Rarely have I read such a well-written political biography of a major figure. AMERICAN DREAMER very ably traces the trajectory of Henry Wallace's career from relative obscurity in the Iowa farm belt to its pinnacle in the Vice Presidency, then the fall from grace from Truman's firing of him as Commerce Secretary through the debacle of the 1948 Progressive Party candidacy for President. Especially fascinating are the parts which trace the reasons for FDR's dumping Wallace in favor of Truman in 1944 and Wallace's increasing distance from the American political mainstream, especially after that point. Viewed from the perspective of post-Cold War America, Wallace's views toward the Soviet Union and World Communism seem to have more validity than they did when he expressed them between the end of World War II and the outbreak of the Korean War; but the authors maintain objectivity about Wallace in this regard and rightly suggest how naive or downright subversive some of his political stances seemed at the time. The book is not without its appreciation of the ironies of Wallace's life and career in politics--how a "rock-ribbed Republican" evolved into one of the most radical national politicians of his generation, and how a scientist and businessman who made a minor fortune from the new hybrid strains of corn which he developed came to be regarded as a closet Communist.

The main thing that is lacking from this biography is a full picture of Henry Wallace the man. There are a number of hints that his family life following his marriage was rather troubled and unhappy, but his wife, children, and siblings remain on the periphery of the authors' presentation. (For example, it mentions that his oldest son never forgave him for one particular disagreement, but never elaborates or returns to their relationship. His wife was obviously uncomfortable with his entrance into electoral politics, but the book never explores this in any depth.) The book also seems to compress its account of the final 15 years of his life to a snapshot at best; it would have been nice to know more about how he viewed American politics--both national and international--in the years preceding his death, how he felt about his relative anonymity, and whether he ever felt fully vindicated for taking the rather lonely political path he took.

As a result, the portrayal of his later life in particular seems to be a bit one dimensional. But these are minor flaws in what is otherwise a captivating biography of a very intricate individual. Most people will learn a lot from this book; I certainly did.

John C. Culver and John Hyde have written a fascinating biography of Henry A. Wallace, who profoundly influenced the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Wallace's influence on FDR was personal, close and positive throughout FDR's presidency. His influence on HST was indirect, which, until Culver and Hyde, has not been revealed to the public so dramatically, clearly and in such detail before.

For too many, their memory of Wallace is limited to one year, 1948, when Wallace was defeated as the Progressive Party candidate for president. Culver and Hyde write how Wallace was a genuine renaissance man, a scientist, businessman, writer, philosopher, and prophet. Throughout his 13 and a half year career as a cabinet member and Vice President, he was extraordinarily successful, innovative, effective and dynamic. In keeping the long view, he was guardian of the heart and soul of our democracy. He forsaw much of what has come to pass and is still yet to be done. Culver and Hyde give us the unvarnished story, which, in sum, leaves the reader with the feeling of being blessed that such a courageous man lived and fought for us. Readers owe a huge debt of gratitude to Culver and Hyde for condensing into one volume such a multi-faceted life. The times alone would have drowned most writers. Synthesizing many sources, some not known before, the authors give us a full portrait of a great and courageous man whose life defined the best of what is a liberal.

Culver and Hyde have produced a beautifully written account of the life and times of Henry A. Wallace. Their fresh account of this brilliant, enigmatic man rescues Wallace from the smears that so tarnished his reputation during the 1948 campaign.

Had I been alive in the 1940s, I would most likely not have voted for Wallace because of his views on foreign policy, but I hope I would have had the sense to admire him for the man of principle and courage he was. He was a rare character in American politics, a figure who was interested in ideas more than power. Sadly, it is usually those with the opposite priorities who prevail in electoral contests, as is amply demonstrated in the book's discussions of the 1944 vice presidential campaign.

I finished "American Dreamer" a fan of Henry Wallace. As was the case when I began the book, I still do not agree with many of his positions. However, I now have a profound respect for this decent, honorable American. This is a very inspirational book, one to be enjoyed during what is shaping up to be a disappointing election year.

This book is a wonderful array of recipes, stories from people's experiences with that awesome little yellow flower that most people would like to obliterate, and whispy illustrations done by an extremely talented artist. Joanne has such a wonderful flow to her writing and you begin to love that dreaded yellow flower that pops up in our yards. I started the book and couldn't put it down. I wish everyone could read it and enjoy the many aspects of this lovely plant.

Joanne Henry has an enchanting writing style. She will bewitch all who read Dandelions Are Free easily and completely. One will NEVER regard the dandelion in the same way again. Joanne is a gifted writer and researcher, a gentle soul whose own tender feelings about the plant are obvious on every page. Yet her writing also invites the the reader to share in the dandelion's special magic. I feel privileged to have my own work wrapped within hers.

I bought my first copy of this book at a book fair in New York. The lyrical text of the introduction invites you into the delightful world of dandelions and excites your curiosity about the plant. I bought 3 as gifts for cherished friends who adore the book.

Henry Skaggs draws the reader into a world of fasting and prayer that few Westerners ever experience! The insights he gains and the spiritual power that he receives to complete the fast are nothing shy of miraculous. A poetic and transcendental work of the highest caliber!

This is a MUST read!! If you have ever wondered what it would be like to have a relationship with GOD, then read this book! Henry truly expessed how wonderful a relationship with the Lord can be if you step out on faith and BELIEVE. Thanks so much Henry for your obedience to be a vessel for GOD and ultimately change the lives of others..for the better.

If anyone has ever longed to be in the presence of God -- literally-- and to have his power in you, this man, Henry Skaggs is someone to study. He writes about it in this book. His life and his family's life exemplifies God's grace and power, and this book gives a glimse into why he has this. The book is packed with spiritual truths and Biblical references. I have a much greater understanding of God's tremendous love for me and his desire and ability to do great things in me and through me. I thank God for this book.

Frank Worsley starts his book just as he realizes that his ship Endurance is doomed to be crushed in the ice, and that's a good place to start, for the adventure was only about to begin. Worsley not only discusses the events of the Endurance expedition but his own adventures in WWI, during which his Q-ship rammed and sank a German U-boat and his final expedition with Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1922 aboard the Quest. Read this, also read "Shackleton's Boat Journey" also by Worsley, and of course Shackleton's own book "South." My only complaint about this new edition of Worsley's book is the addition of a preface by the tendentious, currently trendy, wildly overrated Patrick O'Brian, who clearly doesn't have the faintest idea what he's writing about. Read the original intro by Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe, ignore O'Brian, and then learn what courage and leadership truly are.

Frank Worsley begins his book just as he realizes that his ship Endurance is doomed to be crushed in the ice, and that's a good place to start, for the adventure was only about to begin. Worsley not only discusses the events of the Endurance expedition but his own adventures in WWI, during which his Q-ship rammed and sank a German U-boat, and his final expedition with Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1922 aboard the Quest. Read this, also read "Shackleton's Boat Journey" by Worsley, and of course Shackleton's own book "South." My only complaint about this new edition of Worsley's book is the addition of a preface by the tendentious, trendy, wildly overrated Patrick O'Brian, who clearly doesn't have the faintest idea what he's writing about. Read the original intro by Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe, ignore O'Brian, and learn what courage and leadership truly are.

Without a doubt the best adventure book I've ever read. I found myself reading section after section of this incredible story out loud to my wife. Part of the reason this particular book is so compelling is that it is written by the Captain of the Endurance and not someone removed from this epic by decades of perspective. A truly inspiring story.

Accomplished playwright Henry Mazel has found a new avenue in the dark New York streets. His new mystery novel featuring the downtrodden PI Alex Rada is a drive you will not want to miss. Following a course of deception that can only find its rightful place in the arena of politics, Rada discovers a gory murder that he must solve to save his sanity. This hero shows more emotion than those in the list of completely hard-boiled detectives, but the dark images drawn by the multi-story buildings and the back alleys of the city and Mazel's mind give the perfect setting for deceit, intrigue, and murder. Take this page-turner to a quiet place and enjoy the ride.

Fans of the hardboiled genre, there is a new private investigator in New York City, Alex Rada, a former NY police officer. Katharine Raines, a college professor and political consultant to Delaney Lynch, candidate for the U.S. Senate in New York, hires Rada to investigate the disappearance of grad student, Susan Blake. Upon discovering that she has been murdered in her apartment, Rada is determined to find out who committed the brutal murder. There are a number of twists and turns in this plot. And the ending will surprise the reader. Mazel writes action scenes that keep readers sitting on the edge of their chairs in suspense. The scene of Rada chasing a suspect through the streets of New York was riveting. The prologue introduces the reader to Alex and sets the stage effectively for the story. I particularly like titles for every chapter. I am looking forward to Alex Rada's next investigation and to finding out more about Alex.

A noir mystery with political intrigue. Comparing anyone to Chandler or Hammett is expecting an awful lot, but Mazel does have that potential. There's a real presence to the setting -- Manhattan becomes one of the characters, and the protagonist, Alex Rada, is infused with a dry wit that makes you smile to yourself. A wonderful achievement and a great book. Highly recommended

Back in the prehistoric days of the 1970's, I found this small book in my school library. Despite it's small size, it became, and has always been a bible of life in the northwoods. No politics, no social agenda, just a detailed blueprint of the pleasures and perils of living far from the city. The book covers the basics of shelter and winter warmth. It instructs the reader in a variety of skills ( from keeping oatmeal warm until breakfast, to making snowshoes to get along in mid-winter). All in all, I recall it as the first docu-drama that I ever had the pleasure to read. Though it can be labeled as non fiction (of the instructive kind), it has the ability to build endles dreams of pioneer life in the mind of most any reader.

I reviewed this book several years ago, and after accidently stumbling upon my review, the same images, smells, and excitement still come to mind. I just purchased an old copy at many times the original price, and I can't wait to read it again after more than thirty years. It still amazes me to thnk that a simple diary of life in a bygone distant frontier could elicit such a Technicolor panorama in the mind of the reader. Everyone should read this book. It's good for the soul.

Don't we all wish we knew someone like J.J. Rowlands. What a life! He should have been a father; what a wealth of information he might have imparted... ...and what delivery! Couldn't put it down. Thank goodness he left us his book.

Frank Worsley, the Captain of Shackleton's Endurance, is a surprisingly competent writer with a style that has a knack for the wonderous details of nature as well as the humorous side of things needed in desparate situations.

The book begins with the 3 boats making the dash towards Elephant Island. Most of the book naturally details the journey of the James Caird to South Georgia. Worsley, though very quirky in personality, was an incredibly resourceful, couargeouse man and a navigator without peer. Without him there would have a loss of all lives.

Though at times Worsley may confuse the non-sailing reader with his descriptions of their sailing technique(especially the venacular terms), he nevertheless manages to make you feel you are right in the boat with them. His descriptions of waves, icebergs, etc. are brilliant. He also has a wonderful sense of humor. He has an ability to coin a phrase in that Edwardian period style that is almost poetic. He came from an educated family in New Zealand and it shows.

He also brings great detail to the shorter but still dramatic crossing of South Georgia.

Overall, it is a wonderful book that is alive with details and personal perspectives from a man with a superb mind and great heart.

Frank Worsley's description of the boat journey he made with Shackleton and two other crewmen of the Endurance is remarkable not only for the adventure it tells, but for the language it is told in and the largeness of spirit that it demonstrates. When I first read this--a battered copy in the local library--I felt that every teenager in the United States should have the opportunity to experience the strength of character, understanding and fine prose style Worsley demonstrates in this tremendously exciting adventure story. His description of Shackleton's leadership qualities is insightful and generous. His own navigational miracle of bringing this tiny craft across the wildest seas in the world to the relatively small island of South Georgia is understated. This book is inspirational in the best sort of honest and clear way. I have been to Elephant Island and S. Georgia and my admiration is increased by the experience.

Among all Shackleton's achievements and triumphs, great as they were, his one failure was the most glorious. By self-sacrifice and throwing his own life into the balance he saved all of his men.
This is how Worsley ends his book that describes exactly how Shackleton was able to save them all. Though for this part of the journey, the amazing boat trip to South Georgia, perhaps it was not so much Shackleton as Worlsey who saved them all. Written by a down-to-earth practical man it is easy to get completely caught up in the story. Even after finishing the book, you will find it hard to stop thinking about this fantastic achievement of navigational skills.
Before reading this book, I strongly recommed the book "Endurance".

Since Mencken was writing at the turn of the Century, some of these brief essays are a bit dated (duh!), but still well written and quite clever. His views on Religion and Government are quite thought provoking. This isn't the kind of book that you necessarily would want to read straight through at one sitting, but seems more appropriate for passing the odd half hour that you don't want to waste in front of the TV. A Good Libertarian book...

I really like this book. Mencken's prose and unflinching attitude is like no other author I have read. I don't know if they used the middle finger in the early 1900s but if so, then HLM was its personification. If you were to tally his word usage in the book I believe "idiot", "imbecile", "buffoon", "moron" and "mountebank" would be near the top.

This book contains one of my favorite essay and the single biggest reason to own this book, his piece on the critical process. It's only a 10 page essay but it's probably the most eloquent. For whatever reason he put it around page 450, but I would recommend reading it first. It puts a reader in the right frame of mind for reading Mencken's essays. He explains a worthwhile critic is not so much concerned with truth or detail. Instead a truly great critic takes the target of the criticism and uses it to develop his own original ideas. It separates those who would just be archivists with those who would be artists. Clearly, Mencken was not concerned with the former, he was concerned with art and he was an artist.

Perhaps I am biased. Mayhap I am gushing. I don't mind- I have read a good couple thousand books in my lifetime, and I have reviewed a few dozen for Amazon.com. Yet this is the one I keep coming back to read, year after year. As time goes by I find myself revising the scale of Mencken's achievement upwards and upwards, especially knowing that the only comparison is to other mere mortal writers.

What makes this book brilliant is its terse structure- it is fragmented and in short pieces, and this produces his intense compact wit in wave after wave of the finest observations and thoughts to come out of mortal man since Tom Sawyer. A Mencken Chrestomathy utterly fails to do badly at every turn.

If you have glanced at this book, and have even a tiny thought at not buying at least two copies, shoot yourself in the foot for punishment, then go buy a dozen copies and pass them out to your superior friends as rewards for their sagacity and charm and as a reward for their loyalty. But if you have little humanity and wish to punish a friend or make their lives more miserable, do not tell them of this book, and leave it right where it is.

I give no book this high a regard. But I give this one my complete, unconditional support. If you have the means, I suggest buying a thousand copies and distributing it among the hungry of mind for the wonderful elixer of an effect Mencken has upon the mind.

The only thing bad about this book is the covers are too close together.

This wonderful little book was presented to me many years ago after I had completed a Latin seminar. It was a wonderful gift, and I have found much use for the various phrases, and an extraordinary amount of humour that can be derived from the blandest of statements when translated into Latin. For example, the innocuous phrase 'Darn! There goes my beeper!' becomes quite funny in Latin:

Heu! Tintinnuntius meus sonat!

One has visions of Caesar fumbling through his tunic for some beeping object.

So, if you need a little Latin on the golf course (Alterum ictum faciam); on the tennis court (minime latum!), at the beach when spotting a shark (Pistrix! Pistrix!), or you just need to say Illud Latine dici non potest (you can't say that in Latin), you'll be prepared with this volume.

It even comes with a section on what to say when at the Vatican (where it might truly come in handy). For instance you might need to say 'Ubi possum potiri petasi similis isti?' when passing a cardinal or nun (translation: Where can I get a hat like that?).

So, don't waste your time on watching reruns of Insula Gilliganis or game shows such as Periculum and Rota Fortunae -- pick up this book today, and merge the worlds past and present.

Die dulci fruere. (Have a nice day.)

. . . but that's only because the common rabble would have loved it! Henry Beard has given the Latin enthusiast (and aspiring perennial pest) a laugh-a-minute phrasebook that tells you how to say just about everything from "Darn! There goes my beeper!" to "I'll have a hamburger, French Fries, and a thick shake." The entries are all conveniently sorted out into twelve categories -- separated by some really funny drawings -- such as "Lingua Latina Conlocutioni" (Conversational Latin) and "Lingua Latina Vitae Communi" (Social Latin), which makes finding the perfect greeting, or insult, a lot easier. There's even a handy little pronunciation guide so you'd be able to say what you want in perfect Latin. So the next time you find yourself in ancient Rome, be ready to beat the loquacious Cicero down with some good old-fashioned small talk by having a copy of "Lingua Latina Occasionibus Omnibus" tucked somewhere in your toga!

This is a rather unusual book, with all manner of everyday and bizarre sayings nicely translated into Latin for your amusement/education/use at a dinner party. Just as with his very funny "French for Cats", the real humour lies in the really odd things he has taken the time to translate - things like "I believe that Elvis is still alive".

It is a good fun coffee table book, and a must for any serious collector of great humour books.

Brock entertains the long-standing notion that hard work and prudent planning lead to eventual success. As a person who considers himself to be non-religious, and a strong advocate that religion is not a necessity to build character and long-term happiness, I never-the-less thoroughly enjoyed reading about his viewpoints on fundamental principles for living.

The one caution that I would offer to readers, is they take his advice on student loans and never-ending abundance, with a grain of salt. Yes, it is advisable to reduce student loans to a minimum. However, taking out a substantial amount of student loans is not necessarily a bad idea. For most individuals (not those in the authors income bracket, or most of the clients that he deals with), it is extremely hard to get through a doctorate program (let alone a bachelor's program at a first tier school), without doing so. In this case, the value of taking out student loans and acquiring further education clearly outweighs the ability to choose a risk-seeking career. After all, it is an extremely small percentage of people who are successful as an entrepreneur, as opposed to those who seek a more stable career, requiring higher education. I have had experience in both and can vouch for the fact that in specific industries, such as financial services, you need to know key people, to be successful. No matter how much the industry tries to reject this notion, it is fact.

To address the second issue, it is fundamentally obvious that the earth's resources are limited, a view that Brock admittedly looks over. Responsibility necessitates conservation.

The book for the most part is fantastic; however, it does offer an extremely Republican viewpoint.

This is the most complete book on personal financial management ever published, it is just that simple!

There is only one caution I would set forth, successful individuals don't become successful without consulting experts, this book does not replace the guidence an advisor provides but, it is a great starting point for those looking to enhance their knowledge base. I have been known to recommend this book quite frequently to my own clients.

Keep in mind, you don't know what you don't know until someone tells you something you don't know.

Yes, I agree -- this is a "must read" book. It covers many aspects of finance, but realizes that the main aspect is psychological. No, it is not a psychology treatise, but it helps point in the right directions. The author has been in the same position that many of his readers are. Take a look at it. You can probably find a copy at your local library or via inter-library loan.