In Teacher Man Frank turns his attention to the subject that he most often talks about in his lectures-teaching: why it’s so important, why it’s so undervalued. He describes his own coming of age-as a teacher, a storyteller, and, ultimately, a writer. He is alternately humble and mischievous, downtrodden and rebellious. He instinctively identifies with the underdog; his sympathies lie more with students than administrators. It takes him almost fifteen years to find his voice in the classroom, but what’s clear in the thrilling pages of Teacher Man is that from the beginning he seizes and holds his students’ attention by telling them memorable stories. And then it takes him another fifteen years to find his voice on the page.

With all the wit, charm, irreverence, and poignancy that made Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis so universally beloved, Frank McCourt tells his most exhilarating story yet-how he became a writer.

Liked:

• McCourt seemed like a wonderful teacher. In my academic career, I’ve had teachers that I’ve liked or admired, but none that truly inspired me. I have a feeling that MANY of McCourt’s students did receive a fair amount of inspiration along with their instruction, and for that I envy them. He mainly taught English, but I have a feeling that even if he taught wood shop or beginner guitar lessons, he would have been just as lovable.
• This book is funny and poignant in many places. This was the first McCourt book I’ve ever read, so I didn’t know what to expect. I really like his style, though, and will be looking at his other works soon.
• The best parts of the book were the ones that dealt with students and classroom happenings. I liked hearing McCourt’s impression of his students (didn’t we all want to know what our teachers REALLY thought about us?), and thought it was fantastic when he ran into a former student on the street a few years after the kid graduated and told the young man that he loved him like a son. Wow!
• McCourt’s insight into teenagers’ feelings regarding teachers was absolutely spot-on. Every time he talked about what he should or shouldn’t do in the classroom and weighed the effect it would have on his students, I found myself nodding in agreement with him. Yes, when I was a high school student, that’s EXACTLY what I would have thought if my teacher did this, that, or the other.
• I giggled imagining McCourt struggling through a whole year with a class of 29 black girls and 2 Hispanic boys. What an odd grouping that sounded like. And when the “ringleader” of the class (I forgot her name…Serena, maybe?) moved away and then wrote back to tell McCourt that she was going to go to college and become a teacher…well, that just shows how much of a profound effect he had on students.

Disliked:

• There wasn’t much I disliked about this book, but I do have to say that the parts that veered into McCourt’s personal relationships with women, his odd jobs on the docks or wherever, and his adventures in grad school in Ireland weren’t that interesting to me. I skimmed most of those sections in order to get back to the kids and the classroom more quickly.

Rating:

I thought Teacher Man by Frank McCourt was a wonderful book. It brought back tons of memories from my own school days, along with a fair amount of wistfulness about never having had a teacher like McCourt. The digressions into his other jobs and his own schooling prevent me from giving this book a perfect rating, but it definitely deserves 4 stars out of 5.

Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White’s wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. If You Ask Me mixes her thoughtful observations with humorous stories from a seven- decade career in Hollywood. Longtime fans and new fans alike will relish Betty’s candid take on everything from her rumored crush on Robert Redford (true) to her beauty regimen (“I have no idea what color my hair is and I never intend to find out”) to the Facebook campaign that helped persuade her to host Saturday Night Live despite her having declined the hosting job three times already.

Featuring all-new material, with a focus on the past fifteen years of her life, If You Ask Me is funny, sweet, and to the point-just like Betty White.

Liked:

• I listened to the audiobook version, which was read by Betty herself. She seems like such a truly sweet person that I couldn’t help but perk up and pay attention the whole time.
• I love that Betty has a whole room in her house devoted to stuffed animals and that she actually talks to them — out loud — whenever she walks into the room. I only have a few stuffed animals, but I do exactly the same thing!
• I enjoyed hearing a little bit about the show business side of Betty’s life, including the Snickers Super Bowl commercial that revived her popularity and the SNL hosting gig. She talks about Hot in Cleveland too, but not as much as I expected she would.
• I’m glad that Betty says being 89 (or 90 now, I guess) isn’t an “achievement”, that it “just happens”. That’s so true. Betty shouldn’t be celebrated just because she’s 90. She should be celebrated because she’s 90 and is still going strong in show biz!
• There were a few mentions of The Golden Girls and her work on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I’m all for nostalgia and loved the little tidbits Betty shared.

Disliked:

• There’s no way I’m going to be too harsh on Betty, but one thing I didn’t like was that this book was very short! I just borrowed it from the library, so it wasn’t that big a deal to me, but I can’t imagine paying $25 for the hardcover as some people surely did. I heard there were practically more photos in the book than text, which is pretty crazy!

Rating:

New Betty White fans might be disappointed that there isn’t much substance to If You Ask Me; to those folks I say check out her previous two memoirs (Here We Go Again: My Life in Television and Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo) for a fuller account of her life. I think this new book is just fine to bring people up to date with the latest happenings in Betty’s life, and I for one am glad that she wrote it (and that I read it). That doesn’t automatically make the work fine literature, though. I give the book 3 stars out of 5.

Less than half a year after sniper school, he was fighting for his life. The mission: capture or kill Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. From rooftops, helicopters and alleys, Wasdin hunted Aidid and killed his men whenever possible. But everything went quickly to hell when his small band of soldiers found themselves fighting for their lives, cut off from help and desperately trying to rescue downed comrades during a routine mission. The Battle of Mogadishu, as it became known, left 18 American soldiers dead and 73 wounded.

No book takes readers deeper inside SEAL Team Six than this.

Liked:

• The parts about SEAL training were definitely the highlights of this book. It was interesting to get a look at all the physical and mental challenges the candidates had to face and to wonder how I would hold up in a similar situation (not very well). Making it through Hell Week and BUD/S, and then being selected for SEAL Team Six are accomplishments to be proud of. Note: I say this as a completely non-military person who has not read ANY other books about Navy SEALs before this one. If you’ve read a ton of stuff, then obviously your mileage may vary.
• The military often gets a bad rap, but this book just goes to show how much of a life-saver/changer the armed forces can be. Wasdin had very few prospects as a young man, but joining the Navy and trying out for the SEALs gave him purpose and direction. A lot of people need that.
• I’m glad that Wasdin is now a chiropractor and has found a career that he truly enjoys after bouncing around from job to job for a while. I checked out his website, and though he doesn’t look at all like what I picture a former SEAL to be, it’s cool that he’s happy and settled these days.
• The Somalia stuff was pretty neat, too. I especially liked how Wasdin contrasted what really happened with what was portrayed in the movie Black Hawk Down.

Disliked:

• This book was not well-written. Despite the presence of a co-author, both the prose and dialog were awkward, clunky, and disorganized. There were many stray sentences that seemed to have been thrown into the mix just for the hell of it without ever leading anywhere.
• I didn’t like the descriptions of fights . Reading about how Wasdin and his buddies fought 30 cops (yeah, right) or kicked a bunch of rednecks’ asses was tedious and made him sound like a jerk, not a tough guy.
• Similarly, I didn’t like reading how he squashed a rat with his boot (nasty!) or shot kangaroos in Australia or wild animals in Africa from a helicopter. The part about him practicing field medicine on a goat or sheep or whatever was disturbing as well. Yes, I understand that most of this had to do with training, but still… I would rather not have read about it.
• Call me crazy, but I don’t understand how Wasdin could make excuses for all the beatings his stepfather (allegedly) gave him. If I got beat that much, I don’t know if I’d EVER have it in my heart to forgive the person, let alone try to justify the person’s despicable actions.
• I wrote “allegedly” up there because I’ve read some stuff from Wasdin’s half-brother claiming that a significant portion of the childhood stuff was made up. I obviously can’t verify if this is true or not, but it does give me pause. In particular, MANY people have said the wild cat in the suitcase bit was a tale that has been going around since the ’50s, so who knows.
• Wasdin left the SEALs in the mid-’90s, so a lot of the stuff in here is outdated info. I was kind of hoping to learn more about the SEAL Team Six of today and how they operate with the latest technology.

Rating:

SEAL Team Six by Howard E. Wasdin does provide some good insight into what it took to become a Navy SEAL and join the elite Team Six snipers back in the day. This is not a perfect book and probably isn’t even one of the best SEAL books out there. But I think it’s sufficient for the casual reader and is interesting enough that you’ll want to plow through the boring parts (of which there are many). I give this one 3 stars out of 5.

She would go on to star in some of the most popular movies of the twentieth century, including Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Funny Face, The Nun’s Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and My Fair Lady. A friend and inspiration to renowned designer Hubert de Givenchy, Audrey emerged as a fashion icon as well as a film legend, her influence on women’s fashion virtually unparalleled to this day.

But behind the glamorous public persona, Audrey Hepburn was both a different and a deeper person and a woman who craved love and affection. Donald Spoto offers remarkable insights into her professional and personal relationships with her two husbands, and with celebrities such as Gregory Peck, William Holden, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Robert Anderson, Cary Grant, Peter O’Toole, Albert Finney and Ben Gazzara. The turbulent romances of her youth, her profound sympathy for the plight of hungry children, and the thrills and terrors of motherhood prepared Audrey for the final chapter in her life, as she devoted herself entirely to the charity efforts of an organization that had once come to her rescue at the end of the war: UNICEF.

Donald Spoto has written a poignant, funny and deeply moving biography of an unforgettable woman. At last, Enchantment reveals the private Audrey Hepburn—and invites readers to fall in love with her all over again.

Liked:

• As far as “old-time” actresses go, Audrey Hepburn has always been one of my favorites (though I’ve only seen a fraction of her films). I absolutely loved her in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Roman Holiday, and My Fair Lady, and also appreciated Funny Face and The Children’s Hour. I never knew anything about her private life, though, and was glad to finally read a biography about her.
• Spoto’s book goes into great detail about the filming of many of her most famous movies. This was interesting to me because a lot of it was simply new information. Again, I’d never read anything about Audrey’s life before, so I didn’t know any behind-the-scenes gossip about these films.
• It was great getting some insight into why Hepburn was such an avid promoter of UNICEF later in her life. I had no idea that she benefited from the Red Cross and similar relief efforts when she was a child, and that she was essentially “paying it forward” later on.
• I can only imagine the heartbreak Audrey went through during her three miscarriages — especially since she so desperately wanted to be a mother. Yes, she did end up having two healthy sons, but I’m sure the miscarriages stuck with her for a long time.
• Audrey sounded like such a kind, graceful person who rolled with everything that came her way, refused to hold grudges, and generally tried to be happy and make those around her happy. She was sooo NOT a diva, even though at the height of her popularity she certainly could have been. And she didn’t let major disappointments, such as not getting to sing in My Fair Lady (after having been told that they would use her voice) bring her down for long. It seemed like she had a fantastic attitude.
• I loved reading about her relationship with Givenchy. Again, I knew that Audrey was linked with the brand, but I didn’t know there was a genuine friendship between her and Hubert de Givenchy that lasted until she died.
• There were tons of footnotes in the book, which indicates that the author did a lot of research. That doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is correct and that the conjectures he put forth are accurate, but at least there’s an opportunity for readers to cross-reference anything they feel like delving into a bit deeper.

Disliked:

• I didn’t really care to read about Audrey’s various affairs with her leading men. I get that this was a part of her life and all that, but it kind of changed my views of her a little bit. As naive as this sounds, she always seemed so fresh and innocent on screen, and I don’t like having that image tarnished.
• Ditto about her smoking 3 packs of cigarettes per day. Wow. No cause was given for the rare cancer that began in her appendix and ended up killing her, but no doubt the smoking would have eventually caught up with her too.
• Spoto could have been a bit more balanced in the presentation. It seemed like he spent an inordinate amount of time describing some films (Funny Face, The Nun’s Story), while briefly glossing over others. I understand he had to limit himself and probably didn’t have the same amount of source material available for each movie, but the imbalance was strikingly noticeable.

Rating:

I thought Enchantment was a very good biography of Audrey Hepburn. Granted, it’s the only one I’ve ever read, but it did what I wanted it to do. Namely, the book gave me interesting insight into her private life and acting career, and allowed me to see some of the humanity behind the public persona. Although Audrey wasn’t perfect, she comes off very well in Spoto’s account and is definitely worthy of my admiration. I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

Then, during a desperate walk in the hills on New Year’ s Day, John was struck by the belief that his life might become at least tolerable if, instead of focusing on what he didn’ t have, he could find some way to be grateful for what he had.

Inspired by a beautiful, simple note his ex-girlfriend had sent to thank him for his Christmas gift, John imagined that he might find a way to feel grateful by writing thank-you notes. To keep himself going, he set himself a goal— come what may— of writing 365 thank-you notes in the coming year.

One by one, day after day, he began to handwrite thank yous— for gifts or kindnesses he’ d received from loved ones and coworkers, from past business associates and current foes, from college friends and doctors and store clerks and handymen and neighbors, and anyone, really, absolutely anyone, who’ d done him a good turn, however large or small. Immediately after he’ d sent his very first notes, significant and surprising benefits began to come John’ s way— from financial gain to true friendship, from weight loss to inner peace. While John wrote his notes, the economy collapsed, the bank across the street from his office failed, but thank-you note by thank-you note, John’ s whole life turned around.

365 Thank Yous is a rare memoir: its touching, immediately accessible message— and benefits— come to readers from the plainspoken storytelling of an ordinary man. Kralik sets a believable, doable example of how to live a miraculously good life. To read 365 Thank Yous is to be changed.

Liked:

• I like the idea of taking stock of your life and handwriting thank you notes to the people who have helped make a difference. Kralik approached the task as more of a “find something to be grateful for every day” exercise, which is absolutely necessary to reach 365 notes, but while reading, but I think my way works pretty well also.
• Kralik seemed to be pretty honest throughout the book. Obviously I have no way of knowing this for sure, but at least he admitted that the notes weren’t some miracle cure that suddenly helped make everything rosy and perfect. He was also honest about his own shortcomings, which was refreshing to hear in a memoir.
• The book refrained from being preachy. Kralik didn’t insist that EVERYONE should try what he did, nor did he proclaim that this was the way to salvage your soul. I can easily imagine other writers going there, which would have made me put the book aside without finishing it.

Disliked:

• I’m sorry, but some of the thank you notes were utterly cheesy. Handwriting a note to a Starbucks barista or the guy who installed a swimming pool safety net for the apartment complex??? Come on, that’s way too much of a stretch for most people’s lives. I try to be pleasant and friendly to cashiers and similar service providers, but I cannot imagine writing any of them a thank you note!
• Kralik’s life sounds pretty mundane and boring, so it took some slogging to get through even this very short book. All the stuff about training for a marathon and the state of his on-again off-again relationship with Grace practically put me to sleep.
• With a project like this, I think there was probably a good chance Kralik wrote at least a few of his thank you notes merely to satisfy his quota instead of because he was inspired by true feelings of gratitude. He never admitted as much, but I could definitely see that happening.
• This book wasn’t nearly as inspirational as I’d hoped. At first, I did feel like making a list of people to write thank yous to, but as the book plodded along, my interest began to wane. I think a big reason for this was the fact that so many of Kralik’s notes were about run-of-the-mill things like Christmas presents and birthday gifts. There’s nothing inspiring about sending a thank you for a gift; that’s just common courtesy.

Rating:

I have mixed feelings about 365 Thank Yous by John Kralik. On the one hand, the project clearly helped pull Kralik out of his funk and made him appreciate all the good things in his life. On the other hand, I probably won’t end up applying any of his advice to my own life. Yes, I try to be grateful for the little things — but not to the point that I would write a thank you note to the person who cuts my hair or serves my breakfast at McDonald’s. I give this one 3 stars out of 5.

Now, in Through My Eyes, Tebow brings readers everywhere an inspirational memoir about life as he chose to live it, revealing how his faith and family values, combined with his relentless will to succeed, have molded him into the person that he is today. As the son of Christian missionaries, Tebow has a unique story to tell—from the circumstances of his birth, to his home-schooled roots, to his record-setting collegiate football career with the Florida Gators and everything else that took place in between.

At every step, Tebow’s life has defied convention and expectation. While aspects of his life have been well-documented, the stories have always been filtered through the opinions and words of others. Through My Eyes is his passionate, firsthand, never-before-told account of how it all really happened.

Liked:

• This was truly an inspirational book for me. Not in a “finding the Lord” sense, though I’m sure that will probably happen to some people, but just in strictly a work ethic/giving it your all sort of way. To hear about how Tebow prepared for everything and took his training so seriously made me feel like adopting the same attitude towards my daily workouts.
• Tim Tebow strikes me as one of the sincerest professional athletes around. He doesn’t just talk the talk; he actually walks the walk. That’s very rare in this day and age, and I have a lot of respect for the young man on this account.
• Although Tebow “wears his religion on his sleeve,” as has been said a thousand and one times, he’s not overbearing and in-your-face about it. He doesn’t try to convert you with every word. He basically says what the Lord means to him and his life, but doesn’t say “You’re condemned to eternal damnation if you don’t covert RIGHT NOW.”
• Details, details, details. I’m not really a college football fan and have never been a part of Gator Nation in any way, shape, or form, but Tebow’s firsthand accounts of his four seasons at the University of Florida made for riveting reading. (Yes, you DO hvae to be a football fan of some sort to appreciate what he’s saying.) In fact, I was so intrigued by some of his exploits that I spent several hours on YouTube looking up clips of some of the specific incidents that he talked about. What an amazing career!
• I like that Tebow plans to use his platform as a professional athlete to spread a good message. Just from what I’ve read and what I’ve seen of him in interviews, I wouldn’t mind having my child look up to him as a role model.

Disliked:

• Yes, the religion stuff and the bible quotes got old after a while. On the one hand, I know that’s part and parcel of who Tebow is. On the other hand, I’m not religious at all, so just for me personally, the quotes got to be tiresome.
• I wish Tebow had given fans a better look at his relationship with coach Urban Meyer. He offered a few random scenes, but never fully articulated what Meyer meant to him beyond generic descriptions such as they were “close” and Meyer was a “father figure.” That could be determined even without reading the book; I wanted to know more specific ways that Meyer influenced Tebow.
• I wanted to learn more about Tim’s life as the big man on campus at UF. How did he deal with the celebrity aspect? Did students hound him for autographs in his classes? Was he able to walk across campus without getting stopped for pics and autographs? How did the professors treat him?

Rating:

Overall, I was pretty impressed by Through My Eyes. I was not a Tebow fan going into the book, but was merely curious as to what all the hype was about. Now, however, I really am a fan and am rooting for him to succeed even more than he has already. Tebow lovers and Gators would obviously love this book, but I think it has broader appeal as well (to football fans and/or Christians, at least). I give it 4 stars out of 5.

A Stolen Life was written by Jaycee herself and covers the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present. In her stark, compelling narrative, she opens up about what she experienced—and offers an extraordinary account of courage and resilience.

Note: This kind of book doesn’t really lend itself to my usual Like/Dislike format. Instead, I’ll just write about my overall impressions.

Reaction: I was simply blown away by this book. I’d heard of Jaycee Dugard’s amazing story, of course, but I hadn’t seen any interviews, so I wasn’t sure of where the young woman’s mind was at with regard to what happened to her. Amazingly, she seems to be doing much better than I ever would have expected. She has no room in her heart for hate and won’t waste the rest of her life letting Phillip Garrido continue to control her.

Jaycee was kidnapped in 1991 as an 11-year-old while walking to the school bus stop. Garrido, a convicted sex offender, took her for one reason only: to be his sex slave. He began by making Jaycee touch him that very first day, and then raped her a few days later. The brutal rapes continued for years and years, and resulted in Jaycee having her first child at 14, and her second at 17.

I just cannot even begin to imagine what it would have been like to be locked in a tiny room all day with your rapist being your only source of human contact. At 11 years old, Jaycee had no idea what was going on, so she naturally believed everything that Garrido told her. The mind control and manipulation was every bit as despicable as the sexual abuse, and is the main reason Jaycee never tried to escape during her 18 years in captivity. From reading her firsthand account of what was going on, I can’t say I blame her. She was 11, for god’s sake. She grew to depend on Garrido, and to a lesser extent on wife Nancy, for EVERYTHING. She didn’t know where she was or what was waiting for her outside the “backyard.” Despite the rapes, she at least felt safe at the Garrido place — and this became more important than anything else after her girls were born.

It was heart-wrenching to read Jaycee’s journal pages and learn how she worried so much because her mother’s face was fading from memory. She agonized over the pain her mother must have been going through and wondered if her mother thought she was dead. Again, I just can’t imagine having to wrestle with those kinds of thoughts.

One thing that helped Jaycee cope was having a pet. She actually had several cats early on, but Garrido would always take them away, saying he didn’t like the urine smell in the rape room because it took him out of his fantasies or whatever. My god. Garrido told Jaycee that he always gave the cats to his aunt, who loved them, but later on Nancy let on that maybe he was torturing them or something. Seriously, this man had ZERO redeeming qualities at all.

Jaycee’s rescue was poignant, mostly because even then, at age 29, she was so much under Phillip’s control that she couldn’t bring herself to tell police officers right away who she was. She tried to lie and cover for Garrido even then. And she couldn’t say her name even when it was safe to do so. The only way the cops got an inkling as to her identity was when she wrote it down on a piece of paper. Wow.

I thought I would read this book and cry a lot, or maybe not even be able to get through it at all. But that wasn’t the case. Jaycee’s strength and dignity come through loud and clear on every page, and made me realize that she is not someone to be pitied. Rather, she is someone to be admired because of her sheer resilience and her survival skills.

I’ve read other reviews where people have complained about how much Jaycee talks about her cats or how there’s a lack of hatred and ranting towards the Garridos. But those points didn’t bother me at all. The cats were Jaycee’s only source of love and companionship, so of course they took on special meaning for her. Plus, she doesn’t remember every little thing that happened to her. Her mind has suppressed a lot, which is a normal coping mechanism for those circumstances. And as stated above, she refuses to waste time hating the Garridos, so I’m not sure what would be accomplished by a rant.

Fortunately, Jaycee’s therapy seems to have put her in a good place. She’ll continue to get help, and she’ll continue to thrive. Of that, I have no doubt.

Rating:

Although this wasn’t a perfect book, I wouldn’t feel right giving it any less than 5 stars out of 5. I finished it in less than 24 hours because the story was so gripping and Jaycee told it in such a straightforward manner. This was a very engrossing read.

A teen idol at fifteen, an international icon and founder of the Brat Pack at twenty, and one of Hollywood’s top stars to this day, Rob Lowe chronicles his experiences as a painfully misunderstood child actor in Ohio uprooted to the wild counterculture of mid-seventies Malibu, where he embarked on his unrelenting pursuit of a career in Hollywood.

The Outsiders placed Lowe at the birth of the modern youth movement in the entertainment industry. During his time on The West Wing, he witnessed the surreal nexus of show business and politics both on the set and in the actual White House. And in between are deft and humorous stories of the wild excesses that marked the eighties, leading to his quest for family and sobriety.

Never mean-spirited or salacious, Lowe delivers unexpected glimpses into his successes, disappointments, relationships, and one-of-a-kind encounters with people who shaped our world over the last twenty-five years. These stories are as entertaining as they are unforgettable.

Liked:

• This was a surprisingly well-written book — possibly the best I’ve ever read by a celebrity. It’s impressive because Lowe is said to have written this himself without the help of a ghostwriter. Some people apparently doubt this, but I believe it. Why? Because I follow his Twitter feed and I can tell from the way he writes on there that he is quite literate.
• I loved how Lowe met all these budding stars during his teen years: Chris and Sean Penn, Charlie Sheen, and Emilio Estevez were neighbors and pals. Holly Robinson and Dean Cain went to Lowe’s high school. He met Janet Jackson and Sarah Jessica Parker before they hit the big time. Etc. It was just cool to hear how all these lives intersected.
• Lowe provided some really interesting insight about how The West Wing got off the ground. I wish there had been more details, though.
• I appreciated that Lowe realizes just how absurd celebrity worship is. He lived it in the early ’80s before the Internet made celeb stalking commonplace. I can’t imagine what his life would have been like if we’d had the Internet back then.
• This book made me realize that there are a TON of Rob Lowe movies that I haven’t seen yet. I think a trip to the DVD store is in order!

Disliked:

• I thought he spent way too much time on The Outsiders. Yeah, it was his first major motion picture, but it wasn’t his best work. He barely spent any time talking about St. Elmo’s Fire or About Last Night, both of which truly put him on the global map.
• This was a highly sanitized version of his partying days. Lowe made it sound like he was just drinking and harmlessly sowing his wild oats with different women. But there was no mention of his heavy drug use or how he cheated constantly on Melissa Gilbert. (Um, calling her an “on-again, off-again” girlfriend doesn’t cut it.) Obviously it’s Lowe’s prerogative not to mention these things (and how many of us would really tell our deepest, darkest secrets?), but readers should know what they’re NOT getting.
• Similarly, there’s barely a paragraph about the infamous sex tape incident — the first of its kind for a celebrity of that magnitude — and only a throwaway line about one of the participants being 16. No mention of the subsequent trial or any details of the fallout.

Rating:

As I said, I was totally surprised at how good Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe is. It’s not full of dirt and gossip, yet nevertheless is a page-turner that made me long for the good old days of the ’80s. I wasn’t a particularly big Rob Lowe fan back then, but I am now. I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

In this succinct portrait of Alexander the Great, distinguished scholar and historian Norman Cantor illuminates the personal life and military conquests of this most legendary of men. Cantor draws from the major writings of Alexander’s contemporaries combined with the most recent psychological and cultural studies to show Alexander as he was — a great figure in the ancient world whose puzzling personality greatly fueled his military accomplishments.

He describes Alexander’s ambiguous relationship with his father, Philip II of Macedon; his oedipal involvement with his mother, the Albanian princess Olympias; and his bisexuality. He traces Alexander’s attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, using Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, as his model. Finally, Cantor explores Alexander’s view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt.

More than a biography, Norman Cantor’s Alexander the Great is a psychological rendering of a man of his time.

Liked:

• The only thing I liked about this book was its length. Thank god it was short, so I didn’t have to waste more than a few hours of my life on this drivel.

Disliked:

• The writing style is absolutely terrible. The book reads like a bad thesis, complete with authorial questions that go unanswered, unsubstantiated statements of opinion, and heavy sampling from one source (Peter Green) at the expense of all others. I simply cannot believe this was published as a serious, scholarly work. I am no expert in historical biographies, but even I could tell right from the beginning that something was seriously off about this book.
• I lost count of how many times the author contradicted himself. First he said that Alexander “never” rode into battle without Bucephalus (his faithful horse), but then just a few pages later, Cantor tells of a time when Alexander did just that because Bucephalus was injured or something. Towards the end of the book, Cantor said Alexander’s army numbered 85,000 at the outset of a desert crossing, and emerged with only 25,000. Later, Cantor said that “at least 25,000″ Greek soldiers met their deaths while in Alexander’s command. While “at least 25,000″ might be technically correct, I don’t understand why Cantor chose that particular number, given that 60,000 were lost in one episode. Even if there were civilians (i.e. women and children) counted among the 85,000, Cantor’s number just doesn’t make sense.
• Cantor spent an inordinate amount of time discussing Alexander’s sex life. Why he was fixated on that, I’ll never know. So Alexander had a male lover like most other Greek men of the time. Big deal! I got the feeling maybe Cantor wanted to add some titillation to his book. Again, that’s hardly the stuff of scholars.
• Does this book add anything to our collective knowledge and understanding of Alexander the Great? Again, I’m no expert, but I’d say not. (And judging by some of the other reviews this work has received, I’m not alone in my opinion.)

Rating:

I used to love Greek and Roman history once upon a time, and thought it would be fun to get back into those subjects again by reading Alexander the Great by Norman F. Cantor. What a mistake that was! Unless you’re intrigued by the idea of a book that reads like the work of an average college student, I’d stay away from this one. Surely there are better, more insightful treatments out there. I give this book 1 star out of 5.

After a quarter of a century of the Oprah-ization of America, can there be any more secrets left to reveal?

Yes. Because Oprah has met her match.

Kitty Kelley has, over the same period of time, fearlessly and relentlessly investigated and written about the world’s most revered icons: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, England’s Royal Family, and the Bush dynasty. In her #1 bestselling biographies, she has exposed truths and exploded myths to uncover the real human beings that exist behind their manufactured facades.

Turning her reportorial sights on Oprah, Kelley has now given us an unvarnished look at the stories Oprah’s told and the life she’s led. Kelley has talked to Oprah’s closest family members and business associates. She has obtained court records, birth certificates, financial and tax records, and even copies of Oprah’s legendary (and punishing) confidentiality agreements. She has probed every aspect of Oprah Winfrey’s life, and it is as if she’s written the most extraordinary segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show ever filmed—one in which Oprah herself is finally and fully revealed.

There is a case to be made, and it is certainly made in this book, that Oprah Winfrey is an important, and even great, figure of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. But there is also a case to be made that even greatness needs to be examined and put under a microscope. Fact must be separated from myth, truth from hype. Kitty Kelley has made that separation, showing both sides of Oprah as they have never been shown before. In doing so she has written a psychologically perceptive and meticulously researched book that will surprise and thrill everyone who reads it.

Liked:

• I thought this was a mostly balanced account of Oprah’s public life. The the author made it fairly obvious that she didn’t much care for Oprah or Oprah’s tactics, I thought she showed restraint and didn’t interject too much speculation or opinion along the way. I guess the limited commentary was necessary, though, otherwise Oprah’s lawyers would have been all over the book in a heartbeat.
• I didn’t know anything about Oprah’s life prior to coming in. Sure, I’d heard about the sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted family member, but the baby, prostitution, and drug use were completely new to me. In that regard, the book was rather informative.
• I had no idea that Oprah keeps such tight rein on every little thing associated with her image. From the sweeping NDAs that employees must sign to the purchasing of the rights to every photo snapped of her… wow, there is a woman obsessed with control. I’m glad that Kelley was able to score some of the NDAs and quote them for readers to see how detailed and all-encompassing they were.
• I thought the looks at the Oprah-Stedman-Gayle triangle were interesting. I always thought Oprah and Stedman seemed like an odd couple, and Kelley confirms this by quoting Oprah’s interior designer or architect (I forgot the guy’s exact title), who said that even in their home Stedman is a mere afterthought. I don’t know if Oprah and Gayle’s relationship is sexual, but I have always believed they are closer than Oprah ever was to Stedman.

Disliked:

• This book was way too long and repetitive. Kelley wrote at length about all the inconsistencies in Oprah’s various accounts of her own childhood, and while I understand Kelley’s desire to be thorough, I think readers would be able to draw their own conclusions even with far fewer examples.
• I didn’t like Kelley’s charts showing Oprah’s donations to charity compared to her earnings. I have never been of the opinion that rich people are obligated to donate money, and felt that Kelley was somehow trying to shame Oprah by saying she only gave away 5% of her income or whatever it was. That was in poor taste, IMO.
• Similarly, I feel that rich people should be able to spend their money on lavish items if they want to, without incurring judgment from others. So what if Oprah has a bathtub the “size of a pond”? Her spending $200,000 on something is probably equivalent to the average person spending $200, so what seems extravagant to us doesn’t seem so to others. It’s all relative, ya know? Do people really expect Oprah to get her bathroom from Home Depot or shop at Wal-Mart for extra savings? Come on!

Rating:

I don’t feel strongly about Oprah Winfrey one way or the other, but do tend to view her more favorably than not. I wanted to read this book because of all the hoopla surrounding Oprah’s final show, and I guess it was worth my time. Some of the chapters were riveting, while others made my eyes glass over, but all in all, Oprah by Kitty Kelley was informative without being gossipy. If you’re already a fan of Oprah’s then you probably won’t learn anything new here; if you’ve never spent much time reading about the queen of talk, then you’ll learn a few tidbits. I give the book 3 stars out of 5.