5 comments about Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo.

1. I bought this book after re-watching the movie taken largely from this exhaustive biography. As someone who has read many bios, let me say that this is a refreshing and encouraging alternative to the fawning and excessive grocery store drivel and/or the dull and fact-filled dissertations that describe most biographies. Hayden Herrera manages to combine a staggeringly comprehensive detailing of Kahlo's life with an easy prose that makes for an engaging read. I know far more about this artist than I could've imagined and it is largely first-hand accounts either from the pages of Frida's own diaries and numerous letters or the people who were there. Herrera keeps her personal opinions regarding the events to a minimum and allows the events to speak for themselves. The life of Frida Kahlo needs no additional padding or maudlin tricks to engender a connection to anyone with a heart and soul. When the author does speculate, it comes from someone who has clearly studied her subject thoroughly and backs up her theories with a wealth of compelling evidence and sensible arguments. While her appreciation for Kahlo is obvious, Herrera does not stop short of being critical, questioning Kahlo's motives, and revealing the stark humanity and insecurity that Kahlo tried to obscure with her public persona as the confident, outspoken, provocative enchantress sporting her exotic Tehuana finery.
   However, the best use of Herrera's research and the clear compassion and empathy she has for this incredible woman is when she analyses Frida's paintings. I found myself continuously turning back and forth from the detailed observations and interpretation to the paintings and trying to understand what the author is talking about. It was fascinating reading and a wonderful exploration that shed light into the depths of Frida's intensely personal art.
   Two last notes: First, the version I bought does not sport Salma Hayek on the cover but instead one of Frida's many self-portraits. Apparently the publishers corrected this unfortunate decision based on movie marketing. Second, I was fortunate enough to take in the amazing exhibit of Frida Kahlo at the Philadelphia Museum just a few weeks ago and it was a moving and special day. Seeing the actual frames dripping blood, the size and grandeur of some of the works juxtaposed with the smaller works, and the sheer emotionally gravity of her art was something I'll never forget. Having read much of this biography by that time, I was able to bring that much more to that exhilarating opportunity.
   Frida Kahlo was not just an extraordinary artist but was moreover an extraordinary person. Herrera's heartfelt, deeply researched, and brilliantly written biography allows those of us who never knew her to feel as if we have and to share in the universal quality of her painful work. That alone makes us better people for having experienced it.



2. This is a paintakingly detailed biography, yet rather than making for tedious reading, it flows smoothly from the pages...Hayden Herrera has done an incredible job with the story of Frida Kahlo, the most famous Mexican artist in history.
   
   Written in the late 1970s' (when many of Frida's friends and intimates were still alive to interview), this excellent book combines letters (to and from Kahlo), first person anecdotes and historical records (along with a decent selection of photos and paintings), to create a sweeping portrait of a very, very interesting life.
   
   Everything you ever wanted to know about Frida (and maybe some stuff you didn't), is in this book.
   
   "Frida" is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys Frida's work or just wants to know more about an interesting, talented, brutally honest (yet very vulnerable) woman.



3. I learned about Frida when I took art history in college. I always wanted to know more about her because of her art work. She was so passionate! Although she was considered an abstract artist. Her art was very REAL. You can feel what she feels by looking at her art. This book really helps you understand what happened in her life and attached the painting that went along with that specific period in her life. Very well written.



4. Since her death, Frida Kahlo has become something of an exalted icon, representing for millions of people the alegría of a life fully lived. Hayden Herrera's insightful book both supports the artist's status, and provides devotees who never met Frida the chance to know their idol in depth, to familiarize themselves with her happiness and suffering, to experience her highs and lows.
   
   The book's mixture of intimate biographical details (a thorough chronology and evocative descriptions of events), psychological analysis and art criticism create an intensely vivid picture of Frida Kahlo, the world in which she lived, and the means by which her art conveyed her mind and body's pain. Objectivity is retained throughout; unflattering and negative aspects of Frida's personality are discussed with attention equal to that devoted to the subject's positive traits.
   
   As Hayden Herrera's biography shows, the benefits to Frida of putting brush to easel - with her deliberate, small strokes - were manifold: not only was painting a solace and diversion, it was also a visual expression of the pain resulting from a terrible bus accident in which she was involved when she was 18, miscarriages, and the hurt of her husband Diego Rivera's infidelities. She also used painting as a means of earning money and limiting her financial dependence on Diego after they married for a second time. (While during her lifetime one of Frida's paintings might fetch $200 from a private buyer, nowadays even small-scale works have sold for over $1,000,000 at auction.)
   
   To me, an appealing aspect of Herrera's bio is its lack of pretense (appropriately, as pretension is something Frida disliked in any form): you won't find any flowery, purple prose here, nor do the author's analyses and assertions smack of arrogance. It is quite apparent that Hayden Herrera knows her subject top to bottom, but I never felt as if facts and dates were crammed into the text superfluously, simply as proof that she knew them.
   
   If it happens at all, it will be many years before Hayden Herrera's "Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo" is replaced as the definitive biography on the subject. Having read it cover to cover three times, I can't imagine a better-written or more stimulating study of this truly unique, truly gifted person.



5. An inspiring Biography of famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It was comprehensive, read like a documentary and at some points was long and boring with gory details. Frida was such an interesting person it was worth the struggle to get to the end. I now understand her and her works so much better. I think she was an odd and eccentric person that was gifted with natural artistic talent. I recommend looking at her paintings at the same time you listen to the audio since the audio is so descriptive almost like a narrative from a museum. It doesn't make sense unless you see the works at the same time. I found them on a website dedicated to her. There is nothing like her art, she is truly original!

3 comments about Eudora Welty : Stories, Essays & Memoir (Library of America, 102).

1. Each new volume from The Library of America, the non-profit publisher that has become the de facto literary hall of fame, is a cause for celebration. Its goal of preserving in an enduring format the best fiction and non-fiction is a significant bulwark against the encroaching tides of cultural relativism that attempts to render any value judgments meaningless, as well as a consumer society that insists that if it ain't new, it ain't good.
   
   In the case of Eudora Welty, we're given two volumes: a collection of five novels ("The Robber Bridegroom," "Delta Wedding," "The Ponder Heart," "Losing Battles" and the Pulitzer-winning "The Optimist's Daughter"), and another of her essays, her memoir "One Writer's Beginnings" and her short stories. From her first published short stories, "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies" in 1937, to her last novel in 1972, Welty captures with her highly readable style and sharp eye and ear the varieties and eccentricities of Southern life.
   
   But while the South claims Welty as one of its own, she may not necessarily return the favor. Teh cause is both geographic and a matter of choice. Although she was born in Jackson, Miss., in 1909 and lived there all her life, her father was from Ohio and her mother from West Virginia, a state created by the Civil War that went for the Union. This isn't Margaret Mitchell we're talking about here.
   
   Then, in her essay "Place in Fiction," she stresses that while it is important for a writer to capture the feeling of an area, it is not the paramount goal in fiction:
   
   "It is through place that we put out roots ... but where those roots reach toward ... is the deep and running vein, eternal and consistent and everywhere purely itself, that feeds and is fed by the human understanding."
   
   But what pedigree does not provide, her environment probably did, for her work contains those elements poularly associated with Southern fiction. "Delta Wedding" celebrates the Southern family through the sprawling Fairchild clan and its passel of sons, daughters, cousins, aunts, great-aunts, nieces and nephews, all involved in each others' lives to a degree rarely seen today.
   
   Many of her stories revolve around characters marginalized by society, struggling to exist and reach out to others: the simple Lily Daw who tries to evade the determination of the town's ladies to either marry her off or send her to the asylum; the generous, slightly retarded Daniel Ponder who would give away everything he has at the drop of a hat; the demented Clytie in "A Curtain of Green," who rushes about looking in people's faces until, seeing her reflection in a barrel of rainwater, dives in and drowns.
   
   Eudora Welty was a sharp, perceptive writer, and her enshrinement by the Library of America is most welcome.



2. "Listening," "Learning to See" and "Finding a Voice," Eudora Welty entitled the three chapters of her autobiography "One Writer's Beginnings," the concluding entry in this collection, one of the two Library of America compilations dedicated to her work. And while these may be steps that most writers will undergo at some point, Welty's compact autobiography is notable both because it allows a rare glimpse into the celebrated writer's otherwise fiercely protected private life and it illustrates the roots from which sprang such extraordinary protagonists as "The Ponder Heart"'s Edna Earle and Daniel Ponder, Miss Eckhart and the Morgana families in "The Golden Apples" and, of course, the anti-heroes of her Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Optimist's Daughter," Judge McKelva, his second wife Fay and (most importantly) his daughter Laurel.

   A native and - with minimal exceptions - lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi, Welty received her first introduction to storytelling as a listener; and early on, learned to sharpen her ears not only to a story's contents but also to its narrator and its protagonists' individual nature: "[T]here [never was] a line read that I didn't hear," and "any room ... at any time of day, was there to read in, or to be read to," she notes in "One Writer's Beginnings," adding that the discovery that all those stories had been written by someone, not come into existence of their own, not only surprised but also severely disappointed her. Equally importantly, family visits to relatives brought out the born observer in her; each trip providing its own lessons and revelations, each a story onto itself - the seed from which later grew the literary creations collected in this compilation and its companion volume. At the same time, her father's interest in technology introduced her to photography as a means of capturing visual impressions, one moment at a time; and when traveling around Mississippi as an agent for a state agency (her first job) she learned to use that camera as "a hand-held auxiliary of wanting-to-know" and discovered that "to be able to capture transience, by being ready to click the shutter at the crucial moment, was [then] the greatest need I had" ("One Writer's Beginnings:" Not surprisingly, her photography was published in several collections which have found much acclaim of their own.)

   Thus, from early childhood on, Eudora Welty not only had a keen sense of the world around her but also, of words as such: of their existence as much as the interrelation between their sound, physical appearance and the things they stand for. Encouraged by her mother, a teacher, and over her father's worries (he considered fiction writing an occupation of dubitable financial promise and, worse, inferior to fact because it was "not true") Welty embarked on a writer's path which would lead her to award-winning heights and to a reputation as one of the South's finest writers, with as abounding as obvious comparisons to fellow Mississippian William Faulkner in particular; a literary debt she acknowledged when she wrote that "his work, though it can't increase in itself, increases us" and "[w]hat is written in the South from now on is going to be taken into account by Faulkner's work" ("Must the Novelist Crusade?", 1965). The Library of America dedicated two volumes to her work; one containing her novels, the other - this one - her short stories, essays (some, like her autobiography, based on a series of lectures) and her autobiography.

   An approach that Welty developed early on was to consider the publication of her stories in periodicals merely a step towards each story's final shape, and she generally revised her stories before including them in collections. This compilation brings together all her short stories in the versions intended to be final by Welty herself: the 1941 edition of "A Curtain of Green and Other Stories" (her first short story collection), the 1943 edition of "The Wide Net and Other Stories" and the 1949 edition of "The Golden Apples" - each collection suffered substantial editorial revisions in subsequent publications. Included are also two stand-alone short stories ("Where is This Voice Coming From?" and "The Demonstrators"), the first one inspired by the 1963 murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers and revised by Welty over the telephone after having been accepted by "The New Yorker," to avoid a potentially prejudicial effect of its original ending on the then-impending trial.

   A keen observer, Welty was also a writer endowed with a sharp sense of humor and satire, and with the gift to brilliantly use location, localisms, accents, patterns of speech and customs to make a point. Not a single word is wasted: "Marrying must have been some of his showing off - like man never married at all till *he* flung in," we're told about King MacLain in the opening story of "The Golden Apples," "Shower of Gold." And you don't have to learn anything more about the man, do you? Equally as instructive on Welty's writing are the eight essays included in this collection, all taken from the 1978 compilation "The Eye of the Story" and dealing with particular aspects of her own fiction as much as, more generally, with "Place in Fiction" (1954) and the fiction writer's role ("Writing and Analyzing a Story," originally published in 1955 under the title "How I Write" and substantially revised for its inclusion in "The Eye of the Story" and "Must the Novelist Crusade?").

   "There is no explanation outside fiction for what its writer is learning to do," Eudora Welty maintained in "Writing and Analyzing a Story;" explaining that each story references only the writer's vision at the moment of the creation of that story, and the creative process itself: nothing that can be "mapped and plotted" but a product taking shape in the process of creation itself, giving each story a unique identity of its own. And while her fiction, alas, can no longer grow any more than Faulkner's, she has left us enough of those unique creations to cherish for a long time to come.




3. At the time of her death, Eudora Welty was widely regarded as America's single greatest living author. Although she produced several critically acclaimed novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER, Welty achieved her greatest fame through mastery of that most difficult of all literary forms, the short story.

   Welty's skill with short stories is amazing, for she possessed a talent that combined a remarkable ear for the spoken word, meticulous observation of physical world, and the truly mysterious ability to slip almost effortlessly into the very marrow of the characters she depicts. Her comic stories are perhaps best known to the public in general, but she is equally at home with provocative and unsettling material, and although her tales are most often firmly rooted in America's deep south they have a sense of humanity that transcends the limitations of purely regional literature.

   In addition to stories previously collected under the titles A CURTAIN OF GREEN, THE WIDE NET, THE GOLDEN APPLES, and THE BRIDE OF THE INNISFALLEN, this Library of America publication also includes the independently published stories "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" and "The Demonstrators," nine selected essays, and Welty's memoir ONE WRITER'S BEGINNINGS. A chronology of Welty's life up to 1996, textual notes, and general notes (including Katherine Anne Porter's introduction for A CURTAIN OF GREEN) are also included. This book (and its Library of America) companion, EUDORA WELTY: COMPLETE NOVELS) are essentials for any one who admires Welty's work and wishes to possess it in handy, collected form; those who have had limited exposure to Welty's work, however, might be better served by smaller collections.

5 comments about No Disrespect.

1. I PURCHASED THIS BOOK BECAUSE THIS IS THE 2ND PART OF HER 1ST BOOK THE COLDEST WINTER EVER I LIKED THAT BOOK AND I FEEL THAT SISTA SOULJA LIFE EXPERIENCES ARE OF VALUE FOR BOOK READERS TO READ ....



2. This book was not that bad,There are things that agree with Sister Souljah on and things that I disagree with.But for her to be so intelligent and have alot of book sense...She lacks a great deal of common sense and I honestly think and feel that she has alot of issues within herself to deal with by judging of her actions in this book.



3. This book will hit you smack between the eye sockets as Sister Souljah describes her own upbringing in the projects, in the grips of a welfare system designed to convey feelings of inferiority, an educational system in which black children were given no reason to take pride in their colour, their origins or their past, life in college and as an activist. She discovers a class beneath the underclass where she grew up. Souljah writes of the desperation that gripped not only adults but children and the complete death of love between black folks (235). She calls welfare hotels urban hellholes where "African children were doomed. It was a recipe for extinction of my people. It was genocide." This story brings to mind an activist called Geoffrey Canada who tried to convey the urgency of the problem. Souljah nailed it beautifully. Man/woman relationships play a significant role in this story. Be prepared to be jolted out of your seat.



4. I decided to read this book after I learned that my favorite artist and a person I look up to read it, Tupac. This book was a eye opener. I loved how she went into a lot of the issues we as black people deal with on the daily basis and she didnt sugarcoat anything. She was so raw with everything she said and I loved it. I think every young black male and female should read this book. I agreed, disagreed, laughed, cried, and smiled while i read this book it got so many emotions out of me and a book has never done that before. I definitely recommend this book to anyone.



5. This is a good book, Sister Souljah has been through a lot in her life and this book explain everyone who had an influence on her life. And reading her autobiography has made me understand her books a little bit more, now that I read No Disrespect.

5 comments about Love, Janis.

1. once i started to read this book i couldn't put it down until it was finished, was sad to see it end. it gives alot of detail into janis joplin's early family life as well as school and friends and the start and finish of her music career. would recommend this to any joplin fan, a must have!!



2. Laura is no Balzac. She doesn't share the reality of her sister's life in a way that makes it as important and real the way a master would. But, what can a person expect? She does share and reveal much. It's way too much to ask that she (Laura) could write a book that truly reveals the depths of Janis' life and times such that it will influence people for ages to come. I would like such a work because I feel that Janis' life should not be forgotten. If you have feelings for Janis like I do then this book is a must read. If someone someday takes what Laura has written and makes it into a book that captures all of the emotion and reality of Janis' life and times so that even a casual reader will be amazed then that will be an amazing book. I think Laura would agree.



3. I WAS PLEASANTLY surprised at the way this book showed us the real Janis. I was expecting a glossed over version of her life, but Janis's sister told the good and the bad. Through it all you can sense the love and affection her family had for her. Laura Joplin is an excellant writer and her insights on why Janis did the things she did was very refreshing. I was 13 years old when Janis died and had already begun to be a part of the rejected "hippie" crowd. My crowd was the first in our school to be a part of that culture. I identified with alot of what Janis went through and I remember buying her albums and listening over and over. I loved her. I remember the days of pot and LSD and speed, and my personal favorite, quaaludes. The drug culture was much different then and much safer. I thank God for a praying Grandmother and for a fear of needles, or I could have gone further and ended up like Janis. Few of our group ever experimented with injecting, but I could understand how Janis got caught up in it. This book showed a side of Janis that was so much like us and showed that she was really an insecure girl wanting acceptance like the rest of us.
   Thank you Laura, for giving us insight to the real person your sister was.



4. I thought this book was outstanding. Not only does it give good insight on what made Janis tick, it gave a very indepth history of the hippie movement from it's earliest conception. I found it fascinating.



5. Janis' sister, Dr. Laura Joplin, provides the reader with special insight to many core concepts of Janis, such as Janis' mission of encouraging freedom of expression for all, on every subject, as well as her passion for ending racial and all other forms of discrimination. Janis so humorously exposed hypocracy and so wonderfully raised questions that many are afraid to ask. What irony that her gifts to the human race were cut off so prematurely by some of the traps of life.

5 comments about Under a Wing: A Memoir.

1. Reeve Lindbergh gives a most interesting overview of her very famous parents - her father with his eccentric behavior - her mother with her focus on life through the eyes of a true poet. Her parents would be proud of her writing skills and her father would probably have given her rare praise for this particular book as well as her others. Kathleen Wyatt



2. I really have enjoyed reading Reeve's memoir of her family. She has an amazing memory and can describe details of any past situation like it just happened minutes ago. I am always amazed by people who can do that (especially since I am not one of them). I come from a famous family too and enjoyed reading this book because I have always been fascinated at hearing about someone elses recollections of the past. Reeve's family experience isnt much different than my own family's and in some cases I laugh because some of the stories she has told (i.e. burping a fountain pen) is the same as my familys. My grandfather, who's stories are much the same as Charles Lindberg's, was also raised in Minnesota (St. Paul & Hallepin) so I was delighted to hear Reeve inform the reader of her father's recollections of this same period and place.
   
   Reeve writes her book in a way which makes you feel like your her best friend. She opens her soul to you and pours out all that makes her happy and sad. Although I am confident that this book will be considered one of the best memoirs of its time, I am sure that her family will be very glad she wrote it because she has unearthed the legends of her family's past and how it made them who they are. This is truly a great book...



3. What I especially like about Reeve Lindbergh's memoir is its candid and utterly sincere tone. This is not a dusty historical treatise; it is a simple sharing of thoughts and experiences. The reader is drawn into the life of a young girl with remarkable and famous parents. We already had an idea of what it was like to live with Charles Lindbergh from the diaries of his wife, Anne Morrow. Now Reeve's book gives another view, helping to round out the picture. Along the way she presents us with snapshot images that offer glimpses into his character. Charles Lindbergh wasn't an easy man to understand; and if he is difficult for us adults to get a handle on, what was it like for his offspring? Reeve tells us in her straightforward and heartwarming manner. This book should be an essential part of any Lindbergh fan's library. I highly recommend it.
   
   Richard Salva--author of Soul Journey from Lincoln to Lindbergh [UNABRIDGED]



4. Reeve Lindbergh tells stories that we want to hear about everyday life with her famous, complicated father and her intelligent, artistic mother. Reeve's delicate, precise prose is reminiscent of her mother's style of writing. A reviewer said of Anne Lindbergh that she "combed" her life for meaning and the daughter seems tuned into that same compulsion. It helps that she writes with as much insight as did her mother. The passage that describes the hours mother and daughter spent together after the death of Reeve's child is heartbreakingly revealing of the private Anne and her anguish after the kidnapping and death of her own child. Reeve's reminiscences of flying with her father (she was not an enthusiast) and her longing for her enigmatic father are poignant. She does not avoid discussing Lindbergh's perceived anti-Semitism; she does not attempt to defend him but rather keeps her emphasis on the effect this controversy had (and has) on her connection with him. I challenge any daughter to read Reeve's account of her visit to her father's childhood home without weeping.



5. There can be no doubt that Reeve Lindbergh's memoir is the most touching book about that family that I have read. Through her eyes we go beyond the covers of other books and see what it really meant to be a Lindbergh.

   They were almost a closed society onto themselves, yet they still experienced the same joys and sorrows as the rest of us. We find the man who was depised as an isolationist to be a concerned and loving father who read to his children.

   We dine with the children at their grandmother's house and we soar above the Connecticut house on Saturdays. The famed aviator at the controls and a bored child in the rear seat.

   After reading this book I felt very attached to this famous family. Being the same age as Reeve herself, my only knowledge of the Lindbergh's was the famous flight and the kidnapping as I read in history books. Now, after this book, I feel as though I have become part of them.

   It can only be summed up in one word, wonderful.

5 comments about The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters.

1. Wonderfully edited collection of letters by the famous sisters. Fascinating to read, in that they all seem to have had considerable writing talent & lived through dramatic periods of the 20th century. Snap it up!



2. A fascinating collection but too long -- also I feel likely of limited interest unless one is British, and was alive and aware of this family at the time these letters were writtten, otherwise too many explanatory footnotes would be necessary. Nevertheless, a rare glimpse into a period that was unique, and likely a surprising portrait of a family who lived, considering their place in upper-class English society, "outside the box".



3. 3/31/08 The page on nicknames,The index, The footnotes, The profiles of the sisters and The photos make this extra weighty book become the fascination that most books of so many pages often fail to do..;of help, thanks to the book's editorial genius is : the ability of readers to note what the sisters had in common vs where they disagreed and when and to whom they wrote lengthy and/ or more confidential letter ..., whom they implored for help (even to wanting a health care provider in the hospital to be threatened to be less spartan)..also " continuous scanning of index cross referencing due to footnotes or in specific letters plus being informed from "the profiles" who was the "nazi",or "fascist",or "communist",or " quiet /country girl' or "wit /writer" or "elitess/socialite" ...The surviving sister , the socialite ,who was "apolitical" ,has made their saving of their letters to share with others not in vain;: a glimpse into the world in which the privileged often choose to travel . Their "bios" will probably benefit the "privileged readers "the most, as this book reminds them via "one(s) of their own" that right decisions guarantee more than the values of family status,money and/or power.



4. Once several years ago, I cancelled plans to attend a New Year's Eve party because I was enthralled by an early edition of Mitford letters edited by Charlotte Moseley, "With Love From Nancy" which collected the letters of the eldest Mitford sister.
   Now Ms Mosely has given us the letters written between all 6 sisters: Nancy, the author of a number of witty novels and biographies; Diana-who married Oswold Mosley, the head of the British Union of Fascists and spent time in prison during WWII; Unity who was enamored of Hitler and shot herself in the head when Britain went to war with Germany; Pam, the family farmer; Jessica, Communist and muckraker and Deborah, the Duchess of Devonshire Prepare to become addicted to reading these letters.
   The Mitfords are interesting all on their own and the tensions and divisions created by their individual political views is worth a read. In addition they knew everyone and were not afraid to voice opinions.
   For a special chill, read the letters written by Unity and Diana during WWII. "Poor, sweet Hitler" indeed!



5. I had never heard of the Mitfords until a few years ago an Englishman (now American citizen) hired me to write his memoirs of WWII. His sister visited from England and told me about how Unity Mitford went to her boarding school. When asked who Unity Mitford was, she said, "You don't know the Mitford girls?
   
   Well, I do now! This collection of letters between the six Mitford girls is an outstanding record of their history spanning 80 years from 1925.
   
   In 1935 Unity met and became enamored with Hitler. The letters never indicated any romance, but she went to many major events with him. On September 3, 1939 when Britain and France declare war on Germany, Unity tried to take her life. She failed, causing brain damage. She died in 1948 at age 33.
   
   Nancy, the oldest, was born in 1904, Deborah the youngest in 1920. The book has photos, a short bio and family tree. The other sisters are Pamela, Unity and Jessica. Their brother Tom, who was sent to boarding school at age 8, died in WWII.
   
   These six English women were from an aristocratic family-but some became Nazi sympathizers, one an avowed Communist, others a novelist, poultry farmer and duchess. You follow them through their naïve youth to their adult involvements-as daughters, wives, widows, mothers (happy and grieving) and aging women.
   
   The letters (edited by Diane's daughter-in-law Charlotte) were printed using all the pet names and code words they used, but once you get reading it becomes easy. The many footnotes were invaluable and historical.
   
   Diana (1910-2003) married Sir Oswald Mosley, with Hitler present at the reception at Goebbel's home. They had had a long affair, and kept this marriage secret, too. Mosley formed the British Union of Fascists. In 1941, the British imprisoned Mosley and Diana for their activities-holding them over three years. By this time, they had four sons (two from Diana's earlier marriage) who were taken care of by the other the Mitford sisters.
   
   In 1941, Unity wrote Diana at prison that sums up the Mitfords: "When I first came back, I thought all this was a play, and I was looking on. Now I know I have a part to play, and I can't bear acting it."
   
   Armchair Interviews says: A superb collection of letters that take you as an observer before, during and beyond WWII. You'll never ask: "Who are the Mitford girls?"

5 comments about Learning to Fly: The Autobiography: The Autobiography.

1. i first decided to get this book because i'm a fan of victoria beckham. when i read the book i was really pleased with it. it was well structured and it gives you a better idea of what victoria beckham is really like. supposedly there's all these speculations about her being a diva, but after reading this book i really don't believe those stories anymore. by reading the book, it seems as though your listening to a long time friend's life story. i really like this book and reccomend it. i seriously didn't want it to end and wish she came out with another autobiography.



2. This book is great. Victoria is truly open about her life. It makes you see a different side of the person you see in all the tabloids. She allows you to peak into her world. It is heartbreakingly honest. She doesn't try to skip the hard parts of her life. We can see how the Spice Girls developed and how the girls got along. Victoria allows the reader to take a peak into a marriage (and romance) that has overcome many obstacles to raise 3 kids and lead a happy life. She even reveals how it felt when people accused David of cheating on her.
   
   I didn't know what to expect when I started the book but I couldn't put it down. I read the entire book in one night (staying up until 4:00 in the morning). I have a new respect for Victoria Beckham that I wouldn't have had otherwise. I have always admired her fashion sense but I have a new respect for the person behind all the photographs. It is a must read for anyone who wants to learn more about Victoria Beckham.



3. The book was amazing. Victoria talks to you like you are her best friend and she's just letting it all out. I have always been a huge fan and after reading this I respect her even more.



4. This book on the surface seems to be just another quickly rushed, put together autobiography for monetary reasons alone...which is Victoria Beckham all over. This book is now a few years old and you'd be surprised that since it's publication the amount of contraditions that have been exposed about this talentless, insecure, attention hungry, mean to the bone so called "entertainer" is hilarious. If you want to be sucked into this con game then go ahead but lies, lies, lies will be all you'll be reading. A big fat 0/10 for this one.



5. Victoria Beckham's masterpiece... although in the beginning, it is a little "slow," it was still NOT a let down. i absoluetly thought this book was fantastic. even though i just found out about her, i was thrilled to read all about her. she is a wonderful inspriration to me. for those who are unsure of buying this book, don't slack... buy it immediatly. you won't regret it because you see, i don't really enjoy reading. however, i love this autobiography by victoria as well as her awesome music. i can't wait to finish this book!

5 comments about The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food.

1. I received this book as a Christmas present. The author is a young American who falls in love with French cooking while living abroad. She finds a great guy in the last throes of his first marriage, and marries him for life (until he dies some decades later). They relocate from Paris to New England, and she goes on to a life in publishing--the first to discover Julia Child. Her memoir is laden with the great chefs of her time and the sumptuous meals they ate together. She and her husband also entertained often, both of them being adept in the kitchen. Recipes blend with her story, but remember that French cooking is her specialty. She writes this as a senior citizen, and her long and complex history with food shines through.



2. Initially I found this memoir a disappointment. Ms. Jones has done as much as anyone alive to give us access to new culinary ideas, and it is fair to say that she championed the books that shaped our current gastronomic thinking, as well as editing them. Nonetheless, her account of all this can come across as superficial and chilly; the prose is well crafted, but it sounds as though she's talking about someone else, and not someone that she knows personally or cares about all that much. The book begins to sound more like a personal memoir when she introduces her country home, where there was emphasis on growing their own food as much as possible, and it comes alive when she talks about the loss of he husband of 50+ years, and how impossible it seemed to go on with something as simple as cooking dinner bcause they had always done it together. Her account of her grief and slow recovery is marvelous. She is never overly revealing but shows her humanity in a way that's both sympathetic and elegant. Her story of eating a beaver's tail, and how her account of it shocked and horrified readers, provides a fascinating counterpoint to her own gradual coming to life again after a loss that seemed catastrophic. As a fan of her late husband's food writing, I found myself thinking "Evan would have loved that story."



3. `The Tenth Muse' by book editor extraordinaire, Judith Jones is a memoir of her experiences with food and with writers about food, lead by virtually every luminary in that field in the latter half of the 20th century, including Julia Child, James Beard, Craig Claiborne, Marcella Hazan, Madhur Jaffrey, Lydia Bastianich, Marian Cunningham,Alice Waters, and Edna Lewis. I'm just a bit surprised that Penelope Casas, a major Knopf culinary author is not mentioned and I'm torn between believing that the muse of the title is `food' or `editing', especially since Ms. Jones' publishing house, Alfred A. Knopf, was the publishing home of another, even more prominent literary editor, H. L. Mencken. The original nine muses of Greek mythology primarily cover the subjects of music, poetry, drama, and rhetoric, so I suspect `editing' was covered. Thus, Ms. Jones can dedicate her book to the culinary deities.
   This is clearly a charming and finely written memoir, which I am almost ashamed to find any fault whatsoever. But, if you are willing to plunk down your $24.95 retail, you are entitled to know what you are getting, and what you are not getting.
   For starters, Ms. Jones enters a field filled with lots of fine exemplars of good, interesting culinary memoirs. Leading the pack is that hoary classic by George Orwell, `Down and Out in Paris and London'. Following closely behind and even more relevant, are the several memoirs written by M. F. K. Fisher about her travels in France. More recently, there are the three excellent volumes from `Gourmet' magazine editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, including `Garlic and Sapphires', `Tender at the Bone', and `Comfort Me With Apples'. Then, there is Jacques Pepin's `The Apprentice', Amanda Hesser's `Cooking for Mr. Latte' and the risqué `Insatiable', a collection of anecdotal memoirs by Ms. Gael Greene. Last, but certainly not least is Julia Child's own posthumous memoir, `My Life in France'. All of these books are thoroughly enjoyable for the foodie reader, and most are seem to be just a bit more substantial or more informative than Ms. Jones' book.
   I was expecting far more detail on the inside story about how she came to publish the seminal `Mastering the Art of French Cooking', but there was practically nothing here I did not read in Ms. Child's biography and other writings on this episode. I was especially interested in the dealings with Alfred and Blanche Knopf, two giant figures in American publishing, who were initially a bit reluctant to get Knopf into the cookbook publishing business.
   The framework on which the culinary stories are arranged is Ms. Jones early experiences in France and her marriage to journalist, Evan Jones and their lives in Europe and New England. There is nothing approaching the intimate interpersonal details we get from both Reichl and Greene. There is not even the sense of warmth felt between Julia and Paul Child in her memoir and biography.
   The last quarter of the book is devoted to recipes and stories surrounding those recipes, collected from the many culinary / literary luminaries who Ms. Jones edited or simply corresponded or befriended. I usually discount recipes in memoirs, as this is the last place one is likely to look when in search of a particular recipe, even if you remember that this work contained recipes. I will make a major exception in the case of this book, as I find the comments among some of the most writing in the book. I was especially attracted to the recipe I tried for sauce gribiche, a superb condiment to enliven leftover roasted meats, specifically my favorite lamb. And, the fact that the book contained eight other recipes for lamb warmed me to these recipes.
   Thus, if one has read many of the books I mentioned above, especially those telling the story of Julia Child, one may not find anything too exciting here. And, if you own several cookbooks you know and love, the recipes will be nice to read, but you may not find anything dramatic enough to lure you away from your favorites. It's a very nice read, but not as informative, titillating, or illuminating as some of its contemporary works.



4. My book club reads only food-related titles. We read this one for February. I am such a big Julia Child fan, and I had very much wanted to read this since it came out.
   
   Overall, our club thought this was underwhelming. It is just not a very interesting or insightful memoir. It felt like she was still holding people very much at an arm's length and didn't reveal very much.
   
   We did a "pop quiz" among us about the various authors mentioned in her text, and as a group of nine 35- to 42-year-old women, we blanked on several of them. As another reviewer noted, she didn't explain who they were, why they were important, etc. She just "name dropped" them as if everyone knew who they were and that was very frustrating -- especially to a group of readers made up of women who collect cookbooks and books about food!
   
   I just think this could have been a truly compelling read, and it just missed the mark by a pretty long way. It lacked the spice, insight and narrative conflict that make so many books in the "food memoir" category so readable.



5. As with the offering of good food, presentation is everything. Judith Jones has had a life rich with possibility and opportunity, and has made the most of it. In this lovely memoir she has accomplished the difficult task of presenting these facts without sounding pretentious or self-serving, despite what some reviewers on these pages have said. It is a generous book, culminating with many personal recipes from her own kitchen. I particularly loved the section dealing with passing this love of good food and careful preparation onto several new generations, and indirectly through her, we can be thankful that we can routinely purchase organic vegetables and helpful gadgets easily.

5 comments about Reunion in Barsaloi.

1. Well I read the White Masai with the intention to be as open minded as possible and to try to understand why a White European woman would want to marry someone who was of another race and culture. Well the first book was entertaining in that I found myself reading to find out what kind of horrible situation this silly woman would find herself in next. She showed total disrespect for the Masai people and their culture and then ran off wit the man's daughter when things didnt go the way she imagined they would go which must have been very embarrassing for him as a warrior.
   
   Anyway this book, was probably the most boring book that I have ever read. I had to force myself through it, waiting for something to actually HAPPEN. But nothing never happened worth note, it was just the author cashing in on the story once again. I have had more interesting trips to the grocery store that I could write about.



2. Corrine Hoffman wrote 3 books regarding her life experience in Kenya. She is the first white woman to marry a Masai Warrior, lives in the Bush and has a daughter with him. She goes back to Switzerland and then visits Kenya again 14 years later. This is a non-fiction series that is exciting, well written and easy to read. It shows courage and relates to life. The first book is called the White Masai and the second book is Back From Africa. This is the third book where she returns to Kenya for a visit to her family there without her daughter.



3. This book can stand on its own but ideally you should read "The White Masai" and "Back From Africa" first. You will not regret traveling with Corinne Hofmann on any of her journeys. She has had an amazing, colorful life....and I'm sure there's more she'll share with us. I do hope she'll write at least one more as she does have unfinished business in Africa and I'm looking forward to hearing about its resolution.



4. I feel the same way! These books are a waste of time. I am a very open minded person and have a family who lived with the Masai people for 5 years. That's why I was interested in her books in the first place. But my family can truly appreciate what these people have gone through and lived with them for years and still visits.
   They received much more respect and attention from the Masai than she seemingly ever did. She just seems as though she is making a good living off of a lousy experience.
   Did she have to go through intense rituals to become a member of their society? No, she just slept with a member of their society? Did she even do any of her own chores to get water or wash clothing? Hardly, she hired a girl to do it for her!
   For those of you who know nothing about lust and travel, tourist can easily find a Masai man to sleep with and Masai men can easily find a tourist to help make a living for themselves. Its a give and take relationship that most people accept as just that. Sure some fall in love! This is mainly what her story was! Nothing more!
   I'm not sure about what Lketinga's feelings are from reading her side of the story, but I can tell you that alot of men from these tourist countries thrive off of finding a foreign woman with money to help them survive. That's how I saw her story.
   Not many Outsiders can truly become a member of the Masai society like my family member did. And he is of a race and culture, you'd least expect to live in a home made of cow dung!
   Also her ignorance affected not only that sweet man but her daughter. That man was living out his culture and his beliefs and didn't deserve her abandonment with his child.
   I don't mean any disrespect to their daughter by talking about her parents but, I just feel her mother doesn't deserve the rights to profit from this tale. I personally know other people who actually deserve more reputable respects than she does for living with and understanding Masai people and they don't receive any movies or acknowledgments like she does. They just continue to live their lives and look back on their past experiences with joy.
   Basically, her experiences were nothing to write a book over or to make a sequel to. I suppose if you know nothing about lust and tourism, or Masai culture you could easily find this book amusing. But a romantic tale, it is not!!!!!



5. A great follw up to the two previous books - i really enjoyed this easy to read book.

5 comments about Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller.

1. Ah, so I finally finished this biography last night. I had fallen in love with Out of Africa and Seven Gothic Tales, and in reading her biography, I had hoped to fall in love with Isak Dinesen, the Pellegrina. Sadly, I fell out of it.
   
   The fault is not in the biography. It's a fascinating life, and it was good to have the blanks filled in as far as her childhood, and what happened in Africa, the continent to which she spoke, and which spoke back to her. The popularity of her work, the American reaction to it, I found this all good reading. But you know, eventually, she turned into quite the old megalomaniac. Thurman shows us where it all came from. (spoilers ahead) Dinesen had always believed that she was special, and was infuriated by her family's insistence on equality, fairness and calm. She felt restrained by it. stifled, dismissed. She felt that the loss of her father was uniquely hers, that it mattered less in the lives of her siblings that their father killed himself. She wanted to somehow own or claim that.
   
   And sadly, the circumstances of her erotic life seem to have warped her terribly. She had syphilis, and had to live carefully and chastely even while madly in love (though therre is a question regarding this as far as her relationship with Finch-Hatten). I can see how this would do a woman in, I really can. She spoke of syphilis as both the price and the source of her gift, a horrible bargain with the devil that made her a genius at telling tales. But the cost was high, and the damage was deep.
   
   The warping took various ugly shapes as she aged. She tried to usurp her sisters and brothers in the eyes of their children, found her nieces and nephews disappointing in their love of their parents. She berated and belittled her most faithful secretary and companion, Clara. She asked for and received constant adoration from younger men, letting them bask in the glow of her admiration and incouragement in exchange for a strict kind of allegiance. She manipulated, bored, dominated, demanded, and through it all, she suffered the humilation of syphilis and aging. While young, she wanted to be the thinnest in the room. She died of anorexia, unable and unwilling to eat, addicted to amphetamine.
   
   That's what I get for reading a biography. I should have just stuck to her work, because, in truth, that's all any writer owes the reader; the work. And that aspect of this life, the story of her writing, is well-covered and interesting. I don't regret reading Thurman's biography, and I think it's extremely well-written and full of specific, interesting information and theories. I just feel personally disappointed in who Isak Dinesen turned out to be.



2. Isak Dinesen will always be remembered for her farm in Africa, although she had much more than that, not the least of which was a talent for writing and an appetite for life. Why dames like this are not admired by the feminists , I'll never know. She had it all: dough, looks, energy, courage. Doris Duke here in the States is a possible American version of this kind of gal; maybe Katherine Hepburn succeeded in creating the film persona of this sort of aristocratic "liberated" women, with family money backing her all the way. It's easy to be brash when you've got a sugar daddy who happens to be a Baron. Still, while many of her class were happy to do nothing with their lives in style, this one had the guts to make an extraordinary life. Thurman has written a thoroughly researched, beautifully edited appreciation of this woman. She tells the story well, but also provides a very convincing analysis of Dinesen's lifelong commitment to the art of fiction. A fascinating biography.



3. First captivated, despite the miscasting of Robert Redford, by the film "Out of Africa", I read on to find out who this woman was. I discovered she died the same year I was born, and lived through those marvellous decades that include WW1, the roaring 20's, the Depression, the boiling 60's and through to the 70's. What changes in the world she saw, and what stories she had to tell. I thought there was nothing left for me to learn about her; I've read her books & her letters, have visited her home in Rungstedlund, Denmark, watched documentaries about her, seen the films ("Babette's Feast", in addition to "Out of Africa", are based on her books). However, this biography is a revelation on every page. Minutely researched (obviously), Ms Thurman leads us through the details that explain why she did what she did, where she obtained her passion, and her compassion, and how she went from a sheltered Danish aristocratic life, to colonial Africa, and then to becoming a world-renowned author. Excellent read for all who love stories of the grand figures of the 20th century.



4. This is a thoroughly researched and beautifully written biography of the life of a great storyteller. Thurman in telling the story of Dinesen's life, also presents a miniature guide to her work. She does an excellent job of portraying the character of Dinesen, the complex aristocratic independent mind, the romantic nature, the connection with a fairytale world of storytelling, the great courage and determination in making herself into a story when all appeared lost in her life. Thurman tells of Dinesen's childhood , her special connection with her father , the division between two families one wealthy mercantile, and the other more wild and adventurous. Thurman tells the story of Dinesen's long African adventure, the story of her marriage and its sad ending in divorce, and too the story of Dinesen's great love , Denys Finch- Hatton. The story of that love that plays a central part in what is arguably Dinesen's most memorable book , " Out of Africa" is a story of the man as hunter, adventurer, coming home to be feasted and entertained by his lover- storyteller Dinesen. This story which too ends with Finch- Hatton's death in a plane crash is at the heart of the first part of Dinesen's life. The second part after the African adventure is when she returns home and begins to make that writing life which would make her world- famous. The second -half of the story sees Dinesen more and more playing the part she has created for herself , as storyteller and personnage. It too however has its great human interest, especially in her relation to her mother ,her brother and her extended family. There is of course a vast world of detail I cannot begin to mention in this review. But Thurman tells the story with taste and a beauty as befits a true reader and lover of the work of Dinesen.
   I believe it really does justice to the spirit of Isak Dinesen's life and work.



5. Had I not seen the movie "Out of Africa" I would never had given any thought to reading a book written by a Danish woman of her life in British East Africa in the early 1900's on a coffee plantation. The movie was enjoyable and that provoked me to read her memoir. Getting beyond the fact that Robert Redford and Meryl Streep played the main characters, I became fascinated with the wonderful story and even more so the beautiful tapestry of language presented by the author in her book. A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Nairobi, Kenya and first on my list of places to see and things to do was a visit to Karen Blixen's farmhouse. The house and a small portion of the original lands remain intact as a museum. Although the area has been built up over the last 75+ years (the area is known as Karen in honor of the Baroness) there are still a few coffee plantations in the area and of course the Ngong mountains can be seen off in the distance. With this backround in mind I set off to read ISAK DINESEN : The Life of a Storyteller. I found the biography to be very comprehensive and exhaustively researched. "Exhaustively researched" not in a negative sense in that I found it fascinating to learn of the web of personalities that floated in and out of Karin Blixen's life including Hans Christen Andersen, President Theodore Roosevelt's son Kermit, Playwrite Arthur Miller, Prince Edward, George Bernard Shaw, Marilyn Monroe, Beryl Markham, Lord Delamere.... Moreover what she read and how much she read (and learned)are testament to what one can accomplish with 'self education' (especially so when there are no televisions or radios as was the case in the early days in British East Africa). The footnotes in this biography lead the reader into intriguing digressions. For sure this is not an adventure book nor is it more of "Out of Africa". Karen Blixen led a very interesting life and accordingly it is the stuff of a very interesting biography that is well presented.