Grasses: Panicum to Danthonia (Illustrated Flora of Illinois)

Book Description

Because the nature of grass structures is generally so different from that of other flowering plants, a special terminology is applied to them. Mohlenbrock cites these terms, with descriptions that will make identification of unknown specimens possible. His division of the grass family into subfamilies and tribes is a major departure from the sequence followed in most flora. Synonyms, with complete author citation, which have been applied to species in the northeastern United States are given under each species.

In addition, each species of grass is provided with a description, a distribution map, a discussion of its habitat and variability, and a full-page drawing showing diagnostic characters.

Illustrated Flora of Illinois: Grasses, Panicum to Danthonia.

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Illustrated Flora of Illinois: Grasses, Panicum to Danthonia.
Robert H. Mohlenbrock
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M49CCQ

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Grasses; Panicum to Danthonia
Robert H. Mohlenbrock
Manufacturer: Southern Illinois UP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N3E9JW

Book Description

No matter what your budget or whether it's your first trip or fifteenth, Fodor's Gold Guides get you where you want to go. In this completely up-to-date guide our experts who live in Europe's great cities give you the inside track, showing you all the things to see and do -- from must-see sights to off-the-beaten-path adventures, from shopping to outdoor fun. Fodor's Europe's Great Cities shows you hundreds of hotel and restaurant choices in all price ranges -- from budget-friendly B&Bs to luxury hotels, from casual eateries to the hottest new restaurants, complete with thorough reviews showing what makes each place special. The Smart Travel Tips A to Z section helps you take care of the nitty gritty with essential local contacts and great advice -- from how to take your mountain bike with you to what to do in an emergency. Your personal supply of Post-it? flags makes it easy to mark your favorite listings. Plus, web links, costs, and mix-and-match itineraries make planning a snap.

Book Description

The world remembers Gandhi as a political leader who led his people to freedom without violence. Here Easwaran examines Gandhi’s personal significance: how he transformed himself, and how we can apply his discoveries in a smaller way to resolve conflicts in our own lives. This intimate portrait shows how we can use Gandhi’s example in the home, the workplace, and the community – wherever people disagree.
“Readers will never forget the look and sound of Gandhi the Man. Here Easwaran reveals Gandhi’s belief that beneath the ‘mask’ of self-obsession ‘is all the glory of our real self: complete fearlessness, unconditional love and abiding joy.’” – San Francisco Chronicle

Customer Reviews:

Gandhi.......2007-05-15

This book was recommended to me by a friend who teaches English at the local college. What a great book! It's not a hefty read - but you feel you get a complete overview of the man and his life's contributions. Highly recommend this book at anyone whether they are a long time Gandhi fan, or someone who just wants to know more about this amazing world leader.

Great book to take you to the heart of the man.......2006-10-29

Gandhi, in my opinion, is one person we must not forget to get acquaited with if we are searching for the truth about ourselves. He became known for his contributions to the independence of India through his philosophy of non-violence. There have been many books written about the historical events comprising that journey. But, as he himself had said, the more significant journey that he took was one that was internal. The real "war" he was fighting was the spiritual war inside him. This book by Eknath Easwaran is a rare book that focuses entirely on that aspect of the great man. I would highly recommend this book if one is trying to find one's way to the heart of the "great soul".

Gandhi; his life is his message.......2006-10-27

The outstanding story of Gandhi's life shows us how a shy, insecure young man could transform himself into a political, social and spiritual giant. Gandhi, as a supreme representative of a very old culture, understood the momentum of the age he lived in and was able to translate his wisdom into practical solutions using the power of non-violence. Amongst others, he convinced the British to leave India, and was the living example of the power of love, respect and non-violence. Illustrating the power of universal truths common to all religions I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in human values and our future.

Readable and inspiring.......2006-05-20

This is a very readable and insiring book about one of the greatest figures of the 20th century, with many photos that make Gandhi's life feel even more real. The effectiveness of Gandhi's application of nonviolence is well explained, both in his life history and in an interesting appendix about nonviolence in the world today.

A great work.......2006-03-22

This book gives great insights into Gandhi's spiritual life - which was the basis of all his social and political movements.

Man of Peace: The Story of Mahatma Gandhi (Faith in Action Series)

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Man of Peace: The Story of Mahatma Gandhi (Faith in Action Series)
Audrey Constant
Manufacturer: Canterbury Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Hinduism | Religions | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0900274468

Book Description

If you run a business, what should you outsource (and what shouldn't you)?

If you're a knowledge worker (inside or outside IT), how can you protect yourself?

How will outsourcing evolve next? What do those changes mean to you?

Outsourcing is not just the #1 issue facing IT organizations: It's driving a profound transformation throughout American business. Whether you're an executive or a knowledge worker, the decisions you make about outsourcing can make or break your future. This book brings together all the information and insight you need to make those decisions—and make them the right ones.

Once, outsourcing was largely limited to IT. Suddenly, it touches everyone from telemarketers to tax preparers, radiologists to market researchers. No American company or knowledge worker can ignore its challenge. Now, widely acclaimed author and consultant Ed Yourdon helps you understand the challenge of outsourcing—and meet it.

IT pros and knowledge workers: Protect your career

Eight realistic strategies for surviving the outsourcing revolution

How to compete with the entire low-cost world and win

Quantify, protect, and enhance your personal ñvalue propositionî

Executives: Make smarter outsourcing decisions

What to outsource, how to do it right, and when to avoid it

Outsourcing, the next generation: Beyond programmers

From telemarketers to accountants, clinical trials to market research

The politics and geopolitics of outsourcing

Backlash at home, upheaval overseas, and a plan for renewal

Along the way, Yourdon assesses the politics and economics of outsourcing, long-term implications for both suppliers and buyers of knowledge-based services, and much more.

Yourdon has been writing about outsourcing since before it had a name. In this book, he doesn't just predict your future, he helps you take control of it.

Customer Reviews:

Good Observations and Broad Coverage .......2005-01-25

I really enjoyed the observations and the illustrations. Yourdon explains the value proposition of outsourcing and then explores the impact of the phenomenon on various industries. I very much enjoyed the enlightening discussion.

He totally missed the impact of outsourcing on the ERP Universe (SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle etc). There is no mention of anything ERP anywhere in the book.

I was disappointed that Yourdon did not cover the IT industry in detail. It would have been great if he took a stab at navigating today's IT World and designated IT job roles that are easy targets for being outsourced, besides data entry jobs.

He has focused too much from the Mainframe Programmer's view point and assumed everyone can relate to it. I felt the advice to be too broad and generic.It is too high level, and does not have sufficient detail.

There are no diagrams, pictures or models of any kind in this book.It is just a straight up discussion on the topic. I would have liked to see a 4-quadrant distribution of various job roles just like Covey's Time Management Matrix.

He defines the problem clearly but is reluctant to go into the details or offer solutions. He just says we are all doomed and there are no guarantees no matter what you do. He does offer some general guidelines such as - work harder, be proactive, be prepared to relocate etc.

A few examples of how people have successfully handled the threat of outsourcing would have been nice.

Hope to see a more detailed coverage in the next book. This is a fascinating discussion that is far from over.

Excellent guide for anyone whose job may be outsourced.......2004-12-29

Outsource: Competing in the Global Productivity Race is a persuasive overview of the outsourcing phenomenon. Author Edward Yourdon's premise is that outsourcing is not going to disappear anytime soon, and -- given the success that many companies have begun enjoying during the past few years -- it is not likely to level off anytime soon. Outsourcing is now a mainstream phenomenon and is affecting more and more workers, in nearly every knowledge-based sector. In a nutshell, this is Yourdon's book of how to prepare yourself for the inevitable."

For those Americans who would hope their representatives in Washington would get involved and pass laws to stem the flow of jobs overseas, there is little that Washington will likely do to help knowledge-based workers whose jobs are in danger of being offshored. While the loss of jobs is a crisis to many of us, Yourdon makes note of the oil crisis of the early 1970s and a speech that Jimmy Carter made in April 1977. Carter said "If we fail to act soon we will face an economic, social and political crisis that will threaten our free institutions." Nearly 30 years after Carter made that speech, oil is at an all-time high and nothing has been significantly done to reduce our dependency on oil; or to find a better solution.

If Congress is apathetic when it comes to an effective energy policy that affects an entire nation, it is clear that preserving the jobs of C and Java programmers is likely to be at the bottom of any congressman's to-do list. In 2005, national security, Medicare and Iraq are just a few of the issues that seem to be far more pressing to the nation than the loss of programmers.

The book is written about outsourcing in general, but has a heavy slant to programmers whose jobs have been outsourced to India. The prime advantage India has over other countries with cheap labor is a large base of workers that speak English. While the salaries in China, for example, are even lower than in India, the language barrier is significant.

The main claims of proponents of outsourcing are of increased productivity and major cost savings. Whether these claims are real is to a degree immaterial, as the perception among CIOs is that outsourcing has an immediate cost savings. This is primarily due to the fact that the salaries and benefit costs of overseas programmers are radically less than those of their U.S. counterparts.

From a productivity and efficiency perspective, many Indian firms are CMM level-5 certified, something that their U.S. counterparts can't attest to. At the end of the day, is better and cheaper code produced in Bangalore and Mumbai? Yourdon states that it is hard to find hard and fast answers. But with outsourcing the rage, there is the perception that Indian firms are more productive, formalized and efficient than their US counterparts is being accepted as fact. For many, perception is reality, and the reality is that jobs are being sent overseas by the thousands.

Outsource:Competing in the Global Productivity Race is written for (and beneficial to) anyone who feels that his job may be in danger of being outsourced. The book is well-written and pragmatic, and Yourdon notes that there are no simple answers to be found, nor are there any obvious choices. The book guides the reader who is working in a knowledge-based position to better determine where the trends in outsourcing are going and how to best save their job and simultaneously prepare for the inevitable. It is not that every knowledge-based job will be outsourced, but rather that the potential exists that every job could be outsourced. With that, it behooves everyone to get make sure they are prepared.

In 1992, Yourdon wrote Decline and Fall of the American Programmer. In the book, he predicted that U.S. programmers would "suffer the fate of the Dodo bird" as companies shifted jobs from American workers to those overseas to take advantage of lower pay, less labor regulations and higher productivity. Yourdon admits his prediction was partially incorrect. U.S. programmers have not gone the way of the Dodo bird and hiring is resuming; but in spite of everything, huge numbers of jobs are being sent overseas.

While Decline and Fall of the American Programmer was focused exclusively on technology workers, Yourdon writes that every knowledge-based job is vulnerable to being outsourced. From radiologists to tax preparers, telemarketers to architects, and more.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of Outsource is the composed manner in which Yourdon writes. Outsourcing is a controversial, political and extremely emotional topic, and Yourdon provides a balanced view of the outsourcing phenomena.

One of the solutions suggested to stemming the flow of jobs overseas is protectionist federal regulations. Yourdon believes that such measures are doomed to fail, in that you can't protect knowledge-based worked in the same way that steel and agriculture products can be protected. Yourdon admits that there might be some short-term benefits to a protectionist strategy, but will fail in the long-term. His view is that protectionism is simply blaming someone else for the existence of competition; and such an approach does not solve the problem. His solution, and the overall advice in the book, is to make each and every American knowledge worker more prepared to face competition from overseas.

Of the books 10 chapters, the most compelling is chapter 6, which provides seven strategies in which to deal with the threat of outsourcing. The first is to be proactive, with the last being to consider a career change. Yourdon does not promise and secrets or miracles in the chapter and attempts to provide some common, yet often overlooked, sense.

Outsource ends with the following quote: "I was taught very early that I would have to depend entirely upon myself; that my future lay in my own hands." This book shows you how.

Great Overview, missed action items.......2004-12-25

I really liked the book's coverage of the issues and the consequences. I liked the comparison of government's stand on outsourcing to the Jimmy Carter energy plan. Retraining will not be enough. (Retrain for what?) Outsourcing will get bigger and affect more people and government will do nothing until it is too late for many. Author's bottom line, Look around and justify your job. Make sure your company can survive the new world. If it can't, change companies or jobs or go into business for yourself. Not a pleasant outlook but very realsitic. I'm glad I read the book before I am outsourced again.

The author should be sued.......2004-12-02

As a business person whose company was nearly wrecked by outsourcing, I can tell you firsthand that this book is just a manual for bankruptcy. Yourdon fails to warn his readers about the poor service, the shoddy work, and the threats from anti-outsourcing zealots. Our system were down for a week after some hackers targetted it - I think they were former employees. If you want to destroy your firm buy this book.

Rehash of Decline and Fall of American Programmer.......2004-11-23

This is basically an updated re-release of Decline and Fall of the American Programmer. I haven't read all of it yet. The outsourcing info is pretty good, but also somewhat simplistic.
The personal strategies for knowledge workers are very similar to Decline and Fall. It was surprisingly common knowledge. There was not alot of info on retraining strategies. Yourdon basically states the obvious recommendations of moving to a place with more jobs (rather than one plant towns) or getting out of the field, neither of which are great or innovative recommendations.
I found the recent two months' articles in CIO much more pertinent. They say that you should include more business training and specialization; that and analyst who knows the business is the job retained while programmers will either be temp/contract workers or outsourced. It also recommends getting an additional degree in biology or engineering, which will be the fastest growing fields for computer applications in the next ten years. These are real suggestions, rather than the typical silver bullets suggestions in the industry, or obvious ones like Yourdon's advice.
Also - some of the reviews on the cover of the book have some of the worst grammar I have ever seen.

OUTSOURCE: COMPETING IN THE GLOBAL PRODUCTIVITY RACE

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OUTSOURCE: COMPETING IN THE GLOBAL PRODUCTIVITY RACE

Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR Boston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IB1T6U

Book Description

Pages of full-color photos identify many species of fish for aquarium hobbyists, nature enthusiasts, and anybody who wants to learn about fish. Cichlids, angelfish, guppies, clownfish, and dozens more varieties are shown in all their color combinations, and in different stages of development. Individual chapters focus on specific varieties: labyrinth fish, ornamental fish, cold water fish, brackish water fish, coastal dwellers, reef dwellers, and many others.

Customer Reviews:

If you have taste in fish books, you must own this one.......2000-07-27

i hope you like this book, the cover talks about it all.

1000 Photos of Aquarium Fish.......2000-07-02

I have this book and several fish, now I can select better than I can put in my aquarium and which is now their name. I have the book he has a very good impression, quality

Beautiful.......2000-06-21

One word that can really show the quality of this book is moving. The pictures are spelnded and the content is extesive but not boring. This book can relate to several diffrent fish lovers, either fish hobbists or fish collectors will love this book.

Customer Reviews:

Impressionist bouquets.......2000-08-06

I have just received this book from Amazon and am absolutely thrilled with it. As a floral art judge I found it most informative and very well laid out. I would highly recommend it to all floral designers an artists. This is one of the few floral art books that really is worth its weight in gold.

Impressionist bouquets.......2000-08-06

Sensational Bouquets by Christian Tortu: Arrangements by a Master Floral Designer

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Christian Tortu book
Indulge your Eye and Insight
Intriguing New Ways to Look at Flowers!

Sensational Bouquets by Christian Tortu: Arrangements by a Master Floral Designer
Corine Delahaye
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Dried Flowers | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Flower Arranging | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0810957310

Amazon.com

"Nature is a good guide; it teaches us everything," says master floral designer Christian Tortu. It is the perfect summation of his work. Unpretentious yet stunningly beautiful, Tortu's arrangements have drawn inspiration directly from his childhood treks through the countryside of his native town of Anjou, France.

Sensational Bouquets by Christian Tortu is at once an intimate profile of the artist--who has designed floral arrangements for Dior and Chanel, as well as for the Cannes Film Festival--and a useful guide to how he creates his exciting and unique bouquets.

Tortu always looks to nature for inspiration. There, he finds freedom: of form, of color, of scent, all mixed together flawlessly, without artifice or ostentation. Paying homage to nature's inherent sense of design, Tortu creates stunning arrangements while bending all the rules of traditional flower arranging. Unexpected plants join in clever, surprising combinations to celebrate the drama of nature--of birth and death, and everything in between. Garden roses nestle in a tangle of blackberry branches much as they would in an overgrown garden. Wild thistles poke their prickly blossoms out of a bunch of softer, rounder bred thistles and speak of a miraculous harmony between wild and cultivated plants. Green almonds, lotus fruit, and poppy capsules come together in an enthralling play of yellow against green.

As if Sylvain Thomas's sumptuous photographs of Tortu's arrangements weren't inspiration enough, the text of Sensational Bouquets reads like poetry. This book will both motivate and guide readers to toss out what they've learned about flower arranging and let nature and their own unbridled intuition dictate how they assemble their next gathering of wild and/or cultivated plants. --Robin Donovan

Book Description

This gorgeous volume celebrates the floral designs of Christian Tortu, who has dazzled followers the world over with his ability to create novel compositions that show off the shapes, colors, textures, and singular beauty of individual flowers to their ultimate advantage. He has designed flowers for the great fashion houses of Dior and Chanel as well as for the Cannes Film Festival. From a simple yet striking circular bouquet of tulips tied in raffia to glorious bursts of dahlias in wax vases, from delicate rose petals and orchids floating in silver shells to an enchanting mix of water lilies and hyacinths in transparent glass, more than 100 color photographs taken exclusively for this book bring to life the astonishing still-life arrangements of this internationally heralded French floral designer. This lavishly illustrated volume will be a treasured gift for all plant and flower lovers.

Customer Reviews:

Christian Tortu book.......2007-05-15

I got hooked on his designs while in Paris. If you are ever there you MUST visit his shop(s)!!

Indulge your Eye and Insight.......2003-12-30

SENSATIONAL BOUQUETS BY CHRISTIAN TORTU is a visual treat as well as a learning inspiration for approaching that most personal craft of bringing the garden into the home - gathering and arranging flowers. Christian Tortu apparently has a following in Paris where he has a florist shop which has emphasized his creed of "All plants are born free and created equal." Having learned his craft and his passion for the natural garden from his parents as he matured in the Anjou gardens, gathering flowers from nature to place at the disposal of clients who yearn for the beauty of the garden to enter their home in ways other than window views, Tortu doesn't believe in the traditional 'sprays' of flowers place in an expensive family heirloom vase on a sterile table. Instead he combines fruit, vines, all phases of a flower's life ( bud, blossom, denuded vestige ) with grasses and all the elements found in the natural setting of his flowers. The results are lush, compact, original thoughts that are startlingly beautiful.

This is writer Corine Delahaze's first outing and she shows promise of a fine observor and poet. The photography is by Sylvain Thomas and emphasizes the closeup details as well as the free-standing wonders of Tortu's designs. The combination of text and photographs balances well with Tortu's creations. There is much more to learn about nature than just an ordinary treatise on flower arranging here. In Tortu's words "Nature is a place of total freedom. All plant life is accepted as equal." And from this humble belief Tortu lifts the spirit as well as the imagination with his artist's gift.

Intriguing New Ways to Look at Flowers!.......2001-04-12

I enjoyed this book very much. Sensational Bouquets is rich in new thoughts about what flowers and plants represent, filled with novel arrangements, and is enriched by outstanding photography of those arrangements. After reading and viewing this book, you will never think about nature and natural beauty in quite the same way. You will be the richer for the experience, because your sense of beauty will expand as a result.

Christian Tortu grew up on a truck farm in Anjou, and is proud of his agricultural roots. Now he designs backdrops for fashion shows and the Cannes Film Festival. He operates floral shops in major cities around the world.

Let me share a little of his philosophy, as described in the many sections he wrote for the book. "Each plant is a fragment of a landscape . . . ." In his arrangements, he creates that sense of landscape in a way that I have never seen before in flower arrangements. Nature is palpable in them.

"If man were to stop rushing around for one moment, he might take a look at flowers -- and then take a closer look." I remember having that experience in the orchid garden in Honolulu. I was enthralled with the beautiful blossoms in my 20 minute self-guided tour. As I was about to leave, an elderly gentleman asked me if I would like to have some help in looking around. I agreed, and spent the next three hours going over the same ground with him. Except I saw about 100 times as much with his help. I was astonished at how many delightful orchids I had totally missed in my haste (and I had thought I was being leisurely).

"In time, his convictions would crumble, and he would realize classification is fruitless even beyond flowers." People love to judge, and that judgment gets in the way of really seeing and experiencing life. So these arrangements are a metaphor for breaking down our closed mental sets.

The basic premise is that "all flowers are created equal." Weeds and shrubbery get as much attention as rare orchids. And the moment of perfection is not all that is explored. " . . . [E]very stage of the flower is a moment that deserves attention." One bouquet even captures burned foliage and flowers after a fire. Seeing these images makes one realize the truth of these observations. " . . . [I]n the name of harmony, each one [arrangement] has its own touch of anarchy."

Mr. Tortu changes things in terms of color, type of composition, and form. I was especially fascinated by his many monochromatic arrangements, especially the green bouquets.

The book is done in sections: Genesis; Revolution(s); Crossroads; and the Chronicle of a Black Bouquet. Using these themes makes it easier to appreciate the statements his designs make.

Here are my favorites in the book:

Agave foliage with euchasis in gray wax vases

Green tomatoes and basil, tomato flowers, dog rose fruit and vine foliate

Green arum lilies, tea grass, viburnum, and narcissus buds

Garlic flower and nasturtium

Nasturtium, wild strawberries, and blackberries

Privet berries and King Arthur orchids

Lime tree branches and iris

Violets

White hyacinth, and catmint

Osage orange, pears and chayote, quince, eggplant, and begonia

After you enjoy this delightful book, I suggest that you take some other element of nature and see how arranging it differently changes your perceptions. Now that it is spring, you could start by taking fresh shoots and making arrangements of them in new combinations, new shapes, and in different types of containers.

Open your mind to the potential of new combinations, expressed in new ways!

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Bouquets: Floral Arrangements of the Masters
Brigitte Fux
Manufacturer: Barrons Educational Series Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Science Illustration | Commercial | Graphic Design | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Flower Arranging | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0812065786

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Sensational Bouquets By Christian Tortu: Arrangements By a Master Floral Designer
Christian Tortu
Manufacturer: HNA Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N65V1Y

Amazon.com

The dismal account of actress Claire Bloom's life with author Philip Roth. Bloom, once described by Gore Vidal as, " ... the most beautiful of postwar screen presences and the finest interpreter of Ibsen in this generation," writes that she was entranced by Roth during their first meeting in 1966. A decade later they moved in together, and she was his muse during the late 70s and early 80s. But Roth's abusive temper and bouts with depression made life nearly intolerable. Even so, they married in 1990, only to divorce a short time later. Though Bloom recounts Roth's violence and betrayal in frightening detail, she never explains why she couldn't muster the strength to simply leave him.

Book Description

Writing with grace, wit, and remarkable candor, actress Claire Bloom looks back at her crowded life: her accomplishments on stage and screen; her romantic liaisons with some of the great leading men of our era; and at "the most important relationship" of her life--her marriage to author Philip Roth. of photos.

Customer Reviews:

Make her Dame Claire Bloom Please!.......2007-06-15

I think the British honor of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire has missed wonderful Claire Bloom. In this book, she reveals all to her audience including her difficult and turbulent relationship with equally brilliant and disturbed Philip Roth. Their union should have been a happy one but it wasn't after so many years together. Sadly, their relationship ended in divorce. I remember watching this glorious actress on As The World Turns as Lily's mother-in-law, Orlena. As Claire gets older, she gets better on stage, film or television. I would love to see her become a Dame because she is in every sense of the world. While she writes about her life, she writes about her relationships especially with Philip Roth and understands him better than literary critic could because she was so close to him. As somebody who has read many of his works, Roth is both a literary genius and equally troubled as a person. He wrote that he didn't need to be surrounded by people but Claire needs constant human contact. Somehow, these two brilliant artists didn't make it. It's not a happy divorce but then what is. I think Claire for the first time needed to be independent and free from a relationship with a man like Philip Roth. Prior to Roth, she was married to Rod Steiger and Hillard Elkins. I think Claire like Nora in Henrik Ibsen's Doll's House needs to leave for her own sanity and become independent and free of others. I hope Claire has happiness in her life. Still, I believe she deserves to be a British Dame.

A book I was ashamed to read .......2006-01-24

I started this book, and when I start a book I usually feel obliged to finish it. But quite early along I understood that this is a book I should be ashamed of reading. Here I will admit to my own not so wonderful curiosity. I wanted to know about the relationship between Bloom and Philip Roth.
What I got was not the story of some great love affair which tragically ended in a parting of ways. Instead I got a petty, vicious, mean- spirited attack on Roth who is also made to seem petty, vicious and mean- spirited. As is often the case with Divorce both sides come out looking awful.
I also in truth did not like the image of herself which Bloom presented throughout the work. I am sorry to say but she seemed quite petty and selfish throughout. This was a great disappointment in part because I had always found her to be so remarkably beautiful. Well as the old saying goes , the beauty outside does not necessarily correspond with what is within.
In any case I definitely would not recommend this book.

Even Swans Suffer.......2005-02-01

Claire Bloom put her heart into this book, writing the truth about her life with the same sensitivity and refinement she brought to so many of her stage and film roles. Of course, critics hated it -- especially female critics. And you know why? Because there's nothing ugly ducklings hate worse than the idea that even swans suffer. For nasty old yentas like Daphne Merkin, it's bad enough that Claire Bloom is the most perfect, lovely English rose who ever lived. They hate her for that no matter what she happens to be like as a human being. But the fact that she can feel, and think, and love, and write -- intolerable!

This book reveals all the horror of Philip Roth's failures as a writer and a human being. The fact that his self-loathing is so often disguised as megalomania and artistic temperament is no excuse for the unbelievable suffering he caused to those around him. Reading this book makes it much easier to understand the fundamental ugliness of his later works. Plainly, Roth needs to believe that the whole world hates him as much as he hates himself. Reading the story, one senses that if anything Claire Bloom has been too kind, making excuses for a man who obviously has no pride and no shame, no sense of resonsibility and not a shred of common decency. Not even Trick E. Dixon or Big John Baal or Gil Gamesh himself could have behaved this atrociously!

At the same time, Claire Bloom herself emerges from these pages as a very fragile soul who never really recovered from a painful childhood. It's impossible not to wish she had been a little stronger -- or that the men in her life had been more worthy of her. Gore Vidal, Yul Brynner, Richard Burton, all legendary figures in one way or another, yet none of them had the special decency or the courage to recognize the heavenly, radiant, ethereal beauty that was Claire Bloom.

There will never be another like her.

Frank, Poignant.......2004-11-08

Claire Bloom's "Leaving a Doll's House" is poignant in its honesty, but a bit underwritten. The first time I reached for my highlighter pen was on page 104, where Bloom describes a distraught Vivien Leigh.

Leigh, of course, was the incomparable beauty who portrayed Scarlett O'hara in "Gone with the Wind." Leigh's marriage was unsteady; she suffered from mental illness. Leigh kept her emotions in check, but one night Bloom entered Leigh's dressing room and found her in tears. "Vivien in tears was not like anyone I knew; no red nose, sniffles...she simply sat at her table, in her beautiful scarlet [how appropriate] costume; diamond tears rolled down her cheeks, her beauty undiminished, her make-up untouched." What an image.

Page 149 includes a similarly brief, and pointedly telling, anecdote. Bloom's husband, the author Philip Roth, insists that a skunk has anti-Semitic feelings toward him. This anecdote goes a long way towards explaining Roth's new book, "The Plot Against America."

For the most part, though, the book is frank, and underwritten. For example, Bloom's father was a feckless businessman and gambler who abandoned Bloom, her mother, and her brother. Years later, when she became a successful actress, Bloom's father reappeared, backstage in her dressing room, with a new, rich wife in tow. Bloom, by her own account, was pointedly cold and humiliating to him. Three days later, he died. "I believed," Bloom writes, "that it had been my callous behavior that had killed him" (79). Bloom does not pause after this remarkable confession; only one sentence is offered as denouement, "I picked up and went on with my life."

Bloom played an essential role in a superlative film, "The Haunting." This film is unsurpassed in its genre; its psychological and sociological undercurrents raise it far above most horror films. Though made in 1963, in black and white, and since remade, it regularly makes top ten lists for "the scariest movie ever made." Bloom never mentions it here.

Too, Bloom partnered some of the biggest names among twentieth century actors: Richard Burton, Yul Brynner, Rod Steiger, Anthony Quinn, Laurence Olivier. If the reader had never seen a Burton film, I'm not sure he would get an adequate impression of Burton from this book.

Bloom's Burton has intense green eyes; she quotes a critic who says, beautifully, that his voice is so powerful "he carries his own cathedral with him" (50). But this reader never understood why Bloom risked the pain she reports feeling being his lover while he lived with, and loved, his first wife, Sybil Burton.

Bloom's brief fling with Brynner is enlivened by a late night visit to a Paris nightclub where Brynner, who mythologized his ethnic and professional roots, was adored, and sang with, the Gypsies he said raised him. The night was capped in Russian fashion, Bloom reports; drinking glasses were thrown against the wall.

Pages 195-220 contain, without comment, Bloom's diary entries from a particularly rocky time in her marriage to Roth. This is the best, rawest, most detailed writing in the book.

As others report, Philip Roth is depicted here -- believably -- as a demented and sadistic man. He is also clearly depicted as an object of genuine pathos. It must be hard to be Roth's wife; it must also be hard to be Roth. Without ever using the term, Bloom creates a vivid portrayal of Roth as a kind of idiot savant with Borderline Personality Disorder.

Reading of Roth's self-induced wounds of greed -- he demanded that Bloom pay him huge sums of money as compensation for the time he spent with her -- paranoia, and sheer unhappiness is like reading of a patient tormented by self-induced skin rashes. It's simply hard to watch, and you can't help but say a prayer for his speedy recovery.

"Leaving a Doll's House" is an easy read, and poignant in its honesty. It offers insights into Claire Bloom that will cause me to view her performances, and other women I meet, in a more expansive, and more compassionate, light.

For Roth junkies only; a guilty pleasure.......2003-07-04

Ok, I admit and I am embarrassed--I ate this book up like a pint of Haagen-Daz. And afterwards, I felt about the same as I do when I look at the empty ice cream container: a little shamed, vaguely nauseous, highly satisfied. I am a huge Philip Roth fan, a collector of his signed first editions, etc., so you have to take this reveiw with a grain of salt. Ms. Bloom, or whoever ghosted it, is much better writer than I had anticipated and the pages flew by (just one more spoonful...). Charlie Chaplin, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Gore Vidal, Rod Steiger--it was interesting to read what felt like highly redacted versions of who these men were in Ms. Bloom's life. She does seem to reserve a certainy clarity and honesty for her depiction of Roth, for better or worse, than she seems willing to give to these other men. I, frankly, believe most if not all of what she wrote about Roth, and it is tantalizing to watch the threads of her fact with him reverberate in his fiction. (Sylphid, the harp-playing harpy in "I Married A Communist" is very openly Bloom's daughter with Rod Steiger). So if you are a Roth fan and are interested in a painful dissection of his fiction, you should probably put this on your shelf...though don't expect HIM to appreciate it.

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Leaving a Doll's House, A Memoir -
Claire. Bloom
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTPC82

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