5 comments about The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life.

1. This author tries WAY TO HARD to be funny! I did not laugh out loud once. I guess I was too busy rolling my eyes! Not impressed.



2. Laurie Notaro is the Queen of Toilet Humor. She makes "doody" fun! In The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club, the chapters entitled "Suckers" and "The Useless black Bra and the Stinkin' Drunk Twelve-Step Program" make me laugh out loud every time I read them. As soon as I read this book, I recognized Laurie Notaro as a kindred spirit and I wanted to be her friend.



3. As the author of Road Trips, Broken Hearts & Other Debris of Growing Up, I am always on the lookout for women who write books I cannot read on airplanes because I am laughing too hard and too uncontrollably. All Notaro's books are like this, and much like with Dennis Hensley's Screening PartyI wanted to immediately become friends with all the characters. As a veteran of many rough nights and bad decisions, this book is a must read!



4. If you enjoy below average 4th grade level reading, this book is for you. Does this woman really have a column in a Phoenix newspaper?? I'm dumbfounded. I guess some people are easily amused because this book is embarrassing unfunny. I'm convinced she made up all of these stories and I'm left to wonder, if she went to the trouble to invent this "wild child" persona for herself, couldn't she come up with some funnier fiction? The only thing I can figure is that she has no talent as a writer and caught some incredible lucky break somewhere along the way.
   
   I don't know which is more pathetic, these stories being made up, or these stories being true. One thing is for certain, she somehow thinks it is an achievement to be a crass obnoxious ignoramus that takes an almost evil pleasure at hurting the feelings of strangers.
   
   Why she feels the need to impress upon her readers how blatantly in-your-face hip she is and why I am supposed to care, I have no idea. Why did I read it? My girlfriend left it lying by the toilet. We're still arguing over who hates it more. It's so bad we don't want to pack it for our trip home but we have to because it belongs to the library :(



5. This book not only made me laugh out loud while I was reading it, but I also felt compelled to read the funniest passages outloud to any person around me. (Which tended to occur every 5 minutes or so.) Her stories are hilarious and I recommend it highly.

5 comments about Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England.

1. medieval europe was a very rough place to be a woman of royal blood,you have less right than a slave.



2. This is the fifth Allison Weir book I've listened to on audio (after her books Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Children of Henry VIII and The Life of Elizabeth I) plus I've read another (The War of the Roses), and this one is definitely the weakest of the bunch for reasons I'll set forth below. But even weak Allison Weir is enjoyable and full of detail you won't get elsewhere, so as long as you go into it knowing her bias, it's still a worthwhile read, and the audio version of this one is particularly good and unabridged to boot.
   
   As other reviewers have noted, the book is a bit revisionist in its view of Edward II's wife, Isabella, who was nicknamed (well after her death) the She-Wolf of France. While we can certainly be sympthetic to Isabella's plight in life, being married to a man who was a terrible and unpopular king and was most likely involved in a homosexual relationship right under her nose, Weir ends up identifying far too much with Isabella and making her sound like an all-around great gal, which she most certainly wasn't. It's also a bit misleading to call this a biography of Isabella. More like a history of Edward II with a little Isabella thrown in for good measure. That's not entirely Weir's fault, as there isn't that much extant on Isabella's life and, in any event, you can't understand Isabella without knowing what was happening in the lives of the men around her. Still -- the audio version takes up 18 discs, and a great deal of it is lists: where Isabella spent the night on various dates, what she wore, who was in attendence, all interspersed with the larger, historical happenings in the kingdom. It doesn't always mesh together, particularly since on audio you can't skim over the parts that are thrown in just so we don't forget that this is supposed to be a book on Isabella and not one about Edward II. Also, as other reviewers have noted, Weir spends an awful lot of time surmising that Edward II wasn't really murdered but escaped from England and spent the rest of his life following his deposition as a hermit in Italy. And that's not the only surmising Weir does. The book is best when it sticks to the facts and summarizes the various theories surrounding Edward and Isabella, rather than offering poorly supported conclusions. Weir's views about conspiracies having to do with Edward's alleged escape, about Isabella's supposed pregnancies during the time of her affair with Roger Mortimer, and similar matters, simply aren't convincing. But oh those details -- they're just wonderful and not ones you tend to find in other 14th century history books.
   
   Of the five Weir books I've listened to on audio, all but one (the one on Elizabeth) have been superbly narrated. Lisette Lecat reads Isabella in a languid, upper-crust voice that took some getting used to at first, but which I grew quickly to appreciate as it never overshadows the material. My only criticism, and it's a slight one, is that she deepens her voice somewhat unaturally when reading passages of letters written by men, and I would have preferred that she just read them in her own voice. Other than that though, the narration is close to perfect, with the added plus that Lecat can correctly pronounce the numerous French place names. In the Life of Elizabeth I, the narrator not only sounded like the witch in a children's book, she mispronounced Catherine de Medici's last name every time, which took me right out of the narrative. Lecat, on the other hand, is impeccable with both her timing and pronunciation and so this was a pleasure to listen to from a purely audio perspective.
   
   If you've never read much on this time period I wouldn't recommend this as a starting place (Thomas Costain's four book on the Plantagenets are a great place to begin), nor would I recommend it as the first Allison Weir book to read (start with the Six Wives of Henry VIII). But if you are a Weir fan or looking for an alternative and sympathetic point of view about Isabella, by all means jump right in, especially if you need something good and lengthy to listen to on a long drive or commute.



3. It's been almost ten years since I left university, and after years of a staple diet of chick-lit, one of my new year's resolutions has been to read more - um - informational books written on a grade level that is at least on par with junior high! When I first moved to the UK I spent a lot of time refreshing myself on the monarchy, especially during the middle ages and renaissance, and while I remember hearing of Isabella as the "she-wolf" who was also the line to so many other historical happenings (Richard II and the Princes in the Tower, etc), I didn't know anything about her. Neither, obviously, did many other people, and thus, this book was a great way to swim in medieval England for a while and really learn the personalities of people involved.
   
   I grew to like Isabella very much, and was impressed with her as a woman of her time. But my thoughts of Isabella aside, i have to say that this book was definitely on par with all of Alison Weir's previous works. It wasn't always as riveting, and sometimes I felt overwhelmed with information, and there were times when I just couldn't handle more than 15 pages at once, but overall it was an informative read and parts of it were very fast-paced.
   
   I do wish there had been more family trees and maps - I found myself going to wikipedia all the time, and was grateful that I have actually been to Leeds Castle, so I know it's not actually in Leeds, but on nearly the opposite end of England! I think Weir might forget sometimes that a huge percentage of her readers probably don't know how long it would take to go from Islip to Gloucester to Canterbury. So if you don't know a lot about the monarchy and relations, or the geography of the UK, it would probably be a good idea to have wikipedia very nearby!
   
   Definitely a recommended read for history buffs and students alike. Very glad I read it.



4. It's not uncommon for a biographer to develop some sympathy for their subject. In this case, though, one gets the feeling that Weir developed her sympathy before writing the book, and, in fact, set out to do her research to redeem Isabella's reputation, rather than simply to write an account of her life. Which is not intrinsically a bad thing. My problem is that Weir spends too much time disproving one historical theory of Isabella after another when, no matter your bias, the evidence is just not there for a conclusive determination either way. And yet, Weir routinely calls any conclusion but the one she has drawn "speculative." As far as I can tell, her conclusions are just as speculative!
   
   Having said that, Weir is to be commended for the thoroughness of her research. It must be incredibly difficult to come up with so much material about a woman of that time, even one as notorious as Queen Isabella. And Weir does an admirable job of taking the dry account books and other records and turning them into an actual narrative, to say nothing of making that narrative compelling at times.



5. I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them even though they are very historically written. The book started slow and never picked up. I had expected better from a book about Isabella.

5 comments about Living History.

1. This is the first woman to run for President in the United States. If we don't read her book, whose book are we waiting for? A lot women need to wake up to the fact that we need to celebrate one another.
   Show a little sisterhood ladies. Read this important book about a great individual who happens to be a woman! And be proud! She's paved the way for your daughters. Don't you really want to know who she is?



2. So many people want to give their opinion of Hillary and not the book itself. I found the book extremely interesting and informative and the information she provides about all of the things she learned as First Lady I do feel made her perfectly well suited to become President. She knows all the appointments that need to be made, all the jobs that need to be filled, and she's learned what types of comments and actions can get you in trouble while in the White House. I find her incredibly smart and had no idea of all the different issues that she is familiar with and all the people and friends she has made over the years who can and do give her insight. All in all a delightful book and a good read.



3. Most conservatives give this book 1 star. Why? EVERY conservative should read this book. Now if I were judging it purely as a memoir, let's just say that James Frey has nothing on Hillary Clinton when it comes to "embellishment" (or should we call it "mis-writing"?).
   
   But for those conservatives who know how to do a web search or two, this book is rife with useful material. Contrast her story of Watergate versus Jerry Zeifman's account, for instance. Or read pages 440, 448, 465-466 on her account of how she and Chelsea learned about Monica Lewinski (and then ask after repeating the names Juanita Broaddrick, Elizabeth Ward, Paula Corbin, Kathleen Wiley, Gennifer Flowes, Paula Jones, etc. "So, you're telling me that this is how it went down? OK, so choose -- is she the dumbest woman in America or the biggest liar?").
   
   For a real laugh, read her account of Whitewater -- seriously, if you read this out loud, people would think you're doing a comedy routine.
   
   And her rewriting of the history of her health insurance debacle and the aftermath is priceless. Her tales of Bill's leadership and how she was a support are gems.
   
   EVERY conservative should buy several colors of highlighters and read this book (preferably alongside a copy of Dick Morris' Rewriting History). Besides, with every book purchase, you get a free dartboard (the cover).



4. Hillary tells it like it is! She is a wonderful person who works hard everyday to help others around her reach their goals while achieving her own! She is going to make a great frist women perident!! This is a must own CD!!



5. When I tried to buy a book on Hillary Clinton that wasn't by someone with a political axe to grind, it was tough. Obama was everywhere. Finally I decided to see what she herself had to say so I could judge for myself. I had to look hard for her book in a physical bookstore. Amazon has it in its bargain books. I think this says something about how we think we know Hillary Clinton and unless there is more dirt, we don't want to read what she has to say. I am glad I read this.
   
   I found this book much better written than Obama's The Audacity of Hope, although that title is great. Clinton's memoir is definitely from her perspective; it's not Truth capital T, but it's honest and forthright. It's warm and humorous, and occasionally she gets frustrated. You won't learn new things about the Bill Clinton Whitehouse per se, but I did learn new things about Hillary. This book is intelligent and insightful.

5 comments about Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters).

1. GREAT. I thought Couldn't Keep It To Myself was the best book I have ever read. The second greatest is Correctional Institution.... I am sure that I have read nearly 10,000 books in my life but this is best author and I lend my book out and then call people to see where they are and I keep reminding them to not lend it to anyone else without my permission. So good that I bought a second copy just to make sure that if the first one gets lost, that I will always have a copy.



2. I purchased this book on a whim and after reading the reviews of others, and after reading it I would recommend the book as well.
   
   This is a compilation of a number of different stories written by women at the York Correctional Institution (and one teacher). What I found most interesting was what each woman chose to write about. Some wrote about their childhood or other history, others wrote about their time in prison. Those that wrote about their childhood gave us a glimpse into what "went wrong" that led to their crimes. Others that wrote about prison, opened our eyes to what these women must endure now. In some cases, prison was a safer place for them.
   
   The only thing that I thought lacked from the book was the crimes and what made the women commit them. Lamb explains why these aren't included in the book, but still it left me wondering. For the women that killed their husbands, what one thing set them off the edge?



3. I was completely captivated by this book. As you read, you feel so many emotions and become absorbed by each inmate's story and experiences. Most of all, I loved the books humanistic perspective. The stories allow you to see these women for more than just crimes they committed. They are woman, mothers, and sisters who were shaped by abusive childhoods/relationships, drug/alcohol addiction, poverty, racism, self esteem issues, pain, etc. I loved the photographs that were in the book of each inmate. Most were baby pictures, so you get to see them in their innocence, before society and societal pressures took hold of their lives. I felt a deep connection to this book and highly recommend it to others.



4. A lifelong Connecticut resident, I'd often driven past York Correctional Institution but never knew much about it. All I saw was a bleak-looking exterior. I never really paused to wonder about the people who lived there...until I read this book.
   
   For the most part, the women of York Correctional Institution seem fated to be defined by the crimes they committed -- nothing more, nothing less. Then author Wally Lamb came along, offering them a chance to explore the life events that brought them to where they are today -- and more importantly, let the outside world gain a better understanding, too.
   
   This volume includes 12 short stories -- 11 the work of ten inmates, and a final piece contributed by a teacher in the prison school. Despite the huge differences in the women's socioeconomic backgrounds and the crimes that engulfed their lives, several things remain constant throughout most of them. In short, unstable parenting, poverty, and sexual and physical abuse created many victims long before the women were faced with situations in which they victimized others. (This doesn't excuse their actions, of course, but simply sheds more light on their frames of mind and where they were coming from, both physically and emotionally.)
   
   One of the stories that left the biggest impact upon me include "Snapshots of My Early Life," where Diane Bartholomew, convicted of homicide, details her childhood as the youngest of four children, abandoned by a father who continued to haunt their lives after his absence, leading to Barthomew's young pregnancy and marriage. Sadly, Bartholomew died of breast cancer in 2001 and never saw the publication of her work.
   
   Each of the stories is accompanied by a large black and white photograph, providing a literal face to each woman's voice, as well as an epilogue, detailing a bit more about what happened after the woman's release (if applicable), or what happened between the time of the events detailed and the present day.



5. After reading this book, we have to be reminded that not everyone in prison is a bad person, although all have done bad things. All of the stories were heartwrenching, but one of the most disturbing was Diane Bartholomew's. What she must have endured during her marriage to an physical, mental and sexual abuser. These stories were haunting and very moving. We all have a testimony, but these women shared them with all who would read them. Powerful reading.

5 comments about Chicken Soup for the Military Wife's Soul: Stories to Touch the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit (Chicken Soup for the Soul).

1. Everyone who lives the military life can always use some humor to get them through the crazy times. This book offers that. Great book. I like the fact that it is one you can pick and put down anytime and still enjoy and get something out of it.



2. This book is touching, compassionate and reinforces why our country is so great! Have a box of tissues near by this one is a tear jerker!



3. Once again a chicken soup book is great! As a wife of a deployed soldier, this book helps me keep a positive and uplifted spirit. I would reccomend this book to any military wife.



4. It's probably because my husband is in the military and he's not with me right now, but I enjoyed each of these stories, even if some of them plucked at my heart strings a bit too close to home. I read this book on a plane, which I do not recommend! I had to hide every sniffle. Of course, these stories are sometimes a bit cheesy and "feel good," but it's called Chicken Soup for the Soul for a reason.



5. I HATE to read. Typically it bores me and puts me to sleep. With that said, I somehow ran across this book on-line. I read the Amazon reviews and decided to give it a try. I got the book and in one sitting read half of the book straight through. I was addicted to it! I honestly could not put it down. Even the section on "Raising Military Brats" I read although I do not have any children. My husband has 13 months left of his tour in Iraq and it was somewhat comforting to read about WWI or WWII wives who, in their husband's two year deployment, maybe received one letter, if at all. It made me appreciate what I have, even though what I want is thousands of miles away. I definitely recommend it for any military wife.

5 comments about Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations.

1. The author gives absolutely no insight into Gertrude Bell and just recites the itinerary of one trip after another. Bell is made out to be an obsessive cartoon character running around the map like Bugs Bunny. After climbing the Matterhorn, she mysteriously decides to expensively explore the desert -- alone. I'd really like to know more about her. Someone suggested Desert Queen" by Janet Wallach.



2. I have come to enjoy memoir because it is full of feeling as well as information. But Georgina Howell's biography is so full of excerpts from the letters of Gertrude Bell--the subject of this excellent book--that we get a comprehensive sense of Bell's feelings. Howell makes it clear that Bell consistently understated the difficulties in her life. It is certainly a life to know about and to be celebrated.
   
   Gertrude Bell, who died in 1926, is known as the woman behind the creation of modern Iraq. She was born into a wealthy socially conservative family and displayed her brilliance and non-conformity early on. She attended Oxford and was the first woman to attain First Class Honors in History. She traveled to Persia, began her studies of Persian language and literature in Teheran, and fell in love with a man unacceptable to her family. She returned to England, where she continued her studies, adding Arabic to the mix. Never one to live life half way, she discovered the challenge of mountain climbing and conquered several peaks in the Alps, sometimes being the first woman to do so.
   
   Bell made three trips through the uncharted Arabian Peninsula, visiting archeological sites, carefully creating maps, and dropping in to visit sheiks in full evening wear. An important purpose of her travels was to learn about the alliances and customs of the numerous tribes. This knowledge was applied when she began working with the British government to build a unified Arabic nation after the defeat of the Germans and their allies the Turks in WWI.
   
   The unification was a struggle. Howell writes: "The army wins the territory, and the administration takes over; but in Mesopotamia the struggle to install conditions conducive to peace and eventual prosperity would prove as daunting as the battlefront itself...Arabs spoke a common language but were not a common people..." This struggle, which took place almost 100 years ago, has many similarities with the Iraq struggle today. Bell's later life was so intertwined with the founding of Iraq that the details of the political struggle cannot be left out.
   
   Howell does a splendid job of bringing the astonishing Gertrude Bell to life. Her descriptions of the often bleak landscape, the oases of sheikdoms, and the contrast of desert life with Bell's luxurious wardrobe, living style and traveling entourage enliven the biography. Fortunately for us, Bell's family and friends saved her detailed letters. Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations illuminates the many centuries-old causes of the current struggle in the Middle East.
   
   by Judith Helburn
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



3. Well written---engaging story. Historically comprehensive. Provides valuable insight into historical background of current Iraq conflict.



4. Gertrude Bell was an amazing woman. This book is ponderous. The style is flat, the author's point of view uncritical. It reads like a boring history book. If she had done more research instead of just quoting letters and anecdotes from Gertrude's letters she could have fleshed Gertrude out and made her 3 dimensional. There are other authors that have done justice to Gertrude and made her come alive for us to admire.
   This book leaves you feeling like you know alot of facts about Gertrude but nothing about the woman she was.



5. This is a fantastically researched biographical work. It is very in-depth and the research is extremely scholarly. However, my only complaint with this work is that in several places in the book, the timeline is rather fuzzy. I understand that the author is trying to explain certain points of Gertrude's life with more clarity, but it does make it a little difficult to understand when certain things are happening and within what context, i.e. her relationships with men as well as her experiences mountain climbing. The book regains its momentum when discussing the situation in the Middle East. It would have been interesting to see some discussion of the politics of modern day Iraq, as well as connections to British and American policies currently. However, it was a very scholarly work which was also a pleasure to read.

5 comments about Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia.

1. Janet Wallach's history of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), Desert Queen, was read by my book club at least twice over the years, and several members have remarked that this was one of the best books the group has ever read. Hmmm. I guess they forgave the author her writing style...
   
   Without question, Bell is a fascinating subject; a woman who played a major role in Middle Eastern politics, and yet whose story has rarely been told. A brilliant, curious female, she was the first woman to earn a first-class degree in modern history at Oxford, she wrote seven influential books on the Middle East and, following WWI, was named oriental secretary to the British High Commission in Iraq. She spoke several languages fluently, including Persian and Arabic and was an expert on Arab affairs and Middle Eastern politics. She created detailed maps of the country that would become Iraq, wrote travel books, served as an intelligence agent, was instrumental in creating present-day Iraq, maneuvered to put King Faisal on the throne of the new kingdom of Iraq, became an accomplished historian and archaeologist, and founded the first museum for antiquities in Baghdad.
   
   All this she achieved while facing the obstacles and prejudices of being a woman in a man's world. She enjoyed a challenge and defied all social customs for women of her day. Being a woman was both her greatest asset and her biggest barrier in a lifetime of unusual ambition. She found women insufferably dull, and at parties she would head straight for where the men were gathered discussing important topics. Needless to say, she offended the wives and annoyed the men wherever she went. Yet she had a unique ability to endear herself or make herself indispensable to all levels of male Arab society. As a woman, she understood the subtleties of the culture, which were crucial to political success. This ability enabled her to build relationships with the people, helped her reach her goals, and gave her an important advantage over her team members.
   
   Unfortunately, what should be a lively and exciting account of one woman's incredible achievements is impeded by Wallach's dry, tedious, academic prose. Though the book's academic tone might seem to lend credibility, Wallach's level of research itself seems questionable and not as thorough as her subject deserves. While Desert Queen offers biographical information on a praiseworthy woman and an important perspective on the situation in the Middle East, it should not be considered a definitive work for either or an afternoon's light reading. Put on your hip boots, Myrtle. The slogging is heavy.



2. Very comprehensive and detailed account of an extroardinary woman whose influence still shapes the Middle East today.



3. I enjoyed learning of this part of the story of the Arab revolt, as well as something about Ms. Bell's life and activities, and for those reasons I appreciate Ms. Wallach's efforts in producing this book. On the other hand, I found her repeated and gratuitous belittlements of T.E. Lawrence, and her attempts to diminish his work and achievements in order to promote Ms. Bell's stature and significance, annoying. Combined with her tendency to gush over her subject's behaviour, accomplishments, and daily life, it left me feeling that I could only consider the work to be suggestive, rather than authoritative, and that I would have to independently verify anything of importance that I found in her narrative. This seems to me a pity, since the main advantage of a historical or biographical work would seem, to me, to be making unnecessary or redundant such labour for potential readers.



4. As has been mentioned by others, I too wonder at the literary excesses of this book. "She sensed his profound hunger....". "....her heart pounding, her cheeks burning hot, and as his blue eyes burned with desire, he took her in his arms".
   Gertrude Bell, an outstanding woman, deserves a better, a more maturely written biography. Thankfully, they are out there.



5. I began to read this book with anticipation. I was a put off by the sort of breathless tone more worthy of a bad romance novel.
   
   About twenty pages in, I was surprised by a reference to the Ottoman Empire expanding since the 13th century from Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire expanded around Constantinople from the 13th to the 15th centuries, until they finally took the city in 1453, and promptly renamed it Istanbul.
   
   I soldiered on, until I was informed that British were fighting Germans in the Boer war in the late 1890s. The Boers, descended from Dutch colonists, would have been surprised to hear themselves described as German.
   
   These two mistakes, obvious to anyone with a decent knowledge of history, ruined my willingness to accept anything else in the book. I put down the book, never knowing if Miss Bell was able to overcome her lost early love.
   
   Gertrude Bell's life seems to be worthy of a good biography. This isn't it.

5 comments about Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (Ballantine Reader's Circle).

1. Alison Weir is my favorite author and I decided to read this book after seeing the movie "The Lion in Winter". As always, Alison Weir does a great job! Eleanor was definitely an interesting person, as was Henry. Great book!



2. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life, by Alison Weir, is a absorbing look into the life of one of Europe's most intriguing queens. Born in Aquitaine, she was married off to King Louis of France. Her marriage to him was annulled, and Eleanor married King Henry II of England. She then became mother to two kings of England. What emerges from this book is an in-depth look at not only the life of this queen, but insight into the world of the laste-12th century. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a truly remarkable and unusual woman, having had more power than other women of the period and having had a dynamic personality.
   
   It turns out that, despite her notoriety, not much is truly known about Eleanor (in fact, there exists not even an accurate painting or sculpture of her, and some periods of her life are unaccounted for), but Weir does an amazing job in this biography of putting the pieces together. I hadn't known much about the life of this fascinating queen before reading this book, but I learned a lot and was thoroughly entertained by the way in which the author portrayed the period. Weir is first-rate in the historical accuracy department, so that's why I keep returning again and again to her nonfiction. There's also a certain sense of storytelling she has that makes her books be more than simply a recitation of facts, which makes Eleanor of Aquitaine highly readable.



3. While I learned quite a bit from this book, I didn't find it very well written. It was too "text-booky" and way too long to be an enjoyable read. While I haven't gone looking for another book about Eleanor, I hope there is one better written than this.



4. Overall this is an interesting book about not only Eleanor, but that whole first generation of Plantagenets, including Henry II and his sons. As some other reviewers have noted, Eleanor herself seems missing from large parts of the book, due no doubt to lack of enough information, and it seems the book's title should reflect its actual subject matter. Saying it is a biography of Eleanor is somewhat misleading. The last chapters, after Henry II dies, return more to the story of Eleanor, but some of her facts are clearly off.
   
   As one example, I was put off by Weir's account regarding the Hugh de Lusignans and Isabella of Angouleme. According to Weir, after John abducted Isabella from Lusignan (in 1200), John then gave his ward Matilda, daughter of Count Vulgrin of Angouleme, to Lusignan, and she bore him a son who became Hugh X. Only problem is, Matilda and Hugh IX de Lusignan had married over ten years earlier, about 1189; and Hugh X was either born in 1183 or 1195, but was clearly born before John became King and took Isabella. Historians are uncertain whether Isabella had been betrothed to Hugh IX or Hugh X, yet all agree that after John died in 1216 she married Hugh X -- yet Weir would have it that Hugh X wasn't even born until closer to the time of Isabella's own son Henry III. Weir brushes quickly over her incorrect version of this, and has her facts completely wrong -- so readers should be aware that Weir doesn't always check her facts.



5. I have been fascinated with Eleanor of Aquitaine and was looking for a good, well-researched biography of her. Having read and enjoyed other books by Alison Weir, I thought this would be the one to read. However, as another reviewer mentioned, Weir took one of history's most fascinating women and made her "dull as dishwater" in this book. I don't know exactly what Weir could have done differently, but if Eleanor of Aquitaine's life was as interesting and exciting as it seems to have been, I don't know how this biography could have been so dull! The only reason I didn't give it fewer than three stars was because of the incredibly thorough research Weir appears to have done.

5 comments about Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World.

1. "Rita introduces the normal housewife and career woman to the nomadic lifestyle. Her choice to leave a lavish world of Hollywood parties and famous friends for a backpack, muddy flipflops and no how-to map for foreign travel was to say the least, CRAZY. But it works. It is encouraging, exciting, uplifting and inspiring. Couchsurfers of the world will embrace this novel. "



2. My daughter gave me a copy of Rita's book to read at a low point in my life when I was 53 - having been downsized, diagnosed with a chronic disease and divorced. This book gave me hope that life after 50 could be not only interesting but wonderful. I began to explore the possibilities of doing some of the things I had set aside earlier in life - even though I was "older". It also helped me to realize that I could live my life as a single person and survive! This isn't a travelogue about people and places. It's a personal journey that's been told in a wonderfully personal way. Thank you, Rita, for the inspiration!



3. This was a book I hated to put down and always looked forward to reading. Rita formed 'real' relationships with the people from the country she visited and eloquently and sensitively describes them to the reader. It's really a treasure to read. Gives the reader a taste of what each country and culture is like. Since, I have read Eat, Pray, Love and it doesn't even compare. I don't know what all the hype is about. Rita's book far surpasses it!



4. This book is truly magical. It is one of the best books I have ever read. The writer captures her experiences in such a way that you really feel like you are there with her, and you really get to know her. I even e-mailed the author and she e-mailed me back!
   
   I read this book while I was backpacking with a group of high school students (as their leader). I enjoyed it so much that I just HAD to start reading it out loud . . . the kids really enjoyed it, and we all got to travel around the world together.
   
   I don't know why some of the reviewers didn't enjoy the last part of the book . . . I enjoyed every second of it, and I highly recommend it!!



5. This book was a gift which I am extremely grateful for. I found this book to be insightful and enjoyable on many levels. On the surface, it provides the story of an individual whose life has changed due to divorce and the subsequent experiences she has while choosing a new path. We learn about interesting countries, cultures, foods, etc. But on a deeper level there is a spiritual journey - a reawakening to a different way of life and experience.
   
   I'm amazed at some of the reviews I read. Many of the individuals who rated the book poorly have not contributed any other reviews so I am unable to determine if it is simply a matter of different taste in reading material or if they really just missed the point. Several have an undercurrent of sour grapes jealousy, as if they didn't enjoy the book because they don't have the courage, opportunity, or desire to do what Rita did, but they are bound and determined to criticize her for her choice. Others seem to have missed that this is the story of growth and experience in challenging situations. Perhaps they have never experienced what it is like to sit alone in a fine restaurant in a strange city for dinner. The culture in the U.S. is so geared towards "couples" that an individual doing anything alone is looked at with suspicion and sometimes contempt. Adding the very real physical danger for a single woman alone to travel around the world on a shoestring I fail to see how anyone could miss that this choice embraced risk and change which all too many of us are afraid to do - moreso the older we get.
   
   I did not find Rita to be condescending, superior, or spoiled as some have said. I found her book to be genuine, with an honest desire to connect with people in different countries and cultures. Just because in some situations (such as the Bali decision about language which one reviewer ridiculed) she opted to take a "safer" route rather than risk offending people that does not make her deserving of the comments I have seen posted. It seems to me that these reviewers are the ones displaying the "Ugly American" behavior I find so obnoxious. Rita went to other countries, worked with the people who lived there, learned from them, shared their lives for a time. Because she moved on to other places does not make the treasure of the friendships and connections any less valuable and real.

5 comments about The Diana Chronicles.

1. This is a well written and compulsively readable book, which captures the essence of Diana better than any other biography I've read - and I've read many. Most books about Diana seem fall into one of two camps: either they are overly gushing and sympathetic (eg Andrew Morton, Paul Burrell) or they are critical in the extreme (eg Lady Colin Campbell, Patrick Jephson). Tina Brown is neither. She calls Diana out on her untruths (it's highly unlikely that Diana deliberately threw herself down the stairs) but also points out where her paranoia was justified (yes, the Squidgeygate tapes were deliberately released).
   
   There's not a lot of new material here (what was there left to find out?), but it's a very comprehensive look at Diana's life that pulls together all the various things that are known about her in such a way that you feel that you are viewing the truest and most complete picture yet. It also gave me a strong sense of what life behind the Palace walls is actually like and why Diana felt so isolated and uncomfortable there.
   
   Tina Brown is particularly good at getting inside Charles and Diana's heads: explaining Charles's misgivings at the time of the engagement or Diana's thoughts when she agreed to the divorce. At one point she refers to Diana being a tactician rather than a strategist (always going for the short term win rather than thinking of the long game), which I thought was a very astute observation. She discusses the Charles/Diana/Camilla triangle at great length, and ultimately concludes that quite possibly the marriage could have worked had Camilla not been ever-present (Camilla doesn't come across very well at all).
   
   This is a long book which starts a little slowly, but from the time that Diana meets Charles it races along. It's entertaining, it's insightful and it leaves you wistful for what could have been.



2. I loved this book because there was a lot to read, and it was all well-researched. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Diana got married when I was 5 years old, so I grew up reading about her. As a teenager, I devoured a lot of what was written about her. With these references floating around in my head, I was pleasantly surprised when I found the events I had read about in the papers described in greater detail, or when I read about events I didn't actually know about. Ms. Brown's accounts of a typical summer holiday at Balmoral were insightful and helped me to appreciate the lifestyle of the British Royal Family much better. When I watched The Queen, I noticed that much of the information in Ms. Brown's book was corroborated. I finished reading the book without taking sides. If anything came away with the impression that if Diana and her relatives were less arrogant, they would have been more compassionate or intervened more forcefully. Diana might have received counseling that would have saved her life. I can't quite understand why I was so taken with Diana as the mythological princess come to life. This incisive biography definitely broke the spell.



3. I bought the book as a gift.
   The person got really happy with the book.



4. The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown do not add much to our knowledge of the life and death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Nonetheless, Tina Brown's access to people and the 2007 publication date which allowed her to review all that was known before the inquest of that year and the next, does provide us with the most extensive compilation of quotations yet assembled in one place.
   
   While venturing to comment frequently on Diana's psychological state, Brown refers to but does not take into account her mother's alcoholism, the double-dealing of her sisters especially Jane Fellowes or similar bonding difficulties in Diana's life. Brown does, however, clearly emphasize the princess's astounding isolation in her early palace years.
   
   Brown also seems a bit bemused by the continual reports, from those who were present, of the healing touch the Princess seemed to have had, and of the gift of light Diana so willingly brought to so many. Brown does agree that Princess Diana always `rose to the occasion' and never disappointed those waiting for her, regardless of her personal state, even from the earliest days of her marriage.
   
   One of Brown's main contributions is the clear statement that El Fayed's ten-year shouting campaign about a murder conspiracy has almost obscured the fact that it was his son, his hotel and his staff that in the end were responsible for the death of the Princess of Wales.
   
   The other point Brown makes is that, on the evidence, Diana and Charles liked each other, cared for one another and that without Camilla might have made a go of their reationship. Thus Brown hints at but again does not develop the story of Camilla's tenacity. Perhaps especially because of Charles' inability to resist Camilla, it seems impossible for Brown to paint a picture of Charles as someone fit to be king and defender of (the) faith, at least according to the standards set by his mother and grandfather. Brown reluctantly, and almost in spite of herself, reveals Charles' failure to be courteous to the young woman he was escorting as she struggled to cope with their early engagements.
   
   Roy Strong, the fastidious director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, met the couple at the unveiling of an exhibition at his museum and told Brown « I don't think he - Charles - looked after her enough. » Patsy and David Puttnam, a film producer, were present at a dinner in 1984 at the London home of Lord Waldegrave and his wife Caroline. While Diana was being `watched' and reported on to the palace, Brown tells us that « In fact, it was Charles' bad behaviour, not Diana's, that made an impression on the Puttnams that night. While Diana was solicitous and affectionate towards the Prince, he was openly dismissive towards her. `He behaved as if she were an irritant,' said Patsy. `He would have liked her to be invisible and she knew it.' »
   
   Brown is, overall, another Charles apologist, but then Diana is dead, Charles is alive and likely will be king and Brown is still a working girl in need of the next good job. Still, on two key issues of interest - was it Diana or Camilla who rendez-vous'd with Charles in the train before the marriage, and is it Charles or Hewitt who fathered Prince Harry - Brown only repeats already aired information and gossip, without even trying to put the pieces together in ways that might suggest new readings.
   
   In places the book seems poorly edited or awkwardly written, trying to `bridge the pond' in a way that sometimes leaves it stranded in the mid-Atlantic. Nevertheless, if you are a gossip hound who loves to know what key players in any drama `really said' this book will probably be of interest. If you have not read the « Diana literature » as it has emerged, this book offers a very good summary overview.



5. This book was a little too long, and could have dispensed with some of the endless trivia about England's nobility. But the saga of Princess Di is otherwise written in an entertaining style, and I believe the subject herself would have approved. The book shows just how stultifying royal life really is, and how difficult it was for a young woman to adjust to what she thought she wanted. It also gives me some qualms at the thought that Charles might someday become king. From what Tina Brown writes, he doesn't seem like the kind of person who should be given any real power...luckily, the monarchy doesn't have much!