If one is interested in learning about Jackie Kennedy's early childhood and teen years, this is the perfect book to examine. The author, a cousin of the late First Lady, shared many of her early experiences and thus provides excellent primary source material. Also noteworthy are photographs from Jackie's childhood and teen years

This was one of the first books I read about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and though I've read many since, I still consider this one of the best. It is filled with reminisces of events experienced by the author, a cousin of Jackie's who kept in touch with her throughout her life. The author has done extensive research into both the Bouviers and the Kennedys in his other writings - this book is an interesting and informative combination of that research and his personal memories of Jackie as a child and young woman. Highly recommended to all who wish to learn more about the less documented part of Jackie's life.

A new insight into Jackie's childhood and teen years. A fresh change from other biographies on Jackie O. Highly recommended. FOR QUESTIONS OR DISCUSSIONS ON JACKIE ONASSIS, PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT MellissaLD@aol.com. HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!

I am very impressed with the time spent to research the subject matter. The authors obviously had the perserverance and energy to devote a significant number of hours to the data collection and analysis phases.

Since I like history, I particularly liked the interesting items about indiviiduals that I have read or heard of in other media. There are some lessons to be learned from the lives of the people included in the book.

Also, the statistics bring out some interesting points regarding education, field of endeavor (Occupational Groups)and differences between the sexes and races. For example, the list of names in Table 1-4, "The Overall Apex of Fame: The Longest Obituarties," remind one of the people that have gone before us and have made a difference.

The authors are to be congratulated for providing a great read of a subject that some people shun. (Personally, I get up each morning, check the local obits and if my name is not included I go to work)

Master writer and researcher Jill Jonnes is back, this time teamed with the venerable John C. Ball. Fame At Last is the culmination of an unlikely look at a five-year history of New York Times obituaries. The New York Times obits are a veritable who's who of the recently deceased; only those who've been pioneers in their chosen field earn a coveted spot in these pages. This odd subject matter makes for fascinating reading.

Jonnes and Ball developed a database for the ten thousand or so obits in their study, classifying them by occupation, education, income level, obit length, and more. When massaged, their database reveals interesting patterns about these chosen few and highlights the value of higher education, particularly at renowned ivy league schools. Chapters are broken down by field of expertise--artists, politicians, writers, inventors, criminals, musicians, educators, etc. There's something for everyone.

For each chapter, Jonnes has culled a sampling of the most compelling obits, and devotes a page or two to anecdotal musing on each. In its essence, Fame At Last is a collection of short biographies on some of the world's most creative, intelligent, productive, or infamous personalities, some of whom we're familiar with, some we're not. Surprisingly fun and illustrative. Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

This is a very interesting book for anyone who has wondered what life was like in Anchorage prior to the oil boom. It the story of a small time punk who proceeds to get involved in a variety of cheap stunts that all revolve around either gambling, prostitution or racketeering. While it sounds depressing, actually it is a glimpse into the highly spirited society (admittedly the underbelly) that made Alaska such an exciting place to live. For anyone who thinks Alaska is all about gortex or salmon, this is a must read.

I read this book after seeing the movie 'Johnny's Girl' which is based on Kim Rich's life story. As I suspected, the book offered a fuller portrait of the struggles Rich endured and the sense of survial she must have felt. Her writing style is fluid and funny and moving and I recommend this book to readers who value excellent literarily nonfiction. I look forward to her next book!

This is a fascinating integration of science, technology and business.

The author makes an excellent case for the necessity, feasibility and promise of free market space exploration and exploitation. His justification is the long-range goal of self-sufficient space flight, which he contrasts eloquently with the wasteful, short-term and politically-motivated excursions of the last 40 years.

A number of facts may surprise you: the amount of information garnered from extensive research into the subject; the amount of considerate planning scientists and businessmen have devoted to the prospect; and how soon profitable space-mining could begin. The author, one of the field's leading scientist-businessmen, is well-qualified to present the material.

I found the book's wealth of scientific data overwhelming at times. Readers more familiar with physics and chemistry will find it easier to read. Nonetheless, the scientific data is important to support the author's "conservative" (his word) projections of how much wealth we can create by "mining the sky."

There is some poor explicit philosophy in the concluding chapters. Be aware of it and disregard it-it does nothing to advance or discredit his primary thesis: that the sky-indeed, the universe-is ours for the taking.

Finally, a book by someone who knows what he's talking about! John S. Lewis has impressive credentials in the area of space resources, and he gives them to the reader in a concise, objective manner. This book is a far cry from other space authors' uses of hyperbole, criticism, or wild assumptions. The book also stays within the general realm of the believable, not straying too far from facts to speculate about "what could be done with this." While such asides are mildly entertaining, it is my belief both that the reader can imagine her own wild developments from space technology and resources; and that the real future will prove even today's best thought-out plans to be hokey and narrow-minded. John S. Lewis shows a rare mix of expertise, prose, and restraint, and makes this a must-have for anyone interested in this area.

An excellent book that truly stretched my ideas of mankind's place in the universe. I found some of the business ideas mildly uncomfortable, but the science seems waterproof, and the author's enthusiasm and optimism shine through the technical details. Underlying the science and engineering and business is an exhilirating breath of philosophy that borders on the metaphysical. Dr Lewis certainly provides plenty of objective justification for his ideas, but between the lines you can capture the heady euphoria of the early days of space exploration. These passages verge on the sublime. EXCELLENT.

The book contains good advice for it's purposes. Unfortunately, it's purposes seem twofold: 1. Encourage young officers to punch out of the service as early as possible 2. Encourage them to sign on as a client of Begley's recruiting company

In that regard, I though Mr. Begley should be giving this book away because it's clearly a marketing tool for his recruiting business. I think I paid too much to read 200 pages of sales pitch.

I am thankful that someone finally wrote a comprehensive, informative, and practical book for people who don't have a clear idea of how to go about planning a career that leads to executive levels of management. I recommend this book.

From Ranks to Riches has been extremely helpful to me. As an military officer, I was not certain what I should do about my career options. I found the guidance, advice, and straight forward approach just what I needed to help me plan my future.

Thomas Reeves deserves kudos and credit for a very fine biography of a man much admired by millions. The high points of this book are as follows: the meticulous gathering of much information simply unknown by his admirers; the careful balancing of sanctity and human frailty of Sheen's character; the fascinating recreation of the Golden Age of Catholicism in America; the personal relationship between Cardinal Spellman and Bishop Sheen; a superb ability to synthesize and bring new insight from the wide variety of materials cited; a great bibliography and excellent notes. The weaknesses are minor: a tendency to repeat some stories, and the maddening tendency of Sheen himself to destroy and misplace correspondence or simply not document his personal life. Despite these minor drawbacks in the book, I was deeply moved by much of this biography and, indeed, brought to tears by the account of the last years of Sheen's life, his meeting with Pope John Paul II, and his funeral. Few will be disappointed in this book; it is a true accomplishment. Many thanks to Professor Reeves for this profound and necessary commentary on the life of a truly great person of the 20th century.

Yes, Fulton Sheen had problems. None of them, mercifully, overshadowed his greatness, although they all had the potential to. His fake degree alone could have brought him down, embarrassing a leader of the Church and horrifying his followers. Reeves is very smart in focusing on these problems, and thus, understanding that hey! Sheen was a man too. He wasn't infallible, he was a man like us. But it's hard to avoid writing glowing stories about a man who helped so many people (he wasn't one for possessions-or keeping track of his cash). The story of his death is one that should inspire people looking for a modern role model. Reeves, who is Catholic, manages also to keep the book respectful about his problems, instead of attacking the Church. Why is this good? The actions of one man are not generally representative of an entire institution. It would be a logical fallacy for Reeves to do such a thing. In short, Reeves has written a fine book on an eccentric, loved figure.

This is a book that has been ignored by the media which does not want to hear about good Catholic clergy. The media only wants to know about scandal in the church - because the Catholic Church and that which it really stands for(as contrasted with the deeds
of the fallible priests,and lay Catholics that can be found within it) is the mortal enemy to secular humanism, sexual license, abortion and the "if it FEELS right, do it" philosopy that is held so dear by much of the media.
The book is a great inspiration because Bishop Sheen, with all his human failings, is an inspiration to us all.

Rich beyond belief, surrounded by the Jet Set, envyied by royalty, and a living icon of history, John Kennedy Jr. had it all-yet he was a humble, grateful, and compassionate. Beginning in the hub of our nations capitol and ending with a subdued and sad farewell upon USS John Fitzgerald Kennedy, this little book is an etched composite of an American sons' life.

Dozens of books have been written about JFK Jr. but this book is different. I liked the factual historical approach of this book: the glamourization and controversial slant of most books about the Kennedy's is thankfully missing. This book provides a good role model for developing compassion in children. He had it all; but still, he had a good heart! Frankly I enjoyed this refreshing story and who could forever forget the haunting portrait on the cover.

An impressionistic, haunting image of JFK jr.on the cover draws the reader inside to learn of the short, but meaningful life of JFK's son, a member of America's royalty, his charmed life cut short. This book caries the reader through his life with great interest, and makes a wonderful gift for anyone who remembers America's Kennedy years, those halcyon days of Camelot.

Like all devoted lovers of Jane Austen, I have long pondered why she chose to write this, of all books, at time she was experiencing the intoxicating success of Pride and Prejudice.

The protagonist is a loathesome little priss. Austen herself says so in her letters. Fanny Price is neurotic and oversensitive where Austen's other heroines are brash and healthy. Even Austen's own family found the ending as odd and disappointing as do subsequent generations of readers.

So there's a puzzle to be solved here. The answer may lie in the fact that this book was written when, after a lifetime of obscurity, Austen found herself, briefly, a huge success. As is so often the case with writers, the success of her earlier book may have given her the courage to decided write about something that REALLY mattered to her--and what that was was her own very complex feelings about the intensely sexual appeal of a morally unworthy person.

This topic, the charm of the scoundrel, is one that flirts through all her other books, usually in a side plot. However, the constraints of Austen's day made it impossible for her to write the story of a woman who falls for a scoundrel with a sympathetic viewpoint character.

So what I think Austen may have decided to do was to write this story using Edmund--a male--as the sympathetic character who experiences the devastating sexual love of someone unworthy. Then, through a strange slight of hand, she gives us a decoy protagonist--Fanny Price, who if she is anything, is really the judgemental, punishing Joy Defeating inner voice--the inner voice that probably kept Jane from indulging her own very obvious interest in scoundrels in real life!

In defense of this theory, consider these points:

1. Jane herself loved family theatricals. Fanny's horror of them and of the flirting that took place is the sort of thing she made fun of in others. Jane also loved her cousin, Eliza, a married woman of the scoundrelly type, who flirted outrageously with Jane's brother Henry when Jane was young--very much like Mary Crawford. The fact is, and this bleeds through the book continuously, Austen doesn't at all like Fanny Price!

To make it more complex, Fanny's relationship with Henry Crawford is an echo of the Edmund-Mary theme, but Austen makes Henry so appealing that few readers have forgiven Austen for not letting Fanny liven up a little and marry him! No. Austen is trying to make a case for resisting temptation, but in this book she most egregiously fails.

2. Austen is famous for never showing us a scene or dialogue which she hadn't personally observed in real life, hence the off-stage proposals in her other books.

Does this not make it all the more curious that the final scene between Edmund and Mary Crawford in which he suffers his final disillusionment and realizes the depths of her moral decay comes to us with some very convincing dialogue? Is it possible that Jane lived out just such a scene herself? That she too was forced by her inner knowlege of what was right to turn away from a sexually appealing scoundrel of her own?

3. Fanny gets Edmund in the end, but it is a joyless ending for most readers because it is so clear that he is in love with Mary. Can it be that Austen here was suggesting the grim fate that awaits those who do turn away from temptations--a lifetime of listening to that dull, upstanding, morally correct but oh so joyless voice of reason?

We'll never know. Cassandra Austen burnt several years' worth of her sister's letters--letters written in the years before she prematurely donned her spinster's cap and gave up all thoughts of finding love herself. Her secrets whatever they were, were kept within the family.

But one has to wonder about what was really going on inside the curious teenaged girl who loved Samual Richardson's rape saga and wrote the sexually explicit oddity that comes to us as Lady Susan. Perhaps in Mansfield Park we get a dim echo of the trauma that turned the joyous outrageous rebel who penned Pride and Prejudice in her late teens into the staid, sad woman when she was dying wrote Persuasion--a novel about a recaptured young love.

So with that in mind, why not go and have another look at Mansfield Park!

this book was interesting enough. i love jane austen. my two personal faves were pride and prejudice and emma. this was interesting, the plot was intriguing and everything. i just thought that way too much was going on throughout the book. it was event after event after event. it was definitely suspenseful. the end was satisfying enough. fanny is not the best of jane austen's heroines. my favorite character was sir thomas. he was cool. i enjoy reading books of this sort generally. fanny could have been more interesting. i don't get why she was so totally in love with edmund the whole time that he was in love with mary crawford. it is a good read if you have time. it took me a month or so to read it because i had to read in the few spare moments i have aside from school reading and other work. i do recommend it to people who enjoy jane austen and those who are willing to take a good chunk of time out of their day to read.

As Jane Austen's most controversial novel, Mansfield Park continues to occupy an inveterate place in literature for its dark charm, its slow yet steady rhythm, its dry yet sharp and ironic humor, and of course fabulous charaterization built on extensive description all within a country challenged by progress.

Readers become acquainted with Fanny Price, a victorian era Cinderella so it appeared--plucked from her family in destitude to be allowed to blossom at her wealthy uncle's house, Mansfield Park. Of course being passive, steadfast, timid...certainlly lacking the very fierce which makes Emma and Marrianne among other Austen heroine memorable. Yet withstanding the seductive charm of fortune and of consequence, Fanny Price resists the wooing of a stranger Mr. CRawford who puzzles everyone with his light gallantry and dark desires. A soulmate since childhood, Fanny's cousin Edmund yields in to Miss Crawford, who is all but a nonessential part of Mr. Crawford's scheme of stolen pleasure. Henry Crawford, certainlly one of the darknest characters ever portrayed, more so then Willoughbe (excuse the sp.) is too caught up in the sensual delights of his incessant conquests (including Fanny's 2 pretty cousins) that even though he ackowledges the good influence Fanny's purity has on his heart, he is too deeply sunken in his web of "play" to rise and face truth of love. Yes, Henry Crawford did love Fanny with his heart, at least the pure part of it, unlike Edmund who loves Fanny only out of brotherly affection. But Fanny, whose steady character makes her an unlikely candidate to Crawford's actual reformation, refuses Crawford's sincerity and thus almost pushes him back into his bottomless hold of scheme. The storm thus takes place in the heart of London's upper society, casting its shadow on the peaceful Mansfield Park community and shattering everything Sir Thomas has persevered in building up--with fortune, and with consequence...a mention of slave trade as well.

Mary Crawford is a complex player, tainted by a society blindly wooing money and status, that even Edmund is not able to save the good side of her. Apart from Henry's scheme, Edmund is forced to refocus and, voila, there is Fanny (no matter how distasteful cousin-courtship is to many).

The movie adaptation of this tale certainlly emphasizes the fighting nature of Fanny which is rarely detected on pages. Yet what IS acknowledged and admired in the quiet little herione, is the perseverance so rare in a world on the verge of revolution.

You know it is funny but i think this book is just a front to pump bruce to his man but is it working for real???

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It was an excellent book. I love it. (My Mom tells me i read it too much.) He is the best actor. I have been dieing to meet him though I doubt I ever will. I think it you have ever meet Bruce Willis you are a very lucky person. I would die to meet him. He is a great actor. Everytime someone asks me what a good movie is, I just tell them get a movie with Bruce Willis in it and your set. I g2g byebye.
LONG LIVE WILLIS!

Well, I can not say that W.D. Howells was another Nathaniel Hawthorne. But what I can say is that his "The Rise of Silas Lapham" is A LOT better than some books that were made famous (probably for political reasons). Do not expect the superb images and construction of Hawthorne. But what we CAN expect is a timeless message about society. At first Silas is a rich money grubbing monster. (Just think of Dickens' Scrooge.) He finds ways to cut his friends out of deals, alienates his family with the want of more money, and even gets his wife upset. Ah, but later things go bad, and he starts losing money. This is when the human side of him begins to show and he becomes a very sympathetic character. In my opinion, to enjoy this even more, you must assume that before the book opens, he WAS a good and decent man. Once he ran into immense wealth, he grew detestable. So while, this is not exactly a masterpiece, the degeneration of Silas and his return to humanity is ample material to carry this book and place it in the American Museum of Literature.

This is a must read book and provides a glimpse of business morals in the nineteenth century. Read first, Mark Twain's "The Gilded Age" and Charles Dickens' "Martin Chuzzlewit". Silas' 'rise' is not ironic unless accumulation of wealth is your only value. While his monetary assets may shrink, his family 'prospers' in many ways. Clearly, Howells makes the point that honest work can bridge the gap of old rich and new. Commerce is not inherently bad, but it does ask the question, how far should one go in disclosure and protecting others from their potential investment folly.

I've had William Dean Howells' "A Modern Instance" and "The Rise of Silas Lapham," like many, many other books on my bookshelf for a long time. A recent meeting of a reading group of mine finally allowed me to make the time to read Howells' 1885 work, "Silas Lapham". I am extraordinarily glad I did. From the start of the novel, we are drawn into the world of late 19th century Boston, post-Reconstruction America, where newly rich industrialists attempt to enter the society life of old money. Howells crafts an extraordinarily realistic look at the American Dream gone awry.

"The Rise of Silas Lapham" begins with an interview that a local newspaperman is doing of Colonel Silas Lapham, a mineral paint tycoon. Lapham's account of his rise from the backwoods of Vermont to his marriage, to service in the Civil War, to his propagation of a successful mineral paint business is chronicled and gives us a taste of the effort and perseverance necessary for his rise, as well indicating the possibility of some potential failings, especially with regard to his one-time partner, Milton Rogers. We soon learn that Mrs. Persis Lapham aided a society woman in distress the year before, and the return of her son, Tom Corey, from Texas, signals another sort of ambition on the part of the Lapham daughters, Irene and her older sister Penelope. The rest of the novel plays out the ways in which the Laphams try to parley their financial success into social status - and how the Laphams are affected by the gambit.

Howells explores a number of significant cultural issues in "Silas Lapham": isolationism, social adaptability, economic solvency among all classes, personal integrity and familial ties, and the relationship between literature and life. The fact that the story is set about 20 or so years after the end of the American Civil War sets an important and subtle context that runs throughout the novel and inflects all of the thematic elements. The ways that the characters interact, the way that the society functions, even though the majority of the novel takes place in Boston, is importantly affected by the fact that Reconstruction is drawing to a close, Manifest Destiny is in full swing, and ultimately, America was at a point of still putting itself together and trying to view itself as the "United" States.

Howells' treatment of the social interactions between the industrially rich Laphams and the old moneyed Coreys underscores the difficulty in creating and maintaining a national identity, especially when the people even in one northern city seem so essentially different. The romance story involving the Laphams and Tom Corey is obviously an important element of the story, and Howells does an amazing job of not allowing the romance plot to become as overblown and ludicrously sentimental as the works of fiction he critiques in discussions of novels throughout his own work. "The Rise of Silas Lapham" questions the nature of relationships, how they begin, how they endure - the contrast between the married lives of the Coreys and the Laphams is worth noting, as is the family dynamic in both instances.

I'm very pleased to have gotten a chance to read this novel. Generally when I say an author or a work has been neglected, I mean that it's been neglected primarily by me. Having turned an eye now to Howells, I am very impressed with the depth of his characterization, the ways he puts scenery and backdrop to work for him, the scope of his literary allusions, and his historical consciousness. This is certainly a great American novel that more people should read. It may not be exciting, but it is involving, and that is always an excellent recommendation.