Biographies Books

I picked this book up while visiting my daughter in Alaska. As an educator from a very small midwestern district, I could relate in so many ways to the sutle communication styles and cultural secrets of these students. Many of us teach on "islands" where financial and social poverty play a huge role in our day to day contact with students. I could not put this book down. In so many ways I saw many of my own students in the characters, and quite unfortunately, saw some of my teaching peers in the negativity of certain Gambell staff members. I will share this title with my collegues and intend to reread it myself. It is a wonderful and inspiring novel for all teachers in remote areas.

You can almost hear the "Rocky" theme as you read the final pages as these Yuupik kids do the impossible!

Although these kids are from a remote sub-arctic island most will never travel to, anyone who has worked with youth as a teacher or other group leader will, or should, recognize them. Turned-off kids, trapped in an alien (to them) school system, who need someone who believes in them--we can find them anywhere. Suffering teachers trying to find themselves while unwilling to give up on impossible assignments--we probably know a few of them too. In my case, I have visited that community several times and even know some of the families involved. This is an authentic telling; the kids' victories, with Guthridge's unique facilitation, actually happened.
As a former high school teacher myself, I couldn't put the story down. Guthridge's remarkable honesty about the task he took on, his sometimes desperate struggle, his empathy, sometimes remorse, for the situation he had put his own children in, and how he painfully learned day-by-day along with the students made it for me. His tragi-comic relations with the other faculty are priceless. Although I have never felt quite that alone, I, like him, have gotten ill over teaching at times, and laughed myself sick over it too. The book made me wish I could go back and give teaching another run. George is a master story teller as well as a master teacher.

This book was well worth it's read. It is realistic to Alaska, heartfelt, inspiring and humbling for all of us who believe in kids and want to make a difference in their lives. The stories are great in their depth of emotion and in bizarreness, and for those who know Alaska Education, you know that they can be true.

As for the author, I met George out in Dillingham, AK while he hosted me at his B&B, the Thai House. We had some great discussions about language development, reading, writing and all the perils of teaching and/or being an itinerant in Alaska. As a person, he reminded me that countless people have felt the same stresses in education even though time and place separate our experiences. He inspired me to read his book as he spoke of his journey through the education system. From the moment I picked this book up, I wanted to read more and more just because it was real to me, and in very simple language.

In the 1980s an amazing thing happened. Siberian Yupik kids, who lived on a remote island in the Bering Sea and who spoke English as a second language, won national academic competitions. Their teacher was a writer who took the teaching job in order to support his young family and writing, but the experience turned him into a dedicated teacher as well as award-winning author. The Kids from Nowhere is his story of teaching junior high and high school students in Gambell, Alaska.

George Guthridge went to Gambell to teach in 1982. His students were Siberian Yupiks, who called themselves Eskimos, who got their water from the village's tank, and who missed school to participate in the subsistence activities of their families and community. Located on the northwest corner of St. Lawrence Island, Gambell has a view of nearby Russia on the rare clear day. When he arrived, the Gambell schools had discipline as well as academic problems, and teacher turnover was very high. The school district was considering closing the high school.

Coming from the "outside"--outside of Alaska, Guthridge had much to learn. He learned about Eskimo culture, teaching methods, public school politics, and academic success. His story is also the story of the kids he coached. These kids had the typical Eskimo shyness. Guthridge learned to read the raised eye brow that meant yes, and the lowered brow that meant no. He learned to listen to the silence exchanges among the students--and the discussions in Yupik.

Guthridge was assigned to coach Future Problem Solving at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels. Initially, he did not know what Future Problem Solving was. It is a method of solving a problem set in the future, and a program to teach youth problem-solving skills. Given an assigned topic, the students were to identify at least 20 problems that could go wrong, chose one of the problems, solve it at least 20 ways, develop criteria for evaluating the solutions and then evaluate their solutions, identify the best solution, and write an essay about the solution. In competition, all this had to be done in two hours.

Guthridge's challenge was to teach assigned Future Problem Solving topics like nuclear waste and genetic engineering to students who had seen neither a tree nor an escalator. At times teaching was frustrating, very frustrating. Gradually, Guthridge began to apply the tools of writing to teaching. He developed the "what because why" format to focus on the relationships inherent in any topic. He kept repeating to the students, "Original thinking is precise thinking," and he placed emphasis on research. He ignored grade-level complexity, and he borrowed techniques from Superlearning and educational philosophers. He also had to teach competitive strategies to kids in a cooperative culture.

He also remembered that he was coaching and teaching kids for life. He sent a smelly sock home with any student who insulted another student. The kids were to participate as a team and support each other. In the end, both the junior high and high school teams won national championships.

Guthridge tells his story with grace, modesty, cultural sensitivity, and skill. He stayed in Gambell for six years. He now teaches through the University of Alaska's campus in Dillingham, Alaska, and he continues to write short stories and novels. With full respect for cultural differences, Guthridge reminds us that kids can learn--even "the kids from nowhere."

...in preparation for my long overdue personal visit to Ireland a number of books including `Last of the Donkey Pilgrims' by Kevin O'Hara (www.kevin-ohara.com) were purchased online through Amazon.com for shipment to the parched distant locale of Doha...another Qatar `Transient', he being a native of Ireland, last 31 August had kindly written an Itinerary of Travel setting off westward from Dublin to Galway, proposing then a sweep about the coastal extremes of Eire on a circuitous route in return to Dublin a fortnight later...

New Zealand born with Great Grandfather Irish ancestry (Co. Tyrone), some years since I had the privilege of living on a long established property in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, created by it's owner `in the manner of England', and on which co-resided an elderly Donkey of much spirited antic, mannerism and personality - an endearing memory remains of that acquaintance in those bygone days, and influenced the choice that the Donkey odyssey would be my final read...my reward was to discover an absorbing chronicle of Kevin's 1979 1800 mile trek around the peripheral coast of Ireland, walking alongside his donkey Missie `Long-Ears' Mickdermott yoked to her cart, and written in 2004, 25 years after the doing...

...an inspired achievement to be applauded, and for me a delight to share the journey by way of an intimately personable published recall of such a grand meander through a land and people of a then traditional lifestyle which soon would substantially fade away into history...Ireland 2008 surpassed my any and every expectation - time and change may have advanced apace since the Nation in attaining EU membership emerged from being a `third world' Country, bringing financial advantage in some quarters and also significantly transforming the landscape and makeup of the populace, but the welcome and essence of the Irish people as acutely portrayed by the innumerable encounters and acquaintances along Kevin O'Hara's wandering way, we found to be very much the same...

...the book and infectious spirit of Missie accompanied us throughout as by car we drove, blessed I must add with only fine weather, our brief excursion along some of the highways and byways that shared partial commonality with the much earlier passage the Donkeyman and his travelling companion together had traipsed many years prior...there were particular moments which brought upon me a quiet smile with vivid memory of what I had read; hearing the call of the Cuckoo at Inishmore and Doolin - boarding the Killimer to Tarbert ferry, then later that same day driving through Abhainn an Ghleanna (running at but a shallow flow) on the road to Slea Head, Missie's obstinant reluctance to go on in chancing upon those two same `obstacles' came to mind...we sought out and had the pleasure of meeting Robert Shannon, mentioned in the book who happily recounted the long ago arrival of Missie in lovely Doolin - affection for Kevin and his roving partner lingers...

...having partaken of the ready welcome, spirit, beauty and abundant joys of Ireland, a return is inevitable - likely to be sooner rather than later I would venture...similarly I am driven to pick up and once more read `Last of the Donkey Pilgrims' - my immense pleasure and appreciation of the Tale at first take will assuredly be all the greater at a second reading, enhanced further by familiarity and insight gained from our recent visit...

Lindsay McLean
Doha, State of Qatar
16 June, 2008

I bought this book on my way out the door on a trip to Ireland, as a friend had recommended it. I read it on the airplane and during quiet moments, and finished it on the way home.
Not only is this book entertaining and well-written, I was amazed by how much I learned about Irish culture and history as I was reading.
It is especially recommended to those traveling to Ireland, but has wide appeal for its insight into human nature, and warm humor.

I enjoy reading about Ireland, and thought this book would be like Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. The donkey book was much more serious. I liked reading about the different people he encountered, but at times, felt that it was a glossary of names of potential buyers. I did enjoy his time with the travelers. He exemplified the attitudes of the 70's, and I think the book would have been more effective if he had written it 25 years ago. Still, it was a good story.

This is a fun story of a Yank's trip around Ireland with a donkey cart. His trip fulfills his longing to know the land of his forebears, and he wonderfully captures the language and attitudes of the people just before modernity finally arrived full force. Highly recommended!

Kevin's writing draws you into his journey - a remarkable romp around Ireland with a donkey that seems human. I loved it. You could nearly smell the air and see the characters. A magical look at an island that has changed so much in the 25 years since his journey took place. I wanted to be there by his side as he runs into character after character. His book is the next best thing to being there.

I didn't want his journey to end. Alas, time moves on and progress can't be stopped. If only there could be a sequel.

Anyway, it is written in very short, easy to read chapters. Perfect nighttime reading. If you like adventures, humor, self reflection, and interesting characters - read this book. If you have ever been to Ireland and fallen in love with it, this book is a must read. If you live in Ireland now and want a look back at the country as it existed 25 years ago, this book is required reading.

Anne Boleyn continues to fascinate. A woman of wit, intelligence and a feminist in her time. She won a king's heart but incurred his wrath. A life cut short, a child deprived of her mother. A true tale of intrigue, corruption and manipulation. A cast of interesting characters vieing for power, wealth and fame.

I became fascinated with Anne Boleyn after watching The Tudors and The Other Boleyn Girl. I really wanted to find out the factual truth about her. I thought this book was fairly easy to read and the author seemed very interested in writing as close to the factual truth as possible.

I definitely am interested in reading more about this period.

i loved this book, very accurate and insightful, great read for all anne boleyn fans.

This is a must-read for any Anne Boleyn fan, who wants to learn more about her life. This book lists many intricate details about Anne's life at court, which I found fascinating!

Anne Boleyn was undoubtedly one history's most fascinating woman. She was not conventionally beautiful, she had a sharp-tongued, acidic personality, and she engendered both obsessive love and implacable hatred in the people around her. She also was caught in the middle of a bitter, bloody war between the traditional Catholics and the Reform Protestants. As a result, trying to know the "real" Anne Boleyn is a hard task indeed, as contemporary accounts are extremely biased. In the end, we don't even really know which drawings or portraits are accurate.
But Eric Ives has taken up this enormously difficult task of finding the woman behind the legend, and his book will probably be the standard for years to come. He has carefully considered all his sources, including the ones that are obviously extremely biased, and weighed what is probably true and what is not. He has started from scratch, using only contemporary (meaning, Tudor era) sources, and spends an entire chapter weighing which sources can be trusted, and which cannot. For instance, Eustace Chapuys's accounts are heavily biased towards Katherine of Aragon, but they also give a great timeline of the divorce proceedings. He spends anther chapter devoted to which portraits or images of Anne is likely to be the most accurate. His conclusion: a ring that Anne's daughter Elizabeth wore that had a cameo of herself and her mother. Little details like that make the book more human, for while Henry tried the best he could to erase Anne from history, it is clear that Elizabeth never forgot her mother. Ives also uses the poetry of Thomas Wyatt, an early admirer of Anne who seems to have always carried a torch for her, to great effect.
Ives' tone is that of a detached scholar, and while he is obviously fascinated by Anne, and eager to dispel the more vicious myths about her, this is no hagiography. He reports the ugly side of Anne's personality -- her imperiousness, her tendency to kick people while they were down. Of Katherine of Aragon, Anne once coldly remarked that she "wished all Spaniards were at the bottom of the sea." Yet the overall picture of Anne is that of a remarkable woman. Intelligent, independent, radical in her belief of the Protestant Reform movement, a mover and shaker.
That such an intelligent woman could fall so fast in fortune speaks volumes both of the cruelty of Henry VIII, the machinations of Thomas Cromwell (the book's villain), and the status of women in Anne's time. Henry loved Anne because she was outspoken, witty, elusive, and cultured (she spent her adolescence in the French royal court). But once they were married, she was expected to start bearing sons, and to tolerate infidelity. She was also expected to keep her nose out of political and religious affairs. She could not do any of the above. Her fall (three weeks from arrest to execution) is documented with astonishing detail.
Warning: although Ives' book is extremely well-written, it is not an "easy" read. It is extremely scholarly in tone, and if you want a more general overview of Henry VIII's wives, then Alison Weir, Antonia Fraser, and David Starkey have all written excellent books on the subject. The middle section, which goes into rather arcane detail about Anne's interest in arts, culture, court life, interior decorating and religious reform is on the dry side.
My other criticism of Ives is that in his eagerness to paint a picture of a larger conspiracy to dethrone Anne by Thomas Cromwell, the religious conservatives, and the ever-ambitious Seymour clan, he almost lets Henry VIII off the hook. In the end, one person could have stopped Anne the "beloved wife" from such a cruel fate and that was her husband. But despite these flaws, Ives' level of research goes above and beyond the call of duty. Anne finally had her fair day in court, and no doubt she would have been very proud.

Kat's book broke my previous record. I read this book in 1 day. I am a pet store manager in Simi Valley. I post missing pet flyers every day in the window at my store. These pet owners agonize over the disappearance of their beloved pets. I wish this book was around for me to read 10 years ago. I am now telling everybody to read her book whether they have lost a pet or not. I can't wait for her next book. The inside scoop is it will be more of a guide how to find your lost pets. But nothing beats the real thing and that is Kat Albrecht "Pet Detective" Email her at Missing Pet Partnership.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. Kathy Albrecht stories were nice to read-I read it front to back in 3 days, however i originally ordered this book to help in finding my lost cat and expected it to be a large reference on ideas on how to find a lost cat. But that wasnt the case there is only 5 pages out of the whole book on this topic. The rest is kathy's adventures in police work, canines, the loss of her pets and how she become a lost pet detective. She does speak of her searches for a few lost pets.

If you want a good read this is a good book. But if you are looking for a lost pet better to go to her website and read the information there.

I was at the library searching for something to read, and the beautiful dog on the cover caught my eye. I had no idea that this book would help me deal with the loss of my cat Ruffles, who had been my companion and friend for 14 years. This book speaks to all pet lovers. A great read.

Jeri
Ashburn, VA

The Lost Chronicles by Kat Albrecht is a great book for dog lovers or people that love mysteries. I absolutely love this book! I don't really like to read but I have eleven dogs and this book is definetly my type of book. I especially like how Kat did a wonderful job writing this book using imagery; it makes the book seem as if I was there watching it. It has so many great stories about her dogs, life, adventures, and mysteries. One of the things I like alot about this book is the pictures of her and her dogs. After seeing the pictures, You can picture all the things she's talking about so easily. Another great quality about this book is the supsense and different emotions. While she is telling a story the details she uses makes you have to know whats going happen: you'll find that this isn't a book you can put down. She describes her emotions and dog's emotions very well.This non-fictin book is great for all ages and you'll never have to worry about getting bored while reading. I reccomend this book to anyone especially if your a animal or mystery fan.

Everyone who owns a pet owes it to themselves to read this book! Kat's knowledge and experience with tracking dogs is extraordinary, and the valuable information she provides in this book could very well mean the difference in finding your lost pet, or losing it forever.
Kat shares the ups and downs of her interesting life journey, sometimes joyful, sometimes sad, with a charm, dignity, wit, and grace rarely seen.

I thouroughly enjoyed this book, learned much from it, and do not hesitate to recommend it highly!

This book is subtitled "An Extravagant Life," and is available in hardcover. Laurence Bergreen also wrote "Louis Armstrong: An Extrodinary Life" Unfortunately I got the impression that Mr. Bergreen became a little disillusioned with his subject. He glosses over Armstrong's flaws. For instance, Bergreen seems to accept Louis' infidelities were the result of bad advice about women he received in his adolescence! His relationship and treatment of his mentor Joe Oliver is also rather quickly dismissed. I wish more time was spent on these parts of Armstrong's life. I can't fault the research and musical analysis, though.

This was one of the best biographies I have ever read. By far the best one of the life of Louis Armstrong. It took me only 2 days to read this book, I could hardly put it down. Not being much of a fan of Dixieland, New Orleans Jazz, etc...after reading this book I was hooked. I wanted to listen to every Louis recording available. Bergreen paints Armstrong as such an amazing character which he completely was. Even if you aren't a jazz fan this is just a great book about a great man.

You get not only a bio of a great musician & person, you get a detailed description how Blacks lived New Orleans through the turn of the century. From it you get a better understanding of how the pre-recording (and therefore unrecorded) sounds of untutored musicians became the roots of the New Orleans musical genre and how the odds were stacked against Louis. You come to understand his workaholism and his deference to his eventual agent, who probably exploited him.

As the book progresses, the historical descriptions are not as detailed but you feel the music and the person developing. Ironically, the two best known pieces "Hello Dolly" & "It's a Wonderful World", were late stage, not representative, but somehow routine work for the prolific Louis.

It's hard to imagine from the impoverished roots, the raw deals and the omnipresent daily racism (even to his death in 1971 segregation both de facto and Jim Crow continued), how Louis kept his optimism and exhuberance. It was not self deceptive, when the chips were down, he supported the Brown v Board of Ed decision, not just in his heart, but words and actions.

He was an unfaithful lover and husband. We don't know if he ever promised otherwise... all his wives but the first (who was common law married) knew he was a married man when they started "dating" him. The world owes Mrs. Armstong the 2nd (Lil) a debt. She gave him confidence and a platform to be the star he became.

In the Acknowledgments the author says this is the first bio he's written where his admiration for his subject grows.

Louis Armstrong blazed a trail. He was a tough cat, much tougher than all the supposedly macho dudes who posture now. He doesn't have to posture because he's dealt with the mob and prostitutes who slash with the knifes in their shoes, and somehow reminds us, that despite all this, it's a wonderful world.

This book was amazingly well written! It wonderfuly portrays the life of a very talented and amzing man. Please, for your own sake, read this book!

I believe I've read them all and nothing ever written about Louis Armstrong is as detailed as this book. Moreso than the "tired old stories" you see repeated in version after version of other tales of Armstrong, this one actually delves into the personal life as well as the persona of the man. Every Armstong fan needs to read this book - it's an awakening!

This book is beautifully photographed and well written. It is a perfect example of how new homes can be constructed to have the timeless appeal of historical properties by using old and new materials and thoughtful intrepetation of historical designs. Mr. Town's homes are the kind that can be handed down from generation to generation due to their quailty and beauty. Mr. Town's residential projects should be an inspiration to those considering building a new home in any price range. It is the design that counts.

Being born and raised in SE Louisiana just outside of New Orleans I really enjoyed the homes presented. I am currently planning to build our home here in the Houston suburbs and the ideas presented are awesome!!!

We are building a new home with the Hays Town Louisiana houses as inspiration. His style should translate well to rural Atlanta. But we have to pass on the German Shepherd.

My wife loves the A. Hays Town homes, and this book is a nice representation of his work. A good coffee table item for guests to view.

I found this book to be exactly the view of Hays Town's work that I wanted to see.

"Lovely Me" is riveting. I had read Valley of the Dolls and enjoyed it, but was surprised when I found out it was one of the best selling books of all times, so I picked up "Lovely Me" to find out more. What I found was an inspirational biography of a flawed but driven woman who took the world by storm, but not until after the age of 44, after a failed acting career, and after her diagnosis of cancer. Jacqueline Susann's story can be heartbreaking (her son was institutionalized) it can be gritty (her numerous affairs) but is also shows a fierce determination to survive and thrive in this world. Two very important points of her life will stick with me throughout mine: 1) her fierce loyalty to friends 2) her determination to make her books a success. She went above and beyond most authors to promote her books. She may not have been the best writer but she was a best seller.

WOW! LOVELY ME is the terrific biography of an absolutely amazing woman who was HELL-BENT on fame since childhood - a very inspiring woman who didn't even BEGIN writing until her cancer diagnosis! She gives determination a new name. Jacqueline Susann was also a woman who LIVED Valley of the Dolls --- she schmoozed and worked for the marginal actress stardom she achieved on stage and in early Television with pals/lovers(?) like Carole Landis...the book also has a lot of GREAT celebrity tales. Jacqueline Susann was a woman whose fridge was stocked with only olives, gin, and pills! She was a woman who loved bedding elderly Jewish comics, and a woman who (along with her devoted husband Irving) was an ABSOLUTE GENIUS at SELF-PROMOTION!!! She was a woman who even stalked Ethel Merman (!!) etc. This extremely well written biography is brilliant, crazy, and engrossing --- and the perfect coming together of writer and subject. Reading it you are VERY aware of where JS's got the inspiration for her novels.

Here's the book that reveals all about the queen of the published melodramas, Jacqueline Susann. One thing's for sure, her real-life tale is as bumpy as anything she's ever written: jealousy, revenge, sexual deviation, incurable diseases... Author Barbara Seaman doesn't miss a beat in bringing you the story of a lady whose marginal frame of mind automatically made her an activist in human rights. Told with real pizzazz, LOVELY ME meticulously brings you back to a time when evolution was everywhere, even in so-called fluffy novels like the ones of Jacqueline Susann. Her personal struggles behind all of her fiction glamour definitely make for a compelling read.-----Martin Boucher

Ms. Seaman has produced a work of exceptional depth and quality, truly bringing the essence of Miss Susann to life, and making her compulsion for fame and regognition understandable. What struck me most was the tenacity with which Miss Susann clung to her dream of glory, only to have it so cruelly taken from her at such a young age--almost like a character in one of her classic novels. If the life of a working artist and the world of celebrity interests you, this is a book you will quite enjoy.

LOVELY ME takes honors for being the most lurid bio I've ever read. It was great!

I recommend reading this book before you pick up VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, because once you read VOTD, you'll know from exactly which well Jackie drew these experiences. Just as VOTD was a roman a clef for life as Jackie knew it, LM is the real-life retelling of VOTD.

I admire Jackie Susann. Not only was she a Philadelphian and a writer, like me, but she had such tenacity. Even when cancer, a failed career, a mentally-ill son, and a dim future stared her in the face, she plodded on and closed her ears to the naysayers. She never once took her eyes off her dream of being a published author and bolstering VOTD to being the best-selling novel in history. We can all learn something from her.

By "lucky" happenstance I discovered this marvelous book. Having read, re-read and presented your book in review twice already, I feel as if I know Bill Goss. My next review of his book will be at the Riverside Woman's club....everyone indentifies with Bill Goss' "joie de vivre" and courage!

As a health care professional, I was definitely impressed by THE LUCKIEST UNLUCKY MAN ALIVE. I have always been interested in the outcomes of illness and how people relate to the same situations differently. The outcome is in the belief system of the afflicted. This book talks about getting past adversity that we all have to face at some time in our life. It is really fascinating, especially for those of us who want to find meaning in the tragic events that plague us mortals.

I loved the book and it reminds us all how short life is and how we need to live it to the fullest. I have already loaned the book to a melanoma survivor in hopes it will be an inspirational story to her.

It is easy to read and well worth the money.

YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK ON PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL FULFILLMENT! If people invested their money like Bill Goss invested in life, we'd all be billionaires.....Executives can relate with Bill's background as a Navy pilot because we too fly high-performance aircraft at over 500 mph---it's called your company---and we're all on this plane together---and we don't want to crash and burn either! ..................YOU'RE GONNA WANT TO GET YOUR TWO HANDS ON THIS BOOK AND READ EVERY WORD OF IT!

This is a really fascinating read! For people who are interested in the unknown reasons for why tragic events happen, Goss's book will surely be a best seller. I don't think anyone could write fiction as unbelievable as this.

--An "I can't wait for more like this" fan.

The Associated Press...

Syracuse Herald American, November 7, 1999...

....Young Bill Goss plunged his head into a sink full of water, hoping to get the wethead look of Elvis Presley. His head wedged between two facets as the water poured in. Bill, just 9 years old then, thought for sure he was going to drown.

"My screams dissipated into gurgling noises, since my face was immersed in the water," he recalls. "My head was too big and the basin too small. There was simply no way I could get my hands around my face to to unplug the lifesaving stopper and drain the water. That's when I knew I was going to die."

Goss survived by ripping out two hunks of scalp, denting the facet handles. It was the first of 30 near-death experiences that he says he survived over the next three decades. From mine collapses to plane wrecks, his dances with the grim reaper are recounted in his book, "The Luckiest Unlucky Man Alive."

TAKING ON CANCER. The most threatening of the retired Navy pilot's experiences began five years ago with a small pink cyst-like bump behind his ear. Navy and civilian doctors told him to get his life in order because the cyst was a rare form of malignant melanoma, a quick killer. In a desperate attempt to stay alive, Goss found a doctor who removed his left ear and 200 lymph nodes.

The stitches along the side of his head and down his neck made the dashing naval officer look like he had been put together with spare parts. Reconstructive surgery helped him look normal again, but for a while he had to glue on his silicon ear with rubber cement.

Greg O'Neil, a Cinncinnati businessman and lifelong friend of Goss who was with him on several misadventures, thought the cancer would kill Goss.

"I was devastated. I thought this was it for Bill," said O'Neil, who grew up with Goss in the Millburn, N.J. area.

Goss, 44, has been cancer-free for five years now. "I lucked out," he said. "I learned from those dark days that behind every challenge are great opportunities."

O'Neil doesn't see Goss as being unlucky.

He was always able to pull something positive out of bad circumstances," O'Neil said. "Bill Goss is like 'Forrest Gump' meets 'Terminator II."

BRUSHES WITH DISASTER. Few people, however, would wish to be quite as "lucky" as Goss.

While attending University of Arizon in 1974, he worked weekends at a nearby copper mine. He was rigging blasting caps 5,000 feet underground to clear a chute along a 40 foot hole when he heard the sound of splitting granite. When the dust cleared, he was dangling over the chasm by his safety belt.

In 1985, Goss was in Spain as a Navy pilot of a P-3 Orion, an aircraft used for tracking soviet submarines and drug runners. He was doing test landings when a crew member inadvertently shut down one of the planes four engines.

"Suddenly the aircraft snapped to the left more violently than before," he wrote in his autobiography. "It departed the left side of the runway, twisting off the landing gear and causing the number 3 propeller to touch the ground. That instantly tore the entire 4600 shaft horsepower engine propeller assembly off the aircraft. I remember seeing it out the corner of my eye as it flew over the right wing."

Damage amounted to $3.5 million. No one was injured.

In 1991, Goss stopped his car on Interstate 295 in Jacksonville to remove a box of garbage from the roadway. As he stood in the median, he was struck by a car going about 50 mph. The police report stated he flew 45 feet through the air and he had an out-of-body experience, but he escaped without serious injury.

"It felt great to be dead, still able to think but no longer constrained to my physical being," Goss wrote. "I felt my mind and spirit advance out beyond our stars. In the big picture; I mean the really big picture, time, space, distance, structure, weight, dimension -- these things have no meaning -- only human spirit does."

His cancer forced Goss to retire from the Navy. Now he spends much of his time writing and giving inspirational and motivational talks, billing himself as a "totally unique speaker" on his website: www.luckiestman.com

Bill Goss lives on historic Fleming Island, in Orange Park, southwest of Jacksonville, Florida, with his wife Peggy and their 12-year-old twins, Brian and Christie. He said the kids were his inspiration for writing the book.

"I wanted to leave something behind -- something for my kids to remember me by just in case I didn't make it -- something to let them know who their dad was," he said.

"Bill has been knocked down, but never out, and he would always rise again. The guy I married has nine lives," Peggy said. "My problem was I didn't know what number he was on."

You'll want to read this book.

I am a 37 year old that is usually only interested in sports and sports related literature. I meet Thoi through my feed store and seed buisness. He talked me into reading his book. I thought I would just skim through it but I was surprised with the content and was not able to put it down until it was finished. I learned so much about the Veitnam War and about different cultures. This book gives a very powerful message about heroism and patriotism. It tells a very detailed story about a mans determination for the freedom of his family and their escape to America. I would recommend this book to anyone. I also talked my mother into reading this book and she couldnt put it down either. Great Book!

I have recommended this book to all my friends. It is a great read. The author keeps you engaged at all times giving you a very insightful look at the Vietnam War. As an American who has often woundered about how I should view the War, it was very helpful. He also shows how his new Christian faith was directly involved in his escape to the Iowa cornfields.
Very inspirational.

My husband and I have just returned from spending three weeks in Vietnam. This book gave us real insights into causes of the "American War" and the horrors the author and his young family experienced during the war and as they escaped to America just as South Vietnam fell to the communists.Although religion is not the theme of the book, this author tells how changing from being a Buddist to a Christian changes his life.

I never thought I would enjoy as much as I did in reading a book about the Vietnam war. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. This book is not just about the war (a subject that has been written by many before). It's an inspired story of one's true love and sacrifice for righteousness.

This book is EXCELLENT!!! I could NOT put it down! It is so interesting to read about the vietnam war from the perspective of a person who lived there. I believe this book will be on the best seller list before too long. It would make an excellent gift too. I can't imagine anyone not loving this book. But, beware, by the time you are done, you want to look up this family and go visit them!

The Man Called Cash is a very good book. very informative.I think a child 11-12 years old could read it and beable to understand what they are reading.I think it gose behond some of the other books I have read on Johhny Cash.I would recomend it to any one who is interested in seeing where Johnny Cash were he came from and the legacey he left.

I am a legally blind man and and I usually get my books to listen to through the library, but after I saw the movie walk the line I felt I had to know more about the ledgend of Cash through an audiobook if I could find one. I was lucky to find this one. I love the way Kris Kristofferson reads the book. Since he was a friend of cash's, he put feeling into the reading like no other person can. Through the author's extensive research on Cash, I found out things I never knew about him. The Movie is good, but if you really want to know who Cash is, just by this and Listen to Kristofferson tell you about his friend. The man in black.

I learned a lot about Johnny Cash, as well as people like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and many others who were the ones that generated so much buzz about music in the 1950's. Toward the end of the book, I was sad because I knew that it would speak of his death. I found myself not wanting to hear about it, because I had loved learning about his life so much.

My favorite story in the whole book was about a prayer he prayed at dinner. His dinner guest recalled the story:

Cash prayed and said, "... and we thank you Lord for this food, and we ask that you would bless it to our body. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. When he finished praying he winked at me and said, "I still miss the drugs though."

It is precisely that juxtaposition of piety and weakness that I think I love about him. It reminds me of another man who is known well for his writing when he said:

I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do ... What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

In case you didn't catch that, the other man to whom I referred is the Apostle Paul. He happened to be one of Cash's favorite people for obvious reasons. I have wondered why I am so enamored by people like Johnny Cash and Paul; these men of such conviction, but at the same time so open about their transgressions. I think it is because they knew themselves well, and they never allowed the good in them to elevate them to a place where they could look down at others. They knew the darkness, and that it was always waiting if they would just relent and turn to it.

Cash turned to it a lot. However, like Paul, he also said:

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

At the end of his life, after June Carter died he hung around for a few months more. He could barely walk, was in massive pain, and was eighty percent blind. In this state, however, he still had the Bible enlarged big enough so he could read it. Others spoke about his love of Jesus, his kindness, his generosity, and his faithfulness to June.

So many want to be cynical about people who struggle, fall, get up, and fall again. They like to point and yell to expose someone else's flaws. I am more convinced that the ones who yell the loudest are the ones who are the most scared of having their flaws exposed.

One of my favorite lines in music comes from a song sung by Cash. It was written by Bono and performed with U2 (yeah, I know big surprise). The line goes:

I went out there,
In search of experience,
To taste and to touch,
And to feel as much,
As a man can,
Before he repents.

Isn't that all of our stories? I know it's mine. I also know that it is mine everyday. I walk around, and like a little kid test the boundaries of God's love. Some days, I may not go far, other days I may feel restless and I just want to run. Yet each time I return home to talk with God I find myself speaking the words of Paul:

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

I usually don't read many biographies, but I received this one for Christmas one year since I am a huge Johnny Cash fan. I was glad to see that this book was very well written and also a very easy read. I knew it was going to be good when the first chapter was pretty emotional, as it starts off with June Carter Cash dying. The book also focuses well on some key moments in Johnny Cash's life that made the most significant difference - the first being the death of his brother, Jack, and the others that revolved around June. Like other reviewers have stated, Walk The Line used a lot of moments from the book and I would recommend reading the book as well as watching the movie. I think what was great about Johnny Cash, and what we can all relate too, is how open he was with how he was a sinner and how he had made a lot of mistakes (ie. drugs, affairs, etc.), but he changed his ways when he fully committed himself to Jesus and his faith. I think this book can be a great tool to those who have struggled and have difficult pasts because Cash showed that it doesn't matter what you have done, that you have forgiveness and that you can always start over. Great message and this book has a lot of interesting and funny stories that will want to make you laugh, smile, shake your head, or make you feel sad. Steve Turner has done a great job and had made me rethink biographies. If you're a Johnny Cash fan, this a must-have!

Before I read this book, THE MAN CALLED CASH, by Steve Turner, from 2004, I had also read the 1997 book called CASH: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY (with Patrick Carr). They both cover similar ground. The 1997 book seems more homey, like Johnny Cash is talking to you, but this book, by Steve Turner, seems more accurate.

Having know Johnny and his family for over a decade, author Steve Turner was actually hired to help write another autobiography, but June and Johnny died unexpectedly, and the book turned into an in-depth research research project, instead of just helping Johnny write with decent grammar, or whatever it takes two authors to do with an AUTObiography.

Both books seem to be equally long in content, though the page counts and page sizes differ between the hardcover of this book and the small paperback of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY book that I read.

Though both books cover a lot of the same incidents from Johnny's life, this book, THE MAN CALLED CASH, features some highly interesting coverage of the last living days of June and Johnny, before they both passed on in 2003. There is also plenty of more in-depth coverage of events told in THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, and there are also plenty of events from Johnny's life that are not mentioned in the 1997 autobiography. I recommend that you read both books, actually.

The author also points out that since he had to do research, instead of just typing out whatever Johnny told him, he has discovered that Johnny Cash never had trouble telling a good story, or making a good story even better! For example, Johnny Cash has written and talked about how rowdy he was in the Air Force, fighting with the military police, etc., but Steve Turner points out that the people who were in the Air Force with him don't remember any of that kind of rowdiness from Johnny, who never got into much trouble, and would have been widely known on the air base if he HAD fought with the guards, etc. This book also tells about how Johnny would play music with other airmen in his dorm, and Johnny was the worst of the bunch, learning a lot from the others!

There are many interesting b/w photos, although mostly small, but in high quantity! There is a photo of his brother Jack, whose childhood death affected Johnny for the rest of his life.

This book also has a chronology of major events in Johnny's life, and a discography of his primary releases, which is good to use as a shopping list, for me.

This book does have some distracting typos that I hope get fixed in future printings. On one page the same sentence appears twice in a row. In the Chronology, the death of his father, Ray Cash, appears twice on the list, in 1985 (correct), and then again in 1993 (incorrect). This is unfortunate, but these two are the worst distractions that I found without even trying.

It is also interesting to see how the movie WALK THE LINE compares to what is contained in both of these books! For instance, both books say that June Carter never really met or toured with Johnny until he was a big, established star, years into his music career, while the movie gives me the impression that they met on Johnny's first fledgling tour.

THE MAN CALLED CASH gives information about the the saw accident and his brother Jack. This book says that actually there was another 12 year old boy there, who witnessed the event, and Johnny suspected him of being involved in a bad way, though none of the adults thought so at the time, or ever! Both books mention how Johnny would see Jack appear in his dreams for the rest of his life, always a few years older than Johnny at whatever the age Johnny dreamed the appearance.

This book talks about Johnny's friendship with the evangelist, Billy Graham. I personally enjoy Johnny's Gospel albums and projects, but I am a little bit disappointed over the wasted years of drug abuse and family neglect from Johnny, who thought of himself often as a lost Christian, but a Christian none the less. What do you think about that?

The Bible says, "What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." -- Philippians 1:18. Using this Bible verse as a model, it tells me that Johnny Cash's Gospel works, as good as they are, are also totally legitimate as long as they correctly preach the Word of God--regardless of the depths of sin and abuse that Johnny heaped upon himself and his loved ones.

As long as Jesus Christ is being preached correctly, the sins of the messenger do not negate the message itself (and we are all sinners, just not as extreme as Johnny was, I suspect)! I do not and cannot condone his sinful abuses, (though I have done most of them myself, before I got Saved 8 years ago), but I will let God judge his own servant, and I will continue to enjoy the many beautiful Gospel projects which Johnny Cash was always eager and happy to work on!

GOSPEL GLORY is my favorite Johnny Cash Gospel CD, so far. His movie, THE GOSPEL ROAD, is on DVD and is also really cool! My favorite Gospel project from Johnny Cash is his spoken word reading of the entire NEW TESTAMENT on 16 CDs, very affordably priced from amazon.com, and all three of these items come highly recommended by me!

I can recommend both of these books for anybody who enjoyed the WALK THE LINE film.

Bottom line: read CASH: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY for a fun time spent with Johnny Cash in his own words, then read this book, THE MAN CALLED CASH, for the REAL story on how many of those stories actually went down!