4 comments about My Private Life: Real Experiences of a Dominant Woman.

1. I received this book for a birthday gift and I was pleasantly suprised. Mistress Nan is real and very honest with every scene and in her own desires as well. I don't want to spoil the book, however every scene she describes you can "feel" some of the pain and humiliation that her slaves endure...espically Alex. There are 8 chapters dedicated to her, describing their various scenes/relationship and how Mistress Nan is on her own personal conquest to "break" her.



2. This book is a great peak in to some aspects of the BDSM world of one Mistress. It shows her journey in a way that most books miss. I trully enjoyed it on several levels.



3. First let me say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Nan is not the stereotyped femdom you might be thinking of though she can clearly dress up and put on a well-scripted and eleborate scene. The descriptions are not pornographic though they are careful to mention both physical and emotional aspects of the scenes. There are both male and female submissives and bottoms discussed throughout the book, the most extreme scene involve Nana and her primary female lover (she also has a husband). It should stimulate your mind and your groin so be prepared. I would have been better if Nan had gotten more personal -- why she does it, what it feels like to her, how she has changed over time -- as the title suggests.



4. This is the first book I've ever read that I feel is real. This woman has experienced what she has written about. It is NOT fantasy. She has honed her skills to a point that she is an expert at the exchange of power that is paramount to a BDSM scene. This book isn't all about pain or bondage. This book isn't all about fantasies. This book is about power, control and sensuality. You hear about her feelings while she is doing what she is doing. You hear about what her bottoms are feeling. You learn how she gets into their heads and hearts. I'm amazed at the candor with which she writes. This woman is obviously gifted with an amazing power, and is amazingly generous in sharing it with the public.

2 comments about Alaska Women Write: Living, Loving and Laughing on the Last Frontier.

1. A friend sent me this book and am I glad she did! It really gave me a broad view of Alaska and the women that have made it their home. It was great to read such a cross section of short stories and tales of our 50th state.



2. For anyone curious about the mystique of Alaska, this is a must-read. If you can't make a trip to Alaska, this is the next best thing. Not only for women, anyone will enjoy this book.

1 comments about A Woman's Europe: True Stories (Travelers' Tales).

1. This is a wonderful collection of short pieces by women of talent. Not every piece is great literature, but on finishing it I felt I had made new friends.
   
   There are some familiar names who are always reliable or at least interesting. There are new talents as well. I greatly enjoyed Portrait of the Artist as a Bold Man by a charming new author with a bright future.
   
   This is a perfect book for the corner table to read while you have 5 or 10 minutes.

1 comments about Wives of the Signers.

1. Describes the hardships and struggles experienced by the wives of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. A very enlightening read; something that should be a part of every high school American history class!

No comments about The Retrial of Joan of Arc: The Evidence for her Vindication.

3 comments about The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973-1982.

1. This is an intimate peek at the personal musings of an amazingly talented and prolific writer. It closely follows her career moves and family life for ten years with forays into her childhood and school years. It is a great privilege to witness the inspiration and thought processing of one of the great writers of our time about the dozens of books she worked on during that decade in which she was driven to produce continuously to prove her worth to herself, striving for perfection while fearing it was unattainable.
   Embarrassed by her prolificacy after being criticized for it, Oates dives into other interests that happen along (piano lessons, playwriting, book reviews, etc.) to try to distract herself from her incessant writing. "My image is of someone obsessively writing and producing and publishing feverishly..." (p.99). She wants very much to write more slowly, to be more "normal," but once she gets going on an idea she is unable to pace herself. "...Notes on "Bellefleur." More from Raphael's point of view. But slowly. Slowly. I want to take months, years, with this..." (p.263). But despite her desire to write this 592 page novel slowly, her first draft would be completed in eight months and the revision completed in another month and a half.
   By the time I reached the middle of the book I was fairly certain of her obsessive/compulsive tendency. Her urge/need to write has a stranglehold on her mind, except when she is obsessing on something else (like music). The hunger - so common in her early characters - is nowhere to be found in the Oates of the journal. What I do find is a marked lack of interest in food. Maybe the physical hunger and cravings for food, with which she endows her characters, is her way of exploring these emotions and feelings to find out what she is missing. In Oates, that hunger/longing is manifested in a powerful creative urge. Only when she is actively involved in classroom instruction or visiting with friends and colleagues, can she push her writing voice away from the forefront of her mind. But even then, the voice is not stilled - merely muffled. Her mind is always writing, writing, writing, the words tumbling over one and other, recording themselves, to spill out later at the slightest beckoning. "I have all I can do to contend with the images that rush forth, in the fullness and complexity of my ordinary days" (p251).
   This journal is so intimate and soul-bearing, I am repeatedly struck by her generosity in sharing it with us. One wonders why, since she can't possibly need the money or the name recognition. Perhaps it is apologetics for her phenomenal prolificacy (she has written at least 70 books and probably closer to 100) - a need to convince her critics that she labors as hard over her work as any other writer does. Whatever her reason, as a longtime fan, I am grateful for a chance to get the story behind the writer. I closed the book reluctantly and with hope that more decades of her journaling will someday be published.



2. Yea, she writes more than anyone else, but looking into this--an era that some might argue is the best period of JCO's career--is just another reminded why this reader no longer reads her work: it's just not that interesting anymore. There's just so much material by her that's available that's second rate, it seems odd that she's publishing a volume that even she has admitted she has not read. My guess is that if you don't have enough of JCO's books on your bookshelf, you might want to add this one. Or you could ask yourself, "Which work by her do I most want to reread?" If there's an answer to that question, I'd take that book off the shelf, and then ask yourself if it was worth the second look.



3. REVIEW BY BARBARA LIPKIEN GERSHENBAUM SEE ALL MY REVIEWS
   
   People write journals for different reasons which are usually not created for public consumption; at least not while the writer is still alive. Nevertheless, this phenomenon has been known to happen and THE JOURNAL OF JOYCE CAROL OATES 1973-1982 is one such book. Oates is considered the most prolific American writer to come out of the twentieth century and move seamlessly into the twenty-first. If nothing else, this journal humanizes her, which offers fans and readers further understanding of the woman, the writer, her love of teaching and the body of work.
   
   In "A Note on the Text" editor Greg Johnson explains why the ten years between 1973 and 1982 make up the entries chosen to create "THE JOURNAL OF JOYCE CAROL OATES: the magnitude of Oates's "4,000 single-spaced typewritten pages" is too much of a project for an editor to complete in a timely fashion. With this in mind he chose one year of "the uniformly high quality ... the journal entries ... [which he] intended to provide an accurate view of Oates's primary concerns" at that time in her writing career. These pieces "focus on her work, her writing process, and philosophical concerns." However some of her very personal experiences and interactions with family, friends, colleagues and students have made their way into this truncated version of her journal.
   
   In her Introduction Oates tells readers that she actually began to keep a journal from 1971-1972 when she was in London and feeling somewhat homesick. " ... This journal seemed to me at the start a haphazard and temporary comfort of sorts, that would not last beyond [that particular time,] yet, astonishingly, ... the journal has endured, and is now thousands of pages housed in the Syracuse University Library Special Collections. My understanding with myself [was] that the journal would remain haphazard and spontaneous ... never revised or rethought; it would be a place for stray impressions and thoughts that shift through our heads constantly; [it] would be a repository ... for experiences and notes for writing."
   
   The Introduction goes on to explain how Oates rationalized, ruminated upon, questioned and analyzed the entire process of journaling. She wonders if she will be too exposed if her journal is published; will the public read it and somehow sense a blurring of her fiction and these entries? If a journal is considered a private place, it is transformed into something else when others read it ... [one] of "the risks of journal-keeping."
   
   She continues her comments: "What I have seen of this edited/abridged journal, so capably presented by Greg Johnson, affects me too emotionally to make its perusal rewarding: revisiting the past is like biting into a sandwich in which you've been assured, there are only a few, really a very few, bits of ground glass." She goes on to opine upon the reasons why she feels this way: "Does the uncensored journal reveal too much of me? Does the journal of the 1970s/1980s return me to a time in which ... my parents were alive" for example. What? Joyce Oates has not read the published version of her journal ... or at least she has not read all of it. When she talks about a "glass sandwich" readers will have a visceral reaction that will provoke them into thinking about having themselves outed in what they had begun as private writing.
   
   Every journal, regardless of its author, will be a collage of memories, dreams, desires, self-regard, internal turmoil, petty arguments ... warm reconciliation, satisfaction and a whole host of personal experiences seemingly of import only to the author. However, journals cannot help but offer readers a window into the writer's personality, a critique on her/his work so far, questions about her/his status in society: as a person, as a professional, as a careerist and in this case as a writer and teacher. Reputation alone is not enough to sustain the ego of talented people and this drives them to keep working. Their fans often want more ... they want to understand a body of work produced by the recipient of their ardor ... offered in a way different from formal biography or autobiography.
   
   THE JOURNAL OF JOYCE CAROL OATES 1973-1982 is rich in personal and happy reminiscences about her husband, her parents, her joy in gardening, her passion for entertaining, her respect and great regard for fellow writers and other luminaries she has known and/or continues to see. She is generous and humble. In assessing her life in 1981 about eight months after completing ANGEL OF LIGHT and A BLOODSMOOR ROMANCE she writes: "How gracefully things are taking shape, financial, professional, otherwise. ... In all, a lovely day. Amen."
   
   But not every entry is as bright as this one. An intruder invaded her office and "thrust something at me, a tiny package. A razor blade in it, I'm led to believe." Another encounter with violence occurs in the form of a tongue-lashing: "You're very anti-man, aren't you" ("must be confusing me with the feminists".) Oates writes in her journal: "The pointlessness of violence. ... Not simply for the criminal, but for the victim. I don't think I will, or could, learn anything from the experience. Or could I?"
   
   Perhaps she did. Oates speaks in a very American voice and imbues her writing with myths, history, family, ideas and ideals associated with the suburban, urban, academic, political and street images of the landscape of the United States. Some of her books are overtly violent and others use violence as a device to make a larger statement about the culture we inhabit. Yet, she never preaches nor does she knock the reader over the head with potentially vile ideas.
   
   As a matter of fact, when she talks about writing, the process of writing, the formation of characters, the flow of dialogue, the choice of setting, the pace of the plot and in what century or universe the book resides, she concludes: "If I wonder where my personality really exists, in what form it best expresses itself, the answer is obvious: in the books. Between hard covers. Hard covers. The rest is Life."
   
   Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
   
   (c) Copyright 2007, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
   (c) Copyright 2007, Teenreads.com. All rights reserved.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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5 comments about Dark at the Roots: A Memoir.

1. ....but it's just not that funny.
   Great title, great book cover, but stale as a 2 week old loaf of Wonderbread.
   Save yourself the money and effort....buy anything by David Sedaris instead.



2. Sarah Thyre is a BAD girl and she's written one of the most twisted memoirs to prove it. "Dark at the Roots" is shameless (in a really funny way), and one of my favorite chapters has to be "Smell It Like It Is." In it, Sarah explores her fascination with her father's collection of "Playboy" and "Penthouse" magazines.
   
   If I had known Sarah in elementary school, I'm certain she would have gotten me into a whole lot of trouble and I would have loved every minute of it!



3. I loved this book. Sarah is absolutely hysterical. I found myself laughing out loud in bed reading it at night. My only problem is that she hasn't written anything else. Please, Please, write something else, and hurry.



4. To call this book horrible would be like referring to the surface of the sun as "a little warm." What a disappointment! I love "Strangers With Candy", worship both Amy and David Sedaris, and consider Andy Richter hilarious. By all accounts, this book should have rocked my world. The only reason to crack the cover is the flattering photo of the author,(for those of you who watched, she was the scary ugly gym teacher in "Strangers"). The writing falls flat and you feel no sympathy for ANY of the characters. Every member of her family is truly horrible, including her mother, who Thyre tries to portray as a modern-day saint, but comes off as a complete whack job who shouldn't take care of houseplants, let alone children. The description of the book includes the word "hilarious." Don't be fooled. At no point in this ill-conceived jumble of words does anything triggering laughter occur. In fact, I might go as far as to say this book may be laughter's very antithesis. Sarah Thyre comes across as a self-absorbed, whining brat with delusions of grandeur. Everything about this "memoir" is unpleasant. After finishing, I literally felt grimy, as if I'd walked through a swamp. For those of you expecting some sort closure at the end, be prepared. The book just ends. I actually threw my copy away; in good conscience, it would have been wrong to pass it on to other people. They could spend time reading a good book instead of this dreck.



5. Funny, bittersweet, nostalgic, weird and endlessly entertaining. Thyre writes a wry and honest story of her childhood as the girl who drove everyone crazy, herself included. In this chronicle of a smart, funny, and amazingly dishonest child,I alternately chuckled and winced. As a wanna-be preppy princess, young Sara bangs from one social disaster to another, always trying to rise above her tacky reality . A plethora of pop cuture references and lashings of small-town Louisiana dialog opens a window into the not-so-distant past. At least it will remind you of those silly days when social success was greatly inproved by having a Lascoste croc on your shirt. At best you will appreciate that odd girl from the wrong side of the tracks; the girl who drove us crazy but fascinated us. Here we have a memoir that is neither obnoxiously cheerful or mordantly sad. In my book club we so often read memoirs or novels that painfully trace the sad story of someone with a horrible life who wins through to self-knowledge and some form of solace at the end. It's like eating a vat of cabbage, good for you but not very appetizing. In contrast, Thyre's memoir is like Pop Rocks on the toungue.

5 comments about Unshackled: A Survivor's Story of Mind Control.

1. This book is the best I have read on this subject. Mind Control by trama of little children growing up into adults for use by the power elite is just as sick as it gets. It appears this practice is not uncomon and is a criminal abuse of humanity behind the smiling faces of those who are in the know. I wish Unshackled was the only testamony of its kind, but there are many more cases like this, and countless others who were abused by trama and just dumped as duds. All for power and perversion. If you want to know more, this book is a very good read. A+.



2. This book is not an easy read, but it does contain some interesting information that makes it worth buying and reading. If you are into conspiracy theory it is a must have.



3. If I didn't already know that a lot of what Ms. Sullivan speaks of actually goes on, I would think she was an absolute nut. Sadly, most people do not inform themselves beyond the traditional mass-media outlets, and so do not know about things such as MK-Ultra, Project Bluebird, Larry King and the Franklin coverup, or Project Paperclip, all of which can be easily researched via the internet. These people will no doubt write this story off as the rantings of a deeply disturbed person, which I suppose they are in a way. This is a horrible tale of cults, unspeakable childhood torture the specifics of which I will not mention here, but they are unbelievably horrible, and this woman's struggle to get her life and mind back. It is told in a necessarily fragmented way, as she is still struggling to piece the whole picture together, and so it's not Hemingway or anything, but it is clear, concise, and easy to read, with extensive notes (from mainstream, respected sources) following each chapter. If the person who says she is Ms. Sullivan's daughter is who she claims to be, then I completely understand why she is so disturbed by her mother's book, it's a real headful for me so I can just imagine how it is for someone who lived this hell. As fantastic as it seems, this stuff really happens, it really does, and the sad thing is that it sounds so crazy that people just don't believe it. That's why it is allowed to happen. Of course I don't know if her particular story is true, but knowing what I do I am inclined to believe that it is. If you think this is crazy then do an internet search on the topics I mentioned, then order this book and educate yourself.



4. I have read a number of books by survivors and the horrific accounts of abuse all seem believable to me. I'm not sure who Emily is only hoping that it is not another means of disinformation. My cousin's wife had a nervous breakdown due to past ritual abuse. This is happening and it is real, make no mistake. Sad but true. If you really want an eye opener read this book. People need to start pulling their heads out of the sand.



5. Kathleen Sullivan is a very different person than when I first met her. Today, she is well organized, educated, and intelligent. When I first met her, she looked like the walking dead. Her eyes were blank and seemed to look right through me. I saw a very scared woman who didn't know if she was going to make it to the next day or the next hour. I felt very sorry for her, a single mother alone most of the time, taken advantage of at any given moment by perpetrators, especially her father who was also her "guiding counselor." I'm proud to have been her husband and supporting partner during her journey out of hell into the light she lives in today. During the hardest part of her recovery, I cried many tears because of her sorrow. I met and comforted the scared little children inside her. I wanted to lash out at anyone who would want to harm her. She did not deserve the grief, abuse, terror, and torture she endured for decades. I can attest to the grief, tears, sorrow and terror she relived, almost every day, as she wrote Unshackled. When I read the finished manuscript the first time, it was as if Ms. Sullivan was letting her light shine towards those who had never cared for her. I was amazed that her heart was still open to her former abusers and other detractors. I'm glad she wrote Unshackled. I give it 5 stars because it is quality work with far-reaching truths.

5 comments about Finding Angela Shelton.

1. It seems every time I work up the courage to really listen to someone else's story, or to share my own, it wrenches another crack into the shell of that hard kernel of hurt and self-loathing I carry around inside of me. This book helped place another crack without too much angst or tears, because Angela tells her story with openness and honesty.
   
   Angela sets off to film women around the country sharing the name Angela Shelton. She's searching for women's attitudes and outlooks. Not surprisingly, she finds many have been abused. Through her travels and interviews, Angela finds what she was really looking for all along - a sense of belonging and acceptance. A victim of extreme sexual abuse, Angela suffered from low self-esteem. At one point she realizes, "I have a flash of how my whole life, losing my virginity, my relationships, my work, everything has been affected by the beliefs that were set in place when I was little." Sharing others' stories helped her with her own. The more I talk about my own abuse history, or write about it, the healthier I become.
   
   The book is not perfect; for example I wish that it had been written in a more linear manner, and it seemed to drag in places. But it is easily read, especially given the subject matter, and I give it five stars for bravery and fulfilling a need. Angela represents all of us in our search to heal. She comes across as courageous and gritty, and I am thankful that she took on this subject.
   
   With at least one out of four women facing abuse during a lifetime, chances are good that even those not victimized know someone who has been. This is our story, our lives, and the more we talk about it, and normalize it, and recognize it, the faster we can heal, and help prevent future victims.



2. Everyone must read this book. This book is real, its not smoothed over, it tells you what really is going on which is what needs to be heard. Thank you Angela, THANK YOU. You are the most amazing person and you book, is written wonderfully.



3. This book is a must have for anyone who saw the film "Searching For Angela Shelton." Angela takes the reader behind the scenes on her journey toward healing. She allows us to see what the camera did not show. The book was a quick read and makes a great resource to go along with the film.



4. Reading Finding Angela Shelton was like reading my story. The details
   of what happened might vary, but the thoughts and actions were ME. It
   is beyond empowering to know that someone else experienced something
   similar and they have the same thoughts and fears. I used to think I
   was alone and that no one could understand, but there is something
   about another person sharing who has been there. When I read the
   truth, it resonated deep within me--in that place I protected fiercly
   all these years. Angela touched that spot and I will never be the
   same.
   
   Reading this book helped me to feel connected again, and that is huge.
   We are all Angela Sheltons and we are not alone. Her brutal honesty
   and irreverent humor totally captivated me, and I want to speak the
   truth, too. And I learned that the truth WILL set you free. You will
   become more than you ever thought you could. You will dream dreams and
   imagine a life beyond surviving. You will have a life beyond
   surviving.
   
   Finding Angela Shelton is a wake up call to survivors. Talk about your
   experience. Stop hurting yourself. Love yourself. We are more than
   what happened to us. We all have the capacity to move beyond our
   abuse, and this book is our roadmap to healing.



5. I couldn't put Angela's book down. Her personal honesty and sensitivity to all the Angelas' lives was phenomenal.
   
   Angela's humor and willingness to rise above life's circumstances comes through loud and clear. She is an amazing writer, who tells a gripping story about a remarkable journey.

4 comments about Princess Alice: The Life and Times of Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

1. I read this book about 10 years ago, skimmed it actually at the time, and enjoyed it for its gossipy detail.
   
   I re-read it in the past few days and realize how.....how shall I put this....mean-spirited it is. I believe that this is because of the style of Carol Felsenthal first and foremost.
   
   Now, Alice Roosevelt Longworth was no saint. She was a narcissistic trouble-maker, a beautiful and spirited and intelligent woman who could have done so much more with her life. Instead she delighted in bitterness , and witty and smart thought she was, her character was riddled with anger.
   
   Her childhood was tragic. Her mother died 2 days after her birth. Her father, Theodore Roosevelt, had adored her mother almost to the point of goddess worship. Received opinion is that Alice Lee Roosevelt, mother of the subject of this book, was warm, open and loving. And beautiful (this without the cosmetics that enhance beauty today.) It is interesting to imagine what would have happened if Alice Lee had lived on to parent her daughter in a different way.
   
   So, Alice Lee dies suddenly and unexpectedly two days after baby Alice's bith. What does Theodore Roosevelt do with this little girl who bears an uncanny resemblance to her late mother? Does he cherish her, nurture her, think of her as a connection to her late mother's spirit?
   
   No. He basically shuts her out of his life. He doesn't want to see her and pays scant attention to her. He ships her off to be raised by his sister Bamie, a wonderful woman who loved little Alice dearly and would also have made a good parent, Then he marries Edith Carew, who was a childhood friend of his and whom he had thrown over to marry the idolized Alice Lee. Edith Carew insisted on taking care of Alice, but her parenting was based partly, I think, on punishing this daughter of her rival -- how easy it was for her to pretend to care and then muck up this step-daughter's self-esteem entirely. It's really an ugly story, and it's almost painful to read about Edith Carew Roosevelt's subtle and uncharitable coldness toward the little girl whom she could pretend to care about -- when she was actually effecting a very subtle and uncharitable revenge.
   
   No wonder Alice Roosevelt was messed up.
   
   My problem with Carol Felsenthal's book is that she does not examine fully the reasons for Alice Longworth's troubled, combative personality. She takes a light and almost National-Enquirer type tone and, in the end, makes everyone seem like a cartoon stereotype. Does anyone come out of this book as truly likeable and a good person? Even Eleanor Roosevelt is turned into a buffoon.
   
   I wish someone like Joseph Lash or Edmund Morris would write, or would have written, a bio about Alice. (I think both gentleman have passed away, so I probably should say "I wish someone with their depth and even-handedness had written a bio about Alice.")
   
   I would suggest learning more about the sad ramifications of this woman's life by reading about other members of the Roosevelt family -- Alice is mentioned often.
   
   Does anyone else know of a better-written bio of Alice Roosevelt Longworth? I'm really interested in reading one.



2. A good biography I couldn't help but feel sorry for Alice. Her mother died at birth and there were many examples where her father didn't seem to care about her. Leaving her with her aunt to go out west. The second review gives more examples. A lot of her behavoir and wild antics seemed to steam from a lonely girl looking for attention from her family. No wonder Alice loved all the attention she got at as the president's daughter.



3. In her many years in Washington, Alice Roosevelt Longworth saw and considered all. The biting wit she so happily shared (she had a pillow made that said,"If you have nothing nice to say, sit next to me)
   with friends and, more pointedly, enemies is on view.
   
   It was not a happy life, death seemed too often and too soon to be a companion. Starting with her own Mother at child birth and continuing to include her Father, husband and Daughter. Privately she grieved but publicly she knew she had a responsibility to keep fresh the memory of the deceased.
   
   Never one to not do what wasn't acceptable, she cheerfully tells of being drunk in Japan, plotting to marry Nicholas Longworth, who would become Speaker of the House and writing a colume to rival her distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. (Mrs. Longworth's was more amusing).
   
   As hardcore biography this isn't a gem but as the view of a fascinating life it reveals what we need to know of a famous American. Certainly, her influence and power-which were real-did not extend beyond the beltway of Washington D.C. Too often viewed as a "society lady" by the country at large, (hence the title "Princess Alice")known outside Washington principally for a popular song, "Alice Blue Gown" she was the keeper of that now dead feature of that stimulating, intellectual life, the salon.
   
   What is noted is her great humanity that was never part of her public persona. Reaching out to a pre-married Eleanor (and subsequently being rebuffed and vilified by this same person) or allowing her home to be used as a hostel during a war, was all part of what was a very private person. She had discovered, and the reader can learn a lesson here, that to be very private, you need to be a bit public. Liked or Loathed, all of Washington came to her-if in some cases a bit reluctantly.
   
   Only in one instance did her instincts for the country she truly loved let her down;her involvement, along with Charles Lindbergh, in the abortive movement, America First. It was an episode she regretted, but, as was typical of the Lady, never quite apologized for.
   
   A subject such as Alice Roosevelt Longworth needs a book about them for posterity. She belongs to a group of people that while time will never entirely forget, the personality and importance of her and her times will be diminshed.
   
   It's an easily read book, an enjoyable glance at a character, in a time when character meant something more than a strange person, who in subtle ways had a pleasantly nasty way of influencing people. Enjoy her that way and this book is a good place to make her acquaintance.



4. This is a very readable book that moves you quickly along this biography of Alice, and her family. Page 16 mentions Teddy's attacks of asthma and cholera morbus, and his interest in animal specimens. Could this exposure to arsenic explain his problems? The book says the Roosevelt family was wealthy, but does not say how it was acquired. TR entered politics after his honeymoon, but the book does not tell why (p.25).

   Alice's mother died in childbirth. TR's mother died the same day. Expected happiness was replaced by unexpected sorrow. TR left for the Dakotas where he tried out cattle ranching; he lost most of his fortune in the 1886 drought and the severe winter. He returned to NY and the steady income of a Government job, and married again. Young Alice never knew her mother, but only her stepmother (p.37). Alice grew up lonely with no playmates (p.41). She caught a disease that left one leg shorter than the other. Alice enjoyed her semiannual trip to her Boston grandparents, who spoiled her (p.37). Her stepmother would tell her that her mother was stupid, her father wanted to give her away, and TR proposed to her first and was rejected (p.47)! What a heavy emotional load for an 8 year old! Page 49 tells more about this disfunctional family. Alice was the only female member of an all-boys club where the boys dressed in girls clothes! Alice rejected Christianity and grew up a pagan with no formal education (p.53). Would she be considered an abused child today?

   TR's enemies prevented him from a second term as Governor and shunted him off as Vice President. Then a lone gunman appeared and changed Administration policies. Alice began to socialize with the new-monied "Four Hundred" who disregarded old-money proprieties; TR and Edith held them in "high-minded contempt" (p.57). Alice had an income from her mother's parents. Was her behavior a way to gain attention from her parents (p.66)? Does this explain the rest of her life? There is a lesson here for any parents in a similar situation. Alice wrote "Father doesn't care for me ... as much as he does for the other children" (p.70). Alice was anxious to escape her parents by a marriage, like countless other girls from more humble backgrounds. It was a dynastic marriage: she got a rich heir of a Congressman, he got the President's daughter and a political ally. But change continued like a flowing river.

   Page 113 shows an old political trick. Get some background facts before meeting a new person, then feed it back as a compliment in feigned admiration. It works every time! Page 129 tells how a political deal was made to keep a Bull Moose candidate out of Nick Longworth's district. Page 130 gives another example of Alice's perverse personality. She bragged about having caused her husband's defeat (p.131)! I wonder if her problems were genetic, or caused by her environment? The rest of the book covers the next 60 years of her life.

   Chapters 10 and 11 make it seem that Paulina and the country would have been better off if Alice died in childbirth. What good has she ever done? These portrayals of the members of the Ruling Class will never be printed in your local newspaper.