by Patrick Modiano (Get the Book)
Acclaimed French novelist Modiano weaves an oddly compelling blend of true-life mystery tale and family memoir against the backdrop of the Holocaust. While scanning a World War II-era Paris newspaper in 1988, Modiano finds a personal advertisement concerning a missing 15-year-old Jewish girl, Dora Bruder. Compelled by familiarity with the neighborhood mentioned in the advertisement and by personal curiosity, Modiano begins to painstakingly trace the history of the missing girl from her birth to the convent school from which she ran away in 1941 to her deportation to Auschwitz in 1942. Along the way, his investigation brings him face-to-face with reminders of his earlier life, as well as with memories of his father, who, like Dora, was rounded up by the Jewish Affairs police in Paris in 1942. Although at times the progress of events seems somewhat arbitrary, Modiano's short book ends strongly and leaves the reader thankful for the power of memory and imagination to combat loss.
by James Gavin (Get the Book)
Peggy Lee developed her soft and sultry sound from the influences of black singers and her early days of singing in dinner clubs, where she deliberately softened her voice to force the audience to listen. When she purred, audiences would lean in. That softness and an equally hard-edged sexiness set her apart from others, from her beginning as a singer in the swing era to her voice-over work with Disney to her inspiring of the Muppet character, Miss Piggy. Lee, born Norma Deloris Egstrom, had a hardscrabble childhood in desolate North Dakota but an outsize talent and personality that eventually drove her to a career in Hollywood. Gavin (Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne, 2009) offers a penetrating portrait of a woman embittered by childhood memories and failed marriages, struggling with alcohol and drugs, yet determined to have a career worthy of her voice. Best known for her songs Fever and Is That All There Is?, Lee sang with legendary musicians Benny Goodman, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Old and new fans will appreciate this revealing portrait of troubled and talented woman. --Booklist
by Richard Norton Smith (Get the Book)
A nightmare for political handlers, the man who claimed a Democratic heart with a Republican head poses no small challenge for a biographer. But after a decade of exhaustive research, Smith delivers a compelling portrait of a man who defied the simplifying ideologies of his age. Born to privilege but schooled as a social progressive by his philanthropist parents, Nelson Rockefeller traveled an improbable trajectory, serving as both a Roosevelt New Dealer and an Eisenhower Cold Warrior, repeatedly demonstrating exceptional leadership and unflagging energy. In-depth research illuminates Rockefeller's exceptional record as a governor of New York, expanding welfare benefits, protecting the environment, and subsidizing the arts, only to alienate the state's liberals with his forceful handling of the Attica Prison riots. But Rockefeller's maverick impulses emerge most clearly in Smith's account of why the governor clashed with Barry Goldwater over the future of the GOP. Readers see how Rockefeller's liberal sympathies repeatedly doomed his presidential aspirations as conservative intraparty foes frustrated his hopes, refusing even to recognize his loyal service as Gerald Ford's vice president. And though Smith focuses on Rockefeller's public service, he does delve into the tangled marital and family life behind that service. Complete and balanced, a biography of exceptional substance. --Booklist
by Andrew Roberts (Get the Book)
Military historian Roberts (Lehrman Inst. Distinguished Fellow, New-York Historical Soc.; Napoleon and Wellington) revisits the subject of a former work with a compelling biography of the preeminent French general Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) that stands apart from the rest owing to the author's thoroughness, accuracy, and attention to detail. Roberts relies on his military expertise, Napoleon's surviving correspondence (33,000 items in all), and exhaustive on-site studies of French battlegrounds during the Hundred Days to carefully describe what each battle, including the Waterloo Campaign and the Neapolitan War, must have been like for victors and losers. In the process, he deflates many of the myths that still surround the emperor nearly 200 years after his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The author doesn't apologize for Napoleon's errors but the tone of his study is positive: Napoleon "personified the best parts of the French Revolution" and his example and military reforms impacted not only European life but had lasting consequences on how contemporary wars are fought. VERDICT This voluminous work is likely to set the standard for subsequent accounts of Napoleon's life. It should appeal widely to readers of all types. --Library Journal
by Hermione Lee (Get the Book)
Although, sadly, not as well known in the U.S., Booker Prize winner Fitzgerald (1916-2000) was a powerhouse of British letters, particularly acclaimed for her novel The Blue Flower (1995). Fitzgerald's wide-ranging career was made all the more remarkable by the fact that she didn't publish her first work, a biography of the pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burke-Jones, until she was nearly 60. Her life up to that point, however, provided her with rich source material upon which to draw. Hers was a bohemian existence in London during the 1960s and 1970s, a turbulent time in which she tried to raise a family in near poverty, suffering the misfortunes of her alcoholic husband. Fitzgerald herself once said that biographies should be written about people you love, and clearly, exceptional biographer Lee (Edith Wharton, 2007) is fully enamored of her subject. Extensively researched and exuberantly detailed, Lee's examination delves the depths and heights of this roller-coaster life while meticulously deconstructing each of Fitzgerald's works. A first-rate trove of literary criticism and background that lovers of literature will find invaluable. --Booklist
by Boris Johnson (Get the Book)
While there are many accounts of Winston Churchill and his political savvy, one would be remiss to ignore this sprightly written volume by Johnson, whose day job is serving as mayor of London. Johnson's purpose in retelling Churchill's story is quite simple: he believes that the portly, cigar smoking, whiskey imbibing politician was, without doubt, the greatest British statesman in history. He further contends that we can learn much from examining how Churchill defended the British Empire, defeated Adolf Hitler's intimidating forces, and confronted the rise of communism-all in the name of representative government in the modern age. The author surveys Churchill's life (1874-1965) from beginning to end in a style that uses descriptive and occasionally unexpected words to portray the politician's business arrangements and entry into World War II. (For example, he employs the terms vaginal, cervix, uterus, and phallus to describe the Gallipoli Campaign, one of the Allies' greatest failures.) VERDICT Johnson's history of Churchill is well crafted, amply researched, and a pleasure to read. It can serve as a change of pace from more plodding accounts. --Library Journal
by Deborah Feldman (Get the Book)
In this follow-up to her New York Times-best-selling memoir Unorthodox (2012), Feldman positions herself as the quintessential wandering Jew. Exodus tells the story of Feldman's journey of self-discovery, which takes her from the American South to the Jewish ghettos of Old World Europe. Along the way, Feldman both meets and is alienated by Jews and Gentiles alike, falls in and out of love with a redneck (complete with motorcycle and shotgun collections), travels across continental Europe, and visits the tiny Hungarian village where her ancestors were born, always trying to find her own sense of identity separate from the strict Hasidic sect in which she was raised. Feldman's journey is undeniably and explicitly Jewish, but the aching need to find both a welcoming community and a sense of individuality is one that readers from all walks of life will be able to identify with. Those left unsatisfied with the abrupt ending to Unorthodox will enjoy the more hopeful conclusion to Feldman's second book as well as her more mature and increasingly eloquent writing style. --Booklist
by Meryle Secrest (Get the Book)
Ever-curious and wonderfully adept biographer Secrest (Modigliani, 2011) presents the first full portrait of dynamic couturier Schiaparelli. Bookish and rebellious while growing up in Rome, Schiaparelli landed in New York, wed to a con man whose stunts as a psychic investigator got them both in trouble. Left on her own to care for her ill daughter, dark-eyed and determined Schiaparelli, with her lithe physique and dragonfly mind, arrived in Paris like a mighty little tempest in 1922. An artist and by nature in sync with the surrealists she and Salvador Dali became close friends Schiaparelli created arresting trompe l'oeil knits depicting sailor's tattoos and x-rays and ingeniously used lobster, butterfly, newsprint, and circus motifs, exquisite embroidery, and wildly imaginative buttons to achieve a nonchalant chic. Secrest chronicles perfectionist Schiaparelli's business deals, A-list social network, gift for celebrity, arch wit, and ardor for new fabrics and saturated colors, especially the pink she named Shocking. Secrest also reveals the darker side of Schiaparelli's fame, from her FBI file to persistent but unsubstantiated suspicions of collaboration and espionage during the German occupation, her rivalry with Chanel, and the role fashion played in Parisian society during and after the world wars. Richly illustrated and endlessly intriguing, Secrest's biography illuminates the daredevil swagger of Schiaparelli's clothes and the oft-besieged couturier's inexhaustible tenacity and dazzling creativity. --Booklist
by Amy Biancolli (Get the Book)
"Your life isn't over." My dad says this. "I mean, YOUR life isn't over. Beyond the kids. You'll go on living, doing things. This isn't it." I know, I assure him. I have the kids. They need me. They're my life now. "OK," he replies, then grunts--more of a brief hum. He only hums when he thinks I'm full of shit. Shockingly single. Amy Biancolli's life went off script more dramatically than most after her husband of twenty years jumped off the roof of a parking garage. Left with three children, a three-story house, and a pile of knotty psychological complications, Amy realizes the flooding dishwasher, dead car battery, rapidly growing lawn, basement sump pump, and broken doorknob aren't going to fix themselves. She also realizes that "figuring shit out" means accepting the horrors that came her way, rolling with them, slogging through them, helping others through theirs, and working her way through life with love and laughter. Amy Biancolli is an author and journalist whose column appears in the Albany Times Union . Before that, Amy served as film critic for the Houston Chronicle where her reviews, published around the country, won her the 2007 Comment and Criticism Award from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Association. Biancolli is the author of House of Holy Fools: A Family Portrait in Six Cracked Parts , which earned her Albany Author of the Year. Amy lives in Albany, New York, with her three children. (Summary)
by Samuel C. Gwynne (Get the Book)
Dispensing with a chronological march through the life of Confederate General Thomas Jackson, Gwynne presents Jackson's eccentric personality in biographical episodes that he injects into the arc of Jackson's Civil War campaigns and battles. For example, the book covers the future hero's boyhood and his 1850s tenure at the Virginia Military Institute (a rich source of anecdotes of Jackson's oddities) after the 1861 Battle of Bull Run. Gwynne's technique succeeds, thanks to his spry prose and cogent insight, in revealing Jackson's character. Describing him as shy, serious, determined, and profoundly religious, Gwynne captures the stiff, asocial persona Jackson presented to the world. Yet Jackson did exhibit warmer traits in female company, evidenced by Gwynne' quotations of surviving letters, though those don't reveal his feelings about his estrangement from his Unionist sister, Laura. Better known is Jackson's inflexible attitude toward military duty and, most important to history, his tactical and strategic command of warfare. Showing Jackson's exploitation of speed and deception, Gwynne's vivid account of his Civil War run, which ended with his death in the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville, is a riveting, cover-to-cover read for history buffs. --Booklist
by Vinh Chung (Get the Book)
Memories of Communist Vietnam are often limited to the American side of the tension, and particularly the harrowing experiences that soldiers faced during the war. Chung, a dermatologist, offers a tripartite portrait: his family's everyday life under the Communist regime, agonizing escape as refugees, and assimilation and integration into American society. Readers are given a glimpse into the dynamics that define the Chinese-Vietnamese family and how these intricate relationships and their elements, such as elder authority, influence interactions more broadly, within the community and, ultimately, American society. After his family's near-death encounters in Vietnam and the South China Sea, Chung is given a life his parents could not have. He offers a conversational, unpretentious narrative of the young immigrant/refugee experience, with its unconscious social faux pas; growing awareness of American class, race, and gender relations; and ambition to not only attain the American Dream but to take back what was taken away from his parents' generation: opportunity. This may remind those with immigrant/refugee experiences of their own lives; for others, Chung provides a humble story about coping with uprootedness, adversity, and assimilation into new social landscapes. --Publisher's Weekly
by Charles M. Blow (Get the Book)
In this brave and powerful memoir, New York Times columnist Blow describes growing up poor, African-American, and sexually conflicted in the 1970s Deep South. The Civil Rights era barely touched his Louisiana hometown of Gibsland, and Blow's family struggles in segregated, rural poverty. Sexual abuse at the hands of an older cousin when Blow is seven drives the already sensitive boy into isolation and depression. Although Blow becomes a superior student and athlete, he remains haunted by his experiences. Thirteen years later, this inner turmoil explodes, and he feels compelled to murder the man who molested him. Gibsland seems trapped in a pre-industrial era (young people there eat clay). The rare intrusions of modernity are shocking: when his family learns of an overturned cattle truck on a nearby highway, they rush out, steal an injured cow, and slaughter it. The great bravery in the book lies in Blow's nuanced treatment of his uncertain sexuality. While he waxes sentimental at times, and the decision to shoot his cousin comes off as melodramatic, this is a singular look at a neglected America. --Publishers Weekly
by Mark Edmundson (Get the Book)
Cultural critic Edmundson largely attributes his teenage transformation from a doughy dreamer to a disciplined man of serious thought to his stint as a high school football team benchwarmer. Here, the author reflects on the qualities that are often said to be taught by football including character, courage, pride, toughness, loyalty and resilience in a balanced analysis of their impact. Drawing on both his own experiences and the writings of such poets and thinkers as Homer and William Shakespeare, Edmundson comes to view each quality as a double-edged sword, especially when taken to extremes. In short, the game to him is both a poison and an elixir. While at times Edmundson seems to be overreaching, this work is a wide-ranging and insightful meditation on what football means in American culture. VERDICT Beautifully written and impressively thought out, this smart memoir should appeal to a wide audience. --Library Journal
by Carmen J. Viglucci (Get the Book)
The author, a retired newspaperman, recreates his early growing up years in the NY state capital, with wit and irony. There were the sandlot ballgames, row boat trips down the Hudson, visits to the Palace and Paramount Theaters, and even hikes to the neighborhood dump with his ten-year-old buddies, to do battle with the rats.There is also mention of the conflict stemming from his mother Nell's roots "as Irish as a Fitzgerald and Gilligan could make her" and his father's Italian immigrant background. The telling is laced with humor. (Summary)
by Doug J. Swanson (Get the Book)
Benny Binion is not as well known as Bugsy Seigel, who created Las Vegas, but, as crime-novelist Swanson makes clear in this rollicking biography, Binion also deserves his place in the Sin City Hall of Fame. Born poor in rural Texas in 1904, Binion soon was on the road with his horse-trader father. The game, Swanson recounts, was to trade a bad horse for a good horse, a scam requiring plenty of chutzpah. Benny soon realized the downside the best you could do was end up with a better horse but he also noticed that the gamblers who ran the games in which the traders lost what little money they had were doing just fine. In a few years, he was running the numbers game in the black neighborhoods of Dallas. After scaring off or killing a few too many rivals, Benny found that Dallas had become a bit too hot for comfort, sending him to Vegas, where he carved out a dominant spot for himself and eventually had the crazy idea of hosting something he decided to call the World Series of Poker. Swanson, a Dallas Morning News editor when he's not writing crime novels, has turned the biography of Binion into a great piece of narrative nonfiction that reads like, well, a great crime novel. When Las Vegas gets its faux Mt. Rushmore (and can that day be far off?), Benny's mug will be there, right alongside Bugsy's.
by Jan Swafford (Get the Book)
Winner of the PEN/Winship Award and finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, Swafford's Ives is a wonder of music biography; the author, who teaches at Boston Conservatory, re-created the very sounds surrounding Ives in childhood to help us understand his daring musicianship. Here, Swafford offers a study of Beethoven, ten years in the making, that investigates the ideas tumbling through the air in Enlightenment-era Bonn so that we can see how Beethoven and his music were shaped. With a 25,000-copy first printing.
by Joseph Luzzi (Get the Book)
The American-born son of poor but tough Calabrian immigrants, Luzzi yearned for the Italy of Dante and Michelangelo, not the one of sharp cheese and salted anchovies. But while building a distinguished scholarly career writing about Italian high culture, the very different Italy of his parents continued to haunt him with the smells of its cooking, the calloused hands of his uncles, and the unsentimental way in which his mother dispatched animals for the family table. Luzzi is not, of course, the first to note the distance between these two Italies as he notes, Tony Soprano grappled with the same issue but the contrasting ideals provide Luzzi with a lens through which to examine Italy and the Italian American experience, especially that of his family. In part, he is trying to puzzle through the miseria of his parents, who survived the war to suffer a lifetime of backbreaking labor and enduring but pugnacious love. But when Luzzi shares his deepest pain the sudden death of his pregnant wife in a car accident his investigations of his extended family turn powerfully poignant, for it was they who cared for his infant daughter while he curled in a fetal position in his childhood bed. The result is a memoir that balances thoughtful observation with feelings that, one senses, still remain quite raw. --Booklist
by Ben Montgomery (Get the Book)
In 1955, at 67, Gatewood left her small Ohio town and her 11 children and 23 grandchildren and set off to trek the Appalachian Trail. She'd long been fascinated by the 2,050-mile trail and was particularly lured by the fact that no woman had ever hiked it alone. Knowing her family wouldn't approve, she didn't tell them when she set out with a little 17-pound sack of supplies and no tent or sleeping bag. Journalist Montgomery draws on interviews with Gatewood's surviving family members and hikers she met on her five-month journey as well as news accounts and Gatewood's diaries to offer a portrait of a determined woman, whose trek inspired other hikers and brought attention to the neglect of the Appalachian Trail. She became a hiking celebrity, appearing on television with Groucho Marx and Art Linkletter. Montgomery intertwines details of Gatewood's hike with recollections from her early life and difficult marriage. Maps of the trail and photos from Gatewood's early life enhance this inspiring story. --Booklist
by Marja Mills (Get the Book)
Harper Lee, author of the national touchstone, To Kill a Mockingbird, withdrew from the relentless vortex of fame and never published another book. Her silence, like that of J. D. Salinger, has been a compelling literary mystery. When To Kill a Mockingbird was chosen for One Book, One Chicago in 2001, Chicago Tribune reporter Mills traveled to Lee's Alabama hometown, certain that she would never get anywhere near the author. Instead, Mills found herself living a literary fairy tale, as Alice, Harper's older sister by 15 years, still working as an attorney in her nineties, ushered Mills into their book-filled home. Soon Mills, much to her astonishment, is watching football games, going fishing, and sharing meals with Alice, Nelle (Harper is her middle name), and their friends. When the Lees express their hope that Mills will record their reminiscences and set the record straight, she rents the house next door and devotes herself to listening to tales of the Lee family; Nelle's relationship with their childhood neighbor, Truman Capote ( Truman was a psychopath, honey ); and the nearly overwhelming repercussions of Nelle's novel. Mills' struggles with lupus bring her even closer to the sisters. As she portrays the exceptional Lee women and their modest, slow-paced world with awed precision, Mills creates a uniquely intimate, ruminative, and gently illuminating biographical memoir. --Booklist
by David Bromwich (Get the Book)
The 18th-century Anglo-Irish philosopher and politician Edmund Burke (1729-97) has been called "the father of modern conservatism," largely because of his opposition to the French Revolution. However, Bromwich (Hazlitt: The Mind of a Critic), in this new intellectual biography that covers the first three decades of Burke's professional life, sees his subject's work as more nuanced and complex. Drawing on Burke's correspondence, as well as his public writings and speeches, Bromwich presents the portrait of a serious thinker who cannot be easily categorized as either conservative or liberal-Burke spoke out about abuse of power, even supporting the American colonies, yet at times seemed to distrust democracy. The author focuses primarily on Burke's work, supplying just enough biographical details to provide context, resulting in many quotations with in-depth explication. This approach is especially successful in the chapter featuring "The Sublime and Beautiful," the 1857 treatise on aesthetics that reveals Burke's exceptional rhetorical abilities. VERDICT Bromwich has brought his considerable research and writing skills together to present a readable, thorough picture of Burke's earlier years. --Library Journal
by Michael Morton (Get the Book)
In this absorbing first-person narrative, first-time author Morton shows readers how it is possible in our justice system to be convicted of a crime without substantial evidence. One afternoon in August 1986, -Morton returned home from work to find that his wife had been bludgeoned to death. He became the prime suspect, even though there was nothing to tie him to the murder. Tried and convicted, Morton spent 25 years behind bars in Williamson County, TX, until the New York-based Innocence Project took on his case and secured his release using DNA evidence. The happier side to all this is that Morton holds no grudges, and, back at home, he has found peace through a new marriage and a new life. The narrative deals mostly with the man's personal traumas during his incarceration as well as his prison experiences--readers may prefer one or the other of these or they may learn about his courage to find forgiveness despite everything that has happened. -VERDICT Written in a crisp style, this book should appeal to almost any reader who is interested in true crime stories. It is a must-read for students and professionals in criminal justice. --Library Journal
by Gregory N. Fleming (Get the Book)
Flemming relates the story of the capture by pirates of Philip Ashton in 1722, and in the process he reveals a fascinating history of pirates during the first decades of the 18th century, "the golden age of piracy." Ashton, a fisherman, was taken captive during a raid off the coast of Nova Scotia by the pirate crew of the notorious Edward Low, a captain more vicious than Blackbeard. Ashton survived his capture for nine months before escaping on a deserted island in the Caribbean where the ship had stopped for water. He spent 16 months there, alone, before he was rescued. By the time he made it home to Marblehead, Mass., he'd been away three years. Ashton's account was written down and published by his minister, John Barnard-a less severe protege of fire-and-brimstone Puritan preacher Cotton Mather-and Flemming's detailed contextualizing of pirate life was taken from court records, survivor narratives, newspaper accounts, and logbooks. From battles with warships to the way the pirates split their plunder, Flemming's focus on individual actors adds a welcome depth to the history of piracy with this engaging and harrowing account of "America's real-life Robinson Crusoe." --Publishers Weekly
by Linda Porter (Get the Book)
Members of England's Tudor dynasty have been the subjects of books, films, TV series, and more. Their contemporaries, Scotland's Stewarts, remain largely in the background until Mary, Queen of Scots, emerges from the shadows to bedevil Elizabeth I. Author Porter (Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr, the Last Wife of Henry VIII, 2010) interweaves the stories of both dynasties to show how the history of Great Britain was shaped by their uneasy relations. She begins with the struggles that brought crowns to both Henry VII of England and James IV of Scotland, whom she calls one of Britain's greatest kings. James' marriage to Henry's daughter Margaret united the families but also intensified their rivalries, since it gave the Stewarts a claim to the English throne. The rivalries were carried into the next generations, particularly in the conflicts between Henry VIII and his nephew James V, ending only when Mary's son, James VI, was crowned as England's James I. Porter's highly readable account offers a fresh perspective for readers who look forward to each new book on the Tudors. --Booklist
by Ruben Castaneda (Get the Book)
When D.C. mayor Marion Barry was arrested for smoking crack, journalist Castaneda was in that hotel's lobby, phoning in the details to the Washington Post, where he'd recently landed a job, moving from L.A.'s now defunct Herald-Examiner. What Castaneda also brought to D.C. back then was his own crack addiction, and it is a nonchalantly and honestly detailed part of his memoir. While he's running down the stories and writing them well, he is also getting wasted. D.C.'s S Street is where the drug-selling action takes place, and Castaneda parallels his story with that of pastor Jim, who promises not to rat on the dealers but invites them to church, and that of honest, tough homicide cop Lou. There are scenes in this book that depict people acting in ways that are as low as one can humanly go, but they are related matter-of-factly, almost impersonally. There are also instances of incredible goodness, but the good guys don't always win. Castaneda's page-turner, told with easygoing charm and great skill, is an unstinting unveiling of who got away with what and when and how Castaneda followed the action and found himself. --Booklist
by Nina Stibbe (Get the Book)
With a who's who at the beginning that ranges from film director Stephen Frears to Maxwell, the author's ex-pony, you might guess this is not your typical memoir. Not only that, but it comprises the tuneful, descriptive letters Nina wrote in the 1980s, while she tried her hand at nannying in London, to her sister, Vic, who stayed basically at home, near Leicestershire, England. The nannied children were young Sam and Will Frears their arty, daffy children's conversations fill the pages living with their sharp, blunt mother, Mary-Kay Wilmers, deputy editor of the London Review of Books. Nina herself, then just 20 and new to the task of being a nanny, was a lover of London and quite the observer, documenting for her sister back home the who, the when, and her full-blown, clever, open-eyed take on the what of life at the Wilmers-Frears. Stibbe notes that nannying is not like a job really, just like living in someone else's life, but what a funny, artist-filled life she lived, and how well she watched and participated. This is an offbeat paean to families, real and cobbled-together, to sisters and siblings, and to communicating with love. It's also a rare and wholly delectable epistolary slice of life. --Booklist
by James H. Webb (Get the Book)
This memoir takes the author from his birth shortly after World War II to the present, and is a rumination on the changes that the world, the United States, and the military have endured in the interim. Webb (Fields of Fire) was a marine, a company commander in Vietnam, a committee counsel for the House, an assistant secretary of defense, and a democratic senator from Virginia. Webb is a clear and accessible writer who credits his history, and that of his family and forebears, with molding his convictions and guiding his career choices. Combat in Vietnam still dogs him, both mentally and physically. The contradictions and failures of that war informed his later writings and eventual political pursuits, and led him to oppose the Iraq war as "a bad place in a bad war." Concerned with the rising inequality and inequitable division of wealth in America today he tried, unsuccessfully, to introduce measures like taxing capital gains as ordinary income. VERDICT A convincing memoir filled with ideas by a man who might be called a contrarian in today's politics. --Library Journal
by Mariano Rivera (Get the Book)
From humble roots in Panama, Mariano "Mo" Rivera went on to become the greatest closer in baseball history, notching 652 total saves, 13 all-star appearances, and five World Series rings with the New York Yankees over 18 seasons. But in this entertaining, admirably subdued autobiography, the glory is God's: Rivera's story brims with examples of his faith. Sure, there is plenty of baseball for fans to feast on, too. The pitcher tells stories about his teammates (including Derek Jeter, A-Rod, and Joe Torre); championship moments, including the 2000 subway series against the Mets, and the startling game-seven loss in 2001 to the Arizona Diamondbacks; as well as instances of heated pitching rivalries against the Red Sox. He also recalls struggling through injuries, including an elbow issue that threatened his career early on and a blown knee that almost ended his career in 2012. Intensely competitive and a gifted athlete, Rivera will delight baseball fans. But the memories recounted here-both on the field and off-ultimately reveal something deeper: Rivera's almost incredible humility, unshakeable faith, and devotion to his family (he married his childhood sweetheart, Clara). In an age of bravado and bluster in professional sports, he is one of the few athletes who has earned a right to brag. Yet Rivera's elegance and class manage to somehow outshine his accomplishments. --Publishers Weekly
by John F. Ross (Get the Book)
Once upon a time, aviator Eddie Rickenbacker was the most famous man in America, the kind of hero that songs were written about and schoolchildren dreamed of emulating. In this entertaining biography, historian Ross (War on the Run, 2009) returns to the dawn of the twentieth century, when cars and aircraft burst onto the scene. Aviation aficionados and war buffs will expect Ross to focus on Rickenbacker's WWI flying-ace achievements; instead, he takes a long look at the aviator's early success in the automotive field as both a brilliant mechanic (Put simply, engines have always talked to me, Rickenbacker explained) and a daring race-car driver. Drawing heavily on his subject's interviews and writings, while also noting areas of his personal life that Rickenbacker publicly fabricated (most notably his father's life and death), Ross peppers the text with quotes that place readers right alongside the ace through nearly every moment of his life. Obviously this is exciting material to work with after all, Rickenbacker was a man who drove in the first Indy 500 and dueled with the Red Baron's flying circus but Ross is never fawning in this thoroughly enjoyable and downright rollicking read. --Booklist
by Kai Bird (Get the Book)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bird (coauthor, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer) pre-sents CIA intelligence officer Robert Ames (1934-83) as a serious intellectual, a devoted family man, and a hardworking, idealistic professional. After preparing readers for Ames's death in the massive 1983 bombing of the American embassy in Beirut, Bird takes us back through Ames's development as an expert in Arabic languages, history, and politics who increasingly -focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict. By 1980, he was a recognized policy advisor within the CIA, state department, and White House. Bird interweaves his subject's commitment to finding a solution to the Palestine dilemma with tracking the mounting unrest in Lebanon and increasing terrorism by Palestinians, Israelis, and militant Shiites. Readers are drawn to Ames and his effort to be a "good spy," building solutions, even as the U.S. government, buffeted by partisan pressures, adhered to no one constructive policy. VERDICT This is a moving biography within a balanced presentation of the complex diplomacy over the Palestinian quest for statehood and the Israeli need for security, complicated by a disintegrating Lebanon and a revolutionary Iran. Bird's view of a CIA committed to analysis and policy development contrasts with the agency depicted in Hugh Wilford's recent America's Great Game. --Library Journal
by Roland Lazenby (Get the Book)Lazenby, author of an acclaimed biography of NBA great Jerry West, correctly points out that there have been enough books written about Michael Jordan to qualify as a genre. So why another? In order to reveal, Lazenby says, more of Jordan's true self, his complex, almost bipolar personality. Jordan, we learn, driven by his hypercompetitiveness, could go from being a gracious person off the court to a vicious antagonist to teammates and opponents. As Jordan's fame grew, Lazenby shows, he became its prisoner, and his isolation worsened after his father, Michael's anchor in a world of sycophants, was murdered. Lazenby also digs into the rest of Jordan's family, noting that Michael was estranged from the family for a time over a dispute between his then-wife, Juanita, and his mother. Lazenby's resources include the vast printed Jordan library as well as interviews conducted recently, along with gleanings from the author's years on the NBA beat. Readers who have immersed themselves in the Jordan genre will be familiar with much of what's detailed here, but MJ's life is a movie worth watching again, and Lazenby adds enough deleted scenes to add some oomph to the familiar story. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Interest in Jordan remains high, and this biography will be heavily promoted and is sure to receive coverage beyond both book pages and sports sections. --Booklist
by Piper Kerman (Get the Book)
Just graduated from Smith College, Kerman made the mistake of getting involved with the wrong woman and agreeing to deliver a large cash payment for an international drug ring. Years later, the consequences catch up with her in the form of an indictment on conspiracy drug-smuggling and money-laundering charges. Kerman pleads guilty and is sentenced to 15 months in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. Entering prison in 2004 more than 10 years after her crime Kerman finds herself submerged in the unique and sometimes overwhelming culture of prison, where kindness can come in the form of sharing toiletries, and an insult in the cafeteria can lead to an enduring enmity. Kerman quickly learns the rules asking about the length of one's prison stay is expected, but never ask about the crime that led to it and carves a niche for herself even as she witnesses the way the prison system fails those who are condemned to it, many of them nonviolent drug offenders. An absorbing, meditative look at life behind bars. --Booklist
by Robin Roberts (Get the Book)
When Good Morning America cohost Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, she mounted a very public battle. Five years after completing treatment, she faced a rare bone-marrow disorder, likely caused by the cancer treatment, that again tested her strength and resolve, again in public. Following her mother's time-honored advice to make your mess your message, Roberts offers an inspiring memoir of her life, from her home base in Mississippi to her home in New York and the glamorous though grueling life of a television reporter. Roberts prevailed through a painful bone-marrow transplant, with her sister as donor; the death of her mother; and her triumphant return to GMA after her medical leave, proudly wearing her bald head on air. With the infectious personality for which she's known, Roberts details the support of family and friends and the people she's met in her life and career who've inspired her by overcoming their own challenges with the something that everybody inevitably faces. --Booklist
by Lisa Robinson (Get the Book)
Journalist Robinson, currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, has four decades' worth of personal stories about the many rock 'n' roll stars she hung with and wrote about. She knew Mick Jagger before he got his teeth fixed, for example, and she colorfully details her times with rock soon-to-be-superstars David Bowie, Lou Reed, and such before moving on to her many years of interviews and meetings with music luminaries like Michael Jackson, Bono, Eminem, and Lady Gaga. Robinson has an astute memory, reel-to-reel party tapes, and even breakfast-order notes that captured the minutest aspects of her musical journey. The excerpts from her long interviews with, say, John Lennon, are fascinating and worth the price of the book; no worries that Robinson digresses and rambles here and there. Plenty of music fans will be more than ready for this circuitous, genial, and opinionated walk on the wild side. --Booklist
by Frances Mayes (Get the Book)
Mayes, adored for her famed Tuscany books (Under the Tuscan Sun, 1996; Every Day in Tuscany, 2010), mined the murky depths of her family's history for her first novel, Swan (2002). She now returns to the scene of the crimes in both literal and figurative senses. Her southern memoir is a tale straight out of Faulkner, rife with episodes of dissipation and disillusion, parents who loved and fought with equally wild abandon, and ancestors with names like Big Mama and Daddy Jack. While on a book tour in Oxford, Mississippi, Mayes realized her southern roots ran deeper than she believed or would have liked. But she and her husband were sufficiently compelled to relocate from Northern California to North Carolina, settling in a university town with a far enough remove to allow her an objective distance from which to analyze the signature episodes of her childhood. With her trademark skill for capturing the essence of place and time, Mayes candidly reveals a youth riddled with psychological abuse and parental neglect that, nevertheless, ignited a fiery passion for adventure and self-discovery. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A best-selling sensation worldwide, Mayes will galvanize readers with this vigorously promoted coming-of-age tale set on her home terrain. --Booklist
by Robert Wagner (Get the Book)
Wagner and Eyman, who coauthored Wagner's 2008 autobiography, Pieces of My Heart, this time tell the story of a place and a time: Hollywood from the 1930s through the '60s. Divided into topical chapters, including Houses and Hotels, Style, and Nightlife, the book follows Hollywood from its early days until Cecil B. DeMille arrived in 1913, Hollywood was just another place outside Los Angeles through its heady decades as the trendsetter in style and popular culture, and ending with the collapse of the studio system, when profits were in steep decline and many of the Golden Age stars were dying or aging out of the spotlight. You can tell that Wagner, whose acting career started when the Golden Age was its most golden, truly misses that time and place; his fondness for it and his distaste for the modern way of moviemaking come through on almost every page. For Wagner, the emblems of Hollywood at its grandest the mansions, the stars, the parties, the watering holes evoke a better world, and his account of how it was then just may leave nostalgic readers similarly affected. --Booklist
by Doug Harvey (Get the Book)
Doug Harvey made his Major League umpiring debut in 1962 and retired after 4,673 games in 1992. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. As one would expect of an umpire, his memoir is confident and sure. Whatever call he made, safe or out, ball or strike, he never backed down and never changed his mind. Along with best-selling coauthor Golenbock (The Bronx Zoo, 1979, and Balls, 1984, among others), Harvey guides readers through his career: his relatively short apprenticeship in the minors, his time as a basketball referee, his early years with a contentious crew chief in the Majors, and his long run as veteran and much-respected ump. And, as readers would hope, there are dozens of anecdotes involving some of baseball's greatest names, including Sandy Koufax, Ted Williams, and Willie Mays. Though he never changed his mind, Harvey prided himself on being a good listener, even to irate managers, and the best tales are those about the behind-the-scenes machinations of such legendary field generals as Leo Durocher, Sparky Anderson, Tommy Lasorda, and Walter Alston. Baseball fans will relish this my-way-or-the-highway memoir. --Booklist
by Alain Baraton (Get the Book)
Versailles's gardener in chief aims to share an aspect of the grand landmark palace outside of Paris that is seldom experienced-a simple, intimate side not evident in works such as Michel Baridon's A History of the Gardens of Versailles. An exquisite storyteller who works in and lives among the gardens, Baraton (editor, From Marie Antoinette's Garden: An Eighteenth-Century Horticultural Album) immediately engages readers with a vivid account of a severe storm damaging the gardens. It is an extraordinary place to begin, for it enables Baraton to slip comfortably into reminiscing, beckoning readers back to the beginning of his tenure, 1976, when he was only an apprentice gardener's assistant. A keen observer, he learned quickly and developed a curiosity about the place. Thirty years on, Baraton has filled his book not only with interesting historical details and human stories of the royals who walked the grounds but with insightful, contemporary tales of wise coworkers and eccentric visitors. Whether he's discussing romantic tourists or marveling at bygone gardening techniques, Baraton's eloquence and intelligence shine in this English translation by Murray. --Library Journal
by Alan Paul (Get the Book)
Perhaps no music journalist has written as extensively about the Allman Brothers Band as Paul, who has tracked the rock group's career for 25 years. And his deep familiarity with the band and its music shows everywhere in this fluid account. Framed as an oral history, the biography includes extensive, insightful comments not only from band members but also from players at all levels of the music business, from loyal roadies to gifted producers (including the late Tom Dowd) to money-minded record-company executives. They take us through the milestones, from the early days, when the band crisscrossed the country in the dead of winter packed into an underheated van, to the cusp of massive success and the deaths of bandleader and guitarist Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley, to the group's decision to soldier on in spite of the losses. From the beginning, Allman had a certain vision for his band that included two lead guitarists, two drummers, and the soulful, whiskey-soaked vocals of his brother, Gregg. Improbably, Duane spearheaded a long-haired, multiracial band in the Deep South in the late '60s, but he was supremely confident, at the tender age of 23, that his blues-based music would transcend any barriers. Augmented by photos and fascinating sidebars, this candid oral history has appeal beyond the Allman Brothers Band's loyal fan base. --Booklist
by Jenifer Ringer (Get the Book)
Dancing has always been essential to Ringer. As a child, a student, and a principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, dance and her strong faith in God were at the center of her life. And she has danced with the best over the course of her extremely successful career while also becoming a wife and mother. With ballet dancers, body image can become an obsession, and like so many others, Ringer suffered from anorexia and bulimia until she ended up gaining enough weight to be fired from the company. Perseverance, prayer, family, and church helped her to get past these issues and return to the company. Then, just when she finally came to terms with her body type, a New York Times critic suggested that she was fat, creating a publicity storm that drove her to the talk shows. Ringer now offers a frank and open account of her demanding dance life, revealing seldom-seen technical aspects of this rigorous art form. A sure hit for balletomanes and everyone concerned about body-image issues. --Booklist
by Greg Kot (Get the Book)
Never forgetting their down-home southern roots even as musical styles changed, the Staple Singers for decades maintained an integrity that strongly appealed to fans and musicians. Music journalist Kot chronicles the amazing story of a family that went from a hardscrabble life in Mississippi to Chicago's church circuit to worldwide fame, merging the genres of roots, gospel, and soul. Pops' distinctive guitar playing and Mavis' big voice became their signatures. They rode the chitlin' circuit in a Cadillac, with Pops carrying a gun in his attache case along with their earnings. Kot details their friendships with scores of artists, including Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Dylan (who proposed to Mavis), Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Bonnie Raitt, and Prince. Drawing on interviews with Mavis and other musicians, Kot details the creative process behind the hits Heavy Makes You Happy, Respect Yourself, and I'll Take You There. With an exuberance that matches the Staples' sound, Kot portrays their ups and downs through gospel, the message music of the civil rights era, R & B pop music, the disastrous move to disco, and, finally, trying to find themselves again. Meanwhile, Mavis' career as a solo artist culminated in a 2011 Grammy for best Americana album. This is a moving tribute to a very talented family and one gracious woman, in particular. --Booklist
by Douglas Petty (Get the Book)
In the feature film and the television series, both titled The Untouchables, Eliot Ness is portrayed as the stolid, upright federal agent who relentlessly and successfully pursued Al Capone and destroyed Capone's Chicago empire. Recent revisionist histories have convincingly illustrated that Ness' role in bringing down Capone was tangential. But Perry, an award-winning journalist, asserts that Ness still should be honored as a highly successful lawman, especially after leaving Chicago, when he served as a public-safety director in the corrupt and crime-ridden city of Cleveland. The real Ness was a far more interesting and flawed person than the cartoonlike character of television and film. He was ambitious, charming, and innovative, but he was also reckless in both his personal and public life, and he died in debt and obscurity. Perry recounts both his rise and decline with the proper mix of objectivity and compassion for a man who deserves some degree of respect and admiration. --Booklist
by Michael Ignatieff (Get the Book)
Ignatieff offers a cautionary tale for public intellectuals who would be politicians. The Toronto native, currently a professor at the University of Toronto and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, served as head of Canada's Liberal Party until 2011, when he lost his own seat in the party's worst showing in its history. Ignatieff had left Harvard in 2005 to enter Canadian politics and swiftly rose through the ranks to become leader of his party, on the cusp of becoming the next Prime Minister, only to face a huge electoral defeat and million-dollar campaign debt. Wised up to the rough and tumble of political life, he reflects on what he did right and wrong, and shows why getting elected, and then enacting reforms, is hard work. "Red meat must be thrown to the hounds," he muses. This thin volume could have easily been a vanity book, but it's more than that. An erudite and civilized man, Ignatieff ends his tale with surprisingly upbeat advice to aspiring politicians. --Publishers Weekly
by Valerie Lawson (Get the Book)
Sydney Morning Herald writer Lawson's preface to her biography of P.L. Travers (1899-1996), the creator of Mary Poppins, reads like an introduction to a mystery. This is fitting, since Travers preferred to keep the facts of her personal life hidden; luckily, Lawson is superb at excavating the details. Travers, we learn, held a cherished belief that women experience three phases of life: maiden, mother, and crone, so Lawson divides the book into three corresponding sections. Drawing on archival sources and private papers, she covers Travers's relationship with the poet AE (George William Russell), her dealings with film producer Walt Disney, and her adoption of a son while a single woman. Many pages are devoted to Travers's lifelong spiritual journey, which involved meditation, Zen Buddhism, and several gurus, of which the controversial Gurdjieff became the most influential. At times when discussing Travers's spiritual search, Lawson applies an unfortunate layer of sarcasm. Thankfully, this tendency does not detract significantly from the arresting life revealed here. --Library Journal
by Lynn Darling (Get the Book)
In a radiant, brave memoir, Darling, a journalist and memoirist (Necessary Sins), recalls a difficult time shortly after her daughter goes off to college and Darling moves from New York City to the remote woods of Woodstock, Vt. A widow in her mid-'50s, Darling finds the woods around her small, eclectic house at the end of the road inviting yet frightening, and soon learns how "directionally challenged" she is-thus vulnerable. Having fled her life in the city out of a sense of failure and shame, she admits that she no longer knows what map of her life . She turns to a point by point "metaphysical" to-do list, including "get sense of direction; find authentic way to live; figure out how to be old; deal with sex; learn Latin." With her companion a yellow Lab puppy she named Henry, and occasionally help from wilderness experts-or a compass and a map-Darling embarks on a clarifying journey of self-navigation. Despite being sidetracked by cancer and a year of grueling treatments, which she endured largely alone, she gradually finds her moorings, emerging from this dark spell with a profound and grateful understanding of what it means to take responsibility for yourself. --Publishers Weekly
By Dave van Ronk (Get the Book)
Singer-songwriter Van Ronk did more than most to earn the heady title of his memoir, gussied up for publication by the author of the outstanding blues history Escaping the Delta (2004). In the folk-music ferment of late-fifties/early-sixties Greenwich Village, Van Ronk was a larger-than-life presence with a blustery personality to match his big frame, headlining the famous folk-music haunts and mentoring such up-and-coming stars as Bob Dylan. A masterful storyteller and robust singer who prided himself in making a living without leaving the Village, he was a musical sponge who picked up a wildly eclectic repertoire. He recalls the heyday of the pretourist, 1950s Village, before the so-called Folk Scare, when regulars went to Washington Square on Sunday afternoons for loose sessions that continued late into the night. He recalls first hearing Dylan--the scruffiest-looking fugitive from a cornfield I do believe I had ever seen --at a Village coffeehouse and being impressed (the new arrival thereafter often crashed on Van Ronk's sofa). A richly evocative paean to a lost era. --Booklist
by Tony Iommi (Get the Book)
Some people believe guitarist Iommi, the only founding member of Black Sabbath who's remained with the group all along, accidentally created heavy metal. A mishap with a metal-bending machine in a welding shop snipped off two of his fingertips, which changed how he played, but was the accident really responsible for the birth of a new style of music? Well, that's too bloody much, says Iommi. On the other hand, no one can deny that Iommi and his bandmates, including lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, created something fresh, exciting, and just a little bit subversive. This memoir, dead certain to appeal to heavy-metal fans of all ages, tracks Iommi's life and the history of Black Sabbath. Predictably, given its subject, it's full of drugs, booze, and controversy, but Iommi makes no apologies for that. It's his life, the way he lived it. With plenty of behind-the-scenes stories and fresh perspectives on some of music's most notorious characters (including, again, Ozzy), this is a frank and honest look at a special part of rock history. --Booklist
by David landau (Get the Book)
Since his massive stroke in January 2006, Ariel Sharon has remained in a persistent vegetative state. Given the strong passions and controversy he engendered as both a military and political leader, it is perhaps surprising that many Israelis from each side of the political divide look back on his career and personality favorably. Landau has written for both Right and Left newspapers in Israel and is currently the Israel correspondent for the Economist. His thorough, balanced, and scrupulously fair biography makes clear why Sharon was capable of winning respect and admiration, even from his staunch political opponents. In recounting Sharon's youth, Landau reveals Sharon as always prepared to swim against the tide, as he and his family resisted the pressures of nearby kibbutzim to maintain the independence of their farm. As a military leader, he was rash, occasionally brutal, and sometimes defiant of superiors, but at critical moments, especially during the Yom Kippur War, he was decisive and brilliant. As prime minister, despite his earlier promotion of settlement activity, he dismantled settlements and withdrew from Gaza. This is an outstanding, warts-and-all portrait of an arguably great, if not a particularly likable, Israeli leader. --Booklist
by Bob Ingle (Get the Book)
In this exhaustive biography, journalists Ingle (coauthor, The Soprano State) and Symons explore the life and times of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who came to national attention after cleaning house in state government, which resulted in "convictions or guilty pleas of more than 130 public officials." The authors detail Christie's personal background, discussing his parents and their partisan differences, his plans at age 10 to become a lawyer, his marriage and children, and his switch from pro-choice to pro-life after hearing his daughter's prenatal heartbeat. But the bulk of the volume focuses on Christie's 25-year political career-from law firm partner to county freeholder, an unsuccessful election for state senator, a stint as U.S. attorney for New Jersey under Bush, and finally, the governorship. The authors highlight Christie's frank nature ("I weigh too much because I eat too much."), his "tough 'Jersey guy' image," and his willingness to defend his opinions even when they are in opposition to the default GOP platform (e.g., his support of certain firearm restrictions). Speculation abounds regarding Christie's political aspirations, and Ingle and Symons provide an excellent introduction to this provocative politician. "He's demanding, he's loyal, he's combative, he's entertaining, he's mouthy-but never boring." Neither is this book. --Publishers weekly
by Jane Pauley (Get the Book)
Former NBC news anchor Pauley shares stories of mid-life personal reinventions, many from people featured on her eponymous Today show segment. Paul Giannone worked in information technology before realizing his dream to open a pizzeria and now feels that, despite spending seven days a week there, he does not "work" at all. Gid Pool began his career as a stand-up comedian at age 61, while Kirk Rademaker quit a stressful job to be a full-time sand carver. Some find their calling helping others, like Jan Erickson who used her experience as an elder-care minister to launch a wellness clothing line. Jan remarks, "everybody comes to this planet with something to give." Jenny and Richard Bowen wanted to help abandoned baby girls in China so they adopted one. Later, feeling she had to do more, Jenny established the Half the Sky Foundation for training child-care professionals to nurture children in Chinese institutions. Pauley also shares her story of taking over for Barbara Walters on Today at just 25 years of age, and the "guilt and self-doubt" she experienced as a working mother. She addresses the controversy surrounding her replacement by Deborah Norville and her struggle with bipolar disorder. Readers seeking new directions will find a wealth of inspiration. --Publishers Weekly
by Gary Shteyngart (Get the Book)
Instead of the incisive, satirical novel that readers might expect from Shteyngart (Super Sad True Love Story), this refreshing memoir makes it clear that for a writer in his 40s, he has produced enough material to fill volumes. Shteyngart unleashes a storm of lacerating humor upon himself and everything (and everyone) that made him who he is. As an immigrant, a misfit, and a lonely kid yearning to fit in, the author brings to life a quintessentially American story. This fascinating look into the making of a prominent literary voice is difficult to put down. VERDICT Poignant, vitriolic, wistful, always moving and painfully honest, this memoir is a substantial contribution. Shteyngart is well known for writing book blurbs for other authors; expect to see some heavy hitters getting behind this memoir, a self-examination that is entertaining and devastating in equal measure. Highly recommended. --Library Journal
by Peter Richmond (Get the Book)
Phil Jackson is the most successful coach in professional sports history. He won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and another five with the Los Angeles Lakers. And he was a player on two New York Knick championship teams in the early seventies. Veteran sports journalist Richmond calls this a biography, but it's really more of a quest Richmond in search of the real Phil Jackson, a fascinating man who has remained a bit of a mystery despite a penchant for writing books about himself and his career (four to date). Richmond spent a lot of time with those four books, but he also interviewed former players, friends, and associates in an attempt to get a sense of the man as well as the coach. Phil the Coach has been remarkably consistent in his methods and interaction with his players, who all revere him. The enigmatic Phil has been the public Phil hippie, coach, husband, teacher, seeker, friend, and father. Sometimes the contexts overlap. But inarguably, he's a fascinating subject, and while Richmond may not plumb Jackson's depths completely, he makes a reasonably good dive in that direction. --Booklist
