Thru a Pilot's Eye: Cold War through Vietnam Era

Book Description

The name Charles Christopher Parry (1823-1890) is well known to botanists worldwide. Leaving a very brief medical practice in Davenport, IA (1846-1849), Parry joined the Mexican Boundary Survey as assistant surgeon; botanized with Edward Palmer in Mexico (including Baja California), Utah, and California; and joined a reconnaissance in Wyoming with Capt. William A. Jones. Parry was an avid botanical explorer, and many species of plants bear his name. He is not to be confused with Sir William Edward Parry, 1790 - 1855, the English navigator and Arctic explorer.

Parry's greatest contribution to science is probably his exploration of the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado; through the distribution of his botanical collections he introduced the Colorado flora to the world. He was also fascinated with mountains, and he made barometric observations that permitted the first accurate estimations of the altitudes of the high peaks of Colorado.

Dr. Parry was recognized as an authority by botanists everywhere, not only in this country (where he ranked with the first) and in England, but on the Continent as well; and this notwithstanding the fact that he never published a book, had no ambition in the way of authorship, and left most of his discoveries to be described by others.

Book Description

The groundbreaking guide to understanding and combating osteoporosis-more than 100,000 copies sold in its original edition.

Customer Reviews:

Elementary, my dear.......2007-06-04

If you're new to the topic of osteoporosis, this looks like a good starting point. But if you've been staying up-to-date by reading articles and talking to health professionals and people who've been diagnosed, you'll already know most of what's in this book.

Strong Women, Strong Bones, Updates.......2007-01-19

Very good information for women of all ages. The updated version was similar to the orginal but some new info.

Informative, user friendly, full of good information.......2006-12-17

This book is well researched, well presented, and easy to use. Most every question about bone health I asked is answered in here somewhere. The exercise section is well laid out, gives practical suggestions and offers viable alternatives. Very nice book. Recommend highly.

Average customer rating:

Easy Gourmet!

Best of Gourmet 2000

The Best of Gourmet: Featuring the Flavors of Thailand (Best of Gourmet)
Gourmet Magazine Editors
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Thai | Asian | Regional & International | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Gourmet | Special Occasions | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Best of Gourmet, Featuring the Flavors of India

The Best of Gourmet 2002: Featuring the Flavors of Paris

Best of Gourmet 1992: Featuring the Flavors of France (Best of Gourmet)

The Best of Gourmet: Featuring the Flavors of Sicily (Best of Gourmet)

The Best of Gourmet: Featuring the Flavors of San Francisco (Best of Gourmet)

ASIN: 0375504311
Release Date: 2000-04-25

Book Description

Nowadays, everyone who entertains is looking for outstanding casual fare that will allow them to spend more time with their guests. Dishes must be quick and easy to prepare (or able to be made ahead) and filled with the purest ingredients for optimum flavor. The Best of Gourmet, Featuring the Flavors of Thailand is filled with twenty-eight such menus-most are very relaxed, all are absolutely delicious.

For example, after a chilly day on the slopes, you may want to treat your houseguests to A Ski House Dinner. Begin the evening around the fire with champagne and a large platter of ever-so-tender smoked salmon with cilantro cream. Later, roasted veal chops with shallots, tomatoes, and olive jus nestled on pillows of soft polenta make a rich, indulgent entrée. And before everyone retires, a heavenly warm chocolate raspberry pudding cake, made the day before and reheated, is served with a glass of cognac.

When the summer heats up, why not spend A Weekend at the Shore with friends? You'll have three clever menus in hand that take advantage of the season's abundant fresh produce, include plenty of make-ahead dishes, and satisfy hearty seaside appetites. On Saturday morning you can serve Breakfast on the Beach with buttery-rich baked blueberry-pecan French toast. Lunch Indoors includes a serve-yourself composed salad of classic favorites and a lovely rhubarb rice pudding. Then, after a long day in the sun, Dinner on the Deck promises a seafood meal to remember with curry-marinated mussels, followed by grilled lobster with Southeast Asian dipping sauce.

Or perhaps a last-minute Beyond Backyard Basics dinner is closer to what you had in mind? This little gem of a menu features ratatouille with penne-a heavenly jumble of roasted eggplants, onions, yellow squash, and red bell peppers, with plum tomatoes, garlic, thyme, parsley, and basil. For dessert, multicolored grapes perched atop pastry cream in puff pastry shells make a scrumptious and ever-so-pretty choice.

So which menu will you try first? You'll find more than eighty pages of exquisite full-color photographs to help you decide. Altogether, this volume holds more than 350 recipes-including the very best recipes that appeared in Gourmet's food columns during 1999. There are hundreds of dishes that can be made in forty-five minutes or less (look for the clock symbol ð); plenty of leaner and lighter selections (look for the feather symbol F); seasonal ideas for everything from apples to zucchini; and an impressive array of tempting sweets and snacks.

This year's Cuisines of the World section turns to the intriguing flavors of Thailand with a traditional dinner for eight and a collection of Thai snacks. Dishes such as steamed red snapper with ginger, grilled beef salad, fish cakes, and coconut ice cream demonstrate the sweet, sour, hot, and salty tastes of this fascinating country. Informative primers and exquisite full-color photos add further insight.

Twenty-four more brand-new recipes appear in a special section featuring Unusual Pastas and Grains. From fresh rice noodles to Israeli couscous to wheat berries, and much more, these unique pantry items will undoubtedly expand your palette of flavors.

Just when you thought you had tasted it all, along comes a cookbook that opens up a world of new possibilities- The Best of Gourmet

Customer Reviews:

Easy Gourmet!.......2001-12-12

I love this book for several reasons.

First, the menu suggestions are great. They range from two servings to around fifty, there are meals suitable for each season (some are grill-oriented, some are Thanksgiving feasts, etc.), and you can choose from light and healthy to downright sinful meals.

Second, the recipes require a great variety of skill levels. A novice can start with the easier recipes and work up to the more difficult ones without needing to buy a new book! This is also great because even those who are experienced and passionate cooks (who, like myself, would usually revel in the four-hour mushroom lasagne prep time) have days when they want a simple, toned-down meal. It's all here.

The recipes are also very easy to follow. They list at the outset any special equipment you will need, and the preparation instructions are clear and concise.

Those without access to specialty grocery stores might have trouble coming up with some ingredients (creme fraiche, figs, radish sprouts, or Israeli couscous come to mind), but there are many recipes whose ingredients are easily found at the most common of groceries.

I have to say that I dislike the way the "Unusual Pastas and Grains" section is separated from the "Pastas and Grains" section. It's also disappointing that Thai recipes are stuck in their own "Cuisines of the World" section without references in other more specific sections (for example, Ai-Teem Ga-Ti, aka Coconut Ice Cream, is not mentioned in the "Desserts" section earlier - so if you choose to page through the desserts section, you will not be aware that there are other dessert recipes elsewhere in the book).

All in all, I'd say that this book offers great recipes and menu suggestions for cooks at all levels, but it could be organized more efficiently.

Best of Gourmet 2000.......2000-07-22

I loved the look of the food in this book. I really felt inspired. The freshness of the menus appealed to me, also. The photography was wonderful! It made you want to pick up a fork and begin to do a taste test on every page. The grilled pineapple with vanilla ice cream was simple to make and a treat for unexpected guests on Sunday afternoon. It is good of Gourmet to study so closly the food culture of another country. It really gave the reader a good sense of what Thai cooking is all about. It is a good addition to the other Gourmet books and something to look forward to every year. A GREAT GIFT for cooks of all levels.

The Best of Gourmet 2000: Featuring the Flavors of Thailand

Average customer rating:

The Best of Gourmet 2000: Featuring the Flavors of Thailand
Random House
Manufacturer: Random House Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OEOMHO

Average customer rating:

For the foundation paper-piecer

out with traditional, in with variety

101 Log Cabin Blocks (4181)
Linda Causee
Manufacturer: Asn Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Needlework | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Quilts & Quilting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

101 Log Cabin Flowers with full-size pattern for foundation piecing

A New Look at Log Cabin Quilts: Design a Scene Block by Block PLUS 10 Easy-to-Follow Projects

300 Paper-pieced Quilt Blocks

24 Flower Quilt Blocks

365 Foundation Quilt Blocks

ASIN: 0881958425

Book Description

This book not only includes the traditional Log Cabin block (in four sizes), but it takes the Log Cabin out of the past and into a new creative realm of innovative block design. Linda Causee has twisted the logs and changed the usual rectangular strip shape--making this the most exciting collection of Log Cabin blocks ever!

Customer Reviews:

For the foundation paper-piecer.......2006-10-24

With full-sized paper piecing patterns, lots of log cabin designs, and color photographs of completed blocks, this book is perfect for those who like paper-piecing log cabin blocks. I haven't seen another book that fits all of these criteria.

out with traditional, in with variety.......2000-05-28

Quilting designs in a large variety of variations with some traditional ones included all with great color samples. Included with the full size templates are shaded greys of the pattern for ease in chosing your own masterpiece. Twisting and twirling the log shapes gives some spectacular results. An easy method for piecing tops it off. Now I have to decide which one to try first. The way it's layed out makes each block a very do-able project. Good for beginners as well as the pros.

101 Log Cabin Blocks for Small Projects: Quilt Layouts and Complete Instructions for 10 Projects

Average customer rating:

101 Log Cabin Blocks for Small Projects: Quilt Layouts and Complete Instructions for 10 Projects
Linda Causee
Manufacturer: American School of Needlework (ASN) Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0881959316

Average customer rating:

101 Log Cabin Blocks
Linda Causee
Manufacturer: Asn Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KHTEB4

Book Description

"I really enjoyed reading this book and found it to be chock-full of good information. It is well-written and readable."

-- Dorina Noble, Louisiana State University

"The information provided is accurate and certainly very current; a definite strength of the text."

-- Jessica Ziembroski, University of Notre Dame

With so many challenges facing families and governments in the United States today, this is an important time to be thinking about family policy. Respected family policy expert Shirley Zimmerman offers the only single-authored core textbook to provide a comprehensive and coherent introduction to family policy. The application of the frameworks to real life issues in family policy provides the opportunity for students to learn to think conceptually about family policy in relation to family problems. She clearly and cogently guides students through the foundations, policy frameworks, and implications of policy decisions for family well-being, ending with a carefully considered set of conclusions and implications for policy practice.

Family Policy offers concrete illustrative examples that bring the academic subject matter to life for students. Questions at the end of each chapter help students test their comprehension of the material, deepen their understanding of the subject matter, and spur classroom discussion.

Book Description

"Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra, by former valet-aide George Jacobs with an oh-so-able assist by William Stadiem, has at least five quotable and shocking remarks about the famous on every page. The fifteen years Jacobs toiled for Frank produces a classic of its genre -- a gold-star gossip-lover's dream....

"The rest is showbiz history as it was, and only Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, and Betty Bacall are spared. Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Juliet Prowse, Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Mia Farrow, Elvis Presley, Swifty Lazar, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr., Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Jimmy van Heusen, Edie Goetz, Peter Lawford, and all of the Kennedys come in for heaping portions of 'deep dish,' served hot. Sordid, trashy, funny, and so rat-a-tat with its smart inside info and hip instant analysis that some of it seems too good to be true....

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely Heartbreaking...........2007-03-12

"Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra," written by George Jacobs - Frank's valet/personal assistant; friend; confidante of 15 years, is a very candid and extremely engrossing book. In every page, it is clear that George Jacobs truly loved Frank Sinatra as a brother. Although I knew quite a bit about Frank Sinatra's life already, I was totally unprepared for how interesting and "can't-put-it-down" this book turned out to be. I loved it.

Frank Sinatra was the best of men and the absolute worst of men. He was the most generous of men and yet he was the most vindictive of men as well. He was a contradiction in human nature in extremes. If you even slightly offended him or were perceived as disloyal, you seldom got another chance.

George tells of his relationship with Frank and Frank's rise and fall and rise to fame. He writes of his adventures with Frank's family and how wonderful "Big Nancy" was to Frank - long after the divorce. After reading this, I truly thought Frank Sinatra's first wife was a saint!

I expected this book to touch on just the superficial, but it really delved into a part of our history. Like millions of baby boomers, I idolized John F. Kennedy. Yes - I knew that he had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, but I didn't know about the barrage of call girls and cocaine. When JFK was campaigning, he asked George, "What do colored people want?" Diplomatically, George responded that he didn't know and asked Jack what he wanted (for our country). JFK, with a big leering grin, responded," I want to f*ck every woman in Hollywood." Statements like this just amazed me.

As we all know, Joe Kennedy Sr. had many mob connection from his bootlegging days. This book relates how Illinois was virtually a present to JFK from the mob in the election.

I had heard about the helicopter pad that Frank Sinatra was reported to have destroyed when John Kennedy's visit was cancelled, but I wasn't aware of the extent of John's deception. Frank Sinatra spent over a year campaigning for JFK; having "High Hopes" written and performed; and spending a fortune in anticipation of JFK's visit. Without Joe's influence, John totally turned his back on Sinatra and decided to stay at Bing Crosby's (who had supported Nixon)! Moreover, it was highly likely that he set things in motion for Marilyn's death when she threatened to expose their affair. Bobby Kennedy (whom I had also admired) and Jackie were even more ungrateful than John.

No one deserved what Woody Allen did to Mia Farrow later in life, but I couldn't help thinking that Mia was so wrong in not setting the record straight with Frank about her dancing with George. George was "babysitting" Mia and trying to pacify her when she dragged him onto the dance floor. When the paparazzi went wild with these pictures, George's life was to change forever. As a result, he was literally fired overnight by Frank Sinatra. George had money saved, but it is clear that he never recovered from this blow dealt to him by Sinatra.

My heart absolutely broke for George Jacobs. I literally cried when he tells how he burst into tears upon seeing Frank after 10 years. Frank went over and touched his shoulder and said, "Forget about it kid. It ain't so bad." I do feel Frank Sinatra "forgave" George, but I believe that Barbara Marx would never have allowed him to rehire George because he knew too much about her past.

I had always believed Barbara Marx to be a charitable woman with a great deal of class. She was actually a Vegas showgirl from a poor background who married the much older Zeppo. Everyone knew that she was simply trying to marry money and that she regularly cheated on Zeppo - often with Sinatra. He had known her for years. George was not even allowed to attend Frank Sinatra's funeral - but instead had to watch from across the street.

In the end, one realizes that George Jacobs has found peace. He honestly didn't deserve the low blow that Sinatra dealt him. However, you also realize that through his own insecurities, Frank Sinatra lost one of his dearest friends who loved him most. In the end, Frank Sinatra was the one who lost the most. I truly pray that Sinatra came to know this.

Surpringly relevant.......2006-08-27

We all know Frank Sinatra did some interesting stuff. The author, George Jacobs, was his valet from 1953 to 1968, so he saw quite a bit of it. With honesty, brevity and wit, he tells us about it. Right out of the "truth is stranger than fiction" department. I saw a number of celebrities I recognized in here, and it was interesting to see them off camera. I saw a number of celebrities in here that I've never heard of, and they were interesting too. I think that latter point matters for readers who may perhaps be too young to remember when Frank was doing it his way. I also feel that I've stumbled onto a portrait of a time and place that I needed to see. It's a great book, not just a tell-all gossipfest. Oh, it has that too, but it's better somehow.

Chronicles What an Unrepetant Jackass Sinatra Really Was........2006-02-19

Don't get me wrong. I'm a Sinatra Fan. Of his music. I never did buy into the crock of b.s. that painted him as some sort of cultural hero. And I always figured it would just be a matter of time before someone who worked this close to Sinatra would spill the beans. And it's all here. His double standards shine like the Hope Diamond. Do as I say and not as I do seems to be the recurring theme in the Frank Sinatra mantra. He demanded fidelity from his wives, but kept hookers by the dozen at any given time and paid for their abortions like they were monthly Visa bills while everyone else painted him as the picture perfect father of Nancy, Tina and Frank, Jr. His mob ties are legendary and by now general knowledge. Here we find Jacobs giving us all the juicy details. For some reason, the pay was good enough for Jacobs to tolerate Sinatra's unending racial and ethnic slurs which he apparently tossed around freely, never fearing consequence. Yet, for his entire career Sinatra was championed as a great Civil Rights pioneer. Okay, but any Civil Rights pioneer shouldn't toss the N word around so freely. It's not until the late sixties that Sinatra becomes a philanthropist of sorts to untarnish his disgusting image. Jacobs paints an interesting portrait of Old Blue Eyes as the Ultimate Paradox. I found the writing tight, honest and overall it's a book I couldn't put down once I picked it up. Unfortunately, Jacobs himself was kicked out of the Sinatra fold eventually, which makes the story all that more credible. I walked away from the book with a bevy of emotions, angry mostly, that such a talent could be such a jerk for most of his life. There were consequences for the Chairman always wanting to have it his way in his personal and professional life, and now that he's gone we may never know how it might've played out. Today I imagine Frank Sinatra would've been diagnosed as some sort of bi-polar idiot. God knows half of our musicians use that condition as an excuse for their stupid behavior. There indeed is a fine line between genius and lunacy. You'll read Jacob's memoir and walk away satisfied yet ticked off. Guaranteed.

Amazing Document of Cultural History.......2005-11-19

I didn't have high expectations for this book. The British royal family has shown us that tell-alls by "valets" and the like leave much to be desired, but this book was a wonderful surprise. It serves not only as an unusual insight into an American icon -- Frank Sinatra -- but also a cultural history of a young black man, George Jacobs, coming of age in the 1950's and 1960's with a front row seat on some of the most important figures of our time from Joe Kennedy to Ava Gardner to Sammy Davis, Jr. I think this book gives provocative insight on our American history through the lens of race, gender and popular culture.

From Bedroom to Board Room, He Was Larger Than Life.......2005-02-02

"Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra," by his valet of 15 years George Jacobs (whom Sinatra fired for dancing with Mia Farrow), is filled with enough vanity, insecurity, envy, racism, drinking, smoking, womanizing and deal-making for three lifetimes. Jacobs takes the reader into the "board room" and the bedroom to reveal intimate portraits of the supremely talented larger-than-life Chairman himself, the woman he never stopped loving (Ava Gardner), mobster associates like one-time Al Capone "wheel man" Sam Giancana, that pitiful plaything of the rich and famous, Marilyn Monroe, and the utterly vile Kennedy father (who was even "crueler about Jews than he was about blacks") and his charismatic, whore-mongering son (drinking, drugs and round-the-clock sex that had even the insatiable Sinatra panting).

If Ronald Reagan's motto was "Win one for the Gipper," JFK's (and Sinatra's) surely had to be "Win one for the zipper."

Average customer rating:

A Very Good Book.
Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra
Bittersweet and loving
Come fly with him
My Life with an Obsessed Man

Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra
George Jacobs , and William Stadiem
Manufacturer: HarperEntertainment
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0060515163
Release Date: 2003-06-03

Book Description

An odyssey of celebrity, extravagance, and genius, Mr. S provides the deepest understanding yet of one of our greatest entertainers

As the right hand of Frank Sinatra from 1953 to 1968, George Jacobs arguably had one of the coolest jobs in the world at the time when Sinatra was the undisputed master of the entertainment universe. Jacobs rose from his humble beginnings in New Orleans to join Sinatra in the mansions of Beverly Hills, the penthouses of Manhattan, the palaces of Europe, the pinnacles of world power. George Jacobs saw it all, did it all.

Sinatra took Jacobs with him on the ride of the century, from blacklist Hollywood to gangland Chicago to an emerging Vegas to Camelot, not to mention dolce vita Rome and swinging London. As a member of Sinatra's inner circle, Jacobs drank with Ava Gardner, danced with Marilyn Monroe, massaged John F. Kennedy, golfed with Sam Giancana, and played jazz with the Prince of Monaco while his boss secretly pursued Princess Grace. He also partied with Mia Farrow, but that one cost him his job of a lifetime.

Through the ring-a-ding-ding and the stars, royals, politicians, moguls, and mobsters emerged a warm and intimate relationship that reveals a complex Sinatra: vulnerable and arrogant, charismatic and violent, loving and disdainful, confident and painfully self-conscious. Jacobs is no sycophant, but rather a sharp-eyed observer of the highs and lows of his boss's turbulent life. And Mr. S is perhaps the most complete, honest, and intimate portrait of Sinatra ever written.

It is an unforgettable trip, and George Jacobs provides a front-and-center seat at the life of an American icon.

Customer Reviews:

A Very Good Book........2007-03-30

I found this book a very good read. It was funny, sad, and just a tad bit dirty. Mr. Jacobs does a great job of painting the scene and life of the Ring-A-Ding-Ding era and the man who helped defined it all.

Nothing really groundbreaking about Mr.S, but it does give fun & interesting insight. This is a great read if you want something light and fun to read about the great Mr. S, then this is the book!

Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra.......2007-01-09

George Jacobs was "there" as Sinatra's Valet and tells the inside stories but with deep respect. This aint Kitty Kelly. He obviously loved the man even after he was fired from the gig. His kind of honesty is rare and his access to the very center of the Sinatra fears, vulnerabilities and victories is unparralleled.

I learned more Real Stuff about Frank in this quick reading book than in any of the other Great Volumes preceeding it.

Bittersweet and loving.......2006-03-17

One of a handful of truly worthwhile books on Sinatra (joining a short list of Will Friedwald's "The Song is You" and Pete Hamill's "Why Sinatra Matters"...and that's it!). Although one suspects many of the quips and witticisms that abound in this book are probably from the brain of Jacob's co-writer, the feel and insight is purely inside stuff. While there is plenty of dirt, it is served up with affection and sympathy. The important thing is that "Mr S" is a very readable book. You will not be bored.

Come fly with him.......2005-03-13

Reading George Jacobs' memoir of his years as Frank Sinatra's right-hand man, I am struck by the star's sense of failure, despite having almost everything. He never got over second wife Ava Gardner. He sought but failed to get a Best Acting Oscar. His career declined while third wife Mia Farrow, barely out of her teens, hit it big with "Rosemary's Baby." Sinatra was rejected by the Kennedys, as well as gangster Sam Giancana, whose loss in some ways he appears to have taken harder. And he severed various friends - including Jacobs - ultimately doing more damage to himself.

Sinatra did not age gracefully. Lucky enough to get a second youth after his 1953 comeback, he underwent a second midlife crisis in the mid-1960s. How hard must it must have been to enter one's fifties, while popular culture overnight became about teenagers - their rebellions, music, fashions, and most of all contempt for Frank Sinatra's generation.

As Jacobs leaves in 1968, fired for generating tabloid headlines one night when Farrow drags him onto a dance floor, Sinatra at 52 is getting lonelier and meaner, with hardly any boon companions from his heyday still in sight. Jacobs focuses on those earlier, happier, peak years, where Sinatra's star quirks were leavened by kindness and consideration, and tarnished with fewer tantrums and less vindictiveness; and he shows how the decline began.

The book exceeds my expectations, tribute to William Stadiem's great ghostwriting and Jacobs' three-dimensional Sinatra portrait. What seems remarkable is his determination not to trash a man who, at the end, treated him poorly. Neither does he take easy shots at the Rat Packers for the ubiquitous ethnic jokes and slurs; he sees it in the context of the time, as banter rather than hate. Sinatra named his own plane "El Dago."

No one else saw Sinatra close up with so many of the key people in his life. Jacobs babysat Ava Gardner at Sinatra's Palm Springs house. Jacobs found her mesmerizing for not only her beauty but her unaffected charm, and fully understands why Sinatra never got over her. Jacobs' own apartment was next to Marilyn Monroe's. Sinatra put him there to keep an eye on the troubled actress whom the singer feared was an overdose waiting to happen. Jacobs drove home the countless starlets, paid the countless hookers, bought the flowers and chocolates and gifts for the countless girlfriends. He tended bar at Sinatra's recording sessions with Nelson Riddle. He gave backrubs to JFK and had lengthy conversations with him, mostly about "pussy." (JFK was fascinated by shaved ones, which he called "naked lunch." Women deeply offended by all this should regard this book as "Sex and the City" for guys.) Jacobs' own friendship with Sinatra's mother Dolly survived his firing, showing what an insider he really was.

Your prurient interest will be fed on virtually every page. The kiss-and-tell rings true. Detractors may fault Jacobs for dishing on dead principals unable to defend themselves, but it may also be seen as a measure of his regard for their privacy, waiting for decades until they were gone before finally cashing in on his recollections. A taste:

--Marilyn Monroe often went naked at home, regardless of who was watching. She endlessly regarded herself in her wall-to-wall mirrors to see who was the fairest one of all - or if she was too fat. She pined for Sinatra, but her slovenly habits and lack of hygiene were inimical to a man fastidious nearly to the point of obsessive-compulsiveness. Monroe's ex Joe DiMaggio, like Sinatra, swung, shall we say, a pretty big bat.

--Jacobs walked in on JFK snorting coke with Peter Lawford, on the sly from Sinatra who hated narcotics. Jacobs describes his shock at seeing the presidential candidate with a coke straw up his nose. Kennedy eased the tension with a quip: " `For my back, George,' Kennedy said to me, with his bad-boy wink."

--Jacobs loved Jack but loathed his father as a racist and gangster. Sinatra lusted for Kennedy's sister and Lawford's wife Pat. Jacobs believes Joe Kennedy used Pat as sexual bait to put Lawford in Sinatra's circle, and the Sinatra circle thus in the Kennedys', in the 1950s.

--Major stars like Monroe and Judy Garland constantly demanded sex from Frank to shore up their own egos on tearful nights, which he usually delivered out of mercy. His own nightly search for amour he called "Dialing For Pussy."

--Jacobs watched, fascinated, from a window, as Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo frolicked naked in Sinatra's pool at Palm Springs. And he kept Prince Rainier occupied, delivering fancy gifts and listening to jazz albums, while Frank dallied secretly with Princess Grace.

There's plenty that's less trashy, of course, like Jacobs' recollection of Humphrey Bogart, whom Sinatra idolized and aped. (Sinatra's mesalliance with Farrow seems an unsuccessful imitation of Bogart's marriage across the decades to Lauren Bacall.) Of more substance are the complex business and personal relationships between the Chairman, the Mob and the Kennedys. Jacobs shrewdly sees the money and power interests beneath the camaraderie, the spats, the feuds and the girl-chasing. The Rat Pack? A three-year commercial for liquor, in Jacobs' opinion, benefitting mob liquor and nightclub interests. "Ocean's 11"? Free advertising for the JFK campaign: Nixon was a square but Kennedy hung in Vegas with these cool guys. Mob influence in Hollywood? The Mob had the capital, the labor and the daring to invest in entertainment when Wall Street thought it too risky and too Jewish. Sinatra regarded Giancana, more than anything else, as a business genius.

This book is interesting on almost every page. Standard bios of Sinatra may serve better for putting his whole life in perspective. For your best second read, though, come fly with Jacobs.

My Life with an Obsessed Man.......2005-03-03

Yeah, on the one hand, it's sleazy. On the other, it's nevertheless interesting to look into the shiny life of Frank and the decadent world of entertainment.

George Jacobs was Sinatra's personal valet during Frank's most popular phase until he was fired for dancing with his wife one night (Mia Farrow, who the author had to babysit while Frank got up to more of his antics).

No doubt there's a little bitterness, but the tone of the book is not negative. Jacobs deserved better than to be written off with a lawyer's note, as was Frank's habit with getting rid of 'friends', but we can still get a dirty look inside the Chairman of the Board's lifestyle.

The focus is Frank, so we have to forgive George as he glosses over his marriages, his various kids here and there, and his supposed restraint in the face of temptation when he hung with Frank and his crew.

Sinatra comes off as an obsessed man, and while there is probably not much in the way of surprises here, we get some dirty details and some insight into Frank's 'way'. While Sinatra could be a great guy, he was also an obsessed man, a guy who just couldn't be alone, and a man who never got over Ava Gardner. Read with gusto about Frank's 'detailed' files on all the new starlets in Tinseltown, about Frank's anatomical gifts, about his appetite for Jack Daniel's and cigarettes, his gangster pals, and his raging temper. 'One-take Frank' was also an accomplished actor who refused to do more than one take, making one wonder what a Sinatra/Kubrick film would look like.

Jacobs seems to love Frank, but he has a lot to tell, and I guess that means exposing some ugliness about his former boss. Of course, since Frank is dead, he can't sue, making the appearance of this book quite convenient. Still, it's an inside, if sleazy angle. And it serves as another reminder that Hollywood is a sleazy and amoral place where some of the lowest forms of life creep.

Everything from the childlike glee that Frank got from setting off cherry bombs in his friends' shoes (this is a 50 year old man, mind you) to his use of his personal valet as a babysitter for wives and girlfriends while Frank got up to, er, other assignments, is all here.

Jacobs should either be condemend or applauded or both. Either way, we get to pick through the sleaze of the great American vocalist in all his pinky ring glory.

Average customer rating:

Mr. S.: My Life with Frank Sinatra
MR.S.:MY LIFE WITH FRANK SINATRA

Mr. S : My Life with Frank Sinatra
George Jacobs , and William Stadiem
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Mr. S.: My Life with Frank Sinatra.......2006-10-06

Some of Frank Sinatra's interactions with friends and foes, with which author George Jacobs purports him to have been involved, are quite outlandish, and can only be confirmed by the testimony of those characters themselves, most of whom are long deceased, e.g., all of Sinatra's Rat Pack cohorts, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, and Joe, John and Bobby Kennedy.

Whether fact or fiction, Jacobs is on the money with less controversial events in Sinatra's life, a few seldom reported before. The book is comprised of the perfect syntax of writer William Stadiem, Jacob's co-author, and clever plays on words and names which alone make the book worth the price.

One drawback, however, that makes the book difficult to read is the length of Stadiem's paragraphs. For some reason, most of them are nearly a page long and comprise several topics that should be separated. Perhaps that problem was generated in the publishing end of the project, because Bill Stadiem knows better than that.

For a Sinatraphile, this book is a must and rates 5 stars if only to air some new rumors. For someone who isn't familiar with the names of Sinatra's cronies and enemies of yesteryear, they are identified for the baby-boomer generation, and the book still rates 4 stars.

MR.S.:MY LIFE WITH FRANK SINATRA.......2006-04-19

FOUND BOOK BY ACCIDENT. HATED FOR IT TO END.
FELT THAT I HAD LIVED WITH FRANK FOR 20 YEARS
READ EVERY LINE - COULD NOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT
PAGE. IF YOU LIKED SINATRA - THERE IS NOTHING
BETTER THAN THIS BOOK.

Average customer rating:

Mr.S. : My Life with Frank Sinatra
George Jacobs
Manufacturer: Pan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Mr. S : My Life with Frank Sinatra
William Stadiem George Jacobs
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF3JWC

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Book and Speaker.......2006-02-06

Mr. Oertelt came and spoke at my college in MN when I was a junior. Not only was he an amazing speaker, but he made the Holocaust a reality to everyone packed in that auditorium. He signed his book for everyone who wished to purchase it. I read it in one night unable to out it down!!! Highly recommended!

stirring memoir.......2000-08-27

Oertelt tells the story of his life in Germany from his 1938 until his liberation from a concentration camp. It is a stirring memoir -- heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. He uses the analogy of an 18 link chain to demonstrate how each link was important to his survival. The details in the book are remarkable in their lucidity and specificity. He is never graphic in his descriptions, but he is brutally honest. In the end, it is an uplifing tale in the context of terrible sadness.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books