Editorial Review

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? 
          
Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences. ... Read more

Reviews

Thank you for this beautiful tribute to Henrietta Lacks, February 5, 2010
Wow. This book should be required reading for scientists and students of life. The true story of Henrietta Lacks and her family has finally been told, beautifully, in this book. The book encompasses science, ethics, and the story of a family who was terribly wronged in the pursuit of scientific research. I could gush about this book for pages but I'll try first to hit the main points of why this book is so remarkable in list form for the sake of brevity:


1. The author clearly developed a strong relationship with the Lacks family, which was absolutely critical to ensuring the story was told accurately and with the respect to Henrietta Lacks that was so deeply deserved.

2. The storytelling is amazingly moving despite the need to convey a lot of scientific information. It reads like fiction.

3. Ms. Skloot's research into the science is impeccable.

4. The book is FAIR. It presents the unvarnished truth, obtained DIRECTLY from as many prinicpal people involved in the story as is humanly possible. It would have been easier to simplify the story into heroes vs. villians, but Ms. Skloot deftly handles all sides of the story.


For some detail: I have worked with HeLa cells in the past, but did not know even the barest information about the story of Henrietta Lacks until a few years ago. It simply was not common knowledge, until a few less ethical folks released her name and medical records to the public. This obviously should not have been done without the express permission of the Lacks family, which Ms. Skloot obtained. In the past, others have not been as ethical. The book covers Ms. Lacks' early life, how her cells came to be harvested, and what happened to both the cells and her family afterward.

The contributions of HeLa cells to science are absolutely staggering and cannot be over-stated. The sections where the science was described were clear and accurate. With the story of Ms. Lacks' family interwoven, this book was fairly close to perfect. I found myself moved to tears several times because of the fate of the Lacks family and Henrietta's daughter's indomitable spirit. I do not think anyone but Ms. Skloot could have written this book. She worked with the family for over a decade in order to get the story right. This was critical, as the family had been wronged too many times in the past.

Thank you for this astounding work of art. I will be donating to the Henrietta Lacks foundation in honor of the entire family, and I hope many others will read the book and be similarly moved.

Captivating, engrossing, fascinating, heartbreaking, englightening...ALL in one stellar book!, January 16, 2010

2010 Non-Fiction Award Winner?, January 8, 2010

Absolutely superb, January 17, 2010

A fantastic effort about the life of a forgotten woman, March 14, 2010
Henrietta Lacks was born to an impoverished family of in rural Virginia in 1920. Her family worked on the same tobacco fields that their slave ancestors did during the preceding century, and after her mother died she grew up in her grandfather's dilapidated log cabin that served as slave quarters. She left school after the sixth grade to pick tobacco for ten cents per day on the farms of local whites. Henrietta had her first child with her first cousin Day at age 14, and they eventually married and moved to a small town outside of Baltimore during World War II so that Day could work at Bethlehem Steel for less than 80 cents an hour.

In early 1951, Henrietta went to the gynecology clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital after feeling a "knot" in her womb. After she was taken to a "Colored" examination room, the gynecologist on duty found a firm mass on her cervix that seemed cancerous, but was unlike anything he had ever seen. He sent a slice of the mass for analysis, and Henrietta was soon diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Henrietta returned to Johns Hopkins a few weeks later, where she underwent treatment for cervical cancer. She was given a generalized consent form that gave permission for her doctors to perform any operative procedures necessary to treat her illness. However, she was not told that one of the staff gynecologists was collecting specimens of clinic patients with cervical cancer for a clinical study, and biopsies of healthy and cancerous cervical tissues were taken from her during her initial procedure. The cancerous cells, which were named HeLa after the first two letters of Henrietta's first and last names, proved to be the first human cells that could be grown indefinitely in a nutrient broth, and the Johns Hopkins researchers were overjoyed at this long awaited success.

The treatment she received at Hopkins was state of the art, but was unsuccessful, due to the aggressive nature of her primary tumor, and she succumbed to her illness several months later. The researchers wanted to acquire more specimens from her tumor ridden body by performing an autopsy with biopsies. Her husband, after initially denying a request for an autopsy, was misled into agreeing to allow the Hopkins pathologists to perform a limited autopsy, after he was told that the doctors wanted to run tests that might help his children someday.

The HeLa cell line was provided to scientists and organizations worldwide for minimal cost, as neither the researchers nor Johns Hopkins profited from the first immortal human cell line. However, a number of companies made millions of dollars by mass producing HeLa and selling them at a much higher cost. HeLa was used in numerous important biomedical studies, including the development of the Salk polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh in the mid-1950s, cancer and viral research projects, and studies of the effects of weightlessness and space travel on the human body by NASA.

During this time Henrietta's husband and children were completely unaware that her cells had been harvested for medical research by the Hopkins doctors. By that time most of them were living in poverty in Baltimore, and were unable to afford basic health insurance. Articles about HeLa began to appear in medical journals and in the lay press, but it wasn't until 1973 that the family accidentally learned about the HeLa cell line. The family was contacted by Johns Hopkins, so that their cells could be analyzed and compared to those taken from Henrietta 22 years earlier. Once again they were misled into believing that the purpose of these tests was to determine if any of her children also had cancer, which caused Deborah, Henrietta's oldest surviving daughter, many years of anguish.

Once Henrietta's name was released in the media, the family was besieged by journalists and others wishing to profit from her story, causing her husband and children to become distrustful and wary.

Rebecca Skloot became interested in Henrietta Lacks after hearing about the HeLa cell line and its forgotten host as an undergraduate student. She spent many months and countless hours attempting to contact the Lacks family, and she slowly but painfully gained the trust of Deborah and her siblings, after she promised to tell the family's story alongside the history of HeLa.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a fantastic achievement, given the hurdles that Skloot had to overcome to obtain information from the Lacks family, Johns Hopkins, and the other key actors in this story. In addition to an in-depth history of this ordinary yet quite remarkable family, she provides just the right amount of information about HeLa and what it meant for biomedical research, along with information about informed consent from the 1950s to the present, the effect of race on medical care in the United States and the views of African-Americans toward medical experimentation, and the biology of cancer. The book is meant for a lay audience, but it would be of interest to those with a formal medical background. I found the book to be a bit overly sentimental and personal at times, but this is a very minor criticism of a fabulous book.

5 star story, February 17, 2010
Just so id doesn't sound like I damn this book with faint praise, let me say that this was an excellent story told well (for the most part). I'll save the synopsis for others. Needless to say, Henrietta Lacks' story is just as gripping as the science that was done with her cells. You will most likely enjoy her story (as I did).

My criticisms:

The author spends a rather substantial portion of the book describing her own efforts. It didn't add to Henrietta's story and leaving it out would have made for a better, more concise narrative.

Black people were treated inhumanely to say the least (go look up the Tuskeegee Syphilis Study, for example). At the risk of sounding callous, this is well trod ground and some of it could also have been omitted for the sake of brevity without losing any of the story's impact.

Lastly, there is an implicit condemnation of the doctors that took her cells (the author does say that this was "common practice" at the time). I can tell you that as a former cancer patient who has been biopsied more times than I care to remember, once a doctor removes something from you, it's gone. They are not going to pay you for it.

Those criticism aside, this is a worthy read.

An astonishing scientific, sociological, racial exploration--and an engrossing work of art, December 28, 2009

Good try, but could have been better, July 31, 2010
I'm a big fan of science and medical non-fiction, so when I saw the rave reviews for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, I was excited to read it. It started off strong; I'd give the first half five stars. The oral history of the Lacks family was fascinating, and I loved reading about how the cells got their start in the lab. When the author introduced the adult family (Deborah, et al), I felt a strong sympathy for them and what they'd been through. I was already recommending it to friends, anticipating that the second half would be as good.

However, once I got to the second half, it went downhill considerably. The writing was fairly tight in the beginning, keeping all of the stories woven together in a comprehensible way, but seemed to unravel as the book went on. When I read the introduction, I didn't understand why Skloot was so defensive about inserting herself into the book (in my experience, medical non-fiction authors do it all the time), but I soon realized why - because by the second half, the book becomes less about HeLa, science, history, and ethics, and instead turns exclusively into a memoir about Skloot's dealings with the family. And at this point, the family became unsympathetic and insufferable. The writing became repetitive, somewhat informal, and ridden with unnecessary details. One reviewer called this book "deftly written" and I'd have to disagree. The second half gets one star.

The book ended on a strong note, with the Afterward. The Afterward took us back to questions of bioethics. As I was reading it, I wondered why the Afterward was a separate part - couldn't it have been woven into the second half of the book?

In short, I thought this book was merely ok, but as the reviews show, a lot of people loved it. If you think that you're one of the people who will love it, read it. If you're looking for a book that's just outstanding, look somewhere else.

Is Immortality really worth the price?, January 21, 2010

Two different books, August 25, 2010
I enjoyed the first half of the book. It was informative and educational. The second half - not so much. It took a bad turn with the introduction of Deborah and their trip together. The author depicted her as a woman who has the mind of a hyperactive 5 year old with ADD. "Oh my god. . . . I did this to her?" Maybe. Maybe not. The book went from the scientific and factual to the land of superstition and sensationalism I was left with the impression the book was a collage of facts and embellished observations. It's a good idea to leave your readers for a desire for more. I was left with a desire for less. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee’s own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer. ... Read more

Reviews

OFF THE CHARTS
You remember the scene in the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"? From the top of the bluff looking into the distance at dusk, Butch sees the lights of the pursuing posse which doesn't stop tracking them even at night and says "How many are following us? They're beginning to get on my nerves. Who are those guys?" In the same threatening way cancers have been dogging human beings since the dawn of time, and although we now know quite a lot about cancer we still don't really know "who are those guys" or how to shake them. And they sure are "beginning to get on our nerves" as Butch said. Almost one out of four of us will eventually wrestle with cancer -- the defining illness of our generation -- and lose our lives in the process. Until it catches up with us most of us will try to ignore this fact, just as when we were very young children alone in our bedroom trying to go to sleep at night we tried to ignore the monster that we sometimes feared might be lurking in our bedroom closet.

Enter oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee who almost parentally takes us by the hand to give us the courage to open with him the door to that dark and foreboding closet in order to see what is really lurking inside. Since eventually most of us are going to have to wrestle with this monster anyway -- either as a victim or as a loved one of a victim -- looking intelligently and closely into that dark closet does diminish fear and enhance wise perspective. And on this incredible journey into the depths of that darkness, what an absolutely marvelous guide is this modern day Virgil called Siddharta Mukherjee as he leads us on this long and often harrowing journey through the swarth that cancer has cut through mankind throughout time.

Mukherjee is a veritable kaleidoscope. Turn his writing one way and you experience him as an exciting writer of page-turning detective stories or mystery stories; turn him another and he's a highly effective communicator of cellular biology; turn him a third and you get superb science writing; turn him a fourth and he has the grandeur and broad sweep of an excellent historian. It's hard to believe that this one book, combining all of these appealing characteristics, is the work of just one man. And underlying it all is his sterling medical training and credentials which have been enumerated often elsewhere.

The book itself is a tour de force. It is the first book of such extraordinary scope regarding cancer. Its architectural structure brings to mind Melville's Moby Dick and how effectively and artfully Melville braided together the three strands of his great classic: a grand adventure story, the technology of whaling, and a treatise of humanity and philosophy. Equally effectively does Mukherjee weave together all the various facets of this iconic disease throughout history, from describing cancer from the patient's perspective, to viewing the never ending battles of physicians and medical researchers with cancer over the centuries, to examining the mysteries of the cellular nature of cancer itself and what really goes on in there, to the pro and con impact of this never ending plague on the spirit of the individual human and on our race as a whole, to peering into a crystal ball for a glance of cancer's and our future together. While doing all of this the alchemy of Mukherjee's writing continually turns science into poetry and poetry into science.

Simply put, it is so good, and so incandescently clear and lucid, and so powerful, and so engrossing, and so easily consumed that you will not lay it down without someone or circumstances forcing you to.

Had I read this book in my teens I would have found my life's career. I can only imagine that while you are reading this book, somewhere there will be some very young teenage girl or boy who will also be reading it at the same time you are, and who will become totally hooked by this book just as you will be, and who will go on to make a career in cancer research, a career that might provide the breakthrough that humanity has been searching and hoping for all of these many centuries. Thus although you will never know it, you will have "been there" at the initial motivation of that person and thus indirectly present at the earliest genesis of the eventual great idea.

This book has THAT potential. It is THAT good.

Kenneth E. MacWilliams

The Burden, The Mass, Onkos
In the United States one in three women and one in two men will develop cancer in their lifetime. Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee, a medical oncologist, has written a definitive history of cancer. It may be one of the best medical books I have read. Complex but simple in terms of understanding. A timeline of a disease and those who waged the wars. In 1600 BC the first case of probable breast cancer was documented. In the thousands of years since, the Greek word, 'onkos', meaning mass or burden, has become the disease of our time. Cancer. The title of the book, is "a quote from a 19Th century physician" Dr Mukherjee had found inscribed in a library book that "cancer is the emperor of all maladies, the king of our terrors".

As a health care professional and as a woman who is six years post breast cancer, Cancer has played a big part in my life. I used to walk by the Oncology clinic, and quicken my pace. I used to give chemotherapy to my patients, before it was discovered that the chemo was so toxic that it needed to be made under sterile conditions and given by professionals who specialized in Oncology. Dr Mukherjee, wisely discusses cancer in the context of patients, those of us who suffer. After all it is because of the patients, the people who have gone before us, who have contracted some form of cancer, they are the base of this science.

Dr Mukherjee started his immersion in cancer medicine at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He relates the beginning of the study of ALL, Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, by Dr Sidney Farber in 1947. Dr Farber, a pathologist at the time decided to change his focus and start caring for patients. He was given a medication to trial for ALL, and though most of his patients died, some survived to remission. This opened his world and with the help of Mary Lasker, and Charles E Dana, philanthropists, they opened one of the first clinics that specialized in cancer care and research, The Dana Farber Cancer Center. Dr Mukherjee gives us the timeline of ALL and lymphomas and the medications that turned into chemotherapy. The development of specific care for blood cancers and the emergence of AIDS and patient activism. He discusses the surgery for breast cancer. It was thought that the more radical the surgery the better the outcomes. We now know that lumpectomies have an excellent outcome. But, women before me had a radical removal of breast, chest tissue, lymph nodes and sometimes ribs. The lesson learned is that breast cancer is very curable now and all those men and women, the patients who suffered, gave us the answers and cancer care has moved on.

The onslaught of chemotherapies changed the face of cancer, and the 1970's served us well. In 1986 the first outcomes of cancer care were measured. Tobacco emerged as an addiction and soon lung cancer was a leading cause of death. Presidential Commissions ensued, politics entered the world of cancer, the war against cancer and the war against smoking. The Pap smear was developed, and prevention came to the fore. The two sides of cancer, the researchers and the physicians at the bedside, who often thought never the twain shall meet, recognized the importance of research to bedside.

The story of the boy 'Jimmy' from New Sweden, Maine, became the face of childhood cancer. The Jimmy Fund, a Boston Red Sox charity in Boston, is still going strong today. 'Jimmy' opened the door to the public for the need for money and research, and care for those with cancer. We follow Dr Mukherjee with one of his first patients, Carla, from her diagnosis through her treatment. He has given a face to cancer. We all know someone with cancer, those who survived and those who did not. Cancer prevention is now the wave of the future.

"Cancer is and may always be part of the burden we carry with us," says Dr Mukherjee. He has now written a "biography of cancer" for us, those without special medical knowledge. However, he does go astray in some discussions such as genetics. I have an excellent medical background, and found I was floundering at times. As I discovered,and Dr. Mukherjee agrees, our patients are our heroes. They/we withstand the horrors of cancer, and the horrific, sometimes deadly treatments. The stories of his patients make us weep, and the complex decision making about their care make him the most caring of physicians.

The 'quest for the cure' is the basis of all science and research, and Dr Mukherjee has written a superb tome in language that we can all attempt to understand. The biography of Cancer. Cancer may always be with us,Dr Mukherjee hopes that we outwit this devil and survive.


Highly Recommended. prisrob 11-13-10

Jimmy Fund of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The (MA) (Images of America)

Early Detection: Women, Cancer, and Awareness Campaigns in the Twentieth-Century United States

The Everyman Book of Cancer
The brilliance of this book is the effortlessness with which the author draws the reader into the world of cancer and keeps him there as a tourist or witness. Dr. Mukherjee's engaging style, precision of prose and overwhelming compassion imbue this work with an energy that carries the reader along a ride like none other.

Whether the reader is a basic scientist or sociologist, a patient or healthcare provider, a philosopher or philanderer, this book will appeal, entertain and educate.

A remarkable achievement.

"Cancer was an all-consuming presence in our lives."
Siddhartha Mukherjee's monumental "The Emperor of All Maladies" meticulously outlines the trajectory of cancer (derived from the Greek word "karkinos," meaning crab) over thousands of years, starting in ancient Egypt. In 2010, seven million people around the world will die of cancer. Many have experienced the horrors of this disease through personal experience. The author provides us with a global view of this "shape-shifting entity [that is] imbued with such metaphorical and political potency that it is often described as the definitive plague of our generation."

In "The Emperor of All Maladies," we meet a variety of patients, doctors, scientists, and activists. We also hear the voices of such iconic figures as Susan Sontag, author of "Illness as Metaphor," and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose "Cancer Ward" is a desolate and isolating "medical gulag." Cancer is such a complex subject that it can only be understood by examining it in all of its facets: through myths, the anguish of its victims, and the untiring efforts of its adversaries, both past and present, some of whom were well-meaning but horribly misguided. Mukherjee says in his author's note that he has made an effort to be "simple but not simplistic." In this he has succeeded.

Ancient physicians thought that such invisible forces as "miasmas" and "bad humors" caused cancers. Many years of experimentation, studies of human anatomy, laboratory work, and clinical trials have shown cancer to be a "pathology of excess" that originates from the uncontrolled growth of a single cell. Cancer is "unleashed by mutations--changes in DNA that specifically affect genes that incite unlimited cell growth." What treatment to use--surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of these approaches--is rarely an easy decision. Equally significant are the efforts of public health officials, who seek to reduce cancer's mortality through early detection (mammography and colonoscopy, among others, are screening methods in use today). In addition, cancer may be prevented by encouraging people to avoid environmental carcinogens such as cigarette smoke.

This elegant and heartrending narrative is far more than a biography of a terrible malady. It is also a story of paternalism, arrogance, and false hope, as well as inventiveness, determination, and inspiration. We meet Sidney Farber, who pioneered a chemotherapeutic approach to leukemia in children during the 1940's and helped launch "the Jimmy Fund"; William Halstead who, in the nineteenth century, disfigured women with radical mastectomies that, in many cases, were not curative; Paul Ehrlich, who discovered a "magic bullet" to combat syphilis from a derivative of chemical dyes; Mary Lasker, a powerful businesswoman and socialite who zealously raised money and political awareness in what would become a national war on cancer; and George Papanicolaou, a Greek cytologist, whose Pap smear "changed the spectrum of cervical cancer." Mukherjee constantly moves back and forth in time, showing how the past and the present are closely interconnected.

Throughout the book, Dr. Mukherjee's keeps returning to one of his patients, thirty-six year old Carla Long. In 2004, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells. Carla would have a long road ahead of her, one filled with pain, fear, and uncertainty. We look to the future with cautious optimism that even greater progress will be made in our never-ending battle against a treacherous and multi-pronged enemy. Mukherjee is a brilliant oncologist, gifted writer, scrupulous researcher, and spellbinding storyteller. "The Emperor of All Maladies" is a riveting, thought-provoking, and enlightening work that deserves to become an instant classic.

All In favor say "Aye"
There seems little left to say so I'll take a different tack, look to another facet of this book and its author.

Today I heard Dr. Mukherjee interviewed on the Terry Gross show (Fresh Air - NPR), where the topic, the book, was biased in favor of the author ... and a wonderful treat it was. While I am interested in cancer and progress toward cure, the fascinating aspect of today's experience was the man himself. In all the interviews of all the interviewers I've listened in on - mostly literary in nature - I've never heard a more articulate responder than Mukherjee. He's a poet. His choice of words slice in toward meaning like the scalpel itself. He avoids vagueness and ambiguity, courts acuracy and precsion like no one I've heard. He is a treat just to listen to, never mind his insights into the disease, it's history and possible future.

I ordered this book today in order to get more of his artistry but I wouldn't discourage those seeking the phycician's prowess - that is there too. If I should be in that 25% that ends up with cancer, I would hope Dr. Mukherjee would be there to consult with me and console.

As magentic as a biography can be
As a work of scholarship, this book is just tremendous. Mukherjee traces the history of our understanding of cancer from 2500 BC to present-day. He writes of political battles for public attention, incredible wiles in the biology of the disease, and schisms among the researchers sent to conquer it. All major developments are present and sourced in sixty pages of footnotes. From this grand historical scope, Mukherjee has crafted a tight and coherent narrative that I found very difficult to put down. I'm aware of no lay-account of cancer with anything approaching the level of depth present here. This book is one-of-a-kind.

Like anything so vast, it isn't quite perfect. Certain structural changes would benefit fluency, though they've no impact on my unqualified recommendation.

* More humanizing characteristics and quotations. Smaller researchers, and occasionally even key players, are summed by little more than what they've accomplished. There are perhaps a hundred contributors that Mukherjee covers, but with exception to a handful that have had tens of pages devoted to them or some peculiar eccentricity, they're interchangeable and unmemorable.

* A more even balance between discovery and those stricken by cancer. Mukherjee is at his best when he's describing the struggles of his own patients. These stories are touching, personal, and an intensely interesting ground-level foil to the bird's eye view of much of the book. The retrospective of cancer discovery is so vast and detailed that these rare moments where the story reverts to the present can feel like an oasis.

Roughly half of The Emperor is comprised of five and ten-page vignettes where Mukherjee poses a question ("If XY, then could XYZ ... ?") and resolves it with the travails of a researcher ("Person Q, a scientist at H, noticed ..."). These accounts are often gripping, especially as advances accelerate in the mid-1980s, but sets of four or five in a series are enough to cause my attention to drift.

* A different ending. In the final chapters, Mukherjee suggests he'd originally intended to conclude with the death of a particular patient. By serendipity, that patient was still living in late 2009. Given the great strides in cancer survival and the sense he conveys that genetics may well provide the magic bullets that so occupied the fantasies of early researchers, concluding on a high note would have been within the spirit of the book. Instead, Mukherjee describes another patient that did in fact die. This person was not previously introduced. She was a better fit for the narrative, but including her account for that purpose didn't strike the right tone to me.

Structure aside, I'd like to have seen Mukherjee become more of a prognosticator in later chapters. I was reeling at the sheer mass of information on display by the last page, but I also felt as if I'd accumulated a great depth of trivia with little binding glue to the present. There probably aren't a hundred people alive in a better position than the author to comment on the state of cancer research, to predict, or to theorize in new directions. But these insights are spare.

These points aside, if you've even a tangential interest in cancer or biology, Mukherjee's opus remains a must-read.

Spectacular insight into the most feared of all diseases
This is a spectacular book. I read 100 books a year and this is definitely in the top 10. It is very, very well written and, in some ways, it is like a mystery. The way the book is written, we follow the stream of research and clinical medical treatment over 150 years. It's like feeling around in the dark for a bomb that we know will go off. It is simultaneously horrifying and compelling. I am a doctor and think I am compassionate towards my patients. This book increased my compassion 10X. What surprised me the most was the politics involved in attempting to cure a disease that potentially affects everyone. Surgeons want to cut and oncologists want to drug. They each have their turf and don't want to give it up. The fact that 50% of all men and 33% of all women will get some form of cancer before they die is a very sobering one. The section on the evilness of the tobacco industry was particularly illuminating. I can't put the book down and will truly be sad when it is finished.

Fantastic insight into the science behind medical research
Great book, I will read it again. I love learning and understanding the thought processes, errors and vast achievements of all aspects of scientific research, particularly medicine. This book does not disappoint. The author leans somewhat heavily on his thesaurus, be prepared to dig around in the dictionary. However, great history and insight into the scientific method. A fascinating peek into the mind of a scientist and a clinician. Must read.

The New Standard for Cancer Stories
It is difficult to even imagine the stacks of reports, articles, notes and interviews that Dr. Mukherjee processed to produce this fabulous book. Each page explains, in very readable prose, complex, arcane subjects. For anyone looking for reason to hope that their cancer is curable, this book is trove of stories of lives saved and changed by the work of cancer researchers.
This book will be referenced in other works for a long time. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

A foodie friendship, one letter at a time, November 15, 2010

Julia, Unplugged, October 28, 2010

A Fascinating Peek Into the Life of a Great Woman, November 2, 2010
I love to cook and have been cooking for over 40 years. Surprisingly enough, I was never a fan of Jullia Child until much later in her life. I never saw her show on PBS, but recently I've been more interested in finding out more about her.

As Always, Julia was a fascinating look into Ms. Chilld's personality and politics, as well as her views on cookery. I found the progression of her friendship with Avis to be a great read. I was afraid that I'd be bored just reading letters between two women, but what women they were!

I also had no idea that Mastering the Art took so many years to right and edit and that a major publisher made the really dumb mistake of turning it down, wow!

I found Julia to not only be a pioneer in the modern American kitchen, but a truly lovely and extremely bright woman. She was an avid reader, writer and very involved in the politics of the time.

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like to know more about the fascinating person who was Jullia Child. I rate the book a solid 4.5 stars. The editing was excellent as well.

Please note that I received an E-ARC copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of writing a review. I'm a little disappointed to see it's not available for Kindle yet, but online it says that the book is due out 12/10/10, so that may be the Kindle release date.

Two extraordinary women, one inspiring friendship, November 8, 2010

A PERFECT GIFT FOR THOSE WHO LOVE COOKING, STRONG WOMEN AND WITTY CONVERSATION, November 5, 2010

Intelligent Correspondence, November 21, 2010

A Story of Friendship and Gastronomy! A must for every Julia Child fan!, November 5, 2010

Witty, moving, consuming--a feast of fifties' culture, friendship, food, and love, November 4, 2010

More Julia, December 14, 2010
I have loved and admired Julia Child since my Mother and I would sit mesmerized in front of the television in the 60's and watch her cook. What a difference from what we knew then!

I'm midway through this almost fascinating book - the fascinating part is Julia. I didn't realize how long it took to bring this book to the public or how intelligent she was or how much effort she brought to the book - almost obsessive but what a success.

What's starting to bother me is the conversations about knives, beurre blanc and McCarthy, none of which I care about. Also I don't like Avis at all. She's racist, spoiled and exaggerates"how busy she is" all the time. How busy can you be when you have live in help and two sons 8 years apart and one not home? The frantic pace she keeps is unbelievable and I can't imagine anyone living like that. With all that ruckus, she still seems to get to the market and even would like to invite her butcher for lunch - this after what seemed like endless dinner parties. It must have taken an hour at least to type all those letters to Julia.

Two things that makde an impression on me that I had not thought about recently is the enormity of what is offered today in American supermakets and specialty stores compared to the 50's. The second is what a hunk Paul Child was and what an odd couple they made visually. The fact that they were so in love is reassuring.

I doubt I will finish this as I find myself skipping around but it is an interesting endeavor to plumb the personality of this fascinating woman who lived such an extraordiary life.

A gold mine for Julia-philes, December 3, 2010

Editorial Review

The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard

Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story ofGreg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson’s quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit. ... Read more

Reviews

A blueprint for making a difference
After four trips over the past three years to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, and after founding Kashmir Family Aid (www.kashmirfamily.org) to aid victims of the Oct 8, 2005 earthquake, I whole-heartedly endorse Greg Mortenson and his work. This book adds new life to the over-wraught dictum that "one CAN make a difference." Beyond that, if one wants to truly get inside the rural Pakistani's heart and soul, this is mandatory reading.

My personal experience has been that once I met these people (and yes, had tea with them in their tiny homes, or in the quake region, in their tents), it was difficult to want to leave to return to the West. It's a hard thing to explain but Mortenson's book will absolutely do the job. A powerful thread within his story: It would be impossible not to love these people after getting to know them one-on one.

These remote village people are simple, strong and proud. Their lives are spent nurturing their families and working hard in a politically and environmentally tortured region. BUY THE BOOK, get inside the people of this place and then send Greg Mortenson your donation.

One man's remarkable vision
"Three Cups of Tea" is a compelling account of the difference one fiercely determined person can make in the world. I won't use this space to repeat the descriptions already covered in the editorial reviews, but Greg Mortenson's passion for educating children, especially girls, in the rugged mountain regions of northern Pakistan is truly remarkable. The relationships he has patiently built with local people and moderate Muslim leaders in the area over many years are key to his success.

In addition to education, Mortenson's Central Asia Institute funds projects that provide health care and clean water. He is also building schools in northern Afghanistan, again with the support of local people.

One alarming chapter of the book includes a discussion of the spread of fundamentalist madrassas in the mountain regions of Pakistan, which should deeply concern Americans, including the government. It is essential for Americans to support Mortenson's Central Asia Institute initiatives to provide children with educational alternatives.

"Three Cups of Tea" is very well written, with heartfelt portraits of courageous people. It is a superb and moving story of an exceptional man.

So Much More Than Just a Book
It's a book but then so are the latest bestsellers yet they offer nothing beyond a mindless distraction. To say Three Cups of Tea is about peace is to say that Mortensen goes hiking in the mountains. To say it's about building schools in the most desolate, remote, obscure part of the planet is to say an idealistic young man had a wild idea.

Mortenson and co-author David Oliver Relin bring the reader to the foot of K2, into a village so isolated from everything that there doesn't even exist a bridge to connect them to the world beyond the raging river that flows from the glacier fields. There Mortenson introduces us to children so eager to learn they work multiplication tables in the dirt without benefit of a teacher or books.

How does this man, so grateful to the people who saved his life, repay them? One school at a time. It's a truely inspirational story of what any of us, including a kid born in Minnesota, can do to change the world. The fact that the book is also a true page-turner and is so "can't put it down, don't interrupt me, I gotta know what happens next" good makes this must reading for every high school senior, every empty-nester, every one of us wondering what to do with the rest of our lives. Although I likely won't venture to the high mountains of Pakistan or Tibet, Mortenson has inspired me to find a way to make a difference. Go read it and find your inspiration!!!

STOP what you are doing...
you.. yes YOU behind the terminal, surfing the web, maybe finding that cheap chotcky to buy or something. Stop what you are doing if you have come across this book and this review. You need to read this more than you think!

Within the confines of 350 pages you can be transported to a world that for most Westerner's and specifically Americans, is probably very unknown, and more than likely, highly misunderstood. In this world you will be introduced to a man named Greg Mortenson, or as you soon to know him, as Greg Sahib..

The story that is told by David Oliver Revin, will not just be inspiring, will not be just teeth clenching, it will make you re-evaluate what you do in your life. While most of us may talk about the incapacity of the administration, or some (unfortunatly) the hatred of the middle East, or maybe some of you are even lying down in the streets, but there is ONE person who is TRULY doing something about the problems of foreign policy by litteraly getting his hands dirty touching the earth to build a school foundation, and risking his life ten times over.

When you have read this journey, you will be saying to yourself, did he really do that? That guy is CRAZY! Did that really happen?, the Taliban? , How is that possible? In the journey that is fortold of a change of fate through a failed mountain expedition, you can see what the spirit of the individual can do and how it can be transformed. As the events of 9/11 soon come to fruition, Greg couldn't be in a better place at the right time, and with David's narration, you are litteraly put in the drivers seat.

After reading Mortensen's journey, you will want to litteraly book a plane ticket to somewhere you have never been before. In reading the accomplishments of a somewhat flawed (hey what person is perfect) individual, you will feel small and insignifigant. David Relin will not just explain what Greg did, he will make you live it, with some enjoyable side narrations that will make you grin.

In Three Cups of Tea, David has managed more than anything to explain the heart of a problem (Islamic hatred of the West) of a very complicated nature (through numerous foreign policy debacles and politics spanning decades), and how one man knows of an easy solution (Go to poor regions of the Middle East and give education and extend the olive branch. Build schools for the poorest of the poor, ecspecially for girls. And more importantly, let them know that it was done.. by an American).

As if it was so difficult to understand.

I encourage you to take this journey and figure out that sometimes the biggest problems in life require some of the most common sense solutions. I also echo the other comments on here that you should buy this book from the actually CAI institute and consider a donation as well.

Greg Mortensen is doing what he is doing best, and his passion comes through the pages. For myself my passion is to write. Like Gregg I feel it is what I can do best (when I put my effort my passion, and my soul into it).

now if you'll excuse me...

I have to go write a check.

What an incredible story...
My goodness. I just finished the book, and I am in tears. I am a world traveller (32 countries in just about every region on the globe), and consider myself compassionate to a fault; but even I, after September 11th, possessed a fair degree of anger at Muslims. I had spent some time in the Middle East and North Africa, and although I tried to respect the traditions as much as possible (covering my arms, wore long skirts, not looking at men in the eye), I was still assaulted in broad daylight in a street bazaar in Cairo, Egypt, surrounded by at least a dozen of my classmates (an old man came up and grabbed my [...]). The anger that started then had totally blown up after September 11th and consumed me, the point where I had actually said that I will never believe Islam is a religion of peace, especially after the reaction to the Mohammed cartoons.

Well.

I was wrong.

This book has reminded me why I loved the regions in the Himalayas and beyond; the simplicity of life, the fierceness and protectiveness towards family and friends; and their incredible desire to do the best for themselves with whatever they have on hand, even if it means going to school on a bare field covered with morning frost. Greg and David describe these people in Baltistan and beyond so well that you cannot help admiring or even falling in love with these proud, strong people.

I've always told people if you encourage positive change for just one person, you'll change the whole world for them. Greg and his CAI cohorts have done that for literally hundreds of thousands of children. It was so gratifying for me to read, despite the selfishness of our people today, that there are still some who passionately believe in changing the world for others.

For me, it was the speech by Syed Abbas (on page 257, hardcover) that broke the last of my hard-core attitude towards Muslims and Islam.

I am off to make my contribution - meager but still a contribution - to CAI so they can continue their incredible work.

A MUST read
Greg Mortenson's three cups of tea is an account of his unsuccessful attempt on mighty K2, world's second highest peak in Himalayas. Though unsuccessful, his failure embarked him on a mission to educate people of an area inhabitants of breath taking hills and valleys and virgin plains. Whats mind boggling about his adventure is his spirit of self sacrifice for a people of a land much misunderstood by the west. His story proves that with love, compassion and sincerity, you can melt the hearts, even those of mountains. Rightly regarded a hero in Northern Pakistan, his book would go a long way in bridging the divide between the inhabitants of East and West. If you haven't read the book, you are Missing on something. Highly recommended.

Promote peace on Earth. Read this book.
This is the most amazing and inspiring book I have read in a very long time. I am a high school teacher and the mother of a U.S. Army Seargent who has completed a tour in Afghanistan and is currently serving in Iraq. I bought the book to send to him, but thought I would read it first. I'm very glad I did. The book is as exciting as an adventure novel, but it's true. Anyone who cares about the education and welfare of children and who desires to understand the problems faced in fighting terrorism should read this book. There is hope for peace in this world and Greg Mortenson is doing wonderful things to make it happen. He is a true American hero. Everyone needs to read this book and everyone who does will want to share it with others.

A lesson in altruism
This book is absolutely wonderful. Mortenson shows us how one dedicated person can make a difference. He also poignantly shows the world that education and non-violent assistance does a profoundly better job of winning support and "attacking" terrorism than warfare! (Duh!) I think there are very few Americans who would be willing to make the kind of sacrifice Greg Mortenson has but he has certainly inspired me to support his and similar efforts in the best way I can. In my opinion, he deserves a Nobel Peace prize. I would like to see this book in every high school library in America. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor. ... Read more

Reviews

True to Life Account
I grew up in Welch, WV and was acquainted with Jeanette and Brian(Lori was older and Maureen was younger). I can attest that her harrowing account of growing up with an alcoholic father and mentally ill mother in the coalfields of WV was as she says. This was a compelling read, all the more so, because it was about people and places I knew so well. As I read, I was filled with sorrow and shame because I was one of those people who didn't want to have close association with them because they were so different from me. I try to asuage my guilt by telling myself I saw things from a child's maturity level. I wish I could apologize and find myself wondering what would have happened if I had befriended Jeanette. She could have enriched my like tremendously. For those of you who doubt things could not have happened like it was written, don't. I knew it and I saw it, and to a degree, lived it. And as tragic as it was, it was true.

WHAT A COURAGEOUS MEMOIR - - BRAVO!
First, "The Glass Castle" is a real page turner - - I couldn't put it down and finished it in about four hours - - a record for me!

It's probably the most thoughtful and sensitive memoir I can ever remember reading - - told with such grace, kindness and fabulous sense of humor.

It's probably the best account ever written of a dysfunctional family -- and it must have taken Walls so much courage to put pen to paper and recount the details of her rather bizarre childhood - - which although it's like none other and is so dramatic - - any reader will relate to it. Readers will find bits and pieces of their own parents in Rex and Rose Mary Walls.

Her journey across the country, ending up in a poor mining town in West Virginia and then finally in New York City, is a fascinating tale of survival.

Her zest for life, even when eating margarine and sugar and bundled in a cardboard box with sweaters, coats and huddling with her pets, is unbelievably beautiful - - and motivating.

If I could give a book ten stars, it would be "The Glass Castle."

Inferno to Paradiso (or close enough)
Jeannette Wall's trek, as depicted in "Glass Castle", recalls Dante's
journey through Hell and eventual ascenscion to Paradise. The comparison may seem risibly over-dramatic, but just as Dante had to go through the experience of the Netherworlds before he could be led to Heaven, so, too, is Jeannette's eventual triumph the FRUIT of a childhood filled with poverty and, what some would call, parental neglect or even abuse.

In the opening section about Jeannette's early childhood, sort of the outer rungs of hell, we are introduced to the author's quirky family. Her father, Rex, is a brainy underachiever who cannot keep a job and has a bit of a "drinking situation".
The mother is an eccentric artist who cannot be bothered too much
by mundane tasks- you know, like cooking or cleaning the house. The children, all extremely bright, are often underfed and left to fend for themselves. However, if the parents have failings, they also have redeeming qualities. The children are immersed in an environment that values art, music, intellectual pursuits, freedom and self-sufficiency and spurns racism and all forms of bourgeois superficiality. Above all, the reader never doubts that Rex and his wife truly love the children. One gets the feeling throughout that Jeanette never doubts that either.
In any case, the early years are bittersweet. If there is squalor and hunger there is also humor and magic. Most of all, there is hope. The family frequently moves and, although that is frustrating, it also provided the background for a myth: that the next town would provide prosperity.

But then to Welch they did go! And, it is in this West Virginia town where her father grew up,the "Nation's Coal Bin", that Jeannette and the rest of the family descend into the lower regions of hell. All the problems are exacerbated. The father, having returned to the place he said he never would, drinks with abandon and applies more and more of the family's slim resources toward his habit. Jeanette resorts to scaveging trash barrels for sustenance and is humiliated for her tattered clothing. There is not water in the house for bathing and no heat in Winter. Swallowed by the appalachian mountains with only the two-lane US 52 out, you feel stuck. Even the pilgrim parents are unable to muster the strength to break the gravity of this place. With this immobility came the final destruction of the myth (that the family would move somewhere else and find prosperity) and, as a consequence, the destruction of hope. However, it is in this darkness that Jeannette finds her calling. She becomes a reporter for the "Maroon Wave", the Welch High School student newspaper. The rest of the book details how her dream to become a "high falutin" journalist led her to New York City and her current incarnation. Maybe not Paradiso, but close enough considering her formative years.

A number of components conflate to push Jeannette towards a succeful resolution. Certainly the positive legacy of her parents: culture, books, self-sufficiency, etc. But also the dire situation gave her a sense of urgency and the focus that comes with it: She had nothing to lose. She was lucky enough to have discovered early on a career path and did not have the leisure to ruminate ENDLESSLY on it.. This latter often brings self-doubts that paralyze youth. Unlike so many memoirs about unhappy childhoods, the author never plays the John Bradshaw card by irately denouncing her parents, nor does she try to facilely excuse them. Life is more complex than that and she understand that syzygys cannot be tampered with, lest you destroy the whole. You cant take eggs out of the cake.

On a personal note, I grew up in Welch, went to Welch High School and knew Jeannette (though not very well) who was two grades behind me. I have not seen her since High School. For those reviewers who expressed doubts about the authenticity of her story, I can tell you that at least the Welch part of the story rings true to my memory.

One for Your Reading List.
I was grateful that the chapters are short in this disturbing memoir, because I could only take in a little at a time. It's difficult to imagine a more dysfunctional household than the one in which Walls grew up. What sets her book apart is the distinctive voice in which she narrates that dysfunction, and her growing awareness that she's entitled to a decent life.

We meet the fiesty Jeannette as a toddler, badly burned while cooking hot dogs on a stove for herself. No, she wasn't defying her mother's orders. She was simply taking care of herself in a household where both parents thumbed their noses at such simple conventions as regular meals, sound shelter, decent clothing, running hot water and protection from sexual predators. On one thing, though, they didn't scrimp: the children were taught to read at an early age. I'm convinced that held the key to their survival. Thanks to public libraries, Jeannette read the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder prairie series before she entered school. It must have helped normalize the survivalist lifestyle that her parents adopted.

The difference is that it wasn't necessary. Rex, her father, was when sober an accomplished electrician and science maven. Her mother, Rose Mary, had a college degree but found teaching, like motherhood, an imposition on her life as an artist. The three older children--Lori, Jeannette and Bryan--functioned as a family within the family. The youngest, Maureen, grew dependent on the kindess of strangers and eventually set out on her own.

This is a uniquely American story that wanders all over the landscape from California and Arizona to West Virginia and New York. Although we see the cruelty with which these neglected chilidren are treated, we also see the people who help them and their own protection of their family. As Jeannette views it, the worst possible thing would be separation from her siblings, and I'm inclined to agree with her. Certainly, this book tests my assumption that children get their values from their parents. The Walls children formed theirs in opposition to their parents' in many ways, but they also managed to hang onto the dogged independence and sense of wonder that they admired in Mom and Dad.

I hope this book will enter the list of child survival stories that in my mind includes Tobias Wolfe's "Duke of Deception" and Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes." Certainly I would recommend it for readers everywhere who are convinced they were deprived.

Venus Belongs to Walls
"My parents, Rose Mary and Rex Walls, and their wedding day - 1956".

There it is. A photo of a young couple, in love, flush with promise. The bride looking shy at the camera. The groom, square jawed and filled with good humor. It's stunning to think that this handsome, newly married couple, would live their lives in squalor, alcoholism and dreams. This picture is very much part of the story of Jeannette Walls and her family, as it sets the tone on the very first page of this wonderful, heartbreaking memoir.

Jeannette's sisters Lori, Maureen and brother Brian, endured a childhood that could have been torn out of the history pages citing the Great Depression. It's hard to believe that these were the 1960's and 1970's in America. Starvation, bad hygiene, and lack of personal safety was an everyday habit in the Walls home - or homes - since they moved from town to town. The kid's upbringing was almost literally, either sink or swim. Much like the wind blown Joshua Tree they saw by the side of the road during one of their family "skadaddles", the kids grew against the force, became tough, and learned survivial despite the adversities.

Both parents were incredibly bright and talented beings. Sadly, they had big schemes on which they could never follow through. Rex Walls was a mathematician who came from a squalor home in West Virginia, and Rose Mary was a prolific artist and teacher who was raised in an upper middle class family out west. What seemed to bond them was an adamant need to spurn the norms of society. This resulted in an inability to stay at the same job for long. They'd lose their homes, and inevitably shack up in their car or any broken down house they could find. This meant the children suffered. They'd constantly be uprooted, and taken out of school. With no money for everyday items, they'd find food and clothes in dumpsters. School children or other family members would abuse them, physically or sexually. Father, a raging drunk, drank up all the money they made. In one period of time, while living in a small home that could be described as a shack, the parents refused to lock their doors, which invited wanderers to come in and out during the night making the children open targets for various perversions.

All long range plans they devined would either die out or be scratched, such as the building of a glass castle in which Rex had drawn up meticulous architectual plans. The aforementioned ramshackled home they lived in came with a backyard where Rex and his kids began to dig a hole for the foundation of this little palace. Sadly, the job was left abandoned. More of a ditch than a foundation, it was ultimately turned into their own landfill when they didn't have tax money for municiple garbage removal. It's quite a metaphor for their lives - dreams left abandoned for garbage. Yet, despite all the trouble and strife, one theme remains consistant: their love for each other was strong. The family, kids especially, stood by each other through all the bad times.

The parents remained stubborn in clinging to poverty, deeming it poetic and noble, turning down any means of charity, even from their own children. For instance, when the kids had grown and found their way to Manhattan to start anew, the parents followed them, finding shelter in their cramped apartments. Despite the incessant pleas of their children to stay with them, they declined, opting to go it alone, ultimately setting up house in an abandoned building, embracing what we would call utter despair, as a one great big wonderful adventure.

The stories unfold with a pure voice, no judgement or bitterness clouds Walls' telling of her family. Each horrible, enraging moment is given a morsel of wonder, such as Rex gazing up at the stars one Christmas, and giving Jeanette the planet Venus as a present since monetary gifts were impossible. In such a remembrance, and many others told between the frighening scenes, Walls makes it clear that her folks were free souls who shared their love in strange ways.

This book will give you chills, and it will also make you think about homelessness and the unique stories these souls carry. Much praise should be given to Walls and her siblings, for having walked through fire, and coming out alive.

Courage to move forward....
Jeannette Walls is familiar as a face and voice for MSNBC.com. Her husband is writer John Taylor. Her parents were non conventional and non-conforming, and she was often left to take care for herself.

Through the book I kept looking for bitterness or residual shame just as the author often had to rummage for food in a dumpster but she is so contented and the book is her memoir of thriving and letting go of negative feelings. Her parents, Rex and Rose Mary Walls and their four children had a bizarre existence, but Jeanette is testament to survival and functional achievement regardless of what type of spoon you're born with in your mouth. The spoon in her mouth may have been plastic but she turned her life into gold.

Great memoir
The author describes her fascinating childhood in which her family moves around the country, following her father's dreams, staying ahead of law enforcement and bill collectors, and living the family's carefree attitude. While her father's dreams are what sustains the family for many years, slowly the four children become disillusioned as their father continually fails to provide all of the things he promises them. The father's inability to hold down a job and stay sober forces the family to live in destitution, and while the mother is continually writing and painting, this does not put food on the table. The four children learn to fend for themselves, take care of each other, and determine what is really important in their lives.

Quote: "As Brian and I watched, the hole for the Glass Castle's foundation slowly filled with garbage."

This was a really excellent memoir, which raised excellent questions about family, prioritization, dreams, reality, and the power of perseverance to overcome whatever challenges a person faces. The author relates her inner struggle when she wants desperately to believe in her father's big dreams, while having to scrounge in trash cans to find enough food. Although it was a bit slow in the beginning, things picked up rapidly. The book moved quickly, particularly because it is organized into short chapters. I thought the most significant portions related to the siblings holding together while they were growing up and making the most of difficult circumstances.

Wonderful Memoir
When your children complain about how they suffered, don't rely: just give them a copy of this book and tell them to come and see you when they're finished. Jeannette Walls tells her story of a childhood spent being dragged around the country as her father does the "skedaddle" to avoid creditors and while her mother refuses to face his contining slide into alcoholism and the family's ever descending circumstances. The children understand that they are living at the bottom of the food chain, often living with no heat or indoor plumbing, but are powerless to change things until one by one they graduate from high school and simply leave. This book is an absolute must read. One of my top ten of 2005. Beautifully written and compelling.

Overcoming Skedaddle
Perhaps it was a fierce intelligence that lifted Jeannette Walls out of the well of despair into which her "parents" were forever dipping her (an apt metaphor considering her first swimming lesson). I put quotes around the word parents in the last sentence because, in this riveting memoir, it is the children who do the actual parenting. Young Jeannette, eager to get to school in the morning, would frst have to drag her mother out of bed and send her off to school as well. Mom, you see, was a teacher -- a teacher who didn't care to go to work, even if it meant that her children would not eat for days on end. She was, she said, an artist. When confronted, Mom would whine, suggesting her young children find work themselves. Almost immediately, they do. Jeannette, especially, displays an unerring ambition, and the reader wants to applaud as we see her turning toward a full belief in her abilities as both parent to her parents and then as a writer, which she understands immediately will be her ticket to respectability and, possibly, riches.

During the book (I couldn't put it down for a minute), there were several times I wanted to slap both parents, intensely feeling the pure disgust the children had to hide. I imagine fear of the unknown, of being taken away and put into foster homes, made hiding that disgust imperative. Coming clean here, however, Ms. Walls brilliantly succeeds in illuminating that which makes her father and mother quite special, apart from the normal loyalty blindly afforded one's family. Both parents are obviously bright, though lacking even a glimmer of responsibility. It is clear that the children have inherited this intelligence but . . . will they survive on this alone? Can they? Every setback becomes an invitation for Dad to climb back into the bottle and for Mom, obssessed with observing and recording the world around her, to be guilted into returning to teaching, a job she hates . . . Because it's a job. The most heart-wrenching part of this book for me was, oddly enough, a scene where a young Jeannette, possessing only two pair of threadbare pants, colors her skin with matching magic markers to simulate the "patches" the family could not afford. We are talking bone-crushing poverty here. A passage where her father takes her to a bar and uses his young daughter as bait for a man he intends to beat at pool -- allowing the man to take the young girl upstairs after he's fleeced him out of $80, placed Dad beyond the pale of redemption for me. And I kept waiting for Jeannette to feel the same way. Being a streetsmart survivor who can handle anyting isn't enough. This is a child we're talking about. It's one horror after another. Yet, through the tenacity of the children and the creativity of their parents, we know they will somehow be all right. In fact, we already know at the beginning that Jeannette will do well for herself in life. This fact, however, does not stop us from rooting for these kids the whole way, binding the reader to them as they slowly break from those who would betray them, while still loving them, and find their own adult lives elsewhere (New York City), where we know they can do nothing but improve their lives.

One after another, Jeannette and her siblings move to Manhattan and, through hard work, immediately attain a measure of the domestic security that was denied them from the time they were born. Jeannette, in a section that reads almost as if she is embarrassed to be recognized for her talent and intelligence, receives an Ivy League scholarship and advances quickly in Manhattan, eventually chronicling the social lives of the rich and famous from her Park Avenue apartment. Park Avenue! What a transition from the damp, moldy confines of a broken down up-hollow shack in West Virginia.

However, Mom and Dad miss the comfort of child labor. Having only themselves to rely upon has apparently caused them to realize their limitations and dependence upon their own children. They do not intend to let their little breadwinners get fully away from them.

These characters are indelible. I did not want the book to end. In fact, I found the ending rather abrupt with several unanswered questions. What becomes of the fragile Maureen? What becomes of the land in Texas? Overall, though, this memoir is a rich, satisfying read and a testament to the spirit people like Jeannette Walls and her siblings use to somehow elevate themselves above the dark side of their heritage. Going along for the ride, we find ourselves elevated as well.
... Read more

Editorial Review

Meet Tom, an Emergency Medical Technician for the London Ambulance service. It is Tom who shows up to pick up the drunk tramp, the heart attack victim and the pregnant woman who wants to go to hospital in an ambulance because she doesn't want to call a taxi. Tom is also a man who rails against the unfairness of it all, who bemoans the state of the NHS and who ridicules the targets that state that if the ambulance arrives within eight minutes and the patient dies it is a success and if the ambulance arrives in nine minutes and the patient's life is saved it is a fail.Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of the emergency services. From the tragic to the hilarious, from the heart-warming to the terrifying, Blood, Sweat and Tea 2 is packed with fascinating anecdotes that veer from tragic to hilarious; heart-warming to terrifying and Tom deftly leads the reader through a rollercoaster of emotion.In the brilliant and bestselling Blood Sweat and Tea Tom gives a fascinating – and at times alarming – picture of life in inner-city Britain and the people who are paid to mop up after it.Captures the thrills, heartbreak and frustrations of medicine in a way that resonates with readers around the world. ... Read more

Reviews

Thumbnail sketches of life., February 13, 2010
Tom Reynolds has given each of us the opportunity to see what life is like for people who drive the ambulances to medical emergencies. Granted, once he gets to the location, the "emergency" might be an upset stomach or a runny nose, but it might also be a tiny baby who has died in it's crib.

This book has no plot, no named characters, no chronology, but what it does have is a realism that can only be achieved by someone who is living these events each and every day of his career. The incidents related here are from the blog Tom Reynolds writes concerning his job with the ambulance service in a section of east London. On my Kindle this book is divided into 211 chapters with each "chapter" being devoted to a single entry of his blog. Each one is very short. They range all the way from the truly frivolous calls to those where he and his mates are unable to save the patient's life. Along the way he sometimes indulges in a little fanciful, playful writing about his job and he also vents his spleen about how the government is running the National Health Service. Also included is a lexicon of terms and abbreviations which will help the reader keep track of the various organizations and functions of the London Ambulance Service and a short note about the author, including his real name.

This is the second book utilizing information from Reynolds' blog. The first was Blood, Sweat, and Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance which is also available in book or Kindle form. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to see real life situations on a daily basis through the eyes of someone who is there and keeps going back.

It just goes to show you..., March 4, 2010
Prehospital care must be the same the world over. I loved this. I was a paramedic in Los Angeles for a number of years and I can tell you that the author's depiction of events on the streets of London is not much different from the silliness and drama experienced on the streets of LA.

A kind mixture of cynicsm, drama, caring and reality make this book a wonderfully accurate reflection of the trials and tribulations faced by emergency providers every day.

The chapters are bite sized chunks that make it easy to set the book down and then pick up right where you left off.

If you're worried about blood and gore, don't let that stop you from getting this one. There's not much of that kind of thing. Plenty of human observation and Tom's observations are spot-on.

Okay, quit reading my silly review and go download the book, you'll be glad you did!

Review for More Blood, More Sweat, and Another Cup of Tea, April 12, 2010
This book contains lots of short stories and musings from the author's life as an EMT in London. I found some of the stories to be funny, some sad, some touching, and some to be anger-inducing. It was also interesting to get an insider look at the day to day workings of an ambulance crew. Knowing about the government hoops that they have to jump through and the people that they have to deal with makes me appreciate them a lot more.

Interesting Read, March 8, 2010
This book was an interesting look into the life of an ambulance driver. However, I found that it quickly got old, and there were a lot of things that were repeated. There is no flow at all with this book. This book read very much like a blog, however, in book format, it should have been adjusted to know who the reader is. Once we've read the definition of why a blanket is so useful, we don't need to read the same reasoning and logic 4 more times. I understand why this is done in blog format, the book should have been edited for this.

There were many times I was forcing myself to pick up the kindle and finish this book, which is unusual for me. I'm not sure what it is, whether it's the style of writing or the subject matter, but I just didn't find myself drawn into the book or attracted to the author.

Pretty Darn Interesting, February 10, 2010
This is excerpted from the blog of a London EMS. I was up with insomnia last night, and looking for a fun, light read. This was perfect! Because this is a journal, there isn't a storyline. Just an interesting perspective on life.

Not everything writen needs to be a book, June 5, 2010
This journal type book is not well written, and not satisfying. It was a kindle freebie and was worth that. Sadly the author hasn't fleshed out any incidents, hasn't provided a theme, or any depth.
I am appalled that it got through the editors. or were there any editors?

Devoid of any literary skill, May 3, 2010
I couldn't make it through this book. Some of the incidents he related could have been powerful, could have been inspiring or uplifting or moving, but the author is not a writer. He is an EMT who writes in his journal. This is fine, but doesn't make it worthy of being published. A series of random journal entries does not equal a work of art. Good thing I downloaded it for free.

Good thing it was free, March 28, 2010
I guess I didn't read the reviews well enough. This is not so much a story as a bunch of 'diary' entries. Not impressed. He doesn't seem like he enjoys his job very much.

Lots of Words without a Lot of Content, February 26, 2010
Written in a journal style, this has lots of words but says very little. Not much happens in each of the short stories. Pass on this one, glad it was free and I didn't spend my hard earned cash here.

folks are the same everywhere...., December 19, 2010
First, this is not a continuous story with plot lines (unless the failures of the health care system and constant stupidity of alcoholics and stoners is considered a plot) and characters. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a collection of blogs from a London EMT who is also a former emergency nurse.

As an American, former EMT, emergency nurse, I could totally relate to this story. In fact, if you change the terminology and locations, this could be my life.

And for all those that think the British National Health System is the perfect answer to our medical crisis, READ THIS BOOK!!!! ... Read more

Editorial Review

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture."Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them.And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer.But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying.It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think").It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe.It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form.It is a book that will be shared for generations to come. ... Read more

Reviews

If "he not busy being born is busy dying", Randy Pausch is immortal
In all mediums, Randy shows exceptional courage and grace in this real-time tragic situation. I found the book good, somewhat overlapping the lecture, providing interesting details.... I found the details on his wife and children more interesting having already seen the lecture. I had hoped for more philosophical reflections rather than stories, but that's apparently his communication choice and style. His intensity and certitude left me wondering what he was like before the cancer diagnosis. In fact, other than his talent for communicating, and substantial professional achievements, I think we are left with very little idea of what the man is like aside from his consistent messages of working hard and having fun, but that may be unrealistic realizing that the book was by necessity,a rushed book. It did relate a bit more perspective around the lecture itself which was interesting. It's a quick read, I suggest checking it out at the library for an afternoon read, unless you would like to buy it simply to benefit his family. The Diane Sawyer piece is good as well. ... Read more

Editorial Review

How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love—such questions arise in most people’s lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: how do you live? How do you do the good or honorable thing, while flourishing and feeling happy?

This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Monatigne, perhaps the first truly modern individual. A nobleman, public official and wine-grower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. He called them “essays,” meaning “attempts” or “tries.” Into them, he put whatever was in his head: his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dog’s ears twitched when it was dreaming, as well as the appalling events of the religious civil wars raging around him. The Essays was an instant bestseller and, over four hundred years later, Montaigne’s honesty and charm still draw people to him. Readers come in search of companionship, wisdom and entertainment—and in search of themselves.

This book, a spirited and singular biography, relates the story of his life by way of the questions he posed and the answers he explored. It traces his bizarre upbringing, youthful career and sexual adventures, his travels, and his friendships with the scholar and poet Étienne de La Boétie and with his adopted “daughter,” Marie de Gournay. And we also meet his readers—who for centuries have found in Montaigne an inexhaustible source of answers to the haunting question, “how to live?” ... Read more

Reviews

"Don't read him as children do, for amusement, nor as the ambitious do, to be instructed. No, read him in order to live."

A Life in Full
A beautifully written and researched book on Montaigne; his life (1533-1592) and times, as well as on his reputation and the intellectual influences over the centuries of his seminal work, "Essays."

Montaigne is said (p.66) to have liked biographers "who went beyond the external events of a life and tried to reconstruct a person's inner world from the evidence." If he were alive today, I think he would be quite pleased with his new biographer, Sarah Bakewell.

Ms. Bakewell's unconventional but elegant work, "How To Live: A Life of Montaigne" should be bought, read, and kept for one's library.

Why you should read Montaigne

Good Advice from the First Essayist
Montaigne is a difficult subject for a biographer, but Sarah Bakewell has achieved the feat of giving us three books in one: a lively biography, twenty thought-provoking reflections on Montaigne's philosophy of living, and an insight into the origins of the personal essay. If you have never read Montaigne's essays this book will certainly encourage you to do so.

An intriguing read to enjoy at your leisure....
Sarah Blakewell's life affirming biography of sixteenth century French essayist Michel de Montaigne comes neatly packaged for the twenty-first century reader.

Twenty self-contained chapters provide not only factual information about his life, they also provide insight into his development of a plan for living.

While Montaigne's essays may appear intimidating to the non-specialist reader, Blakewell's twenty chapters are easily accessible.

This is a well-written biography worthy of scholarly perusal and an intriguing and pleasant guide for the layperson.

Making Montaigne Accessible

Editorial Review

“It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.”
 
So begins this gorgeous memoir by Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Caldwell, a testament to the power of friendship, a story of how an extraordinary bond between two women can illuminate the loneliest, funniest, hardest moments in life, including the final and ultimate challenge.

They met over their dogs. Both writers, Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp, author of Drinking: A Love Story, became best friends, talking about everything from their shared history of a struggle with alcohol, to their relationships with men and colleagues, to their love of books. They walked the woods of New England and rowed on the Charles River, and the miles they logged on land and water became a measure of the interior ground they covered. From disparate backgrounds but with striking emotional similarities, these two private, fiercely self-reliant women created an attachment more profound than either of them could ever have foreseen. 

The friendship helped them define the ordinary moments of life as the ones worth cherishing. Then, several years into this remarkable connection, Knapp was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

With her signature exquisite prose, Caldwell mines the deepest levels of devotion and grief in this moving memoir about treasuring and losing a best friend. Let’s Take the Long Way Home is a celebration of life and of the transformations that come from intimate connection—and it affirms, once again, why Gail Caldwell is recognized as one of our bravest and most honest literary voices. ... Read more

Reviews

An Intimate Look at Deep Friendship

A Loving Tribute to Friendship

unforgettable, heart-breaking, but never sentimental: I'm in awe of this book
If you have tears, prepare to shed them.

Caroline Knapp was the author of Drinking: A Love Story. I've wriiten about it on [...] because some of you surely have issues with alcohol, and I thought it might be of use. And because it's acutely observed and beautifully written. And because there's a painful irony here: Caroline got sober, only to die in June of 2002, when she was forty-two, seven weeks after she was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer.

Caroline Knapp had a best friend. Gail Caldwell. Also a writer. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2001. She too had alcohol issues.

Two women writers. Both dog lovers. Both recovering alcoholics. Both living alone, and liking it. Both athletes. Near-neighbors in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Friends. Best friends. One died. The other wrote a book: "Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship." [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]

There are men and women I love, and I think they know it, and I hope they know how incredibly lucky I feel that I'm in their lives, but we're talking about something else here, something deeper and more precious and, certainly, scarier.

"It's an old story," Caldwell begins. "I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that.''

Define everything. Well, rowing on the Charles River. Writing. Alcoholism. And, most of all, afternoon-long walk with their dogs:

"'Let's take the long way home,' she would say once we had gotten to the car, and then we would wend our way through the day traffic of Somerville or Medford, in no hurry to separate. At the end of the drive, with Clementine [Caldwell's dog] snoring softly in the back seat, we would sit outside the house of whoever was being dropped off, and keep talking. Then we would go inside our respective houses and call each other on the phone."

This is a grief memoir, but that descent into deepest sadness is also, by definition, an exploration of peak experiences. Everything's heightened, brighter, sharper in lives lived this acutely. This is a 190-page book --- we don't get to Caroline's illness until page 125. What comes before? This great friendship, detailed. But also a condensed biography of Caroline Knapp. And a lacerating autobiography of Gail Caldwell:

"I've always remembered one thing Rich [Caldwell's AA adviser] said one day, when I was buried in fear and shame at the idea that I had drunk my way into alcoholism. He asked me why I was so frightened, and I told him, weeping, the first thing that came into my mind: "I'm afraid that no one will ever love me again." He leaned toward me with a smile of great kindness on his face, his hands clasped in front of him. "Don't you know?" he asked gently. "The flaw is the thing we love."

Eventually --- you dread it --- Caldwell gets to Caroline's fatal illness. The disbelief. The stoicism. And then, as Caroline begins her final descent, the combination of love and pride and hurt --- the recognition moment of what there was and what will be lost.

"Near the end, I asked him [Caroline's former therapist] what he thought was happening, and he said, "Tell her everything you haven't said," and I smiled with relief. "There's nothing," I said. "I've already told her everything."

Can you imagine that? I can't.

I've always had a weakness for damaged women --- they're so much more beautiful than the perfect ones. From her own book, I found Caroline Knapp to be ravishing. Now, here, I add Gail Caldwell.

What an astonishing friendship. What great women. What a stellar, unforgettable book.

A Life Worth Living
Let's Take The Long Way Home is, at its core, a love story. It's a story of how a close connection with a friend can ground us and provide us with a life worth living. And it's a story that any woman who has ever had a friend who is like a sister - I count myself among those fortunate women - will understand in a heartbeat.

Gail Caldwell, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, met Caroline Knapp, also a writer, over their mutual love of their dogs. Ms. Caldwell writes, "Finding Caroline was like placing a personal ad for an imaginary friend, then having her show up at your door funnier and better than you had conceived."

Both women - about a decade apart in age - are passionate about writing and their dogs and have successfully dealt with alcohol addiction that knocked them to their knees. "We had a lot of dreams, some of them silly, all part of the private code shared by people who plan to be around for the luxuries of time," Ms. Caldwell shares.

Quickly, Gail and Caroline and their two dogs become a "pack of four". They are both self-described moody introverts who prefer the company of dogs. Yet, "...we gave each other wide berth - it was far easier, we learned over the years, to be kind to the other than to ourselves." As they grow closer, Gail and Caroline learn that nurturance and strength "were each the lesser without the other."

It is almost inconceivable that this close friendship would ever end, but Caroline is a smoker and at 42, she learns she has stage 4 lung cancer. Her death comes quickly, in a matter of weeks. Gail Caldwell reflects, "Death is a divorce nobody asked for; to live through it is to find a way to disengage from what you thought you couldn't stand to lose." And later: "Caroline's death had left me with a great and terrible gift: how to live in a world where loss, some of it unbearable, is as common as dust or moonlight." Eventually, she comes to realize "...we never get over great losses; we absorb them, and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures."

This memoir is poignant, authentic, unflinching, and genuine - never manipulative or sudsy. In addition to the profound look at an extraordinary friendship, it also focuses on "inter-species" love - between two fiercely self-reliant woman and their dogs. The rich and moving portrayal of Gail Caldwell's Samoy, Clementine, will be entirely familiar to those of us who have shared our lives with four-legged "fur babies"; love in any guise is still love.

This eloquent book ends up being a celebration of life in all its complexities - including love, friendship, devotion, and grief. As Gail Caldwell writes, "The real trick is to let life, with all its ordinary missteps and regrets, be consistently more mysterious and alluring than its end."

Remembering Caroline Knapp

Gracefully paying homage to an inspired friendship
Reviewed by Claudia Kawczynska, Editor-in-chief, The Bark

Intensely moving, without a hint of sentimentality, Let's Take the Long Way Home--part memoir and part biography of a friendship--should be read and cherished by dog lovers and readers of my magazine, The Bark. Gail Caldwell is a fiercely private, independent, talented writer (with a Pulitzer Prize for criticism) and a dog enthusiast. So, when a dog trainer commented that she reminded her of another Cambridge writer who also had a new puppy, and added that she should try to get together with her, Caldwell wisely heeded the advice. What followed was the making of a remarkable relationship with Caroline Knapp (author of Pack of Two), one based not only on personality similarities but on the trust each of them--both reserved women--placed in the other, allowing them to open up and choose to take the "long way home" together.

Be prepared for tears from the book's opening, which starts with Knapp's death and the observation that "grief is what tells you who you are alone," to its end, which closes with the knowledge that "the universe insists that what is fixed is also finite." But this isn't a maudlin tale, nor is it overtly expository like many memoirs can be; rather, it is revelatory, joyous and inspiring. Caldwell expertly draws the reader into her story as a hard-driving feminist from Amarillo, Texas, who saw "drinking as an anesthetic for high-strung sensitivity and a lubricant for creativity," then realized that surrendering her addiction was a "way to get back all your power."

When Knapp enters her circle, Caldwell notes (reflecting on the first of their many long dog walks), "Even on that first afternoon we spent together--a four-hour walk through late-summer woods--I remember being moved by Caroline: It was a different response from simple affection or camaraderie. ... I found it a weightless liberation to be with someone whose intensity seemed to match and sometimes surpass my own." Both shared deep bonds with their dogs--Caldwell with Clementine, a Samoyed, Knapp with Lucille, a Shepherd mix--both had stopped drinking at age 33, and both had early health problems. They also traded sports passions--Caldwell's for swimming and Knapp's for rowing.

But, "everything really started with the dogs." The two women reveled in unlocking the mysteries of canine behavior and in the triumphs earned through polishing their training skills. Theirs was a tight, close friendship, the kind that calls to mind Polonius's counsel to "grapple them [friends] to thy soul with hoops of steel." Caldwell generously allows the reader into their most intimate moments, including when Knapp learned of the cancer diagnosis, her last months in the hospital, and the brief reprieve when Knapp married her long-time companion, Mark Morelli, with Lucille as their ring bearer and Caldwell as her "humble handler."

On a personal note, I must share with you the jolt I felt when I read about Caroline in the hospital, telling Gail that the only assignment she hadn't been able to finish was one I'd given her ("a dog lover's magazine" in the book). Caroline was slated to contribute to Bark's first anthology, "Dog Is My Co-Pilot". I was thrilled when she offered to write an essay and eagerly awaited it; news of her death (which I learned of through a New York Times obituary) came the day her essay was due. As Caroline asks Gail, "What am I supposed to write about ... the only thing worse than losing your dog is knowing that you won't outlive her?"

As it is, with Caroline Knapp's Pack of Two, and now with her best friend's enthralling "pack of four" memoir, both their stories will endure, classics that outlive us all.

A Beautiful Story of Friendship
If you are lucky, you may experience at least once in your life a soul-mate friendship, the kind where you find this magical version of yourself in the guise of another. Such was the case with Gail Caldwell and her late friend, Caroline Knapp.

These single women writers (although Knapp did marry her boyfriend a few weeks before her untimely death at age 43 from lung cancer) came from quite different backgrounds but bonded through work, dogs, rowing, and recovery from alcoholism. Knapp herself wrote a 1996 bestselling memoir, "Drinking: A Love Story."

The account of their growing friendship in Cambridge, MA through their mutual interests is engaging. The section where Caldwell describes her background and recovery from alcoholism deepens the story. Even richer is the period following Knapp's death where Caldwell so convincingly describes the exile of grief. In a devastating turn, loss echoes loss when Caldwell must put down her beloved Samoyed, Clementine, in an account that will break your heart. Read this memoir only if you want to feel deeply.

The beauty of this book is how it well it captures the serendipitous spark of friendship, its growth and deepening, and its loss. It shows that although a life may end, the relationship continues.

wasnt sure what to expect, and was highly pleased

Editorial Review

A tiny, ebullient Jew who started as America's leading liberal and ended as its most famous judicial conservative.A Klansman who became an absolutist advocate of free speech and civil rights.A backcountry lawyer who started off trying cases about cows and went on to conduct the most important international trial ever.A self-invented, tall-tale Westerner who narrowly missed the presidency but expanded individual freedom beyond what anyone before had dreamed.

Four more different men could hardly be imagined.Yet they had certain things in common.Each was a self-made man who came from humble beginnings on the edge of poverty.Each had driving ambition and a will to succeed.Each was, in his own way, a genius.

They began as close allies and friends of FDR, but the quest to shape a new Constitution led them to competition and sometimes outright warfare. SCORPIONStells the story of these four great justices: their relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.It also serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself.

... Read more

Reviews

Court Battles
The author has cherry-picked the four most interesting Supreme Court justices from the eight men that President Rossevelt appointed to the high bench. This legal account really follows the tenure of Robert Jackson (1941-1954) as he interacts with fellow justices Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurther, and Wiliam Douglas. It is an arbitrary time period chosen by the author, but it is climaxed by the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision and Justice Jackson's death. The narrative alternates between the constitutional theories of each of the justice's and between their brilliant but competitive minds. The book combines dueling legal arguments, New Deal politics and clashing personalities into an absorbing narrative of the World War Two era and beyond.

I doubt even the author realizes how good this book is - Finest book ever written about the Supreme Court !!!!


By way of disclosure I am a private scholar who has studied the interplay of power among different institutions and entities, whether it is government, corporations, or other power groups. I have been a member of the Supreme Court Historical Society for many of the last 30 years and I have been fortunate to have developed personal relationships with many associate justices and two Chief Justices. Having said that, I am simply amazed at the wonderfully expertly written, fascinating, and breathtaking book that Feldman has written.


His anecdotes and historical references are both brilliant and factual. He has truly captured the essence of the Supreme Court and its stormy relationship with FDR during a critical period of American history. This was during the 1930's and for the next thirty years. This is a book about 5 egos, four of them justices, and one President, and the interplay between them during 3 decades. The first part of the book is devoted to a fast sweeping biography of 4 associate justices all of whom were appointed by the patrician Franklin Roosevelt.


The Players in this book:


Felix Frankfurter

Brilliant beyond anyone's understanding, he was the product of a poor family living in the slums of New York. He went to the City College of New York, and although it is not mentioned in the book, City College at that time was considered better than Harvard because the Ivy League was limiting Jewish enrollment intentionally. This allowed City College at one point to have more Nobel Prize winners than Harvard.

After graduation, Frankfurter put together some money and went on to Harvard Law where he excelled. Ultimately he developed mentors like Henry Stimson, an absolutely legendary power broker in Washington who served several Presidents including FDR as Secretary of War. Frankfurter is without question one of the intellectually most gifted people to ever serve on the Court.


Robert Jackson

Jackson was born dirt poor, so poor in fact, he could not afford an undergraduate education, and so he apprenticed to be a lawyer with a Jamestown New York law office. While working, he decided to pursue a year of formal education at the Albany New York Law School. He was folksy, clever, with a fabulous speaking delivery, exercised common sense and made a fortune before risking it all on a bank during FDR's first days in office.


Hugo Black

Black did a 2 year program at the University Of Alabama School Of Law. He was self-guided, extremely well read and understood that in the 1920's, the power was with the Ku Klux Klan, and so he joined in 1923. It helped him with his rise to power in Alabama and then he abruptly left the organization. It haunted him the rest of his life. He joined the Supreme Court in 1937, and became one of the most outspoken proponents of freedom, and free speech during the century.


William O. Douglas

Raised on the West Coast in Washington, he became a Yale Law School professor in his 20's. Accepted at Harvard Law, he went to Columbia Law instead. This man also knew how to be mentored. He came under the guidance of Robert Maynard Hutchins who graduated Yale Law in 1925 and immediately became a professor of law. Two years later Hutchins becomes dean of the school at 28 years of age. He then brings Douglas to Yale to be right in the center of things. Douglas would then be mentored by Joe Kennedy, JFK's father. Joe Kennedy would introduce Douglas to FDR, and thus a rocket ship ascent began for the future associate justice.


You need to understand who these players were to determine if you want to read this book. What the author clearly demonstrates is how these four individuals who on and off for thirty years would be friends and enemies would go on to reshape our modern interpretation of the Constitution, and the laws under which we live. Every major law and judicial event of the 20th century came through their hands for interpretation and lawfulness.


Their joint influence is not exceeded by anyone including Presidents. Just look at a short list of some of the seminal events they were involved in:


* The concept of Judicial Restraint

* Clear and Present Danger Case

* Dennis v. United States - The right or non-right to advocate the overthrow of the United States

* Judgment at Nuremburg - The right of the world to judge the implementers of Hitler's final solution. Associate Justice Robert Jackson presided.

* Brown v. Board of Education - Outlawing the separate but equal doctrine created by the Plessy v. Ferguson decision. Justice Jackson went through four different drafts of this new interpretation. While very ill at the time, Justice Jackson found it excruciatingly difficult to render a unanimous opinion. He went directly to the Court from a hospital bed to render support for the earthshaking decision the Court published.

* The Rosenberg Case



What you will gain from reading this book:


You will understand our country, and more importantly the true genius of the founding fathers in creating an independent Supreme Court. You will be awed by the intellectual genius of some of America's greatest minds dedicated to an interpretation of our laws. Even when you disagree with them, you will be struck by the quality of their thinking.


This is not about liberal versus conservative, which is what we see today. I have known many of the great liberals as well as the conservatives on the Court, and I am impressed by both types. My own personal demand on sitting justices is that they are people of absolute integrity, and extraordinary intellects, and for the most part we have been blessed by both from the right and the left.


Author Noah Feldman has given us a rare glimpse into some of the most interesting personalities of the 20th century. You will also get to know Tommy the Cork Corcoran, one of the most powerful legal players in the 20th century. You will meet Abe Fortas, perhaps the most influential associate justice of the 20 century. This is a man who sat in Lyndon Johnson's cabinet meetings, not at the table, but back several feet by the window. He would take it all in, and then when alone with the President dissect the whole meeting, and tell President Johnson what to do. I doubt LBJ could have remained in office through 1968 without the solid advice rendered by Abe Fortas.


In summary, if you have any interest in the Supreme Court at all, or how government works, this book should be at the top of your list. I simply could not put it down, and thank you for reading this review.


Richard C. Stoyeck

Conflict on the FDR Supreme Court
There are a number of books and articles that discuss conflict between Supreme Court Justices, including the four Justices at the center of this fine study: Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965); Robert Jackson (1892-1954); Hugo Black (1886-1971); and William O. Douglas (1898-1975). Collectively, these Justices served between 1939 and 1975. However this book is unique in several ways that advance our understanding of the Court during this period. At about 500 pages, the author is able to paint a more complete picture of the Justices and their Court interaction than shorter studies. Each Justice is introduced, in terms both of his pre-Court career and his relationship with FDR. So by the time the author discusses their Court interaction, the reader has a particularly good feel for each Justice as an individual. Unlike most other studies, the author devotes probably most attention to Robert Jackson, an almost forgotten figure today who is soon to be the subject of a major biography by Professor John Q. Barrett. This focus on Jackson, former Attorney General, whom Justice Brandeis considered the finest Solicitor General he had seen, who later served as lead American prosecutor at Nuremberg, and who wrote some of the finest opinions in the Court's history, enhances the study enormously.

The book also sheds light on the other three Justices as well. The much criticized Frankfurter, who went from being the leading Court liberal to outright conservative, is assessed in ways that allow the reader to understand why the shift to an activist Court left Frankfurter behind, rather than a shift in his own judicial restrainist philosophy. A perceptive discussion of Black and the development of his incorporation and textual philosophy of interpretation helps fill out an understanding of this key Justice. Equally important as his revival of Jackson is the author's rehabilitative portrait of Douglas, driven by political ambitions until 1948, when he emerges as a "great justice" and theoretician of new constitutional rights (such as privacy) and opponent of the Vietnam war. As a corrective to the "Wild Bill" approach to Douglas, the author's analysis is most welcome. We are reminded of why Douglas was so vital a Justice during his tenure in dealing with issues such as the flag salute cases, Japanese relocation, the HCUA, and the Rosenbergs.

On top of all this, the book is a solid analysis of some of the leading cases in our constitutional history during this period. The discussions of "Brown," the Steel Seizure and "Dennis" cases are particularly perceptive. Another focus is the intellectual approach to judging each man employed. Some issues of judicial philosophy are raised, for example Jackson's pragmatic approach (promoting the effective functioning of the government) and Alexander Bickel's "counter-majoritarian difficulty." The bizarre Black-Jackson feud that erupts while Jackson is at Nuremberg is skillfully dissected and explained. There is much more of marked value in the book, supported by 46 pages of helpful endnotes, a 12 page bibliography, and some useful photographs. While one can quibble with the author's perhaps excessive opinions of Douglas and Jackson, and some of his other judgments, in the process one can learn a tremendous amount about these four unique individuals, the Court they made, and our constitutional history.

A Great Book about the mid-20th century Supreme Court
FDR appointed nine Supreme Court justices including the elevation of Harlan Fiske Stone to Chief Justice. The collection of individuals who orbited around FDR during the New Deal and World War II and those who appointed to the Court are an amazing list of influential, intelligent, and inspiring people who helped shape America. This book focuses on four of FDR's Supreme Court nominees: Hugo Black, an Alabama Senator; Felix Frankfurter, one of the nation's foremost authorities on the Court who knew FDR from the Wilson Administration; William Douglas, the SEc Chairman who could never truly end his love affair with presidential politics; Robert Jackson, the fast rising Solicitor General, Attorney General, and prosecutor and Nuremberg.

Noah Feldman traces the rise of FDR as well as these four individuals. The author tells us of their careers, beliefs, and interaction prior to their court confirmations and then their struggles once there. It is a political, constitutional, and personal history of the United States largely between the 1930s and 1960s. You will learn about the wheeling and dealing behind presidential and vice-presidential nominations, the constitutional history of many monumental Supreme Court decisions largely culminating in Brown v. Board of Education, and the personal friendships, rivalries, and outright conflicts at play.

In addition to the main cast of four justices and FDR, major players include political insider and New Dealer Tommy "The Cork" Corcoran, short term Supreme Court Justice James Byrnes, Attorney General Francis Biddle, Democratic insider Robert Hannegan, and many others who colored our country's history.

Despite having read a fair amount about the Supreme Court during these times and even some biographies of the nominees, I learned a great deal from reading this book. Unlike other treatments, the author really gives Douglas his due as an important thinker on the court. Many other books dismiss Frankfurter as a liberal who shifted right on the court, but that is really only a small part of his story told here. Jackson's pragmatism made him harder to pigeonhole and his ambition always left him wanting something else such as the position of Chief Justice or the presidency. Hugo Black invented modern day originalism, though of course he bent over backwards for certain decisions, such as Brown v. BOE, to meet it.

FDR's years as president were impactful enough. But Noah Feldman shows that they were even farther reaching than we thought, coloring the Warren Court, Justice Brennan's liberal jurisprudence, and many of the constitutional questions the Court is still dealing with today involving privacy and the Bill of Rights as it affects the states.

Spectacular Readable Legal History!
Feldman has written a spectacularly excellent history of the Supreme Court FDR made, the Supreme Court that transformed American jurisprudence and shaped it into what it is today. Feldman writes a kind of history that is all too rare -- addictively readable stories of real human beings who shape Constitutional doctrine and made history in the process. Frankfurter, Douglas, Black, and Jackson fought with one another, an opinion at a time, a personal affront at a time, and gave us all the Constitution that now protects free speech, the rights of minorities, and counts the Bill of Rights as the center of the Constitution rather than an appendage, the Constitution that grows, developes, is anything but static. Others will write in detail about the contents of this book, I won't. I will simply say that for anyone who is even mildly interested in Constitutional law in our time, this is a wonderful read for the lay person, the law student, or the skilled practitioner -- a wonderful reminder that although we say we are a nation of laws, not men, it is men who make the laws we live by, and fallible all too human men who interpret and apply it.

The origins of modern constitutional law
It seems as if there's a veritable slew of good books about Supreme Court justices this year. The latest, Noah Feldman's Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices, focuses on four of Franklin Roosevelt's appointees: Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, Robert Jackson, and William O. Douglas.

Each of these justices is fascinating and could merit an individual biography (and there are biographies on each). By writing a joint biography, however, Feldman is really able to compare and contrast these men and their jurisprudence. Frankfurter was the activist law professor who was reluctant to exercise judicial review. Hugo Black, a former KKK member, became a noted civil libertarian and read the constitution literally. Robert Jackson, a small-town lawyer and later Nuremberg prosecutor, usually judged cases with an eye towards pragmatic policy solutions. William O. Douglas pined for political office but settled for preaching liberal values. Together, these men developed or promoted the modern constitutional doctrines of judicial restraint, originalism, pragmatism, and liberalism.

Outside the legal realm, these four justices often fought and bickered to a degree startling for four liberals appointed by the same president. Robert Jackson, who at law schools is portrayed as a reverential figure, got into a petty argument with Black over whether the latter should recuse himself in a case involving a former lawyer partner. Jackson even took his dispute public, sending cables from Nuremberg to impugn his colleague. Frankfurter viewed Black as an intellectual lightweight and relied on a network of mentees to conduct historical research against Black's legal philosophy. Douglas comes off as boorish, especially to his law clerks. However, there are some heartening moments too, such as when Frankfurter defends Jackson against the latter's former ungrateful law clerk, William Rehnquist.

I haven't been a fan of Feldman's past work, particularly the lightweight The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Council on Foreign Relations Book). However, I think he gets Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices just about right. For law students like me, I can recognize some of the cases and legal debates to which the book refers. It certainly furthered my understanding of these cases. Perhaps best of all, having a passing familiarity with these justices, I was still genuinely shocked by some of the book's anecdotes (particularly the petty fueds). However, it's generally accessible enough for any reader interested in American history to understand and enjoy.

My only "criticism" of Scorpions is that it's not long enough to do the subject full justice. I know, that's a common faux criticism. The main narrative essentially ends with Jackson's death in 1954, after Brown v. Board. However, Feldman alludes to tantalizing hints of how the other justices behaved afterwards. For example, Black and Douglas, despite being ideological allies during the 1950s, stopped speaking to each other in the late 1960s. Yet, Feldman doesn't really explain why. I felt like the book could really have benefitted from just a few more pages.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this for readers interested in the Supreme Court in particular, or just U.S. history generally. I'd also recommend Jeff Shesol's Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court, which covers FDR's court-packing scheme and acts as a nice prequel to Scorpions.

IMOPORTANT SUPREME COURT HISTORY
Harvard Professor Noah Feldman's book SCORPIONS maybe one of the best books available on the history of the Supreme Court. This amazing book deals with the backgrounds and histories of and the terms of four FDR appointees, brilliant men, Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, Robert JaCkson, and William O. Douglas. Any reader of legal studies, histories, or educated read would easily recognize these gentlemen as giants of the Court. The book is rich with history and legal issues done in detail yet easy to read. HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Excellent Legal and Political History
Noah Feldman's Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices is a superb piece of historical, political, and legal scholarship. I was made aware of the book by reviews in The Atlantic and The Economist, both of which praised the work. I concur wholeheartedly in their praise.

I've often wondered how human emotions and idiosyncrasies play into Supreme Court rulings. This book gives you examples from the mid twentieth century about how these impacted some of the most significant Supreme Court rulings in the history of the United States. That doesn't sound like a good thing on the surface, but the author explores how those emotions and idiosyncrasies opened the minds of these justices to create and compile some of the most significant theories of American constitutional law. These guys could be petty, vindictive, vengeful, rude, and maniacally egotistical, more often than not with each other, but they were also bright individuals who made positive contributions to American law and society. I don't always agree politically with all the contributions they made, but one cannot argue with the monumental impact of their decisions and opinions, even some of their dissents that did not ultimately become law.

If you have even a remote interest in America political history or American constitutional law, read this book. You will not be disappointed.

Keith ... Read more

Editorial Review

The compelling and insightful account of a New York Times reporter's abduction by the Taliban, and his wife's struggle to free him.

Invited to an interview by a Taliban commander, New York Times reporter David Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped in November 2008 and spirited to the tribal areas of Pakistan. For the next seven months, they lived in an alternate reality, ruled by jihadists, in which paranoia, conspiracy theories, and shifting alliances abounded. Held in bustling towns, they found that Pakistan's powerful military turned a blind eye to a sprawling Taliban ministate that trained suicide bombers, plotted terrorist attacks, and helped shelter Osama bin Laden.

In New York, David's wife of two months, Kristen Mulvihill, his family, and The New York Times struggled to navigate the labyrinth of issues that confront the relatives of hostages. Their methodical, Western approach made little impact on the complex mix of cruelty, irrationality, and criminality that characterizes the militant Islam espoused by David's captors.

In the end, a stolen piece of rope and a prayer ended the captivity. The experience tested and strengthened Mulvihill and Rohde's relationship and exposed the failures of American effort in the region. The tale of those seven months is at once a love story and a reflection of the great cultural divide-and challenge-of our time. ... Read more

Reviews

The Worst Nightmare, December 16, 2010
On a morning in November of 2008, David Rohde a NY Times journalist, set out with an Afghan journalist to interview a Taliban commander. This was to be a safe interview, but as it is known, the risks are always there. David was kidnapped. David, the Afghan journalist and the driver were all taken by car over many hours to an unknown place somewhere in Afghanistan. David's wife of two months, Kristen, a photography director, for a well known magazine, was working on a project when she received word from David's brother, Lee, that he had been kidnapped. This is their story from each of their perspectives.

David was treated well. He was never beaten, was fed well, given water and housing but was held hostage. It is believed that the Pashtun tribe wanted to negotiate for money, millions of dollars and exchange for other terrorists. Kristen became involved immediately with the FBI, the NY times administration and owners, the State Department, security companies and various journalists and others who had been involved in previous kidnappings. Their story is one that ended happily, but the seven months that David was kept hostage were filled with woe and fear and extreme times for Kristen and their families. She spoke daily with government officials, kept in touch with family and at one point her mother came to stay with her, to help keep her spirits buoyed. Their experiences are well documented, and they both share their emotional highs and lows and how they kept themselves together.

An important aspect of this story is that David's kidnapping was kept secret. It was felt that would give them a better stance in negotiation. At one point Al Jazeera had a video that had been sent by the kidnappers and showed it on their channel, but once it was found and a request was made to redact the video, they complied. Many people knew about David's kidnapping, but they kept it close. Kristen and David's brother, Lee, became the center of the world that revolved around David. They made decisions after involving family and their close confidents. Kristen particularly felt that Sec Of State Clinton, Richard Holbrooke, their security team and friends were the most helpful throughout the ordeal. Kristen found herself sifting through all of these people and the information they supplied. They were not sure who could be trusted and as time went on, they found their way.

One portion of the book that I found most helpful is the history of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan that David gives us. He keeps us privy to the region with his knowledge, and the history he has shared. The tribes and how they were formed and the history of the regions. It is helpful to be able to put names and tribes together with their regions. Background of the areas, the religions and the day to day tribal rituals was an added piece to try and understand, to give us a piece of how these Pakistani and Taliban live. David Rohde explains some of his beliefs and his knowledge of Pakistan and Afghanistan. David had been kidnapped years before for 10 days in Bosnia, but he found these seven months so very trying. He firmly believes that if he and Asad had not escaped, he would still be there as a hostage. In discussions after David got home, the negotiations seemed to be futile, and no one expected a positive outcome. David was held by the most hardline of the Taliban tribes. They firmly believed that they could control the entire region, they were radical in their beliefs and he is indeed lucky to have escaped.

David's escape is especially telling and forceful. The Pakistani Army received them with open arms after they understood who David was. They were very kind and generous. David was very surprised and pleased, but did not believe he was safe until the US Army flew him to Saudi Arabia. He reunited with Kristen, and they began their lives, anew.

A forceful book, full of factual history and emotionally laden at times. The day to day existence combined with the history of the region and interspersed with Kristins life in New York City. We see and understand the story from both sides, and it gives us great insight into these seven months. I find a renewed interest in the history of Afghanistan and Pakistan. A much more informed person about our war, and the people we are fighting for and with.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 12-16-10

Endgame: The Betrayal And Fall Of Srebrenica, Europe's Worst Massacre Since World War II

Charlie Rose - David Rohde / Jann Wenner (October 26, 2009)

Excellent insight and a fascinating story, December 19, 2010
I initially picked up Rohde and Mulvihill's book after hearing them interviewed on NPR--their story sounded interesting even though I am not someone who is usually interested in hostage or kidnapping narratives.

Their way of presenting two sides of the same horrible ordeal allows the reader to fully capture what both the hostage and his/her family had to experience, as well the perception of the different players involved in the situation. Also, the thread of black humor that intermittently arose added to the "human factor" of this book--after all, often times humor can save us from the deepest levels of dispair.

I also appreciated David's insight into his captor's perceptions of the West as well as their extremist twist on their religion. For those of us who don't completely understand the complexities of the region, A Rope & A Prayer broke it down quite well. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom.He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature. He is a fervent atheist, raised as a Christian, by a mother whose Jewish heritage was not revealed to him until her suicide.

In other words, Christopher Hitchens contains multitudes.He sees all sides of an argument.And he believes the personal is political.

This is the story of his life, lived large. ... Read more

Reviews

Enjoyable and Enlightening Memoir by a Complex Man, April 15, 2010

Fascinating life, March 24, 2010

Sophisticated Story Telling From One Of Vanity Fair's Best, April 1, 2010

Brilliant, May 27, 2010

Generally interesting and enjoyable, May 20, 2010

Christopher Hitchens Tells All (Well, Almost), April 24, 2010

"Perhaps the finest living essayist in the English language", August 5, 2010
High praise indeed from none other than Christopher Buckley but an accolade well warranted.Wit,intelligence,honesty,a master of the appropriate obscure word or phrase,also a partisan polemicist of the far left,atheist,outrageously anti religious,but surprisingly non doctrinaire,in short a complex and fascinating mind.Full disclosure... I am totally on the other end of the political,cultural,and metaphysical spectrum and my life encompassed the same period and yet have always been an admirer even when outraged at his positions in that they are always reasoned from his own integrity ,much as I admire Camille Paglia on a likewise ambivalent basis.In reading some of the negative reviews the term 'name dropper' was cast. Well what is a memoir but a compilation of one man's trials,victories and the cast of characters that formed his life. And what a cast it was.And what a period of national and international upheaval.Ironically and sadly publication of his bio coincided with the news of his probably terminal cancer.True to character,that too is grist for the mill of this clear eyed mordant thinker as he describes that last journey beginning with his first essay "Topic of Cancer" .Read this only if you can be open to a mind with contradictory facets but one totally engaged with life and events and an unmatched command of the languge.A fun and fascinating read from an impressive mind .

Not flat, it's written in the full 360; outstanding book; delivered far more than what it promised, June 6, 2010
With exquisite articulation and guts, Hitchens uses his well-examined life along with switchback roads to literature and history to create a story with himself as the protagonist. If you pay attention, Hitchen's words cut through conditioned emotional bogs with sturdy reason and titrated wordage. The use of so much of his private life is bold, although in that regard Hitchens comes across as Gen Y "who cares?" modern, rightly calculating that the time is already here for this. The group psychology described seems so archaic as to belong in a time capsule, yet it is captured within a lifetime. Plenty of old cultural scripts are personalized, such as the opinion against divorce, unfair obstacles to education and class separation; Hitchens wrote how he felt straightforwardly-enough in his worst circumstances, there being a number of worsts. One thing that struck me was how uncontemporary the past seems in tone; harsh good against harsh bad, and vice versa.

To his credit Hitchen made vivid his personal stories with candor and self-analysis; this isn't a flat memoir; it's written in the full 360 degrees. Hitchens is admirably fearless in these things. Previews didn't lead me to anticipate depth and scope of this work, nor its' astuteness and charm, nor the elaborate writing style. That said, the audiobook can be edgier. Parts of it are akin to being on a train tour through abandoned foreign towns, one after the other, with a rambly guide on the microphone. But, that's pretty much the way it would have to be when a densely historical book is done on audiotape. The sound of his voice is rich and easy to listen to and he keeps his upward lilting voice going for the whole time; his stamina amazes. (For book and author references I refer to the text.) If I had to choose between the text and the audiobook, I'd choose the audiobook as, at points, it breathes life into the interesting story of this man's life, become a WiFi transfer of emotions; emotions caught in Hitchen's voice, loaded empty spaces of pause, an occasional sharp intake of breath and shifts in cadence and volume insinuate an emotional charge into like-minded parts of the listener's brain. This creates an unexpectedly intimate felt experience, personalized beyond that which even this well-writ text can deliver.

Gotta admit, I'm pretty taken aback by the vindictive reviews here which are not in the majority, but still... what's the beef? This is a memoir and it has insurance in the sense that you got his story of his life, just like the cover said you would.

Background on a most polarizing and interesting writer, April 9, 2010

This Is Actually Two Books, June 20, 2010
Hitch-22 is actually two books; the first is the story of a middle-class British boy who, by stint of having been born with a seemingly-unquenchable intellectual curiosity and an enviable scholastic ability, achieves entry into Balliol College at Oxford University. This, to me, was the best part of the book. Hitchens talks about his family, some of which is very sad, and Hitchens recounts it without a scintilla of self-pity, but astonishing sympathy. And the entry into the British public (private) school system? Priceless. Absolutely priceless. We're let in to a world now gone, which is described with such insight and detail, you think you're actually there. Think Brideshead Revisited with slightly less-wealthy participants. Hitchens recounts his political awakening and participation in the debates and struggles of the times (late 60's Britain), and how he came to write for magazines in the U.S. All very very interesting. Then, there's the second book, about the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the slaughter in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Jewish State/Palestine question, and a stew of Marxism, Socialism, Trotskyism, Communism. If you do not have a working definition of these politics at the ready in your brain, or if politics isn't your thing, you will not find the final-third of this book as interesting as the first two-thirds. Recommended, but I wish my own (American) education hadn't been so lacking. ... Read more

Editorial Review

It’s been ten years since Mitch Albom first shared the wisdom of Morrie Schwartz with the world.Now–twelve million copies later–in a new afterword, Mitch Albom reflects again on the meaning of Morrie’s life lessons and the gentle, irrevocable impact of their Tuesday sessions all those years ago. . .

_____

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague.Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.

For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder.Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?

Mitch Albom had that second chance.He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life.Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college.Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world. ... Read more

Reviews

Certainly makes one think.
This book is a best seller and continues to stay on the best seller list because in my opinion most people down deep understand the truth of Morrie's basic philosophy that people living exclusively in a materialistic world generally do so to replace what they feel is missing from their lives even though they may not be consciously aware, at the moment, of what precisely is "missing." What is missing ? I found part of this answer in a general sense in this book. I found even more precise and concrete answers in the book An Encounter With A Prophet. I highly recommend both of these books to anyone seeking to find out why they seem to continue to feel something is missing from life.

This Is The Most Powerful Book I've Ever Read
This book has had more impact on my life than anything else I've ever read, by far. It's a reminder to appreciate the simple, little things in life. It's a reminder that when you're dead, the things you've accumulated and the things you've done will disappear. What will remain is the ways that you've affected or touched other people.

This is a simple book with simple messages.

Live fully and in the moment. Treat others with respect, kindness, love, and dignity. Seek joy.

However, these messages are easily lost given the constantly increasing pressures we all face. This book is a guide to a way that you can live your life where you'll be able to look back at the end and feel peace and contentment.

I've given copies of this book to many people that I know. I encourage you to read this book and do so with an open mind and heart.

Heartwarming tale of human relationships
Three novels have moved me to tears this year--East of the Mountains, The Triumph & Glory, and this wonderful book, Tuesdays with Morrie. It is about facing life's difficulties with honesty and courage, friendship, and farewell. Ten stars and a grateful thank you to the author.

No money promised , just answers
Within this story about the special connection between a spiritual mentor and his pupil, the old man imparts his wisdom his pupil regarding many troubling questions about human existence. This book along with the book An Encounter with a Prophet both present spiritual, not religious, answers to anyone open to truth.

These two books unlike many of the popular "spiritual books" that tell you how get your millions, speak of real meanings and values. I highly recommend both books.

Pure Inspiration
The summer after my high school graduation I was wondering why I felt as though something was missing. My view of life had become that of Mitch's, fast paced. In my rush to go on my senior trip and off to college I had forgotten the true meaning of family and friendship. Before leaving for school a dear friend gave me this book. As I began reading, I could not stop. Tuesdays With Morrie portrays the true meaning of life in such clarity that made me want to reach out to people (family and friends) of whom I had not been as close to as I would have liked. This book taught me to open my heart to people I hold dear and to consider dear my 'enemies' as well. It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, you truly only need to love and to allow yourself to be loved. When ever I feel as though I'm losing touch with the importance of my life, I begin to read this book. Immediately after putting the book down I alway want to call my parents. They are the people closest to me and they are also the people who have made me and will continue to make me who I am yet to become (like Morrie and his father, mother, and step-mother). I do however find it a shame that Morrie did infact die, yet he made his death our inspiration. The lessons taught in this book are beautiful and I hope his book continues to guide me in my trying times. Allow it to guide you through your life, and pass on the book to a loved one.

Relating to daeth with ALS
Unfortunately, I read this book 2 years ago--less than a year after my Mom died of ALS. When I read it, all I saw was the dreaded disease and someone coping with death. It helped me alot, but I'd like to read it again to get the other message that it celebrates LIFE! What a great story. If I could, I would buy 100 copies and give them out to anyone who was frowning, grouchy, or simply needed a lift! A great present for ANY occasion or no occasion at all!

Wonderful and Inspiring Story
This is an incredible story of a young man trying to find meaning in this fast-paced world which does not allow for time to think about what is really important. Mich Albom actually came to my temple to speak and I was so inspired by his story of his old college professor, Morrie, that I ran to buy the book. Once I began reading, I found that I couldn't put the book down! I have been searching for the meaning in my life for a long time and this book truly helped me to get my priorities straight. All in all, it is well written. Mich Albom brings Morrie's personality and wisdom to life. I came out of reading the book feeling that I really knew Morrie and I was at his side listening to him. Please do not hesitate to buy this wonderful book. It incorporates a true, beautiful story and life's most important lessons.

WOW... Yesterday I Wept.
For those of you who think the importance of life is to get more, have more, be more, STOP. Sit a while take time to read the book, no don't just read it, absorb every lesson that is held within these pages. I never knew how much time I wasted on the trivial things until I sat down and read this. I was so inspired by Morrie, who even up to his death kept on giving, quenching Mitchs' thirst for knowledge, showing him the direction to go in. A direction that would lead him to a truly happy and fulfilled life. The book is so easy to read, the chapters are short, they get straight to the point and a lesson can be gained from each and every one of them. Morrie Schwartz was an articulate man, who knew just what to say at the right time - like a wise uncle. He had his share of grief, and throughout his life learned from everything he went through. Since reading this book I have bought a copy for every one of my family members and a few close friends (the bookshop thought I had gone crazy!). We all waste too much time on the things that aren't important, and never seem to have the time for things that are. Well, read the book, learn the lessons, and your life will never be the same again..... It will be truly enriched. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Nationally syndicated columnist and prolific author Walter E. Williams recalls some of the highlights and turning points of his life. From his lower middle class beginnings in a mixed but predominantly black neighborhood in West Philadelphia to his department chair at George Mason University, Williams tells an only in America story of a life of achievement.

Williams describes the influences of his early years such as the teachers who demanded his best efforts and made no excuses for him and tells how his two years in the army became an important part of his maturation process, in spite of the racism he encountered. He recounts his early time getting established in Los Angeles getting his B.A., going on to grad school at UCLA, and beginning his teaching career. And he tells how his subsequent move to the Urban Institute in Washington opened his eyes to how decisions are really made in D.C.

When he recounts ultimately accepting his professorship appointment at George Mason University, the author marvels that I never thought I'd be working there thirty years later. And throughout the book, Willams refers to the immeasurable contribution of his wife of 48 years, who shared his vision through hard work and love.

Reviews

Up From The Projects- A Tale of Capitalism, Learning, and Not Tolerating Nonsense, December 25, 2010
I just finished reading Dr. Walter E. Williams autobiography after seeing it recommended by Dr. Thomas Sowell and Mark Levin. I read the book cover to cover in one night and the book really kept my attention since I couldn't put it down. Readers will find this book reveals the human side of Dr.Williams.

The book starts off with Walter's days as a youngster when he worked various and multiple jobs. Also the book sheds light on what life was like growing up in the projects was not dangerous like it is today. The book then transitions into his days in the military and how Dr. Williams created some mischief by doing his job "integrating" his unit. After his time with the military Walter went back to school and earned a PhD in economics from UCLA. His experience in graduate school I feel would inspire anyone wishing to go to graduate school. Walter meets some challenges like failing his microeconomics field exam. However, Walter is able to overcome this since his teachers want believe he can pass if he works hard.

The last section of the book focuses on his teaching career and how he would not tolerate nonsense from anyone (black or white). One theme that can clearly be seen throughout the book is how Walter is a radical in many different ways. An underlying element of this book is how strong Walter's work ethic is. His early days as a kid working various jobs demonstrated how Walter was always busy and out of trouble. One part I enjoyed was how Walter and his sister spent weekends at the library and reading books. Today this behavior by any student would be considered abnormal. The book even mentions how Walter did get into trouble with the law a few times even when he wasn't at fault. I truly believe young people of any race would benefit from this book since it provides an example of someone who really did come from the projects and transform into a distinguished chaired professor of economics. The stories and anecdotes told in this book illustrate who Dr. Walter E. Williams truly is.
... Read more

Editorial Review

The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment

On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.

For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone. ... Read more

Reviews

Important
This is, indeed, a first-person description of stroke by a scientifically and dare I say it -- spiritually -- sophisticated person. The author describes a range of experiences that make sense given our knowledge of localization of function. I'm not sure that such a detailed and consistent report by a scientist is available anywhere else. As such, this story is unusual and important. Moreover the author reports how she turned her stroke into an opportunity for profound wisdom and insight. Amazing stuff! And this may save lives.

Personally, I don't share all the author's ideas about strict functional localization in the brain... but that is secondary and doesn't detract from my admiration of her remarkable contribution.

My enjoyment of this book was enhanced considerably by the material and links at the author's website. She has posted a number of video and audio presentations, radio shows, etc.

Stroke of Brilliance!
I first came across Jill Bolte Taylor, Phd when her speech at TED (an annual conference devoted to Technology, Entertainment, Design) went viral. In it, she describes how she witnessed herself having a stroke and the subsequent feeling of peace that enveloped her when her logical left brain shut down and her right brain became dominant. I became intrigued after watching the video and then read the book.

The book expounds on her experience while having the stroke and her subsequent recovery. It was amazing on many levels:
(1) She gives a 1st person narrative of her experience of the stroke and recovery but she doesn't portray it as something we should all pity and feel sorry for. Instead, she lays it out not unlike an explorer discovering new territory, full of suspense and wonder.

(2) She gives incredible tips on how to communicate with and care for stroke victims. For e.g., some people would yell at her after they saw she didn't understand what they were saying. However, she wasn't deaf. She could only process one word at a time. If those people would have spoken more slowly rather than loudly, she would have been able to understand them. This is something that would never have occurred to me if I hadn't read this book.

(3) She takes us on a tour of the 'mystical' right side of her brain which little is known about and whose capabilities in today's world seem to be dismissed. She says the right side of the brain is the gateway to enlightenment and nirvana. She shares tips on how to 'tend the garden of your mind' and to interrupt or stop those stories we all tell ourselves over and over again (usually about how we are deficient, not good enough, etc.). She calls them loops.

Dr. Taylor's tips about how we can all achieve nirvana by accessing the right side of the brain as a conscious process is worth the price of the book many times over. We all have a "loop of deep inner peace" wired into our neurological circuitry in our right brain and we can consciously choose to run this loop whenever we wish.

Closely related to this topic are books by Ariel & Shya Kane. They've written three outstanding books: Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life, How to Create a Magical Relationship: The 3 Simple Ideas that Will Instantaneously Transform Your Love Life & Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment. The Kanes have been teaching about accessing the magic of the right-side of the brain for over 20 years and their book is chock full of tips, and stories on how to recognize those loops Dr. Taylor talks about and how to bypass them. If you're serious about getting enlightened, get Dr. Taylor's and the Kanes' books NOW!

Required Reading
My wife is a "massive" stroke victim. Her survival and recovery themselves were miracles. We are very fortunate. But one of the god-given gifts that has not returned is her speech. And while as a husband of 45 years when asked how she is doing often facetiously say that her loss of speech "is not all bad", I feel for her occasional frustration as she stumbles in her attempt to convey her feelings - fortunately, it is only occasional. We were warned it would be much, much worse.

But the bottom line, this book has restored her faith in the possibilities of even further recovery. It should be required reading for all stoke victims whose speech was affected. Likewise, for all caretakers of those victims. For just to see the light shine in her eye as she showed me many passages in the book that still gave her hope was well worth the price and time involved.

Fantastic!
I've been recommending My Stroke of Insight to nearly everyone I know. Jill provides a great moment-by-moment account of her stroke, a potentially devasting event many of my relatives have experienced. I deeply admire her determination to work through it. She also does one of the best jobs of describing brain function I've ever run across. I came away with a renewed sense of understanding, wonder and hopefulness about the capabilities of the human brain. Highly recommended!

Glimpse Inside the Mind of Another
Dr Taylor shows there are many kinds of knowledge, but maybe only one kind of awareness. The specialjourney that "Stroke of Insight" chronicles is surprising. It's a lesson how new learning, understanding and benefit can come of an experience that most would consider a severe blow. If you have the courage to face it and see it.

The ability to experience something on several levels, beyond the daily vision of most of us, and then to share it in such a clear and thoughful account is rare. In this book, Dr Taylor shows her courage doesn't end with facing pain, loss or mortality, but she also now breaks convention and presents her ideas and experience in full view, with their emotional and philosophical content included. Not only was she inspired by her own journey, but she shares the inspiration directly with the reader.

More than just an interesting read, this is one of the books that lets the reader peek inside the mind of another and, in doing so, to learn more about the self and the nature of our existence. Well worth your time.

Great book
How often do you get to hear a neuroscientist describe her own stroke?
This is an amazing story on three levels; physical, emotional, and spiritual. Dr. Jill's description of her eight year recovery is both uplifting and powerful. But the spiritual aspect is alone worth the price of admission. (I won't spoil it for you.)

Dr. Bolte-Taylor is not a writer of prose. Her style is that of someone experienced in writing scientific papers; factual, concise and parsimonious. But the content! That is what makes this a great book in my opinion.

A quick read but a powerful story.

Danny

My Stroke of Insight
An absolutely wonderful journey by a brain anatomist who suffered a stroke. Her resilience, her deep understanding of the condition and lessons to be learned by her and other health care professionals is outstanding. A must read for anyone whether faced with a health problem or not. Is a mind awakening experience!!! ... Read more

Editorial Review

No owner has changed the landscape of sports more than New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. From the moment he bought the team in 1973 for $10 million, Steinbrenner's monomaniacal pursuit was to restore the most fabled franchise in baseball history to its former glory. Today the New York Yankees are worth more than $1 billion and are once again world champions.

Award-winning sportswriter Bill Madden traces Steinbrenner from his early days in Cleveland through his years as a shipping magnate, a Nixon fund-raiser, and a champion horse breeder to the fateful moment when he bought the Yankees, even though his father disparaged George's desire to own a professional sports team as a "hobby." Over the next four decades, Steinbrenner's tumultuous reign included his epic battles with Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, even beloved Yankee captain Derek Jeter. His ruthless and free-spending tactics made him a lightning rod for controversy but they also paid off: Steinbrenner's Yankees have won seven championships and remain the gold standard in all sports. In the last few years, with his health declining, the Boss ceded control of the team to his sons, but not before lording over the team's historic transition from the House That Ruth Built to the House That George Built.

Throughout his three decades of covering the Yankees, Bill Madden has cultivated hundreds of sources at every level in the organization, from the many managers and front-office personnel Steinbrenner has fired to the bat boys who are ever present in the locker room. All of them have colorful stories about the man with whom they have enjoyed a love-hate relationship, but it is the Boss himself whose voice rises above the rest. And when Steinbrenner decided to give his final print interview, he spoke to Madden to set the record straight on his extraordinary life and career.

Reviews

Workman-like piece of sports journalism, June 3, 2010
Reading this book is like driving by a 10 car pile-up: horrifying, but fascinating nonetheless.

George Steinbrenner in his professional life has, on occasion, exhibited rage, narcissism, and greed. He has been accused of being a coward and a bully. He could also be creative, persuasive, sentimental, and spectacularly generous, and is indisputably one of the most financially successful sports businessmen in history. Thus, his biography - told straight up - makes for compelling reading. And this is what is delivered by the author, Bill Madden, an award-winning sportswriter who covered the NY Yankees beat for decades during the George Steinbrenner era.

This book is about what you would expect from a respected, veteran sportwriter, such as Madden: an excellent piece of reportage and sports journalism. Steinbrenner's story is fascinating stuff, even without analysis or embellishment (and, thus, the book's shortcoming). While a fascinating read, there is virtually no analysis of Mr. Steinbrenner's behavior or mental status, nor of his business genius, no explicit analysis of whether the greatness of the Yankees under his ownership occurred because of, or despite him.

Highly recommended.

George, Billie, Reggie -- It's Got It ALL, May 11, 2010
If you're a New York Yankee fans, a NY sports fan, a baseball fan, a sports fan in general, or just want to read the humorous and crazy happenings of the New York Yankees under George M. Steinbrenner, this book is a must read. In fact, when you consider the impact today in sports on ticket prices, free agency and player movements, and cable TV and network contracts, the impact that the Yankees and Steinbrenner have had is not to be underestimated.

Bill Madden is the New York Daily News longtime Yankees beat writer and MLB columnist since the 1970's. Madden was there for the "Bronx Zoo" years of the 1970's when contract jealousies, fights, backstabbing, and personal hatred seemed to go hand-in-hand with the winning of those late-1970's Yankee teams. Madden continues into the 1980's, when despite a World Series appearance in 1981 and the signing of the biggest free agent of the decade (Dave Winfield) and one of the all-time Yankee greats in Don Mattingly, the decade was barren for the team. Not until the 1990's (more below) would things turn around.

Madden gives you all the details: how Steinbrenner and a consortium bought the team for $10 million (with George putting up less than $200,000); the crazy antics involving Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and Reggie Jackson; the plunge into free-agency with Catfish Hunter and later Don Gullet which revolutionized baseball; the seedy antics involving the undermining of his managers, GM's, and team presidents; the Howie Spira episode which got George suspended by Fay Vincent; and how the expulsion from baseball in the 1990's ironically led to the Yankees rebirth. It's all there and a whole lot more.

It is ironic that Steinbrenner has had such phenomenal success with the Yankees, but mediocre success with his other businesses like shipbuilding and horses. Anyone who remained in George's good graces - client or ballplayer - did well by him. For instance, when the Yankees signed their historic 12-year, $500 million contract with MSG Network, it was considered a disaster for MSG. Midway through the deal, it was such a lucrative goldmine for MSG that the Yankees eventually created their own YES Network whose value today might be worth more than the Yankees and the new stadium combined.

Madden is sympathetic to Steinbrenner and his personal like and respect for the man clearly comes through. That does NOT mean that he is not fair or objective, he certainly is. Steinbrenner's many good deeds toward people, even those who he fired, ripped, or treated badly are well-documented here (and there are probably numerous other cases and charities that Madden did not include).

The gradual dissolution of the Joe Torre-Steinbrenner relationship, after the spectacular dynasty of 1996-2003, is also detailed at length. It's easy to see why the current regime, led by sons Hal and Hank, felt no attachment towards keeping Torre after 2007. Steinbrenner's personal side is also explored, along with the humorous recountings of his "Saturday Night Live" hosting and "Seinfeld" appearances (actually, Larry David since George's actual appearance got left on the cutting floor).

Bottom Line: A great read through 4 decades of Yankee and Steinbrenner history, plenty of baseball talk, lots of additional color and information on incidents you heard about but never knew the full story about, and lots of other funny happenings and discussions and behind-the-scenes player trade proposals and firings and hirings that never happened or did happen or which Steinbrenner wanted to happen or didn't want to happen. It's all there and then some. Yankee fans and Yankee haters will both enjoy it.

An Oxymoron, June 1, 2010
This is a facinating study in of a brilliant business man. His drive to win, in everything, leads him to treat people as chattel in working relationships, yet his compassion drives him to care for these same people in his personal relationships with them. The outward tyranical businessman has a thread altruism that manifests itself in his many charitable enterprises, which are not dealt with in any great detail. I believe the book is too heavily weighted in with negatives, of this force of nature that was George Steinbrenner, as compared to his positive contributions. That said it is a facinating look behind the curtain at baseball. It was a quick read for a Yankee fan.

Outstanding!!, July 2, 2010
My years as a Yankee fan have coincided almost directly with the number of years they've been owned by Steinbrenner - so nothing here was groundbreaking news for me. Nevertheless, Madden simply did a great job of giving readers an inside look of the man - the good, the bad and the ugly. Great read!!

George, Uncensored., June 7, 2010
Bill Madden writes a rollicking and very funny book on the life and times of Yankees owner George M. Steinbrenner. You will laugh and cringe at the same time readin this book, George ruled with an iron fist and it hit everyone.Very entertaining and insightful, also bings back memories and names from the past, some u may have forgotten about. Great book.

Madden Offers a Fair and Balanced Glimpse into the Life of a Friend, June 7, 2010
Just a few generations back, many professional teams were family-run operations that were in business for the long haul. Now there is just one (at least in baseball), and the end of an era is in sight, according to STEINBRENNER: The Last Lion of Baseball, by award-winning sports columnist Bill Madden.

There are many adjectives used to describe George Michael Steinbrenner III, principal owner and chair of the New York Yankees, and most are not complimentary. Since he took over the team in the early 1970s, there has been no shortage of fodder for the local press, including Madden, who has followed the game for the Daily News and New York Post. "Der Boss" (one of Steinbrenner's many nicknames) was famous for a fiery temper; prior to Joe Torre's lengthy stay as skipper, the Bronx Bombers went through 20 managerial changes between 1973 and 1995, including many repeat performances, most notably by the late Billy Martin. And that doesn't even take into account the front office. He would order his underlings to handle a task or acquire a certain player, often disregarding the objections of those far more knowledgeable in such matters, and then explode when things didn't work out the way he desired (and his staff expected). He would fire, then rehire, at the drop of a pin, often excusing the hasty behavior with "I didn't really mean it" or "I'll let it go, this time."

Yankees fans and haters are well aware of Steinbrenner's mercurial nature. His apologists point to his success; his enemies note the distractions and bad feelings among the team's personnel. Forget the infamous quote from Reggie Jackson about being "the straw that stirs the drink": that sobriquet should go to Steinbrenner. In fact, one has to wonder: does such drama like this occur on other teams (the husband-and-wife owners of the Dodgers are going through a nasty divorce, for example), or do we hear more about Steinbrenner's antics because his team plays in the media capital of the world?

Does Steinbrenner's megalomania come from some deep-rooted desire to both win the approval of his father --- a strict, hardworking and successful businessman --- and yet prove himself as his own man? Hard to say, although Madden certainly pushes the reader in that direction, albeit without the psychological profiling. Citing one example after another, he chronicles the Yankees chief as a bully and a liar, who could be incalculably mean and cruel, then turn around and create a foundation to make sure the orphans of New York City police and firefighters could go to college, or drop everything at the news of a friend in trouble. Madden includes the praise as well as the lash, but the former is far-between or generally underreported throughout the years; for all his penchant for being the center of attention, Steinbrenner didn't go after the press to note his good deeds.

Madden --- who was recently named winner of the Baseball Hall of Fame's annual Spink Award for outstanding career accomplishments as a writer --- strives to be even-handed. His role for the New York papers put him in a position to write a first-hand account, but he uses that relationship with a light hand, relying on his skills as a journalist rather than employing his personal observations. While dutifully covering Steinbrenner's rightful banishment from the game in the 1970s because of his illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon's presidential campaign, Madden goes to great lengths to show that his subject was unfairly treated by Commissioner Fay Vincent, who kicked him out of the game in 1990 for giving $40,000 to Howard Spira, a hustler and gambler, for his role in digging up dirt on Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield, with whom Steinbrenner was feuding over financial matters. Baseball, it seems, is not a law unto itself, and even Steinbrenner has rights of due process.

Sadly, the last few years have not been kind to the Yankees' leader. Ill health has rendered him a shell of his larger-than-life persona. Madden reports this with a mix of professional objectivity and personal sadness (after all, the two had had a working relationship and had even been fairly close at one point).

Are there elements in here that might embarrass Steinbrenner and his family? Perhaps. But as Madden relates in the introduction, he undertook the project at their suggestion. And judging by all accounts, he seems to have done a fair and balanced job.

The real George behind The Boss, June 2, 2010
I grew up in the Bronx as of course a Yankee fan, unfortunately starting my fandom as a 9 year-old in 1965, which was the beginning of a long decline (do the names Horace Clark, Dooley Womack and Bill Monboquette ring bells?). So George Steinbrenner rescued the franchise from corporate-led (CBS) loser-dome. George's influence on not only Major League Baseball but all of professional sports is undeniable, taking advantage of free agency, cable networks and a win-at-all costs attitude (not that common among owners over the years) and very public face to drive a winning record. In many ways the antidote to what Charlie Feeney became in Oakland. Bill Madden has created a very readable book, sticking to the facts, straight chronology and a terrific set of sources. Madden doesn't try to analyze much, as he is a newpaper reporter at heart, not trying to drive a specific agenda. He reminded me why I despised Steinbrenner for much of his career, and many fans may have forgotten some of his dispicable behavior. Who would want to work for a boss like George? Not many of his many GMs, Managers, old friends or other executives. George displayed almost schizo-behavior, reminding me of my 4th grade teacher who would erupt in anger at a student before flipping 180 degrees and smothering him or her with kisses. George did it with power and money, and Madden clearly shows why George was at times a loyal friend, philanthropist and citizen. "At times" being the key words. There is a great film in here, and I can't wait to see someone other than Larry David playing The Boss!

The Definitive Biography, May 22, 2010
This is the book many of us lifelong fans have been eagerly awaiting for quite some time now. With Steinbrenner's health failing relentlessly, I was beginning to despair that it would ever be written. But here it is, and thank goodness it was written by the guy best qualified to write it.

It will undoubtedly go down as the definitive Steinbrenner biography, and deservedly so. It is not a hatchet job, but neither is it a valentine - it is an accurate account (to the extent that that is possible without Steinbrenner's direct cooperation) of the Steinbrenner Era, the greatest and most tumultuous period in Yankee history since Ruth, Gehrig, and the rest of Murderer's Row prowled the Bronx.

Madden is a long-time Yankee beat reporter who knows Steinbrenner better than anybody, and has first-hand knowledge of the entire Era except the early, Gabe Paul days; and he was given exclusive access to first-hand materials from that period by Paul's family. Nobody has a more intimate knowledge of the Steinbrenner Yankees except Steinbrenner himself, and he clearly is no longer capable of writing his own memoir, nor would he be nearly as objective a narrator if he were.

There are surprising stories you wouldn't expect to read about a relentless publicity hound. For example, Steinbrenner quietly financed numerous college educations -- the total number will never be known -- for many people, some complete strangers, out of his own pocket. And unlike earlier books -- particularly the error-riddled Golenbock biography -- Madden gets his facts straight. Plus, the account is as accurate and objective as can possibly be expected from a writer who was right in the middle of many of the wacky high jinks he describes.

It is also the best book yet about the Yankees organization itself, in any era, with the possible exception of "Damned Yankees" (also written by Madden, along with Moss Klein).

Steinbrenner and the Yankees are the Churchill cigars of sports: world famous, impossible to ignore, and either loved or reviled by everybody. Fans and abominators alike will find plenty of anecdotes to bolster their preconceived opinions; but any fan of sports or human nature, regardless of his or her Yankee leanings, will enjoy this book, both as a history lesson and as a rollicking, funny memoir by a really good sportswriter who really was there.

The Steinbrenner Formula for Success, May 21, 2010
George Steinbrenner is an intense man; no doubt. Those eyes; he always looks like he's about to fire somebody, which of course, he's done with great regularity since first taking ownership of the New York Yankees in 1973. One would think that his abrasive management style would produce less than stellar results; a team in turmoil seldom succeeds.

However, this particular team has succeeded like no other sports franchise in history, and they've got the trophies to prove it.

In a most compelling biography, Bill Madden has chronicled the tumultuous reign of King George, from its shaky beginnings to its glorious present. In between, we observe the good, the bad, and the ugly of this fascinating and perplexing personality. Love him or hate him, Steinbrenner and his assorted cast of characters have been quite a show; at times rollicking; at times poignant; but always great theater.

Along the way, Madden has done a superb job of taking the reader along for a most enjoyable and wild ride with baseball's "last lion". Certainly, there will be no one quite like George Steinbrenner again.

great book on the boss, June 6, 2010
as a yankee fan from way back in the day this is the kind of book that debates conversation, laughters, what was that he did are all there. Billy, Reggie, Munson, Winfield, Donny baseball, Jeter, Riveria,Torre, his sons, his power, money,drive, will,etc.. are all well put together and you get an inside and all around look at the Empire that George Steinbrenner built. One of the last Rebels in baseball. think Jerry Jones the Dallas Cowboys owner didn't take a page or two from the Steinbrenner way of operating?

very compelling and well written and a must for any Yankee fan. ... Read more

Editorial Review

When Thomas Edison began wiring New York City with a direct current electricity distribution system in the 1880s, he gave humankind the magic of electric light, heat, and power; in the process, though, he inadvertently opened a Pandora's Box of unimaginable illness and death.

Dirty Electricity tells the story of Dr. Samuel Milham, the scientist who first alerted the world about the frightening link between occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields and human disease. Milham takes readers through his early years and education, following the twisting path that led to his discovery that most of the twentieth century diseases of civilization, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and suicide, are caused by electromagnetic field exposure.

Dr. Milham warns that because of the recent proliferation of radio frequency radiation from cell phones and towers, terrestrial antennas, Wi-Fi and Wi-max systems, broadband internet over power lines, and personal electronic equipment, we may be facing a looming epidemic of morbidity and mortality. In Dirty Electricity, he reveals the steps we must take, personally and as a society, to coexist with this marvelous but dangerous technology. ... Read more

Reviews

Brilliant and imperative reading for everyone!
"Dirty Electricity" is a slim but power-packed book by one of the country's most noted epidemiologists of the last 50 years, Samuel Milham, MD, PhD. The book explores and exposes the dangers posed by the continual and increasing "electrification" of the society since the 1930s and 1940s, and its direct association with the surge of modern diseases of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: including cancers, heart disease and diabetes.

The approach of the book is a successful blend of biographical anecdotes and research findings that only a scientist of Milham's standing-- with over one hundred published papers concentrating on the adverse impacts of manmade electromagnetic radiation exposure on both workers and the general public-- could have written. The style is straightforward, informative and deceptively easy to read. And this is real tribute to the scientist/author successfully tackling a very important and extremely relevant subject that is too often made unclear or over scientifically detailed for the average reader.

As a result, the book lends itself as not only an excellent introductory primer for members of the general public starved for accurate information on this most pressing environmental issue of the day-- that directly relates to the ongoing health problems surrounding the continual saturation of power lines, cell phones, computers and compact fluorescent lights among the population-- but also serves an excellent read for those already grounded in the subject and who are looking to fill in details to be even better informed.

Included among the research highlighted in the book is a brilliant study revealing the development of childhood leukemia in the society, which Milham was able to show as being associated with the increased "electrification" of residences in the United States, beginning around the 1930s and 1940s.

While showcased is a recent study of multiple cancers among a teacher population in a California middle school that Milham was able to link to abnormal electric voltages-- "dirty electricity"-- being emitted in the wall wiring of the school, and serves as a sobering and chilling warning of similar incidences almost certainly being played out and being unreported across the rest of the country.

This highly recommended book should be read by anyone within the U.S., or outside it, who is interested in preserving and protecting his or her health, because it relates to the current health issues surrounding the ever increasing silent and adverse impacts of manmade electromagnetic radiation sources that are, and will continue to be, at the heart of the this and other nations' health debates from this point forward.

G. Friedman

Insightful, informative and entertaining!
Dr. Sam Milham shares his experiences about his life and the work he did as an epidemiologist and medical doctor. He describes how, when, and why he did his research and in the end the reader learns about electromagnetic fields, dirty electricity and the other forms of electrosmog to which we are increasingly exposed. Dr. Milham shows how the increase in childhood leukemia and the diseases of the post-industrial age (depression, suicide, heart disease, diabetes and cancers) are associated with electrification. While we are unlikely to give up using electricity and our wireless toys, we can certainly learn to use them more safely. By reading this book you will learn how to protect your health and the health of those you care about. Although this topic can be quite technical, Dr. Milham's style is easy to read and to understand. His research papers are provocative and he has been proven to be correct time and again. Sam Milham should receive a Nobel Prize for his research and his discoveries as he was among the first to document the biological and health effects of electromagnetic pollution. This book is a must read!

Dr. Magda Havas, Trent University, Canada

It's about time!!
I'm so happy that Dr. Milham has written this book! People have no idea what EM Fields cause. It's about time that the world gets an idea what's happening.

The Most Important Book of the Twenty-First Century
Dr. Milham has published seminal papers over the 40 some years of his career as an occupational epidemiologist. He has received international recognition for his work, winning the highly prestigious Ramazinni prize for his pioneering work on the risk of cancer from occupational exposures to electromagnetic fields (EMFs).

But this book surpasses all of his previous work. It certainly is, in my view, the most important book yet published in our new century. He convincingly shows that a set of diseases, the "diseases of civilization" (cancer, Alzheimer's, cardiovascular, asthma, type 2 diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and depression) is the result of the exposure to EMFs, though not necessarily the only cause.

The book begins with a wonderful rendition of how as a medical doctor he became entranced with epidemiology. He give a brief overview of his experiences in medical school and his success as a young doctor, particularly as his mentor Gilbert Beebe taught him to do, "listening to patients, if properly questioned, would always tell the doctor the diagnosis."

He tells story after story of how he was able to detect a health problem that no one else had seen. For example, when his infant daughter became quite ill. He diagnosed her with a strep infection (as any doctor would have likely done) but he went beyond the obvious. He checked with his neighbors and discovered that the community was in the middles of a milk-borne strep infection, which in his words was a "clear example of a public health failure." It was this, and many other similar examples, that brought him to epidemiology.

He shows that the same skills that he brought to his medical practice when he became an epidemiologist MD. That is, as an epidemiologist, as he had been as a practicing doctor, he looked beyond the obvious. It is the continuous application of this skill that resulted in his wining of the Ramazzini prize. This book is about how he came to the understanding that dirty electricity is a hazard, yet a hazard, if recognized by society that can easily with little to no expense be mitigated such that we can continue to live with the benefits of electricity and substantially eliminate the diseases of civilization.

Everyone concerned about health issues beyond contagious diseases should read this short and highly readable book, then each reader should pass on to their friends, what an important book Dirty Electricity is.

Great, eye opening book
My father first read this book and liked it so much, he went out and bought 20+ copies, handing them out to everyone he knew and cared about, including me. I wish there were more people in the world like Samuel Milham (the book's author). He presents a very valid case and good research on how dirty electricity is a silent killer, and yet a problem that could be so easily solved. My wife, who is a school teacher in California, has long noticed that cancer rates among school teachers are much higher than average. This book finally explains why. It also gives very practical advice as to how to prevent or reduce exposure to dirty electricity. The book is well written and a quick read-- I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Editorial Review

SHE’S JUST LIKE THE REST OF US : overstuffed purse, always losing keys, high-maintenance hair, snack guilt after an evening binge. But she’s something different, too.

Hoda Kotb grew up in two cultures—one where summers meant playing at the foot of the ancient pyramids and another where she had to meet her junior prom date at the local 7-Eleven to spare them both the wrath of her conservative Egyptian parents. She’s traveled the globe for network television, smuggling videotapes in her shoes and stepping along roads riddled with land mines. She’s weathered the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and a personal Category 5 as well: divorce and breast cancer in the same year. And if that’s not scary enough, she then began cohosting the fourth hour of Today with Kathie Lee Gifford. (Oh, c’mon, KLG! That’s funny . . . put down the huge pour of Chardonnay and laugh with us.)

HODA reads just like Hoda—light, funny, positive, and positively inspiring. ... Read more

Reviews

Ya can't scare her!
The year 2007 was one of the worst for Today Show co-host Hoda Kotb. Not only did she discover her husband's infidelity, but she was also diagnosed with breast cancer. A real nightmare. However, those hard times gave her a confidence she'd never known she'd had before. Her mantra became "you can't scare me!" and she took life by the horns. Her memoir not only details that difficult part of her life, but also her upbringing by her loving Egyptian immigrant parents, covering big stories like Hurricane Katrina, and playfully duking it out every morning with her co-host Kathie Lee. You'll guffaw (she's REALLY FUNNY!), tear up, and smile. Keep on goin', Hoda!

Genuine Hoda Kotb
I have always admired Hoda Kotb, ever since she was a reporter in our city of New Orleans -- everyone loved Hoda. Her voice and her smile are always genuine whether on air, on the sidewalk, and now in her book.

It was interesting to learn about the education and leadership of Hoda's family in Eqypt and in the USA. The reader really gets to know her and enjoy her family relationships, especially her Mom who is quite a character and generously shares her recipes too. Hoda's crisis with cancer is inspirational and educational, while further deepening the support and relationship with her family.

Everyone can identify at some time with Hoda. For example, being an African American woman, I sure could identify with her hair woes as an Egyptian woman. Sibling relationships, typical sneaky teen episodes, and cultural clashes were insightful as well as fun.

Despite some of the lightheartedness, her strong character is clearly revealed. She was appropriately forthcoming about her failed marriage, but with the decency not to reveal her ex-husband's name which says a lot about her character and civility. Her crisis with breast cancer is inspirational and educational. On the subject of Katrina, I greatly appreciated her unbiased reporting while expressing her love for the City and its citizens.

There were episodes so down right hilarious that I had to laugh out loud. This is a good read, and I learned a great deal about the media and reporting from inside the profession. Through HOda's generosity and insight, I even got to like Kathy Lee Gifford!

Hoda is spot on Hoda-Woman!
Hoda woman ... you did good ... one minute I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to be incontinent. But then I went on to discover another chapter that caused tears of pain. Reconciling the two emotional reactions was made less difficult by your admontion ... you can't scare me! Great read ... cleverly honet.

Fun and Inspiring
Hoda Kotb is a natural storyteller. Her first book is fun, fast-paced and heartwarming. She provides a window into her personal challenges growing up "different", job rejections, battling cancer and broken relationships on the way to a successful career. But the book is really about her strong family, perseverance and meeting these challenges with humor, grace and determination. A great inspiring story for those with or without bad hair!

Excellent read
Let me begin by saying that I do not watch NBC therefore I did not know who Hoda was until I read this book, sorry, but that's the truth. The good part is that I got to know her through this book, so I had no clue what I was getting into until I actually opened the book and started reading. And I have to say that it's been a great experience since the moment I picked it up.

Its a great read, loved every chapter. Thank you for sharing Hoda, I will make sure to pass the book along to my mom and sis.

Enjoyed It
Thank you Hoda for a delightful book. Your honesty and openess is a breath of fresh air. The story of your struggle with breast cancer will be an encouragement to those who are going through their own battles.

I felt your love for your family, friends and co-workers throughout the book. You are a bright light.

Beautiful book Hoda.

From like to love...
I really like the Hoda Kotb that I see each morning on TV, but I loved the Hoda in this book.

I was truly inspired by Hoda's story, her unmistakable and unshakable love of family and friends, and her "forward" thinking. Even though the word "cancer" is in the title, this book it a happy and humorous read, worthy of being a a gift to your best friend for no reason at all! ... Read more

Editorial Review

The year was 1957, the month September, and I had just turned eight years old. Dwight Eisenhower was President, but in my life it was the diminutive, intense Sister Mary Lurana who ruled, at least in the third-grade class where I was held captive. For reasons you will soon understand, my parents had remanded me to the penal institution of St. Brigid’s School in Westbury, New York, a cruel and unusual punishment if there ever was one.

Already, I had barely survived my first two years at St. Brigid’s because I was, well, a little nitwit. Not satisfied with memorizing the Baltimore Catechism’s fine prose, which featured passages like “God made me to show his goodness and to make me happy with him in heaven,” I was constantly annoying my classmates and, of course, the no-nonsense Sister Lurana. With sixty overactive students in her class, she was understandably short on patience. For survival, she had also become quick on the draw.

Then it happened. One day I blurted out some dumb remark, and Sister Lurana was on me like a panther. Her black habit blocked out all distractions as she leaned down, looked me in the eye, and uttered words I have never forgotten: “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.”

And she was dead-on.

One day in 1957, in the third-grade classroom of St. Brigid’s parochial school, an exasperated Sister Mary Lurana bent over a restless young William O’Reilly and said, “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.” Little did she know that she was, early in his career as a troublemaker, defining the essence of Bill O’Reilly and providing him with the title of his brash and entertaining issues-based memoir.

And this time it’s personal. In his most intimate book yet, O’Reilly goes back in time to examine the people, places, and experiences that launched him on his journey from working-class kid to immensely influential television personality and bestselling author. Readers will learn how his traditional outlook was formed in the crucible of his family, his neighborhood, his church, and his schools, and how his views on America’s proper role in the world emerged from covering four wars on five continents over three-plus decades as a news correspondent. What will delight his numerous fans and surprise many others is the humor and self-deprecation with which he handles one of his core subjects: himself, and just how O’Reilly became O’Reilly. ... Read more

Reviews

Irish Eyes Are Smiling
Well, I am neither Irish nor Catholic, however, this book is entertaining and I not only smiled - I laughed aloud especially when reading chapter 13,"Mysteries Of The Universe" - my thoughts exactly!

Bill O'Reilly, of the Factor fame, manages to appear completely confident and satisfied with himself, not only on television, but in his books. This book relates memories of the America and the world from the nineteen fifties onward which are shared by many Americans; what makes the book readable and unique are his opinions about life and people, his excellent education, good broadcasting jobs, awards, and the value of truthfulness all spiced with his brand of humor and bluntness.

I recommend this book for the insights, the laughs, and the refreshing mix of humor and thoughtfulness. I suspect this isn't the "end of the story" and another will be forthcoming as the aging bold fresh piece of humanity continues to enjoy his debates and projecting his fair and balanced viewpoints (his words) so we can agree or disagree!

Bold and Fresh
Just finished A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity and I must say that Sister Lurana got it right. Bill is both bold and fresh and his take on politics is also bold and fresh and I really identify with him. He tells it like it is, apologizes to no one (nor should he) for his opinions. Keep it up Bill. There are those of us who really appreciate your views. We aren't Democrat or Republican. We are Independant thinkers, just like you, who want whats best for our once great country. I know that with more people like you, we can once again be A GREAT AMERICA.

Buy this book. You will not regret it and you will learn much.

A BOLD FRESH PIECE OF HUMANITY
THIS WAS A GREAT BOOK... I LAUGHED AND CRIED AT THE SAME TIME.. IT REMINDED ME OF MY YOUTH, ONLY FROM A GIRLS SIDE OF IT... (WE WERE JUST A FUN LOVING AND DARING AS THE BOYS WERE) I WILL PASS THIS BOOK ON TO MY FAMILY TO READ. NOW I LOOK AT O'REILLY AND CAN SEE THE SAME MISCHIEVE IN HIS EYES, AS I PICTURED HIM GROWING UP IN THE BOOK..... WILL READ THIS AGAIN. SO MUCH WONDERFUL LIFE LESSONS IN IT...I WOULD HAVE LIKED MORE TO HEAR OF HIS LIFE AND FAMILY NOW. HE BARLEY TOUCHED ON THAT.

Great Read
My husband got this book for his birthday, he's thoroughly enjoyed it and is going to read it again after everyone else is done with it. Our daughter got it for him and she said it was pretty bad when you purchase a gift for someone and you're already 5th in line to read it before it was even opened. Great book. Explains a lot about him that would otherwise never be understood.

RICK SHAQ GOLDSTEIN SAYS "PETER JENNINGS WANTED HIM TO "ROUND OUT THE ROUGH EDGES", BILL SAID NO THANKS I WANT TO KEEP THE EDGES
Readers who are expecting a "blistering" sermon on Bill's political beliefs will be disappointed. But readers who enjoy a wonderfully nostalgic coming of age memoir with insights to a worldwide broadcasting icon's upbringing that ranges from catholic school to high school to college and the great beyond... will be enormously rewarded with this literary treasure. If you are a "BABY-BOOMER" you will be constantly exhilarated and your thoughts will go back to your early years as you are taken back in a historical time machine to the TV programs and rock and roll songs of your youth, with Bill as your contemporary tour guide. Heavily sprinkled throughout his life story, at just the right moments, are TV programs such as "The Ed Sullivan Show", "Mr. Ed", "Leave It To Beaver, "The Donna Reed Show", "The Mickey Mouse Club", "Ozzie and Harriet", "Happy Days", and more. Interspersed to make a point are lyrics and song titles from such classic rock and roll performers as Elvis, Sam Cooke, Rod Stewart, The Beatles, The Isley Brothers, The Standells, and others. I feel it's important to mention this, as I feel a large core of potential readers, will be "touched" by the romantic humanity that Bill displays in sharing his life with you... which among other things included teaching high school for two years in Florida.

The author does not flinch from his central belief system which is: "IF THERE IS ONLY ONE THING THAT YOU TAKE FROM THIS BOOK, LET IT BE THIS: DESIGN YOUR OWN LIFE. NEVER GIVE UP TRYING TO MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN. GET BACK UP WHEN YOU GET SLAPPED DOWN, AND DON'T WASTE TIME BUYING INTO IDEOLOGICAL NONSENSE. EXPECT - AND ACCEPT - NOTHING FROM ANYONE ELSE DO IT YOURSELF."

Being that I am the same age as Bill... and from the exact same part of the country as Bill... it's amazing how the main mantra's he built his life around are the same as mine. The following quote is from Bill... but it is exactly the way I was raised by my Father... and the exact way I raised my son... so even though it was in Bill's book... I will take credit for it also (you can verify it with my son) "IF YOU EARN IT, IT'LL MEAN A LOT MORE THAN IF IT'S GIVEN TO YOU. TAKING STUFF MAKES YOU WEAKER. EARNING STUFF MAKES YOU STRONGER." *AMEN!*

Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the book is Bill's time spent at St. Brigid's parochial school where he and his "EVIL-TWIN" Clement made the Nun's life a living hell... and Clement always believed in payback... even during the schools Rip Van Winkle play. (Even Bill refused to participate in his pal Clement's dastardly plan.) The author shares some of the punishments at his elementary school: TALKING OUT OF TURN - SLAP ON THE HAND WITH A RULER. TALKING BACK TO THE SISTER - SLAP IN THE FACE, OFTEN HARD. BEING A WISE GUY IN GENERAL - NOTE HOME TO PARENTS, WHICH HAD TO BE SIGNED AND BROUGHT BACK TO NUN. (THIS USUALLY LED TO DOMESTIC PUNISHMENT.) SLOPPY APPEARANCE OR WORK - AFTER SCHOOL DETAINMENT.

Bill is very proud of the fact that he never did any drugs and has never been intoxicated. He is very proud of his religion and his belief's, but will never push it on anyone... nor discuss it on his show unless he is led there. He is very proud of America and when he went to England for a time in college he was so tired of all the anti-American comments and being constantly mocked because of his "NEW YAWK ACCENT" that he finally said: "HEY BUD, YOU'D HAVE A GERMAN ACCENT IF IT WASN'T FOR MY FATHER AND THOUSANDS OF OTHER NEW YORKERS LIKE HIM. SO "BLANK" YOU, FISH AND CHIPS AND THE BEATLES. GET ME?"

The author has covered wars in El Salvador, the Falkland Islands war in Argentina, Northern Ireland at the height of the trouble, the Golan Heights, and the current situations in Iraq and Afghanistan... yet the event that made him "KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT JOURNALISM WOULD BE MY PROFESSION"... was when he covered the forced integration of South Boston in 1974.

Having grown up in a working class neighborhood Bill has never forgotten his roots. To this day he fights for the underdog and perhaps a good summary of his life goal is the following quote:

"WHEN IT IS ALL OVER, WHEN YOU ARE DEAD IN THE GROUND OR IN AN URN, YOUR LEGACY WILL BE DEFINED BY TWO SIMPLE QUESTIONS: HOW MANY WRONGS DID YOU RIGHT, AND HOW MANY PEOPLE DID YOU HELP WHEN THEY NEEDED IT?"

O'Reilly's Roots
The book tells us from where this iconic independent hails and does so with the wit, insight and windmill jousting that we have come to expect from the author. There aren't enough stars to rate this work!

A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity
Excellent reading, entertaining and also educational. I had read the book and ordered three more from Amazon as gifts I just wanted to share a very good book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“The Social Network, the much anticipated movie…adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires.” —The New York Times

Best friends Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg had spent many lonely nights looking for a way to stand out among Harvard University’s elite, comptetitive, and accomplished  student body. Then, in 2003, Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard’s computers, crashed  the campus network, almost got himself  expelled, and was inspired to create Facebook, the social networking site that has since revolutionized communication around the world.
 
With Saverin’s funding their tiny start-up went from dorm room to Silicon Valley. But conflicting ideas about Facebook’s future transformed the friends into enemies. Soon, the undergraduate exuberance that marked their collaboration turned into out-and-out warfare as it fell prey to the adult world of venture capitalists, big money, lawyers.

Reviews

Tabloid Quality Dramatic Narrative
I read this book because I wanted to understand the history of Facebook--a program (a site, a lifestyle) that is changing society. The book's cover (a picture of a red, lacy bra and a couple of cocktail glasses) and subtitle (A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal) should have tipped me off that it was not going to be serious history. Mezrich writes the book in the style of dramatic narrative which apparently means "when I don't have facts, I'll just make 'em up and when the story gets slow, I'll fabricate a sex scene." He does provide lots of interesting facts and shares the rather brutal history of Facebook (from Mark Zuckerberg essentially stealing the idea from people who had asked him to create a very similar social media site to the backhanded way that he forced his co-founder out of the company). I suppose it is a tale of money, genius and betrayal, though I don't see how sex really enters into the true tale except as much as it would for any group of college students (except, of course, as a selling feature). So this is Mezrich's take on the story, written in a tabloid fashion where what is true and what could be true blend together. By his own admission, Mezrich did not speak to Zuckerberg at all and relied very heavily on Eduardo Saverin, a valuable though hardly objective source (seeing as he is the very co-founder who was removed from the company). The framework of the facts seems to line up with what I've read elsewhere but the very nature of the book makes it somewhat less than trustworthy. Still, if you want to know how Facebook came to be, how it evolved from a week's worth of work for a college student to a company valued in the billions dollars, this seems to be the only show in town. Even then, read Wikipedia first to see if it offers enough to satisfy your curiosity before plunking down the money for this book. Even at just $16.50 it's hard to believe that it's worth the money.

Great look behind the scenes of a revolution
Here is what you need to know about this book:

1. Is it an enjoyable read? YES. Read the book in about a day and a half and couldn't put it down at the end.

2. Is it an interesting story? YES. For the first time, I really felt that I was there (the "fly on the wall") as a whole idea unfolded from end-to-end, to become something that makes Microsoft and Google quiver in their boots.

3. Is it an interesting plot? YES. Its a real tragedy of friendship, greed, and power. It is a delightfully unexpected path woven together well by Mezrich.

I saw lot of reviews and reports about this story, and read it eyes-opened. Is this verbatim of what actually happened? Of course not, but do you really believe everything that gets written by Jenna Jameson or Marilyn Manson in their "true autobiographies". Is it clear enough that this is the way the main plot played out? -- to me there is little question.

So if you want to enjoy a good read, pick up this book. It you want to stock up on dry factoids, pick up an Encylopedia Brittanica -- I hear they are real cheap nowadays ;) ... Read more