicit observation seemed to be that, as she was no longer beautiful, she was no longer as special a person, and less worthy of our interest.



5. Lee Miller is an enigma- though Carolyn Burke tells us a lot about her incredible life. As a biography, this is an honorable book. It is comprehensive and tells us about the fabulous life and career of a woman who participated in some of the most exciting times of the 20th century. From NY in the 20s to the Paris of Surrealists in the early 30s, back to NY and then to Egypt and the middle east. By this time Lee Miller was only 30 and some of her greatest adventures were ahead as Vogue's war correspondent and photographer during World War II in Europe. Her work continued during the immediate post war era and Ms. Burke's book illumniates some of the problems of post war Europe, which calls to mind some of the dislocation and problems currently in Iraq.
   The portraits in the book make it clear that Lee Miller was a great beauty and the photos she took make it clear she was talented. Yet her precipitous decline after the war and her marriage to Roland Penrose is depressing and hard to figure out. As carefully as Ms. Burke's shares the facts of the book and even her occasional forays into trying to psychoanalyze Lee's motivation, I, like other reviewers found it hard to deciper who Lee really was. A great beauty, a madcap free spirit,a sexually free but emotionally closed woman, a deeply injured child of abuse, an alcohol abuser and indifferent mother to her only child could accurately describe her. Was she a victim of the post war attitudes towards women in the 1950s as she gave up her work to become an uber-housewife and chef in her English country home? It calls to my mind David Hare's play " Plenty" that portrayed the severe dislocation of a woman who had worked in France for the Resistance during WWII and then proceeded to destroy her life and injure those around her in the post war years. Ms. Burke suggest post traumatic stress as a source of Lee's post war problems. As one of the first people to photograph the concentration camps at the end of the war, Lee took breathtaking and disturbing images that affect us today- hard to imagine the affect of actually being there.
   Most of the correspondence Ms.Burke quotes made it clear Lee Miller didn't share her deepest feelings with others in letters. Perhaps she didn't in person either- since her son only found out about her wartime work after her death when he discovered boxes of her negatives and photo work. She remains an enigma today. While this biography tells us about her, it can't unlock who she really was beneath the glamour and sadness of her life. I think there is a great movie here.

5 comments about Loose Change: Three Women of the Sixties.

1. This was really thought provoking and brought back many memories. That era is gone forever but we will always have our memories!
   If you read this book you will have to read "Leap" also.



2. Sara Davidson's "Loose Change" is a brilliantly-written account of the Sixties as experienced by three young women coming of age. I bought this book when it first came out in 1977 and loved it. Recently, I came across "Loose Change" in a used book store and just couldn't put it down.
   The Sixties were a time of great social upheaval, and I remember many of the major events. I went though college in the late 60s and early 70s. Even though my background is somewhat different -- Blue collar, conservative, Catholic, male, short-haired, Pittsburgh, and definitely never inhaled -- it was interesting to see the female, radical point of view. Like many others in that period, Sara, Susie, and Tasha search for life's meaning in a turbulent time in which the old values they grew up with have withered away.
   You are there in the historical events and movements of that period -- the Antiwar movement, major student protests at Berkeley and Columbia, the bloodbath at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, the music of Woodstock, rural communes, free sex, and the terror of the Altamont Concert.
   This book seems to get better over time because there is a greater contrast between today's world and the 1960s. The Antiwar, Womens' Liberation, and Civil Rights Movements changed the country and the world for the better, and drugs have changed things for the worst. And the sexual revolution.... well, you be the judge.
   I like Ms. Davidson's rich writing style, as she places the reader right there, feeling and experiencing life with Sara, Susie, and Tasha, "warts and all." She's gutsy enough to talk about sexuality, a formerly taboo subject. Sara, Susie, and Tasha follow their sexual drives and suffer many bad love affairs, for which both the men and women share the blame.
   I've also enjoyed a few of Sara Davidson's other articles and her biography of Rock Hudson. "Loose Change" is now historical, and it's so alive you can hear the music and the protest marches. This book is definitely worth five stars and I would recommend it to almost everyone, even my own daughter.



3. It takes a lot to make a book excellent where all elements are concerned, but Sara Davidson has managed to accomplish that with Loose Change. The characters are very vivid, and easy to picture. What really made me enjoy this was that it was based on the actual lives of the three main characters. I thought that the sixties was covered here in great detail, with images that seemed to jump out at the reader from the pages. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would love to read others that were similar to it. Highly reccommended!



4. When I first read this book some 10 years ago, I quickly identified with the characters, even though I am Jewish girl from NYC. Ten years later, I often think about the characters and wonder how they turned out. I ffound the book to be true to "us" and how "we" really felt as we went through the 60's, Vietnam, drugs and free love. You had to be there. The author captures the moment. Why not write a follow up to Loose Change? You could call it Dollar Bills.



5. I thought I was going to read thoughtful, personal accounts of the sixities as experienced/described by three thoughtful, incisive women. Unfortunately, what the author chronicles is how she and two other self-absorbed irritating women move from stupid, annoying man to stupid annoying man during the era of free love. Every so often, one of the women manages to witness a Pivotal Event (tm) of the '60's. When the women are not witnessing pivotal events, they are whining about stupid, annoying men.

   This book pales in comparison to other, superior chronicles of the '60's such as Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem or White Album. Do not bother with Sara Davidson's tripe.

5 comments about Audrey Hepburn.

1. Having read most of the other books about Audrey Hepburn, a woman whom I respect and admired since my youth, I chose this particular one by Mr.Paris as the most engaging (besides the book by Sean Ferrer which I thought was essential). I could never tire of anything A.H., with that being said it was important to me that I had a sense of how she lived. This book was hard to put down and wasn't full of colorful writing like some of the other so-called biographies done on her. For me, it brought me closer to this person as if she were someone I knew personally and combined with her son's book provided me with an insight into the world that was Audrey. She was and still remains a huge inspiration for me, and this book should be read by every young 'actor' out there today. Kudos to Mr.Paris!



2. Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) was born in Brussels the daughter of a Dutch woman and an English father. She was raised in Arnhem Holland suffering through the Nazi occupation. Audrey was a thin, sensitive child who excelled at ballet.
   As a young woman she migrated to London appearing in British films until she was exploded into fame with her first US film
   Roman Holiday (for which she won as Oscar as Best Actress)
   Hepburn appeared in such films as "Charade"; "My Fair Lady"
   (her singing voice being dubbed by Marni Nixon"; "Two for the
   Road"; "Breakfast at Tiffanys"; "Sabrina: "Robin and Marion" :
   "Wait Until Dark" and several other films.
   Her gamin pixish face and figure was a revelation in the 50s era of Monroe, Ava Gardner; Sophia Loren and other well endowed film goddesses.
   Audrey had a long but troubled marriage with stolid Mel Ferrer and had other husbands and a few affairs along the way most notably with film star Albert Finney.
   She worked with such noted directors as Willie Wyler, George
   Cukor and Stanley Donet. She lived in Switzerland in an isolated
   village where she raised children and loved animals.
   There is little dirt to plow in these pages1 Audrey was an
   adorable and kind person! Her work with starving children on behalf of the UN is heartwarming.
   Barry Paris (previous biographer of Louise Brooks and Greta
   Garbo) does a fine job in this well documented biography.
   The most exciting chapter deals with life in Holland during
   the horrible Nazi occupation,
   This is a good biography of the film star.



3. A book so well researched and written that it flows like a meandering river. The prose is wonderful. Very difficult to stop reading the book until the reading is completed.
   
   May Audrey Hepburn be in the Kingdom of God as I surely want to meet her and talk with her.



4. What is the true test of a biographer's skill? Creating a riviting, insightful book about a subject who had no scandal in her life and who seems to have be beloved by everyone. Material that, in lesser hands, could have been saccherine or written with the usual "movie star bio" template is instead moving, wise, very informative, and beautifully written. Check out Mr. Paris' other biographies of Garbo and especially Louise Brooks for more great writing.



5. A biographer shouldn't lower your opinion of the person they're writing about (as if you could ever
   have a low opinion of Audrey Hepburn!) and Barry Paris certainly does a brilliant job of depicting
   Audrey's life from age 15 until her death (age 64). The author blends his words so you don't loose
   interest even once. The book has lots of quotes, from and about Audrey, and several pictures of
   her throughout her life. There isn't a down side to this book, except for a few subjects where the author
   should have elaborated on a bit more than he did. You can clearly see that Audrey was a truly
   wonderful person, a real lady. After you read about what a hard childhood she had, in the middle
   of WW2 and the miscarriages she suffered and basically being deprived of love from her parents,
   it is amazing that she was still such a beautiful person, a beautiful soul. She traveled to countries to
   help dying people and did things that few other people would do...she seems to have been an
   angel, and certainly was to several people. This is a book that you don't need to read before buying, it's wonderful.

5 comments about You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again: The True Adventures of a Hollywood Nanny.

1. I've been around a different group of rich-and-famous (old money) and can vouch for the author's insights. Her class-consciousness (Hollywood vs. Oregon loggers) adds insight to the tale. Yes, class does exist, and she is proud of where she comes from.
   
   What is it with parents who don't parent? My only complaint is that she should have disguised the Ovitz family because they are really typical of the scene, so why personalize the story? Nannies, along with other help-for-the-wealthy, are often underpaid, under appreciated, and treated as slightly less than human. What is the State of California doing to improve their workers' rights?
   
   Being a teenager when she took the job, the author is unable to assert herself with the Ovitz employers, and that reticence adds to her troubles. She does not blame them, but recognizes her own insecurities as complicating their relationship. I really enjoyed her stories from other nannies, such as that of the family that has locks on its refrigerators. You will never envy the wealthy after reading this. (I know a woman who used her husband's firm's employees to order her underwear.)
   
   The prose is crisp, the tales well-organized. A fun and revealing read, moreso than the usual "tell-all" books. It doesn't, which adds to its veracity. Imagine not making love the way you were used to because the nanny might hear you--and no, it isn't anyone this woman worked for. Her headline chapter quotations are almost worth the price!



2. I bought this for the airplane, and it's a perfect airplane book - light and easy to read and instantly forgettable.
   
   A 19 yo is hired to look after the Ovitz's 3 children. Unfortunately, even though she is well beyond 19 at the time of writing, her insights are that of a 19 yo and not that interesting or original. This is not a well written book, it could have been far funnier or cleverer. You never read it for the heroine, only for the far more famous/intersting people that she meets and she doesn't really have much of interest to say about them (I met Tom Cruise, I could have died!) I left it at the airport for some other traveller to read...



3. I loved this book! I received it as a gift from a fellow nanny who met Suzanne at a Nanny Convention in Boston. I was a nanny for ten years and the relationships she describes in her book were very familiar to me. I may not have been in Tinseltown, but having worked with many families there were shades of each in her characters. I found her writing to be real and honest. She wasn't writing a 'tell-all' book. She was telling you about her life and the experiences she had. She had me laughing out loud with her and enjoying every minute of what felt like 'our' adventure. Two thumbs up!



4. I couldnt put the book down, I laughed so hard tears would be rolling down my face - I was not shocked by the DIVA attitude in California, but this author tells it well - highly recommend



5. I started reading this book in Target while my kids looked at videos and couldn't leave without buying it. I like this author's style...she puts you right in the mansion with her. I could really relate to her thoughts and experiences. A good read.