Turner proposes that the supposedly unifying feature of Newman's life-the philosophical critique of liberalism-is in fact an invention of the later Catholic Newman, a myth which Newman used to justify the behavior of his prior Anglican self, and which has been perpetuated by sympathetic Catholic hagiographers. According to Turner, a proper historical examination reveals that Newman's activity in the Oxford Movement was motivated more by political, psychological and personal preoccupations, and an emotional antipathy for Evangelical faith, rather than an intellectual critique of "liberal" ideas. But Turner's judgment is not so much the conclusion of historical research as the direct implication his historiographical assumptions. The integrity of the "continuity thesis" regarding the critique of liberalism must be ruled out by Turner a priori, because his historical method leads him to treat any sign of intellectual coherence as implying a "teleology" and "inevitability" directly opposed to historical "contingency." The first irony is that in trying to be a more authentic historian of contingency, Turner reads Newman as a captive of his psychological urges and political interests-in other words, as precisely the opposite of the sort of rational agent who, having made intelligent and free choices, can thus be said to have a genuine history. The second irony is that articulating a proper understanding of human agency and historical knowledge is one of the central concerns of Newman's intellectual critique of liberalism. We may say of Turner what Newman once said of his own obstinate brother: "That I could be contemplating questions of Truth & Falsehood never entered into his imagination!" (quoted by Turner, p. 615).

One cannot help asking how a 724 page book of such unsupportable pretension can get itself published. Then, again, not much should surprise us these days. The author, formerly Provost at Yale University, is well-connected, after all. The jacket carries four accolades from what appear prima facie to be well-credentialed authorities. I say "prima facie," because they turn out on closer inspection, either to have published nothing of any significance (if at all) on Newman themselves, or to be as bent on besmirching and burying Newman's memory as the author. One senses that Newman still poses a colossal challenge for many within the Protestant texbook tradition of ecclesiastical history, whether Protestants of the conservative evangelical variety or the liberal "Christianity-and-water" variety one finds here. To the former Newman is a challenge because of the transparent honesty and programmatic reflection with which he agonized his way out of his evangelical Protestant background and Oxford Tractarian movement--against the overwhelming anti-Catholic cultural biases of his British milieu--into the Catholic Faith. To the latter, he is an offense because of his utterly sincere supernaturalism and belief in objective and absolute truth, which sticks like a thorn in the side of their urbane, self-congratulatory naturalism, subjectivism and relativism. Turner shows utterly no appreciation or sympathy for these dimensions of Newman's convictions. Instead, one finds in this pretended biographer of a dogmatist a haughty contempt for all dogma (tenets of faith proclaimed by the Church as supernaturally revealed). Even Keble and Pusey are portrayed as sickly souls, which is more than any Anglicans worth their salt should tolerate. Turner consistently plays fast and loose with his facts, marshalling his historical data selectively in support of his foregone conclusions. He says nothing, for example, about those numerous eminent (and Protestant) Victorians who sided with Newman in his argument (in his Apologia Pro Vita Sua) against Kingsley's claim that he was insincere. Instead, quixotically tilting at a colossus of a man far greater than himself, Turner tries to belittle and besmirch a mind far greater than his-- a mind described by the Victorian Gladstone as "sharp enough to cut the diamond, and bright as the diamond which it cuts." Turner's volume is ineluctably self-serving, iniquitously malicious, incorrigibly biased, and irreparably flawed. For a thorough critique, see Stanley L. Jaki's review in the New Oxford Review (May 2003), pp. 37-46.

One of the assertions of this work, that Newman's conversion from the Church of England to the Church of Rome was not inevitable, is underwhelming. Well, yes, John Henry Newman could have chosen any or several of myriad other paths than the one he followed from Anglicanism to (Roman) Catholicism. But Professor Turner builds scant support for rejecting Newman's own rationale for his journey and instead proffers his own tendentious speculations. In "First Things: the Journal of Religion and Public Life" ("Newman's Liberal Problem," April 2003), Fr. Edward T. Oakes, S.J., shoots and autopsies some of Professor Turner's other flights of speculation. Better to read Newman's self-analyses ("Apologia Pro Vita Sua" or "An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine") than Turner's flighty psychoanalysis.

This book was not what I expected. The style it's written in is more suitable for a middle school student. There's too much dialogue and it gets into too much irrelevant detail. It is unrealistic and lacks the suspense that you would imagine if there really is a Y2K threat.

This novel has very little to do with the actual possibility of a Y2K threat and instead is mostly a kidnap-chase-and-search novel. The book lacks suspense since a character discovers the scheme fifty pages into the book, and the book is also hampered by a contrived romance plot. There are far better Y2K thrillers out there; this one doesn't measure up to the promise.

As a novel on y2k, this book is about average. Despite writing on a topic which is becoming all too common and should be out of possible variations and twists, Simon manages to conjur up a believable plot. This book is shot down, though, by many factors. First of all, it is completely predictable (one can guess the plot after reading only 2 chapters). The romantic elements seem artificial and comical. Simon also seems to overuse his knowledge of the world of computers - meaningless details irrelevant to the plot are littered throughout the novel. All-in-all, read this book if your a y2k junkie, otherwise, stay away.

The author of this book doesn't even attempt to disguise his seething contempt and dislike for Sinatra. Unsubstantiated rumours, innuendo, "re-created" dialogue, speculation ad nauseum. Dreadful rubbish, just dreadful... Do yourself a favour, and read anything written by Will Friedwald (run a search on his name for available books). In the end, the only thing that matters is the music, not the person or the image, just the music.

When I read this book I felt like I was reading a tex book. The only important things in the book, and the majority of it, were names and dates. Throughout the whole book - constantly. He also worships Sinatra. Any fault of Franks was obviously forced upon him, according to the author. Oh and most importantly, "Sinatra is God."

Five stars isn't enough.

I love FS and his music, but I am not a blind teenage hero worshipper. Part of the reason I'm a big, big, big FS fan is because he was REAL and even if he made a slew of the best recordings ever (period!) you can learn a lot about someone by getting the whole picture which includes some troublesome aspects of Sinatra's personality. If you consider the truly creative giants in all arts, many of them were not exactly what you would call well-adapted. Many of them are drug users or suicides at some point. Sinatra lived his art and his life like a man possessed, as I think Clarke mentions, and it may have been the man's sometimes "foolish fury" that made him the unequivocal entertainer of the century (to use the recordmakers' term.) A lot of the people FS ran into trouble with weren't all that righteous (the journalists, for example), and I think Clarke tells it like it was. If FS picked some bad fights, so be it; I have picked some bad fights in my life because I have one thing in common with Sinatra (definitely not my lousy voice!): I'm human and I'm flawed.

I don't buy inane music biographies that paint useless, glowing pictures of musicians. Such books are a complete waste of money.

This book is fascinating precisely because it frames Sinatra's music and life in terms of his era and his background -- the Dorsey era isn't just a nice bit of trivia, it really shaped FS' career for decades and it is astounding to look at how many Dorsey tunes were remade during the Columbia and Capitol years (and later!) It is immensely rewarding to listen to songs evolve from boyish ballads to swinging numbers over the years; American popular music came of age through Sinatra's microphone, and I think a careful reading of Clark brings this home -- be sure to have the recordings handy to play in the background while you read. His movies? I tend to like them more than I should because FS is in them, but seriously how many times can you watch the Rat Pack movies and enjoy them (once is pushing it...).

For what it's worth, I have found most of Mr. Clarke's comments regarding albums to be spot on. I own nearly 50 FS albums, and when I think about the ones I play most often they tend to coincide with albums Clarke portrays favorably.

It's not surprising that Brad Gooch, a professional homosexual, writes a book that makes Frank O'Hara appear to be nothing more than another professional homosexual. Actually, Gooch may be right. O'Hara is an incredibly minor figure in American poetry, and this books devotes too much print to a third-rate writer who would probably best be forgotten.

This book focused way too much on O'Hara's sex life and not enough on his work. The prose style is tedious, and I found myself skimming it through all the excruciating details about the poet's various lovers. The reader snoozes, O'Hara loses.

City Poet goes past the Frank O'Hara that readers get to know so well through his poetry. If you have read and enjoyed O'Hara's work, this book gives you the biographical background to bring your appreciation full circle. It is no quick read, but it allows you to appreciate the man behind the words through meticulous interviews with everyone who knew him.

I'm sorry but I only read the REAL diary. If it's written by somebody else, then it's not really Anne Frank's diary, now is it? DON'T GET THIS ONE! GET THE REAL ONE! BY ANNE FRANK

This book has a wonderful setting, but it bores you out. The book is interesting in the first twenty pages but then it gets so boring, it is a chore. I have even talked to friends about it and they say it is boring too. I do not recomend this book unless you like boring stories.

This is an excellent source to use as a teacher for 8th grade students. It gives quizzes, tests and several activities. Cross-curricular activities are also included.

Ditto to "reader from USA." Get *The Now Habit* by Neil Fiore

How do you overcome procrastination? The author takes a whole book to say, in effect, "Just do it." Thanks. If that worked, my mother would have broken me of my habit when I was twelve.

It took me a while to read this book, but I did. The one thing that this book did for me was to get me to use all my time wisely. The book was very thorough even though not all the situations the author referred to applied to me. The reason I wanted this book was because I'm in high school, I used to put off all my homework until late at night and I wasn't doing anything else productive with my time. Now, I'm on the cross-country team and I'm getting more sleep than I used to. I feel more confident. I wonder if the other poeple who reviewed the book even read it because the book does a good job of helping you understand yourself better. If you want to stop procrastinating and won't put off reading the book, get it.

There are some good psychological explanations of the necessary steps towards forgiveness. However, I found the book to have too much reference to God; thereby, losing all scholarly credibility.

The authors hypothesize, that one of the reasons a person should forgive is because: "Lest you conclude that we endorse not forgiving, let us strongly state that we believe forgiveness is right because it is part of the godly life taught and lived by Christ." page 14

What if the reader (such as myself) is NOT a Christian. Then if one does not believe in God or Christ, this line of reasoning is worthless and not convincing to the reader.

The book is filled with reference to God and Christ and the Bible; thereby, negating any objective clinical scholarly findings they may pose in this book.

This book is a terrible disappointment

For a workbook, I feel this book was just to wordy. It is well organized, but I think it would have worked better as a book about forgiveness and then a workbook with the questions.

Forgiveness is a Choice would be my choice if you are looking for a book to work through forgiving someone.

I was EXTREMELY dissapointed when this book arrived in the mail. my first impression?? what a waste!. Im a gehry fan through n' through dont get me wrong, i rate gehry in the top 5 architects of all time. however it would be wiser to spend your money on "The complete works: Frank O.Gehry" (now thats a fab book!!) or "Gehry talks" etc, etc. This book is TINY, a little bigger than your hand. it does have o.k pictures but its certainly not worth the US$15 i paid for it......what did i do with it? lets just say it was great for compost!.

It got lot ah pitures. It got too many werds. It real small.

As documented extensively by Mather and Boswell in their ground breaking history, HANGING THE SHERIFF, A BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY PLUMMER, there simply was no organized gang, and therefore Henry Plummer was not the leader of a gang. Instead he was a hard working law man who had to be gotten out of the way for the new men from the east to take over. This book is a simple rehash of the tired old myths and fictions from Dimsdale and Langford.

This story is set in the most exciting time in the history of the west. Citizens of the gold mine towns in Montana were totally at the mercy of a band of road agents lead by Henry Plummer. Plummer was also the elected sheriff of the territory. Robbery and murder were common endings for men carrying fortunes. The violence ended when the Vigilance Committee rose up and hanged thirty outlaws in less than a month. The author inserts ficitonal characters into this real setting to make his story more marketable. He missed the mark with these characters. Written in the style of the early 20th century the prose is stilted and the characters a bit thin. It is a good story. The foreward, including the authors correspondece with C.M.Russel, makes this a worthwhile read for western history aficionado.

I've read many Sinatra biographies and this is by far the least interesting and most pretentious. Michael Freedland's self-imporatnce oozes from within the lines; his claim that some of the stories are told here for the first time have no interesting payoff whatsoever for Sinatra fans. This is more like reading a book by Robin Leach and the "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous." I think we need to ask the Brits to stick to their side of the Atlantic if they can't do any better than this.

Though this book highlights some enlightening details about Frank Sinatra's life, much of it is shoddy hackwork. The reader learns the true story of how Sinatra freed himself from the talons of Tommy Dorsey. The reader learns of the strong influence of Sinatra's mother, Dolly, on his life. Dolly's own life as a Hoboken ward leader and her barely mentioned extraciricular activity as town abortionist fascinates. The friendship of Dolly and Ava Gardner, both foul-mouthed and proud of it, also fascinates. Ditto, the true story of how Sinatra resurrected his failing career by landing his role in "From Here to Eternity". Yet much is left out in this biography. The author seems to have gathered as much material as he could be bothered with and just slapped it together at breakneck speed in a book. It seems to be a specialty of Mr. Freedland's. More time is spent on Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio's "raid" on an apartment Marilyn Monroe was allegedly staying than Sinatra's relationships with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.. The Rat Pack is glossed over; more time is spent on detailing Lauren Bacall's role in the original Bogart Rat Pack than in Martin and Davis's roles in the Rat Pack that most Americans are familiar with today. Much time is wasted on Sinatra's philosophical views on life, some of which seem to probably have been press releases written by his publicist. The author often doesn't put two and two together. Though Sinatra had great talent as an actor and played some fine roles, his career fizzled by the mid-sixties. Mr. Freedland mentions that Sinatra refused to do second takes but fails to understand that few directors would go out of their way to hire actors who refused to do second takes. Sinatra undercut his own film career. The bio is also very flighty. For instance, the author mentions a benefit concert Sinatra gave in New York which was attended by Jackie Kennedy Onassis at which she wore some sort of head band. Mr. Freedland informs us that the sort of head band used by Mrs. Onassis at the concert was sold out of New York stores within 24 hours as if that was pertinant information. The Jackie Onassis tidbit is indicative of Mr. Freedland's writing style. All in all, All the Way is useful in its way yet disappointing and borderline awful.

Michael Freedland's British background is too apparent for American readers. His English spellings are bothersome and frequent grammatic uses of "were" instead of "was" get in the way of what otherwise would be a facinating story of one of American music's top performers. The editors failed to catch misspellings of Tiajuana, Mexico. Freedland bashes Sinatra's parents unnecessarily and takes too much credit for "publishing for the first time" anncedotes that may be moderately interesting. This book comes across as an episode of "Lives of the Rich and Famous" with an English accent. Freedland collected notes over a period of years and the book often reads like a collection of them.