S Books

The second installment in this series continues to keep me reading at breakneck speed, ignoring my children, burning the mac n' cheese, and letting the phone answering machine pick up all the calls. Let me just say, I think I've bought a pair of those shoes ;) Keep up the good work! Luckily I'm late to this series so I can just go directly to #3!

Katie Chandler returns to readers in time for the holiday season in New York City, showing us a new perspective on its weird and unusual inhabitants - a magical perspective. Katie discovered, in Enchanted, Inc, that she is a magical immune. She sees fairies, gargoyles, and gnomes where other people see nothing unusual at all. But when her parents decide to come visit her for Thanksgiving, Katie's misgivings distract her from her heavy workload at MSI, Inc (Magic, Spells, & Illusions), where her boss, Merlin, has charged her with ferreting out the spy within their midst. Unfortunately for Katie, her immunity to magic seems to fading, and she's having difficulty hiding it from her co-workers while she endeavors to find the traitor in their midst.


All Katie wants is a normal relationship. Most men, however, can't handle the weird happenings that seem to follow Katie around the city. Katie finally manages to snag more than a first date with a lawyer she works with, but her heart seems to want to be with someone else - Owen Palmer. Owen is a wizard where she works, but he treats her like a sister. So while Katie searches for the source of the rumors and discord at work, she is juggling a new relationship and the family visit, as well as the holidays in the city. Katie also discovers that she has inherited her immune status from her mother, which has made explaining the bizarre much more difficult without telling them about magic. But when Katie's mother starts seeing things that Katie doesn't, she wonders if she's lost her immunity, which, in turn, might mean the loss of her job, which has come to mean more to her than she realized.

Swendson's first story featuring Katie Chandler came as a pleasant surprise, and her sequel was not disappointing. Katie is one of the most pragmatic characters in an enchanting story I've ever read. There is mystery involved in her story - who is the spy, and why are they after Katie? But there is also romance, humor, and magic interlaced into the plot, so I would have trouble trying to limit this to one genre.

I thoroughly enjoyed this installment in Katie's ongoing drama of life, love, and the pursuit of normalcy, and I look forward to the next, which is Damsel Under Stress, due out in May 2007.

I really enjoyed this book. Good follow up to the first in the series. It had some nice character development. Looking forward to the next book!

I really enjoy Shanna Swendson's writing. And the plot of the book is fantastic, literally and figuratively. In Katie's new job, she has been tasked with finding the spy/traitor within the company. Along the way, her own safety is threatened. The fun part is when her parents go to New York to visit her and she finds out that her Mother has the same ability as she does, to see magic.

The suspense with Owen, powerful wizard, is getting painful. All of his blushing and not coming right out to show interest in Katie drove me nuts.

I'm glad that this series from Shanna Swendson is proving to be solid. I was very pleased to have another book I couldn't put down. Katie Chandler is deep into her work as MSI. Unfortunatly, company secrets at leaking out, leading to the assumption that a spy has either infiltrated the company, or one of their own loyal employees has turned against them. Katie's special talents will help to solve the puzzle, unless that traitor can get to her first.

For me, the most interesting thing about Rachlin's very interesting memoir was the incredible strength she showed in forging a life for herself that was so different from the culture she was born into in Iran and for which she had very little or no family support. It is a very personal tale of courage. Rachlin was given to an aunt to raise shortly after her birth and then wrenchingly, for both Rachlin and her aunt, taken away from her when she was about 8. I suspect it was this horrible experience that later gave Rachlin the courage to leave her family to attend college on a scholarship in the United States and to live an independent, solitary and self-sufficient existence in the United States for awhile before she met her husband.

If I am at all disappointed with this book it is because of the emphasis Rachlin places on arranged marriages as the cause of unhappiness in women in the culture she was born into. Rachlin's sister was in an abusive arranged marriage as were other women in her family. I know some couples who are in very happy arranged marriages and I know a lot of women who are very unhappy in marriages of their own making. The divorce rate in the United States certainly attests to that.

No, I would not have liked my life and/or marriage determined for me. And I value the ability to chart my own course. But Rachlin goes too far I believe when she seemingly equates arranged marriages with unhappiness and abuse.

But overwhelmingly, this is a very interesting, and although somewhat sad, nonetheless a charming book.

Very interesting to learn about the Iranian culture from an author who is unafraid. I felt her writing portrayed her pain as well as her strength. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Particularly in the current political climate, I was hoping that this book would provide a fascinating look into a culture that is, at best, underrepresented in mainstream English language books and, at worst, criticized, discriminated against, and even hated; the fact that the author is a woman made it all the more enticing as I simply can't read enough of how my fellow women live, survive, and thrive in other cultures.

PERSIAN GIRLS delivers on all accounts and has made me want to learn more not only about this intriguing woman--cappuccino is on me if you're ever in southern Italy Ms Rachlin!--but also about Iranian history and culture in general.

From Rachlin's difficult childhood with a mother who didn't seem to want her and a father who wanted only control to her struggle for independence and acceptance in America, PERSIAN GIRLS places the reader in the very heart and mind of the author as she rises to each successive challenge placed before her.

From the time Rachlin was taken from the only mother she knew, I found myself cheering her on-a credit to an outstanding opening scene that transports the reader to 1950s Iran amidst a prayer rug, a Koran, rose water, a paraffin lamp, and hot summer nights spent talking about a golden ladder descending from the sky.

And yet Rachlin's writing style isn't nostalgic or wistful. She presents her life with such an objective tone sometimes that I forgot she was telling her own life story--and this is not a criticism. To the contrary, I felt like what I was reading was a true, fair account of events, and knowing that I'm able to trust the author is so very important.

At times, however, I did feel that there was just a bit held back regarding the working through of her feelings in some of her relationships, particularly the most difficult ones; the fact that some family members are still alive surely had something to do with this, but overall I don't find that this guardedness distracts from the memoir. Rachlin gives plenty of clues into her personality to provide the reader with a sense of what the author might've been feeling, and I don't think there's anything wrong with a little mystery in any book, even a memoir.

On another level, Rachlin's expat status in America really spoke to me, and I'm sure to plenty of other expats as well--the feeling of being caught between two cultures, two languages, two ways of life. On whether she regretted her choice to go to America, in a subsequent interview, Rachlin said:

I have never really regretted my choice to come to America, pursue my own goals. But I am always aware of a loss, a price to pay for the independence I have gained. I don't have easy access and closeness to people I love, because of all the distance between us.

Indeed I wouldn't mind another memoir (or even a how-to!) from Rachlin on her marriage to an American and raising her daughter in a country that is a sometimes enemy of her own. I look forward to reading Rachlin's fiction as well.

I wholeheartedly recommend this memoir to anyone with an interest in women's history, cultural differences, the Middle East, family relationships, love, or, you know, life.

This review originally appeared on my blog here: [...]

The front cover of Persian Girls: A Memoir by Nahib Rachlin has a quote from a Boston Globe reviewer saying that the "memoir reads like a novel", which I felt was very accurate. Nahib has provided us with a peek into her world, spanning over fifty years, and immersing us in the culture of Iran and her family.
Nahib pulls us quickly into her world, showing us her split childhood - life with her adopted mother for her first 9 years, and then life with her birth family. Nahib's birth mother, Mohtaram, was very fertile, she agreed to give a child to her sister, Maryam. It was when Nahib turned 9 that she was considered "of age", able to legally marry, and that is when her father came to get her. When her father took her from her adopted mother, Nahib lost an attentive mother, she gained a sister and confidante.

Nahib's relationship with her older sister Pari is incredibly moving. Both girls loved American movies and the idea of new freedoms for women. I look at my daughters, and hope for them to continue their close relationship - one like what Nahib and Pari had. There were many times as I was reading Persian Girls that I wished I was reading a novel, and that the author could guarantee me a happy ending for everyone involved. The relationship between Nahib and Pari was so intense, and yet fraught with obstacles. Their middle sister, Manijeh, was their mother's favorite, and the obvious favoritism made for a lot of rivalry between them. As time passes, and physical distances between them increase, the bonds between them change and strengthen.

The Iranian Government and its changing laws cast a shadow over the lives of Nahib and her family. Every choice they make has to take the laws and social mores into account. Nahib's brothers go to college in the US, which is seen as a very modern thing to do. However, her two older sisters are married traditionally - in arranged marriages. While all families worry about appearances, in Nahib's father seemed to worry even more than usual. His job as a lawyer seemed tied to how his family is perceived, and he must balance the traditional and the modern.

Parts of Persian Girls feel like a mystery, and one that cannot be solved. Without an omniscient narrator, we only know what Nahib has experienced or discovered. I wish I could see into the heads of many of the characters, but there is an intimate feeling reading one person's memories, one person's truth.

Nahib states at one point in Persian Girls that she feels like she doesn't belong in either culture. I know that feeling is common among many ex-patriots, but I have to wonder if the problems in US-Iranian relationships made her transition more difficult. I found myself identifying so much with Nahid, finding many universal truths within her words, no matter your background.

I highly recommend Persian Girls to anyone who enjoys memoirs and non-fiction, as well as to anyone who enjoys women's fiction or literary fiction - it really is a memoir that reads like a novel. It pulls you in, with vivid imagery of Nahid Rachlin's world. Watch out, though, once you start it you won't be able to put it down easily! I look forward to reading Nahid Rachlin's other books.

Persian Girls is the true story of Nahid Rachlin's experiences growing up in Iran during the years leading up to the Iran hostage crisis.

I was particularly interested to read this when I learned there was an adoption theme to the story -- until she was in elementary school, Nahid was raised by her aunt Maryam. Nahid's biological mother had given Maryam baby Nahid to raise as her own, since she had been widowed without children and Nahid's biological mother already had several children. And interesting sisterly pact.

But at the age of nine, Nahid was yanked from her peaceful existence as the only daughter of religiously observant Maryam to live with her estranged biological family.

The story is a mostly sad one -- there are not very many happy endings in this book, partly because of the iron fist with which her father ruled her family, and because of the fall of the Shah and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini. But it is an interesting portrait into life in Iran and what it was like to be raised as a girl in a country where daughters were, at least at that time, thought more of as chattel than individuals.

My one reservation about wholeheartedly recommending this book is Rachlin's writing style. I have never read any of her fiction, but this book read more like a series of journal entries than a narrative story. I also kept waiting for there to be some sense of hope, but this seemed to be more a story of resignation than one of triumph -- a tale of the bonds of sisterhood and how the lives of Nahid and her sister Pari came to differ on many levels as Nahid eventually made her escape to America.

While not every story is a happy one, and I certainly enjoy memoirs that aren't 100% happy and joyful, I kept waiting for there to be some relief in this tale about how lives were shattered and how families were torn apart. I found the writing style to be a bit disjointed in places, but not enough to keep me from finishing the book.

For those of us who grew up in a time of new awakening and women's rights in America, this was a fascinating look inside patriarchies of the Middle East, the small roles women had in that society. There are some poignant story arcs that I don't want to spoil, but ultimately, Persian Girls reinforced the stereotype we have about how women are treated in that part of the world and the lack of value placed on women's lives.

I would love to read this book, my great uncle died aboard the Leopoldville and though the family has been told stories from some of the survivors, it would be nice to have a researched account of it all. At $1,050 a copy, I fear it may take a while before that happens, but all the same, i'm glad someone took the time to find out the truth about this disaster. This month, my great uncle's 3 brothers are all being awarded medals for their service in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. These are the real heroes, these four brothers.

This true story of the souls lost and those who lived on from a World War II disaster is unequalled in military history. There is probably no other single incident in WW2 that compares to or involves so many lives in so many states, stories that continue on to this day. The stories Andrade provides, and his writing ability place you on the Leopoldville on Christams Eve, 1944, the day it was lost.

My father-in-law's brother perished in the sinking of the Leopoldville. I married into the family 20 years ago and never really knew what happened to Uncle Waldo. Now I am filled with a great sense of loss at never having known him--and that loss is compounded as I think of the nearly 800 families who lost sons, husbands, fathers, and uncles.

I am also filled with a great sense of appreciate and reverence for all those on board--for those who gave their lives and for those who survived the terror.

Allan Andrade did a great job of presenting the story and introducing those who involved. They are very real people to me now. I finished the book with tears streaming down my cheeks. This is a must read for anyone who had family involved in the sinking. It is an important piece of history for everyone. It reminds us of the price others paid for our freedom, but it also raises important questions about the mistakes or errors that contributed to the loss and the failure to acknowledge those problems.

Thank you, Mr. Andrade, for writing this important book.

I just put this book down and was astonished both by the tragedy of the disaster and by Andrade's insightful and meticulous reporting. I highly recommend it.

"`Hey, I'm alive!' Drew blacked out. When he came to, he found himself on a beach, naked protected only by a raincoat thrown over him. He heard a faint voice `Throw him in there too.' Drew, realizing that they thought he was dead, yelled." This is just one of many harrowing tales of a life and death struggle resulting from the sinking. "SS Leapoldville Disaster, December 24, 1944" is the story of this troopship loaded with American troops being rushed to the help in the Battle of the Bulge. It was sunk barely five miles from shore taking with it 763 American servicemen. The book consists of many short stories detailing individual accounts of the disaster. Even the Introduction has 38. These were compiled from hundreds of interviews and research. Andrade includes many actual copies of letters. Perhaps the most moving are letters from parents to their sons before they knew they were dead. One story in particular is very moving: "Lt. Gene Barwick died that night. They never recovered his body. Each Christmas Eve reminded Barwick's parents of his death. His young bride eventually remarried and had two children but 20 years after her first love's death, she took her own life on a Christmas Eve." Many who died were only 18 to 21 years old and came from 47 of the (then) 48 states. All are listed by state in the In Memoriam Section at the end of the book as are the survivors.

This disaster was kept secret for many years. It was understandable during the war but not so afterwards. Allan Andrade has done a service to the nation and to the families of those lost with his book. It is well done, and an easy read - well worth your time!...

Bad

A. The narrative pace is just awful. I don't know what it is about this book I almost didn't make it past the first 40 pages because the begining moves so slowly.
B. The idiotic "conspiracy theory" idea regarding the Texas Revolution. Someday right minded people everywhere will be able to laugh conspiracy nuts right off the street.
Good

The book has a great deal of information regarding the beginnings of an organized abolitionist movement in this country. Garrison was the focal point for this when the movement started to move beyond isolated groups of idealists and Quakers and started to be taken seriously as a genuine force for social change.

Overall-Once you get into the book it is amazing, but you have to be in the right mood to do so.

This is the last and probably the best book completed by the late Henry Mayer.

Mayer admired Garrison, the most important leader of the abolitionist movement. In this book, he succeeds in renovating the reputation of a great reformer and activist who has often been neglected or written off as a crank.

Garrison and the abolitionists were originally hardly more popular in the North than in the South. They were seen as disrupting the Union and were regarded with suspicion for their pro-black beliefs - public opinion in the North was only marginally less racist than in Dixie. Garrison's courage and consistent refusal to trim his convictions for popular acceptance led to a career with an outsized share of controversy, oppobrium, and in several cases physical danger.

Some reviewers have felt the book is too long, and it is hefty. But the length is necessary for Mayer to give a full portrait, which shows not only the man, but also the era he lived in. In particular, Mayer writes extensively about abolitionism as a movement. Abolitionists, and Garrison himself, struggled with many problems - whether to compromise by supporting politicians whose platforms called for less than full abolition, evolving from a paternalist movement of mostly privileged whites to a movement in which free blacks and escaped slaves could play a meaningful role, and reconciling the pacifist leanings of many to their role in a war against slaveholders - that will be of interest to contemporary political activists. Mayer also shows how, after abolition was accomplished, former abolitionists seeking new causes worked for other advances, including the first stirrings of the women's suffrage movement.

Now a book that shows two sides of slavery that all white people were not all for slavery .Like Dr.martin luther king was saying that slavery was not about black against white ,but justice againt injustice.Because if all men and women are not free then we are all in chains.Books like this one has giving us a balance look at one of america darkest sides. But men like Garrison showed us that their were men and women that were a light of hope that all men are created equal . And being a black man I must say thank you to all the blackmen and women and white men and women of the past for fighting a fight that many of us still fight for today .And that is for an opportunity to live as we were when God created us in the beginnig as, a human being thank you.

Let's just get the obvious criticisms out of they way. First, the author pretty much flat out states that The Civil War was fought only because of slavery--and in the preface! Yawn. Will I ever be able to find a Northerner who can write a book that examines both sides of the conflict? I mean southern writers do it all the time. The second problem is the assertion that the Texas Revolution was some kind of government conspiracy--from Pres. Jackson on down to Sam Houston--to perpetuate slavery and continue manifest destiny. While I'm sure some men fought for those reasons, this moronic conspiracy theory about secret government shenanigans has no basis whatsoever. In fact, I would recommend the wonderful biography, Sam Houston, by James Haley. It expertly destroys that awful line of thinking that has somehow survived all these years.

But, being from Texas, I tend to be sensitive to such things. For most people it won't matter.

I still highley recommend All On Fire, though. It is very well written and researched. But most of all, it is the only real biography on Garrison worth reading. And say what you want about the author's biases, he can't muddle the fact that Garrison was one of this country's great patriots, willing to stand up to anyone to free his fellow man. He dedicated his entire life to this noble cause--and except for a few references in some Civil War books--is largely forgotten. What a shame.

William Lloyd Garrison was a man ahead of his time. Not by years or even decades, but centuries. In the 1830s he was an outspoken proponent of not just the abolition of slavery (many advocated various ways to deal with the South's "peculiar institution"), but called for the immediate abolition of slavery with complete and full civil rights for African-Americans. He dreamed of a time when a black woman might succeed a black man as Secretary of State a decade before the Supreme Court ruled that blacks were something less than human in the infamous Dredd Scott decision. He was also an early advocate of women's rights, labor reform, temperance and civil disobedience, as well as an outspoken critic of organized religion (Garrison was what we might today call a fundamentalist "born again Christian" who recognized no formal church other than Christ's teachings).

Given Garrison's role as founding father of the abolitionist movement, his passion for the cause, longevity in leadership and terminal impact on the greatest political issue of the nineteenth century it is puzzling that he has left such an obscure historical legacy. As author Herbert Mayer notes, Martin Luther King Jr. cited Gandhi, Thoreau and the Gospel as his inspiration and motivation in the Civil Rights movement with no reference to the man whose peaceful agitation did more to eradicate bondage than any other -- and who in turn may very well have been Thoreau's inspiration in writing "Civil Disobedience."

So why the obscurity? Mayer's biography does little to address this paradox. In fact, his book makes Garrison's general absence from the mainstream of American history all the more tenebrous. The man that emerges from the pages of "All on Fire" is a moral giant, a crusader in the purest and best sense of the word, who risked -- indeed, welcomed -- verbal and physical abuse, a life of indigence and scorn, all in pursuit of a truly noble cause. Garrison grew up in New England and never traveled further south than Baltimore until after the Civil War, yet he dedicated his life to the abolition of slavery with an intensity and zeal that surpassed dissident southern whites (such as the Grimke sisters) and even some blacks that had escaped from bondage themselves. Because of his central role in establishing and leading the cause, "All on Fire" is, as the full title suggests, as much a history of the entire abolitionist movement as it is a biography of its leading agitator.

However, a close reading of "All on Fire" also reveals a hidden side of William Lloyd Garrison that Mayer, unfortunately, never fully explores: a man of extreme ambition, vanity, and conceit. Garrison fought tenaciously to keep himself at the front-and-center of the moral movement he came to regard as his own. One senses that the fame and notoriety he gained by his agitation came to mean quite a lot to him. In this sense, Garrison reminds one of a contemporary political gadfly increasingly enamored of his high-profile image: Michael Moore. Perhaps Garrison's attraction to celebrity never fully outweighed his commitment to the ultimate prize of freeing three million humans from bondage, but it certainly meant more than the pious Christian in him would have liked to admit -- and certainly more than biographer Mayer is willing to concede. Again and again throughout the narrative Garrison experiences a painful and personal falling out with some of his closest friends and coadjutors: Frederick Douglas, Wendell Phillips, the Tappan brothers, etc. And time after time Mayer attributes the rift to simple misunderstandings or the result of the stress and pressure of the times. That Garrison might have been something less than the Galahad on ante-bellum America is left unexplored.

Nevertheless, for anyone with a desire to know more about America and especially to learn about a man that was once one of the most controversial and well-known figures of his century, only to sink to near anonymity, this National Book Award finalist can be highly recommended.

Mr. Bennett has a gift for making history come alive. It is very interesting and enjoyable to read.

Hi I highly recommend reading these american history books to ANYONE! The books are well written naratives of the United States unique and special place in history. While not bashing America as the great satan they at the same time the remain accurate in pointing out this nations flaws, which for the most part seem to consistently get righted. Evil flourishes when good men do nothing. ENJOY!!!

This series of texts should be required reading for all American children of high school age.
The writing is first class and the entire presentation flows in a professional, polished way. An excellent read.

I just finished Volume 1 and am amazed at the history I was never taught in public school. It gives a balanced view of facts and tells stories in an engaging way and shows the good while not hiding the poor choices that we made as a nation becoming. The characters were presented as real people wise and not so wise. We do live in the greatest nation on earth and can learn much from the deeds and misdeeds of those who gave much that we can enjoy the liberties of today. May we never forget and always be. Thank you Mr. Bennett. Looking forward to beginning Volume II.

America the Last Best Hope is the best book of U.S. history that I have read. It is well worth re-reading. Great reference book. Should be a required reading. D PurdyAmerica: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War

I just re-read this book. I absolutely loved it and put it up there with the best wrestling books out there. You feel connected to Eddie just like you did when you saw him on tv or dvd or in person. His charisma showed through the ups and downs of this book.

I was left wondering what caused a lot of his demons though. He didn't fully explain the things that haunted him. Like his problems with his wife Vickie, he didn't really go into detail which left me wondering what she did wrong. Cheating? Their fights? Also I got the feeling there was more to his demons than he let on. It just left me curious. I'd like to see a book written by Vickie that might shed some light on things left unanswered in this book.

Eddie was honest. Brutally honest. He didn't back off from saying who he liked and disliked. He was very upfront about his drinking, drugs (though never mentioned steriods whether he used or didn't use them), and his problems. He never acted like a saint, but obviously wanted to be a good person. Thankfully he beat the addictions and enjoyed some time with his loved ones before he passed on tragically.

This book brought me to tears even in the second reading. It made me realize that life is a fragile thing and we got to respect and love people and show it while we can. Given Eddie's many brushes with death he was fortunate to be sober and drug-free for 4 years before his untimely death. Unfortunately, he paid the price for his past mistakes, but he got to patch things up with his wife and daughters, and reach new heights with his fans and ultimately becoming the World Champ!

Highest recommendation possible,(right up there with Mick Foley's Have A Nice Day!) buy this book and quit reading this review!

This is a book that my fours sons have all read recently, and they were all moved to tears. My 18yo has wanted to read this book for some time now, but we had trouble finding it for sale, as it sold out quickly.
I got this for him for Christmas. A book to keep. A great gift for any wrestling fan

from the begining to the end this book is so well written and told,its just awesome. No words can describe how GREAT this book is. Eddie lived a wild and rough life and you get to read alll about it in this tell all book. From his start to the end. There are some eerie things he writes about that kinda creep you out because the man has passed but none the less THE BEST BOOK WWE or any other WRESTLER have put out.
READ IT AND YOU WONT BE ABLE TO DROP THE BOOK.
From his wild drunken stories with the nasty boys to his tag team woith the great Art Barr and to his family life and struggles with his wife to THe end where he finds peace makes everything awesome in his life its truly an astonishing story.
After you read this book you will see Eddie in a whole diffrent lighht and appreciate the man that he was and still IS.

R.I.P my man.

Wrestling has always been a guilty pleasure for me. I grew up watching the likes of Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and the Bruiser with my dad. Now I watch with my son. There's nothing I enjoy more than watching grown men make complete fools of themselves. I like the pranksters best--guys like DegenerationX (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), John Cena and, of course, Eddie Guerrero. He brought a lot of laughter into our living room every week. But more than that, Eddie was--and is--an inspiration. He had a lot to overcome, and he did--and this tough guy wasn't afraid to proudly proclaim his faith in God and Jesus Christ. He gave credit where it was due, always. Viva la Raza, Eddie! You still live in Heaven--and through those of us who love and respect you!

Now that I got your attention... I just finished the book minutes ago, and it was very inspirational to say the least.

Now at first, I was hesitant getting his book, even after he passed away. I had the impression that the book will be mostly somber, due to his infamous demons, but I gave it a shot and bought it anyway, still expecting a better book from Edge. But after reading it, I can say that this is way better(not saying that Edge's book is not good, its still great). Yes, it is somber in some ways, but its also inspirational, fun, and got some very funny parts! Funnier than Edge's book I dare say.

His life is a good example of overcoming hardships in life, and even though his past still sucker punched him in the end, with this book along with his popularity as a wrestler, still won the day for him. What he wants is to set as an example, and though this isnt what all of us expected, in some strange ways, it did the job.

Aside from that, this book talks about his family, which even to someone like me who dislikes reading that side of an autobiography, finds it entertaining. From his tough dad; to his problems with his brothers; down to his beloved Vicky. Wrestling is all throughout this book, its his life from birth to the end. The book tells his time in Mexico, Japan, then to US with ECW, WCW, and finally WWE.

If there is a fault I can say about this book, its how it summarizes certain events first, then without warning goes back to the start of those events and tell it one by one, which in a way confused me a little... It made me think, "hey didnt he say he did it before? Why say this is the first time?... Oh"... Again, nothing serious.

I suggest you get this book now if youre a fan of wrestling, and know of Eddie(whether you like him or not)! Eddie, you should be proud, even if things didnt work out how you wanted it to be(how we want it to be), you still inspired and touched us all!

This is a very well written story about the early days of stock car racing. It's a great story of the rock 'um sock 'um early heroes that you have never heard of before. Even if you never heard of NASCAR, this story is full of great human stories!!

This was one of the best books about the sport of NASCAR I have read so far. Great historical notes, and a story that will leave you wanting more. I only wish this author had a sequel to this very well written and intriguing tale of the roots of NASCAR and the men who started it all. I highly recommend this to fans for NASCAR and even those that are curious about the sport.

This is one of the best books I have ever read on car culture and history. This book is well researched and written. If you love cars, history, or outlaws this book is for you. I promise you will not be able to put it down once you pick it up.

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans is a NASCAR fan. Autoracing is now the second most popular sport in the USA, and it's on track (no pun intended) to take the #1 spot from football. Unlike football, you don't have to be a genetic accident to play the game. One of racing's appealing traditions is that an ordinary person--man or woman--can be a race car driver. And there are no Michael Vicks scandals. These and other reasons are why it's not just a "guy thing" but has, in fact, a huge base of female fans.

NASCAR is only one of the autoracing organizations in the country. But to most Americans, NASCAR is autoracing.

While everybody knows about NASCAR, most people are not aware of the profound change it has made in racing or in the profound financial benefits it has for any community that has been awarded the privilege of hosting a NASCAR track.

My high school is less than a mile from a quarter-mile oval track (non-NASCAR) that has run stock cars and late model funny cars for over half a century. I grew up around race cars, and worked pit crews on that track and at a major drag strip half an hour away. I had my own highly-modified street racers. My hopped-up Camaro did the quarter mile in 14 seconds. But my Dodge Charger did it in 12. Its very modified transmission was set up to shift from first to second when its very modified 500HP V-8 engine hit 7200 RPM.

Back then, racing was kind of an oddity. It's dirty and expensive, and you put in a huge amount of money and long hours, just to race for a comparatively short time on the track (or street). There was a certain "outlaw" quality to it (especially the street racing) and that was part of the allure for some racers and spectators. Most people weren't all that interested.

No longer is autoracing an oddity. NASCAR has changed everything about racing and, in the process, made it not only mainstream but culturally iconic.

Today, I live only a few miles from the NASCAR track in Kansas City. That track is a crown jewel and major attraction in this area. During a NASCAR event, hotel space within 70 to 90 miles is sold out--and that "blackout" lasts about a week. As Thompson pointed out, people don't show up at a NASCAR event for just the race. They show up for typically a week-long adventure, with a carnival and other attractions. NASCAR itself rakes in nearly $5 billion a year from just the television contracts alone. Thompson provided other staggering figures as well, but I don't remember what they are.

Warren Buffet, known for wise investments, made sure a Cabela's Sporting Goods (one of his holdings) was built on the NASCAR complex in KC. People arrive in massive numbers, and shop there. They buy appliances and other goods at other onsite stores also, during the NASCAR event. That massive influx of shoppers gives a healthy boost to the sales tax revenue here.

In short:

NASCAR has become a major element of our culture.
NASCAR is a huge, huge business.
Cities beg to host a NASCAR track.
The appeal isn't racing itself.
So, how did NASCAR come into being and how did its races become such "must see" events? That's the story that Neal Thompson exhaustively researched and skillfully told.

The research
Thompson's backnotes (showing the source for each quote, fact, or assertion) are 19 pages long, in annoyingly tiny text. It would easily fill 30 pages if printed in a normal-sized font. This, to support a 300-page book.
Thompson listed 50 people he interviewed as "primary sources." All of these people were key to autoracing or insiders in some other way.
The bibliography spans four pages, again in tiny text. It looks like he consulted about about 80 books.
There's a list of about 30 articles consulted for this book.
Thompson also decided to get information from films--11 of them.
Finally, he gleaned information from 14 Websites.
It would be hard to make a viable claim that this book is anything but authoritative. And that's a good thing, because Thompson's story and the official NASCAR line differ.

The start
NASCAR wants to present its events as family fare, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, this approach is one reason Bill France--the major force behind NASCAR for decades--was able to change the world of stock car racing so dramatically. But what NASCAR doesn't want people to think about is the fact that its roots go way back to the era of Prohibition. That was like today's era of Prohibition, with a few key differences.

The original Prohibition was against one particular class of drug, alcohol. Congress, at that time, did not have the hubris to enact drug bans without Constitutional authority. So, they passed the 18th Amendment in 1919 to ban the manufacture and sale of alcohol. This, of course, had the same ill effects as today's unconstitutional bans on other drugs--outsized profits for the drug dealers, violent crime, no safety standards in manufacture or distribution, pointless diversion of limited law enforcement resources, prison overcrowding (the USA has the highest prison population per capita in the world), and a huge loss in tax revenue.

In short, that law was so stupid and deleterious that Congress repealed it by enacting the 21st Amendment in 1933. They can't do that with today's other drug bans, because those aren't Constitutional to begin with.

During this period of stupidity, a cottage industry arose--mostly in the South, where people made their own booze from corn. They were called moonshiners. Because their liquor was illegal, they needed to outrun the police when making deliveries and when conducting other business related to moonshine. The drivers of those cars became the drivers in the early days of racing. Bill France, the cofounder of NASCAR who strong-armed everyone else into giving him complete control of NASCAR, was one of those early racers.

And it's here, with the moonshine runs, that Thompson begins the real story of NASCAR. We ride along with the crafty drivers in their modified Ford Model As, then Ford Model Ts, then Ford V-8s (that was the model name: simply V-8) during Prohibition. We see how things got even more intense after Prohibition (which simply served to let the genie out of the bottle, so to speak). Then came World War II, and we follow some racers through that time--during which autoracing was suspended to support the war effort.

After WWII, auto production changed. Ford didn't keep up with the times, and a flood of more advanced automobiles, made by other companies, began to show up on the racetracks. Dodge (Chrysler) dominated much of racing throughout the 1960s (Richard Petty drove Dodges), with stiff competition from Chevrolet.

Information not mentioned in the book
Ford had never optimized its cylinder heads for airflow. The ports were large, but weren't shaped properly to keep fuel suspended at high flow rates (the air was too "choppy.). The leader in cylinder heads, for quite some time, was Chrysler. In later years, master mechanics could rework Chevy and Dodge heads to precisely match characteristics all the way through the intake system--so it really didn't make any difference as long as you ran Chevy or Dodge. But in the drivetrain it made a big difference.

Chevys blew out rear ends and transmissions, but the Dodges were overengineered except for having lousy suspensions and chintzy interiors. On many tracks, you saw Chevys with Ford rear ends--and the Dodges often used Dodge truck rear ends for the same high durability.

Chrysler excelled in raw power. The first year Chrysler released the Dodger Charger with a 440 engine, it sponsored four 440-equipped cars in a race (I don't recall if that was NASCAR). Those cars took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places. The answer to that was to change the rules so that a 440 would be too big to be legal. In street races, 440s would leave the vaunted Hemi cars eating their dust--because you could quickly raise the horsepower with aftermarket parts (not so with the Hemi). Interestingly, the fastest completely stock car in the quarter mile was a '72 Chevy Chevelle with a 396 engine and a gear ratio biased for the quarter mile.

Back to the book
Auto production wasn't the only change. Bill France changed the management and promotion of racing, allowing NASCAR to arise above all competitors to become the face of "stock car" racing to most of America. The myth surrounding the rise of NASCAR is intriguing, partly because it portrays Bill France in a "larger than life way." But the myth isn't nearly as interesting as the real story.

And, coincidentally, Bill France actually was "larger than life." He was 6 feet, 5 inches tall, had a booming voice, and had a way about him that made folks leery of crossing him. He was audacious, capricious, and self-serving. Those who had dealings with him called him a dictator. Red Vogt, the legendary master mechanic who was the lifelong friend of France, didn't like the way France took things over. But he was quoted in the book as saying nobody else could do it and it needed to be done. I don't recall the exact quote, but it's in there.

So, NASCAR got its start thanks to incredibly bad public policy. Amazing mechanics gave cars abilities to do things their designers never dreamed of, and drivers who learned their craft to outrun police were able to draw those abilities out to put on impressive races.

That was the start of racing, and Driving with the Devil shows us the various people and situations that brought it to where it is today. Which is why we're all familiar with the announcement that starts each race, "Gentlemen. Start...your...engines!"

This book was so engrossing, I crossed its finish line much faster than I had anticipated. If you don't rev up your reading with it, I think you're missing out.

I have never been a NASCAR fan, but this book is one of the best books I have ever read. Neal Thompson's profiles of the characters in his book gives me insight into my own family's history, most of whom lived in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee in the late 1800's. Thompson's book clearly highlights the "just want to be left alone" attitude of the people in that region.

The binding on my paperback copy also fell apart half-way through the book. While I found some of the writing less than crisp and the organization sometimes left me confused as to sequences of events, overall it's a wonderfully detailed history of how a great house came to be. I wish I had read it before I visited Fallingwater; it would have greatly increased my enjoyment of the house.

I have now read FALLINGWATER RISING twice, and I think it is one of the most well-written, readable, and engrossing books about any subject. What I like most about it is that even though Fallingwater is an inanimate object, we feel that it is a living thing; this is our emotional response to it. This book makes it clear that people made the building happen. People with all of their strengths, foibles, desires and aspirations. Each of these people come to life on the page, and Toker's delightful spirit of inquiry illuminates the writing and makes it sing.

Every "thing" you could ever want to know about Fallingwater is contained in this book -- and then some. It is an enjoyable, insightful book about an extraordinary house. The writing is convincing, intelligent and clear, covering a wide range of complex and contentious topics without ever seeming either simplistic or academic. For my tastes there was too much detail on some peripheral subjects -- such as Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead and the PR campaigns relating to Fallingwater. I didn't really need to be given lists of all the doo dads and art objects that were put on various walls and shelves at one time or another, but some of these matters are easily skimmed over. Despite its encyclopedic scope and thorough research and analysis, the book ironically fails to really get at the essence of the creative process that resulted in Fallingwater -- especially the contributions of EJ Kaufmann. How is it that EJ Kaufmann built Fallingwater and the Palm Springs Nuetra house -- two of the most extraordinary houses of the 20th century? In the end the essential mystery of Fallingwater remains.

I must say that as an architect who has been practicing for over 25 years, I have not read any book quite like this before that reaches so deeply into the creation of a master work such as Fallingwater. I have always "appreciated" FLW work but only recently have more fully understood what he has accomplished and created in built architectural works that to me borders on magical and genius at the same time. The glossy pictures alone only begins to reflect him as the gifted craftsman he represented. Living in Chicago I get to enjoy much of his work all the time. I'm still enjoying the book and must say your work here is amazing and a fitting tribute to an increbible individual and architect. Thanks for the experience. Jack Svaicer

I would give this four stars based on its intellectual content. The reason I only gave it two stars is because the trade paperback, which lists for $25.00, fell apart in my hands before I was halfway through the book. The entire first half popped out of the binding. By the time I finished the text of the second half, it too was on its way to popping out. This is unacceptable.

The book is quite good, telling us more than I at least ever thought to ask about America's most famous private house of the twentieth century. There is a good chapter on Wright, especially the fallow years leading up to this commission; there is also a very interesting chapter on Edgar Kaufmann who commissioned the house; and an interesting chapter on his son who later claimed a much larger role in its creation than Toker thinks correct. The travails of building the house and the work necessary to correct its serious defects years later are all covered. Also covered is the publicity mechanism that made the house famous. I would recommend this to anybody, not just to Wright's fans. And, if you have not been there, make plans to visit Fallingwater; the trip is worth it.

According to perpetual social and political critic James Bovard, the power inherent in government is alive and well; unfortunately, as he reminds us, they are not always necessarily accomplishing the people's will. Thus we find ourselves in circumstances in which governments are both larger and more powerful than ever before, while the individual citizen's ability to control and influence the course of his or her own life and liberty is becoming more and more problematic. In this stirring expose, the author explores how the federal government increasingly poses a threat to destroy individual rights and liberties in an attempt to preserve the fiction of government as superceding the citizen. Bovard wonders along with us how this state of affairs has managed to occur, and takes a thoughtful and impressive tour of the history of government control over individual liberties in an attempt to better understand it, and the future it presents for our cogitation.

Long before it was either fashionable or popular, conservative author Bovard was railing against the accumulating power and privilege of the crony-based capitalists who now seem to control the country. Here he draws blood from a dissection of the notion of state sovereignty, which he contends amounts to nothing so much as a glossy justification for the power elite's lust for ever-increasing power and privilege. Especially egregious in the author's view is the way the doctrine is being used to justify the behavior of others, to limit their rights to protect themselves, or to keep the fruit of their own labor. Indeed, all of this is food for thought. Moreover, Bovard is an interesting and quite eclectic scholar, someone who accomplishes both meticulous research and establishes the substantiation for his claims as he proceeds, and does so quite convincingly. He also seems to be profoundly well read, based on his wide use of quotations from such luminaries as Marx, Hegel, Rousseau, and Thomas Hobbes.

Thus, he manages to raise some thought provoking issues regarding our seeming need to regulate many aspects of private behavior (such as the use of pot) that we can neither effective enforce nor usefully demonstrate to be evil for the individual. Bovard argues quite convincingly regarding the potential dangers of allowing others to regulate our Constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties according to their own moral prerogatives. Bovard reserves special scorn for the so-called "Peter Pan" theory of government as the benevolent and paternalistic defender of the commonweal, and actively guides the reader through a critical review of the two hundred year history on the subject, a history he finds rife with examples through which government has repeatedly used its power to thwart rather than support the will and civil liberties of the majority. This is a splendidly researched book that reads well and which has some disturbing thoughts regarding the state of our polity. It is also one I highly recommend. Enjoy!

James Bovard is a bestselling libertarian author and lecturer, whose political commentary targets examples of governmental waste, failures, and abuses of power.
His Books:
The Fair Trade Fraud (1992)
Lost Rights (1995)
Shakedown (1996)
FREEDOM IN CHAINS: THE RISE OF THE STATE AND THE DEMISE OF THE CITIZEN (2000) Just finished this book and it is filled with examples of the "Statist" (politicians and bureaucrats) extorting money to facilitate their appetite for power and thus controlling as many aspects of life in these "United States"(separation into red and blue states does not make much difference). The research is excellent and the sources of "wisdom" are unrivaled. The EEOC and EPA appear to be the most outrageous of bureaus but closely followed by HUD and others; however, the Supreme Court clearly wins the "stuck on stupid" award between the three branches and the Senate is a clear choice in the Congress. Much of what Mr. Bovard relates is probably well known by the average political savvy reader, but his ability to back up his message with research, i.e. facts and sagacious quotes makes for an excellent read. Still, as one other reader stated, "What exactly can be done with the current apathy and addiction to the Welfare State by so many voters?".
Feeling Your Pain (2001)
Terrorism and Tyranny (2003)
The Bush Betrayal (2004)
Quotes:
"Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner." (1994). This is my favorite and another version could be a jackass (Dems) and an elephant (Republicans) fighting over "hay" (tax receipts) that does not belong to them. They then give some back to the "original owners" (taxpayers) after eating their "fill" (outrageous retirements, perks, etc.) and providing some to their "herd" (special interests). THIS ITEM WAS EDITED--From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia--LOG ON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy

"Your government knows your mind, and you know your government's mind." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." -George W. Bush (sometimes it is more honest to deviate from the script and speak from the gut!)

One would hope that a political tome written 7 years ago would become outdated; that politics might have changed since then. Sadly, James Bovard's "Freedom in Chains," is more relevant now than it was then. Despite a republican president (and congress) which, at one point, professed a "small government" platform, the size of the government has grown to unprecedented heights.

Bovard's "Freedom in Chains" not only documents the incursion of government into the people's liberty, but tries to dissect how this began. Not suprisingly, his first chapter points largely (but not exclusively) to FDR. With a careful eye, Bovard analyzes FDR's shifty rhetoric, which was able to effectively redefine the word "freedom": a word that used to mean "absence of coercion by the state," was now morphed to mean "safety provided by the state." Where we used to talk of freedom to buy and sell as one pleased, now we heard talk of freedom to buy and sell at "fair" prices as dictated by government. FDR (and others) were soon able to tell the citizenry with a straight face that freedom meant the ability of the government to take care of them via legislation.

From there, Bovard spends chapter after chapter highlighting examples of this paternalism run amok. "Cagekeepers and Caretakers" highlights how politicians use the idea that they were democratically elected to justify incursions into liberty under the guise that "that's what the people wanted." (And witness in 2004 the argument from the GW Bush camp that the president has a "mandate" from the people!)

In what might be the best chapter, "The Moral Glorification of Leviathan," Bovard documents how government has claimed for itself such things as: the right to tell farmers how much of what they can sell and at what price, the right to tell landlords that they may not discriminate by refusing to rent to drug addicts addicts (or any other group the government happens to like), and the right to tell companies what numbers of which "groups" they can hire. (A particularly great example was the government's failed attempt to mandate that Hooters employ as many male waiters as female waitresses!)

From here, we read documented accounts of government officials exempting themselves from laws the public is expected to obey (e.g. while it is illegal to lie to the police, the police may lie to obtain a confession!), etc. I confess that at this point, the book does become a bit monotanous. While an advantage to Bovard's "laundrey list" approach is its thoroughness in documenting claims, a disadvantage is that after so many examples, each one begins to lose its bite. (I must admit that after a while, I began to skim rather than read, as so many paragraphs began looking like ones I'd read before.)

Another small criticism is that I do not think that supporters of government's growth will be convinced by this book. In other words, this is not a book that argues forcefully that government growth is a bad thing in itself; rather, it documents the growth of government and assumes that the readers' symapthies will be against such trends. (For books actually arguing against statism, read Freidrich Hayek, Richard Epstein, or anything coming out of the CATO institute).

For all this, I must still give this book four stars. Bovard does an admirable job documenting abuses of government power and attempting to alarm an appallingly unalarmed public that a government unchallenged translates to a people unfree.

If you still labor under the delusion that the United States Government is here for your benefit, read this book. Mr. Bovard puts paid to that myth. Americans are now subject to such an unrealistic array of laws and statutes that every one of us is ripe for picking by some bureucrat looking to "get his numbers up". America has truly gone from a government "for the people" to one "against the people". Our constitutional protections are not worth the paper they are written on. If you manage to go through life without running afoul of some government functionary, you are indeed a luck individual. Read this book

I read this book when it was first published and as I was reading was half the time wanting to throw the book across the room. It was the frustration making me do that.

I re-read this book again and after 3 1/2 years of Bush I found Bovard to be very prophetic. What he said is even more true today than when he wrote it.

If you are concerned for that state of this country, don't just read this book, but think about and act on it.

Bovard is the anti- Micheal Moore.

Read this for a view of whats really happening.

Oh yes, DON'T throw the book.

If you are a fan of figure skating, this book is a definate must read. It opened my eyes to things about skating and competition that I did not know as a former figure skater. It is a wonderful tribute to the skaters of the 1961 U.S. Team.

In 1961, the greatest tragedy in U.S. figure skating history - and possibly world figure skating history - took place when a Sabena-Belgian Airlines Boeing 707 developed problems trying to land at Brussels airport. The plane nosedived into a farmer's field, killing everyone aboard. Among those on board were 18 members of the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating team, who were heading to the World Championships in Prague. This is the story of those skaters.
This book focuses largely on Laurence & Maribel Vinson Owen, as well as Stephanie Westerfield, who were the most well-known members, but also mentions skaters such as Laurie Jean Hickox and Doug Ramsay. It talks in-depth about the training & competitions they went through to become U.S. Figure Skating team members, as well as the terrible accident itself & how it affected U.S. Figure Skating at large - especially the rush to produce new skaters to replace those so tragically lost.
Journalist (and adult competitive figure skater) Nikki Nichols has done an excellent job in telling the very real stories of these people who were the Americans' best hopes for 1964, and never got to perform. Most of today's figure skaters have never heard the sad story of the 1961 US team, and this book is an excellent telling of their story. Highly recommended.

.......the Vinson-Owen legacy in its fifth generation.......?

This is the story of the 1961 American figure skating team whose plane crashed, outside Brussels, en route to the world championships in Prague, killing all aboard and changing the face of American figure skating forever. Previous reviewers criticize the author for relying so heavily on speculation, but for an event that happened nearly five decades ago and many of the people who could tell the story are deceased as well, I think she did an excellent job.

To me, the biggest scandal in the book was not the Laurence Owen/Stephanie Westerfeld rivalry, but rather the dissolution of Stephanie's family shortly before the crash. Her parents have both been dead for over 20 years and therefore cannot tell their stories, but to have a child who was a champion figure skater AND a budding concert pianist.....are there enough hours in the day?

Maribel Vinson-Owen didn't seem to be the most likable person (a vast understatement) but she blazed trails without realizing it. A Radcliffe graduate, the first woman sportswriter at the New York Times, AND she nearly destroyed her coaching career by allowing a black skater to practice at her rink? That took some guts. This skater, Mabel Ferguson, continues to promote skating to the black community.

This book is a quick read, and I ordered it at the library the day before seeing "We Are Marshall", about a plane crash that also killed 75 people. The Sabena crash officially had 73 casualties, but one of the passengers was pregnant and a farmer was killed on the ground by falling debris. It doesn't look like things have changed much regarding the treatment of crash survivors' families, but that's another book altogether.

Most of the 1961 performances can be viewed on You Tube.

I have known about the accident that clamed the us skating team lives and have written about it in class writing projects. I have to this the best and only book on this sad footnote in skating history that I feel has been been buried by the figure skating community for years I only wish this book came out earler. I highly recommend this book as a start in any research in this sad day in us figure history I only wish more would come out on this subject

I truly enjoyed this book. One of my best childhood friends died in the 1961 plane crash, her name was Laurence Owen. This book brought back many memories of a wonderful young girl taken far to soon. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Figure Skating. It gives insight to many of the wonderful people who died on that February day.