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Superb Read
This true story really takes you into the hair raising lifestyle of Vegas, and then propels you into the blackjack world and the realities of getting caught at counting cards.Hell of a read, makes me want to learn to count cards.

Novel-like
Bringing Down the House tells the story of Kevin Lewis and his teammates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who formed a team to win millions from Las Vegas by counting cards at blackjack.The story focuses on "Lewis" and chronicles how he is brought into the group and becomes entranced by the excitement and the money.
Bringing Down the House
When I read a half of the book, I can imagine the rest half.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Cambridge    4. Cardsharping    5. Gamblers    6. Gambling    7. Gambling - Table    8. Games    9. Games/Puzzles    10. General    11. Indoor Games    12. Las Vegas    13. Massachusetts    14. Nevada   

Editorial Review

One of the most recognizable women of our time, America knows Jane Fonda as actress, activist, feminist, wife, and workout guru. In her extraordinary memoir, Fonda divides her life into three acts: her childhood, early films, and first marriage make up act one; her growing career in film, marriage to Ted Turner, and involvement in the Vietnam War belong to act two; and the third act belongs to the future, in which she hopes to "begin living consciously," and inspire others who can learn from her experiences. Fonda reveals intimate details and universal truths that she hopes "can provide a lens through which others can see their lives and how they can live them a little differently."

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Intimate Portrait of a Fascinating Woman
*****
excellent
The best parts of this book have to do with inner beauty vs. surface looks. Great reading for women who suffer from the disease to please. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1937-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Actors & Actresses    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    8. Fonda, Jane,    9. Individual Actors And Actresses    10. Large type books    11. Motion picture actors and actr    12. Motion picture actors and actresses    13. Personal Memoirs    14. United States    15. Women    16. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts   

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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Crazy Horse,    4. Indians of North America    5. Juvenile literature    6. Kings and rulers    7. Oglala Indians    8. ca. 1842-1877    9. Crazy Horse   

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An excellent peice of literature
Sky of Stone, by Homer "Sonny" Hickam, is the sequel to his famous memoir, Rocket Boys, (October Sky). The story takes place in 1961, a year after his graduation from high school. Sonny, now eighteen, has just finished his first year of college at VPI, and is hoping to spend his summer with his mother in Myrtle Beach, lying on the beach, watching the girls go by, and dreaming about building rockets with Wernher Von Braun, the world famous rocket engineer. Out of the blue, his mother calls and says that he can't go to South Carolina; he to go back to Coalwood, West Virginia, the place he thought he was free from, to keep his father company. Sonny, shocked out of his socks, at first argues, but he eventually gives up knowing that he would not want to get on his mom's bad side. So, he heads up to Coalwood, filled with confusion pounding at his head. His father is a pretty stubborn man who can hold is own. Why would he need his company?
Hickam Makes It Seem So Easy
There are authors who make you say to yourself "this person writes wonderfully, but I could never write like this...."Then there are authors that make you think exactly the opposite."Wow, I can be a writer - it would be a snap to write like this."
Life Goes On in Different Places.
Homer served in the army in Viet Nam 1967-68, worked for NASA in Huntsville, Alabama; during his second stint in the army he learned to scuba dive in Puerto Rico.Then he returned to Huntsville, where he became a scuba instructor in 1973 at Aquaspace. In 1975, he started diving and researching shipwrecks along the Atlantic Ocean while writing articles for 'America History Illustrated' about his adventures under water.
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Subjects:  1. 1943-    2. 20th century    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Coal mines and mining    8. Hickam, Homer H.,    9. Homes and haunts    10. Intellectual life    11. Large type books    12. Literary    13. Novelists, American    14. Personal Memoirs    15. Regional Subjects - MidAtlantic    16. West Virginia    17. Biography & Autobiography / General    18. Childhood and youth    19. Hickam, Homer H   

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The Journey Almost Ruined Them
"Dean and Me" (2005) is Jerry Lewis' candid tell-all, pulling no punches, about his life with Dean Martin.Through 340 pages (hardback) Jerry recalls fondly their early days on the nightclub circuit, the team's quick cashing-in on their growing fame, Dino's shyness except around the ladies, and Jerry's brief association with marijuana, to name only a few memories in this book.
A Great Read
I am way too young to have witnessed the magic that was Martin & Lewis.I don't think anyone will ever be able to put a name to whatever it was that Dean and Jerry did but, in my opinion, I think Jerry did a wonderful job of explaining the whole process of the team becoming a team.
Loved the book
I am a little young to recall Dean and Jerry together, so when a friend offered me the book, I wasn't too excited.However, after I read the book, I just didn't want it to end.It is a wonderful story.Now I am going to watch some of the old Martin and Lewis shows and introduce them to my 16 year old.You won't regret the book! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1917-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Comedy (Performing Arts)    7. Entertainers    8. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    9. Individual Actors And Actresses    10. Large type books    11. Martin, Dean,    12. Personal Memoirs    13. United States    14. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs   

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A Man on the Inside of TV News & Politics.
From 1956 to 1970,before the days of Dan Rather on CBS, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley said "good night" to each other at the 'finis' of NBC network news, leaving everybody watching feeling a kind of contentment that "all's right with the world."After his first eighteen years spent growing up, working for the small town newspaper, in North Carolina, his tenure fin the world of television news saw him through four wars, three assassinations, two wives, twenty-two political conventions, eleven presidents, 2,000 weeks of canvassing and reporting the news to the American public and one moon landing, he is on terra firma at last.Born in Wilmington, and educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, he spent most of his life on the Washington, D.C. scene.He had a soft Southern drawl and a knack for brevity, using just the right word or phrase to sum up a situation.This memoir as such is mostly about politics and his role as observer of the leaders then and now.
Plain Writing, just like his speech!
As a non-native English speaker who has been watching ABC's "This Week" all these years, I've always found David Brinkley's manner of speaking concise and easy to understand with short sentences and simple vocabulary. This was far cry from many other loud talking heads, including David's own colleagues on his Sunday program. He taught me how English could be spoken plainly but precisely and effectively. His memoir is written exactly the way he spoke. He gets to the point without being wordy and beating around the bush. David Brinkley, a rambling book
I was quite excited to get David Brinkley's book, as I have enjoyed his newscasts for years, particularly the early conventions.As it turns out, this is a "Chatty-Cathy" book that rambles on about his life, with his TV persona somewhat as an afterthought. The book is quite readable with his enjoyable laconic style, but at the end, you don't know much more about him, TV, the process of TV news, or the events to which he was an eyewitness....at least not more than you already knew or could surmise.Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Brinkley, David    6. Broadcast journalism    7. General    8. Media Studies - Print Media    9. Rich & Famous    10. Television journalists    11. United States    12. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Editorial Review

In this moving and engrossing memoir, veteran television news producer Richard Cohen relates a life spent dealing with multiple sclerosis, first diagnosed when he was 25 years old and just getting started in the competitive world of broadcast journalism. As his career progressed, he struggled not only with the disease but the touchy question of how much of the truth about himself to share with colleagues and potential employers. Cohen spent much of his life running from the onset of the disease's symptoms from which his father and grandmother also suffered. Defiantly, he took challenging, sometimes extremely dangerous assignments in Lebanon, Poland, and on the domestic political campaign trail, even as his body deteriorated. But over the course of Read more

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Thought provoking on disabilities and families.
Compelling read.The reality of a young man blindsided with M.S., later, at mid life, hit twice with colon cancer, was at times hard to read.I found myself literally turning away from the book, turning it over, and having to will myself to return to it.Unfortunately Mr. Cohen and his family don't have that option.I found myself inspired by Cohen's courage and angered by his unwillingness to surrender to the reality of his disease and let his anger go.However, who knows how any of us would feel given the circumstances?Maybe this is as good as it gets when a chronic illness is a part of one's life.Certainly Mr. Cohen is a brave funny man, with a wife and family to match, with an important story to tell.Highly recommend to anyone who has a chronic illness, has someone close who is suffering, or anyone who is having a pity party and wants to move on!

A scary read for MS sufferers
Those of us with MS tend to stick together.Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book to sufferers of this illness.Despite his claims of optimism, the anger and bitterness of Richard Cohen are strong themes in this book.I found myself questioning whether or not I have, or ever will have, a similarly angry, defensive, and demanding effect on myself and my loved ones.
The best description of the dailybattle with the ups and downs of MS.
An excellent read for someone with MS and, maybe, for many friends, relatives and medical persons who interact with folks with MS. This is one of the best descriptions I have ever read of how MS builds fortitude at a cost higher than many would ever pay. The book is bluntly honest without being brutal.It will give humans who read a new perspective on life.The book should be read by employers too. The outside of MS doesn't tell the whole story.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Cohen, Richard M    4. Diseases - Musculoskeletal    5. Editors, Journalists, Publishers    6. Health    7. Health & Fitness    8. Health/Fitness    9. Large type books    10. Multiple sclerosis    11. Patients    12. Personal Memoirs    13. Specific Groups - Special Needs    14. Fiction   

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Hello Dully!
Now, I understand that as we look back on our lives that we tend to remember the good times rather than the bad, but Carol does so to the point of chronicling a rather dull existence. She leaves out all the stories that made her one of the great survivors in the industry. Case in point, there's no mention of the story when Frank Sinatra beat her to within an inch of death with a pillowcase full of doorknobs. There's no mention of her bloodfeud with Rosemary Clooney and how she once pulled a knife on Clooney and cut off her pinky toe. And of course, the greatest omission of all: Carol has an irational fear of men with mustaches. Could have been better.

Were You Expecting Eleanor Roosevelt's Autobiography?
Carol Channing tells her life story (probably dictated with almost no editing) in her own style - delightfully mixed-up, carefree and uninhibited.Of course she skips around and even SHE forgets exactly what her point was.Is this disappointing?No, she's just being Carol Channing, a true zany.Not Lucille Ball, a very serious and level-headed businesswoman who just played a zany. Denial is a River in Egypt
Carol Channing's memoir is not candid at all. This is the story of a lady that spent 40+ years on the road doing tour after tour after tour because she was in a loveless unhappy marriage. Her abusive husband was living high off the hog with his male lover while she was out performing all over America. She had a terrible life until her husband's death...and only recently she met her current husband, a wonderful loving millionnaire whom she dated originally in Junior high. It's a fascinating story which you will not find in the book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Actors    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Channing, Carol    7. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    8. Large type books    9. Singers    10. United States    11. Fiction   

Editorial Review

Like his renowned Read more

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A Biography that reads like a novel
Gerald Clark has an uncanny ability to see into the heart and soul of his subject, Judy Garland. His thorough research through interviews and articles results in an insightful and riveting narrative.Garland is my favorite singer of all times. Her enigmatic emotional highs and lows I now fully understand.
Give Me A Break!
Now, I have loved Judy scince I was two. Gerald Clark's book is nothing but a tabloid make money biography! Now, don't get me wrong,there are 1 or2 good stories but 99.9 percent of them are pure fiction! if you want to read a good Judy book, read Lorna's book!!!

Judy Garland by Clarke
The reviewers who believe that this is an accurate portrait of Judy Garland are pathetically misinformed.To begin with nearly 85% of this book - if not more - is based entirely unpon speculation and conjecture, from both the author and his sources. The number of unnamed, unsubstantiated and uncorraborated sources is astounding, but then again, you couldn't write the type of salacious, tabloid "Confidential magazine-like story that Clarke has using named, credible and reputable sources.Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    6. Garland, Judy    7. General    8. Large type books    9. Singers    10. United States   

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Seriously Lacking
This book was not at all what I expected from Brands, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his biography of Benjamin Franklin, First American.In trying to make an academic biography accessible to the reading public, Brands' writing suffers greatly and becomes far too colloquial.At one point, when discussing Indian-White relations, he goes so far as to call the whites "Palefaces."It was a chore to get through, and while it heightened my knowledge of Jackson, nothing was particularly memorable except what I already knew or, perhaps, the actions I disagreed with (his invasion of Florida or his use of martial law after the Battle of New Orleans).Particularly when discussing Jackson's historically far reaching actions, such as kicking the Cherokees out of Georgia, or his battle with Biddle and eventual destruction of the Bank of the United States, Brands does a deplorable job of explaining what happened.Elements of background, and why Jackson did whatever it was he did exactly, as the reader will be confused on that point, are conspicuously missing.I have read similarly poor reviews of another biography by Brands, TR: The Last Romantic, and if First American is at all similar in style, I know why he didn't win that Pulitzer.

Fine Biography of Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was a major figure in American history from his service in the War of 1812 through his presidency.And even in retirement after his departure from Washington, D. C., he was still an important figure in American politics.
Great work by a fabulous author
Brand's has a great style with a smart wit and feel for the times as well as anecdotal material that gives great depth to his writing. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1767-1845    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Historical - U.S.    7. History: American    8. Jackson, Andrew,    9. Large type books    10. Presidents    11. Presidents & Heads of State    12. U.S. History - Antebellum Period (1840-1860)    13. U.S. President    14. United States    15. United States - Antebellum Era    16. History / United States / State & Local   

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Beautifully Written
Those of us who have a story to share should do so, and this story is beautifully written; WHAT REMAINS is a unique one, worth telling, and would be even if it did not involve America's single most famous family. The details Carole Radziwill reveals are intimate, yet never give away more than those connected and still living would find intrusive. At times her pain is almost palpable, and she seems still slightly bewildered about her life and the tragic turn it took during the summer of 1999. The very fact that she did live it and came through it gives her every right to tell about it, and I am glad she chose to do so.

A Moving Memoir Of Love & Death
This is not the memoir of Carole Radziwill. It is a memoir for each person who reads the moving story.
In the end, did they have in common besides ABC news?
In one of what appears to be Carole Radizwill's not-so-subtle jabs at her mother-in-law (and at many of the extended family), she implies Lee wondered what exactly her son saw in Carole ... something along the lines of "how much do they have in common beides ABC?"After finishing this book, I have to say I have no idea what, if anything, they did have in common, nor, more importantly, what it was that first caused them to fall in love.While I can understand and appreciate the author's reservations about revealing too much of their personal relationship, I think she fails to convey why they even had any relationship in the first place.As has been commented on by many reveiwers, she sounds much more passionate when she writes of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (again, not in a lesbian way, but in an idealized school-girl crush way).I found myself wondering if they really were as close as Carole portrays, or if this book is a rather sad attempt to publicly attach herself to Carolyn forever. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1966-1999    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Kennedy, Carolyn Bessette,    7. Large type books    8. Personal Memoirs    9. Rich & Famous    10. Television journalists    11. United States    12. Women   

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Makes You Wish You Had Known Him
This is a good story about a pig who lived a good 13 years with a loving family of hens, a dog, his guardians - Sy and Howard, and most of the town in which they lived. I enjoyed the story of Christopher the pig.It is a very heart-warming book.The only negative criticism I have is when the author gets off onto a different path from the story of Christopher, stories of her travels and such. Mostly the book tells the story of Christopher, how he affected so many people with his wonderful personality. I found myself laughing and crying throughout. I didn't want the story of Christopher to end.But Christopher lives on in his story and his life continues to affect people who read about him as you can see in the reviews. As for me, I prefer not ever eating pork again. I can't imagine killing a soul like Christopher just for a piece of meat. I would rather all the Christophers in the world live and enjoy the life God gave to them too.That is how his story affected me. All in all, this is a very good story.

The Blah Blah Pig
I found the story to be somewhatflat.I finally gave upand put the book down permanently around Chapter 7.That said, I found the reviews to be over-rated both on here and elsewhere.
a truly wonderful love story
This is the kind of book that makes you wish it would just keep going and going.It's the kind of book that you enjoy picking up and leaves the reader feeling good after putting it down.Hopefully it will make people more aware of how beautiful and intelligent these animals are, and give them the respect they deserve instead of treating them like inatimate objects and sending them to slaughter.I was a vegatarian even before reading this book, but the book just justifies what I already know.Sy is a wonderful author and very compassionate person.She totally gets the concept of animals. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anecdotes    2. Animals    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Human-animal relationships    6. Naturalists, Gardeners, Environmentalists    7. Nature    8. Nature/Ecology    9. New Hampshire    10. Personal Memoirs    11. Pet owners    12. Swine as pets    13. Women   

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"Old Books, Rare Friends" is a better read
If you haven't already read "Old Books, Rare Friends" by the same authors, then you may enjoy this title.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1912-    2. Antiquarian booksellers    3. Antiques & Collectibles    4. Antiques/Collectibles    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Books    7. General    8. Rostenberg, Leona    9. Stern, Madeleine B.,    10. United States    11. Stern, Madeleine B   

Editorial Review

"In my seventies, I have discovered I am not who I thought I was--and never have been," writes Boston Globe columnist Donald Murray. Murray retired from his university teaching job at 62 and had a heart attack a few months later. This experience and the years of aging that followed led him to contemplate his "lives" by writing this memoir in his '70s. The title refers to the notion that a writer lives life twice: once in the moment, and again in "the greater reality of reflection afterwards." Read more

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OH MY GOD -- WHAT A MASTERPIECE!!!!!
After reading Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, I found myself wanting more of the same type of novel and with that I stumbled upon My Twice-Lived Life.Being in my mid-40's, my mind set has started to wander about what lies ahead.Mr. Murray has done a tremendous job capturing not only his life but thought process.It's very easy to read, as the sub title chapter are carefully arranged. His sense of humor is comforting as he puts everything into proper prospective.Anyone looking for answers about aging should read this masterpiece.I loved every page and know I'll reread this treasured novel again and again.I can't wait to give it to my mother-in-law to read.

Move over Maury......
Look out Mitch.....you and Tuesdays with Maury are about to be replaced.Dr. Murray delivers his book even better than he did in the classroom.As a former student of his....this book made me laugh....brought a tear to my ear and a lump to my throat. First he taught me to write.Now he teaches me about life as we all face growing older.Thank you for a great read!!

A superb columnist looks at life and at looking at life
I got to know Donald Murray's writing while living in Massachusetts in the mid-90s. Ever since, I've read his Boston Globe column online, and almost always forward it to people I know, from my teenage son to my father in his 80s. I keep hoping the columns will be collected in a book. In the meantime, there's this wonderful memoir. There is more wisdom in a Donald Murray column than in most of the rest of the paper put together, but it's not WISDOM, delivered from on high and meant to make you feel inadequate. He's had a mixed life - a ghastly childhood, wartime service, professional failure and success, profound grief, enduring friendships, a satisfying marriage - but the book is not just a collection of "and then I" passages. Murray conveys so well how the past is always present, how it can be seen more clearly from the distance that decades provide, and how old age is enriched by that clarity, even as one deals with the inevitable losses and physical decline. His style is conversational-seeming, but without the extraneous matter true conversation always has. The passages about being bullied in boyhood are heartbreaking because there is no anger in his account. He doesn't need to express it; the reader will be furious on his behalf. Murray is a teacher of writing, and as a writer, I find his books on the subject are well worth reading (wish I could have studied with him). Readers will learn a great deal about good writing from "My Twice-Lived Life," as well as a great deal about living. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1924-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. General    7. Journalists    8. Large type books    9. Literary    10. Murray, Donald Morison,    11. United States    12. Murray, Donald Morison   

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This book is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wrote this review partially to counter that muddle-headed jerk who didn't like it. I read the book, and it is gripping and exiting. Osborn expertly entwines the true story of his childhood and training with the actual event. It is a must read!

Good book but can get boring.
"Born to fly" is somewhat of a life-story of Shane Osborn and his journey to becoming a Navy Pilot. Now I usually enjoy biographies of peoples' lives but this one did not fascinate me nearly as much. Much of the book was Mr. Osborn describing how a plane works and how he was taught to fly a plane. For me, I usually read books for pleasure, not for a lesson on the controls in an airplane.
An amazing must read!
When I get older I would like to be in the air force and become a comericial airline pilot. I think this book is great. It also showed me about the civil air patrol which i now joined and im going to learn to fly. This book is great! An inspiration! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accidents    2. Aerial reconnaissance, American    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. General    6. Reconnaissance aircraft    7. South China Sea    8. United States   

Editorial Review

Anne Frank's diaries have always been among the most moving and eloquent documents of the Holocaust.This new edition restores diary entries omitted from the original edition, revealing a new depth to Anne's dreams, irritations, hardships, and passions.Anne emerges as more real, more human, and more vital than ever.If you've never read this remarkable autobiography, do so.If you have read it, you owe it to yourself to read it again. ... Read more

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'Anne Frank, better than ever'
'The Diary Of A Young Girl: The Definitive edition' is more or less the un-cut version of the book that was originally published in the late 1940's. it contains approx. 30% more material, and in my opinion makes Anne more relatable than ever, particularly to adolescents.
Diary of Anne Frank
Anne Frank "The Diary of Anne Frank"
Unbelivable story
I have just finished the Diary Of a Young Girl and i have the strong feeling that i was moved back in time, as if it was 1944.
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Subjects:  1. Amsterdam    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Diaries    5. Historical - Holocaust    6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    7. Jews    8. Netherlands    9. Persecutions    10. Personal narratives    11. Women    12. Frank, Anne   

Editorial Review

Jimmy Carter's Georgia hometown has been the one constant in his life, and he pays tribute to it with