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We Love Pat Altschul

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  • 16
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A very troubled and troubling narrative

Overall
1 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-15-23

If you are reading this book to better understand Britney’s mental illness, it offers a solid picture of disorder.

Whether or not that has always existed or brought on by excessive lithium, I do not know. All I know is that the conflict between what is said from chapter to chapter, complete lack of self awareness, and glass half full view of everything/everyone has left me in a state of profound sadness.

Sad that anyone wakes up and looks for darkness in all things. Sad for the loved ones who tried to help. Sad for Britney’s brain which, apparently, has suffered the consequences of lithium. Sad for Britney to have strangers cheering her on when, in fact, she is deeply troubled. Sad that when strangers who do not know all of what is happening, weigh in so loudly, the person who needs help will not receive.

Britney’s Father’s conservatorship was problematic and conflicted to be sure, but that did not mean she had the capacity to manage outside of a conservatorship. There are competent conservators who could make life better for Britney, but there’s no way with the environment fans have facilitated.

All very, very sad.

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7 people found this helpful

Tremendously entertaining - a confectionary tale!

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 07-22-23

I listen to books while walking. This one may have cost me what remains of the cartilage in my knees. I did not want it to end.

I look forward to searching this author’s works for the next one. I’ll save it for when I want to drop another 5 pounds!

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If your first Benedict book, great. If it’s not…

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 07-15-23

…Carnegie’s Maid is good, not great. I read “The Only Woman in the Room”, “The Personal Librarian”, and then “Carnegie’s Maid.” I do not read reviews before deciding on a book due to the spoilers that linger. If I had known the book was far more fiction,
than historical fiction perhaps I would have liked it more.

It’s an interesting story and totally conceivable. Benedict makes clear it’s speculation, not based in fact. For a reader such as myself who likes Benedict’s work for the historical research into real people, it was disappointing that my assumption did not pay off.

Had read this book first, then I may have liked it more. Benedict set the bar very high with the aforementioned two. If I had all 3 books to read again, it would be Carnegie’s Maid, Only Woman in the Room, then The Personal Librarian. Slow but sweet to gripping to grand.

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Robin Miles may be my siren song and The Personal Librarian, a MUST

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 07-09-23

The three books I listened to prior to The Personal Librarian in order:
Caste, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. None were suggested for me by algorithms. All were personal recommendations from various sources that I chose at random...or so I thought. Who or what do those 3 (or 2.5 as Steinem features several) books share in common? The mellifluous tones of narrator, Robin Miles. The next time I am debating between titles, I will chose the one that Miles narrates.

Just as I did not want The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo to end, so too did I not want The Personal Librarian to end. This book is a wonderful tribute to the life of Belle and her role in building the institution we know today as the Morgan Library.
Heretofore, I assumed J.P. Morgan donated the funds for the Library, not that he built a personal library that Belle helped open to the world.

Assuming the parental dynamics offered in the book are at least somewhat accurate, I should like to further investigate whether Belle was that accepting of the reasons for her father’s abandonment. I hope she came to terms with it as peaceably as the book denotes. I should also like to explore how much Belle took accountability for her participation in passing vis-a-vis her mother’s initial decision to pass. Celebrating her father in the end without mention of her mother has stayed with me. Perhaps that’s the point, to highlight the conflict and confusion, as Belle’s mother did what she thought best at the time. I am not as prepared to celebrate Dad and condemn Mom as Belle.

Also, I want to kick Bernard in the b@lls...hard…many, many times.

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Captivating (to my surprise)

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 07-02-23

I have no idea what prompted me to purchase this book. I’m sure there was a good reason because I could not stop listening. Brava!

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1 person found this helpful

Worth reading but not fantastic

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-10-23

Nike’s rise is interesting, especially for those of us who do not remember days of the US being limited to runners by Converse and Keds.

If you’ve got a business and feeling like you’re doing something wrong, as you keep getting blindsided by big problems, then this book is for you.

Knight proves how far identifying a niche by a smart individual with qualities of ambition, perseverance, and not much aversion to risk can take you. More than anything, the power of identifying the right team.

Knight kept referring to his “management style”, which made me laugh. Nil style? Identifying it as a hands off approach does a disservice to those who assume an intentionally hands off approach. Reads more like an iconoclast who simply does not care. Those who helped build the company clearly jived with it so whatever works!

While I appreciated the historical timeline of Nike, I got very little about Phil Knight as a human. Although perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps the lack of interest in others is reflective of his lack of interest in self. He’s not overthinking anyone, including how he ticks.

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Best modern fiction and I don’t like modern fiction

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-04-23

Read under duress for book club. Typically, I limit myself to autobiographies and classic literature. So happy to have been forced to expand my horizons. This book spoke both to my love of Old Hollywood, and narratives about how we are limited by only seeing what others show. Take a deeper look…

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By far, the best book I’ve ever heard

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-11-23

The narrator was good, but the book was absolutely incredible. I wish I could forget everything and reexperience.

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Only for established Bacall fans

Overall
1 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-25-22

Going into this memoir, my only interest in Bacall was as Humphrey Bogart’s last wife. I did not feel any way about Bacall, good, bad or otherwise. When I feel this way heading into new subject matter, be it a memoir or a concert, as a rule I emerge feeling good about the entertainer. That is, after all, what binds us as humans: relating to the other.

In my 42 years of life and 50 something book reviews, Bacall has the esteemed privilege of being the only person I transitioned from ambivalence to dislike and my only 1 star rating.

At several points in the book, I thought, “Did the publishers not send Galley copies to loved ones?” “Did Bacall not review before signing off on final copy?” “Perhaps all of her friends as insincere, vapid, and overweening as she and could not see past themselves to help a friend?” It does not take long to deduce that Bacall is not a woman who fosters or cares to foster intimate relationships with women. Bacall is that insufferable woman we have all met who shamelessly and actively pursues married men - admits as much without compunction or remorse - and when other women do not like her, Bacall reasons they are jealous. Perhaps some are jealous, but indubitably most women would find Bacall painfully insecure, morally reprehensible, and possessing personal character as deep as a puddle.

The “hurtful” anecdote about Katharine Hepburn is unsettling on so many levels. It takes a special kind of narcissist to make a so-called friend’s mental and physical deterioration about herself.

Bacall was of an era when 95% of memoirs were penned by ghost writers without any regard for the truth. Whether Bacall’s narrative is truth or lies is irrelevant, as the reader cannot even get to that consideration as they are too caught up in the confounding perspective of this malignant narcissist.

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Davis’s voice looms large

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-25-22

I have read every old hollywood memoir I can get my hands on. The ones that are not sheer money grabs penned by ghostwriters are painfully transparent in their revisionist histories. This is a rarity, in that, Davis seems to be reporting the unvarnished truth and far more self-aware than the average movie star.

Where Davis’s perspective may be skewed, one gets the sense it’s due to her strong convictions and unreal reality of every superstar. Who knows if David is right or wrong, but a reader gets the sense that she’s offering a sincere recounting. If a retelling is objectively wrong in places, one is inclined to attribute it to ordinary betrayals of memory and not to intentional deception as was the case with most of her peers.

Every successful woman who desires nuclear family and every man attracted to them should read this tome for Davis’s powerful insight and lessons learned.

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