Television Books

Although I have been reading a lot of documents related to OpenCable, I was looking forward to a comprising work, where all was coming together. That book is now available. The good structure and well managed balance between the bigger picture and the details makes this is a very interesting book for a wide audience in the North American cable community.

No kidding. Michael Adams has taken very complex technical subject matter and crystallized it in a conversational, easy-to-read manner, injecting personality and humor to make the text thoroughly enjoyable. Very refreshing approach to material that is usually inaccessable to non-engineers. Highly recommended for anyone in the broadband networking arena. Calculus is not a prerequisite!

The opencable industry has great promise and potential. In its early formative stage, various industry participants (hardware and software developers, service providers, cable MSO engineers, etc.) really need and will benefit greatly from this book.

Michael Adams has done a great job of pulling together various information pieces in a coherent framework in an understandable and easy to read manner: history, rationale, process, market and technical details of the OpenCable architecture; current status and future direction. I recommend this book highly.

Satish Thatte, Director, Product Management & Standards LG Electronics Research Center of America Princeton Junction, NJ

If you need a way to get employees, vendors, customers or anyone else up to speed quickly on how cable television networks are being re-designed for digital and interactive services, this is the book for you. It clearly and concisely covers the widely varying technical issues involved in designing broadband systems. I think it will a handy reference tool to both technical and non-technical readers.

Although I have been reading a lot of OpenCable documents, there was a wish to have a book that gave the overview and connected the pieces together. That book has now arrived. I can recommend it to all that like to have more knowledge on digital cable and the overview of opencable.

Being a film buff, and the latest Phantom of the Opera now my favorite flick, I wanted to garner some history of the various film adaptations and this was very interesting.

This is THE MOST comprehensive book to date on the 1925 film, 'The Phantom of the Opera'. It has countless articles, interviews, facts, newspaper clippings, screencaps, photographs, etc. Amazing. 'Nuff said.

Shame on the editor of this book! The incredible research that went into this book is belittled by the fact that it is not very well written. Spelling and grammatical errors abound in this otherwise-excellent volume. This is the only book I own from this series; I sincerely hope that these problems were absent in other titles.

Other than that, I can say that this is the definitive book about Chaney's Phantom. Facts in this book are repeated in the "ultimate edition" 2-disc DVD, which includes the best-they-could-do of the 1925 original, which eluded the original authors of this book.

Regardless of my own personal pickiness, if you are a fan of silent films and/or Chaney's Phantom, please get this book. It's a wonderfully immersive read.

I had thought Riley's work on MagicImage's THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN was the be-all end all coverage of a classic film until I'd picked this up. And just like the other reviews have stated, this is comprehensive and *THE* book on the original Phantom whether for casual interest or serious study. It's like compiling EVERY single article that you've seen or heard of on the film into this one rather large compendium. Forget Famous Monsters (Devil rest its soul) . This ... is serious and you will walk away with a new appreciation for the craft that was involved in creating this and other old films. Yes, the pressbook is here, scripts, interviews and other insights to this film that would otherwise be lost. There's a ton of stills that are quite rare and just as rarely seen. The pressbook is just incredible, being a total movie-promo snapshot of times gone by. It was cool to see, albeit small, a shot of Chaney and his wife (!) showing up at the premiere. There are scene comparisons betweeen the releases via text and pictures (the unmasking scene) as well as visual reconstruction of scenes deleted from the movie premier that none will ever see in moving form (likely) EVER again, but here, we see them sequentially by way of actual stills, adding some understanding as to why the reissue is oftimes a confusing flick. Another really welcome part was the overview of Chaney's changing makeup throughout the film to accomadate the drama. This is the first time I think I've ever seen a commentary (AND with photos) on what I'd noticed while watching the film, at least one this thorough. But here, stills illustrate the changing nose, forehead, cheekbones, and totally puts into perspective Chaney's mastery of the medium that he'd worked in and what he was trying to convey with these changes. If you want in-depth, this is it. If you are a Chaney Phantom geek, this is it. Pick it up, and don't think about it too long, since this will likely go out of print and be a pain to find, much like the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN edition. If you're serious about Chaney, also check out LON OF 1000 FACES, by Forrest J Ackerman, which is a rerelease of the title, that just came out (9/03). It provides a VISUAL/PHOTOGRAPHIC overview of Chaney's films that would be a good companion to Riley's or any other Chaney book. That one draws from Ackerman's massive stills collection, ...

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925) is one of the most famous silent films ever made, and this book follows the making of the film from beginning to end. Riley starts with the story of the Paris Opera house, Gaston LeRoux, and the novel. Then he follows the complicated production, with problems over Lon Chaney's participation, many rewrites, previews, and re-edited versions. When sound films came along, it was re-cut and opera sequences were added. This book has reprinted the entire pressbook, the original script, plus sections of the different script versions. Riley interviewed heroine Mary Philbin and several of the technical crew-members for this book. If you are a fan of Lon Chaney Sr., you will want this book.

Photojournalism reached its peak in the years immediately following the Second World War. These were the years when Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, Ernst Haas and Werner Bischoff wandered the world taking photos for the Magnum Photo Agency. David Douglas Duncan was one of their contemporaries. Instead of taking photos for the more glamorous Magnum, he worked for Life Magazine. Interestingly, his reputation is not as great as the Magnum photographers. One has to wonder whether it was his talent or the place he worked for that caused him to be consigned to the role of a lesser master of Twentieth Century photography.

"Photo Nomad" is a collection of Duncan's work from the late 1930's to the late 1970's. Duncan like his peers was everywhere during this time period. If something important was happening in the world, Duncan was there taking photographs. His photographs of the Korean and Vietnam Wars are especially powerful. However, if he will be remembered for any images, it will be for his wonderful photographs of Pablo Picasso. "Photo Nomad" is as much a history book as it is a collection of first rate photographs. Highly recommended.

Great photo history of the wars and their effect on our country. A good book for young audience viewing.

The photographs in this book are fantastic and fascinating. However,the author's wordiness (comments on almost every page, written in a sort of notehand style) detracted from them. I would have liked to have seen a lot fewer words, letting these marvelous photographs speak for themselves.

David Douglas Duncan's book is an extraordinary collection of photographs documenting a range of events in this interesting man's life. Of special interest to me were the photographs and images he captured in Korea during the war. That was a place I served during the last year of that conflict,and the book brought back many memories of a time long ago.

This book I treasure, and it is my intent to return to it often in the years that remain in my life.

How happy I am that I was able to locate it through Amazon.com.

David Douglas Duncan LIVED the twentieth century. The wars, the celebrations and celebrities, the places and times--HE WAS THERE, and he captured it on film. As page twenty-four introduces, "My 20th Century". Photo Nomad is a photographic autobiography of his life, a life of such far-reaching adventures, experiences, and travels that is almost impossible to fully comprehend. In a time when most photo books have the lifespan of the latest pop song, this book is an epic. Beautifully printed in Italy, it is a quality volume that will last many lifetimes and provide endless inspiration.

The end, on post-production, is priceless. Especially the material about adding the score. But I think Louis B. Mayer comes out as the true hero, because of his skill at balancing commercial and artistic considerations.

Lillian Ross's books "Picture" and "Portrait of Hemingway" were listed as two of the top 100 best-of-the-century works of Journalism compiled by 36 judges working under the aegis of New York University.

Lillian Ross made her name with this New Yorker series about a half century ago. It was startling in its cynical and very humerous view of the self important and self delusional power players at MGM. With all that we have learned about this industry during the intervening 50 years the story has lost much of its potency, but is still a classic of the genre.

I read it in its original form all those years ago. It was a wonderful and hilarious read. But the protagonists, of course, were extremely upset and hated it. Happily,Lillian has survived; still writing for New Yorker.

Lillian Ross has given movie fans and those with a serious interest in film an extraordinary book about the final days of the studio system--and shows exactly why it collapsed. A few years later the independent film-maker emerged, and another book details that experience. Interestingly enough, both books deal with Audie Murphy. Like the Ross book, A THINKER'S DAMN by William Russo recounts the foibles of movie-making, this time in Saigon with Joe Mankiewicz in 1957. Each provides a timeless impression of a bygone movie era.

Lillian Ross, a writer for the New Yorker, heads to Hollywood in 1950 to watch John Huston make his next picture, "The Red Badge of Courage" at MGM, and manages to capture a horrifying snapshot of the studio system at its worst during a difficult time of transition for the film industry. She happens to be on hand to see Louis B. Mayer forced out and Dore Schary installed as studio head while the film is in mid-production. There are several scenes of Huston grinning and bearing it as Schary pompously lectures the great director of "The Maltese Falcon," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The African Queen" on how to make a movie. Schary pompously cites how he "solved story problems" in several of his own stodgy, now-forgotten pet projects as producer, like "The Next Voice You Hear." In one hillarious scene we see Arthur Freed, MGM's great producer of musicals, playing yes-man to Schary, and we glean, perhaps, how Freed, by appeasing the new boss, managed to keep some autonomy for his own expensive production unit through much of Schary's cost-cutting reign.

Then come the ill-conceived (or deliberately rigged) sneak previews. This serious war drama is screened at a local theater for an audience that came to see a Ginger Rogers romantic comedy, and the audience response is... (surprise!) vociferously negative. They find the film depressing, and many walk out. The old adage that new executives try to kill the projects put into the works by their predecessors may apply. Schary uses these preview results to justify having the movie re-cut while Huston is out of the country working on another film.

Anyone who suspects that there never was a golden age of Hollywood without inept executives and corporate committees will enjoy this book. You wonder how anything good ever gets made. Cynics will chuckle, film lovers will just shake their heads in sorrow. Of course, there is that other adage about not wanting to see how the sausage gets made...

I just finished reading Corinne Marshall's book "The Q Guide to Will & Grace". I loved it. After finishing it, I realized that it's not an easy book to write. It requires a myriad of fine insights and keen observations, and then the ability to weave these not only with the show and its stories, but also with the broader themes of the show as a whole. She gets into the background of the show, its creation, characters, actors, peppers the book with lots of interesting quotes, and just does a terrific job of writing a thoroughly interesting book that's smart and entertaining and warmly funny. Her understanding of why the show works and her ability to share this with the reader without getting tutorial makes the book wonderful and fun to read. It's amazing what she can do with just 200 pages of large type!

Ms. Marshall's genius is well displayed here.

Sure, the show is great, but what I really wanted to know was how the book was going to measure up... and they NAIL IT here. So many great breakdowns and references, totally comprehensive, it all came back to me. I MISS MY WILL AND GRACE!!!!

It's clear this author loves the show as much as I do - and then some. Insightful and hilarious, it's good for any real fan. And it may create some new fans of the show too.

I was pleasantly surprised at Marshall's behind-the-scenes look at one of my favorite shows. Honestly, I had no idea about half the stuff she describes! Very informative, very candid and hilarious (not that that should be a surprise). This is a must-have for fans of "W&G."

I don't know why it's taken so long for something like this to be available. I loved this show so much, and was surprised that there wasn't any sort of gay fan book for it or something. There's actually a lot of info about the show that I didn't even know about. And it has quizzes, which was super fun! I miss this show! Nothing like it is on the air anymore. But at least I can still learn a lot of new stuff about it and get a regular Will, Grace, Karen and Jack fix.

If you are a I Love Lucy fan this is the book for you.
It has some of the neatest quotes, Funniest quotes, and your favorite quotes. It may be short but it is worth long time and effort. So this is the book for you Lucy fans !!!!!!!!

I was out finishing the very LAST of my Christmas shopping when what do my wonderous eyes see? This Quotable "I Love Lucy Book"! What a treasure!!

I leafed through the book and immediately had to get it as a Christmas gift to myself! Any Lucy fan whether it is yourself or a friend or family member will LOVE to get this book!

Although it is by no means a hard read and is full of quotes from Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred with wonderful clear pictures, the Lucy afficenado can tell a lot of time went in picking the quotes out of the many episodes and formatting them into this handy book (129 pages for those who like page counts). I should say a lot of time and a lot of Lucy TLC for the fans of "I Love Lucy" were given from the compiler (Stephanie Chizek)of this work.

As a Lucy fan, I was taken very much by this little golden nugget of Lucy quotes and highly recommend this book for the many Lucy fans and for those with Lucy libraries. This is a MUST and you won't regret one minute for buying this book!

"The Quotable I Love Lucy" is an absolute treasure! With hilarious pictures and quotes, how can one not love Lucy and the gang? The style of the book is great and the introduction is insightful. If you ever wondered what Lucy was saying during "Vitmeatavegamin," wonder no more, as they have that quote in here! I must have for Lucy lovers - I recommend.

With its informative introduction by Tom Watson, The Quotable "I Love Lucy" is a wonderfully presented, memorable volume filled with a superb selection of the best moments and wittiest verbal gags of a truly classic television show that has become an icon of American popular culture from the 1950s down to the present day (thanks to perpetual reruns on Nick At Night). Black-and-white photographs of the unforgettable Lucy and Ricky Ricardo spice up this hilarious selection of classic vignette quotes and mini-scenes. The Quotable "I Love Lucy" is a welcome giftbook for fans of one of the greatest comedy series of all time and a "must" for all Lucy fans everywhere!

I loved this!! i saw it at the store and i was like "o my gosh i gotta have this!!" so i bought it and read thru it. its a bunch of quotes, some of them are really cute, and pictures from episodes. its a nice hard cover and i just loved it! Recently i have seen episodes that i hadn't seen before and just reading that book i knew a dialouge by heart and could recite it along with the person saying it. such as when lucy is asking Ricky to be in the show at the Palladium and she says "...if you dont let me be in that show at the Palladium i'll give you such a punch you'll talk funnier than you do now!" and "Do you know how many times i'll have to sing 'Babalu' to pay for that house?"~Ricky. its really an adorable book that i treasure. they also include the entire Vitameatavegamin speech before and after she is drunk. its definetly for ANY Lucy fan. And i am definetly a Lucy fan!!!
"Its not the gift that counts. Its the lack of thought behind it." ~ Lucy

This is one of those rare books once you begin reading it, it is impossible to put it down. The bright and vivid image of Rachmaninov appears clearly with myriads of subtle details in his noble character. His compositions and his own recordings are presented in the context of his life, which makes the reading very enjoyable; writing stile is non-pretentious, intelligent and adds to overall experience of rediscovering Rachmaninov's legacy. The grand scope in exposition of biographical material is simply stunning. I would hearty recommend reading this work to anyone who loves Rachmaninov's music.

Rachmaninoff has never had the authoritative biography that he deserves as one of the greatest composers and pianists of the last two centuries. Nor is this that definitive book. However, it is the most recent, and in many ways it supersedes all previous biographies, although there is still value in the Bertensson-Leyda and (to a lesser extent) the Martyn and Walker books.

It has some great strengths. First, it covers Rachmaninoff's life and career in some (not exhaustive) detail. Second, it discusses his entire compositional career more thoroughly and accurately than any previous book. Third, unlike some other biographies, it unashamedly defends Rachmaninoff's music and style from the foolish and ignorant criticisms that were common for much of the 20th century. Record collectors and piano aficionados will also find it valuable for its thorough discussion of Rachmaninoff's recordings as both pianist and conductor.

The book's major weakness, as with most previous biographies, lies in its analyses. Harrison offers many insights into Rachmaninoff's works, but he also repeats some of the stale and superficial clichés of Rachmaninoff criticism. For example, he finds quotations of the Dies Irae chant in dozens of pieces, when in fact Rachmaninoff only quoted the Dies Irae in four: Isle of the Dead, Paganini Rhapsody, Third Symphony, and Symphonic Dances. Themes in other works, such as the First Symphony, may resemble Dies Irae, but analysis shows clearly that they are different and are treated differently. And because Harrison clings to this shallow and inaccurate "insight," he misses some of the real strengths of Rachmaninoff's music--for instance, that the entire First Symphony is obsessively based on just two themes and one melodic turn. To be fair, no previous Rachmaninoff book has been strong in analysis. And despite these weaknesses, this is still the best that has yet appeared.

Max Harrison's expertise as a top-notch musicologist is used to full advantage in this masterfully-researched and written biography of Rachmaninov. Like other reviewers, I found Harrison's very detailed assessments of each of Rachmaninov's published works to be incredibly informative. Take, for example, his view that Rachmaninov was, despite popular wisdom to the contrary, an excellent composer of large-scale symphonies. That the shoddy treatment given his first symphony reflected far more the narrow-mindedness and incompetence of the conductor, orchestra, and critics than any real shortcomings in this grand and beautiful work by a young and very talented composer.

Harrison's book is brilliant. Since my first exposure to Rachmaninoff's music, I have been a collector of recordings of his music, the scores, and the composer's own recordings. Having read just about everything written about the composer, including the biographies written by Bertensson and Leyda, Bazhanov, Haylock, Lyle, Martyn et al, I came away from Harrison's book with a fresh image of the composer. It was one of those books that one reads looking forward to each page and almost dreading that the book, as did the composer's life, would end too soon.

Harrison clearly knows the music and all of the recordings. While he obviously places great value in the music, he is not unconditional in his appreciation. He provides a highly informed contemporary critical perspective and places the music within the context of the composer's life. It is the sort of writing that can be appreciated by an informed musician and musicologist, while also being understood and valued by the informed listener.

As I read the book I found myself returning to the Rachmaninoff operas, works which I had not really valued as much until reading Harrison's discussions.

I came away from my reading with a renewed appreciation for the music and recordings of this man who gave us all so much with his creative expression.

In this biography Max Harrison reminds us that Rachmaninoff excelled as a fine composer, one of the greatest pianists in the history of an instrument that has never lacked outstanding players, and he was also a fine conductor. Yet he was basically shy and retiring, insecure and extremely self critical. His portraits show a tall serious figure, his music often demonstrating a morbid fascination with death, through recurring references to the Dies Irae. Yet his music is supremely warm and melodic, and for this Rachmaninoff was often mercilessly slated by the critics who ought to have know better as Harrison states, when analyzing the beautiful Second Symphony, "Rachmaninoff's symphonies should be assessed, not in relation to precepts derived from Beethoven and Brahms. With Rachmaninoff different types of thematic material and musical processes, of moods and feelings, are brought into varying degrees of conflict and finally resolved in ways that are personal and formally satisfying. Logically sustained argument has its role but an instinctive drama of the emotions is this music's chief thrust, its final import being the struggle between representations of the forces of life and death." Like Elgar, Rachmaninoff in the 1920s, felt himself and his music to be out of joint with the times, romanticism was out of fashion, swept away on a tide of vulgarity and atonality. Harrison offers detailed analyses of all the works and does not hesitate to shoot down critics and writers who wrote negatively about his music. Harrison's style of writing is very easy to follow for those who have difficulty comprehending technical terms in music. The book unfortunately has no pictures, but it does include a chronological list of works, an extensive bibliography, two indexes, one of the composer's works and over 50 musical examples. This is one of the best biographies available today and I think any one who reads it will have so much more appreciation for of one of the 20th century's greatest composers, first and foremost, but also Rachmaninoff should be remembered as a brilliant pianist and a fine conductor.

I must say that even though Frank Turner fell from grace I had no idea that he was so addicted to drugs that he had to have a "transition team" just to get by in the Detroit market. It was inspirational to learn that he is healed body and soul. It reminded me of my own encounter with God. We can all relate to what he wrote. It took guts to reveal himself in such a profound way. I admire him for being able to to that. The book is well worth reading.

"Raised from the Dead" by Frank Turner, is the personal testimony of America's First Evangelical Anchorman. Ironically, the first book that I read in one day, "Hope for the Flowers", had the same wonderful message for me. March 11, 1971 is when my life changed forever. The other book was about crawling catapillers, that God changed to beautiful butterflies, as only He can do.

This is one man's story about abandonment and sexual abuse as a child, in addition to smoking pure cocaine. It's about his marriage to the daughter of Louis Farrakhan. It is also about drug use and trafficking. It is about salvation, deliverance, healing and restoration. But if you are seeking for truth in your own life, I promise you this book will show you the miracle that happens when you reach out and ask God to change your heart, change your mind and turn you into that beautiful person that He intended you to be. (Remember the butterfly?)

I'm the mother of five children and a grandmother of eleven. I've never had Frank Turner's horrendous experiences in life, but I could relate to him just because I was a lost, self-righteous soul headed for hell until that awesome day, March 11, 1971, when God called my name and changed my eternal destination. "Old things passed away, He made all things new."

Thank God I was forever changed just as you will be after you read what God did in Frank Turner's life and what God wants to do in each of His children's lives.

Thank you for sharing your story and I'm praying that you enjoy His miracles that are "new every day".

Gratefully Yours,
Boots Barlow

Rarely has a Christian biography like RAISED FROM THE DEAD by Frank Turner, grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go from the first page to the very last. Seldom have I read one with the really "hard" issues in it. This is Reality at its worst and its very Best.

The thoughts, experiences, and word images are so artfully written that they seem burned into my memory. I was disappointed when the book ended. RAISED FROM THE DEAD is captivating, riveting, challenging and with a bit of humor thrown in. The way this author has with words, makes the reader stop to marvel and meditate at the depth of his thoughts and the beauty of language.

The best part of course, is how Frank Turner brings you right into the experiences with him--from the deepest pit of addiction to the heights of his love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his Nicky. This author doesn't cop out and whitewash his "before" story so as not to offend Christians' sensibilities. While tastefully written, he is refreshingly honest, open, and vulnerable, which makes him someone the reader can relate to.

I don't usually use the word "anointed" about anything these days, but I believe it applies to this book. I believe the Lord will use it to reach many for salvation in Jesus Christ, and to give all believers renewed hope and looking forward to living a life totally dedicated to Him and anxiously awaiting His soon return.

Raised From the Dead Frank Turner's book is a sure breath of hope to any who have felt hopelessly alone and/ or have or are battling addictions. This book is just not for those in the categories described above; it is a true work of hope. Frank keeps you on the edge of your chair from defeat to glory. A must read for all who could use some inspiration in their life.

Bob Kirby-Incarceratedyouthministries-RETOOL

Just when you thought you knew what a "crack head" would talk, walk and look like...you were wrong. Frank Turner was a high-profile news anchor on ABC Detroit but had real "issues." Like a lot of us, he had ghosts from the past that haunted him - but he let those ghosts torture him - almost to the point of destruction! Thank God for HIS GRACE. This book shows you the amazing grace of God and how much His love for us is not beyond anyone's reach. Great, fast read. Better than chocolate!

Pam Perry
Chocolate Pages Reviews
www.MinistryMarketingSolutions.com

This book contains information that doesn't seem to be available any place else. It takes a look at the facts on which present day current events are based, and reports the information in an understandable form. So much of the news that is being reported now is based on emotion and feelings that it is difficult for the average person to sift through it all and know what the facts really are. I would recommend that you would read this book if you are interested in knowing how we got where we are as a country and how you can respond with integrity.

In a time when the availability of an unprecedented number of sources does not assure accuracy of information, this fully documented and comprehensive coverage of the key issues bearing upon the state of our Union, fills a crying need.
The quality, timeliness and pertinence of this report makes it a must read for all who seek to cut through the morass of politically biased reporting.
You really owe it to yourself to read this book before you choose your candidates this fall.

Reality Check is a very important book for everyone in this country to read. It does a thorough job of counterbalancing the mythes and lies that are so commonly put forward daily in the news.

As well,it is informational and easily readable for anyone who wants to understand basic economics and how they relate to our personal world. Reality Check is definitely worth the time it takes to read!

This is an excellent condensed survey - made for ordinary people -- of important economic questions of the day with clear, readable answers. And, just in time for the upcoming presidential campaign. While politics is mostly about impressions, this book has real facts (many quite surprising) which dispel many commonly believed myths.

The topics are packaged one-to-a-chapter so you can digest an issue at a time. The authors leave out the more baroque analytics which make economics inaccessible or dry to some people, but they know how to zero-in on the key facts. I found myself repeatedly saying: "I didn't know that!"

As John Adams famously said, "facts are stubborn things..." The purpose of this piece is to debunk certain items of common knowledge about America as she enters the 21st Century. The traditional mass-media often presents various beliefs more or less as truths, which they support with selectively derived anecdotal evidence. The approach taken in the book is to isolate a common (usually media-driven) belief, and then examine it in light of actual statistical data. The dismayingly common result is that we find that many common notions about America's place in the world are simply wrong.

Also by way of disclosure, I went to college with, and was friends with, author Dennis Keegan at UCLA and we both served in the US Army in Germany in the late 1970s. Both of us were tank commanders during that time.

For example, during most of the Bush Administation (of which I am no great fan, I state by way of disclosure), the media has incessantly informed the citizenry that the United States is in recession, with dangerously high unemployment, anemic job creation, and an economy that is losing competitiveness to other countries. Only problem is--this is not so. The authors present statistics that show that the US ranks in the top five countries for GDP growth during most of the past eight years (dropping to number 12 during 2007 only, as the unwinding of the mortgage lending and housing bubble takes a toll). Average GDP growth of the American economy also must be viewed, as the authors point out, in light of what it is that is growing--many economies that have higher growth than America are relatively small. Put in context, during the last eight years the growth component alone of the American economy is larger than the *entire* Chinese economy. Similarly, as the authors point out, America's share of global GDP is greater, not less, than it was 12 years ago. This is not an indicator of a country in decline.

The authors take on many other media-driven myths, and show that such myths do not withstand scrutiny. For example, the notion that tax cuts only benefit the rich, who are not paying "their fair share" of taxes. Hard to reconcile this with the statistic that 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of all Federal taxes, and 86% of the taxes is paid by the top 25% of wage earners. Put simply, persons of modest means in the United States pay far less of their earnings in taxes, in percentage terms, than those in the top earnings strata. One would not know this from the unending media drumbeat about how tax cuts favor the wealthy.

The last example of a debunked media myth that I will mention in this review is the canard that America's industrial base is disappearing. There is no more frequently heard media myth. Problem is, the US exports more manufactured goods than any other country, at least most years. (Further, a lot of European exports constitute trade between relatively small and adjacent European economies; analogous to trade among states in the USA).

Mr. Keegan's particular strength is economics, but the book also contains numerous chapters dealing with more political issues. My favorite is the analysis of Hurricane Katrina. Not surprisingly, here the authors make a strong case that it was the corruption and incompetence of the Louisiana local and state authorities, not FEMA incompetence, that caused the problems that got so much media play. (And of course many of the "problems" were simply media myths.) It is noteworthy that other locations of Katrina devastation fared much better, e.g. Texas and Mississippi. The authors cite a 2006 bipartisan report on the disaster which notes that "It is clear [that] accurate reporting was among Katrina's many victims. If anyone rioted, it was the media."

The real problem that this book tries to take on is the fact that the media usually has an agenda, and if objective facts conflict with that agenda, the media will rely on carefully selected anecdotal evidence rather than objective facts. This is a very real danger to the American republic, which over the long run requires a reasonably well-informed electorate in order to function well. Fortunately, the rise of the internet has begun to supplant, or at least challenge, the traditional media. Aided by books like this one. Recommended.

I passed this book by many times before finally breaking down and buying it. Somehow, its title and dust cover just didn't grab me. Besides that, having already read several biographies of the Reagans and the Reagan family members, I was fairly well convinced that the book couldn't possibly contain much of anything new. Even after buying it, I still wasn't much inclined to read it. What finally convinced me to do so was when I read in the prologue that Colacello was a personal friend of Nancy Reagan and that Nancy had arranged for him to have unprecedented access to her personal files and to virtually all of the Reagan's living friends and associates and/or their children. How could I resist? This had to be a spectacular source of inside information. And it was!

The early part of the book traces the lives of Nancy Davis and Ronald Reagan in parallel chapters. This section is interesting primarily for the light it sheds on Nancy's early life; her relationships with her mother, Edith Davis, and her adoptive father, Dr. Loyal Davis; and for the in-depth background provided concerning both Edith and Loyal.

The book really takes off, however, in the mid-sections where it deals in depth with Reagan's and Nancy's film careers; Reagan's military service; his marriage to and divorce from Jane Wyman; his actions while president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), particularly in combating the Communist attempt to take over Hollywood's film industry; his, and other's, testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) - who was who and what was what; the members of "The Group" who induced Reagan into politics and the subsequent "Kitchen Cabinet" members (mostly wealthy, conservative, high-powered friends of Nancy or Edith) who guided, supported, and, it might be said with some degree of truth, made Reagan Governor of California and President of the United States; Reagan's abortive run for president in 1968; and the rationale for his run in 1976. From that point on, the book is hard to put down.

In summary, this book contains inside information which can't be found anywhere else, making it a vital historical document. The information doesn't always reflect well on Ronald Reagan or Nancy, but it dispels a lot of myths and misinformation, and certainly provides a great deal of insight into what it takes for even a great leader, such as Ronald Reagan, to become President of the United States.

The book certainly rates five stars for content. It loses something for readability, however, due largely to its repetitious descriptions of parties and dinners, including: who was invited; what foods and wines were served; what gowns the women wore and who made them; who were the women's hair stylists and what were their hair styles; etc. But that was a small price to pay. I give it four stars.

Some friends of ours in Australia started to read this on an Asian cruise last Fall and asked us to bring them a copy when we visited Cairns in August.

They loved it and so did we, when we got to look at it prior to giving it to them.

As a Reagan supporter, I really wanted to love the Reagans and to see Nancy Reagan's reputation vindicated. Nancy, in her elder years, is very admirable. It is a bit creepy to read that Ronnie always called her Mommie, but no one can deny their mutual love. Bob Colacello is quite thorough in his research,fair and honest - no whitewashing here...the endless sniping and self-aggrandizement of Nancy's pals, like Betsey Bloomingdale et al? These women were all intimate friends, but were clawing at each other for primacy in the Reagan inner circle. Bloomingdale brags about her caviar parties and hobnobbing with the Paris set of sophisticates, but gets caught evading customs duties for lying about how much she paid for a new couture outfit in France. The other graceless, snobby chums of Nancy also seem like the idle, witless, rich that P. G. Wodehouse skewered in his books. The Kitchen Cabinet husbands are scary and only a tad less obnoxious. The book makes one feel queasy; Ronnie and Nancy seem bought and paid for by their cronies. Nancy herself comes off as self-deceiving and controlling - a shallow and manipulative social climber who rewrote her personal history;possibly she is portrayed as second only to Joan Crawford as Mommie Dearest. Ron takes up ballet as an adult. Patti has herself sterilized at 24 because she's afraid she'll be like her mother??!

The book proves what most of us assume - being well-connected helps a lot with success and acts as a powerful "deodorant". Colacello is due to write a second volume on the Reagans. I will read it for the writing, the history and my belief in redemption.

Colacello deconstructs the Reagans like no other author has. He starts with the premise that their personal and social lives were inseparable from their political ambitions, and an essential factor in Ronald Reagan's rise to power. He goes on to explore how the couple's social milieu and interpersonal relationships influenced Reagan's political ideas and governing style.

A fascinating portrait of Nancy emerges as well: Colacello sees her as supremely focused and determined to advance her husband's political career, but motivated by pure adoration of Ronnie rather than any overriding desire for control and power.

The writing flows easily and is peppered with enough interesting anecdotes and revealing quotes to make the reader forget at times that this is, in fact, a serious political biography. A great read from cover to cover.

The perfect mix of gossip and history. Meticulously researched and carefully observed. You won't be able to put it down.