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I am a woman, and can't imagine what it would be like to be in the Vietnam War. Karlson puts you there, right in the heart of the heart of it all! Dark and Light, Beauty and Truth, Tears and Fears. It is All here. You will be touched by the courage it took Karlson to act from what is right and the influence that those actions had. This book will touch you deeply to the Light of your Being. I promise!

Fall to Grace is absolutely riveting in its intensity. I have not been able to put it down. I give it six thumbs up. Congratulations on a vividly crafted work!

Karlson does an amazing job of combining spirituality, sex, and adventure. I never would have thought the CIA would have done some of the stuff he talks about...but it's persuasive. The sex scenes with Vietnamese girls are not to be missed. And the spiritual experiences suggest possibilities beyond our ordinary understanding. It goes from the depths of depravity to the heights of wisdom. The full range of humanity is in between What more do you want?

Fall To Grace awakened my soul to the healing that unconditional love can bring to all humanity if we will choose to give up our wars and recognize that the enemy is within us.

Eric Karlson's struggles and ultimate triumphs are presented throughout "Fall To Grace" with engaging detail, brutal honesty and a surprising innocence; I have read few tales which simultaneously disturbed and inspired me as this one has. I cried through the chapters detailing the author's drug addictions, empty family life, and witnessing of unspeakable atrocities; I felt a powerful calm and inner-peace as I read the pages telling of his courageous anti-war protests and profound spiritual transformation; throughout, I cheered on Karlson as he accepted the challenge to better not only his personal situation, but also the life of every person he encountered. Above all, "Fall to Grace" reinforced for me the dangers of complacency and the strength of the determined individual.

Don't be fooled into thinking that this is a just sensationalist, glamorized account of sex, drugs and war; rather, it is a very real and sharp journey through personal and political conflicts, told in a straight-forward manner that makes the reader feel as if he is right there. Evolving from the darkest of circumstances into an enlightened state of awareness, Karlson's experiences represent both the best and the worst aspects of the human condition.

This book comes with my highest recommendation. It definitely deserves a re-read (and will get one, once I have gotten it back from a friend who insisted on borrowing it!).

This was a wonderfully written fantasy novel. I immediately fell in love with the main character and her world. I would highly recommend it to kids *and* adults!

Interesting read. Certainly a different writing style. Difficult to hold my interest until late in the book. It shows great imagination. It is not a casual read.

In the old Zork video games were these nasty critters called grues. If you went into the caverns without a candle you'd likely be eaten by one, but you never encountered them in the light and had no idea what they looked like. Somehow, it was a lot spookier that way.

I'm not saying that Billingsley based her Folk off the Zorkian grues, but both were likely inspired by the same old legends about ravenous teeth lurking in the unknowable darkness.

Instead of avoiding the Folk, like a video game adventurer would, fifteen-year-old Corrina Stonewall seeks them out. Armed only with her courage and a collection of dubious charms, Corrina spends long hours in the cellar "tending" the Folk--that is to say, keeping a journal of what the ravenous creatures eat and providing a bit of herself on the occasions that they're still hungry.

Corrina has to pass at being a boy in order to keep this plum of a work assignment, but at least it's better than scrubbing floors.

As we get to know Corrina through her Folk journal, we discover that this Folk Keeper's gender is not her only secret. She also has strange abilities and a secret past that she herself does not even guess at. The writing is powerful and poetic, and the ending is sure to please.

If you read this book, make sure you have a nightlight handy in your bedroom. Or else, you might be eaten by a grue.

I know there are a lot of books about girls pretending to be boys ( like the books by Tamora Pierce), but this one blows them all away, until only The Folk Keeper stands in all its glory on a podium made of gold.
Now, I did not think I would ever read a perfect fantasy book. Either the character is not fully developed or the writing style is boring/cheesy or it is bogged down with romance. After reading The Folk Keeper, I knew I had found the perfect book. Corinna is immediately a lovable character, a character you stand up for, that you know like the back of your hand. The plot is formed out of seemingly magical hands, spinning a tight web about you that you just can't break till the end. The end, I must tell you, is perfect, it is glorious, it gives you shivers on the back of your neck. And it's all because of the author's extraordinary writing style. Each word is perfectly placed, each scene completely vivid in your mind, until Corinna's world seems to be surrounding you on all sides -- until it is part of you, until you are part of it. I will say again: Do not stop with Tamora Pierce, thinking that no one could possibly write another good book about a girl disguised as a boy. Read The Folk Keeper(it is a million times better!!!). Enjoy!

This is a great book. It's not Tamora Pierce or anything, but that's too much to ask for anyway. At times the main character seems a little too knowledgeable about her own hard-heartedness, the romance a little too clumsy, and the plot a little too thought out, but, all in all, The Folk Keeper is a really intelligent and suspenseful story.

Corinna Stonewall has disguised herself as a boy-Corin-to become a folk keeper. Folk keepers protect the surrounding lands from the fierce folk, who destroy crops, livestock, and food if unpleased. Suddenly, a lady comes to take her away from her cellar. There is a dying man who wants to see her, one who not only knows that she is a girl, but many of her other secrets as well. He makes her swear to leave her town to come to his mansion, where she will be a folk keeper. She agrees, knowing the folk there are fiercer than anything she has ever encountered. While trying to keep these horrific beasts at bay, she discovers many old family grudges in the mansion, as well as secrets about herself she had never imagined. In the end, she will have to choose between the place she loves best and the place she has always been kept from...

Despite the slight stylistic problems, I myself have read this book ten or so times. It is definitely a worthy addition to any fantasy-lover's collection, and is all-around a wonderful book.

Beautifully written. As Cardinal Bernardin reflects on the last three years of his life, he shares the importance of embracing prayer, family, suffering, beauty, reconciliation, pain, and forgiveness in order to appreciate and completely enter into the fullness of peace.

For anyone who feels lost or alone in life or frustrated, angry, or scared at the thought of facing death, I recommend this book. Love and peace pour out of the pages as the author shares his life experiences, struggles, and genuine concern for others. He shared his love with countless people he encountered in his life, and his love continues to be shared after his death to any reader who has the opportunity to read this book.

The book is quite short (can easily be read in one sitting) and is incredibly focused and well organized. The book title, chapter titles, and introductory letter are handwritten by the author and really add genuineness to the book. Highly recommended.

Joseph Cardinal Bernardin made a very large impact on the City of Chicago. A simple, humble, very human being, he was greatly loved by all Chicagoans. At the end of his life, two huge events impacted his life, being falsely charged with sexual molestation by a young man, and learning that his life was soon to end as the victim of cancer. This book is a moving, eloquent statement of how he dealt with these and how his faith in God was tested and ultimately made rock solid. It is an inspiration to all who who are faced with burdens beyond their strength.

I have purchased this book several times and recommended it on numerous other occasions. I bought it first for myself, and on the other occasions for friends, family members and acquaintances who were dealing with serious illness and end of life issues. The feedback received from each recipient has been very positive. Cardinal Bernardin leads the reader through his last days of life as he deals in a very graceful and touching way with terminal cancer, life's issues and personal spirituality. It's not long until the reader feels he or she is walking the journey with a close friend. Through his experinece, Cardinal Bernardin helps the reader deal with his or her own mortality in a peaceful way. He is still ministering to us. I highly recommend this book for all those dealing with illness, family members, ministers, and healthcare professionals. Incidently, You don't have to be Catholic to fully appreciate this book.

The Gift of Peace was recommended to me by the rabbi who presided over my father's funeral, which tells you something about its universal appeal. In deceptively simple and beautiful prose, Cardinal Bernardin chronicles his last days in which he makes the most of his ministry. The Gift of Peace is a story of moral and spiritual courage from which we can all benefit.

Those of us losing our eyesight and who love to read often turn to the audiobook. It is like having a wonderful text read to us at bedtime as we listen on levels spiritual and psychological unreached by silent reading. Please notice the audiobook of this present precious text of peace is read by a Monsignor, a close coworker of this blessed Cardinal.

The false accusations of abuse made against this great American Cardinal were quickly cleared up, and this slim volume insightfully and clearly records that process and the holy process of reconciliation with his false accuser, in a lesson for us of peace and reconciliation and of forgiveness of those who most completely destroy us. The Cardinal truly lives and demonstrates for us the promise we make each time we pray the Our Father. Forgive us in the same way that we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Forgive us with the same forgiveness we show others. Just as we must do unto others what we want others to do for us, JEsus also calls us actively to forgive others in the same way we want the Father to forgive us. This saintly and courageous Cardinal Forgave the disturbed young man who falsley accused him of abuse, and this book well displays the process, that we might also learn to forgive, in the Love of God, in our interpersonal relationships and national policies.

How many times must we forgive, o Lord. Not seven but seventy times seven.

We need in our national Catholic Church this voice now more than ever. Read this book and weep and become renewed in our Gospel mission to love and to forgive and to spread the good news to the poor and liberation to the captives. Sight to the Blind. In this time of unjust war and overwhelming violence, we need to hear this book.

Yet some Catholics for political reasons continue to condemn this saintly man (while silent on Cardinal Law), eagerly assuming the accusations true, or some association with others similarly accused, in order not to hear the exhortation by this great Cardinal that the right to life does not end at birth, but at a natural and God given death. The right to life must be supported at every point in our life and in every aspect of life. This great CArdinal elaborated for our edification the seamless garment explanation of the right to life.

Womb to tomb.

Please read this book.

I must rush to Mass now, and I bring this book with me to help my confused prayer. I thank God this great and holy and courageous Cardinal left us this Gift of Peace in the weeks before his untimely death. As head of the USCCB at the time of the crafting of the prophetic letter The Challenge of Peace, his courageous voice is needed now more than ever. Yet we have this, his abiding Gift of Peace, and that strong letter for peace. Take and read.

Pray for peace. Receive this Gift of Peace.

Beverly Cleary, an esteemed librarian and author of numerous children's books, shares her story about growing up in Yamhill, Oregon in the roaring twenties and depression thirties. She was born in 1916 and resides in California today. I quickly ordered the sequel, 'My Own Two Feet".

The book is a revealing glimpse at a sensitive and curious young girl, an only child, coping with early childhood and her school years in Oregon. The Williamette Valley and Portland, Oregon, are beautifully described as the area was in the early 20th. century.

Beverly shares family pictures, provides pioneer ancestor background, describes her schools and teachers, social life and interests in a delightfully easy to read manner. Her mother taught Beverly book appreciation, as well as music and reminded her always to "use her imagination"!

I love this woman for her keen insights and independence, and recommend her memoir (and all her children's books as well.) It is surprisingly different from other memoirs and holds your interest all the way thru, leaving you wanting to know more about her as she connects with the reader in a personal way.

Beverly Cleary
A girl from Yamhill
Author: Beverly Cleary

Mostly all children love and grow up reading Beverly Cleary's books. But some wonder, "What was her childhood like?" In this autobiography, Beverly Cleary tells the story of her life. It starts out from when she's a little girl living on a big farm in Yamhill, Oregon and goes all the way until she's in her senior year in Portland. Beverly lived in Portland near Klickitat Street which inspired her for the Ramona series, which are one of the most favored today.
Once, Beverly's elementary teacher assigned her class a creative writing project. When Beverly turned in hers, her teacher was so pleased with her writing that she read Beverly's paper out loud to the class and told her she had a gift for writing. Beverly wasn't a really good speller in elementary school. Her class held a spelling bee and she was given the word "beautiful" to spell. She started out with "beau..." but someone gasped which made Beverly think she'd spelled it wrong. Beverly ended up spelling the word "beau..." and was disqualified. When she was younger she wouldn't read any books. Her mother didn't understand. All of Beverly's relatives loved reading. Eventually, one time she was sick, she finally found her love for reading.
I really enjoyed this book and would rate it a 4 and a half because I myself love Beverly's books and it was really interesting to read about her life. I usually don't like biographies/ autobiographies, but this one really got me interested.
I think Beverly's a little like me because we both refused to read when we were little. I didn't hate reading, but all of the books I wanted to read weren't the kinds of book my mom wanted me to read. I wanted to read books about teen life and very up-to-date. My mother wanted me to read historical fiction and/or nonfiction. I love all books now except for nonfiction.
Beverly's style of writing is creative, descriptive and very fun to read. Most of her books are for younger children but she has written a couple for teens.

_A Girl From Yamhill_ by Beverly Clearly is a memoir. She writes about her memories of Beverly's early life to where she escapes her home to go to junior college in California.
Beverly tells us when her first baby tooth came out, when she recieved her first love letter from a boy she liked for 3 years. Beverly also tells us about her first date Gerhart she despised.
It is a great book that everyone will love.

i loved the ramona quimby books growing up. i read them until they fell apart. after reading A Girl from Yamhill, i'm considering buying and reading them all over again. Beverly Cleary writes so simply with few descriptions and yet you can see, hear, smell, feel everything she writes about. i am never left wondering or wanting. her love of people and places, especially when she writes about her grandparents and Puddin', shines through without the annoying wordiness i find in other memoirs.

i especially loved the pictures scattered throughout the books. she is adorable and you can see a little bit of ramona in her. :)

I ordered Beverly Cleary's two autobiographies on Amazon, and recieved them last week. The first of the two is called, "A Girl From Yamhill" and the second is, "My Own Two Feet". Both are excellently written. The first is of her childhood until she goes off to college and the second is her college days and a few years beyond. She has a style of writing that makes you feel as though you have known her your whole life and are the dearest of friends. What amazed me the most about these books is how timeless they are. Even though she grew up during the depression and went to college before the advent of computers and the technology boom, it was eye opening to see that the human condition and experiences don't really change all that much. She is an excellent storyteller, and the words on the page lept into my mind's eye and I could see it unfold before as if I were watching it on a movie screen. I was sad to see the first book end, but glad that I had ordered the second book as well. Then when I finished the second book I found myself wishing that she had written another book to tell more of her life's stories. I finished reading them both within a couple of days and found myself doing something I have never done before. I immediately began to read them again ( I am currently half way through the first book). If you grew up loving her children's books as I did, then these are a must have.

This book Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever; is about a girl named Melissa and her struggle with getting leukemia again. Jory is Melissa's best friend and she throws a party at the beach for Melissa, because she was one of the finalists for a National Merit Scholarship. It is at this party that Jory finds out Melissa's Leukemia is back. The first time Melissa was able to have chemo therapy but this time Melissa has to have a bone marrow transplant and her brother is the bone marrow donor. For a long time Melissa is sick after receiving the bone marrow. To help pay for the medical bills Melissa's best friend Jory has a carnival and calls it Melissa Austin Day, all the money raised and donated on that day goes towards paying the medical bills. Also Jory is able to get her parents (who are rich) to get their friends to donate money to Melissa's family. Later the bone marrow ends up taking and then Melissa gets sick from meningitis.
I liked this book because it is sad and touching how Jory is such a good friend to help Melissa's family by raising money to help pay the medical bills. If I was ever sick I hope my friends would care enough to do the same for my family. It shows me how bad thing happen to good people even when they don't deserve to have this happen to them.
There is not anything that I did not like about this book. I found it a very fast reading book and hard to put down.
The author of this book, Lurlene McDaniel, is one of my favorite authors. I like her books because they are touching and have a lot to do with people with illnesses and real life issues.

What a great book Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever is! It is the sequel to Too Young To Die. I recommend that you read Too Young To Die first, in order to understand better this one. This book is about two best friends, Jory and Melissa, and about Melissa fighting with leukemia. It is really a very sad story, it almost made my cry! I felt as if I knew Melissa myself and I was watching her suffering leukemia and the bone marrow transplant. I wish I had a friend like that, who would always be with me, no matter what! And I really liked the way Michael (Melissa's brother) and Jory's relationship ended being much better in the end.

Have you ever stopped and thought life is too short so enjoy it? If you have not you need to read the book called Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever by Lurlene McDaniel. The reason why you should read it is because it proves we get so wrapped up with school and jobs. That we hardly ever stop and give thanks for the time we have now.

A girl named Jory found out life was to short. Jory Delaney's best friend since 5th grade Melissa Austin found out 1year ago when she was 16 that she had leukemia a type of cancer. It changed Melissa's life and Jory's. Melissa started chemo and it caused her to start loosing hair, she had to stay out of the sun and she had to be careful not get way to excited. It also caused her to start loosing weight and caused her to loose her skin color and became really pail. She ended up getting better then it turned and she got worse. She ended up having to go to the hospital again. Do you want to know more? If so, read the book and you'll find out the rest of the story.

It's through this experience and loss that Jory came to realize you should live life to its fullest because you really don't know how long you got to live. Make sure thought that you are safe because you could be the one that causes it to end sooner that it should.

Sometimes the things we see and experience through life teaches us the importance of life. That is why I thank Lurlene McDaniel for teaching me the importance of life in the book Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever. Not only Jory gets to experience that lesson but its like your right there experiencing it too.

This is a great book for middle school and high school students, also older people, because we all experience a type of loss and wonder what could we have done to make it better for them. We also all need to learn the lesson of life and respect our life before it's all gone because you only get to experience it once.

In Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever, Lurlene McDaniel tells a heart-felt story of a teenage girl who is struggling with cancer.
Melissa finds out early in the story that her leukemia, which has been in remission for two years has relapsed. Jory, Melissa's best friend promises to help her have the best senior year ever, because of all the stress and pain in Melissa's life. Melissa's older brother, Michael, who is also Jory's life long crush, is asked to donate bone marrow to Melissa, because that is her only hope. Soon after, Melissa becomes well and in a couple of days, the doctors say she will be able to go home. Jory goes to visit her two days later, only to find that Melissa has caught a fever and that her body is rejecting the bone marrow. At school, a boy named Lyle tries to help Jory with all the sorrow of her sick friend. Eventually, Jory falls in love with Lyle, but still has feelings for Michael. Will Jory find true love? Will Melissa overcome cancer? To find out, read Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever.
I highly recommend this book to any girl ages 12-112 that enjoys romance and drama novels. It is an amazing book and I promise that if you read it, you won't be disappointed.

Goodbye Doesn¡¦t Mean Forever
By: Lurlene McDaniel
Reviewed by: J. Ku
Period: 1

This book is continued from the book Too Young to Die. In this book, Melissa has a relapse and needs to get back into remission. The doctors say, ¡§For a person to get into remission the second is harder.¡¨ The doctors recommended that Melissa try a bone marrow transplant. Since they needed to find a compatible donor, they said that a sibling would be the best donor. So then took some bone marrow from Michael, and sure enough, their bone marrow was compatible. Not long after that, they put Melissa into isolation. They needed to get rid of all her bone marrow and put Michael¡¦s bone marrow in her body. When people came to visit her, they had to be careful and not bring in any germs because her immune system couldn¡¦t fight off germs. Her brother¡¦s marrow was working fine, but then Melissa got a fever. It was either an infection or a sign or rejection for the transplant.

I like this book because it was exciting to learn about medical technology. I learned about things I never would have wanted to learn about. This book teaches friends not to give up on each other. Melissa always trusted Jory. Jory always did what she could to help Melissa. They depended on each other whenever they needed help. ¡§Melissa needs blood will you help me?¡¨ They never gave up on each other, even when Melissa died, Jory always knew that Melissa would still be there to help her, even if she couldn¡¦t help Melissa.

I dislike this book because this book I was very sad and Melissa died. When you read about people suffering makes you feel bad. I wanted to change the whole story and make it have a happy ending. I didn¡¦t like it when the doctors gave Melissa bad news about her leukemia.

My favorite part of the book was when Jory held a carnival and called it Melissa Austin Day. I really liked that part because not only Jory was doing it for a good cause, everyone was having fun. They raised a lot of money, and a lot of people donated blood to Melissa. I think that it is wonderful to have a friend that does these things for you.

This book is so captivating a just can not put it down. I just got a week ago, and I am almost done reading it. Then of course I will have to pass it along to my sister to read when I am done with it. Liz Curtis Higgs is a wonderful writter, and this finale to the series is just supurb.

Davina McKie is the only daughter of Jamie and Leana McKie (the subjects of Thorn in My Heart, Tender is the Rose, and Whence Came a Prince.) Davina has not been able to speak since she was younger, but has found ways of communicating, one way throw a fiddle.

Her younger brothers are sent away to school, and as they have always protected Davina Jamie is worried about her. Then he sends her to a cousins house on the Isle of Arran for the summer. Davina has the time of her life getting to know her cousins who are just about her age, when a request was made to play for the Duke of Hamilton.

While there she meets Summerland McDonald who takes a shine to her. Unfortunately this leads to several tragedies that befall her while on the Island.

While there are some cheerless parts of the book, the way that the book ends makes up for it.

Much like Francine Rivers, Liz Curtis Higgs' stories are able to reveal one's true heart and nourish the soul. Bravo.

Grace in thine eyes is a beatiful story about a tale that is very quickly forgotton. Tucked between the story of Jacob and Joesph lies Genesis chapter #34. The story of Jacobs daughter Dinah. Liz Curtis Higgs took that story and created an epic tale that will keep you reading from the first page till the last. Davina is a young lass of 17. Mute since a young child Davina is doted on by her younger brothers. When she is sent away to the Isle of Arran, she is truly excited. However no one would be able to see the string of events that will take place and change Davinas life forever. I enjoyed this book very much. I found it a different and well written story. I will be looking for many more stories by this author.

This story is a beautiful one where you'll find yourself getting involved with the characters on an emotional level. This seems to happen to me every time I pick up one of Liz Curtis Higg's books. Not being a lover of romance/fiction I was at first skeptical about picking up Liz Curtis' book Grace in Thine Eyes. This book goes much much deeper than that. The characters are imperfect, lively, and very real, you'll love some of them, be intrigued by some and just cringe at some. She writes reality into her stories. You won't be able to put this one down! I promise you'll be moved by this story!

Be careful picking this book up to look for something because half an hour later, you might actually get around to reading about it! This book is an amazing resource for Witches and I am astounded at how much information is contained in it. It has everything from herbal and oil correspondences to rune interpretations to meditations and rituals. This is a must-have for every Witch!

ALL I CAN SAY IS THIS BOOK IS PERFECT. I LOVE EVERY BIT OF IT. IT'S LIKE MY LITTLE BIBLE :) I FIND IT VERY APPROPRIATE FOR ME. IT WAS RECOMMENDED TO ME BY ANOTHER PAGAN AND I'M GLAD I PURCHASED IT.

This grimoire is excellent. If you are interested in someone else's view on Wiccan worship you will appreciate this book. It isn't for training but for seeing the Craft executed in another way. I'm really impressed and glad I spent the money.

This Book is great for the Beginner, and advanced alike. It's written in simple, easy to comprehend grammar, and trusted by my circle, as well a few others that I know of. Don't think twice about ordering this book, you'll thank yourself, and the Goddess for finding it! Blessed Be!

I have a nice library of books from beginner to expert, but I use this one the most. Moura filled this book with great recipes and colourful explanations of the hows and whys of witchcraft.

It's always best to throw your own flair into the craft when working from a book, but this one is so well-written I believe a novice could feel comfortable and confident using the spells & rituals as-is.

This is definitely a book to put a hardback/protection cover on, as it is sure to be used very often. I cannot stress enough that of all the books I have, this one is used most often. People new to the craft should find it easy to follow and very useful, especially when combined with elemental magic texts. (I typically combine mine with Earth, Air, Fire & Water: More Techniques of Natural Magic by Scott Cunningham.)

I sent this to my GF on her birthday and she said it was like a big Birthday card. I love Dr. Seuss.

This book with a gift for the birth of a baby and was a hit. Thanks.

My students loved this story. I keep it is a basket on the floor and the are constantly picking it up. Would recommend it to anyone.

We read this on birthdays and plenty of other times too! Sweet but not too much so, and funny turns of phrase.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU~~~~~~~~~HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIIIIIIIIRTTTH DAY AHAYAA MISTOUR BLACKSHEREEEEEEEEEEEE
HAP-HAP-HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!




Happy Birthday Chris,from(and I think I'm not alone) everyone!!!
your a great person and friend!
OH! this book is great also!

Few people, even non-golfers, can escape ever having heard of Ben Hogan. Maybe you don't know exactly who he was, but the name is oddly familiar.

To golfers, Ben Hogan is as close to legend as anything. Other players, even Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods, lack the mystique which has encompassed Hogan, even many years after his death.

What few of us know is just who he was. This information may not be so pertinant to people who play the game, since they are mostly interested in his swing. However, anyone who has touched even in a small way on part of his career realizes the great mysteries that lie in his life and being.

"Hogan" may not answer everything satisfactorily, but it comes as close as any are likely to get. This covers his life in as much informative detail as could be needed, and presents Hogan not so much in a less-than-glamorous light, as is common to biographies, but rather in a "judge for yourself" presentation of evidence for what made the man what he became.

Anyone curious about this modern legend will get more than he bargains for. Where perhaps the book does not go into his game to the extent golfers may want, the story of Hogan's life is engaging enough without it.

In my very large golf library this is clearly the best book on golf
I have read period. For the first time you get an insight into the "wie ice mon" in what reads like a novel.

This book really only confirmed what I had thought for a long time, behind Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan was a tremendous golfer who was way ahead of his time. Hogan nearly won the grand slam, and could not compete in the PGA because of the fact it started almost the same time the British Open was finishing. As we all watch Tiger Woods try for the grand slam, let us not forget Ben Hogan who was as close as anyone has ever come to doing it. The most amazing part of Hogan's story was the fact he won the US Open after almost dying in a car crash.

Sampson does a nice job with this book, telling about Hogan like he was, stearn and driven, and definitely not writing a fluff piece like some biographies can be. Hogan was tough, and I would equate him as the "Ted Williams" of golf, so good it was hard for him to teach anyone because he set such high standards for himself. I recommend this book to golfers and people who want to read about a remarkable man.

Ben Hogan was a no nonsense, focused champion who realized early in life that hard work was the path to success. Curt Sampson does a great job in presenting the real Hogan, not just the golf legend. This book should be required reading for all golf fans.
Especially the goofs who scream "You da man!" everytime Tiger hits a shot. There will never be another Ben Hogan.

When I was growing up the names of Palmer, Nicklaus, Trevino, Player, and their generation were the top competitors. Ben Hogan was a revered name, but one of past glory. His great year of 1953 was in the past. I had heard about his auto accident and his amazing comeback, but this book helped me see the man who "dug it out of the dirt" through hard work, discipline, and ferocious tenacity.

Mr. Hogan started out with less than most. His father's suicide and the family's subsequent poverty didn't leave him with many open paths to success. He found golf and found that it not only matched his physical skills, but was an even better match for his nearly obsessive temperament.

The swing he developed has become the pattern millions of us try to emulate, although he would find our haphazard approach to the game less than useless. Why we love being duffers would be beyond him. He knew how to work and to practice. I still cannot fathom the kind of internal strength it would take to come back from that terrible leg shattering accident when his Cadillac was struck by a bus. He played in great pain for the rest of his life and had four surgeries on his left shoulder. When I realize that his greatest achievements and most of his wins at major tournaments were after the accident I am simply dumbstruck.

Mr. Hogan was a very private and enigmatic figure. Mr. Sampson does a good job in teasing what facts we know into a good story. We get interesting stories from the golf side of his life (mostly stories told about Hogan by others) and those are very enjoyable. However, I like the way Mr. Sampson puts all that in the context of a real person - a real man. Ben Hogan wasn't a fictional character even though the media version of him was a distortion of the actual hard working man who practiced, practiced, and then practiced some more, who loved his wife, Valerie, and built a successful golf equipment business.

Ben Hogan made a long journey through life and I think this book tells the story well.

Michael Shapiro does a superb job not only of capturing the excitement of the Brooklyn Dodgers' last pennant-winning season but also of explaining just what the Dodgers meant to so many Brooklynites. Set against the background of the Walter O'Malley-Robert Moses negotiations that would determine the fate of the Dodgers, Shapiro provides logical proof that it was not O'Malley's intention to move the ballclub but that Moses kept making a fool of him to the point where remaining in Brooklyn would have been rather humiliating for O'Malley.

Though never elected to any office, Robert Moses was the most powerful official in New York City in the late 1950s. His power was further enhanced by the fact that the Mayor at that time, Robert F. Wagner Jr. was both lazy and indifferent, and would not have gone far in politics except for the fact that his namesake father was a very popular U.S. senator. If O'Malley was going to get the land and permits to build a new ballpark, he was going to have to go through Moses and Moses couldn't have cared less as to what became of the Dodgers.

O'Malley tired desperately to be taken seriously by Moses and the NYC politicians to where he even had the Dodgers play seven "home" games in Jersey City in 1956. In the end, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, not because O'Malley plotted to take them there but because L.A. politicians eagerly and actively courted O'Malley to move to their city while their New York counterparts, especially Moses, gave him the brush-off.

O'Malley wanted to build a ballpark at the junction of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, where multiple subway lines and the Long Island Railroad converge. Moses at first wanted O'Malley to build a ballpark in a hard-to-reach part of Bedford-Stuyvesant and later proposed having the city build a ballpark on the site of what is now Shea Stadium. Anyone familiar with Brooklyn knows that if you're riding the subway, it's easier to get to Yankee Stadium from Brooklyn than to go out to Flushing Meadows, where Shea Stadium is.

In any case Los Angeles made O'malley an offer he couldn't refuse--300 acres in the heart of the city, where multiple freeways converge. New York officials made no effort to compete as Brooklyn didn't count for much in their eyes. When the Mets were created a few years later there was no question in their minds that they should represent New York and use the orange "NY" logo formerly used by the New York Giants, rather than the Brooklyn Dodgers' "B."

50 years have now passed since the Dodgers moved, and Walter O'Malley has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The ballpark he built and paid for (which opened in 1962) remains one of the most beautiful and popular in major league baseball. Shea Stadium, on the other hand, built by Robert Moses with taxpayers' money and opened in 1964, will soon be torn down. What is more, New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner is currently trying to arrange to move his NBA basketball team to that same junction in Brooklyn that O'Malley originally wanted.

Michael Shapiro is an excellent writer and his book is highly recommended!

This book probably doesn't get the sales or the attention it deserves, because the title and the cover make it look as if it's intended just for baseball junkies. But it's far more than that. In just 332 pages, Shapiro tells four stories:

1. The story of the National League pennant race in 1956.
2. The story of why the Dodgers (and therefore the Giants as well) decided to move to California in 1958.
3. The social, demographic, and economic changes that Brooklyn (and, by extension, much of urban America) experienced in the post-World War II era.
4. Thumbnail sketches of the personal lives of the core players in the Brooklyn Dodger lineup from 1947 through 1956.

None of these four themes is given short shrift. Furthermore, Shapiro has organized this book beautifully. He seems to have done a perfect job in choosing exactly where to break the narrative of the Dodgers' wins and losses, and insert a section about the changing character of a neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Not only that, but Shapiro's writing is superb. Here is his account of the last pitch of the last Dodger game of the regular season - a game they had to win in order to clinch the championship, with Dodger Don Bessent pitching to Pittsburgh's Hank Foiles:

*****
Don Bessent went into his windup. The last thing he thought before releasing the ball was, he later said, "Tight, keep it tight."

Hank Foiles swung. The next thing he heard was the thud of the ball in Roy Campanella's mitt.
*****

You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this book. You just have to enjoy good writing and a wonderful story, wonderfully told.

I have long been interested in the old Brooklyn Dodgers, having read multiple books on the subject. This is among the best. First of all, it is an excellent read. There is plenty of baseball included in its pages, and the Dodgers teams of the 50s were always interesting. But I learned much more than I expected from this book about the politics that led to the team's move to California. It's too bad the franchise couldn't have remained in Brooklyn, but the reasons they left were different than I would have imagined. The book also paints the picture of a post-World War II New York that was rapidly changing. As a lover of baseball, history and baseball history, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Wow. First let me say that I'm not a Brooklyn resident or a Dodger fan and picked this book up without knowing anything about it. The book turned out to be one of the best baseball books I've read in quite some time.

I was drawn into the book immediately. It is clear in the Prologue that Shapiro is a very good writer and that the book is as much about the fifties and Brooklyn as it is about a pennant race. The book is enjoyable on both fronts.

Shapiro does a great job of weaving a portrait of the changes going on in Brooklyn in the mid-fifties and giving younger readers a good idea of what it was like to grow up in that era. It is clear that Shapiro has done quite a bit of research and I think the reader really gets a good look into the personalities of the players and other characters in the story.

Any fan of baseball history will do himself a favor in buying this book. It truly deserves more acclaim than it has received.

THE LAST GOOD SEASON, by Michael Shapiro, earns itself a provisional rating of FIVE STARS in my mind, based primarily on the quality of the writing (which is uniformly excellent) and the depth of the research (which, within limits, is exhaustive). Yet the book deserves, like Roger Maris' "61*", to be only a qualified ***(**) success.

Much of that qualification comes from Shapiro's heavily touted and slanted thesis that Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley was not responsible for the Dodgers' departure from Brooklyn in 1957, after Robert Moses refused to build a replacement for the aging Ebbets Field.

Shapiro's grasp of the facts regarding Brooklyn is somewhat fuzzy. He says, "Jews went to Midwood [High School], poor blacks to Jefferson." Yet in the Dodger era, Brownsville was predominantly (70%) Jewish. It was not until later that Brownsville became a black neighborhood. Shapiro waxes rhapsodic about Midwood (his childhood home?) but slights the rest of Brooklyn. He admits that by the time he became aware of the Dodgers they were gone. Ironically enough, even while granting O'Malley absolution in absentia he makes and supports every argument as to why the man did not deserve it.

Shapiro blames, among other things, "white flight" for the Dodgers' relocation, but then argues that fans come in all colors. It's as if, in pardoning O'Malley, he is trying to convince us of something he really doesn't believe himself.

According to Shapiro, "Robert Moses is the bad guy in this story." This is an incredibly strong statement, particularly since Shapiro admits in many places that O'Malley was mendacious, that he was arrogant, that his plans for a new Buckminster Fuller-styled stadium seemed, at best, to be for public consumption only (O'Malley stole the scale model from the actual designer, Billy Kleinsasser, and used it without permission or recompense at public events), that he dealt with player and staff salaries in increments of hundreds and thousands of dollars not hundreds OF thousands of dollars (i.e., star pitcher Preacher Roe claims his highest Dodger salary was a paltry $28,000.00 in 1955), that he did not understand the "Little People" who were Dodger fans, that he once (as a youngster) traded a stack of Dodger baseball cards for one Giants' Christy Mathewson, that he fined employees who mentioned Branch Rickey's name in his presence, and, in short, that he was not really a fan of the team he owned.

Shapiro wants to paint horns on Robert Moses' head, and in some sense they do belong there, but not necessarily in the sense that Shapiro would prefer. Like the Master Builders of Ancient Egypt he had virtually unlimited power in his sphere. The ironically-named Moses was a man with a vision for New York, and he set about creating that vision of shining, rising buildings (such as Lincoln Center), vast bridges (the Throgs Neck, the Whitestone, The Triborough, and the frighteningly huge Verrazano are all his), and endless parkways (as a sampling, the Cross Island, the Belt, the Northern State, the Southern State, the Meadowbrook and the Wantagh) linking New York City and its expanding suburbs in a net of urban development. Yet this visionary had pathological flaws. Monomaniacal in his sphere, he had no compunction about unilaterally razing hundreds of city blocks, evicting tens of thousands, and altering the neighborhoods and neighborhood patterns of New York without a thought. Such changes brought other, unanticipated changes---the "through" expressways of The Bronx relegated it to a kind of backwater status accelerating its descent into slum conditions, and Moses' chopping up of neighborhoods in Brooklyn balkanized the Borough into a patchwork of disconnected rich and poor enclaves. Moses was more successful on sparsely-settled Long Island and in Westchester, where his road network created rather than changed demographic patterns.

When these two prima donnas met head-to-head, they treated each other with barely-concealed contempt. Although Moses was at first favorably disposed to a new stadium in downtown Brooklyn, this agreement soured within days. Without access to O'Malley's papers (which he was refused by the O'Malley family), the reason for this sudden souring is unknown, and ripe for speculation. Moses pressed, at first, for a new stadium in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a declining neighborhood; O'Malley refused. Moses promised him a new stadium in Flushing Meadow, Queens (the future Shea); again, O'Malley refused, declaring that the team was to remain in Brooklyn---he countered with an offer to build in Brooklyn, on the site of a ramshackle meat market. Moses refused to condemn the property (a first for him).

This bickering was never about questions of civic-mindedness, fan appreciation, nor humanitarianism. This was strictly a personal issue between the two men that affected millions of people.

While this was going on, the 1956 Dodgers struggled successfully through their World Champion season. Shapiro's snapshot of the team is far more detailed than his portrait of the politics, and is a joy to read. Shapiro is at his best as he describes the dynamic tensions that existed between the various Dodgers, the great negotiator of personalities, Pee Wee Reese, and their fanbase. It is clear that Ebbets Field was no longer a suitable home, at least without major modifications. Parking was very poor, a serious concern in the emerging era of the suburban commuter fan; the stadium itself needed to be revamped, the plumbing fixed, the seating rearranged. Still, Ebbets Field was only 45 years old, and was a solid structure, despite its flaws.

If O'Malley was indeed "desperate to stay in Brooklyn" as Shapiro posits, then why weren't his efforts directed toward staying? Why was he engaged in a stalemated battle of wills with Moses over a new stadium? Perhaps O'Malley simply wasn't "desperate" enough. Certainly, Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park still stand in less than desirable locations, but they draw dedicated fans nonetheless. Had O'Malley spent a part of his considerable fortune buying up some surrounding properties and building a parking complex, and then incrementally improved Ebbets Field with better seating and new amenities, the Dodger fanbase would have continued to travel to Flatbush.

O'Malley did not do this. He wanted land, and a lot of it, on the cheap---had Moses condemned the meat market, O'Malley would have bought the property for pennies on the dollar, a very attractive possibility to a man who squeezed a penny hard enough to put a permanent wave in Lincoln's beard. Los Angeles offered him that and he jumped, literally across a continent, to get it, taking his team about as far from Brooklyn as it was possible to go in his desperation to stay. Yet, if he'd REALLY wanted to stay, Flushing Meadow beckoned. And despite the fact that Flushing is not Brooklyn, the New York football Giants play in New Jersey's Meadowlands and still remain a New York team (the O'Malley-inspired move of the baseball Giants from Manhattan to San Francisco is another issue). In 1957, many of Brooklyn's fans were Long Island transplants, and more would be as time passed. Queens, while not the best of all possible worlds, would have been a convenient waypoint for fans from the old and new neighborhoods.

For that matter, had either O'Malley or Moses given a damn about Brooklyn, they would have cooperated in building a new stadium and reinvigorating Brooklyn. Neither cared to.

"Walter O'Malley was not a bad man. He was devoted to his wife and his children loved him," Shapiro points out. That's nice to know. But O'Malley was also an S.O.B. in business. The two are not mutually exclusive. "Only a sentimental man," Shapiro writes, "would have stayed." Maybe so. But the Dodgers and the Dodger fanbase needed a sentimental man, they needed a fellow fan, they needed a man who loved the team and who loved Brooklyn. What they had was Walter O'Malley, who saw the team merely as a moneymaking concern. O'Malley's actions speak for themselves, regardless of Shapiro's revisionism. And if O'Malley was "not unique" among team owners but merely "so obvious" about his profit motives, the blame is still his for eroding the spirit of The Game, and beginning the slide to where we are today in baseball with its overly mobile nonentity franchises, bloated payrolls, stars on steroids, cupidity and stupidity, and fan disinterest.

In the face of necessity, sentiment oft-times does not serve. But in circumstances of choice, such as faced by the Dodgers, sentiment can be a hedge against callousness.

What O'Malley (and Moses) failed to grasp is that a ball team is more than an agglomeration of men in uniform standing around in an open field. He (they) failed to grasp that a baseball game is more than just nine innings and a cold toting of runs, hits, and errors. It is a conversation at a water cooler, a friendly argument over lunch, an invitation to meet at the ballpark on Saturday afternoon for dogs and beer and a chance to see The Duke of Flatbush. It is a sense of neighborliness, a sense of pride, and was---still is---an important part of Brooklyn's special identity.

As Roger Kahn says in The Boys of Summer, "In the best of all possible worlds the Dodgers would be in Brooklyn and Los Angeles would have the Mets."

That's as it should have been.