Review of Home After Dark: One Man's Memories (Hardcover)

I have read this book again and if I could, I would give this book a five star rating. How can we judge another persons life. If the book is well written and interesting how can we? As a reviewer is it really fair to do so? If the person was a serial killer I would not give it the time of day to read it. But this book is different. I have to let what I wrote below stand but wish I could change it all.

I have had four men read different part's of this book and they really enjoyed it. I personally found some of his transgressions with women to be cold and harsh. But then this is his life story.So it is only fair to the author that I give his book a four star rating. It is well written and honest.

From a child born into poverty to a man who could grace the halls of any mansion or board rooms, this is the true story of Darryl E. Robidoux. At a young age, Darryl knew farming was not the life for him. Farming was back breaking work from dawn to dusk. He wanted more from life than that. Darryl never experienced parental hugs and had never heard his parents say that they loved him. That would affect his relationships as an adult.

At every stage of his life, the author's goal was to learn as much as he could absorb and to better himself. Despite dropping out of high school at the age of 16, he made it into college and first majored in Engineering, then later experience more premier education. He negotiated his career into the field of computer science at a time when computer systems were literally contained in buildings as large as a warehouse.

No matter who he worked for, he gave his all to them. He would be assigned to a project that might take days or weeks to complete. But, with Darryl's work ethics, he would always finish before his allotted time period. It became a challenge to him to be done faster and be better at what he did than anyone else.

One thing the author hopes people will understand about his book is that with enough self motivation and perseverance you can become who ever you want to be. No individual is shackled to their beginnings. It is your individual choices that go into making your dreams come true or not.

Daryyl E. Robidoux met the goals he set for himself and retired at the age of forty while his career took him through the early stages of computer development. This reviewer can't help but think tht when he retired, he learned to love and how relationships work. To not only receive but to give also.

Now days we only have to push a button on our computers and a whole world opens up to us, and we should always remember that the author was a part of the reason that we can.

He states unequivocally that he is a biological product of his parents, that can never be changed, but he likes the person that he is.

Thank you Mr. Robidoux for being part of a new industry that would later change our world in so many ways.

While working on this review I had a chance to email Darryl. We sent some some emails back and forth. I have a secret for you that I learned. Darryl is a sweet and a really nice man. It is the kind of man he is now that will be remembered the most.



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Review of The Letters of Kingsley Amis (Hardcover)

Amis's letters are a lot of fun, as you might expect. Amis is often as outraged and funny as in his best fiction (especially in the letters to Larkin). Often in literary appraisals he is acute, and he always seems true to something in himself, so that even when one disagrees--i. e., T. S. Eliot is not simply a pretentious bore--one goes along.

Good as this correspondence is, it isn't up to Larkin's letters because Amis doesn't believe or feel as deeply as Larkin does, nor does he have as focussed a perspective as Larkin, so the humor isn't set set off in such sharp contradistinction to a fundamental seriousness. Yet you keep reading because the book clears away cant and intellectual fustian so vigorously. Moreover, it gives just enough glimpse of Amis's biography: a sad, messy counterpoint spreads out in the background: the meanderings of a brilliant man with a zillion reactions and nothing firm to attach them to.

Larkin's parody of his own poem "Days" on page 1040 is not to be missed; it's in one of Leader's helpful footnotes.

This book weighs a couple of pounds, so is hard to hold--to be read at table rather than in bed. Couldn't the publisher have used lighter weight paper and given us smaller type and less margin?



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Review of Diaries, 1969-1979: The Python Years (Hardcover)

I have vivid memories of watching MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS every Saturday evening with group of fellow college students. We packed into the Grand Wazoo's apartment to watch the program on PBS followed by SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. What a hoot!

I was delighted when I opened MICHAEL PALIN DIARIES as a Christmas present. I read it while receiving therapy for my back. The book was a fantastic diversion. As for me, I looked forward to reading Palin's description of the clerical attacks on THE LIFE OF BRIAN.*Well, that part was at the end.Nevertheless, the entire diary was a pleasure and captured my interest.

One unexpected dimension of Palin's life that captured my attention was the unfolding relationship he had with his family including his parents, wife and children. In particular, the progressive decline and death of his father produced a profound portrait of Palin.It was touching.Less touching but still an attention grabber was Palin's portrait of the other Pythons.The personality of each Python was a candid and multidimensional.However, I wasn't surprised by these descriptions and reaffirmed Palin's reputation as being "the nice one."

As for THE LIFE OF BRIAN, my primary interest in reading this diary, the description of the evolution of the leper and crucifixion scenes was a real hoot. The evolution of the leper scene was more complex than imaginable.

* An Episcopalian Bishop asked a close friend (a priest) to discourage his flock to not view THE LIFE OF BRIAN. He and his Bishop never saw the film, but after I explained the storyline, my friend became less concerned.The protest of the film could have easily been included in the film itself. If the Python boys realized a protest would ensue, I am sure they would have done so.




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Review of Diana Ross: A Biography (Hardcover)

Even with Randy's third opus on Miss Ross I haven't any more of a clue as to who or what she really is but if you've bought the previous two books don't think this is just a rehash. It's a new book and impeccably researched and impeccably written.He's done his damnest to try to bring the complete person to the pages. Ross' own book showed she hasn't got a clue about who she really is (and, good grief, all the information and dates she had wrong or confused) and that she is the center of her universe, not the most sensitive to the feelings or viewpoint of others she's worked with.Since she'll never write the whole story, this book will do nicely.The most significant observation Randy makes is Ross'multiple personalities--almost every star in show business has them, a combination of sheer guts and ambition and power with total insecurity.It drives everyone around them nuts.(But not every star is a bundle of contradictions--some are in show business but not of show business and live their lives right side up.)As for Ross, I love her work--a fabulous career still chuggin' ahead--but I'd never want to get in her way.



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Review of Welfare Brat: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Intimate and powerful, Mary Childers' memoir of growing up in urban poverty in the 1960s Bronx leaves haunting images in its wake. Though arising from the usual sad litany of poverty - alcohol, drugs, unpredictable tempers, frightened children, abused women and dangerous streets - these images are singular, personal and painfully complex.

Like the time they had their roach-infested basement apartment painted, because a guy who owed the older sister's boyfriend a favor sent his crew over (this sister, Jackie, a high school drop-out, is already following in her mother's footsteps). Their mother, Sandy, exuberant at the prospect, drags the furniture away from the walls and urges the whole family to paint pictures of their own, whatever they want before the painters come to cover it up.

On the day itself, "no beer bottles in sight," Sandy takes them all to Coney Island, a trip which involves dragging cooler, stroller and duffle bag on two packed trains, where casual violence is always a danger. "Virtually every family on the train designates a hawk to detect the danger zones where action might flare....Everyone knows what happens if you interfere with teenage boys proving their manhood."

Though the lunch is only PB&J, "I'll be happy as long as Mom doesn't buy beer or, even worse, flirt one out of an innocent bystander." She doesn't and the day is idyllic. They take turns guarding the blanket. "I welcome my turn to guard our stuff. Reading on the beach without any of the kids bothering me is one of the most peaceful events of my life."

Sandy caps the day by taking the whole family on the roller coaster. Her glasses fly off in mid-whoop but her daughter Joan snags them in mid-air. Unfortunately a lurch slams her hand on the bar and a lens pops out. "Oh boy, wait until Mom sees this. She'll lose her temper. The day will be ruined....Mom believes Joan saved her glasses, and Joan and I dread admitting the truth. Joan squeezes back her tears as she rubs her hand with pain and worry." But the charmed day persists. Sandy's left eye is glass and it was the left lens that was lost.

Sandy is a mercurial figure who envelops her surviving seven children - six girls and one silent, outnumbered, beleaguered boy - with love, pelts them with curses, and leaves them hungry while she goes off partying. The atmosphere in their dank crowded apartment seesaws between giddiness and rage. And yet, suddenly, when one of the girls is hit by a car, Sandy promises God to quit drinking if the child survives - and does.

Not that her children trust the transformation. And the grinding cycle of poverty remains unbroken. Worn out by so many pregnancies and "bad habits" Sandy works even less, eking out their living on welfare alone and whatever her children contribute. While the fate of Mary's sisters remains precarious, her own determination is never in doubt.

"Most of the time I tell myself that my family feels like a lifeline, not a prison sentence, but I always have one eye on the door."

She is the one who insists on going to school, who braves any amount of resentment and ridicule to stay on the college-bound, escape-bound path. Taunted and persecuted by neighborhood kids as well as her mother, and even teachers sometimes for her welfare-brat clothing, Mary seldom wavers, as desperate as she is for friends and approval. An adrenaline-spiked stint with a neighborhood gang ends in shame when a boy's sneer jolts her back to herself. These kids are mean, racist bullies, she realizes. "I rolled in laughter when I should have been racked with guilt."

There are many threads that weave through Mary's story, but the cyclic, self-perpetuating nature of poverty is the strongest. There is one message children like her read loud and clear every day: "People who speak well and read widely may be admirable, but if you stand out, you'll be picked out. You're inviting trouble and loneliness when you distinguish yourself from your own by choosing to care about good grades, books, accents and magazine clothes.... Against my will, I've absorbed resentment and the nagging perception that my ambitions are disloyal, and worse, punishable."

Against the turmoil of the times: the assassinations, from JFK to MLK; the race riots and rampaging gangs; the fear of crime on the subway and on the street; the stigma and inadequacy of welfare, Mary keeps her eye on the prize - college. Escape. Her tumultuous, wrenching, sometimes funny story knocks home a serious lesson about the cycle of poverty. It takes more than brains, talent and hard work to escape the underclass. It takes steely determination, a tough shell and a willingness to go it alone.

- Portsmouth Herald



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Review of Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett, 2005 Edition (Hardcover)

This new edition is the most comprehensive and compelling history of Berkshire Hathaway and it's officers, owners and hundreds of people who have invested in, run, benefitted, admired, nurtured, or otherwise influenced the life of Warren Buffett, as well as countless other people,factors and strategies responsible for the unprecedented and still relentless growth of one of the most successful corporate enterprises of all time. 272 quick-reading chapters cover just about every facet of the Buffett mistique, personality, thought process and lifestyle. The investment executive author and former journalist nails down all the whos, hows, wheres, whens, whys and hows relating to this remarkable man from his youth through the 2004 Berkshire Annual Meeting which brought 20,000 enthusiastic shareholders to Omaha this past May. Frank Betz



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Review of Success Stories (Hardcover)

Success Stories by Michael B. Davie is one of the most unusual and inspiring books you're ever likely to come across.
Unusual because the book combines most aspects of a business book with a coffee table book that's heavy on both pictures and text.
Inspiring because much of the content concerns the life stories of highly successful people who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps to become rich and influential.
Of particular interest is the story of Michael G. DeGroote who immigrated to Canada as a child, barely spoke any English, dropped out of school at age 14 and landed his first job - hauling manure to Southern Ontario tobacco farms. From these humble beginnings, DeGroote went on to acquire and build Laidlaw into a multi-billion-dollar giant, then sold his shares to move to Bermuda and begin a new empire in the sun. All in all, a very inspiring, thought-provoking book. Highly recommended.



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Review of Cuttin' Up: Wit and Wisdom From Black Barber Shops (Hardcover)

I truly loved this book. My heart leapt in my chest when I saw it on the book shelf. As a "kitchen-barber" for more than twenty-years I was ecstatic to see the subject matter bound withphotographs and ready to read.

The barbershop has for men of African decent been a respite from women, life's pressures, etiquette, censorship and sometimes reality for many years. This highly valued institution often serves the community as an outreach center, political platform, advice booth, stand-up comedy tryout club and therapist's couch. Craig Maybery has struck gold again with an enjoyable foray into the subtleties of African American culture. Like his book, "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats" Mayberry gives the reader a clear insight into the passion Blacks have for their turn at at an American tradition. It was so refreshing to see an accurate view of the black barbershop which isn't exaggerated as in the films, Barbershop I and II or butchered like the Showtime adaptation "Barbershop"; (What a MESS!)

Using 49 short biographical stories the author gives us an authentic look into the motivations, tragedies, humor and passions of the men and women who cut and style the afro-american hair shaft. The portraits of these barbers are as they presented themselves to the author. They are human: Flawed, Dedicated, Unique and Proud.

The only disappointment I had in reading this book was not being able to find present-day photos of all of the subjects interviewed. I intend to give several of these books as gifts. A beautiful tribute to the men (or women) everyone needs and uses and takes for granted and noone wants to lose. Your barber.



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Review of Gerald R. Ford (Hardcover)

Brinkley's account of the underappreciated Presidency and life of Gerald R. Ford was a fast and informative account of our 38th President.Though a biographer of Jimmy Carter, Brinkley gives Ford his due credit, but also manages to draw attention to Ford's mistakes, such as jettisoning Rockefeller from the Vice Presidency.Brinkley's 2003 interviews with Ford also provide rich background to a book that one can easily read in a single day.Since his death, the public adoration for Ford has been deafening.This biography hit the shelves only 6 weeks after his death, which is included in the
book.As a public school Social Studies teacher, I would highly recommend this book!



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