Spencer Books

I have read this book myself at least twice. This book was purchased as a graduation present for a nephew. I wish someone had made me read this book at the age of 13. Franklin is quite the character. There are a lot of controversies surrounding his life, but for the purpose of instruction, I prefer to quit the debating society. This fellow is the first native born genius of record produced in this country. He may have painted a rosy picture of his life, but any of us would in an autobiography. If you want a critical examination of his life, check out some of the excellent athoritive biographies available. If you want inspiration, read this. Most inspiring are the roles that thrift and hard work played in his success and his practical approach to striving for "moral perfection".

This says Norton Critical Edition, so, of course, designed for academic study.

A man that of course did a whole pile of stuff and came up with a whole pile more.

Entertaining at times, and lecturing at others, as you might expect from someone that had been in a privileged position.

no doubt about it: ben franklin was a bright fellow. brigher than me, for instance. his autobiography, however, and despite what people on amazon are saying, is a shallow piece of fluff. nothing is touched in depth as he skims from one episode to the next like he is racing to finish an unimportant task. his wife? his family? forget them. all people in his life, in fact, seem deserving of no deep consideration to mr franklin. at times he brags about himself under the guise of modesty, and it is both silly and annoying. plenty of excellent biograhy work out there on this man, and one would be much better served to pick up one of those. it simply boggles my mind that anyone could consider this a 5 star piece of literature. there is not the slightest bit of passion in this writing. mr franklin doesn't even seem terribly interested in what he is writing about. amazon reveiwers seem to award 5 stars to almost anything they read, without the slightest trace of critical detachment. yes, this is a book you would not be wasting your time reading, simply because these are the words of benjamin franklin, but that's it. this is not great literature. not even close.

As everyone else has noted, Ben was a brilliant man and an entertaining writer. This is classic American literature, particularly in how it shows a "character" striving to rise up and better himself because that is the promise of the American Dream.

I docked Ben one star because the unfinished ending is not satisfying to someone who comes across this book for the first time. Just so you know, if you get lost during the third part, Ben is discussing the French Indian War.

The Dover edition is very nice and anyone should be satisfied with it.

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography creates a portal into the mind of one of America's greatest minds. Not only did Franklin play a pivotal role in the development of our nation but he also made huge advancements in the field of electricity. His descriptions of experiences such as the famous kite experiment grant some understanding of just how remarkable these revelations were in the mid-1700s. His subsequent invention of the lightning rod, something taken for granted today, is fascinating to read about in his own words. Learning about the electrical innovations that Franklin made, written in his own words and in the language of the period offers a unique approach to the subject of electricity. The fact that Franklin managed to accomplish all of these feats in addition to playing the role as a Founding Father is astounding and only adds to the significance of the his individual successes.

i'm very excited with this purchase. I received the product in very well condition and in good time.

This is an excellent autobiography about the world's most famous evangelist Billy Graham. It will take you through his life and through his ministry. Great book about a great evangelist!!!

Unless Billy did a fantastic job in hiding all of the difficult and trying times of his life (as I suspect in the case of his troubled relationship with his son Franklin), WHAT A LIFE this man had!!! Who would not want to have what he had: travels; meetings with the rich, the famous, the wise; success; financial stability; a loving wife; great kids; and most of all, the honor and privilege to lead millions to Christ. Can you imagine the party they'll throw in heaven when he gets there? However, the book was very mediocre in my view. Very seldom the author opened his heart and expressed his true feelings...Lots of anecdotes, details, insignificant (to the reader) stuff; it was not a total waste of time, because you always get the feeling that this man loves his Lord and truly wants to serve Him. Not much to say against that...I just wish he could have made deeper remarks about people and events in general.

Let me first preface this by saying that I've never actually heard a Billy Graham message but was curious to learn about him given his wide influence both in the religious and political realm. It's obvious why he is so popular he has a great sense of humor and a way of telling storys that while amazingly simple does not insult the intellegience of the listner. Also the fact that his life was good material to work with didn't hurt at all. He's a fascinating character while on one hand he is a throw back to the old school evangelists like Billy Sunday who preached with exuberant energy and strength against the evils of such things as alcohol and secularism but on the other hand he hurdled christianity into the future in the way he worked with several different church denominations and revolutionized evangelism through mass media a feat that has never been equaled sense. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Billy Graham is how such an immedeatly plain spoken individual made such headway with the secular media and goverment heirarchy this is something Billy Graham himself admits belwilderment to on the back cover of the book. His popularity would explain somewhat his influence in government it's clear that politicians thought and rightfully so that his views represented those of a lot of Americans. However there is never really any explanation as to why or how for example he became the first minister to speak at the London School of Business he himself admitted that he wasn't the most intellectual of his peers. Perhaps it is as Billy Graham claims the power of the gospel.
A couple of the things I admired were Billy Grahams honesty when it came to dealing with such things as money and women. I also personally liked the fact that he didn't try to pretend he was more pompous than he really was he's open about experiences that some ministers would no doubt be embarassed by such as going to movies with a lot of nudity at young age, being hit on by a girl in high school, and acting like a bumbling fool around presidents Truman and Eisenhower. As some people on here have alluded to already it does sort of seem like he was an absintee father. I was a bit disturbed by this as a Christian I think God calls married men to be husbands and fathers first and foremost. I have to admit though I think a lesser man wouldn't have disclosed such details as his young daughter not being able to recognize her mother.

This book was a "Masterpiece" of a book and I enjoyed every bit of it. I could clearly see that God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise for his glory. It will inspire and strenghten your faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Every parent and grandparent, every mentor, every Sunday school teacher, every educator should a copy of this book. This should be taught to our children.

I am 54 years old and was raised in a way that the poetry and stories mean something to me because of the era in which I was raised. Purity was prized, discipline by spanking was administered and appreciated in time because the alternative was much worse, which created self-discipline in most things. Honesty, responsibility, compassion, courage and faith have been lost in the last twenty years with the "me" generations getting everything they want with instant gratification. The children of today are about to come crashing down hard with the realities of life without virtues. It isn't easy. Nothing is free, and Bennett has compiled a tasteful way of learning some of the lessons without experiencing them personally, which I can tell you, my generation has experienced in spades. Sure, he could have put other stories in that could have expressed it differently, but these were the stories that moved him most, and when we write our "Book of Virtues" we can add the stories that mean the most to us. Reading the "American Book of Poetry" is where it started. Keep up the reading. Keep up the digging and striving for the virtues listed in the book. America needs people of virtue, people of honesty, even people of faith, because right now, the selfish "Gen-X" generation and their children are about to get our nation blown up by the very arrogance the British had that said we know better because of who we are and what we know. Sadly, they know nothing. They have no true hardship or challenges that forge the steel in their spines. Most can't even throw a punch, because violence has been bred out of them. Well, wake up, people, the world is violent, the world is harsh and tough, and without the virtues of self-discipline, faith and courage, they won't have the perseverance to survive.

This is at least the 10th copy I have purchased of this exact book.
Great for all ages, especially for us senior citizens that like to get transported back to our school years. Bennett is a fabulous author and I have bough his books of virtues & morality for my kids and grandkids.
I may buy another dozen for gifts in the future.

This book was well received for Christmas by our daughter and son-in-law. May they enjoy it for years to come, now that they have a new little family...Excellent service, by the way, from PAM, at EQUALITYBOOKS. I'll do business there again in the future.

This is a must read for every person and a must have for every library. B of V is a book filled with moral lessons that remind us of principles we were taught while growing up. Children and adults can glean from it's wisdom.

Turning Pages Book Club, members would like to congratulate Walter Mosley on another great mystery novel.
This storyline takes place in the late 1960's in both Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, which made this storyline extra special for those of us from the "Bay Area".
Our hero the fantastic "Detective Easy Rawlins" in this story revels a sensitive side of "Easy" that has not been introduced much in the previous novels by Mr. Mosley.
Due to the fact that his daughter, "Feather" needs a life saving surgery which will cost $35,000, and this surgery will have to be done in Switzerland, it is a wonder,"Easy" can focus on the business at hand with total concentration.
As usual Mr. Mosley comes up with a unique storyline that captures the reader to the end of his novels and still asking for more. He has the unique capacity to make you laugh, angry and weep all at the same time while reading his murder/mysteries, which star non- other than "Easy", his wild, for real crazy, but always has his back-homeboy-"Mouse", and his homeboy-genius,scared of his own-shadow, friend-Jackson Blue", the person who got him into this mess, while trying to help him out, his friend Saul Lynx who is also a private investigator.
While,Mr. Mosley keeps many of his old characters he always adds new and colorful ones to this novel: Christmas Black -a Vietnam war hero/unhero and his adopted daughter, Easter Dawn, then there is the private investigator-Robert E. Lee and the star of the story "Cinnamon Cargill" and her lover Alex Bowers who have vanished for no apparent reason. Robert E. Lee, who is a Private Investigator, himself is willing to pay $10,000 up front for Ms. Cargill and Mr. Bowers to be found, with the promise of more after they are found. (Makes you want to go "hum").
Well, Easy has an offer from his friend Mouse,(who is trying to help Easy get some quick money), a set-up armed robbery scheme and then there is the offer from his friend Saul, of the simple double missing persons incident up in San Francisco? Well, what would you do, if you are an upstanding citizen in your community, role model at the school where you are employed and have children? Easy, takes the more legitimate sounding offer and heads off to San Francisco to meet Robert E. Lee for this mysterious assignment. This simple missing persons assignment takes him through San Francisco's Haight Ashberry during the prime "love and peace" era of the late 60's then across the bay to Berkeley, back and forth to Los Angles on a wild expedition to solve a mystery that seems very simple until people turn up dead and a crazed, serial killer/assassin by the name of Joe Cicero shows up on the scene. Then, everything seems to start rapidly moving throughout the story with dead bodies showing up, at every address that "Easy" is directed to shows up at and, of course all fingers are pointing at him. The first person he locates is found dead in Berkeley, and the great PI who hired him Mr. Lee, doesn't know this? Finally, when he does locate "Cinnamon Cargill", in Los Angeles,another dead body shows up at the location where she is staying. This gets to be a little unnerving for a simple missing persons investigation or is it really that simple?
This murder/mystery novel covers, crimes in history that were committed during World War II in Nazi Germany, and then brings you back to crimes during the Vietnam War.
Mr. Mosley is a very descriptive writer, who can describe a scene so vividly you could paint a picture from his words; (pg. 307-"I drove my rental car for hours, but it seemed like several days, bleeding on the steering wheel and down my....").
This murder mystery novel was so exhilarating and full of action that I just can't wait to read the next Walter Mosley mystery to see what happens next?

I read it in three nights, just fantastic from start to finish. Highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys great mysteries and suspense.

If you like Easy Rollins you will like this. It is that simple. Walter Moseley seems to get better with age and so does Easy. He smarter, deeper and more sensitive. Great read. If you haven't read any of this series start further back with Devil in The Blue Dress or Black Betty. But it's all good.

Easy Rawlin's is hired by a world famous PI (who models himself after Civil War General Robert E. Lee) to find a young black woman called Cinnamon. Easy takes the job only because his daughter Feather is in need of an experimental and costly medical procedure outside of the US. Easy finds that he is not the only person in search of Cinnamon. He, and his family are soon threatened. Despite the odds, Easy continues his search and uncovers a secret that people are willing to kill for it. This is a very well written novel that immediately pulls you into the story. Walter Mosley's descriptions of people and places are vivid and real. If you have a chance to read this, I would highly recommend that you do.

Lost Hours
Xiii

I'm a great fan of Walter Mosley and specifically his always reluctant hero, Easy Rawlins. Once I finished "Little Scarlet" (loved it!!), I revelled in the afterglow of that one before I began "Cinnamon Kiss". Once again Mr. Mosley's writing is descriptive and visual, effectively placing the reader on Easy's shoulder...watching all the action. Surrounded by intrigue and beautiful women, Easy seems almost overmatched as he simultaneously grapples with some life-changing domestic issues. Although Mr. Mosley still weaves his artful spell over us with his layered and textured writing style, at times I found myself yelling at Easy for his lapses in good judgement and knew it was only a matter of time before he allowed his emotions to overrule his common sense. In spite of this, "Cinnamon Kiss" faithfully portrays how America began to morph into a more accepting society...the hippies, the shift in racial attitudes, the blending of our nation. And, the complex plot keeps you guessing from start to finish. The wrap up of the case is very clever and made me smile, the wrap up with his personal life...not so much. Nonetheless, Walter you are still my hero and I can only hope that my novel Native Intelligence will help me build a fan base as loyal as yours.