Saturday, March 8, 2014

^^ Get Free Ebook Charming Billy, by Alice McDermott

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Charming Billy, by Alice McDermott

Alice McDermott tells the story of Billy Lynch within the complex matrix of a tightly knit Irish American community, in a voice that is resonant and full of deep feeling. Charming Billy is a masterpiece about the unbreakable bonds of memory and desire.

  • Sales Rank: #950005 in Books
  • Brand: FSG
  • Published on: 1997-12-31
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: .98" h x 5.94" w x 8.57" l,
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 280 pages
Features
  • Great product!

Amazon.com Review
Charming Billy is a devastating account of the power of longing and lies, love's tenacity, and resignation's hold. Even at his funeral party, Billy Lynch's life remains up for debate. This soft-spoken, poetry lover's drinking was as legendary among his Queens, New York, family and friends as was his disappointment in love. But the latter, as his cousin Dennis knows, "was, after all, yet another sweet romance to preserve." After World War II, both young men had spent one sun-swept week on Long Island, renovating a house and falling in with two Irish sisters--nannies to a wealthy family--"marveling, marveling still, that this Eden was here, at the other end of the same island on which they had spent their lives."

By the end of their idyll, Billy and Eva were engaged, though she was set to return to County Wicklow. Determined to earn enough money to bring her, her family, and if necessary her entire village back to the U.S., Billy took two jobs, one of which would indenture him for years. But despite the money he sent, Eva never returned, and then was suddenly dead of pneumonia. The true tragedy is that she had simply kept her fare and married someone else--a secret Dennis keeps for the next 30 years as he watches Billy fall into a loveless marriage and the self-administered anesthesia of alcohol.

Alice McDermott's quiet, striking novel is a study of the lies that bind and the weight of familial wishes. She seems far less interested in the shock of revelation than in her characters' power to live through personal disaster. As Dennis's daughter pieces together Billy's real history, she also learns of the accommodations her own family had long made--and discovers that good intentions can be as destructive as the truth they mean to hide.

From Library Journal
When Billy, the glue of a tight Irish community in New York, dies as a result of lifelong alcohol abuse, mourners gather around roast beef and green bean amandine to tell tales and ruminate on his struggle for happiness after he lost his first love, Eva. With carefully drawn character studies and gentle probing, McDermott, who won the National Book Award for this work, masterfully weaves a subtle but tenacious web of relationships to explore the devastation of alcoholism, the loss of innocence, the daily practice of love, and the redeeming unity of family and friendship.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
McDermott (At Weddings and Wakes, 1992, etc.) extends her view of Irish-American life with this gentle portrait of an alcoholic freshly dead from drink, and of the family he leaves behind to reveal and remember. Everyone at the wake agreed that Billy Lynch was a fine man- -when sober. But they also knew something of his pain, born from the long-ago death of his fianc‚ just before she was to come back to Brooklyn after a trip to Ireland. Only his cousin and best friend Dennis, though, knew the whole story: Eva didn't die, but she did marry her Irish love--a fact he concealed from Billy for 30 years, not knowing that Billy would mourn what might have been for the rest of his life, even after he met and married the gentle, love-struck Maeve. Then, in Ireland in 1975, to take The Pledge after years of hard drinking, Billy learned the truth by chancing to meet Eva as he was on his way to visit her grave--and promptly took back his Pledge. As he had in times previous, Dennis helped Maeve through the years that followed, answering Billy's wee-hours phone calls and bringing him to bed whenever he'd passed out, even as Dennis's own wife sickened of cancer and died. And now Dennis's daughter, grown with children of her own, has come home to support him after Billy was found dying in the street--just as Dennis supported Billy and Maeve, and as his father before him supported countless penniless Irish relations as they made the leap across the Atlantic to a new life. It's this daughter who puts the pieces of Billy's sad but profoundly loyal existence together, mingling them with her father's and her own in a special way that leaves her well prepared for the turn of events to come. A softly resonant and nostalgic tale told so masterfully, so movingly, that it seems to distill a human essence on virtually every page. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Relive Irish idiosynchrocies as you laugh, cry and marvel!
By clogcathy
I ordered "Charming Billy" because I lost my original copy. It is one of the most outstanding novels I have ever read and if you are of Irish descent, you will understand it and, I hope, love it. It is hard to follow because of all the characters but well worth the effort. McDermott is a genius. My only criticism is the small print is hard to read, but I still love it.

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful.
Devastating emotional impact, masterful writing
By A Customer
Like the earlier reader with a 5 star review, I too had to comment on "Charming Billy" after reading the negative customer reviews which have recently been posted here. Though I read this book months ago, it remains one of the best written and most memorable books I have read in many years. It cannot be said to be an enjoyable book, unless can take pleasure in the level of artistry and characterization achieved by a subtle writer. It does not depend on plot, the story's main events are revealed early--both in the text and in all the reviews. There is no suspense, no submarine or serial killer, no cannibalism or girlish conversations. To witness Billy's destruction as a participant in the drama--for that is the achievement of the author, to have forced the reader beyond distant observation--is painful and wears on your ability to accept the depressing emotions that result. For those whose imagination can only be stimulated when their heart is accelerating, this book cannot satisfy, but reading it is a moving experience. It is an exploration of motivation, of self-destruction, of love and of the quality of 'unselfishness', of the sources of decay and of the misguided nature of those who take upon themselves the judgement of what is best for others. It makes you wish you could weep and find some relief.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Well written but the style was not my favorite.
By Nancy
I wanted to like it but I did not. I kept waiting for something to happen that never came. I only read half, however. I didn't like already knowing the outcome and then going through the boring steps it took to get there.

See all 383 customer reviews...

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Friday, March 7, 2014

@ Download PDF Wednesday Night Witches (Red Dress Ink Novels), by Lee Nichols

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Wednesday Night Witches (Red Dress Ink Novels), by Lee Nichols

They don't believe in magic, but the Wednesday Night Witches cast a mighty spell!

On the outs with her live-in boyfriend, Eve Crenshaw flees Manhattan for a different kind of island life off the coast of Maine. With the help of her college roommate, Natasha, and her friend Kim, she rents a seaside cottage and waits for her boyfriend to beg her to return.

Instead, he gets a new girlfriend.

Now Eve's stuck on an island with no cable TV, no Starbucks and no eligible men. Desperate for diversion, the women meet every week for drinks, dubbing themselves the Wednesday Night Witches.

One stormy evening, the Witches raid Kim's cellar and find a strange bottle of liqueur. Getting into the spirit, they each make a wish, lift their glasses and . . . well, no one can quite recall what happens next. But suddenly their wishes start coming true!

Only, as life gets better and better for the Wednesday Night Witches, everything else on the island goes to hell . . .

  • Sales Rank: #1767872 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-08-01
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 8.00" h x .81" w x 5.13" l,
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 297 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Nichols (True Lies of a Drama Queen) takes a Charmed-inspired ride on a broomstick, smartly mixing magic with chick lit cheer. Manhattan teacher Eve Crenshaw escapes to Broome Isle, Maine, after a nasty break-up to visit her former NYU classmate, Natasha Kent. Natasha, a starving artist, introduces Eve to her childhood pal Kim Gray, an "Earth Mama" type and direct descendant of a Salem-era witch. They tag themselves "Wednesday Night Witches" after participating in a local bar's trivia contest, but the witchery truly begins when they share a potent wine that grants each woman a wish, transforming their lives but endangering the island when they unwittingly release an ancient demon. The arrival of yummy Jack, Garrison and Johnny distracts them while the demon's power grows, leading to a major showdown. These accidental witches lack the depth of Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic spellcasters, but they're still appealing. Nichols fills her cauldron with a very Maine stew and injects the proceedings with a breezy style well suited to escapist summer romances.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
New York City teacher Eve Crenshaw has had it with both her pompous boyfriend and her critical boss, so she leaves New York for Broome Island, where her college roommate Natasha lives. Natasha, a reclusive artist, introduces Eve to her former sister-in-law, Kim, who also happens to be her closest friend on the island. Eve quickly finds a job and, through Kim, a place to live, and finds herself taking to the island, despite its stark contrast to busy, bustling New York. She also finds herself curious about the mythology of the island and Kim's ancestors, who were labeled witches. The three women get together one evening and makes wishes, and they're surprised to find those wishes suddenly coming true. But there's a sinister force afoot, and the women start to worry that Eve's and Kim's new relationships and Natasha's shot at artistic success may prove too good to be true. Readers who enjoy a bit of magic in their chick lit will enjoy Nichols' clever and fun fourth novel. Huntley, Kristine

About the Author
Lee Nichols was born in Salem, Massachusetts. Her ancestor, Susanna Martens, was condemned and executed for witchcraft at the court of Salem in 1692.

Most helpful customer reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Entertaining and Full of Bewitching Excitement....
By C. Crockett
Pour yourself a pink cosmopolitan, and curl up with this fun combination of chick lit with a supernatural twist!

Follow 3 friends as they each experience some crazy times. Eve is a Kindergarten teacher who has just moved to Broome Island, just off the coast of Maine, after an embarrassing break-up with her Lawyer boyfriend. Natasha is a struggling artist, searching for appreciation and acceptance of her art. Kim is a cook with a witchy heritage, and a troubled past. These three friends come together to share their misery, and toast to their friendship -- eventually becoming a tightly bonded group, they dubbed themselves the "Wednesday Night Witches" after they decide to meet for drinks every Wednesday night. However, trouble gets stirred up after these three "witches" find a mysterious bottle of liquour in the basment, and use it to toast each other and make a wish. When the wishes start coming true, the real fun begins...

This book is just a lot of fun. I love all the magical and witchy aspects of it. It takes a traditional chick lit story, and turns it into something new and exciting. More and more we are seeing supernatural chick lit novels introduced into this particular genre, and most of them are really entertaining. "Wednesday Night Witches" is no exception.

The characters are each unique and fun, and I think most people will be able to find something relatable about each of them, whether it's relating to Eve's romantic pursuits, and her desire to prove herself through her career -- or maybe relating to Natasha's frustration with her art, and her desire to be appreciated for her talents (in addition to finally attracting a man). Or, perhaps you will relate more to Kim, and her lonliness, and desire to overcome her past difficulties, and have a child of her very own. One of the things I liked about this book was that although (as usual with chick lit) a large emphasis is given to these women's romantic lives (all three want to find the man of their dreams, of course), they are also more indepth characters, and have other dreams, pursuits, and wishes that have nothing to do with snagging a man!

Bottom line, this is an easy read, and a great book for a lazy afternoon.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Cute, but ultimately lame
By Amy Walls
I picked this up with no grand ideas that this book would be anything more than a charming, light read that would entertain me. I wasn't expecting Jane Austen, Neil Gaiman, or even Dan Brown. I wanted fluffy romance and predictability. Sometimes, we really need some candy like these books. However, I found the narrative so distracting with the constant switch from first to third-person narrative to be a poorly formed creation. How could any editor worth her salt allow a writer to trip so badly? Why not just make the entire story third-person, allow the characters to grow through the lense of an outside narrator?
Poorly written.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Luvved this book
By Jeri L. Studebaker, author of *Breaking the Mother Goose Code* and *Switching to Goddess*
Maybe it's because one of the main characters in this book came looking to rent the bottom half of my house here in Maine recently (she's the basis, at least, for one of the main characters).

Or maybe it's because I taught elementary school for a few years, and another of the main characters is the funniest kindergarten teacher I've ever had the pleasure of meeting up with in a novel.

Or maybe this is just a darn good book.

All I know is, I loved it.

Luanne, the woman who came to look at the bottom half of my house grew up on an island off the coast of Maine (which is where this novel takes place). A couple of centuries ago, her great, great, great etc. grandmother was hung there as a witch. Luanne edits for Lee Nichols, the book's author, and Lee decided to do a novel (this one) about Luanne's life -- and the life of her unlucky grandmother.

I even keep thinking I'm going to read this book on tape and donate copies to my local library.

I think the writing is great, and the humor was the gut-level kind that makes involuntary noises bubble out of your mouth when you least expect it.

Another thing I really vibrated with was the way the author got the three main characters 'right.' One was a Maine native whose family had lived in the state for generations, the second was what Mainers call a 'summer person' (spent summers here and winters elsewhere), and the third was a New York City woman completely unschooled in the wily ways of the true Mainer.

As someone who's lived in Maine for 25 years, it was really interesting to see how Lee painted the personality and character differences among the three women.

The only reason I'm giving the book 4 stars instead of 5 is I I don't think Lee has the witchcraft part of it totally right. Although this might be unfair to her and her book both, since it's no fault of hers if she doesn't understand what many today consider "true" witchcraft (or wicca).

Anyway, the evil power in the book emanates from deep inside the earth, and it is my understanding that most wiccans today believe that the earth is Mother Earth and actually the antithesis of evil.

Anyway, small point, really, considering all that this book offers: LOL humor, `good' writing, great local color, and fantastically fun fantasy.

On the other hand, if you're in the mood for some heavier stuff about female supernatural power, I'd recommend
Switching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future.

See all 15 customer reviews...

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> Fee Download And the Stars Were Shining, by John Ashbery

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And the Stars Were Shining, by John Ashbery

This 16th collection by the author contains 59 comic and lyrical poems, including the 13-part title-poem. John Ashbery was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award for Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror.

  • Sales Rank: #3107849 in Books
  • Published on: 1994-02
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: .64" h x 6.32" w x 9.56" l,
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 99 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Readers have at times confused Ashbery's ( Flow Chart ) interest in examining the appearances of things with a lack of poetic depth. The reasons? Perhaps that Ashbery is typically intrigued by surfaces because his main theme is the perception of reality; and, being of a more lyrical than critical inclination, he pursues philosophical investigation in, by and through poetry, so that his poems tend to embody the idea that is their subject. In his 16th collection, Ashbery once again addresses his chosen theme--and others--through many tightly bound short poems and a longer piece in 13 parts, the title poem. And while his main concern is the work of the imagination, he begins to sound a more narrative voice, while never allowing the poems to develop into true extended narratives. The poet is less reticent (though still far from explicit) in committing himself to the ideas sown in his work. Also, he takes up an unaccustomed subject: the discerning of a poem after the poet's passing, implying his own death. Characteristically, it is in his longer poems that Ashbery holds a situation up to the light and approaches it most variously and richly. Though readers may not grasp or even catch sight of every angle, they will be gripped.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ashbery is as waggish and surprising as ever here, in his sixteenth collection. He is blessed with an irrepressible {‚}elan, dealing surrealistic images like a magician snapping cards one moment, then, in another, slipping into teasing colloquialisms to amuse and divert us just long enough for him to drive home some unexpected truth. Most of the 58 poems assembled here are brief and fleet as Ashbery toys with the mind's overlays of memories, moods, observations, and the "dewy mess of a dream." Out of the fizz of his landscapes and cryptic anecdotes emerge curious declarations about how to live lightly but feel deeply, how to laugh at the craziness and treasure glimpses of beauty and bursts of humor. Ashbery is animated and agile, devilish and debonair, bright and cunning. In the title poem, the book's longest, he writes: "We sure live in a bizarre and furious/ galaxy." Indeed, and Ashbery often has it by its tail. Donna Seaman

Review
About To Move
And The Stars Were Shining: 1
The Archipelago
Assertiveness Training
Bromeliads
Commercial Break
Coventry
The Decline Of The West
The Desperate Hours
Dinosaur Country
Falls To The Floor, Comes To The Door
The Favor Of A Reply
Footfalls
Free Nail Polish
The Friendly City
Ghost Riders Of The Moon
Gummed Reinforcements
A Held Thing
A Hundred Albums
Ice Cream In America
The Improvement
In The Meantime, Darling
Just For Starters
Just What's There
Leeward
Like A Sentence
Local Time
The Lounge
The Love Scenes
Man In Lurex
The Mandrill On The Turnpike
Mutt And Jeff
My Gold Chain
Myrtle
Not Planning A Trip Back
Paraph
Pathless Wanderings
Pleasure Boats
Pretty Questions
The Ridiculous Translator's Hopes
Sicilian Bird
Spotlight On America
Spring Cries
The Story Of Next Week
Strange Things Happen At Night
Till The Bus Starts
Title Search
Token Resistance
Two Pieces
A Waltz Dream
Weather And Turtles
Well, Yes, Actually
What Do You Call It When
William Byrd
Works On Paper 1
World's End
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Most helpful customer reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Chasing Meaning Out Of Assumed Appearances
By JEREMY REED c/o eaw@centrenet.co.uk
And The Stars Were Shining By John Ashbery
John Ashbery's penchant for the long, discursively philosophic poem has sometimes served to distract critical attention from his mastery of intensely conceived short lyrics.
We all have a favourite Ashbery flavour, and mine is the gin-fizz dynamic at work in the relative brevity displayed by the best of the shorter poems gathered in this collection. In fact, I would argue that you would have to go back to Houseboat Days (1977), to find a comparable success in terms of Ashbery's ability to compress poetic experience into an accommodatingly resonant tension-field. With Ashbery's method there is always the danger that expansiveness contributes to fluctuating air-pockets in the poem's flight-path, and the reader's encounter with inconsistently sustained epics like Flow Chart is one of locating pivotal wobble in the stratosphere of Ashbery's poetics.
Ashbery's lyric concerns are invariably with retrieving the moment from unrecorded notice. It's the transient nature of experience underscored by a deep sense of loss which fires Ashbery into attempting to arrest whatever proves meaningful to his impulsive plot. As he writes in 'The Improvement':
"We never live long enough in our lives/ to know what today is like./ Shards, smiling beaches,/ abandon us somehow even as we converse with them./ And the leopard is transparent, like iced tea."
Ashbery's acute sense of being disinherited from the world of things, and the poem is an attempt to establish discourse with this aesthetic, has him incessantly preoccupied with chasing meaning out of assumed appearances. His way is to puzzle worry into potential existential crisis:
"Nothing seems strong enough for/ this life to manage, that sees beyond/ into particles forming some kind of entity -/ So we get dressed kindly, crazy at the moment./ A life of afterwords begins."
('The Improvement')
Ashbery's disorientated, upended approach to his subject matter imparts the feel of innovative modernism to his work. And while his poetry is personal by way of its predominantly quiet disclosures: 'I never get hangovers until late afternoon/ and then it's like a souvenir, an arrangement,' he is never confessional in the manner of Robert Lowell or Sylvia Plath. Ashbery's quiet presence permeates, but never crowds his lyrics. Some of the finest poems to be found in this collection, 'Works On Paper I,' 'Ghost Riders Of The Moon,' 'Free Nail Polish,' 'Local Time,' 'My Gold Chain' succeed by playing enigmatic narrative against specific visual imagery. In the best of Ashbery the abstract and the concrete unite to impart allusive mystery to the poem. The ending of 'Works On Paper I' perfectly demonstrates what Ashbery does best.
"Those who wish to remain naked are coaxed out of laughter/ with tea and nobody's nose is to the grindstone/ anymore, I bet, and you can figure out these shivering trees./ But the owner of the bookstore know that the flea was blown/ out of all proportion,/ with September steps to go down in passing/ before the tremendous dogs are unleased."
Here the juxtaposition of the disarmingly casual and the lyrically authoritative combine to create Ashbery's inimitable tang of urbane poetry, a genre he orchestrates with consummate ease throughout this sparkling collection. If by comparison the long title poem suffers from a characteristic lack of focus, then the poem's obliqueness and obscurity are counterpointed by Ashbery's inexhaustibly pitched poetic eloquence.
JEREMY REED

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
One of the most personal poetry voices keeps showing charm.
By fruela_el_autor@bigfoot.com
And the stars were shining seems to be a minor Ashberry's work, but don't be confused...a great poet is always great. This book is especially delightful. Ashberry plays with the dazed reader making a strange and confusing mixture of images and sounds (something like watching "Lost Highway", by David Lynch), painting everything with his particular sense of humour and his vision of life. A bit flamboyant, but completely great. To miss it is a crime, as every vulgarity.

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## Ebook American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, by Joan Biskupic

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American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, by Joan Biskupic

The first full-scale biography of the Supreme Court’s most provocative—and influential—justice

If the U.S. Supreme Court teaches us anything, it is that almost everything is open to interpretation. Almost. But what’s inarguable is that, while the Court has witnessed a succession of larger-than-life jurists in its two-hundred-year-plus history, it has never seen the likes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.    

Combative yet captivating, infuriating yet charming, the outspoken jurist remains a source of curiosity to observers across the political spectrum and on both sides of the ideological divide. And after nearly a quarter century on the bench, Scalia may be at the apex of his power. Agree with him or not, Scalia is “the justice who has had the most important impact over the years on how we think and talk about the law,” as the Harvard law dean Elena Kagan, now U.S. Solicitor General, once put it.

Scalia electrifies audiences: to hear him speak is to remember him; to read his writing is to find his phrases permanently affixed in one’s mind. But for all his public grandstanding, Scalia has managed to elude biographers—until now. In American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the veteran Washington journalist Joan Biskupic presents for the first time a detailed portrait of this complicated figure and provides a comprehensive narrative that will engage Scalia’s adherents and critics alike. Drawing on her long tenure covering the Court, and on unprecedented access to the justice, Biskupic delves into the circumstances of his rise and the formation of his rigorous approach to the bench. Beginning with the influence of Scalia’s childhood in a first-generation Italian American home, American Original takes us through his formative years, his role in the Nixon-Ford administrations, and his trajectory through the Reagan revolution. Biskupic’s careful reporting culminates with the tumult of the contemporary Supreme Court—where it was and where it’s going, with Scalia helping to lead the charge.

Even as Democrats control the current executive and legislative branches, the judicial branch remains rooted in conservatism. President Obama will likely appoint several new justices to the Court—but it could be years before those appointees change the tenor of the law. With his keen mind, authoritarian bent, and contentious rhetorical style, Scalia is a distinct and persuasive presence, and his tenure is far from over. This new book shows us the man in power: his world, his journey, and the far-reaching consequences of the transformed legal landscape.

  • Sales Rank: #484334 in Books
  • Published on: 2009-11-10
  • Released on: 2009-11-10
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 9.32" h x 1.49" w x 6.38" l, 1.50 pounds
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The combative personality of conservative judicial firebrand Antonin Scalia comes through more clearly than his philosophy in this dense biography. USA Today legal affairs reporter Biskupic (Sandra Day O'Connor) notes Scalia's contemptuous chin-flicking at the media and relaxed attitude toward torture and other controversies, but focuses on his Supreme Court tenure through a thematic survey of prominent cases. What fitfully emerges, apart from a man confident in his views, hot in his rhetoric, is his hostility to affirmative action, abortion rights and the 'homosexual agenda' and a fondness for states' rights, executive branch authority and gun-owners' rights, all justified by an originalist interpretation that hews to the bare text of the Constitution as its authors allegedly understood it. Biskupic's critical approach highlights inconsistencies in Scalia's reasoning, particularly when he went against his usual states' rights position in the Bush v. Gore decision, which settled the 2000 presidential election. But the complex, murky vagaries of Supreme Court case law are not the best format for elucidating a judicial philosophy; Biskupic gives a full account of this influential figure's doctrinaire conservatism, but the originalist doctrine itself is harder to discern. 8 pages of b&w illus. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Legal affairs reporter Biskupic brings 20 years’ experience and insight to providing a broad context to this profile of the most prominent and controversial of the current Supreme Court justices. Bright, articulate, and often confrontational, Scalia had promoted his concept of originalism, interpreting the Constitution from the original perspective of the Founding Fathers rather than as a living document adapting to contemporary circumstances. Initially, Scalia was limited to presenting his cogent and often bombastic arguments from a minority dissenter’s view, but with the appointment of conservative John Roberts as chief, some 20 years into his tenure Scalia now finds himself more often on the majority side. Yet his persona continues to mark him as an outsider. Biskupic examines Scalia’s life, including how he has come to hold his views. This is a must-read for those interested in the impact of a singular personality on our highest court—and to what end, only time will tell. --Vernon Ford

Review

“Joan Biskupic has done it again. Having hit a home run in her fine biography of the quintessential centrist justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, Biskupic has now hit it far out of the park with her elegant, insightful, and eminently readable account of the life and constitutional views of the most colorful justice on the Supreme Court’s right wing. For anyone who wants to understand the most influential and interesting voice of the most powerful movement in contemporary American law, this book is a must-read.” —Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard Law School

“Biskupic is an old-fashioned reporter’s reporter—hard-digging, tough-minded, but even-handed. She is also a thoughtful and shrewd judge of people. She has penetrated the Supreme Court and given us a fascinating portrait of the court’s most colorful and human justice.” —Evan Thomas, editor, Newsweek

“This is the best judicial biography I’ve ever read. Scalia, the lodestone of the modern Court, is complex, influential, difficult, and, above all—in these pages—alive.” —Richard Ben Cramer, author of Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life“It’s hard to write a fair-minded biography of such a polarizing figure, but that’s what Joan Biskupic has done with ‘American Original’ . . . impressively balanced and well reported.” —Jeffrey Rosen, The New York Times Book Review  “[American Original] will stand up over time.” —Emily Bazelon, Slate “Intellectually rigorous. . . ‘American Original: the Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’ is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand this jurist.” —Claude R. Marx, Boston Globe “Biskupic has written a biography filled with fire, a book almost certain to anger Scalia's fans on many pages because she offers candid assessments of his flaws, as well as his strengths. Scalia’s detractors will find lots of material with which to demonize him even further.” —Steve Weinberg, Dallas Morning News  “A gifted storyteller . . . Biskupic is tough but fair. At age 73, Scalia remains full of piss and vinegar. If you want to know where he’s likely to take his colleagues and when they’ll refuse to go along with him pick up ‘American Original.’ Don’t wait for a court order.” —Glenn C. Altschuler, Tulsa World “Impeccably researched.” —Gene Warner, Buffalo News “‘American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’ is full of strong reporting. It is scrupulously even-handed, which may irritate partisans on both sides of the Scalia divide—there are few fence-straddlers when it comes to him . . .  Biskupic’s larger accomplishment is to present the recent evolution of the Supreme Court through the prism of its most colorful member.”—Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times “It’s worth checking out Joan Biskupic’s new biography of Justice Antonin Scalia—American Original. . . It’s the first real deep dive into his personal background (including his religion) and how it affects his decisions. Scalia is a critical figure on the Supreme Court, given its continuing shift to the right. And Biskupic does a great job in helping the reader understand where he’s coming from.” —Thomas Goldstein, Daily Beast, “Smart People Recommend” “The book’s real charm, however, lies in her treatment of the man. She traces the important influences on Scalia—the lessons from his immigrant parents, the centrality of his Catholic faith, the early professional experiences in the Nixon justice department—and offers a portrait of a man quite unlike any other judge. Especially against the decorous backdrop of the Supreme Court, Scalia stands out for his brashness in argument, his clever, sometimes contemptuous, prose and his willingness to express opinions in a variety of public forums. Biskupic acknowledges his intellectual brilliance but criticizes him for his tetchiness with the press, for his seeming inability to concede at least the appearance of conflicts of interest and for his willingness to depart from originalism—Bush v. Gore, anyone?—when it appears to serve his own political inclinations. Legal scholars have written more about Scalia than any other living Justice. Now, in terms of accessibility for the general reader, Biskupic gives the rest of us an inside look at what the fuss is all about . . . Every bit as provocative and entertaining as the man himself.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Most helpful customer reviews

97 of 105 people found the following review helpful.
Not Much Life Story
By Jeff Kelleher
If this first-ever biography of the colorful and prickly Associate Justice were a New Yorker profile, it would merit four stars; if an Atlantic Monthly feature, three. It is an accessible and compact survey of Scalia's public writings and pronouncements, and of public commentary on them. But as biography, it is disappointing.

Biskupic devotes only 21 pages to the first 38 years of her subject's life--the very period the reader is most curious about. How can this be called biography? Compare the first volume of Robert Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson-- 800 deeply illuminating pages on Johnson's first 33 years.

The book offers few glimpses of the influences that shaped Scalia's thought and temperament. Who were the teachers, priests, and professors who taught him? What courses did he take, books did he read, bull sessions did he attend, course papers and letters did he write? He did years of ROTC in school but never served in the military; why not? He spent his junior year at Switzerland's University of Fribourg in what Biskupic calls "a yearlong academic and sightseeing feast." That feastful year gets 43 words.

What was his work during his six years at the law firm of Jones, Day? Hardly a word on this. His four years as a professor at the University of Virginia get only glancing coverage.

The book is drawn almost entirely from published sources. The author did interview the Justice himself several times, and a scattering of family and acquaintances, but collectively these interviews add only the faintest coloration to the public record. Most of Scalia's friends, classmates, and colleagues are still alive, and so loquacious a man certainly has left a lot of private writings and utterances scattered about. But Biskupic did not bother to do the hard digging necessary to uncover them. She worked libraries, not the streets.

Biskupic surmises, casually and obviously, that his view of Roe v. Wade might have been shaped by his Catholic faith; and that his view of the District of Columbia's gun ban might have been influenced by his lifelong hunting hobby. Hardly profound.

Two speculations are particularly tantalizing. First, Scalia's literalist "originalism" in constitutional interpretation has a parallel in the literalist catechism of the Catholic Church. Second, as a law student he was taken with Herbert Wechsler's doctrine of "neutral principles" of constitutional law--the notion that judges should decide by applying transcendent principles that are detached from the outcome in a particular case. Both of these beg for elaboration, but Biskupic simply tosses them into a paragraph or two and moves on.

If you want a refresher on recent constitutional struggles, as expressed in Scalia's opinions, speeches, and writings, this is a useful book. If you are looking for illuminating biography, you will find, on finishing it, that you have learned almost nothing that was not already extant.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Not quite a liberal hit-piece, but close
By Happy Shopper
I bought this book hoping to learn more about Antonin Scalia after his passing. I had a lot of admiration for the things Mr. Scalia had said and done on the SCOTUS, and I was really looking forward to reading American Original. After reading the book, I must say that I was very disappointed with the book and the point of view of the author.

The book is not a complete "hit" piece (hence the 2 starts) on Mr. Scalia, but it is very close. It is obvious that Ms. Biskupic disagrees with most of the positions that Mr. Scalia (and other conservatives) hold and she continually expounds on how Mr. Scalia is not in sync with where the country should be headed. As an example, on page 162 regarding Robert Bork and his resignation from the D.C. Circuit, Ms. Biskupic writes, "When Bork resigned, the Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, who had opposed his nomination, said, 'The right wing lost the constitutional referendum of 1987. That is what galls them [conservatives] most about the loss of Robert Bork. Not pity for a man who long wanted to serve on the Court and whose credentials were so superb. It is pity for an agenda that was dramatically, decisively repudiated.'" This comment seems a bit extreme considering the “agenda” of President’s George H.W. Bush (41) in 1988 and George W. Bush (43) in 2000.

On page 184, where she is writing on race relations, Ms. Biskupic says, "(Mr. Scalia) challenged the long-standing argument that special protection should be given to the disenfranchised and disadvantaged. In that view, some critics argued, he was abandoning the core responsibilities of courts in America because the neutral rules he advocated could not bring about racial equality." Again, Ms. Biskupic is using the thoughts and concerns of others to express her agenda. Many people believe that it is not a court's responsibility to bring about racial equality or any other change in society. Courts are not supposed to make laws - they are supposed to interpret them.

On page 189, Ms. Biskupic writes, "...news reports of the event [Scalia’s 1996 appearance before the Christian Legal Society] were grist for critics who thought that, in a nation founded on the separation of church and state, Scalia had gone too far in his personal identification with religious believers." Ms. Biskupic is one of many who propagate the lie that the United States was “founded on the separation of church and state.” This phrase is not included in any of our founding documents, so it’s completely untrue to say the U.S. is founded on the separation of church and state.

Also on page 189, Ms. Biskupic writes, "[American Lawyer magazine columnist Stuart Taylor] accused Scalia of having a 'persecution complex.' [Mr. Taylor] referred to Scalia's 'flirtation with Christian victimology' and wrote that the justice was parroting unthinkingly 'the kind of nonsense that is often heard from the likes of [television evangelist] Pat Robertson and [the conservative commentator] Patrick Buchanan.'" It’s hard to find a more condescending phrase than “parroting unthinkingly”. It’s just a guess on my part, but I believe that Ms. Biskupic was very happy to include the quote from Mr. Taylor because it summarizes her thoughts on Christian “nonsense”.

As noted in the examples above and on page after page in American Original, Ms. Biskupic continually quotes people who disagree with Mr. Scalia's "originalist" Constitutional view and his judicial decisions. Knowing that the author has an anti-Scalia bias before reading the book will make reading American Original a little easier to stomach, but the book could have been so much better if it had been written by an author without such an obvious agenda.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
If nothing else, Scalia was an American Original
By Bimmer RoadRunner
If nothing else, Scalia was an American Original

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Thursday, March 6, 2014

** Ebook Free Bad Bet on the Bayou: The Rise and Fall of Gambling in Louisiana and the Fate of Governor Edwin Edwards, by Tyler Bridges

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Bad Bet on the Bayou: The Rise and Fall of Gambling in Louisiana and the Fate of Governor Edwin Edwards, by Tyler Bridges

An outrageous tale of fast cash, dirty politics, and extravagant greed in the Bayou State.

Louisiana is our most exotic state. It is religious and roguish, a place populated by Cajuns, Creoles, rednecks, and Bible-thumpers. It is a state that loves good food, good music, and good times. Laissez les bon temps rouler -- let the good times roll -- is the unofficial motto. Louisiana is also excessively corrupt.In the 1990s, it plunged headlong into legalized gambling, authorizing more games of chance than any other state. Leading the charge was Governor Edwin Edwards, who for years had flaunted his fondness for cold cash and high-stakes gambling, and who had used his razor-sharp mind and catlike reflexes to stay one step ahead of the law. Gambling, Edwin Edwards, and Louisiana's political culture would prove to be a combustible mix.

Bad Bet on the Bayou tells the story of what happened when the most corrupt industry came to our most corrupt state. It is a sweeping morality tale about commerce, politics, and what happens when the law catches up to the most basic human desires and frailties.

  • Sales Rank: #741969 in Books
  • Brand: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
  • Published on: 2001-06-04
  • Ingredients: Example Ingredients
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 1.33" h x 6.28" w x 9.30" l,
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
As a New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter, Bridges covered the early '90s senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns of presidential hopeful David Duke, etching a sober portrait in The Rise of David Duke (1994). Four years later, Bridges joined the Miami Herald, where he won a 1999 Pulitzer as part of an investigative team and began work on this book. He traces the historical background of gambling in Louisiana from pre-Civil War riverboats and the Louisiana Lottery (shut down by the federal government in 1907) to 1940s casinos. Edwin Edwards (aka "Silver Zipper," aka "Cajun King"), the only man to be elected governor of Louisiana four times, in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, "could charm a society matron one minute and an oil-rig worker the next." When the bayou state's oil boom bottomed out in the 1980s, Edwards decided gambling could revive the economy, but the cash flow through casinos, riverboats and video poker led to corruption, greedy promoters and "snake-oil salesmen in expensive suits," as the Times-Picayune put it. Following FBI wiretaps and raids, the 72-year-old Edwards was indicted and convicted on charges of extortion from riverboat casino companies. Numerous quotes re-create remembered dialogue in this fascinating and fluid narrative reconstruction. Describing Louisiana as the country's most "exotic" state, Bridges does a formidable job of capturing its allure (as well as that of the former governor), but his easy flair is supported by high journalistic standards, including his meticulous attention to details and his exhaustive research which, all in all, make for an irresistible read. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Flip Brophy. (May)Forecast: As the literature on Louisiana politics continues to grow and Louisiana in particular, the Big Easy remains a place of fascination for many Americans, this book, with its catchy, alliterative title, is destined for a prominent spot on the shelf.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As an old Kentucky refrain goes, "In Kentucky politics are the damnedest." In analyzing political machinations and serious misuse of the public trust, especially by flamboyant Gov. Edwin Edward of Louisiana, Bridges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald reporter who covered Louisiana politics for the New Orleans Times-Picayune in the early 1990s, makes Kentucky politics seem tame. After discussing Louisiana's often sordid but always entertaining political history, the author devotes the remainder of the monograph to telling what happened when the state legalized gambling in the 1990s under Governor Edwards. Using primarily oral interviews with many of the participants, including Edwards himself, and files from the Times-Picayune, Bridges focuses on the key role fourth-term Governor Edwards played in bringing gambling to Louisiana. As an Edwards critic observed, "[H]e had a tragic character flaw; he thinks of politics as a way to make money for himself and his friends rather than public service. The flaw finally brought him to his knees." While critical of Louisiana's failed gambling experiment, Bridges's narrative is an excellent example of detailed investigative reporting that reads like a mystery novel. Recommended for public libraries. Charles C. Hay III, Eastern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Richmond
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
There may never be a Louisiana politician to equal Huey Long, but if there were, his name might be Edwin Edwards. (Remember the "Vote for the Crook" bumper stickers from the final days of Edwards' 1991 runoff battle against David Duke.) Between 1971 and 1996, Edwards spent 16 years in the governor's mansion, "flaunt(ing) his fondness for easy cash, pretty women, and high-stakes gambling as he dominated Louisiana politics." Prize-winning Miami Herald reporter Bridges covered Edwards' final term for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and then he followed the federal investigation and 28-count indictment that, in May 2000, produced a conviction of the former governor on 17 counts of conspiracy to extort money from riverboat gambling interests. (The verdict is being appealed.) Gambling--an industry with an ugly history in Louisiana since the nineteenth century--is at the heart of this story, and Bridges thoroughly documents the process by which "legalized gambling has needed less than a decade to supplant the petrochemical industry as the state's most powerful interest group." Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Most helpful customer reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Whew! What a ride!
By Terry Mathews
I got this book for my husband, as he's the non-fiction reader in our family. I was out of something to read, so I picked it up and could NOT put it down.
Bridges does a great job of putting a lot of convoluted information into readable form. Edwin Edwards and his Crazy Cajun Cronies didn't really do anything new...they just continued a long tradition of crooked Louisiana Politics!
I enjoyed almost all of this book...the only parts that made my eyes glaze over were the details regarding the financing. My mind just can't wrap around deals where the broker stands to make 27 MILLION dollars....and then one million a year after that!
If you ever wanted a peek into the world of slick politicians, oily gangsters and brash billionaires, this is your book. BAD BET ON THE BAYOU should be required reading for anyone who votes!
Enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
a cautionary tale
By Orrin C. Judd
Don't write anything you can phone. Don't phone anything you can talk. Don't talk anything you can whisper. Don't whisper anything you can smile. Don't smile anything you can nod. Don't nod anything you can wink. -Earl Long, brother of Huey Long and himself a Governor of Louisiana
From a distance, it has seemed like Edwin Edwards was either the Governor of Louisiana or on trial for corruption, or possibly both at the same time, for nearly all of the past twenty five years. Tyler Bridges, a former reporter for the Times-Picayune, who covered the successful efforts to legalize gambling there in the 1990s, has written a thorough account of that struggle and of the political career of the extraordinarily colorful and resilient Edwards. In particular, he focusses on the fault line where the two stories came together, and how the slippery and seemingly invincible Governor was finally brought down by his eager and quite lucrative involvement in the rampant corruption surrounding the gambling industry.
In so doing, Bridges handles a welter of really labyrinthine information quite adeptly, wringing out of it a narrative that is relatively easy to follow (though sometimes, quite annoyingly, repetitious). The tale is replete with shady Southern con men, mobsters, pols on the take, and features cameo appearances by well known scoundrels such as David Duke, Eddie DeBartolo, and Bill Clinton. In the final section, as the FBI and Federal prosecutors close in on Edwards and bring him to trial, there is genuine drama : will he slip off the hook yet again, or has the barb finally been set deep enough ? And as many states face the question of whether to rely increasingly on gambling revenues, instead of taxes, there's a real object lesson in the dangers they face.
For all of that, there's something strangely missing from the story : there's no tragic arc to it. In that greatest of all political novels, All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren used the story of Huey Long and the miasmic Louisiana setting to explore the tragedy of how essentially decent men could be corrupted by the exercise of political power, the allure of easy money, and, most importantly, the self-assurance that even while doing well themselves they were doing good for others. There is no moment, let alone a period, in the career of Edwin Edwards where he seems to have been genuinely concerned with trying to help the core of poor constituents, many of them black, who made up his base of power. Nor do his voters appear to have harbored any illusions that he was truly on their side. Bridges conveys a real sense that Edwards appeal lay almost entirely in his personal charm and the natural attraction folks feel toward a charming rogue. As a result, there are no intimations of tragedy here, neither that Edwards is a good man whose faults brought him down, nor that this was a case where deserving supporters had their justifiable hopes betrayed. Edwards was a crook. Everyone knew he was a crook. He did little or nothing to improve the lives of average Louisianans. They voted for him anyway. It's awfully hard to avoid the feeling that he and they got exactly what they deserved.
The journalism is, for the most part, excellent--clear, concise, and well paced--and the book is filled with amusing scenes. The portrait Bridges paints of the effects of gambling on at least this one state is truly devastating. On the other hand, one wishes that an editor had excised some of the needlessly repetitious material and it's too bad that Edwards was not as tragic a figure as he was comic. But these things do weaken what is otherwise quite a good book.
GRADE : B-

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Let the Slime Times Roll
By Rob Hardy
You go to Louisiana for the food, Mardi Gras, or jazz; you do not look to Louisiana for political ethics. Edwin Edwards, a man of intelligence and wit, was elected four times as governor. He could have been the state's best governor (although that might be damning with faint praise), but he turned out to be at least among its worst. His tragedy was inextricably linked with personal and corporate gambling, and it is told with all the fascination of a mystery novel in _Bad Bet on the Bayou: The Rise of Gambling in Louisiana and the Fall of Governor Edwin Edwards_ (Farrar Straus and Giroux) by Tyler Bridges. It is a memorable account of the worst in politics.
Louisiana had had sometimes scandalous connections to gambling long before it became a state, but overt gambling had been suppressed, especially in the seventies with the oil boom. When the boom went bust in the nineties, there was a scramble to boost state coffers, and especially those of New Orleans, and Edwards was determined that gambling would boost construction, increase employment, and bring money in from out of state. It looked unseemly for someone with an obvious love of gambling to get on the casino bandwagon, but Edwards was never regarded as a beacon of moral purity. When he ran against Klansman David Duke in 1991, bumper stickers read, "Vote for the Crook. It's Important," and Louisianans did so overwhelmingly. The first two-thirds of _Bad Bet_ tells in amazing detail the ins and outs of the corrupt means by which gambling was brought to the rivers of Louisiana and specifically to the French Quarter. But it is in the spellbinding final third that the book takes off, showing how the FBI brought Edwards down. The Harrah's casino went bust in 1995, when Edwards went into official retirement, but he kept busy with his usual money ploys and influence. The FBI started investigating the bribes that had been paid to get a juvenile prison built, and found that Edwards had gotten the money. Rather exciting descriptions ensue of FBI informants wearing wires to talk with Edwards, and of the difficulties of installing microphones and cameras in the former governor's office. Edwards was approaching seventy, he had a wife almost four decades younger, and he was for the first time in his life starting to take it easy. Unfortunately for him, he also let his guard down, allowing an informant to get him talking. The years of payoffs when he was promoting gambling were to come back on him, resulting in convictions on extortion and money-laundering, among other crimes, and probably federal prison for what remains of his life.
The tragedy of Edwards is shown by his enormous political skill run amok. The book gives examples of deal making that he arranged that would have been excellent politics, if the deals had not been crooked. He had an ability to read people and meet their needs that could have well served his constituents. He knew how to make fun of himself, and the many funny jokes reported here were just the thing to delight reporters and voters. His talents instead went to enriching himself and his cronies, gambling, and stringing along a line of mistresses. What a waste.

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Monday, March 3, 2014

~~ Fee Download Picasso and Dora: A Personal Memoir, by James Lord

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Picasso and Dora: A Personal Memoir, by James Lord

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Picasso and Dora: A Personal Memoir, by James Lord

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Picasso and Dora: A Personal Memoir, by James Lord

A former friend of Picasso's recounts the artist's long and intense involvement with Dora Maar, the alluring and formidable photographer and painter who was Picasso's companion. By the author of A Giacometti Portrait.

  • Sales Rank: #234247 in Books
  • Published on: 1993-04
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 9.50" h x 6.25" w x 1.25" l,
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 340 pages

From Library Journal
Lord's memoir reflects on Paris, Dora Maar, and the larger-than-life Pablo Picasso. Author of two books on his friend Alberto Giacometti, Lord supplies a tantalizing stream of prose built on his journals, coaxing the reader into his vivid recollections of Paris under the occupation and Paris after the war. He paints an unflattering portrait of the great artist, while revealing his own relationship with Dora, Picasso's mistress. Picasso and Dora are not the whole subject of the story, however; Lord is really the main character. His impressions, homosexuality, and life are just as much the subject as Picasso and Dora. And his probing the mystery of Dora, though insistent, finally uncovers more mystery, although it may shed some light on an assortment of friends and acquaintances who are mentioned but given no real substance. Those interested in Picasso, Paris, and modern art will want to read this book. -- Ellen Bates, New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
An intricate and intimate view of Picasso's aloof mistress and model Dora Maar, by onetime-companion Lord (Giacometti, 1985, etc.). An American soldier in Paris in 1944, Lord seeks out Picasso and requests that the artist draw his portrait. Picasso takes Lord to lunch with Maar--the first encounter in what evolves into the author's infatuation with the muse. Maar and her role in Picasso's genius fascinate Lord, who toys with the idea of himself being a ``figment'' of Picasso's ``creative imagination.'' From the fall of 1953 into the spring of 1954, when Maar is 46 and Lord 31, the two have dinner almost every night and spend weeks together away from Paris. Lord claims constant enchantment: ``being with Dora...was the be-all and end-all of thinking as well as of feeling.'' And later: ``I never ceased to be under the spell of her beauty, the lambent gleam of her gaze, the bird-of-paradise voice...all the aura of tense serenity and power and pathos so poignantly portrayed by Picasso.'' Yet the pair's bond is defined by Lord's homosexuality (``seeking promiscuous oblivion in the embraces of boys''). At night, Maar and Lord separate with a ritual kiss, the writer constantly pondering the model's expectations. Lord's narrative, based on a journal, contains countless backstage details--from Picasso's insults at a party given by the collector Douglas Cooper to Dora's attachment to a cigarette lighter that had ``cost'' the artist ``a visit to the Place Vendome.'' But of deeper interest than these anecdotes is a long, climactic letter in which Lord finally denounces his and Maar's unequal roles and the pride, selfishness, and avarice that, he says, isolate Maar--who still lives in Paris, in the same apartment where they so often sat. An account memorable in its frankness about a ``friendship'' that was extraordinary but flawed--not least because of the friends' shared obsession with ``the monarch of twentieth-century art.'' (Illustrations--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
This personal memoir recounts the author's acquaintance with the great artist and one of his many mistresses, beginning in 1944 and continuing through the book's first publication in 1993. Lord encounters a number of other famous artists, writers and socialites of that period of French society and includes numerous anecdotes of such in the book. John Edwardson's reading of the lengthy work appears to capture the author's intended tone exactly. The details, however, reveal a level of self-absorption often cumbersome to the story. Edwardson captures this by adopting a pseudo-intellectual, self-important tone of voice. However, the author's emotional reactions to Picasso and Dora and the situations in which they interact are fascinating. A well-done abridgment, again read by Edwardson, would do a great service to the presentation. R.P.L. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Just okay. Expected more meat.
By Art Smart
This was just not as meaty as I had hoped, a bit too breezy and oddly didn't keep my interest.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
The story of a friendship
By A Customer
Picasso & Dora is the story of a friendship, but not that of Picasso and Dora. Rather it is the story of the friendship of the author and the mysterious Dora Maar. Both these characters are fascinating personalities, as they move in close and then distance themselves. The fact that Lord is a gay man in love, in his own way, with Dora adds a complexity and richness to the story. It is reminsicent of Isherwood and Sally Bowles and Capote and Holly Golightly. There is a special poignancy to the story of a gay man who loves a woman, yet cannot offer her the love she really wants. Lord writes exceptionally well and Dora, who died just recently at an advanced age, lives on in his words.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Depends on Your Interest in Picasso and his Women
By drkhimxz
James Lord is quite good at handling the autobiographical recounting of his relationship to significant others. Assuming you have an interest in the private Picasso and one of his most important mistresses, I can recommend the book highly. In it, he moves us quickly to the time in his World War 2 experience in which, still in uniform, he intrudes himself upon Picasso, who had spent the War in France, no more than slightly harassed by the Germans. The narrative continues into the early post-war years in which he, a young homosexual man, finds acceptance by Picasso, over a period of time and occasional visits. To him, these meetings are a cherished association with one of the Great Artists. Just why Picasso allows the association, Lord ultimately can only speculate upon. From Picasso, he moves the story to his meeting and formation of a friendship with Dora Maar , never involving sexual fulfillment, (which he finds only with fellow males) . Ultimately, his removal to the United States for an extended period terminates the close relationship.
In his customary manner, Lord is personal, intimate and clear in his writing, relying heavily on detailed notes he compiled throughout the period. He explores, as best he can, his own thoughts and impulses, and those of the varied members of the artistic elite and its hangers on with whom he comes in contact. I would call it a form of novelistic non-fiction.
For those who have no particular interest in these two loci of attention, the book might well become tedious. Good as are the detailed descriptions of their activities-and inactivities, to one who is not prepared to accept the Great Artist or his one-time model, lover and companion, as worthy of study, the book may simply be a boring accounting of a guy who (as of the period covered by this book) is a failed novelist, a young man trying to find himself, moved by a need to make personal attachment to more accomplished others, and not yet established as somebody (other than as a man who has been befriended by his betters in the art world).
One should note that this is a personal view of what is seen and heard about Picasso, and, more intimately, known personally about Maar. Whatever the final summing up will be with regard to The Master and His One Time Mistress, this book will probably comprise at least one brick in the structure of thought contributing to those images.

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Saturday, March 1, 2014

! Free PDF The Copernicus Complex: Caleb A. Scharf, by Caleb A. Scharf

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The Copernicus Complex: Caleb A. Scharf, by Caleb A. Scharf

Longlisted for the 2015 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
Short-listed for Physics World's Book of the Year
The Sunday Times (UK) Best Science Book of 2014
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Science Book of Fall 2014
An NBC News Top Science and Tech Book of 2014
A Politics & Prose 2014 Staff Pick

In the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus dared to go against the establishment by proposing that Earth rotates around the Sun. Having demoted Earth from its unique position in the cosmos to one of mediocrity, Copernicus set in motion a revolution in scientific thought. This perspective has influenced our thinking for centuries. However, recent evidence challenges the Copernican Principle, hinting that we do in fact live in a special place, at a special time, as the product of a chain of unlikely events. But can we be significant if the Sun is still just one of a billion trillion stars in the observable universe? And what if our universe is just one of a multitude of others-a single slice of an infinity of parallel realities?

In The Copernicus Complex, the renowned astrophysicist Caleb Scharf takes us on a scientific adventure, from tiny microbes within the Earth to distant exoplanets, probability theory, and beyond, arguing that there is a solution to this contradiction, a third way of viewing our place in the cosmos, if we weigh the evidence properly. As Scharf explains, we do occupy an unusual time in a 14-billion-year-old universe, in a somewhat unusual type of solar system surrounded by an ocean of unimaginable planetary diversity: hot Jupiters with orbits of less than a day, planet-size rocks spinning around dead stars, and a wealth of alien super-Earths. Yet life here is built from the most common chemistry in the universe, and we are a snapshot taken from billions of years of biological evolution. Bringing us to the cutting edge of scientific discovery, Scharf shows how the answers to fundamental questions of existence will come from embracing the peculiarity of our circumstance without denying the Copernican vision.

With characteristic verve, Scharf uses the latest scientific findings to reconsider where we stand in the balance between cosmic significance and mediocrity, order and chaos. Presenting a compelling and bold view of our true status, The Copernicus Complex proposes a way forward in the ultimate quest: determining life's abundance, not just across this universe but across all realities.

  • Sales Rank: #419197 in Books
  • Published on: 2014-09-09
  • Released on: 2014-09-09
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 9.21" h x 1.04" w x 6.25" l, 1.00 pounds
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 288 pages

Review

A Best Book of the Year, Physics World

“If you want a compact and engaging survey of what we actually know about the possibilities involved with life in the universe, this is an excellent read.” ―Chad Orzel, Uncertain Principles

“[The Copernicus Complex] is an engaging book that covers a lot of scientific ground . . . Scharf handles complex concepts gracefully.” ―Cait MacPhee, Times Higher Education (UK)

“[A] witty, adroitly marshalled treatise on human significance.” ―Robin McKie, The Observer (UK)

“[A] tantalising approach to the mysteries of the universe.” ―Peter Forbes, The Independent (UK)

“When it comes to scientific thought-provocation, Scharf is there with Paul Feyerabend and Richard Feynman, Marie Curie and Peter Higgs . . . This book feels alive with spontaneity . . . [It] is near combustible with convivial--maybe even mad--energy.” ―Barnes and Noble Review

“How reasonable is it to think that we are alone in the vast expanses of space? And how significant is life on Earth on the Universal (or multiversal) scale? These are the questions that astrobiologist Caleb Scharf addresses intelligently and comprehensively in his beautifully written The Copernicus Complex. The book offers a grand tour of important findings from astronomy to biology that are relevant to the cosmic and microscopic search for life.” ―Mario Livio, Nature

“An enlightening read even for those people familiar with many of the astronomical and astrobiological topics discussed within.” ―Jeff Foust, The Space Review

“Exceptionally clear, entertaining, [and] up-to-date.” ―Jeff Horgan, Salon

“A brilliantly written and engaging account of modern astronomy.” ―Owen Gingerich, American Scholar

“Engrossing and accessible . . . The Copernicus Complex offers an invigorating, absorbing glimpse into the profundities of our very existence. With an engaging style and ample elucidatory prowess, Scharf beautifully conveys the latest cosmological insights whilst inspiring both wonder and awe. Although our place in the universe may well be 'unique but not exceptional,' our ability to parse meaning amidst its massivity is truly extraordinary.” ―The Oregonian

“The Copernicus Complex delivers its argument with comparable clarity, insight and humour. There is much to enjoy along the way, including a compelling account of the extraordinary diversity of planetary systems we now know to exist.” ―The Telegraph (UK)

“An intoxicating collection of questions answered with other questions, and startling discoveries that make creation even more mysterious . . . Books such as these remind us that we are lucky to be here at all, and even luckier to be here now.” ―The Guardian (UK)

“[An] ingenious mixture of cosmology, evolutionary biology and philosophy.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Scharf covers a lot of ground, and his entertaining, accessible approach offers valuable insight not just into science, but also into the way our assumptions can make a difficult task, like finding life in the universe, even harder.” ―Publishers Weekly

“This lyrical tale describes how we have opened our minds to appreciate our cosmic insignificance as we explore the true wonder of the cosmos, including the fascinating question of whether we are alone in the Universe. Caleb Scharf highlights the newly discovered possibilities for housing life in the cosmos, but--just as important--the new ways we might find out if it is out there. This voyage of discovery demonstrates that scientific progress requires us to transcend the often myopic intuition that evolution has saddled us with, and let nature be our guide.” ―Lawrence M. Krauss, Foundation Professor and Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, bestselling author of A Universe from Nothing and The Physics of Star Trek

“The Copernicus Complex addresses a perennial mystery: the cosmic significance (or perhaps the insignificance) of life on Earth. Caleb Scharf summarizes current debates on how life began and how pervasive it is, explaining how our perspective has been changed by the recent discovery that there are millions of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way. He sets his theme in a historical context, writing in an engaging and accessible style.” ―Martin Rees, author of Just Six Numbers and From Here to Infinity

“Sweeping in reach and lucid in exposition, The Copernicus Complex raises profound questions and offers provocative insights into our ongoing quest for life's cosmic context.” ―Ray Jayawardhana, astrophysicist and author of Neutrino Hunters

“In a universe of infinite space, are we unique or mediocre? Caleb Scharf has taken one of the most essential questions in all of science and philosophy and made it a compelling story of discovery. Combining a writer's flare for history and detail with the insight and range of a leading astrobiologist, Scharf not only gives us a scientific tour of life in the universe, he also offers his own original ideas for understanding our place in the cosmos.” ―Adam Frank, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Rochester, NPR commentator and the author of The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate.

“In The Copernicus Complex, Caleb Scharf beautifully explains the astrophysics and metaphysics at the frontier of the modern search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence. In this panoramic journey that stretches from the teeming microcosm within a single drop of water to the infinitudes of planets that orbit distant stars, Scharf assembles an authoritative and visionary argument that our place in the universe--our world, our lives, our time--may be far more special than most scientists have dared to dream. Read this book to find out how and why humanity could be on the cusp of cosmic significance.” ―Lee Billings, author of Five Billion Years of Solitude

“Caleb Scharf beautifully describes the Copernican Revolution as a revolution in both senses of the word: it overthrew the reigning idea that humanity lives at the center of the universe, but it has brought us back around to a new recognition of how special our place in the grand scheme of things really is. As Scharf reveals, the universe appears to be eerily fine-tuned for life, and The Copernicus Complex is one of the most perceptive discussions I've read about that fact.” ―George Musser, award-winning journalist and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory

“The Copernicus Complex takes us on a wonderful journey, from the formation of stars, through the biological basis of life, to the present human condition. And on the way it tests the limits of the Copernican Principle: perhaps humankind's position in the Universe is not so ordinary after all.” ―David J. Hand, author of The Improbability Principle

About the Author
Caleb Scharf is the director of the Columbia Astrobiology Center. He writes for The New Yorker, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, and Nature, among other publications, and has served as a consultant for the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, and The New York Times. Scharf has been a keynote speaker for the American Museum of Natural History and the Rubin Museum of Art, and is the author of Gravity's Engines. He lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters.

Most helpful customer reviews

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful.
On the razor's edge of existence!
By Amazon Customer
In this thoroughly researched and well-written book, A leading astrophysicist, Caleb Scharf, demonstrates that we are not insignificant in our place in the cosmos. The Copernican idea has been taken by many scientists and philosophers to imply that we are an irrelevant and unimportant part of a vast universe. In this book, Scharf challenges this notion. He offers us the very latest from astrophysics and biological sciences to demonstrate that all of us here on this pale blue dot are very rare indeed. In the concluding chapter of his book entitled "(In)Significance," Scharf concludes "even the underlying properties of the universe suggest that it is finally balanced, near a boundary. A little too far to either side and the nature of the cosmos would be radically different." One of these boundaries against which we are very finely balanced is the existence of life itself. All of us here on the pale blue dot are on a razor's age. A little bit too far this way or that, and none of us would be here. What is the significance of all of this? Scharf does a good job of using available science to demonstrate that this is very significant indeed.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
good science and
By Sunny
Randomness, nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory: these are three of the main ideas that flow through Caleb Scharf's The Copernicus Complex. He writes with clear reasoning and logic ... no turbulence here. Scharf successfully uses them as the foundation of an approach to finding our place in the universe.

Scharf introduces and analyzes many other seemingly diverse concepts in pursuit of his objective: to explain how to find our significance in the cosmos ... not in a theistic or religious sense, but in a biological, scientific sense. The concepts he discusses include the Copernican principle of mediocrity, the anthropic principle, Bayesian analysis, chaos theory, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, the fine-tuning of physical constants, some history of science, and philosophy of science. He smoothly integrates these subjects in support of his objective.

Scharf's overarching philosophy is a welcome new approach. The reader will find many familiar subjects here, and the author gives each a fresh look and interpretation. The effect of this on his project is to strengthen the reader's understanding and support of his concluding arguments.

Although he doesn't offer specific answers to the questions "Is life common in the universe?", and "Are we (in)significant within it?", it is clear to me that he supports the idea that life, simple and complex, inevitably arises at the right time and in the right places. He suggests that those times and places are not as rare as some argue. Life is the most complex construction of ordinary chemistry and physics that the universe produces. It is a natural outcome of those forces. Life is not the incalculably rare winner of some cosmic lottery, nor the product of nonphysical "essences."

To that end Scharf demotes the usefulness and importance of both the rare earth and the anthropic principle hypotheses. Whether these are correct or incorrect is not the point. Rather he questions their usefulness. Can they help guide science, astrobiology and SETI in particular, in a search for evidence of life elsewhere? This is the core of his thesis ... good science and, by extension, good scientific and philosophic attitudes in a quest for knowledge requires evidence and diligence in its confirmation.

Scharf gives us several hints along the way about how to achieve his objective. Here are a couple:

"It's not obvious that life needs anything more than a rough-and-ready environment to originate and survive in. So true cosmological fine-tuning should be more about the particular ease with which life can occur – and for now, at least, no distinction between intelligent life and "simple" life, since there's nothing simple about life in any form." p 35

Scharf's exposition of horizontal gene transfer between different species of bacteria suggests that even when the earth was populated only with these single-celled organisms life was not so simple. This hints that the rise of true multi-celled organisms was not that difficult, probably gradual and not explosive, and not because special conditions suddenly arose.

"… any thinking life-form anywhere in the universe may always perceive "special" characteristics in its own circumstances – specifics that, if different, would derail the chances of complex life occurring. This perceptual bias may be irresistible regardless of whether complex life is rare or as common as muck. Until we either discover life elsewhere or somehow rule it out, any post hoc interpretations of the significance of our circumstances are almost meaningless. …" p 203-204

"We are, I think, still unlikely to be central to the universe, either astrophysically or metaphysically. But this does not preclude the possibility that the pathway of emergence that produced us is unusual in its details. We need to get comfortable with that degree of specialness, because it influences our outlook and our scientific strategies for reaching out to the universe." p. 230

For reading about chaos, Scharf suggests James Gleick's Chaos: Making a New Science. Another good work on this subject is Stephen H. Kellert's In the Wake of Chaos.

The Copernicus Complex by Caleb Scharf is informative over a wide range of subjects, which he cleverly integrates into a single theme about the significance (or not) of humankind and life in general in the cosmos. It should be required reading for students and professionals of astrobiology and SETI. The lay reader who is moderately familiar with these subjects will find it an enjoyable, accessible, and, not least, a thought provoking read. I recommend it and give it five stars.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent, minor reservation
By Stephen B. Gray
I've read lots of books like this but his takes a somewhat different approach and makes some excellent points. One of the best was his observation that what seems like an incredible coincidence to the person experiencing it is the commonness of such events when looked at from a broader point of view. I experienced an unbelievable coincidence in Naples, Italy about 20 years ago, but when I think about all the residents of Naples or Italy, someone is probably experiencing something just as amazing almost every day. Seems obvious in retrospect but I never quite realized his point before.
But his main point about living on the edge between chaos and predictability could use more exposition and examples.

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