RaveChristian Science MonitorAbsorbing and inspiring ... Provides engaging accounts of her childhood, Hollywood friendships, romances, and marriages, but the core of the book is about overcoming a debilitating politeness ... One measure of a worthwhile book – and one with convincing messages – is that you want to read it again. Given that this reviewer is already rereading this memoir, savoring its Hollywood accounts and its advocacy for fairness and decency, Dying of Politeness, is a success.
Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
PositiveThe Christian Science Monitor...a detailed and moving account of her love affair with urban America’s most renowned green place ... Barlow’s powerful words...demonstrate that she is not just an astonishingly accomplished and inspired motivator of people who helped create a new paradigm for public-private partnerships. She’s also an accomplished and convincing author.
Thomas E. Ricks
RaveThe Christian Science Monitor...in Ricks’s book, Churchill’s narrative is inevitably more compelling. However, this doesn’t substantively undermine Ricks’s book or his premise. In fact, readers should know that Ricks’s gift for storytelling makes this book virtually impossible at times to set down ... Ricks concludes his extraordinarily interesting book by showing how Orwell’s popularity has increased as his prescient writing warns against each new Big Brother. He asserts that 'In recent years, [Orwell] may even have passed Churchill, not in terms of historical significance but of current influence.'”
Ian Frazier
RaveThe Christian Science MonitorHogs Wild, a new collection of Mr. Frazier’s reported pieces, makes you want to drop everything and start reading ... Frazier’s visits to hog-heavy places in the South to trek deep into the woods with hog experts to see wild hogs are Jack-London exciting. Frazier is admirably non-judgmental. He provides vivid, startlingly fresh, often humorous, descriptions – along with historical backstory. But he mostly lets readers form their own opinions ... Frazier’s unquenchable curiosity is remarkable. He will return again and again to the venue of his topic till he’s captured its essence ... [a] brilliant collection.
Elaine Showalter
PositiveThe Christian Science Monitor...Showalter masterfully fits it all together – the domestic drama of her 'civil wars' with her husband; her complex relationships with her children; her role as an abolitionist, and advocate for women’s rights; her travels in the US and Europe, and, of course, her achievements as a poet. Settle in for an absorbing story.
