Biography Books

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was a poor Kentuckian who rose to national stature becoming elected our 16th President of the United States in 1861. Most lists of the best presidents place him at the top. His wife Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) was the daughter of the socially prominent Todd family of Lexington, Ky. Their marriage was difficult, tragic and worthy of the skills of a great biographer.Epstein succeeds in his portrayal of their troubled life together in nineteenth century frontier America and in the halls of power in Washington DC during the dark days of the Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln married Mary in 1842. They were living in Springfield, Illinois where the state capital had recently been relocated from Vadelia.
Abraham had raised himself by the bootstraps., He began life as a poor lad growing up with very little schooling on the Kentucky and Indiana frontier. After migrating to Illinois he tried his hands at many jobs before become a circuit riding lawyer. Mary was a wealthy woman from Lexington who spoke French, was well educated and grew up a few miles from the home of Kentucky's famous Whig Senator Henry Clay. Mutual friends brought the two together drawn by passion, Whig politics and wit.
After a stormy courtship which led to a time of separation the two were wed in 1842. Lincoln was tall while Mary was short. Mary had a vicious temper, tart tongue and was moody. Lincoln and she became the parents of four sons. Robert the eldest was a Harvard graduate and became president of a railroad company. Eddie died in 1850 while Willie died in 1852 as a result of cholera while living in the White House. Tad died in 1871. Mary and Abraham were permissive parents; Mary never got over the tragic loss of her sons and two of her brothers fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The two were often apart for weeks as Lincoln tried cases across Illinois and served a term as a congressmen in Washington during the Polk administration. =Mary and the boys tried life in Washington but grew homesick for Kentucky and Illinois leaving the lonely Lincoln to fulfill his term as a one term congressman who opposed the Mexican War.
Lincoln won the White House as a Republican in the election of 1860 facing the problems of civil war. Northerners falsely accused Mary of being a Southern spy! Mary was much scorned by elite Washington society as being a crude Westerner. She spent lavishly on redecorating the White House earning a good deal of justifiable criticism from the public and her own frugal husband. Mary was jealous of other younger and more beautiful women in wartime Washington.
Abraham Lincoln was a melancholy man who kept his thoughts to himself. He was intellectually miles ahead of the moody Mary. The two kept relatively separate lives during the dark days of the Civil War. They did love one another and neither had extramarital affairs. President Lincoln knew how to handle Mary in her time of mental afflictions even though he sometimes suffered her wrath. She was known as a hellcat and many found it difficult to work with her. Others such as Senator Charles Sumner considered her a friend. Mary had a good heart often visiting wounded soldiers and helping friends. She was not an easy person to know or like.
Tragedy came to the couple when Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre on April 15, 1865. Mary was devasted never really recovering her mental stability following the death of Abraham, her children and the tragedies of the Civil War.
Hundreds of books have been written about both Lincolns but this is the best popular and readable history of their marital life. Epstein has done his homework.Epstein makes his two complex subjects come alive for the reader. The book is over 500 pages of small print which is detailed but never dull. An excellent book by an excellent biographer. Highly recommended!

The "portrait" of this famous couple's relationship is not an accurate portrayal, rather it is a whitewashing of Mary Lincoln's destructive role in it. While there can be no doubt that it began with great cherishing on both sides, Mary's narcissistic, violent and venal character twisted their love into something so meaningless that little survived it but tolerant loyalty on his part and hysteria on hers.

As the author admits, it is no longer fashionable to paint Lincoln as a saint and the movement to rehabilitate Mary has gained momentum of late, especially as evidenced by Epstein's own "Portrait." In truth, Mary represented a civil war within the Lincolns' personal lives and was the worst possible mate for this complex man.

Nonetheless, Epstein would have you believe that Mary gave Lincoln self-confidence, was his intellectual equal, provided a nourishing home life and partnered him in his ambitions. She had long ago determined to marry a "president" and by damn, she'd make her man one even if he was too gutless to do it himself. And thus you have Epstein's version of Mary the dynamo and Lincoln her bright but vacillating vessel.

The objective evidence of their lives (i.e., less advocacy-prone studies than Epstein's), indicate that the substantive merit was on Lincoln's part and Mary was at first helpful, then incidental and finally detrimental to his success. Long before they reached the White House, Mary had become an albatross; unstable and frightening.

At first she was an amazing catch for this gangly lad - pretty and vivacious, well-connected, educated and flatteringly adoring. But the flaws in her personality surfaced within months of their marriage when he, abstracted at breakfast one morning, failed to take note of her chatter and she threw a cup of scalding coffee in his face, witnessed with horror by several residents of their boarding house. Other incidents of hitting, screaming, and slapping followed - including one when she smashed his face with a piece of firewood and another when she attacked him with a kitchen knife. And these were pre-presidential public displays - God knows what happened when no one was present to report it.

And how does Epstein report such violence? "So she struck her husband from time to time..." Not a big deal. It was beyond her control. And Lincoln "sulked and brooded and grieved over it if he could not laugh it off." Like most domestic abusers, Mary was contrite, but repeated the addictive behavior. And thank God for servants because she could beat them with impunity and regularly did so.

Mary's violence was so notable that the Springfield sheriff reported that Lincoln would sometimes pick up one of the boys and walk away until Mary "returned to her senses". Epstein writes about this domestic horror like it was just a normal backyard tiff instead of Lincoln trying to escape his wife's violent rages and protecting his children from possible harm. Epstein hustles this ugliness offstage in preference to imaginary scenes of fireside bliss where the two of them read poetry and Shakespeare and Lincoln even reworked his political speeches until the astute Mary was satisfied.

What astonished this reader more than Epstein's scenes of fictional harmony in Springfield was his deliberate refusal to acknowledge Mary's latent and later, patently manifest, mental illness. She suffered bouts of "moodiness", yes he admits that, but bi-polar? Epstein never mentions it, even in view of today's understanding of Mary's severe mental illness. (See Robert Lincoln's "Insanity File", in which her son discloses during conservatorship proceeding Mary's post-assassination paranoia, obsessive/compulsiveness and bizarre hallucinations: iron pins coming out of her eyes, an Indian ghost who peeled back her skull and removed her brains, then replaced them, and endless purchasing of hundreds of articles of unused clothing and curtains.)

The minutiae of the Lincolns' political journey to the White House is exhaustively documented, as is the marital breakdown the couple sustained once they had achieved their presidential dream.

Lincoln did the best he could for the good of the union and suffered for it profoundly. Mary, meanwhile, indulged in expensive shopping junkets, embezzled government funds, took instantly to influence peddling for her family and friends, tampered with the White House payroll, and engaged in actual treason. She was seen by all who interacted with her as overbearing, strange and demonic, even evil.

But it wasn't Mary's fault! It was the lack of time with her husband, her natural innocence and lack of a moral compass! It was Willie's sad death and the pressure and frustration of the job of having to look pretty and entertain all those people. No one understood the headaches and work, the having so much money to spend, and her desperation in trying to hide it once it got out of hand. Mary's sojourn as First Lady is a nightmare to read, but really, urges Epstein, don't blame her.

Epstein manages to equate Lincoln's failure to share military/state secrets with his duplicitous wife to a justifiable quid pro quo refusal on her part to come clean on her secret spending and unsavory relationships. And while Lincoln worked in a coma of exhaustion, Mary's sole objective was to keep him from knowing how serious her underhanded deeds had become. And of course to keep spending, spending, spending.

Lincoln's assassination was both a shock and relief to Mary, a horrible thing to say even now. But Mary's self interest had clearly grown beyond her. Narcissistic, mad and self indulgent as she was, Lincoln had been the only person who gave her latitude, compassion and tolerance, and it is no wonder that she lost her small scrap of sanity when he died. Lincoln had reigned in, even controlled to some degree, Mary's most unmanageable and disturbed personality manifestations, and his death triggered a complete implosion that lasted until her death seventeen later.

Anyone who parses the endless Lincoln studies knows well that, however great his genius, Lincoln was tortured by his own neurotic, insecure and depressive nature. But he was not psychotic. Mary was, destructively so.

"The Lincolns: A Portrait of a Marriage" is a long read and a well-researched one, but too partisan for a healthy portrayal of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln and the reality of their internal dynamics. Worse, it minimizes the damage Mary's madness and greed had upon a truly great man and a nation in shock at itself.

Five stars for research but one for conspicuous bias = two stars.

One might have thought there would be little more to say about Abraham Lincoln, certainly not enough to fill a 500-page book. But that would be incorrect. Epstein's Lincoln is often distracted, sometimes depressed, always under stress, yet caring and psychologically in tune with his troubled wife. Although there were unexplainable tantrums, jealousies, and shopping sprees that he couldn't tolerate, he still drew on a deep reservoir of love. Long before we understood mental illness as we do today, Abraham Lincoln knew that Mary was a basically good woman who was suffering from a serious disease.

Epstein writes like the poet that he is, and he never loses sight of his goal -- to portray the marriage of these two fascinating people. Events such as the Gettysburg Address are hardly mentioned. We know something about them already, so Epstein looks at what was really going on in the White House living quarters at that time.

Epstein uses his sources seamlessly, drawing on letters and memoirs of obscure people to illuminate the Lincolns' marriage. This would have been a five-star review, except that I found the first 50 pages somewhat difficult to follow. Epstein plunges into the political and social spheres of Springfield, Illinois, bringing in dozens of characters, in a way that I found hard to keep up with. This problem quickly resolves itself, however.

Well researched with excellent writing, Epstein catures the fascinating and complex relationship of Abe and Mary. Although much has been written on Abe, Epstein provides a full and human description of Mary who was a voluptuous, intelligent beauty in her youth that was well sought by many prominent beaus including Stephen Douglas. The courtship is fascinating by itself as the poor struggling lawyer appears no match for the well kept after Mary and his sudden break of their relationship is full of mystery as Abe becomes seriously ill and the author providess more than speculation as to the cause. The return to Mary in a secret courtship includes their intellectual sharing of poetry and reading, including guarded private moments that all lead to a sudden marraige followed by Robert's birth in quick time. Epstein details the life of Lincolns from their living in a small room in a rooming house while raising their small children, adding to personal stress, till they landed their own homw with Abe's better fortunes and assistance from the Todd family. The revelations of Mary's actions are quite fascinating as she was high strung, emotional and needed more attention than Abe could give that sometimes resulted in sudden and dramatic harsh treatment such as hot coffee to his face to a wrap across the nose with a piece of firewood. Honest Abe, from a variety of examined correspondence was not so political naive but could also play the political gameship well even in his runs for congress. The most fascinating part of the book is of course in the white house where Mary's desire for extravaant spending involveding finacial corruption, her interference with politics, her jealousy over her husband and her extended grief over the death of Willie creates serious strain between the couple. Abe's incredulous stress load only increases as he not only has the war and politics but his wife's often erratic behavior and personal vendettas that are other burdens he must carry as well as caring for young Tad. As Epstein discusses, Mary's head injury from a run away carraige may have caused brain trauma that may never have been resolved as demonstrated by severe outbursts most significantly just before Lincoln's death. And Lincoln's own behavior, dramatically limiting his personal security as noted to his walking into Richmond with a limited escort, his exposing himself at Fort Stephens in the face of Confederates and his toying with his cavalry escorts says something about his feelings of fate. There is no doubt that both loved each other very much but the Presidency, in time of war, certainly strained the relationship between the two as evidenced by Mary's mental health and Abe's physical. Just over 500 pages not counting notes and index and in heavy paper that make this hard back edition a collector's item. A very fluently written book that makes it hard to put down as the author is a great story teller, writer with the documentation to support his telling.

I have not finished this book yet but will soldier on through to the end. I have read so many books about Abraham Lincoln and also about Mary Todd Lincoln and have found them much more readable. I feel the author has tried to drag out the narrative to fill a 500 page book. The lives of A. and M.T. Lincoln are so compelling and the book should be as well. P

A book presenting a different viewpoint from which to evaluate two great English authors, Orwell and Waugh.

David Lebedoff makes an extended argument that these two, although wildly unalike in terms of life style and religion, were both masters of English prose and insightful moral thinkers of the first order.

I benefited from Mr. Lebedoff's own thinking, presented in the latter part of his book, on the current state of affairs as to writing (e-mail), politically correct behavior (group think), and the sorry lack of time devoted by most to the great questions of life.

I also join Mr. Lebedoff in highly recommending Evelyn Waugh's grandson's recent book, "Fathers and Sons".

This is a very enjoyable book to read. I read it while driving across the United States on my vacation. I must definitely read it again.
Lebedoff has done his research very well. He has identified the essence of the similarities in the literary diction of both of Waugh and Orwell. It was very rewarding to read of Blair's, i.e., Orwell's, the U-upbringing, education and diction and his political-artistic rebellion against it. Equally rewarding was to read about Waugh's genuine transformation into the upper classes as well as the genuineness of his of his religious conversion. The notes on Orwell's hidden faith and Christian burial will make some of his radical socialist admirers wince -- good! A totally pleasurable read as high class literary salon chatter: where we come and go talking of Orwell and Waugh, and serious analysis of the literary and social in England.

Lebedoff slips off his literary platform when he makes comments about current American political and religious conservative supposed principles and practices.

Looking back over fifty years, Dave Lebedoff sees two men, from differing backgrounds and experience who, in their literary works,presciently saw what now appears to be the truth: a decline of morality, and the substitution of situational ethics. Celebrity seems to define our world, and we have no societal fibre which recognizes any higher power. We will sign anywhere as free agents. This book is a good read: witty in the best sense, thorougly researched and it makes a point.

Viscount Bolingbroke

One of the pleasures of wandering through a brick-and-mortar bookstore is the opportunity to stumble across a marvelous book quite by chance. Such was the case with David Lebedoff's small but substantial "The Same Man". A dual biography of George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, "The Same Man" proposes to show that for all their external differences Orwell and Waugh were essentially two sides of the same coin. I thought this a difficult almost impossible task. I was wrong. Lebedoff's thesis is a compelling one and one he supports with both substance and no small amount of charm.

Lebedoff's Prologue sets out the external difference between Waugh and Orwell in a compelling manner. He takes a night in June 1930. It is one in which Waugh attends a grand dinner party in London thrown by the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. That same night, Lebedoff takes us to Leeds where Eric Blair/Orwell sits working in a shabby ill-lit room. To his friends and family Orwell was considered a sponger and a failure. As the narrative continues, Lebedoff points to the various other external differences between the men. Waugh seems to wish for nothing more than an opportunity (via marriage if need be) to turn his blood as blue as possible. His drive to insinuate himself into the upper reaches of Britain's aristocracy was obsessive. Orwell's path of downward mobility was as driven and as seemingly obsessive as Waugh's. Waugh was religious, a convert to Catholicism, and his faith deepened as the years went on. Orwell was secular and was as committed to his secular view of the world as possible. Their writing was also markedly different. Where Waugh may be said to have used a comic lens for his work I think it fair to say that Orwell used a much darker, despairing lens for his.

Lebedoff proceeds to lay out his case and his case may be summarized by the quotation that began this review. Both Orwell and Waugh strove mightily and wrote splendidly in search of or within "that little and certain compass." Lebedoff writes of both as appalled by the moral relativism of the day and I think that assessment is spot on. For both men truth is not nor could it ever be relative and the search for objective truth cannot or should not be distorted by the prevailing ideology of the day. The differences in writing and the window dressing of social caste pale, in Lebedoff's view, to this one great internal commonality - their possession of this fixed moral compass. I'm not sure I am in total agreement with Lebedoff's viewpoint but he makes his case well.

Two aspects of "The Same Man" stand out for me. First, Lebedoff's writing style is light and witty. Lebedoff writes in a conversational style that is neither leaden nor pretentious. This is not a literary deconstruction aimed at academics. But, at the same time Lebedoff avoids a trap that popular historians and/or biographers sometime fall into; he does not condescend to the reader. This is not "Orwell & Waugh for Dummies." The book also caused me to cast a new and measurably more informed eye over Waugh. I had made the all too common mistake of conflating the vapid, effete, empty-headed characters Waugh wrote about with the character of Waugh himself. I admit to sloughing Waugh off as a young man but "The Same Man" compelled me to correct that error. I've since read Scoop and Vile Bodies and am thankful for Lebedoff for being the causative factor in that act. I consider that high praise for Lebedoff. L. Fleisig

Mr. Lebedoff's thematic portrait of Messrs. Orwell (Blair) and Waugh is commendable for the true power of ideas and how they are used in the hands of masters---in a book remarkable in it's brevity. I would tend to agree with another reviewer that Mr. Lebedoff over-reaches (just a bit) when he describes these two remarkable men as the "greatest" of their generation----which is, of course, subjective (Lewis has my vote as being in their company). Nonetheless, this small volume is a magnificent contribution to our era of "political correctness" and the breath-taking lack of diverse intellectual inquiry at the university. Mr. Lebedoff correctly concludes that these two men, Orwell and Waugh, while vastly different were one in concluding that "modernity" holds much peril for the essential moral foundation on which Western civilization precariously rests.
A few quotes jumped off the page:

"What they had most in common was a hatred of moral relativism. They both believed that morality is absolute, though they defined and applied it differently. But each believed with all his heart, brain, and soul that there were such things as moral right and moral wrong, and that these were not subject to changes in fashion. Moral relativism was, in fact, the gravest of sins. Everything else they believed in common flowed from this basic perception."

"They opposed totalitarianism, period, and they opposed it with all their hearts...What both believed---their core, who they are---was that individual freedom mattered more than anything else on earth and reliance on tradition was the best way to maintain it."

"Their most fundamental concern was that the Modern Age would strip human beings of their humanity. They felt that man does not live by bread alone, and that the Modern Age would provide us exclusively with bread.
And circuses."

This little volume was a true pleasure---a breath of fresh air in a culture (world) of homogenized group think---and is has my highest possible recommendation. This book will find it's way to many of my friends as a gift---and all of my children.
Congratulations to Mr. Lebedoff!!! He is to be commended for a great work!!! I'm going to read it again this weekend!!

I rounded up. I'dve gone with a 4.5., mainly because I think that some points were belabored, but it was a hysterical memoir filled with mistakes and blunders, cursing and all-in-all a wonderful narrator. I think one of the paragraphs towards the end summed it up for me: "Sometimes, if you want to be happy, you've got to run away to Bath and marry a punk rocker. Sometimes you've got to dye your hair cobalt blue, or wander remote islands in Sicily, or cook your way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, for no good reason. Julia taught me that." In other words, life is messy. And that's if you're doing it right.

This lady is funny, quick witted, especially insightful and brutally honest. And I'm not talking about Julia Childs. I found this book belly-laugh funny. Even if you don't like to cook, it's a good read.

This blog/book is like a bag of Cheetos. It's so yummy and cheesy and you just can't stop and you really should stop and you kind of slow down and then you feel full and then you have another handful and then you fold up the bag and start to put it where you can't reach it and then you eat another handful and feel kind of yucky and then you wish you'd never seen those Cheetos ever because they weren't really that good to begin with. You don't eat Cheetos again for a long time. This book is a tidbit, not worth the money.

This book made me laugh and has inspired me to get on my cooking and baking spree again. The story is raw and real and I like that!
If you love cooking and baking and aren't a food snob....you will love this book! Julie and Julia...Thank You!

Some of the negative reviews seem oddly fixated on the authors swearing (?) or having sex (?) or even that she wastes/spends too much on food. (Doesn't all gourmet cooking do that by definition?) Why blame that on her? She also lives in the most expensive city in the US - her salary makes her poor there, she isn't exaggerating at all. She is a young woman living in New York - duh. So she curses and drinks and talks about sex. Big deal.

But on to the book - This is an unadorned look at a journey in someone's life, which happens to involve cooking and the divine Julia Child hovering over it all as sort of a cooking life-coach/ fairy godmother.....it isn't a cook book per se. The focus is on a discovery of self - it's a memoir. If you are looking for the wrong thing in a book - why blame the book? Blogs are diaries - remember them, those unvarnished outpourings of life's melodramatic struggle? That is what this is, albeit a bit more polished. I though it was intriguing and read it all in a short time - I wanted to see how she did. Maybe one needs to be at the age of self discovery or open to changes in lifes plan to see the merit.

I loved it, you may not, But it is an interesting journey to read, very uplifting and real. Her writing brings you into the story, you feel a real kinship...And there's butter...lots and lots of butter.

*By the way, she isn't mean to 9/11 survivors families as claimed by one review. The woman is not Ann Coulter, just someone who had a rather thankless job wherein she had to field a lot of PR complaints over things she had no control over. The rebuilding effort of the towers site is a political football in reality. Lighten up, people. You are seeing things that aren't there. And the reason that she is upset about her biological clock is that she was diagnosed with a chronic health problem, PCOS, which she will have to deal with for the rest of her life, making her very prone to infertility and certain cancers. There is no cure, no effective treatments - look it up those of you who accuse her of whining. It's no picnic.

Caro's triology on LBJ is unrivaled, and this volume might lay claim to the best of the bunch. LBJ's genius in leading the Senate is put on display, but also his raw ambition and dishonesty. Caro shows how LBJ is a model of how to lead and not to lead at the same time.

Anyone know? This is a masterful book series. The one on LBJ's presidency should be the best.

Despite what you think of LBJ, and I don't think much of him, Robert Caro's series on Johnson far surpasses any other books that have come before or after on Lyndon Johnson. In all three of Caro's volumes, he includes mini biographies of important people in Lyndon's life. In this volume, Senator Richard Russell, jr. of Georgia is given his due, and his importance as friend and adviser to LBJ. Also, the first 100 pages include a history of the US senate that could stand alone as a book unto itself. I can't wait for Caro's fourth volume, alas it probably won't be out for another five years.

Caro is a master writer. I found his book 'The Power Broker' about Robert Moses easily one of my top ten reads of all time, five star all the way. Johnson to me was not quite as interesting, but nevertheless this is a top notch book showing how Johnson came into the Senate and transformed it. No matter what one thinks of Johnson, if one is a student of American politics, this is a worthwhile book as it shows the influence of one man and what can be done. He was no saint, but he did manage to get things done. I am slowly working my way through it, it's been about 2 years, I keep picking it up and putting it down, but learn something every time.

I had read Robert Caro's book on Robert Moses, and I found Master of the Senate to be an equally well-written and insightful read about an even more complicated figure. Readers get a real sense of the dark character of Lyndon Johnson. The book also offers a revealing view of the inner workings of the U.S. Senate. His portraits of Richard Russell and Sam Rayburn are particularly poignant. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in 20th-century U.S. history, and for anyone who enjoys monumental biographies.

Martin shares his life as a "Boomer Freshman", complete with rekindling of adolescent problems he had thought were long buried, with humor and candor, and meanwhile gives those of us who feel sheepish about not having actually read the Greek Classics painless synopses set against observations on the geopolitical dramas of today and the author's all-too-real concerns about his own mortality. Amazingly, he's combined all of this in a quick and satisfying read that makes you feel like you've done something to better yourself.

Interwoven themes of mid-life personal growth and recovery, contemporary college education commentary, and snippets of Ancient Greek literary wisdom, with a refreshing and upbeat message! This book has it all, from the serious to the humorous, as a tranformative tale of work, love, mind ,and body. It is uplifting and deftly done. The author describes a personal journey that adds new meaning to being a 'life-long learner'. And, he documents the life force of youth in current culture against a backdrop of literature that spans human history. It seems to me that he has captured the elan vital that exists across the generational divide. And, he shows us a perspective that tears down this divide, like the Fall of the Berlin Wall, to expose a very warm, human story that anyone, of any age, can relate to. It is a refreshing and uplifting read that leaves the reader a better person.
Having visited the St. John's College campus,in Annapolis, Maryland, several times, I can attest to the flawless accuracy of his descriptions of the college setting, activities, and staff.

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

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

I definitely am interested in reading more about this period.

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

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

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

Great book! I love hearing first hand stories from an old Ranger. I have read both of his books and they are a must read for anyone who likes stories about the Texas Rangers.

Great book covering the modern Texas Rangers. But, the author would be fired these days due to the liberal press and the hands-off approach to the scum of the earth.

This Texas Ranger's life story is a review of how one man made a difference, and a journey through Texas history. Told in forthright, vivid prose, the book is an easy, interesting read.

Mr. Jackson's experiences are things many of us have gone through. He describes what a man thinks about when life is upon him. Parents, siblings, children, bosses. His honest acknowledgement and acceptance of the turns of his life are a lesson for all in this age of feeling sorry for yourself because of hardship.

Mr. Jackson ties together the history of Texas, and the hisotry of crime and criminals in Texas, with his love of the land and resulting adventures trying to explain why things happened while describing his law enforcement actions as consequences that cannot take the why's as excuses.

His talent, hard work, and rugged upbringing provide Mr. Jackson with special opportunities we all would enjoy. He clearly revels in them as he spins the yarns.

It was a joy to read this Texan's story. It is an American story, for all to experience.

Former Texas Ranger H. Joaquin Jackson is a rarity in today's world. A man of courage, an honest man, a family man, a man that can fight and love in equal measure.

His book reads like a dramatic thriller and I know somewhere there's a screenplay in the works. If you're even remotly interested in Southwestern culture (especially Texas) and the history of the Rangers then buy this book!

After listening to the CD's, I wanted to become a Ranger or at least a Texan! A riveting story of One Man, One Ranger, you will be totally engrossed in one man's story of his law enforcement career with the Texas Rangers as they were during the latter half of the Twentieth Century. The narration by Rex Linn is first rate and, at times, spellbinding. Don't miss this great epic! If Hollywood doesn't make this into a movie, they will miss the chance of a lifetime to chronicle this Ranger's journey as the last of the old west's Ranger's.

This book is soooooo stupid! I don't believe it was even written by a woman. There are phrases and words a woman just wouldn't not use! DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY :(

First off, I'd like to offset other reviewers' claims that this book misleadingly refers to prostitution as a safe and thrilling lifestyle. I think its important to say that this is a unique portrayal of ONE woman's life in sex work. She very clearly states that there are many levels of sex work and the vast majority are not safe, enjoyable, or beneficial in anyway. She obviously enjoys much of her work and simply because her experience does not fit the mold, does not mean she should be silenced.

Secondly, there are sex scenes in the book and they are to some degree explicit. Is this too much? Well considering the nature of the book, I think not. Considering the importance of the job to the book, so much so that it is in the very title and also the importance of her pseudonym, I think its quite understandable that sex should be a key element in the book. Isn't that part of the experience we are so intrigued by when it comes to this particular author?

Also, as one reviewer mentioned the previous relationship and friend-circle is not full of an extraordinary amount of depth. What we need to remember is that this is adapted from the author's blog. For some bloggers, myself included, other people's lives are their own to tell. We just tell what relates to us. I felt that Belle's interaction with her friends and ex-lovers were covered meaningfully and naturally.

This is a diary and by definition it's not the type of writing that will be layered with back story or references. Although meant to be read in the fashion that most blogs are nowadays, it is written with immediacy and often with the intent to be brief. Perhaps some years down the line the author will be interested in adapting it as an autobiography and then she'll decide to add relevant information, a new perspective now that she is removed from it by time, etc., but the very title acknowledges what the book is: a diary.

When it comes to getting what you paid for and what was advertised, you get it in this book.

Beyond that, my own observation is that the author is intelligent, witty, and has a unique and sometimes detached view of sex which is enlightening thing to see in a female writer.

I enjoyed the book. It's not a literary masterpiece, but it is much better than a good amount of popular new fiction.

After having read Belle de Jour's blog, I was hoping that the book would primarily be new material. Unfortunately, the bulk of it was pulled directly from the blog with only a few new entries interspersed. Yes, the alphabet piece at the beginning of each chapter was new, but I'm not quite sure that it made the purchase worth it.

Now I'm wondering if the second book will be more of the same.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. Like a reviewer befor me said, some areas just lacked the details needed to make them interesting. I found myself wanting to skip over entries because I was becoming bored with the same basic descriptions of her past boyfriends and such. Overall i'm sure the book could have been worse but it still wasnt as good as I had hoped.

This was the second memoir of prostitution that I have read (the first being The Scorpion's Sweet Venom), and so far, here is what I've learned:

- The sex scenes will as a rule be explicitly detailed and told with implausible detachment.

- Prostitution will be conveyed as a chic and not an altogether unpleasant profession.

- Flashbacks will abound in pitiful attempts at characterization and a more literary angle.

Belle de Jour was no exception to these rules, but it was a fun if not compelling read. I really enjoyed the author's witty style, even if reading about her friends was utterly boring. By the end of the book, every man in the author's life seemed to merge into one tall-ridiculously-attractive fellow with a proclivity for rough sex and moping over ex-girlfriends.

All in all, I would like to see the genre of prostitution memoirs take a more realistic/gritty turn. But then I have to really ask myself, do I really want to read the tell-all memoir of an Atlanta crack whore? Perhaps publishers choose these high-end prostitute tell-alls for a reason...

Fawn Brodie is one of my heroes. Daring, smart, and relatively neutral, Brodie unveiled the true story of the origins of Mormonism through the life of its original prophet, Joseph Smith. When I first read No Man Knows My History, it launched me toward change I could never have imagined. Now that my life is changed, and with the eyes of a writer, a re-read of this material gives me new appreciation and respect for Fawn Brodie's genius and courage. Joseph Smith was just a man, not a prophet. He was a remarkable man, however, and the timing of his life and death sparked the fastest-growing world religion ever known. Fawn Brodie captured it perfectly.

Brodie's, "No Man Knows My History" is a brilliantly researched history of the life of Mormonism's Prophet, the charismatic and gifted Joseph Smith. As a nonbeliever, myself, I approach almost everything from a secular level, as does Brodie, therefore I'm bound to agree with her approach, recognizing, at the same time, that some of her sources are questionable, in that they are derived from people who hated Josph and/or his strange religion.

Brodie seeks to understand the young Joseph growing up in hard-scrabble Vermont and Western New York. We see a talented, ambitious and highly imaginative young dreamer trapped amongst largely uneducated people who were both superstitious and, oftentimes, painfully gullible. Young Joseph, who isn't enamored with farming, is fascinated by Indian mounds and treasure finding. He finds a stone thru which he claims can divine the location of hidden treasure. He is persuasive enough [alternatively, people are so gullible] that he makes a modest living from selling his talents although there is no evidence that he, or anyone else, was ever enriched by them. As a matter of fact, he is successfully sued by one angry man who regards himself as cheated.

Over a period of time, and unlike Mormon preachments, Joseph morphs into something like a religious mystic. He claims he has found a 'Golden Bible' although the circumstances of finding it are initially vague. The Golden Bible has some interesting characteristics. Smith generally keeps it--whatever it is--hidden in a box or under cloth. It seems that few people can visualize it, except himself, although--according to witnesses--it has weight and heft. Also, despite the fact that others can't see it, Joseph reports hiding it from place to place so that it won't be stolen for its golden value.

Using magical implements, including stones, Joseph 'translates' his golden plates into the document later known as the Book of Mormon. Joseph's tale of visions of angels, God and Jesus seem to have, for the most part, post-dated the translation of the gold. The nature of these visions, the number of angels, personages etc. seems to have morphed over time.

Joseph is now well on his way to becoming a prophet and world-shaker. He gains increasing number of adherents. The question is, 'how much of this does Joseph believe, himself?' We'll probably never know but, I suspect that over time and with increasing adulation, that he comes to believe that he is the true instrument of God's Power on earth. Like most powerful men, women flock to him as bees do to honey. He has additional 'revelations' including the desireability of faithful men taking multiple wives. This revelation has the force of a commandment and Joseph, without the apparent consent or even knowledge of his wife, Emma, takes on multiple women as religious wives.

The newly-founded sect finds it persecuted for its communistic and polygamist practices. They are forced to move, almost en masse, from one place to another, until founding the city of Nauvoo, Illinois on the banks of the Mississippi. The city is successful, perhaps too much so. Joseph sets himself up as General of the militia and orders the destruction of a printing press that has criticized him. He is arrested by secular authorities and, while imprisoned in the upper floor of a jailhouse, he and his brother, Hyram, are shot to death by an anti-Mormon mob. Joseph is dead but a martyr is born.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

The so-called facts in this book have been debunked by Hugh Nibley's book, "No Ma'am, That Ain't History."

159 Amazon reviewers have come before me to say what they think about this book by Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith.

Before I read this book, I knew nothing about Joseph Smith and only a little more about Fawn Brodie, as I was once a graduate student studying American history.

After reading this book, I am sure of one thing: Joseph Smith was a truly American prophet who created an exceptionally American religion.

Joseph Smith was a con-man, a prophet with an exceptional vision of God and an even more amazing liturgical, ceremonial and organizational implementation, and - let's not forget - a martyr. He also loved life. He loved women. He was not a conventional prophet.

Brody's book will take you through all this. I believe the journey was as long for her as for Smith. Read the Epilogue. This sums up her understanding of the man and his fantasy - how the fantasy evolved and how it was absorbed into his life and became a reality.

An amazing book about an amazing man. What American in 19th-Century started something that had so great an impact on our country and the world, other than perhaps Lincoln?

That's it. I'm not a Mormon, either.

No Man Knows My History was a direct attack on critical Mormon beliefs about Joseph Smith. In 1946, The Improvement Era, the official periodical of the Church, said that many of the book's citations arose from doubtful sources and that the biography was "of no interest to Latter-day Saints who have correct knowledge of the history of Joseph Smith." The "Church News" section of the Deseret News provided a lengthy critique that acknowledged the biography's "fine literary style" and then denounced it as "a composite of all anti-Mormon books that have gone before."

BYU professor and LDS historian and apologist Hugh Nibley challenged Brodie in another booklet, No, Ma'am, That's Not History, asserting that Brodie had cited sources supportive only of her conclusions while conveniently ignoring others. Brodie herself thought the Deseret News pamphlet "a well-written, clever piece of Mormon propaganda", but she dismissed the ultimately more popular No, Ma'am, That's Not History as "a flippant and shallow piece."

Brodie's controversial depiction of Joseph Smith is in the same vein as her other Psychoanalysis works of fiction. I say fiction because the psychoanalytical babbling of the insane is just that - psychoanalytical babbling without substance or fact. Brodie incorporates in her work Freudian psychology. Psychoanalysis is a work of the devil for sure, based on dreams and unprovable and unsupported assumptions. Her psycho biography of Thomas Jefferson became a best-seller base on the same psychoanalytical babbling And most important, Brodie's study of the early Richard Nixon, completed while she was dying of cancer, demonstrated the hazards of psycho biography in the hands of an author who loathed her subject. Brodie grew up disliking the LDS religion with full support from her mother. Brodie had access to church historical records because of her family connections to the church. She deviously betrayed the trust of church historians by misusing and misrepresenting the material.

Psychoanalysis is a body of knowledge developed by Sigmund Freud and his followers, devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior. Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the patient verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst formulates the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems.

Both Fawn Brodie and her husband subjected themselves to psychoanalysis, he for insomnia and she for chronic mild depression and sexual problems. (Bernard's employer, the RAND Corporation, paid most of the bills.) If the problems of everyday life had been insufficient to maintain Brodie's interest in psychology, there was the case of her mother, who during this period attempted suicide three times, the second by cutting herself with a Catholic crucifix and the third (which succeeded) by setting herself on fire.

One should be careful what they read and adopt as gospel truth. The infamous Mark Hofmann read Brodie's No Man Knows My History before he bombed and kill two prominent Salt Lake City residents in 1985. Hofmann set out to destroy the LDS church. Hofmann's favorite text to discredit the Mormon church was Fawn's Brodie's No Man Knows My History. In my opinion Brodie's book is a work of the devil for sure, based on the psychoanalytical babbling of the insane.

This is an entertaining summer read about a minor celebrity of the Thirties. There is a dark undercurrent of violence to the light story of the amazing and unknown golfer who played with the Hollywood stars. He is an unstable youth who gets into trouble in a brutal incident. As an adult, he apparently keeps this violent tendency under control, but when his true identity is discovered, there is no restitution or apology for the victims of the crime for which he is indubitably guilty (a unique clue left at the scene leaves no doubt of that.) Montague also married well, so he never had to have a real job.
He never really accomplished anything other than entertaining some sports writers and readers. While he accomplished no real good, he did some real harm. At least we can be thankful that his dark side was controlled after a certain point--with his terrific strength, he'd have made a very successful murderer.

This is a good read...Although Montague was probably a con man from the start he certainly led an entertaining life. Even though he got away with almost everything he did he provided his friends with entertainment and laughter. I would recommend this book as a good read, but I wouldn't take Mr. Montague too seriously.

A detailed recollection of events in the life of a very mysterious person.
Leigh Montville brings back a time when personalities were indeed bigger than life, and one that reluctantly stood out in that crowd is the subject of the story. As the reader enjoys amazing stories involving some famous hollywood names it becomes clear why our subject is not willing to share the spotlight. I found The Mysterious Montague a wonderful read, and recommend it to all.

My brother, an avid golfer like me, recommended this book. I took it on a cruise ship vacation for occasional night reading, and it was perfect for that relaxed atmosphere.

My major observation is that America fawned over celebrities in the 1930s with the same level of adulation we use now--or maybe they were more intense about celebrities then, since there were fewer of them. Then as now, a person could even establish himself or herself as a celebrity without having a long track record of accomplishment, as with Paris Hilton on the contemporary scene.

Additionally, the legal system treated celebrities with more leniency than officials allowed for ordinary citizens. Today's daily news stories describe how TV and movie stars and athletes don't get the same penalties as nonfamous individuals.

One limitation, for me: Much of the suspense disappeared with the crime scene account that opened the book. If Montville had placed that item later in the book, I would have been far more curious about why Montague didn't want publicity, even when his feats were so newsworthy.

Even so, you are likely to consider this book an enjoyable glimpse into a bygone era, and a visit with some of the more colorful characters who dominated the scene.The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!

LaVerne Moore was one of the more colorful figures in the world of golf in the 1930's and Leigh Montville tells his tale in all its boisterous glory in The Mysterious Montague, A True Tale of Hollywood, Golf, and Armed Robbery.

John Montague, as Moore was better known, was a trick shot artist who could chip a ball into a highball glass or under the sash of a partially-opened window across the room. He reputedly knocked a bird off a power line from 170 yards and consistently drove the ball over 300 yards with a specially-made oversized driver the weighed twice as much as the standard club of its time. Most famously, he once beat Bing Crosby while playing only with a rake, a shovel, and a baseball bat.

Montague had a secret, though. It was why he never allowed himself to be photographed and reputedly why he never entered any professional events. When that secret was revealed, it led to a sensational trial in upstate New York that turned into a celebrity-laden media fest. The secret is told in the first chapter of the book: Montague was wanted under his real name, LaVerne Moore, for the armed robbery of a roadside restaurant in the Adirondacks in 1930. The trial and its aftermath is an interesting window into the media world of the time.

Montville entertains the reader with tales of Montague's prowess, although it's obvious many of them grew to legendary status mainly through the re-telling such feats engender. He also gives us a good look at the celebrities who flocked to Montague's cause. Babe Ruth, Bing Crosby, Oliver Hardy, W.C. Fields, Howard Hughes, Babe Didrickson Zaharias, and many more were tied to Montague one way or another. Sportswriter Grantland Rice was his biggest fan.

The end of the book, which chronicles Montague's late-in-life attempt to break into the ranks of professional tournament golf, may be of the greatest interest to players of the game. Weakened by too many years of Hollywood parties and lack of practice, Montague was a miserable failure in his attempts to compete with PGA stars, who had disdained him from the start.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo